This episode is beyond stupid, even if we ignore the fact that every single person ignores the possibility of the bus company lying (which is stupid in its own right, there should be skeptics) and that they believe the father did it on purpose, then something like this would still never happen.
You cannot tell me that every single person in this city would hold a grudge over a bus incident, the mother and child weren't even responsible for. Yes, people suck, many of them hate others for petty reason, which the show has often demonstrated. In fact many people were sent to hell for stupid reasons. Now while, that's the case and humanity has caused its fair share of tragedies, it's just as naive to think that every single person is evil, as it is that everyone is good.
Sure, the theme of the episode is something along the lines, of that grieving people will always go for the easiest scapegoat to muster their frustration about and that you should look deeper than what propaganda tells you. However, it falls flat at narrative level, since so much plot induced stupidity is required to make it work.
See in earlier cases like with Ai or with the Demon Child, it made sense for the general public to hate them. Ai's backstory happened 400 years ago when people were much more religious, not to mention that years of bad harvests followed her betrayal, which caused the entire community of the village to suffer. It made sense for them to believe that killing her would calm the Mountain God, even if it didn't exist, because they have no reason to believe it doesn't.
When it comes to the boy, then firstly, the family already had bad stigma, due to the neighbor acting as if everyone thought they didn't belong, which likely gaslighted at least a few others. Secondly, it was also very suspicious, that everyone around him began to die or disappear. Again, believable, fear and paranoia makes people stupid.
But when it comes to this case that makes no sense. A bus accident may be tragic, but is nowhere large enough a disaster to cause distain from everyone in the city.
At most about 20 people died or were injured, even if the close relatives and friends hold a grudge, then there are still thousands of people left, who have nothing to do with the accident. There would even be those, who would be unaware of the accident. Not to mention that many, would not be aware of the driver's identity, let alone his family's.
Then there is the fact that hospitals, just refuse the mother? You are telling me that not a single doctor or nurse in this hospital would help them? Or in any other hospital in the city? Even if that's the case there is also the possibility of just going to another city for a check-up.
There is also the convenient conicidence, that neihter parent had any good-hearted friends or familiy members, that would consider the possibility of the media lying or just helping their them anyways. You may argue that they would sully their reputation by taking them in, but asssuming they aren't living in the same city, who would care? You cannot try to make beleive that the entirety of Japan knows about a bus incident and who the family members were.
The fact that they ever consider leaving town by themselves, sure they are poor, but Japan has shelters for homeless people and cares for its unemployed.
So, honestly could something like this happen? Yes, sure, literally anything can happen in theory, but the odds of something like this happening are way below 0.0001%, which makes it basically impossible and hard to take the story at face value.
And yes, this happening is far more unlikely than the supernatural, since that is at least consistent with the established world of Hell Girl.
The point I'm trying to get across with this rant, is that the incident that caused their exlusion from society was far to minor for them to receive that kind of treatment and that the writer should have given a better justification. Something much more severe that would affect the entire population of the town, be it a tragedy or just fear, anything really.
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