The Edo period is nearing its end. Gabimaru, a shinobi formerly known as the strongest in Iwagakure
who is now a death row convict, is told that he will be acquitted and set free if he can bring back
the Elixir of Life from an island that is rumored to be the Buddhist pure land Sukhavati. In hopes of
reuniting with his beloved wife, Gabimaru heads to the island along with the executioner Yamada
Asaemon Sagiri. Upon arriving there, they encounter other death row convicts in search of the Elixir
of Life... as well as a host of unknown creatures, eerie manmade statues, and the hermits who rule the
island. Can Gabimaru find the Elixir of Life on this mysterious island and make it back home
alive?
(Source: Crunchyroll)
____I believe that while as dark as Jigokuraku is, it is a more refreshing title to hit Shonen.____ Chainsaw Man and JJK are definitely outclassing the latter, but I believe that Jigo has found a way to stamp itself into the culture within it's own niche. Firstly, I will talk about the negatives, or rather, __observations__ I made when watching and reading. To start, I believe that there were noticeable inconsistencies with the animation. Mappa is definitely able to produce quality, but I just feel like sometimes they fall short on the times that it is really supposed to count. There were times where I was invested and really ready to see how certain scenario's turned out. But then would lose that build up due to the direction or the animation of the scene being mediocre. Off screen deaths and fights towards the beginning did not help the case either. I understand pacing and everything but even if the fight is quick, allow me the ability to at least invest further into their conflicts. I want to point out that I don't think the animation was completely terrible. Just lacking in places that I believe needed that extra punch of budget to send home the craziness that was happening around them. The STYLE of the animation is actually some really good. But the consistency through and through did not deliver justice. I want to first start off with Characters. To me, Gabimaru isn't anything extremely extraordinary. I do believe however, that he is a team pillar when it comes to the group. His character development came from being around the other criminals and executioners. And it's during this time and when he is with him does he shine the most. Reckless as he is, it was important that they showed him in a neutral light of being one of the strongest yes, but still not being able to do everything by himself. Sagirin is a powerhouse when she wants to be, and I think she was the heart of everyone. It was her who held everyone together, even when she did not have the means to have the most positive outlook herself. Bearing certain things so that others wouldn't have to. I like the relationship that she had built with the group but specifically with Gabimaru and Yuzuriha. She was able to break both of them out of their shells, and yank out the true nature of who they were. I am also glad that there was no hints or nudges at a non-platonic friendship between Sagirin and Gabimaru, but more of a strong friendship built through trials and tribulations, that rewarded them with trust and respect. The story is very refreshing. Nowadays its all about hacks, and who can obliterate who with whatever world destroying level attack they have tucked in their sleeve. I like that this was more laid back and a mystery more than anything else. That nobody was completely stronger than the other. And there wasn't an instance of them leveling mountains just because. Following more of the story and using that as the investment for going along is where I think Jigo shines. It's not eye candy 24/7 and that's okay. With how they made the Tensen seem godly, and the feeling of being helpless, the realism behind the reactions people would have to such beings. The surroundings of the island, and the disturbing nature of literally everything on it. You knew as much as the characters knew. And it was good, because it made me curious and curiosity is what carried me into the end of Jigo. I recommend this anime if someone wants a more laid back experience. With somewhat inclusive knowledge on Japanese religion and traditions, it makes for a nice story to sit back and watch. getting intrigued the more they decide to explain things. It's got some depth, so if that's your thing I recommend you to check Jigokuraku out.
July 1st, 2023, a truly noteworthy date. This day ought to be more celebrated than the American holiday that it precedes. This atrocity finishing is much more momentous an occasion than the ratification of the declaration of independence. With Hell’s Paradise, MAPPA subjected all anime fans to worse than anything Britain could muster. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, Hell’s Paradise fucking sucks. Everything about it was soulless or lazy, the characters are bad, the narrative is bad, the animation and directing is decent at best, and the dialogue is absolutely abyssal. Each character is a surface-level cardboard cutout of an archetype, and none receive any meaningful development. Gabimaru the so-called hollow’s greatest feat as a shinobi is convincing fans that he is a deep and complex character by cramming down his love for his wife down the audience’s throat. He is a broken record of a character that knows two sayings, “I love my wife” and “I am hollow” (coping). Besides this master of illusions, the rest of the cast is blatantly one-sided in terms of characterization and development, no character really worth mentioning has emerged from the entire show. With how bad the main cast is, its pretty surprising that the show managed to churn out even worse antagonists; they are terribly uninteresting in everything they do, they aren’t charismatic, they aren’t compelling, they aren’t complex, and the greatest offense is that all of them have terrible designs. The story is similarly uninteresting, from its bland plot to its lazily crafted mystery, not one bit of it is good. The premise is fairly simple and not too complex, and already unoriginal as it and the characters are loosely based on pre-existing historical and mythological figures and narratives. It doesn’t try to say anything new with these concepts unlike other series that incorporate these aspects better. In Hell’s Paradise, these aspects are simply just there, and not expanded on in any meaningful way. This is also done with the incorporation of Asian schools of thoughts like Daoism, as well as other concepts like reincarnation, these aspects are also not fleshed out or expanded on in any meaningful way, yet their presence gives off the illusion of depth. Their presence instead of adding anything of import to the series really just detracts from it, because it all comes off as pretentious and shallow. The production value of the show is mediocre, not much to critique but I don’t think that there is terribly much to praise, either. The art style is pleasant, the animation is decent, but those positives are slightly detracted from because of the directing. A lot of potential in action scenes are squandered by misplaced flashbacks and exposition, or just cutting the action sequence entirely. While being passable in this regard, it sadly cannot boast the title of “carried by animation” like demon slayer, which actually somewhat makes up for its lackluster story with good visuals. To make matters worse, Hell’s Paradise also falls into the typical shounen pitfall of sexism. Each female character in the cast is almost constantly being sexualized, seduced, or saved by a male character. Despite its blatant sexism, the series attempts to include a character arc of Sagiri breaking gender norms. The reason I say attempt is because nothing really resulted from it. The sexist character literally had to die to admit he may have been wrong about women not being able to fight, and after that scene, nothing changed. Sagiri went back to being the same character she was before, the lasting impact of it wasn’t that great, and it didn’t have any impact on other characters or their perceptions, so it feels pointless and ham-fisted. The lazy writing, bad characters, pretentious nature, and sexism of Hell’s Paradise are all perfectly packaged together with its exceedingly overhyped protagonist, Gabimaru the Shallow, to create the ultimate 2/10 anime.
