You post your grudge at midnight, and Hell Girl comes to collect. She'll drag whoever hurt you into the pit, but here's the price: your soul goes to Hell when you die, no afterlife, just darkness forever. The show knows most people will pay it anyway, and spends twenty-six episodes watching the exact moment someone decides their revenge is worth damnation, over and over, until you realize you'd probably do the same thing.

At the stroke of midnight, a mysterious website called the Jigoku Tsushin becomes accessible. Enter the name of the person you hold a grudge against, and Ai Enma, the Hell Girl, will pay you a visit. She will send your tormentor's soul to hell. The price: your own soul is bound for the inferno when you eventually die. For some, that cost is too high to accept. For others, the afterlife matters little next to the hell they already live in each day. Very little is known about Ai herself. She lives with her equally enigmatic grandmother, three magical straw dolls accompany and serve her, and she takes up the role of the Hell Girl whenever a request on the site moves her. Stoic and impassive, she carries out her duty of ferrying souls into darkness for anyone who seeks revenge. Atmospheric and morally murky, the story blends horror, mystery and psychological drama around the question of what revenge really costs.