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Ai Enma
Ai Enma
Click here to see her in her sailor fuku
As she appears in the 2006 TV Drama
2019 film
"O pitiful shadow lost in the darkness
Bringing torment and pain to others
O damned soul wallowing in your sins
Perhaps...it is time to die."
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Brina Palencia (English), Melanie Henríquez (Latin American Spanish)
Portrayed by: Sayuri Iwata (2006 series), Tina Tamashiro (2019 film)
The first seen Hell Girl and overarching protagonist of the franchise. It is her duty to offer a devil's deal of vengeance to any who access the Hell Correspondence. If the client accepts and invokes the contract, she ferries the target of that person's vengeance to Hell. As part of the deal, she will also ferry the client to Hell after he or she dies.
- 10-Minute Retirement: In Mitsuganae, she gives up being Hell Girl to serve in an advisor role to Yuzuki. It lasts for a day at most before it's demonstrated Yuzuki cannot bear the maturity of being one.
- Achilles' Heel: For how invulnerable she seems, she has a subtle weakness: When possessing a person, any harm done to that host is directed back to Ai even in her incorporeal state; when Inuo Atsushi violently kicks Ai, who was manifesting through Yuzuki at the time, she is reeling from pain up to the credits.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the 2019 film, when she comes to claim the souls of those that invoked contracts, it's Sadako-esque and the person dies in absolute fear and agony, complete with a distorted face. This was never the case in the source material, where nothing happens until the person dies, at which point they're simply ferried off with no fare.
- Age Lift: Although age isn't the right term here for her state, Ai in the 2019 film is a young adult woman than a child.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Many times during the punishment of her victims, Ai appears as a skyscraper towering Kaiju (to their horror).
- The Ageless: She's an undead entity so she would have this by default, but her eternal youth is occasionally framed to contrast Tsugumi Shibata's aging as the series progresses.
- All of the Other Reindeer: In her backstory, she was ostracized and bullied by the people of her village. The only ones who treated her kindly were her parents and her cousin Sentaro. Sentaro implied that this is why she was chosen as a Human Sacrifice - the townspeople just wanted to get rid of her.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Appearance-wise, Ai is a beautiful, doll-like girl with long, black hair who rarely shows emotion.
- Ambiguously Bi: Ai obviously had romantic feelings for Sentaro, but there is an immense amount of homoerotic subtext with her and Yuzuki that is more than mere Fanservice, with Ai even admitting they are kindred spirits in their anguish.
- Animal Motifs: Butterflies. They adorn her robes and are often seen fluttering around her. While Ai is physically dead after Futakomori, she takes a meager form of a blue butterfly to commune with her companions.
- Anti-Villain: Ai Enma only became Hell Girl to save her parent's souls from being damned to Hell after her vengeance-fueled rampage across her hated hometown. After being rewarded with their freedom following an act of true selflessness, she remained in the mortal plane to gently guide the lost souls of similar girls, only becoming Hell Girl again in another act of selfless sacrifice.
- Arc Villain: She serves as the main antagonist of the culminating story of the Shibata family, the overarching main story arc of the first season.
- Ax-Crazy: When she initially returned as a revenant, she was joyfully burning down her village and singing at the death and destruction all around her. As the Lord of Hell reeled her in after her rampage, she completely mellowed out.
- Back from the Dead: It takes many years, but Ai eventually reincarnates into a physical form through Yuzuki Mikage after her second mortal death in Lovely Hills.
- Bad Boss: When (rarely) enraged, she is not above using intimidation or force to keep her subordinates in line when all they do is try to calm her down.
- Bathing Beauty: Ai is frequently seen cleansing herself in the rivers of the twilight realm before heading off to consign a victim to Hell.
- Bathtub Bonding: How her bond with Wanyuudo really started off was bathing in a hot spring that belonged to one of her client's grudges. 400 years later, they reminisce on this time in the same inn as its last customers.
- Benevolent Boss: She values companionship in her lonely existence and treats her assistants with respect and love despite her emotionless exterior.
- Berserk Button: Before she made peace with her grief, anything reminding her of her past life sent her into varying degrees of rage; when Gil de L'enfer inflicts Mind Rape on her, she's forced to recollect some moments of her past, making her slightly mad; when she finds out the Shibatas are descendants of Sentaro, she goes all-out wrathful.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Ai's job as the Hell Girl forces her to repress her emotions to the point where it's very hard to make her angry... God help you if you actually succeed, as Gil de L'enfer found out.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: She became Hell Girl after transforming into a demon out of pure hate and burning down her home village with everyone inside, in revenge for them tormenting her for her entire life, planning to sacrifice her, and finally burying her alive, killing her parents, and forcing her beloved cousin to betray her.
- Boyish Short Hair: She had a boyish bob cut as a young human girl.
- Broken Bird: Ai wasn't always so detached and somber. The mistreatment she got from the villagers, the unfair death of her and her parents, the betrayal of someone she believed would protect her, and centuries of seeing people dragging others to Hell in revenge are what made her emotionally numb.
- Brought Down to Normal: For refusing to send Takuma Kurebayashi to Hell, the Lord of Hell revokes Ai of her powers and renders her mortal. The mental weight of working over nearly five hundred years crashes down on her despite her new mortal form being that of a child. As a result, she is brutally weakened and easily maimed by the terrified townsfolk of Lovely Hills when she intervenes in their attempted murder of Takuma.
- Buried Alive: After she was discovered to be alive, Ai and her parents were buried alive by the villagers to appease the gods.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: She returns to the mortal world in this form at the beginning of Three Vessels.
- Casting a Shadow: One of her powers is the ability to hurl massive, deadly blasts of black energy.
- Cardboard Prison: The first time she is about to be banished to Hell for misusing her powers has her use her own strength to simply escape the moment she realizes what's going on.
- Cool Big Sis: She tries to be this to Kikuri from the start despite her brattiness. When Kikuri does warm up to her more, they have a sibling dynamic.
- Cool Sword: She doesn't treat Ichimokuren like property, but as a sentient sword, he does consider her his current master. While Ai isn't ever seen brandishing him as a weapon at all in the series, promotional art for Two Mirrors shows her wielding him.
- Complete Immortality: If there is a way for Ai to truly die, the audience never finds out how. Despite being contractually bound to the rules of being Hell Girl, Ai has violated them twice and returned; the first time, she was banished to Hell but broke out immediately; the second time the Lord of Hell stepped up his game and revoked her immortality and powers, allowing her to be killed by humans. Despite it taking years after the setback, she eventually reincarnates through Yuzuki Mikage.
- The Corrupter: During the last episodes of the first season, she unprofessionally tries to goad Tsugumi into pulling the string on Hajime, despising him for being a direct descendant of Sentaro.
- Creepy Child: She appears as a young girl, but she's instantly unsettling because of her creepily emotionless demeanour and nature as a worker of Hell who carries out revenge for others.
- Creepy Doll: While Ai herself isn't a doll, she very literally resembles one. One of her victims, an insane dollmaker, lampshades this and expresses the desire to pretty her up. Further emphasized in the credits for Mitsuganae, where one of the shots is Ai standing in a room full of dolls bearing her likeliness.
- Creepy Monotone: She speaks in an emotionless and morose monotone. When she gets genuinely angry, her voice lowers to a deep pitch.
- Cute Witch: She is an undead agent of Hell but very conventionally attractive.
- Dark and Troubled Past: More than 400 years ago, Ai was a human girl living in a remote village near the mountains. She was frequently bullied by other kids, and her only friend was her cousin Sentaro. At the age of seven, Ai was selected to be the Human Sacrifice. However, her parents secretly asked Sentaro to care for her as she lived in the mountains. A few years later, Ai was discovered when a group of boys followed Sentarou into the mountains. Ai and her parents were captured and Buried Alive as punishment. The villagers forced Sentaro to be the first one to shovel ground to the hole. Sentaro's betrayal brought forth an immense hatred in Ai. As the villagers buried her, she vowed to hate them forever even if she dies. A short time later, Ai returned as a vengeful spirit to exact her revenge by burning the entire village to the ground in her wrath. The Master of Hell then captured her parents and made a pact with her: in exchange for her parents not being sent to Hell, Ai should become the Hell Girl to carry out others' revenge as a punishment for her own revenge.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Dresses in black and red, is an agent of Hell and has shadow-based powers, but she isn't evil.
