[Filler] 地獄の沙汰も君次第 by 獄卒音楽連盟

Prologue: First post of the year...on 1 March. Two full months of hiatus. Definitely the longest hiatus in the history of this blog. It is really hard to keep up with this decaying medium considering how the sheep that is the public has pretty much moved on to instant gratification, image bombardment and constant stream of tiny bits of information which makes reading on a slightly longer sentence in blog comparatively tedium. Or it's just me that has long lost the wit and will to write even when LOADS of thing worth blogging does happen in my life and reality.

So there, you have to settle for this filler post. But hey, it's good stuff worth sharing so JUST EAT IT.

I've always have a thing for dark humour and cultural/pop/contemporary references in anime so when I came across Hoozuki no Reitetsu (鬼灯の冷徹 lit. The Cool-headedness of Hoozuki) as my younger bro downloads it for the Spring season anime collection, I was immediately hooked.

In a nutshell, it's a slice-of-life story about the inhabitants, officials, minions, deities, spirits and deceased in Japanese hell/naraka/jigoku (地獄) featuring the titular character Hoozuki 鬼灯 as he face and solve the often whimsical problems and encounters as the terrifyingly efficient right-hand man of the amicable but bumbling Great King Enma 閻魔大王. So far there's even appearance of Satan, the lord of EU hell in which his plan to annex Japan jigoku was inadvertently thwarted by culture shock as well as Hoozuki's efficiency.

...and Goldfish plant (金魚草). おぎやああああああ！

It has been quite a learning experience watching this series which began right at the opening song. It has to be one of the happiest, catchiest song about Hell/Naraka/Jigoku. In fact, I've learned that Japanese jigoku consists of eight burning jigoku and eight freezing jigoku, each of which further divided by 16 sub-jigoku which rounded up into 272 divisions of jigoku overall (16x16+16 counting the major division as individual jigoku too). The reason for such complexities is because they referred extensively to China and India before incorporate it to fit Japanese taste and norm. Nonetheless, the fellow minions of jigoku are proud of their hell claiming they are able to cover all sins of human.

...just listen to it and see what I mean. (no full lyrics yet though but will post it as soon as available!)





*now updated with opening MV!

~地獄はあるかもしれないよ
この世の行い　気をつけて!~

~Hell/Jigoku/Naraka might actually exist so better watch out what you are doing in mortal world~

Epilogue: Considering the situation I am in currently, I do feel constantly being watched by reality in both literal and metaphorical sense.