I've been enjoying the Hell Girl anime series recently via Netflix, and have picked up a couple of volumes of the manga. This is the first one, introducing the rather dark premise: there's a mysterious web site, reachable only at midnight, and where one can request the help of Hell Girl to send someone to hell - but at the cost of dooming the sender's soul to the same place...

The book contains several stories, each one standing alone, linked by the characters' interaction with Ai (the Hell Girl). The first tale deals with a schoolgirl being bullied by a nasty classmate, and who in desperation summons Ai to send her enemy to hell. Ai agrees, after giving her the warning about her own fate - and the bully (who is indeed a nasty piece of work, though eternal damnation seems a bit much) gets a taste of her own medicine courtesy of Ai and her three helpers.

Next is a young baker whose recipes are stolen by a rival; when her business begins to fail as a result, she summons Ai. Then a jealous actress torments and eventually maims her rival, and the victim summons Ai. (Are we seeing a pattern here?) A heartless veterinarian neglects a poor client's pet and it dies. A teacher tries to molest a student, and when she won't give in he spreads rumors that she tried to seduce HIM.

In each case here, the people that Ai Enma is summoned to take to hell do deserve some kind of punishment, and I admit it was rather satisfying seeing the different ways in which they were shown their crimes before being dragged off. But the punishment seems extreme, especially as it can apparently be invoked by anyone and against anyone, as long as the summoner is willing to be damned too. Interestingly enough, all of the victims here are shown as being somewhat sobered by the "you dig a double grave" line, and yet most of them look forward to happier lives in the absence of their persecutors - at least for as long as they have left.

Later volumes, I should mention, switch things up; sometimes the people being sent to hell are innocent, or the accusers and the subjects are equally guilty (or innocent); the grey areas do get interesting...

[The TV Tropes page includes basic information and entertaining tidbits - but beware of spoilers...]

I finally paid a visit to this little phone-box/OBCZ. No books there when I arrived, so I added a few of mine to the little bracket inside. Hope the finder enjoys them!

*** Released for the 2014 Spook-tacular Halloween Challenge, for "hell". ***