- Death Glare: Towards the end of Futakomori, Ren asks Ai if she's really sure she wants to fulfill Hotaru's contract to send Takuma to Hell. Her response is to shoot a side glance so terrifying he immediately shrinks to a doll.
- Deal with the Devil: Her duty is to offer these to mortals.
- Demon of Human Origin: Ai was originally a normal human girl. During her dying breath, she cursed the villagers that sacrificed her and her parents to their mountain gods. That same night, she came back as an onryo and burned the whole village down, killing everyone in it. After that, she was sent to Hell. The Lord of Hell forced her to take the job of Hell Girl or else she and her loved ones would suffer in Hell eternally. The job comes with a powerful set of powers, and over the course of 400 years, she gains enough mastery of it to be able to confront her jailer.
- Determinator: Despite outwardly seeming indifferent to the suffering all around her, Ai occasionally shows how much pain she suffers from...everything, from her past, her fate, and what she has witnessed from humanity over the centuries. Despite this, she presses on professionally in her duties.
- Dying Declaration of Hate: In the final moments of her life as a human, Ai vowed to hate the villagers (including Sentaro) that killed her and her parents forever, even after her death.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In a way. Despite the Lord of Hell's vow to make Ai Hell Girl forever in exchange for Yuzuki's soul, it seems he relented by the time of Yoi no Togi and found a successor in Michiru. Ai herself may not be free to ascend to Heaven, but she is finally free of her burdens of being Hell Girl.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: To contribute to her creepy image as the Hell Girl, Ai has long black hair and ghostly pale skin.
- Emotion Suppression: Despite coming off as an Emotionless Girl, Ai does have emotions, but she must repress them in order to carry out her job as the Hell Girl. It's subtle, but her emotions infrequently creak through the strain of her job.
- Endearingly Dorky: Yes, really, she of all people often has her moments of this when mingling in the human world or taking part in the most ridiculous punishment skits.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Her cousin and Only Friend Sentaro betrayed her when he gave in to the pressure of the townspeople, did nothing to save her and her parents, and even helped the villagers to bury her alive.
- Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: She serves as Hell Girl because the Lord of Hell threatened to send her parents to Hell if she refused.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ai is deeply disturbed and hurt by cases where people send others to Hell for no reason or unjustly. Although she carries on regardless, her inflection cracks and it often seems as though she's about to cry. When she eventually refuses to consign one of her victims to Hell for this and turns the boat around, it leads to her second death.
- Experienced Protagonist: When other girls begin to take up the mantle of Hell Girl, Ai advises them, obviously being the most experienced in the role.
- The Ferryman: She ferries people to Hell in a similar manner to Charon.
- Flower Motifs: Lycoris, also known as red spider lilies. They're closely tied to the theme of death, growing near cemeteries and meaning "those who cannot return" in flower language. It is also said that when you see someone you will never meet again, those flowers will bloom along the path.
- Freudian Trio: The Superego to Yuzuki's Id and Michiru's Ego, being the most experienced and wise of the three, as well as the most professional and reserved by far.
- Good Parents: Ai's parents loved her and went against sacrificing her. In fact, their souls being on the line for her massacre of the village is why Ai even endures being Hell Girl.
- Ghostly Goals: Revenge. She killed the villagers who used her as a Human Sacrifice. Unfortunately for her, the Lord of Hell noticed and made her the Hell Girl as punishment.
- Godiva Hair: In the scenes where she appears nude, her hair covers the important parts.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- When she refuses to transport the soul of Takuma Kurebayashi, whose life situation somewhat mirrored her own. As a punishment she becomes mortal and later dies while trying to defend the boy from violent townspeople.
- She forever sacrifices her cherished freedom to remain a Hell Girl so Yuzuki will not be sent to Hell for violating the rules.
- Hime Cut: She has blunt bangs, cheek-length sidelocks, and waist-length straight hair. It's meant to give her the air of a traditional Miko, but in a rather dark and unsettling sense.
- Human Sacrifice: Her backstory; Ai was meant to be this as a little girl, but with Sentaro's help she was able to stay alive even when abandoned in the mountains - until the villagers found out and took it upon themselves to bury her alive along with her parents. In revenge, she rises from her grave and burns down her village, and is made into the Hell Girl as punishment.
- Humanizing Tears: Because she's usually so outwardly emotionless, the few times we see tears in her eyes are always heart-wrenching.
- Ironic Hell: She was forced to become the Hell Girl as punishment for burning her village down in revenge for her death.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Ai occasionally hums a song she and Sentaro used to enjoy, which became incredibly dark when she sang it as she burned down her village.
When will the cherry blossoms flower? When will they flower in the mountain village?
When will the cherry blossoms grow fragrant? When the laughing child of seven plays
When will the cherry blossoms dance about? When the singing child of seven goes to sleep
When will the cherry blossoms wilt away
When the dead child of seven ascends
- In the 2019 film, she sings a different tune before consigning a victim to Hell.
- Kick the Dog: Her emotional manipulation of Tsugumi after learning of her heritage. She's even called out for it by her assistants.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: While it is appropriately seen and treated as very horrific, Ai razing her village could be considered this considering how depraved and cruel the populace was. And while it's a plot point that throughout the centuries her victims are not always bad, the vast majority of them seen in the show are completely despicable monsters.
- Kid with the Leash: While Kikuri is very bratty towards her, she obeys Ai to a degree when it comes to their jobs. This is very likely because she is under the control of the Lord of Hell, who is monitoring Ai. Naturally he would have no interest in interfering with her duties.
- Kill It with Fire: Upon returning to life as a demon, she burned her village down and killed everyone in it.
- Kissing Cousins: It's implied she had romantic feelings for her cousin Sentaro, which made his betrayal even more painful for her.
- Lack of Empathy: She is accused of this by many characters, but it's subverted as the audience learns more of her.
- Lady of Black Magic: A young lady, we might say.
- Manipulative Bitch: When she really gets out of character towards the end of the first season, she does everything in her power to try to manipulate Tsugumi into sending her father to Hell. It's portrayed very negatively and Ai herself is banished to Hell for it.
- Master of Illusion: Ai is capable of creating large, intricate illusions, which she often does to frighten her victims before taking them to Hell.
- Meaningful Name: Enma is the Buddhist god who rules the underworld. Ai is that word for love, probably. It's deliberately always written in kana, so we can't be sure which meaning of ai her parents had in mind. There are hints that the "indigo" meaning is significant: the second season finale is called "Aizome" ("dyed in indigo"), as is the end theme, which Mamiko Noto herself sings.
- Me's a Crowd: Although Ai is normally shown to take one client at a time, when Lovely Hills descends into madness, she demonstrates the ability to appear to more than one client at a time through copies of herself.
- Ms. Fanservice: Despite her childish appearance, she is subject to a lot of official Fanservice in and out of universe.
- Mugging the Monster: Inverted. Some of her worst clients and victims attempt to attack her.
- Noble Demon: She is an agent of the devil himself and resigned to her duty, but Ai is compassionate, honorable, humble, and basically not evil at all as an inversion of the atypical demonic servant.
- Not So Above It All: Rarely, Ai can be humored or find amusement in the more outlandish client requests. She's also not above teasing Kikuri.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Her second mortal death in Futakomori has her beaten to death by a murderous mob.
- No-Sell: Although it looks like Gil de L'enfer is inflicting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when torturing her, he's only capable of inflicting superficial harm to Ai. She completely shrugs off whatever little he did when Watanabe prepares to pull the string on him.
- Not So Stoic:
- The first instance of a person being sent for no reason whatsoever, has her usual lines in the ferry scene spoken in an audibly-cracking voice. Then she reaches "this is vengeance", and has to pause before finishing the rest.
- Whenever she finds something related to her past, Ai lets her buried emotions and old resentment get the best of her.
- She also gives a very rare Death Glare when Gil de l'Enfer brags about using his powers to send everyone he knew to hell in vengeance for his own murder because, despite the parallel to her own background, he is gleefully unrepentant about it.
- Perhaps most significantly is her refusal to send Takuma Kurebayashi to Hell out of sheer sadness, turning the boat around, resulting in her powers and title being revoked.
- When she is about to send Tsugumi to Hell per Shogo Mizorogi's request, her voice cracks and it sounds like she's about to burst into tears.
