Hell Girl 5
Author: Miyuki Eto
Publisher Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 978-0345506696
Rating: 7/10
Manga is nothing new for us Americans. For over a decade, boys and girls, myself included, have been exposed to a whole slew of them, from classics such as “Ranma ½”, “Urusei Yatsura”, and the ever popular “Gundam” series. But it wasn’t until the Independent Film Channel started screening episodes of the “Hell Girl” series (along with Witchblade reruns), that I became aware that there was a manga also. Judging from the solid writing and character development, it’s a pretty good comic, though it falters at times.
Set in Japan (naturally), the graphic novel is composed of a series of tales revolving around a mysterious “Hell Girl”. The book features a revolving cast of characters in desperate or life-threatening situations that can’t be solved through normal channels such as the police or mediators. This necessitates them to seek out the help of Hell Girl through a Purgatory Correspondence or Hell Correspondence column in a newspaper (later on Hell Girl gets her own website, go figure). Most of the characters and situations are compelling-a girl loses her parents to a hit and run accident, a single mom harassed by a debt collector. But that isn’t always the case.
Since this is a manga, there are some gimmicks involved, especially the cute ‘behind the scenes’ explanations of how the book was made, similar to a running DVD commentary, but they are anything but distracting. These appear throughout the book in sidebars and whole panels, at times interrupting the flow of the storyline. A veteran reader of (translated) manga myself, even I found it difficult to concentrate on the panels. This is definitely not a book for beginners.
“Hell Girl” is a must have for fans of the show. But if you just want a quick distraction, this is a devil of a book that is not worth the price.
John Winn - Staff Writer
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