Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube

Episode 19

Sadly, not every episode of Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube can focus on my beloved terror Miki and her absurd antics, so this week's supernatural tale concerns the significantly less interesting Katsuya. Although he's in the same elementary school class as the tiny little Makoto, Katsuya looks more like a delinquent high school student, and he seems prone to pissing off powerful god-like entities with his thoughtlessness, like back in episode five where he was almost beheaded by evil sword spirit Hatamonba for stealing money from his shrine. This time, Katsuya attracts the ire of an actual divine beast, the horse-like Kirin.

Kirin's just sort of chilling out, minding his own business in his secluded area of holy ground, secreted away within an environmental conservation area, when Katsuya blunders in, flagrantly ignoring multiple do not trespass signs. Granted, he does this to rescue a small puppy trapped in a hole, but he also causes the death of several large koi when the embankment he stands on crumbles into the pond in which they're swimming. Yes it's an accident, but he does also consider fishing for them to bring fresh fish home to his sister. Really, he should have learned by now not to take things that don't belong to him from sacred ground. The terrifying Kirin witnesses the death of his subjects and erupts like an angry Pikachu, static electricity crackling.

As he should be, Katsuya's freaked out by this, and his fears are worsened by Miki's gleeful reading from a yokai encyclopedia, informing Katsuya that Kirin judges evildoers and drags them down to hell. That would be a nightmarish fear for most kids, but by Katsuya dropping the fish charm his sister Manami gave him within Kirin's domain, Kirin may instead target the charm's maker instead of its wearer. When Katsuya begs Nube for help, his teacher is rattled. Will his demon hand be of any use against actual divinity? It's a valid concern. In most mythologies, angelic or godly beings tend to outrank the demonic.

It wouldn't be an episode of Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube without the featured kid of the week recklessly endangering their own safety, but this time not only does Katsuya head back to Kirin's home, the rest of his friends follow too, for no good reason other than curiosity. They're clearly all now so used to supernatural existential threat they're numb to the promise of eternal damnation. Nube's worst fears are confirmed when Kirin literally slices through his demon hand – severing his fingers in a single gross, bloody attack. The resolution to the problem is via Katsuya's new little puppy friend, something I could see coming from even the opening moments of the episode.

It's extremely predictable, then, leaving little room for tension or doubt that Katsuya's good deeds towards the puppy would override his accidental harm towards the fish. I don't really come to this show expecting mind-shattering twists, but this plot is more than a little pedestrian. Though Nube coming across an entity he's completely unable to handle is a cool twist, and every scene with Miki in it instantly becomes entertaining. Kirin's dual forms are both pretty cool, though I wish his story had a little more depth to it that being merely a “don't ignore ‘no trespassing’ signs, kids,” which seems like an overly-obvious moral. I do enjoy when the show features these more unusual yokai, but it doesn't always do anything that interesting with them. A merely “ok” episode this week, I'm afraid.

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