- Oral Fixation: Often seen sucking on something when lounging about, from marbles to various fruits.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: She has several characteristics of a traditional Japanese ghost, such as the ability to teleport and create illusions.
- Parents in Distress: The Lord of Hell is holding the souls of her parents hostage, ensuring she does not go against her duties as Hell Girl. Their souls are freed at the end of the second season.
- Passing the Torch: At the end of Yoi no Togi, she passes on the mantle of Hell Girl to Michiru, who can bear the burden, unlike Yuzuki. Afterward, she retires to a secluded life with Wanyuudo by her side.
- Perpetual Frowner: She almost never smiles.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Ai could be this with the extent of her powers, but she is contractually bound to never misuse her abilities.
- Pet the Dog: Ai does not require assistants in her duties. The reason she has most of her companions is she spends her free time saving tormented souls, earning Undying Loyalty from them in the process.
- Pink Is Feminine: When she was human, she wore a bright pink kimono.
- Playing with Fire: Ai's first and foremost offensive power is the ability to control hellfire.
- Psychopomp: Among other duties, Ai ferries damned souls to eternal torment.
- Punch-Clock Villain: She only serves as Hell Girl because the Lord of Hell would send her parents to hell if she did not. Her job is to show up when summoned, explain the rules of the contract, and act accordingly in response to the client rescinding their grievances or going through with it.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: She has straight black hair, pure white skin and a face with an otherworldly beauty.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her Sailor Fuku has these colors, although she is not evil.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her blood-red eyes are her most striking feature. In life, she actually had brown eyes, but they turned red from bleeding the moment she swore her revenge upon her village as she and her parents were buried alive.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: A red-eyed, pale-skinned young girl who works as a servant of hell, has a Dark and Troubled Past and displays a creepy emotionless demeanor.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the townspeople buried her alive along with her parents, she came back and burned the entire town to the ground in retribution, leaving no survivors.
- Sailor Fuku: Wears a black one when not in her ceremonial kimono.
- Seen It All: It's explicitly stated she has seen the worst of humanity in every regard when criticized by Yuzuki for her aloofness in regards to her morbid duties. Given what we see of her victims in the series and Ai having over 400 years of duty to her name, it's believable.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: In a rare moment of emotional vulnerability, she calmly cuts Yuzuki short when she accuses her of feeling no remorse or empathy.
- Softspoken Sadist: On average, she has a very softspoken voice. And while Ai isn't outright sadistic or particularly cruel, she can be creative in her punishments for some of her worst targets.
- Snow Means Death: Her second death is being beaten to death in Lovely Hills and passing away in the heavy snow.
- The Stoic: She is forbidden from showing emotions during her duties.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: A variation. She's definitely onryo-inspired, but she's less scary most of the time because her hair doesn't obscure her (cute) face. Furthermore, she's very clean and well-adjusted after taking on the Hell Girl mantle compared to the typical disheveled onryo.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She appears emotionless at first glance, but Ai is actually forced to repress her emotions in order to carry out her job as the Hell Girl. She allows herself to show a more caring and compassionate side around her True Companions during their heartwarming moments. Also, she can show sympathy to her clients, especially those who were betrayed by others. This is because betrayal featured strongly in the incident that led her to become the Hell Girl.
- Supporting Protagonist: In Mioyosuga along with her companions; they also have an unlockable route from their point of view that is de-emphasized as a major route and more of something to play after the other four are finished.
- Tears of Blood: Weeps these when being buried alive as a human, coloring her pupils to the red it is now in the process.
- Tender Tears: Albeit, through manifesting in a painting, she openly weeps for Fukumoto before his passing. She also sheds these upon destroying Sentaro's shrine, a monument to his grief, and forgiving him.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Enforced. The moment she misuses her powers to harm people out of her own feelings, she is set to be condemned to Hell.
- Tranquil Fury: For the most part, this is how she expresses her anger.
- Undead Child: She appears as a 13-year-old girl since that was her age at the time of her death.
- Unmoving Plaid: The patterns on her kimonos. In the third season, you can see the objects in the pattern float back and forth.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: There was a time in which Ai was a sweet and innocent little girl. After the villagers sacrificed her and her parents to their mountain gods, her cousin betrayed her and she was forced to become the Hell Girl, Ai became an Emotionless Girl that keeps her emotions and pain hidden most of the time.
- Vengeful Ghost: After the villagers buried her and her parents alive, Ai came back as an enraged host and burned the village to the ground as revenge. Carrying out revenge for others as the Hell Girl is her punishment. Nowadays, she has repressed her emotions, but she briefly reverts back to her original vengeful nature when she finds the descendants of her cousin who was the only survivor of the village.
- Villain Protagonist: As the titular Hell Girl, she lords over the Hell Correspondence that is at the center of most of the drama and conflict throughout the series.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: As shown in the time skip between the second and third season, loyalty to Ai is largely what holds her companions together. When she seemingly dies for good, they all part ways and only regroup when she returns. Their assisting of Yuzuki as Hell Girl is also implied to be a result of honoring Ai's will.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Wanyuudo, Ren, and Hone Onna are panicking and repeatedly, indirectly questioning Ai on her decision to send Tsugumi Shibata to Hell when Shogo Mizorogi is about to invoke the contract as part of his deranged experiments.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: She annihilated her village ironically when it was about to prosper from famine after her mortal death.
- Wizards Live Longer: She has been the Hell Girl for at least four centuries.
- White Shirt of Death: She returned from her first death in a white kimono, annihilating her village as a vengeful ghost. When she's reduced to a mortal as punishment for refusing to consign Takuma to Hell, she is wearing the same robes and dies in the frigid snow of Lovely Hills.
- Womanchild: Despite the fact she is a child only in appearance, she retains certain childish aspects to her personality. However, she mostly demonstrates these traits in privacy and is outwardly more mature.
- Would Hurt a Child: Her occupation aside, she knowingly killed all the children in her village after returning as a wrathful ghost.
- Near the end of the first season, she attempts to goad Tsugumi into sending Hajime to Hell.
- You Are Already Dead: Ai has a variation of this phrase when confronting clients that are about to pull the string but were themselves consigned to Hell in the process, explaining the contract is now void and they are effectively already dead.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Ai is a strong believer in the series' central themes of fate and destiny, being a cynic believing she is simply a cog in a natural order and that, regardless of what she does in her power, she could never change humanity for the better as darkness is inherent in the heart of man. However, it's implied that after her parent's souls are saved, she does not ascend to the afterlife in order to remain and guide the lost souls of girls like Yuzuki, for what little good she feels she can do.
Yuzuki Mikage
Yuzuki Mikage
Click here to see her in her school uniform
Voiced by: Satomi Sato
The main protagonist of the third season, Mitsuganae. Yuzuki was a seemingly normal middle-school girl whose life was upturned by Ai Enma possessing her, giving her Seer abilities similar to Tsugumi Shibata. As it turns out, Yuzuki was Dead All Along and living a temporary fantasy as a lost spirit. With the Lord of Hell eyeing her as a replacement for Ai after the latter fulfilled her obligations, Ai hopes to guide Yuzuki in both accepting her fate and her duties.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Yuzuki ascends to Heaven after Ai sacrifices her freedom for her.
- Ax-Crazy: When Norihisa adamantly refuses to invoke the contract against Azusa despite Yuzuki's goading, she descends into a murderous rage, heading off to murder the woman herself. When Ai pleads with her to stop, she attacks her and feels she's not bound by any rules. Her eyes flickering colors erratically during this crisis even emphasize her escalating insanity. Undone as she has another heart-to-heart with Ai and ascends to Heaven.
- Body Horror: When Ai was temporarily using Yuzuki as a vessel, any time she emerged for a client, it was as though she was a butterfly reincarnating from a cocoon - with Yuzuki being that cocoon.
- Break the Cutie: Her whole story from her actual life to her illusionary one is one misfortune to the next.
- Call-Back: A fairly obscure one in the final episode. Yuzuki's kimono has a flower pattern that was displayed on Ai's kimono at the beginning of Futakomori's credits.
- Casting a Shadow: Like Ai, she can hurl globs of shadow energy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her father - a bus driver - died in an accident while on duty and she and her mother wound up as pariahs because it was ruled that the accident was his fault. They were eventually driven out of town and took refuge in a shrine, where Yuzuki's mother succumbed to an illness. Yuzuki eventually returned to their apartment and died alone, consumed by grief.