First of all, a quick writer’s note, as I’m writing this, it is June 30th, and it’s late at night, and I’ll be heading to bed right after I write this. The final episode of *Hell’s Paradise* airs in around nine to ten hours, and I’m just starting on my review. I did this intentionally though, to imitate a MAPPA style of production, rushing and submitting the work just a bit before it’s due to see how poorly this review will turn out. Studio MAPPA has been known for taking on big name action or shounen titles as of late, with the likes of *Jujutsu Kaisen*, *Attack On Titan*, *Chainsaw Man*, *Vinland Saga*, and now *Hell’s Paradise*. They've taken on so much that they have become a popular name amongst anime fans. While their shows generally look decent, it is clear that because they’ve taken on so much, their production schedule has been a literal hell, with very overworked staff, and poor working conditions. Of course, I’m sure many other studios experience these kinds of things too, but MAPPA has been brought into the limelight due to how many popular titles they’ve done recently. Clearly, *Hell’s Paradise* was not their favourite child, as this show looked considerably worse visually than their other shows. But before we get to all the production things, let’s talk about the story. On paper, this looks like a somewhat generic action shounen, with a death convict in Gabimaru being tasked, along with the rest of the death row convicts to find the “Elixir of Life” on an island called Shinsekyo, in order to escape their death sentence. Obviously, the convicts fight amongst each other, as only one can have this elixir to evade death. This island looked very interesting and colourful, with some scary creatures around them, all around a very intriguing, perhaps a unique setting. However, what this anime fails at is the most important narrative technique, which is “Show, don’t tell”. Time and time again, we are told about what this environment is like, the religion aspects, the creatures, how the world works, but we don’t really get enough showing of the environment itself, either through simple background shots, or just cutting back on the expository dialogue. There is no need to spoon-feed the viewers every single narrative detail about what is going on, people can figure things out. There was solid potential in what the environment could bring us, but I wasn’t really invested due to the overly saturated dialogue. The characters felt interesting at first, but slowly also devolved into being rather gimmicky or generic. Gabimaru is the typical protagonist who starts out cold but ends up warming up to people and becomes more kind. For the female characters, there is a sense of empowerment that they were trying to go for, especially with Sagiri looking to escape gender norms and become a samurai, instead of the “norms” that this anime instills upon women. While on its own this would be a cool concept, the fact that all the female characters were so sexualized, and somehow getting saved via princess carry, defying all logic of physics by the men just felt a bit hypocritical to the potential message the show was trying to convey. Furthermore, people died before we could even really have a chance to know them, and adding a sad backstory to try and make us feel emotions just felt like such a weak way for characterizing them. At least the backstories weren’t too saturated after the first few episodes. From a production standpoint, the show looks fine, but disappointing by MAPPA’s standards. Some of the fight scenes were genuinely very decent and tense, but the other moments of the show had this very weird filter where the characters didn’t really “fit in” with the background art. The compositing was awful at some points, and characters went off model a lot. It was clearly the product of rushed production, as most episodes were outsourced to between ten and twenty different anime studios and animation directors, which signalled how poor the production schedule was. It more or less just felt like MAPPA gathering up all their buddies to finish their homework just as the teacher was coming to collect it every week. This might feel a bit harsh and nitpicky, but if we’re comparing it to other MAPPA works, this is probably one of their worst productions, but from a wider perspective outside of MAPPA, the show looks average to fine visually. Overall, there is decent entertainment value to be seen here, but it could have been so much better with more time spent on production, and more showing instead of telling. This will undoubtedly get more seasons, so I just hope the next time this show comes around, it’ll be a much improved product compared to what we got this time around. MAPPA, you just got to chill with the amount of projects you got.
