Hell Girl is an anime that has been produced in three seasons between 2005 and 2009 by Studio Deen. The plot of the episodes follows a girl named Ai Enma, also known as the Jigoku Shōjo or Hell Girl, and her group of followers as they carry out her duty of striking contracts that involve ferrying hated souls to Hell.
The first season, titled Hell Girl (地獄少女, Jigoku Shōjo), was directed by Takahiro Ōmori and written by Hiroshi Watanabe and revolves around the investigations of Hajime Shibata and Tsugumi Shibata into Ai Enma's secrets. It premiered across Japan on Animax on October 4, 2005, and episode 26 aired on April 4, 2006. The second season, titled Hell Girl: Two Mirrors (地獄少女 二籠, Jigoku Shōjo Futakomori), was also directed by Takahiro Ōmori and written by Hiroshi Watanabe and details the past of each of Ai's followers and then the story of a boy named Takuma Kurebayashi. It aired across Japan from October 7, 2006 to April 7, 2007 on Animax spanning 26 episodes. The third season, titled Jigoku Shōjo Mitsuganae (地獄少女 三鼎, lit. Hell Girl: Three Vessels), was directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and written by Ken'ichi Kanemaki and revolves around Ai's possession of a middle school student named Yuzuki Mikage and that girl's past. It aired across Japan from October 10, 2008 to April 4, 2009 on Tokyo MX spanning 26 episodes.[1]
Animax also later translated and dubbed the first season of the series into English for broadcast across its English language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and also aired the series across its other networks worldwide in various other languages, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Europe and other regions. The first season of the series was licensed for North American distribution by Funimation Entertainment. The series began broadcasting on the United States cable/satellite channel IFC in July 2008. The next 52 episodes has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks under the title Hell Girl: Series 2.[2]