- Dead All Along: The twist of the third season is that Yuzuki is not a normal girl, but a ghost who has been chosen to replace Ai as the Hell Girl.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Subverted. She outright defies the Lord of Hell and attacks him, but had it not been for Ai and her companions, she would have been doomed.
- Dying Alone: In life, she died all alone curled up with her stuffed bear.
- Failure Hero: Much like Tsugumi, she can tell when Ai is about to make a contract but is unable to do anything about it or save anyone.
- Freudian Trio: As a Hell Girl, she is the Id to Ai's Superego and Michiru's Ego, being impulsive, wrathful, and most irresponsible and defiant to authority.
- Invisible Parents: She talks to them over the phone from time to time, but they're never seen. The reason they're never seen is that, in reality, they're just as dead as she is.
- Irony: On two counts. Her first client is Norihisa Takasugi, Akie's father, who wants to exact his grudge against Yuzuki's Arch-Enemy Azusa Mayama; Wanyuudo even lampshades the irony. Second, Yuzuki attempts to send Azusa to Hell herself after Norihisa refuses to do so, being stripped of her occupation and barely avoiding damnation for it. Had she accepted Norihisa's decision, her next client would have been Haruko, his maid that invokes the contract against Azusa right through Ai after Yuzuki passes on to Heaven.
- Kick the Dog: When Ai tries to reason with her as she starts to go off the rails as Hell Girl, she blasts her aside with magic.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Over at least a decade since broadcasting, merchandising for the Hell Girl franchise since doesn't even bother to hide the big reveal of Yuzuki being the second Hell Girl.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Played with. Ai is shown where Yuzuki's reflection should be, revealing her presence and connection to Yuzuki.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: As a Hell Girl, she has these. Foreshadowed previously when Akie died and her eyes flickered red from the grief.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: After becoming Hell Girl, she tries to banish Azusa to avenge Akie, gleefully citing she is no longer bound by rules or morality.
- Soul Jar: For Ai for the first half of Mitsuganae. They still have a supernatural connection after they are separated.
- Sucksessor: After being built up as Ai's successor, she doesn't even last one client before demonstrating to be irresponsible, impulsive, and overall ill-suited for the role. She breaks one of the rules of being Hell Girl almost immediately, which would have damned her to Hell had Ai not rescued her and resumed her position as Hell Girl, saving Yuzuki's soul in the process.
- Supporting Protagonist: In Mioyosuga. She has a major route, but it is largely to set up the rest. And, of course, by the end she has no bearing on changing the plot.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Gradually, all traces of her existence disappear and Tsugumi and the members of the Hell Correspondence are the only ones who can recognize her. It's then that Yuzuki discovers that her human life up to that point was an illusion and she's already dead.
- Two First Names: Her surname Mikage can also be used as a legitimate given name.
- You Can't Fight Fate: She tries so hard to stop people from using the Hell Correspondence, but fails every time. She also couldn't avoid becoming the next Hell Girl, no matter how much she resisted.
Michiru Sagae
Michiru Sagae
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Voiced by: Misaki Watada
The underlying protagonist of Yoi no Togi. Originally an amnesiac revenant drawn to Ai Enma, it's revealed she is another candidate to replace Ai as Hell Girl. Unlike Yuzuki before her, she does responsibly succeed Ai and takes up her job in a more compassionate manner.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The townsfolk started to ostracize the Sagaes after several kids drowned in a pond when they tried to drown Michiru and everyone acted like it was Michiru's fault.
- Anti-Hero: What separates her from Ai and Yuzuki is although she does take up the role of Hell Girl, she is neither completely unmoving nor irresponsible. She may not refuse her clients out of personal feelings per rules - but does offer them words of compassionate wisdom to turn their lives around before it's too late; she fails and expresses disappointment with her client Yui, but is implied to have gotten through her would-be client Satoshi.
- Broken Bird: Michiru was a genuinely sweet and happy young girl, until her father angered the landowner and it all went downhill from that moment.
- Color Contrast: Michiru's clothes, eyes, and hair are green in contrast to Ai's Red and Black and Evil All Over, signifying Michiru's opposition to the Hell Correspondence. And she gets a green kimono as a newly-minted Hell Girl, which is still fitting since she is still far kinder and more personable with clients than Ai is.
- The Conscience: She tries to be this, telling Ai that what she's doing is wrong and once telling one of Ai's clients that she doesn't need the Hell Correspondence. As Hell Girl, she is far more compassionate than Ai and Yuzuki despite outwardly maintaining a grim disposition.
- Dark Messiah: An interpretation of her take on Hell Girl. She will avenge grievances but expresses genuine sorrow and disappointment at the condemnation of innocent lives. From her position as an emissary of Hell, she also attempts to encourage mortals off the path of revenge, unlike Ai who didn't even bother after being so jaded by humanity over the centuries. As if to further emphasize her messianic nature, even after becoming Hell Girl she preaches of Heaven as though she were a fallen agent of God - and her banishment sequence ends with her
on a Crucified Hero Shot. - Dark and Troubled Past: Michiru had a good life and loving family until her father angered the landowner by being held in higher regard than the landowner himself. When the landowner's son tried to drown Michiru in a pond but drowned himself, Michiru is blamed for the incident, and her whole family was shunned. It wasn't enough for the villagers though, so they locked Michiru in a shed with no food or water for over ten days. When Michiru's parents finally found her, the villagers murdered Michiru's father in front of her and then set fire to the shed to kill Michiru and her mother for good. Even worse, she's now just as damned as Ai is for taking revenge.
- Dying Declaration of Hate: With her dying breath, Michiru cursed the villagers that killed her and her parents and burned the entire village to the ground.
- Flower Motifs: She's associated with roses. Her kimono as Hell Girl is covered in large red roses and small blue roses, and when she spirits her first victim to hell, she's accompanied by a flurry of red rose petals while the red roses on her kimono glow.
- Foil: To both Yuzuki and Ai
- Like Yuzuki, she opposes the Hell Correspondence and her fate to be the next Hell Girl, eventually resigning to both when it's simply inevitable. Unlike Yuzuki, however, she actually handles her duties (and responsibly) despite still being morally opposed to her occupation.
- Unlike Ai, who has long been numbed to fate and humanity's latent darkness, Michiru maintains a level of compassion in her occupation while also performing her duties.
- Freudian Trio: Ego to Ai's Superego and Yuzuki's Id, striking a balance between idealism and cynicism to be the only well-rounded Hell Girl.
- Ghost Amnesia: She initially has no memories of her human life or how she died.
- Good Is Not Soft: Michiru may be the kindest Hell Girl, but it's demonstrated that she is willing to brutally punish the wicked just like Ai, as we see with Kazuomi Kogure.
- Identity Amnesia: She doesn't start to remember her life or even her name until episode five.
- Kill It with Fire: Michiru's neighbors lock her family in a shed and set it on fire, hoping to get rid of them for good. It ends VERY BADLY for them as Michiru, with her dying breath, uses said fire to kill every single one of them and then the entire town.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Like the other Hell Girls, her eye color becomes blood red when she takes up the role.
- Superior Successor: Despite being centuries behind Ai in experience, Michiru demonstrates a more compassionate outlook on being Hell Girl, making her start off as far more hopeful for the role and universe than Yuzuki. Best demonstrated towards her suicidally self-loathing would-be client Satoshi, as she not only refused his request to be sent to Hell but also kindly encouraged him to make the best of his life.
- They Died Because of You: She got blamed for the death of the landowner's son, even though he drowned himself while attempting to drown Michiru.
- Trauma Conga Line: First, she's blamed for the accidental death of three bullies who tried to kill her. Then, she disappears without a trace for days and no one in the village would help her parents search for her. When her parents finally find her, exhausted but alive, they get locked in the same place as her and the place is set on fire, killing them all.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Cute and lovable human girl, who even said that she will keep always smiling because smiles make people happy. It all crashes down after she is blamed for the death of three bullies who died while trying to drown Michiru in the pond.
- Vengeful Ghost: Averted. Like Ai, she cursed the people who killed her and her parents with her dying breath. Unlike Ai, she took her revenge then and there. As a ghost, she's just as sweet as she was in life, though her new job keeps her from showing it.
Companions
The whole team
- Achilles' Heel: In their straw doll forms, they are rendered completely immobile and powerless. If a client decides to misuse them, such as locking them away as blackmail leverage, it's usually up to Ai to come and take them back.
