When we think of Hell, we generally think of a place that is dead and barren. It might be dark and cold or full of everlasting flames, but nothing lives there. Similarly, when we think of Paradise, we think of a place where everything can live, and live happily, without pain. A place of endless bounty.
Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku twists the two together, with the island of Shinsenkyo. It is full of life, warped and freakish and incredibly dangerous to humans, an inescapable place of horrific death, where the worst and most lingering torment traps one forever in illusory tranquility and happiness. And that’s just the place, not even going into the people.
This place, this island which is Hell’s own “paradise,” is thought to be a place of legend, a Heaven that can be found across the sea, and in which can be found the elixir of eternal life. No one has ever ventured there and returned alive, not until, quite recently, one person washed up on the coast in a boat, not quite dead, their body in strange and horrific condition. Convinced of this place’s reality, and desiring immortality, the emperor sends forth a group of convicted criminals with the promise of a pardon, and skilled executioners alongside them to keep them in line. Either they return with the elixir, and the executioner assigned to them, or they die.
Enter the cast.
Gabimaru, powerful ninja, wields fire ninjutsu, charging into battle wreathed in flames, seems cold and empty, but is determined to survive and get back to his loving, peaceful wife. His executioner: Sagiri, a beautiful woman of fierce determination and skill.
Yuzuriha, a selfish and alluring female ninja, uses potions in a water-based ninjutsu that wields her sweat as a weapon, lies as easily as she breathes and as happily as she laughs. Her executioner: Senta, a smart and learned bookworm who loves art but was forced into his training as an executioner.
They definitely knew what they were doing with Yuzuriha.
Aza Chobei, a rough, greedy and defiant former gang leader of particular brute strength and keen battle instincts. His executioner: Toma, his undercover brother, more a thinker than a fighter but devoted to Chobei, and smart.
Nurugai, a young girl from the wilds, last surviving member of a clan which the emperor wiped out, innocent of any crime except accidentally leading her clan’s enemies to them. Her executioner: Tenza, who intends to protect her and help her escape, and soon gains feelings for her, as she entertains thoughts of marrying him. Also Shion, a blind master swordsman who saved Tenza from his own delinquency at a young age, originally assigned to another convict, a sexy woman who tried seducing him but he cut off her head instead. (seriously, trying to seduce a blind man the same as any other? bad move!)
There are others who come and go – sometimes very quickly, because in an anime like this, everyone is a red shirt – including but not limited to: a masterful swordsman and his executioner, who we don’t know that well yet by the end of the first season but they make an excellent team; a gigantic warrior who went berserk early on and killed several people, including one executioner who wanted to protect Sagiri and get her off this cursed island; various other criminals and executioners whose deaths early on establish the danger of this land and each other.
The only innocent residents left of Shinsenkyo.
As for those who inhabit this island itself, there is a collection of about seven – if I counted right – entities of great power and resilience. They give me strong vibes of the seven homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, as they see humans as nothing more than a resource, they can change forms and take hits like nobody’s business, and they seem to be serving the design of someone who created them in some grand macabre experiment intended to push people towards some kind of warped ascension. But that last bit is somewhat conjecture on my part.
These seven Tensen, as they are called, are served by lower entities, the Doshi, who direct still lower beings, the Soshin, which attack anyone who arrives on the island, that they may be killed or, if they are strong enough, used to create the elixir called Tan. This is the source of the Tensen’s power: they feed on this substance which is extracted from people who are trapped and dying forever, their minds taken over by illusions of happier things which keeps them docile. And as the very foundation for all of this, there used to be a thriving village of people who revered the Tensen as gods, but, one by one, they all died and turned into something like trees, sacrificed for their reverence, until now, when there is only one left. Just one, who looks after a little girl, Mei, who seems to be something like a Tensen in rebellion.
If all of this sounds a bit intense, one may rest assured… it is. Intense, graphic, and brutal.
There is blood and pain and death and gore and terror and screaming and yet more, and it’s all a very intense ride. One which has only begun with a first season, and I have no idea if they’re making a second. If they do, there will surely be yet more disquieting secrets to be revealed and overwhelming enemies to conquer if the humans – any of them – are going to survive and escape this paradisiacal Hell. Suffice to say, I will be rooting for their win, and hoping that any who manage to get that far are able to make it back home without it all coming apart in ugly betrayal at the very end.
I look forward to this!
There are some things which thus far leave me a bit dissatisfied, such as how the story has Gabimaru progress as a character through the first season (and lingers on it enough times to take up more runtime than is really necessary), and then undoes it all right at the very end. Or how the power system seems to be one of controlling one’s spirit and using it destroys one’s body or even one’s mind for some strange reason. But these are qualms with the narrative and how they tell it, rather than qualms with the quality of the anime.
All in all, I’d be very interested in seeing the conclusion of this story, especially in seeing whether it is ultimately a tragedy or a triumph. That’s not bad, not bad at all.
Rating: I’ll give Hell’s Paradise a provisional rating of 7 stars out of 10, subtracting a bit for the more graphic and disturbing content.
Grade: C-Plus.
