The current anime season has turned out to be an outstanding one, offering something for every fan. Super relaxing romance stories like The Dangers In My Heart and Yamada Lv 999. An exciting girl’s love story with a big plot twist. The most WTF take on idol anime ever with Oshi no Ko. We’re also getting one of the boldest and most gorgeous shounen genre anime in years with Jigokuraku, aka Hell’s Paradise. Let’s take a look at this amazing show!
What’s the Story of Hell’s Paradise?
Gabimaru the Hollow is a ninja who’s been sentenced to death, but there’s just one problem: his seemingly indestructible body can’t be killed. His one goal is to get back to his wife, but in order to do this he must travel to a mysterious island known as Shinsenkyo along with several other convicts and bring back the Elixir of Life for the Shogun. Along with his captor Sagiri, a master swordswoman of the Yamada Asaemon family of executioners, Gabimaru will fight all manner of bizarre creatures on the island, as well as his fellow convicts.
While the core of the story is action and fighting, the unique thing that Hell’s Paradise brings to the table is incredibly complex characters. Each of the death row criminals is paired with an executioner who must watch over them, and this leads to some interesting dynamics between each group of characters as the story unfolds. Though if you find a character you like, you might not want to get too attached to them, as this show is basically Battle Royale with samurai swords.
The rich visual world that we find on the island is something that’s never been captured quite like this before. The visuals from the great animation studio Mappa are so good, I feel I’d be watching the show even if the story and characters weren’t so compelling. The range of bizarre things Hell’s Paradise shows us in each episode is over 9000.
The characters come in two varieties: gorgeously drawn and animated, and the weirdest things you’ve ever seen in your life, like fish-shaped demons with human limbs and Buddhist prayer beads.
What about Peter’s CGI Hate-o-Meter? I’m happy to report the show takes zero shortcuts with poor-quality CGI animation, unlike Chainsaw Man.
Why I Don’t Like Shonen Anime
If you follow the stream of consciousness that is the J-List Twitter feed, you might notice I rarely post about shonen genre anime like One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto or Jujutsu Kaisen. Some reasons why I generally avoid this genre include:
- The core element of shonen anime is built around fighting scenes which can quickly become repetitive.
- Many of these shows have hundreds of episodes, and One Piece currently has 1,063 episodes. Clearly my time is better served searching for some crazy new shin’ya anime to share with J-List customers instead.
- Shonen anime can be great “doorway” shows that allow fans to discover some of the best storytelling Japan has to offer. Sadly many fans never step through the door to discover incredible works like Made in Abyss or Vinland Saga.
- While there’s a time and a place for overpowered anime characters, usually I want more nuance in my anime.
- Another reason is business: since J-List is a shop that needs to sell products to survive, it’s natural that I’d try to follow compelling anime that are more current and might get figures or sexy parody doujinshi.
Is Hell’s Paradise in the Shonen Genre?
But is Hell’s Paradise part of the shounen genre? Googling around the Internet, I see people arguing that it’s more in the seinen, aimed at older fans who want more complex stories.
While fans will always debate these things, in the end Jikokuraku: Hell’s Paradise is published on the Shonen Jump+ online manga platform, and if shonen is in the name, that generally puts it in that genre.
Thanks for reading this blog post about the Hell’s Paradise anime. Are you watching the show? Tell us in the comments below!
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