- Affably Evil: They have a fairly even-minded opinion of humankind, and happily support their co-workers, students, and friends in their many cover jobs. Sometimes, it's enough to almost make you forget what their real job is.
- Anti Villains: Aside from Kikuri, they're actually decent people tied to a terrible occupation.
- Clark Kenting: They don't put on any disguise to infiltrate into their clients' lives (e.g. pretending to be a classmate/teacher/etc.), even when they pose as a number of different roles at the same time. Justified, since they are able to prevent mortals from recognizing them. It becomes a plot point in the third season when Yuzuki recognizes them.
- Color-Coded Characters: The minions' straw doll forms are different colors: black for Wanyuudo, red for Hone Onna, blue for Ichimoku Ren and yellow for Yamawaro.
- Even Evil Has Standards: A variety of standards applying to everyone but Kikuri, given they're not necessarily evil. It should be noted a large part of why they undertake the task of blending into human society is to understand their client on a personal level and encourage them to make the choice they feel is right for them, rather than goading them into simply sending their grudge to Hell. In the case of their client Michirou Itou, they even save his life when he attempts a suicidal attack on the house of the already deceased Kazuhito Kameoka, imploring him to turn his life around and not throw it away for something so meaningless.
- They are never happy when an innocent gets sent to Hell, but have no choice in the matter. Additionally, while their job is to send people to Hell, they are contemptuous of deliberate human cruelty; for example, they're disgusted that Aya Kuroda stole the money Mayumi Hashimoto was entrusted with and forced her into Compensated Dating to make it back, writing off her behavior as "kid stuff"; and for another example, they are extremely angry when telling off Yuki for how she treated her sister Yumi.
- In line with the aforementioned case, if someone that isn't evil is being sent to Hell, they often skip over punishing them, and the person in question simply wakes up on the boat ride.
- In one instance where Ichimoku Ren attempts to prevent a child from sending her own mother to Hell because the mother is already Hellbound due to a previous covenant with Ai, only succeeding when the mother chooses to commit suicide in order to spare her from doing so.
- Hone before she assumed her doll form, directly expressed a particular amount of disgust and anger at a girl claiming to be a fortune teller, who sent an innocent man to Hell after being bullied into it by a popular girl in her school to avoid being an outcast.
- Wanyuudo, Ren, and Hone Onna are absolutely horrified when Ai is bracing to send Tsugumi to Hell per Shogo Mizorogi's request, considering their unique bond with her and the nature of Mizorogi's artificially induced hatred.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Despite their efficiency and cruelty in sending people to Hell, they can be kind-hearted and sympathetic to the turmoil of others. Not often, this may include gentle nudges to use Hell Correspondence if they believe it would save the person from further suffering.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Usually. The targets are usually an Asshole Victim, but occasionally they have to Kick the Dog, including taking the clients to Hell. Not that they like doing either though.
- Monster Mash: They are Youkai led by a young witch.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Ai's minions are often shown with different jobs as they observe a prospective client and the corresponding target before the string is pulled.
- Nice Guy: Save for Kikuri, the whole group can be considered this. They’re usually very empathetic towards their clients and try to help them.
- Not So Stoic: Inverted. They are not allowed to have their emotions interfere with their job, but act normally around each other. This doesn't always take, however, as even Ai sometimes sheds tears or cracks through the strain of her job.
- Punch Clock Villains: Very much so. Ai ferries people to hell because that's where her parents will go if she doesn't. Her assistants stay with her out of loyalty. They treat the Hell Correspondence as their job and will generally not hurt anyone unless they're the target of their client's revenge.
- Really 700 Years Old: Ai is at least 400 years old. Her first three companions came from various periods of feudal Japan.
- Technically speaking, Ren was 100 years old exactly when he was 'born'. Except, replace "born" with "transformed from a katana".
- Sleep-Mode Size: Their straw doll forms are basically this when someone's not using them to sell their soul for revenge.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: They can go between the sunset realm and the world of the living by just vanishing and will often disappear when some random object or person moves in front of them.
- Those Two Guys: Ren and Hone are most commonly seen as a pair.
- True Companions: Ren outright says that their little group is like family to him. In season 3, Yuzuki asks Ai who Ren, Hone Onna, and Wanyuudo are to her. Ai says they're her companions.
- Undying Loyalty: All of Ai's minions except for Kikuri are deeply loyal to her for their own reasons. For Wanyuudo, it's because Ai saved him from running on and on until he wound up in hell. For Hone Onna, it's because Ai helped her regain her humanity. In the case of Ichimoku Ren and Yamawaro, it's because she saved them from a lonely existence. She also acts as an older sister of sorts to Kikuri.
- They're, in fact, so loyal to Ai that the version of Hell the Master of Hell sentences them to is one where their ties with Ai are severed and she no longer recognizes them.
- Villain Protagonists: Their job is to carry out revenge on others' behalf and ferry people to hell. That doesn't mean they are evil, though.
- Villains Out Shopping: Including Ai, despite being immortal Youkai with a malevolent day job, they have lives just like normal humans. When off the clock, they can be seen lounging around in the twilight realm doing anything from playing games to getting massages. Ai even allows her assistants to vacation in the mortal plane, and this is a focal point of one of Hone Onna's episodes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: They can do this to varying degrees.
Wanyuudo
Wanyuudo
Click here to see him in the 2006 Drama
2019 film
Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese), R. Bruce Elliott (English), Guillermo Martínez (Latin American Spanish)
Portrayed by: Hisahiro Ogura (2006 series), Akaji Maro (2019 film)
Ai's first assistant. He was originally a tsukumogami (付喪神)note in the form of a wheel, which transformed into a Youkai after its carriage was destroyed. In his demonic form, he appears as a flaming wheel with a human face and can serve as transport for Ai to reach her client's grudges.- Adaptational Jerkass: His cheerfulness and affability is omitted in the 2019 film for a stone-cold, dead serious demeanor.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Wanyuudo has the human appearance of an old man, but he looks handsome for his age. His 2019 film counterpart, however, has a borderline Nightmare Face 24/7 and is much, much more withered-looking.
- Berserk Button: Thoughtless and unjust crimes, such as a father allowing his daughter to be raped and tortured for calling him out on his abuse. In such instances, he's actually ready to intervene to save lives.
- The Big Guy: He is the most powerful of Ai's assistants, possessing Super-Strength and the ability to control hellfire.
- The Cynic: He has a very cynical view of humanity from his own experiences and time with Ai, lamenting how humans seem to always be rotten to the core throughout the ages. However, there are instances where the genuine kindness of some humbles him and has him remember there are decent people out there for all the bad.
- Cool Old Guy: Usually appears as an affable old man while investigating the human world, but he is still a demon who is strong enough to bare-handedly stop a moving truck.
- A Day in the Limelight: The 45th episode is mostly focused on how he came to be, and his first meeting with Ai Enma.
- The Dragon: He is even more loyal to Ai than the rest of her assistants, possessing a certain understanding of her and the universe they've yet to grasp. As shown during their first meeting and reminiscing during their revisit of the Hanae inn, the affection is mutual and runs deep.
- Eyes Always Shut: In his human form, though we do see them open during a flashback of how he met Ai.
- Evil Smells Bad: Played With. He's not exactly evil nor does he smell horrendous enough to bother others, but Hone notes he still unpleasantly smells along the lines of charcoal and corpses.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Averted. Ironically, despite his true nature, he never gets visibly angry. Even in his demonic form, acting angry was to scare people and he was still a calm being behind the bluster.
- Not So Stoic: When Ren risks banishing himself to Hell to openly intervene in a client's unjust case, Wanyuudo begins panicking and fearing for his life, begging him to stop and even hurling fire at him to discourage him in vain. This illustrates just how much he cares for his co-workers, whom he views as a surrogate family.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: While Hone Onna's name while she was alive is known, Wanyuudo is only known by his nickname since he is a tsukumogami.
- Playing with Fire: He can appear as a giant fiery wheel with his face as a hubcap. In his human form, he can throw fireballs.
- Ramen Slurp: He has a funny moment of this when eating where client Shuuichi Yagisawa was working part-time.
- Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a red scarf in the way that evokes the straw dolls' strings and even though he never starts the fights he gets into, he always finishes them.
