Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube

Episode 5

How should modern society manage criminals? Retribution-focused punishment, or more hope-focused rehabilitation? This episode of Hell Teacher Nube delves deep into the philosophical weeds regarding liberal versus conservative methods of criminal judgement and the ultimate outcomes of varying modalities of reparative justice… Nah, I'm messing with you. Chief bad guy this episode is Hatamonba, an asshole yokai possessing a cursed sword who likes to behead children in capital punishment for minor misdemeanors.

Unconscionable crimes like, you know, hapless young Katsuya picking up a 500 yen coin with which to buy food for his beloved little sister Manami. Granted, he probably shouldn't have picked up a random coin from the grounds of a creepy shrine. Probably he should have put it in the offering box and then he wouldn't have had to spend the entire episode fleeing in terror from a forgiveness-eschewing decapitation-frenzied yokai with a sharpened Steamboy-style monocycle death rotor thingy. Creepy sword dude Hatamonba deliberately entrapped him, though!

This is the closest Hell Teacher Nube has come to a standard horror movie format so far, with much of the episode an extended chase scene between Hatamonba, Katsuya, and later his friends and teacher. I like that Nube isn't invincible, and doesn't immediately save the day when he eventually turns up. Hatamonba's sword vehicle even manages to slice through his demon hand, and it's only Katsuya's observational skills and simple plan that allows Nube to win the battle. The whole sequence is tense, especially the fun highway chase.

The other characters don't get much of a look in, as this is mainly Katsuya's episode. It seems the current format is to focus on each of the main kids for an episode or two, and I think it's working pretty well so far. I've not read the original manga or seen the 90s anime series, so I've no idea if there's an overarching plot or if it remains this episodic. The way Nube's demon hand looks at the end though, I have to wonder if there will be some longer-lasting consequences for him from this fight.

My main complaint regards the way distributor REMOW continues to stream their new content on YouTube for only one week. That's no way to build an audience via word of mouth, as episodes disappear into the ether after 7 days. The stream quality is pixelated and poor compared to other streaming services, too. This was also an issue with last season's Your Forma, though that show has (for better and for worse, mostly worse) since appeared on Amazon Prime in its entirety. Perhaps the plan for Hell Teacher Nubei is the same? I get that several Japanese licensors will now try anything else but partner with the (for now) dominant specialist Western anime streaming service, but I'm not keen on this brave new world of limited YouTube streaming. It seems like a regressive step.

Rating:

Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube is currently streaming on YouTube.