Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube

Episode 10

Excess materialism is the target of this week's moral lesson imparted by Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube, using secondary student character Shuichi as a focus. We've met Shuichi a couple of times already – he's a stuck-up rich kid, always boasting about his family's wealth and chain of restaurants. Like many kids born into obscene privilege, he has no idea of the value of possessions. Like the clean-freak Spherites from this season's Gachiakuta, Shuichi has no qualms about disposing of barely used objects due to minor flaws. As someone who's never had to worry about money, objects are replaceable – if they're not pristinely perfect, why bother to keep them?

The difference between Shuichi and his less well-off classmates is illustrated by the items he brings to sell at his elementary school's annual flea market. While the other kids sell battered old footballs or hand-embroidered clothing, Shuichi brings a huge collection of barely-used game consoles, offering to sell the whole lot for a single yen. He's so out of touch with everyone else that he fails to comprehend Nube's extreme reaction to such exaggerated undervaluing of possessions.

This week's main yokai is the rather silly-looking Karakasa Kozō (literal translation: “paper umbrella priest boy”). This yokai quite often turns up in other supernatural-themed anime, like Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro and Urusei Yatsura, and isn't usually threatening. Shuichi's terrified by the appearance of this more-gross-than-usual Karakasa Kozō, especially as it seems to be hunting him, before engulfing him whole and bouncing off like some kind of possessed pumpkin.

Despite its enormous eye, slathering tongue, and weirdly detailed single foot, it turns out this umbrella-shaped yokai doesn't actually mean Shuichi any harm. As part of the “Tsukumogami Parade” it just wants to thank Shuichi for the love he gave it back in pre-school when it was only a normal yellow umbrella, though one he showered with love before accidentally losing it. There's a longstanding Japanese folklore idea that objects acquire a spirit of their own after a century of use. Nube himself debunks this superstition, as it seems such a length of time isn't necessary. Any object loved and appreciated enough will develop its own sense of self. (The most recent Western equivalent would be Pixar's Toy Story.)

There's very little overt threat in this episode, and none of the various inanimate object yokai that feature have malevolent intentions, all merely wishing to show gratitude to their former owners. Shuichi learns a valuable lesson about treating one's possessions right, even as, in a poignant moment, also learns that sometimes objects can still come to the end of their useful life. As with everything, there's a balance to be struck between attachment to objects and wastefulness. It's a cute, if fairly obvious and didactic message.

The episode gets bonus points for everyone's favorite menace Miki blatantly admitting she might consider marrying Shuichi, but only for his money. Never change, Miki.

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