- Skintone Sclerae: Shown to have these in a flashback.
- Super-Strength: Futakomori shows him stopping a speeding truck. In the opening, he's also seen lifting a boulder larger than him.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can transform into a giant fiery wheel. During banishments, he can transform into any object with wheels, which includes modern cars.
- Was Once a Man: Inverted. Before getting turned into a yokai, he was the left wheel of a carriage during the Heian Period. After the carriage was destroyed and burned, he became a fiery wheel monster.
- Youkai: In Japanese folklore, Wanyuudo is a demonic flaming ox-cart wheel bearing the tormented face of a man.
Ren Ichimoku
Ichimokuren
Click here to see him in the 2006 Drama
2019 film
- Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English), Ricardo Sorondo (Latin American Spanish)Portrayed by: Kazuki Katô (2006 series), Raiku (2019 film)
Ai's second assistant. Like Wanyuudo, he was originally a tsukumogami (付喪神) in the form of a katana misused for centuries before becoming a Youkai.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In both the 2006 drama and 2019 movie; in the former, he is more violent while in the latter he is not the Nice Guy he is from the anime and is more stoic.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: The 2019 movie changed the way his Eye Spy powers work. Instead of projecting his left eye onto whatever surface he wants, the movie has him eject his right eye through a scar that runs down that side of his body and then move it into position along the nearby walls and then bring it back when he's done.
- Adaptational Ugliness: He still has the Bishōnen looks consistent across media, but underneath his parting hair is a hideous scar from where he derives his powers (see above).
- Berserk Button: Some of the worst memories he had as a sword were being used to strike down innocent women or being used as leverage for rape. As a result, domestic violence hits him hard, to where he looks after one of his client's safety in his free time long after her grievance was avenged.
- Big Brother Instinct: He can have this dynamic with Yamawaro or with some of the clients that may be kids, where he may even try to nudge them against pulling the string at his peril.
- Color-Coded Eyes: A shade of yellow-green, which is striking amongst the regular Japanese populace. His large eye is also this color.
- A Day in the Limelight: The client profiles of the 43rd episode have a particular history with Ren. His past is also given focus throughout most of the story.
- Eye Spy: He can project his eye anywhere he wants, and this makes a very useful tool for investigative efforts. He can also hear and speak through it when using it this way.
- Faceless Eye: He can spy on people by projecting an eye onto any surface or simply appearing as a giant eye.
- It Amused Me: He initially claimed this is why he let Ai take him along for her adventures. However...
- I Just Want to Have Friends: As Ai all but states, it's clear this is his truest desire after centuries of being misused for violence and going from one owner to the next.
- The Heart: He is the most compassionate and personable of Ai's group. Hone even notes if he weren't around, things would be much more frigid with just Wanyuudo to keep her company.
- Hiding the Handicap: His hair covers the part of his face where his left eye would be.
- Hot Teacher: He has occasionally taken the guise of a teacher and earned the admiration of many young women.
- Louis Cypher: Ren Ishimoto.
- Mr. Fanservice: Far less so than Honne Onna, but the show plays up his good looks and once showed him wearing nothing but a speedo. He also cuddled up against a naked man in one episode, complimenting his pretty appearance.
- Nice Guy: Despite his job, Ren is almost consistently portrayed as a nice and laidback guy who will occasionally offer comfort to victims of the Hell Correspondence who are unjustly sent to Hell.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the case of Nene Chiwaki, he cannot abide by her sending her mother to Hell, nor can he stand for the latter committing suicide. Against the laws of his duties, he irrationally rushes to save them both, and would have been banished to Hell if he didn't fail to save the latter.
- Pretty Boy: Has an appearance of a handsome young man, and has occasionally used seduction to get information from female clients.
- Sympathetic Sentient Weapon: As a tsukumogami, he was a sword that became sentient after one hundred years. Because he was still an inanimate object, he was Forced to Watch as people used him as a weapon of both war and murder. He had been left behind after a battle and was stuck there until Ai found him.
- Villain Teleportation: He can use his eye for this rather than just teleporting like the others.
- The Walls Have Eyes: He normally spies on people from walls and ceilings.
- Youkai: A tsukumogami of an old sword that gained sentience, though the name and the eye may be a reference to Mokumokuren.
Hone Onna
Hone Onna, Tsuyu, "Anne Sone"
Click to see her in the 2006 TV Drama
2019 film (also her actual appearance)
- Voiced by: Takako Honda (Japanese), Jennifer Seman (English), Mercedes Prato (Latin American Spanish)Portrayed by: Aya Sugimoto (2006 series), Manami Hahsimoto (2019 film)
The last of Ai's original trio of companions. Originally a prostitute named Tsuyu, she was betrayed multiple times in life before being murdered. Tsuyu's corpse swept across a bank full of bones and souls of other women who were killed in similar ways in the past and thrown into the same river. The souls merged with Tsuyu and transformed into the Youkai that is Hone Onna.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's tall, dark-haired, beautiful, graceful, and aloof.
- Berserk Button: Betrayal. It's to a point Hone Onna is almost always the tormentor of grudges involving treachery. Best emphasized in the request of Ran Henmi, a woman who was betrayed by both her lover and a con artist that murdered her.
- On a much more lighthearted and downplayed note, she is irritated whenever Kikuri calls her old or a hag.
- Cool Big Sis: She has this dynamic with younger female clients, especially ones she has a commonality connection with like Ran. Averted with Kikuri, however.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was originally a young woman named Tsuyu, who was sold into prostitution by her lover to pay off his debts. When she tried to plot an escape for her fellow prostitute Kiyo, she betrayed her and had her killed. When her corpse was thrown into the river filled with bones, the spirits fused with her body, becoming Hone Onna.
- A Day in the Limelight: Episodes 36 and 47 feature Hone Onna at the center stage, the former being about her vacation road trips with a bumbling film director, the latter focused on her tragic origins and confrontation with a ghost from the past.
- Dem Bones: Being based on the mythical youkai of the same name, she can make any part of her skeleton visible.
- Demon of Human Origin: Unlike Ai's other assistants who are youkai created from objects, Hone Onna is a human who turned into a youkai after death.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Hair black like the night and skin pale like a ghost. A look fitting for a Youkai made from a legion of vengeful souls and skeletal remains.
- Even the Girls Want Her: She has many female students fawning over her and vying with each other for her attention when she takes on the role of a teacher or consultant.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: In her backstory, she was sold to a brothel by her lover. Despite her misfortune, Tsuyu was kind to her fellow prostitutes.
- Hospital Hottie: She has worn a nurse outfit more than once.
- Hot Teacher: Any time she takes on the profile of a teacher.
- Iconic Outfit: While in the world of the living, she usually wears a business suit that is the same shade of red as her straw doll form. Ai wears it during one of Futakomori's Hell Banishments.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: On her default outfit.
- Louis Cypher: Anna Sone.
- Ms. Fanservice: She is the source of most eye candy in the show, being flirty and wearing the most provocative costumes and rarely showing her skeletal face.
- Meaningful Name: Tsuyu, the name she had back when she was human, is based on Otsuyu, the name of the Hone Onna of a popular Japanese tale named Botan Doro.
- Nightmare Face: Whenever she shows her skeletal visage, it sends humans packing and running.
- The Power of Hate: It was the hatred of other betrayed women that made her into Hone Onna.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: While a youkai, Hone Onna looks like a very beautiful woman with long black hair and pale skin.
- Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Her eyes creepily never reflect any light, making her stand out among her demonic peers.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She has this dynamic with Kikuri, with the latter specifically annoying her to no end. Hone doesn't particularly like her at all, often deriding her as a brat.
- Unkempt Beauty: Notably with her loosened kimono and slightly disheveled hairstyle.
- Youkai: Hone Onna is a living female skeleton that creates an illusion to look like a beautiful woman so she can seduce men and drain their life force by having sex with them. Luckily, the Hone Onna of Ai's group is harmless compared to the myth and she's simply an attractive woman who can make her skin transparent to scare the people getting dragged to hell by Ai.
Kikuri
Kikuri
Voiced by: Kanako Sakai
A mysterious little girl introduced in the second season. Originally a curious spirit that Ai's assistants took notice of, she takes her into her group but Kikuri seems to do what she mostly pleases. Sometimes she may assist, but more often than not she'll just cause trouble without actually interfering with Ai's duties.
