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Recap / Hell Girl S 2 E 21 Paper Balloon Wafting

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A young woman is trying to get back together with her ex-boyfriend for the sake of the child she's carrying. She has the straw doll in case he refuses, but she is obsessively pursuing a reunion. Her story is intersected with Hone Onna's story. Originally, Hone Onna was a young woman named Tsuyu who was sold into prostitution to cover the debts of her lover. Tsuyu used to make paper ball balloons to sell. After a few years, Tsuyu is joined by a younger prostitute named Kiyo. Kiyo feels inferior to Tsuyu and ultimately betrays her, resulting in Tsuyu's violent death. Tsuyu is transformed into Hone Onna when she is infused with the spirits of other betrayed women. Back in the present day, the young lady sends her ex to Hell, then attempts to jump off a bridge. Hone Onna realizes that the spirit of Kiyo, who was wounded by her lover after she revealed her pregnancy and then jumped off a bridge, has been possessing women and forcing them to kill themselves by jumping off bridges. Kiyo tells Hone Onna it was nice to see her again, then vanishes, still on her path of vengeance. Hone Onna then asks Ai to please pick Kiyo up someday, as Ai has saved her from an eternity of sorrow and anger.

This episode contains examples of:

  • A Day in the Limelight: This episode gives the viewers a glimpse into Honne Onna's backstory and how she became what she is today.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Kiyo rejects a chance at redemption and throws herself off a bridge, disappearing into the water below. Honne Onna asks Ai if she would one day consider recruiting Kiyo but doesn't get an answer. Despite this, Honne Onna and Ai hold hands and return home. The client is also freed from Kiyo's possession and hopefully touches her stomach, reassuring her baby that they will be okay.
  • Commonality Connection: Honne Onna resonates with the female client of this episode due to also being a woman that was shunned and betrayed by men.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Honne Onna just happens to meet the vengeful ghost of Kiyo in a random city that Ai and her crew happened to be in over a hundred years after the incident between them took place.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Tsuyu's lover promised to take her away from her original home so they could marry, but he only did so so that he could sell her into prostitution in order to cover his debts. Fast forward a few years, and Tsuyu befriends a younger prostitute named Kiyo who she grows attached to and begins to regard as a younger sister figure. Tsuyu begins to want to give the girl a better life, so she devises a plan to help Kiyo escape, which Kiyo is vehemently against, but pretends to go along with. Come the night of the plan, it's revealed that Kiyo betrayed Tsuyu to the guards and remorselessly has her executed, solely because her lover bought her a prettier kimono than the one Tsuyu gifted her. Tsuyu is unable to rest in peace after this betrayal and is possessed by the spirits of other vengeful women, transforming into Honne Onna in the process. An unspecified amount of time later, Ai recruits Honne Onna into her crew.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: The unnamed man in this episode is after the client pulls the string.
  • Ironic Hell: After rejecting his girlfriend and refusing to take responsibility for her pregnancy, the victim in this episode is doomed to an eternity of having a fetus-like monster tear open his stomach.
  • It's All About Me: Even hundreds of years after the incident, Kiyo doesn't acknowledge the suffering she made Tsuyu endure with her betrayal and only thinks of herself. Tsuyu as Honne Onna still feels sorry for her despite this, as she has long since forgiven her.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: While it initially seemed that Kiyo got away with her betrayal of Tsuyu, she eventually got what was coming to her when her lover found out she was pregnant and wounded her. She killed herself in despair and became a vengeful spirit that possesses despairing women and makes them kill themselves.

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