Episodes 1-3 – Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube

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Even though it’s based on a manga from the early 1990s, Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube looks even more retro than its vintage suggests. If I’d been told this goofy, episodic, supernatural comedy-drama was a product of the 1970s or 80s, I’d have believed it. This is real, old-style shonen action anime, with appropriately huge-eyed, spiky-haired character designs, and storylines that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Gegege no Kitarō. None of these are bad things, as I love the look of vintage, pre-digital anime, and Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube pleasingly scratches that aesthetic itch.

Structured a bit like Great Teacher Onizuka meets Kitaro, we follow a group of normal Japanese school kids as they get to know their new teacher, the mysterious yet derpy Nube-sensei of the title. (His full name is Meisuke Neuno, but he prefers the “Nube” nickname.) His first scene with the children is hilariously weird – he stalks along the corridor to the sound of solemn sutra chanting, wearing silly, portentous accessories, before completely humiliating himself as the music emanating from his phone switches to upbeat “Bari Bari Saikyou No. 1” by FEEL SO BAD, opening song of Nube’s 1996 series, and he stumbles. The kids don’t quite know what to make of him, though orange pigtailed girl Kyoko already seems to know him, as she warns her classmates about Nube’s special abilities.

Turns out Nube is “Japan’s only teacher with psychic powers,” and he’s been sent to this school for a reason – the town is beset by a “spiritual magnetic field” caused by disruption in the balance between yin and yang, that if left unchecked could draw the entire place into a hell dimension. That’s probably not the kind of education these kids’ parents signed them up for. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Sunnydale Hellmouth, it seems that spooky monsters, spirits, and yokai are attracted to the area.

The first supernatural entity we meet is a creepy worm thing that possesses the ultra-grumpy schoolboy Hiroshi, whose hair-trigger temper causes him to lash out at everyone and everything. He’s leery of Nube’s attempts to help. Nube’s not the most tactful of souls; not only do his actions drive Hiroshi away, but he repeatedly freaks out attractive lady teacher, Miss Ritsuko, in what’s likely to be a running joke.

Hiroshi’s story comprises the first two episodes, with the second part significantly outclassing the first in terms of intrigue and action. What initially looks to be a simple case of yokai possession turns out to be a more complex affair, with a creepy doctor who’s a 300-year-old fox spirit, “Tamamo Yoko.” Tamamo needs a pristine human skull for his plan to become a human being, and for some reason, Hiroshi’s is just perfect. He needs to have all of his anger purged first, which was the reason Tamamo infected him with the worm in the first place. We see Tamamo creeping and stalking the young Hiroshi during a flashback montage covering a period of months. Ewww.

Following an extended battle where Tamamo beats the crap out of him repeatedly, Nube and his Cursed Demon Hand finally gain the advantage over his supernatural opponent, and Hiroshi is both exorcised and saved from human sacrifice. Nube’s source of psychic power appears to be the demon sealed in his left hand, which is deformed and claw-like, usually kept hidden within a glove. It seems Nube is the original chuuni, wielding a hand seething with demonic energy.
It seems likely that plenty of other anime and manga drew inspiration either from Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube, or at least from the same cultural touchstones. This is particularly obvious in the third, more standalone episode, where the kids discover that the school is being haunted by a “Midnight Honor Student,” a mysterious entity who cleans up classrooms and wipes the blackboards after hours. He’s sometimes seen standing at the windows, his features shrouded in darkness like the culprits from Detective Conan.

When the kids convince Nube to investigate this spirit, the camera angles are initially arranged to depict only the right-hand side of his face, in profile. Any viewer of the recent DAN DA DAN adaptation will intuit right away that this spirit is haunting one of those anatomy models seen apparently in every Japanese school, the one with skin down only one half of the body, and the musculature and organs visible on the other half. It’s probably something that freaks out most Japanese kids at some point during their educational career.

Nube explains that if objects are well used and loved over many years, then they come to develop their own souls, which isn’t a concept necessarily unique to Japanese culture, there are (slightly more sinister) shades of The Velveteen Rabbit, or The Mouse and His Child here. I can’t help but feel that this anatomy doll spirit wasn’t causing any harm, but Nube confronting him about his true nature causes him to go a little cuckoo, chasing the kids up and down the corridors, wielding broken glass shards to skin his new friends so they can be “just like him.”

Episode three is a particularly macabre and creepy story that’s a lot of fun, especially the twist ending designed to specifically unsettle Japanese schoolkids. Some of its effect is probably lost on adults and folks who attended school in other countries, but I still felt it got its message across in an entertaining fashion. While the animation errs on the simpler side, sometimes struggling to depict the action scenes with a very low frame rate and a lot of recycled frames, the retro look helps to keep the show looking interesting. I love the character designs. Hopefully, the rest of the season will maintain the thoroughly decent quality of this episode, and I look forward to a weekly dose of humor and chills in equal measure.

Episode 1 Rating:



Episode 2 Rating:



Episode 3 Rating:




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

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Dil Nawaz

Dil Nawaz — a writer who breathes life into emotions through words. I find beauty in silence, meaning in longing, and stories in every heartbeat. Writing for me isn’t just passion; it’s a way to connect souls, one feeling at a time.

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