- Ambiguously Evil: As Kikuri is a vessel for the Lord of Hell to monitor and test Ai, a fact she's unaware of, it's left vague as to how many of her cruelest actions, especially those in Lovely Hills, are of her own volition.
- Ambiguous Situation: What exactly she is isn't ever made clear. While she is a vessel for the Lord of Hell, it's uncertain if she was a human before or just a demon created solely for that purpose.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Entirely Played for Laughs. Kikuri genuinely believes and boasts she is destined to be Hell Girl after Ai retires, but it's never taken seriously by anyone - nor is it true.
- Bratty Half-Pint: She's a complete brat, annoying practically everyone. Yamawaro and Ai can keep her in check, though.
- Cloth Fu: She can extend impossibly long ribbons out of her clothing to grab onto things. She even uses them to swing across a suspension bridge at one point.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: When Yamawaro starts pining for Michiru, Kikuri spends most of her screen-time pouting over him being a "two-timer" and hurling jealous insults toward him.
- Creepy Child: She is a child-like demon that acts like a go-lucky brat even in the direst circumstances.
- Creepy Doll: Averted. Starting from Mitsuganae, she possesses a wind-up doll to maintain a physical form but is no creepier because of it. Her having to be wound up again is a running joke.
- Demonic Possession: Whenever the Lord of Hell speaks through her.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Her wide forehead conceals a massive eye from which the Lord of Hell can commune.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She will never actually interfere with Ai's duties, and when it feels like she's really going to cross a certain line, she relents such as when Ai asks her to stop bothering her grandmother.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As seen in rare moments, she does genuinely love Ai despite often showing her no respect.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Downplayed. She has large purple eyes with white lines in the irises to indicate that she has a deeper connection to Hell than the other assistants. It's the same pattern that the jellyfish floating over Hell's gate has and the spider can possess both at will.
- Flower Motifs: She's represented by red camellias, found in her hair and kimono.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Hangs around with Ai’s group, but it’s clear they have little patience with her. Even Yamawaro loses his patience with her.
- Jerkass: Not a very pleasant person. Her teammates are shown to be pleasant towards people, particularly clients.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Going both ways with plain dog kicking. In Futakomori, she cures Kihachi Kusumi's innocent daughter of her coma after he's set to be imprisoned for mass murder, condemning both to fates worse than death.
- Kids Are Cruel: She would sometimes go out of her way to make people who made contracts with Ai regret it while they were alive. Case in point: a man who stole money for his wife's medical care banished the person blackmailing him over it, so she made the wife forget him.
- Lack of Empathy: Due to having the mentality of a small child, she cares the least for the plight of Ai's clients and even makes some of their sufferings.
- Laughably Evil: She is the meanest of the group - yet at the same time the funniest in her zanier nature and antics.
- Mark of the Supernatural: A lot of attention is drawn to her purple eyes in Futakomori to play up her eerie, supernatural nature.
- Meaningful Name: It's a reference to Kikuri-hime, the Shinto goddess in charge of communicating with Yomi, the land of the dead.
- Noodle Incident: After the events of Lovely Hills, Kikuri somehow lost the ability to materialize physically in the mortal plane, forcing her to occupy a doll that needs to be wound up every so often for her to move.
- Running Gag: In the third season, Kikuri has a wind-up key on her back, which needs to be re-wound repeatedly.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She has this dynamic with Hone Onna, with Kikuri often bothering her, calling her old and making her fairly unhappy. It's entirely Played for Laughs.
- Sixth Ranger: Kikuri is unable to take a straw doll form, unlike Ai's other companions. And while she does partake in her client requests and is generally always by her side, her loyalty to her is nowhere near as strong owed to her true nature.
- Tender Tears: She weeps tears when witnessing Ai's selfless act of sacrifice for Takuma at the end of the second season.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She's much less bad in Mitsuganae, being funnier and genuinely having joined Ai's group of companions.
- Token Evil Teammate: While the other assistants and Ai herself aren't exactly bad people, Kikuri is never a kind girl and is much more sinister and mischievous
- Trademark Favorite Food: Weiners.
- Troll: She loves bothering everyone around her in childish ways.
- Unwitting Pawn: While she has her own individuality, she doesn't know her role as a vessel for the Lord of Hell. Whenever he stops possessing her, she doesn't know what happened and the other assistants aren't inclined to tell her.
Yamawaro
Yamawaro
Voiced by: Hekiru Shiina
An assistant introduced in Mitsuganae, having already joined before the story. He is a forest-born Youkai that initially appeared as a mass of mushrooms to humans before gaining a proper human form.
- Abusive Parents: Definitely not Fujiko Ashiya, but her husband, Risaburo, used Yamawaro in horrific alchemic experiments to cultivate an Elixir of Life.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Even with Kikuri around, he's clearly the least enlightened of the Youkai assistants, being very much like a naive newcomer.
- Blow You Away: He has certain control over wind, which makes sense given his earthly origins.
- Foil: To Kikuri, who is physically the closest to his age. The two would often play together when they're not working, but where Kikuri is bratty and immature, Yamawaro is very polite and stoic.
- A Day in the Limelight: The 68th episode is all about him, from the client to his origins to his meeting with Ai.
- The Dragon: When Ai retires from being Hell Girl, he leaves her side with her blessings to become this to Michiru.
- Elixir of Life: The fungi that he is made of can produce an elixir that restores one's youth.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: His truest desire, and why he eventually follows Ai's group.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Shown to be this in his backstory. It's what caused him to approach Hikaru's parents and start to live a normal life. He eventually starts working for Ai for much the same reason.
- It Has Been an Honor: He gets down on all fours and thanks Ai for everything before joining Michiru's side.
- Mushroom Man: Before he met people, he was a mass of mushrooms with a human face. One of the people he lived with cultivated the fungus for an elixir of life, so he still has fungus inside his body despite appearing human.
- Yes-Man: To Kikuri, to the point he always refers to her as hime-sama. It's Played for Laughs as a running gag in how he caters to her every whim on demand.
- Youkai: In Japanese folklore, Yamawaro are Cyclops acting like the equivalent of Kappa that reside in mountains instead of rivers. They are said to be short creatures resembling little boys, but their traditional portrayal isn't anywhere near as cute as the Yamawaro of Ai's group.
- Ship Tease: He spends most of his screen-time with Kikuri and he's so subservient to her that even in-universe it's implied he has feelings for her. But, alas...
- Ship Sinking: In Yoi no Togi, he leaves her to join Michiru. While it isn't made too apparent due to his polite disposition, it's evident from the scene Kikuri kicks him that he's grown fed up with her abuse.
Related Characters
Ai's "Grandmother"
- Voiced by: Eriko Matsushima (Japanese), Juli Erickson (English), Mariana Gamboa (Latin American Spanish)
A kindly old woman hidden behind a sliding door who only speaks to Ai. All that is seen of her is the silhouette of an old woman with a spinning wheel.
- Adapted Out: She never appears in the 2019 movie since Ai's hut never appears.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She seldom talks to someone other than Ai. Notable instances are when she gets Hajime to stop Ai from giving Tsugumi the straw doll, pleads with Kikuri to stop poking at her wheel, and when she thanks Ai's assistants for all they've done for her when she seemingly dies for good.
- Riddle for the Ages: What she is and her relation to Ai is entirely up to one's imagination.
- She Who Must Not Be Seen: The audience never gets to see her true appearance. The only character who actually does see her freaks out, suggesting that this is a good thing. In the live-action series, she opens the sliding door at one point and nobody is visible behind it.
The Spider
The Lord of Hell
Voiced by: Hidekatsu Shibata (Japanese), John Swasey (English)
A bizarre-looking spider that hangs around the hut in Ai's sunset realm. It is actually this series' equivalent of Satan himself, the spider merely being his preferred form.- Anthropomorphic Personification: It is implied by Tsugumi in Mitsuganae that he is the personification of humanity's innate darkness and, more specifically, its desire for violence. The Hell Correspondence is suggested to have been put in place to satisfy these desires, and that should it hypothetically be abolished, it would not make any difference as humans will find conventional ways to hurt each other.
- Big Bad: Having created and enforcing the Hell Correspondence, Hell Girl, and overseeing a systematic cycle of ruination, he is this for the entire series.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: He is the master of Hell himself.
