Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube

Episode 20

Rejoice, yuki-onna lovers! Ice maiden Yukime returns in time for the Winter Olympics with… a beach episode? Second only to the adorable menace Miki, blue-haired and besotted Yukime is one of the best Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube characters. Something is endearing about her irrepressible drive to ensnare Nube's heart, overcoming her natural weakness to heat through sheer determination. She doesn't always succeed, but no one can say she doesn't put her heart into it. This time, the pale-as-milk snow yokai becomes determined to acquire a sun tan, when really she should be lathering herself in an inch-thick layer of SPF 50 sunblock and keeping to the shade.

Yukime desperately wants to make friends with Nube's students because she believes that if they accept her, then Nube is more likely to do the same. It's a reasonable plan – a guy is less likely to date someone all of his friends or family hate, after all. The problem for Yukime is that the first time she met the students, she tried to turn them into human popsicles, and that kind of thing tends to induce grudges. While Miki's all for hearing tales of Yukime's intense love for Nube, Kyoko's much more reticent.

Over time, Yukime has become a little more… human. At least she's not so single-minded that she'll harm anyone who gets in her way anymore. However, she's still a yokai, and that means there are more than a few significant incompatibilities between her and Nube that would need to be overcome for them to be happy together. The fact that she can only be comfortable in sub-zero temperatures, for one. Even just walking along the street in Domori is too hot for her – she has to generate random hollow snowmen to hide in to cool off. And the heat at the beach seems to somehow melt her breasts off. Eek. Nube believes that humans and yokai are too different to fraternize with one another (I mean, any man would worry about their, uh, bits freezing and falling off following intimacy with an ice spirit…), though when pushed for his opinion at the end of the episode, he wavers a little. Perhaps because without Yukime's heroic actions, Kyoko wouldn't have survived her beach trip.

This week's evil yokai, the Misaki, seems almost an afterthought, introduced late in the episode purely to provide a way for Yukime to save the day. The entire setup is incredibly contrived, with Nube standing helplessly on the beach while Kyoko is dragged into the depths by a vengeful spirit. Perhaps if Nube had actually moved to action, he wouldn't even have needed Yukime to use her ice powers and exhaust herself. The synchronised ice skating climax is kind of amusing, though.

Unfortunately, some of the visuals, especially the sea's appearance, in this episode are sketchy as hell, including the jarring effects of Yukime's powers on the sea. The continuity between images is very poor at explaining the sequence of events. It also looks cheap and janky. There's almost no urgency either, with the whole sequence paced so lethargically.

Yukime's bright and fun presence elevates the episode as best it can, but it's definitely not amongst Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube's best entries. I hope Yukime sticks around a bit longer this time, though. She's a better romantic fit for Nube than Miss Ritsuko, but unless there's some way to change her fundamental nature, I can't see them being able to settle down happily together. And changing nature for her to become more acceptable to a potential romantic partner would mean she wouldn't even be Yukime anymore. Yikes! I'm intrigued to discover how, or even if, this fundamental conflict will ever be resolved.

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