- Demonic Possession: He is able to possess Kikuri and communicate through her
- The Dreaded: Ai's companions always pipe down the small talk when his presence is made known.
- Eyeless Face: He doesn't have eyes on his head like normal spiders and instead has eyes on his abdomen.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Three on his back.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: In his first meeting with Ai, he appears as a spider, then possesses the jellyfish floating over the gates of hell, suggesting that they are avatars of a far more powerful being.
- Manipulative Bastard: It is all but stated that by the end of Yoi no Togi and the implied existence of a benevolent God and Heaven that he has been deceiving all his followers to maintain the cycle of hatred that plagues humanity.
- Noble Demon: Despite being a soul-collecting Anthropomorphic Personification of evil, he does abide by strict rules and upholds his bargains, such as eventually freeing Ai from service.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His color motif.
- Satanic Archetype: Subverted. He rules over Hell and makes deals for people's souls, but is a lawful being in that there are strict rules about who may be sent to Hell and may just be doing his job.
- Suddenly Voiced: At the end of season one, where he speaks to Ai about her own grudge and revenge.
God (spoilers)
Mutsumi Village
Mutsumi Village
Ai was born in the early 1600s in the small Japanese town known as Mutsumi Village. She was chosen by the village elders to become the latest in a long line of child sacrifices meant to appease the mountain god and secure a bountiful harvest. The ritual was known as the "Seven Sending", every seven years, a seven-year-old girl was offered up to the mountain. Ai's parents defied the will of the village elders and secretly arranged for Sentaro to keep Ai alive in the woods, bringing her food, clothes and keeping her company. Unfortunately, when this ruse was discovered, she and her parents were murdered. Ai subsequently destroyed the entire village as a vengeful spirit while Sentaro fled for parts unknown.- Ambiguous Situation: Given this is a work with heavy supernatural leanings, it's unknown if their claims of appeasing a mountain god holds weight or not. When Ai was not sacrificed, their crops withered to dust and rain regularly poured over. After she was killed, this stopped, but this was made moot by her return.
- Asshole Victim: Every last one of them. They paid dearly for their cruelty and evil practices.
- Buried Alive: Their means of offering up their child sacrifices.
- Create Your Own Villain: As they buried Ai and her parents alive, her hate for them because of their cruelty toward her became so powerful that it allowed her to come back to life as a demon and slaughter them all.
- Death of a Child:
- The village had a policy of sacrificing young girls to their mountain god to ensure plentiful harvests. Ai was the last of them.
- The children of the village died, along with everyone else, when Ai burned down the village.
- Hate Sink: Besides the children's horrible abuse of Ai, most of the villagers except Ai's parents and Sentaro are portrayed as obnoxiously selfish and hedonistic bastards.
- Human Sacrifice: They held a tradition of offering up children as sacrifices to appease a mountain god.
- Karmic Death: Burned alive in their homes by the young girl they tormented without end and ultimately killed. Needless to say, they deserved every second of it.
- Kids Are Cruel: The kids always bullied Ai, believing she was an "evil spirit" for demonstrating some affinity for the supernatural even before her rebirth.
- Kill It with Fire: How they meet their end when Ai decides to liquidate the lot of them for their transgressions, via turning the village into a firestorm.
- Posthumous Character: They are all dead in the present day and their role in Ai's backstory is told via flashback in Episode 25.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: They ostracized Ai because she was believed to have supernatural powers. Their final and most monstrous act of cruelty toward her—burying her alive along with her parents and forcing her beloved cousin to betray her—made her hate of them so strong that she transformed into a demon, clawed her way out of the grave they dug for her, and sent the village up in flames, taking them with it.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Just a peaceful Japanese farming village that sacrificed little girls to please their mountain god for good harvests.
- Would Hurt a Child: Would kill a child, in fact. The village had a policy of sacrificing young girls to their mountain god to ensure plentiful harvests. Ai was the last of them.
Sentaro
Voiced by: Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Japanese), Jason Liebrecht (English), Gonzalo Fumero (Latin American Spanish)
Ai's cousin and only friend. The Shibata family descended from him.- The Atoner: He built a temple where Ai was buried alive, as a monument to his grief and anguish. She destroys it after making peace with herself.
- Bully Hunter: He went after anyone that made Ai cry.
- Declaration of Protection: He promised to protect Ai after she was selected as a Human Sacrifice, which made his betrayal more painful for her.
- Kissing Cousins: Implied with Ai.
- My Greatest Failure: Ai's death. As aforementioned in The Atoner, he even built a shrine dedicated to his grief.
- Only Friend: To Ai, which made perceived betrayal more painful for her.
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: He was forced to betray Ai by the villagers, who blamed them both for the famine that was making them starve.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being forced to bury Ai, he runs off screaming and packs his bags to leave. He doesn't even particularly care when seeing Ai burn down his former home.
- Sole Survivor: He was the only survivor of the village after Ai burned it, being in the process of leaving at the time.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He looks almost just like his descendant Hajime Shibata.
- Token Good Teammate: The only villager besides Ai's parents that didn't make Ai's life hell.
Kiyo
Kiyo
Voiced by: Natsuko Kuwatani
For better or worse, Kiyo is an important person to Hone Onna, formerly known as Tsuyu. When Tsuyu was betrayed by her man and sold to a brothel, Kiyo befriended her but was secretly resentful and envious of her. She eventually sabotaged Tsuyu's attempts at escaping the sex industry, leading to her brutal death, for which she was rewarded by being betrayed by her lover and killed the same way. In the present, Kiyo wanders Japan as a lost spirit, randomly possessing women and causing them to commit suicide.- Asshole Victim: Kiyo is betrayed and murdered just like Tsuyu not long after she betrays her.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite everything, Hone Onna still loves Kiyo and pleads with Ai to save her tormented soul one day.
- Ghostly Goals: She exists as a phantom futilely seeking revenge on her long-gone lover on loop.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kiyo was always deeply envious of Tsuyu, culminating in her betraying her in the worst way.
- Laser-Guided Karma: She really had her ironic fate coming.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Kiyo exists as an onryo now, although she is still pretty conventionally attractive.
The Ashiyas
Risaburo Ashiya
Voiced by: Tamio Ohki, Kenji Hamada (young)
Yamawaro's adoptive father. A Mad Scientist seeking immortality, he allowed Yamawaro to stay at his home so long as he allowed himself to be used in his genetic experiments. He succeeded in creating a functioning prototype for an Elixir of Life before Yamawaro ran away.- Asshole Victim: Years later, his wife sends him to Hell out of wrath at what he did to Yamawaro. And while it's not something the boy wanted at all, considering how callous Risaburo is, it's not too undeserved.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite how immoral he is and the fact his wife openly resents him now, it's clear he does value her company, making another elixir of youth for her when Yamawaro returns.
- Immortality Immorality: He evidently cast his conscience aside in the pursuit of immortality, opening admitting he doesn't care for his son's passing. He also justifies his inhumane experiments on Yamawaro stating he isn't human.
- Lack of Empathy: Be it his son's death, his wife's anguish, or Yamawaro's pain, he doesn't care about much but himself and his pursuit of immortality.
- Mad Scientist: An immoral but incredible biologist, having created a successful youth-restoring elixir.
Fujiko Ashiya
Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita
Yamawaro's adoptive mother. A sickly woman who has long been grieving the loss of her son, she loved Yamawaro as a surrogate son when he came into the household. When she discovered what her husband did to him to restore her youth, she implored Yamawaro to run away as far as possible. Years later she calls upon the Hell Correspondence to exact vengeance on her husband, incidentally reuniting her with Yamawaro.- The Atoner: Apart from her simply being unable to live with the grief of losing her son anymore, it's strongly implied she commits suicide out of atonement for being an unwitting part of Yamawaro's suffering.
- Immortality Immorality: Averted. While she doesn't mind the restored youth too much at first, when she finds out how it came to be, she's unable to live with her grief.
- Driven to Suicide: After sending Risaburo to Hell, she self-destructs their mansion, embracing a hallucination of her birth son as she goes with it.
- Good Parents: To Yamawaro, whom she treated just like her deceased son. Whereas his relationship with Risaburo was more like a business arrangement, there was a familial bond between him and Fujiko.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Despite it being something Yamawaro himself wants for her, she rejects immortality and chooses to die. This leaves him confused while surveying the scene of their mansion's destruction, with him stating he's still yet to fully grasp human emotions.