Jigokuraku is the newest member of MAPPA’s line of adaptations of Shonen Jump titles, and just like the previous two, this one is garbage. What I had heard from Jigokuraku before made me afraid, after all, I hear it being compared to Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man which is an immediate red flag, but I know some people recommend some series over the most superficial reasons, so maybe, this one won’t be actually that similar to those, maybe this one will be good right? Well, the answer is sadly no, I cannot even say I’m disappointed because I’m not, it turned out to be exactly as to what came to my mind the second I hear it was compared to those series. The very first episode is already dumb, when the MCs changes his character abruptly by something he should have obviously known before, as you see Gabimaru started completely willing to die but no one could kill them because their methods were obviously bad, suddenly when the girl Sagiri talks a little to him he remembers that he has a wife and now wants to live. I don’t know if Gabimaru is dumb or simply has dreadful memory because the instant he remembered she existed he turned very differently from how he was introduced as if his wife suddenly materialized instead of her existing beforehand. And with that said, everything from Gabimaru is terrible he is the most OP character, so there is no tension when he fights, he won’t get stronger or develop because he is already the strongest and already has a clear goal in mind and his “development” was remembering his wife on the first episode. There some shinobi rules as well that he has to follow, but some of them are broken as much as they are said, stuff like “never get into a fight with an unknown enemy” is broken every single time, because he is in a completely unknown island. Sagiri is a person a girl executioner with a great fear of killing people and wants to achieve the same painless killing method her father could pull off, which is so painless that can cut the head of someone and that head would continue talking because the person didn’t realize they died or something, she gets subjected to people looking down on her for being a girl d that she clearly isn’t fit for the role of executioner, and while that is true, she tries to prove she has some worth, she is probably the only character that I can barely care what her development may be even if it will be pretty obvious and her personality is extremely uninteresting, sadly, she gets easily sidelined by the amount of characters introduced later so we are far off of seeing her actually achieving anything. This suffers the same syndrome these edgy series have always suffered, it kills character left and right without giving me a reason to care about them, this series killed so many of its characters in so many dumb ways and so quickly that I cannot remember their names. And sometimes when it wants me to care about them it gives them flashbacks the very second they are dying as if I was watching Kimetsu no Yaiba or something to tell me their whole story to feel bad for their deaths, but I don’t, because they are cardboard cutouts without much if any character whatsoever that talk like robots, I could only laugh after the death of a certain character because it came out exactly as I’m describing it. Characters not named Sagiri and Gabimaru are even more empty, Yuzuriha is literally just there doing nothing, deciding to not go into most of the fights and her ability which covers her in definitely-not-cum is made as if I’m watching some ecchi anime where it is trying to make me think the slimy white liquid she is covered in is cum. There are two edgy brothers, one more edgy than the other and when more edgy they have less character. I honestly cannot care to mention some of them, I remember more this character that was hyped in episode 2 just to die stupidly by the next episode, he didn’t get a flashback at least. There is this energy called Tao that some people within the island aled Tensen can use t and that makes them extremely powerful and unkillable and these unkillable person that can use it, they are what you can call the main villains, due to their Taos they are stronger than everyone and no one can face them in a battle, except Gabimaru, of course. And when the time comes where a little group of selected characters survive the dumb killings from the first part, they discover the way to fight the unkillable enemies they were facing because they just bullshited their way to their new powers unlocking Tao, and lacks a basic consistent power system that most action shonen series have. And I’m not impressed, what should I be impressed here anyways? I mean, I guess the body horror where people are turned into flowers is not so commonly seen? But I guess that’s the best things I can give credit for. I hope I can see MAPPA doing a good looking or even well animated show again, because I haven’t seen them doing it in years. Jigokuraku looks unsurprisingly ugly, it has the absolutely dreadful and soulless MAPPA’s filter just like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man which immediately makes it visually appalling, it is also subjected to obviously bad animation having no impact on any of their actions outside of fights, janky movements, bad compositing, ugly backgrounds, even fights don’t look that good either, they are extremely lackluster even for MAPPA standards, it is just my usual MAPPA’s animation complain that they haven’t managed to get over. What was I expecting? Probably a series that is entertaining to watch, sadly Jigokuraku is as uninteresting as they come, it is just another ugly edgy schlock that MAPPA vomited out just like Chainsaw Man was and just like the next season of Jujutsu Kaisen will surely be. Thank you for reading.
Hell's Paradise sets the stage for a treacherous journey by explaining the processes of beheading. Meanwhile, an executioner struggles to decapitate the main character with a sword—Gabimaru, a seemingly invincible boy who just wants to die. What follows is a montage of failed attempts to execute him. He explains his history, motivations, and flaws to a stranger who randomly interviews him in prison. Almost all the information we learn about the protagonist is delivered lazily through forced exposition. Whether narration in non-diegetic form, flashbacks, or characters uttering their backstory, it's all forced. The quiet and enigmatic protagonist shows us his 'ninjutsu,' a superpower fighting technique that unleashes flames. Gabimaru and many other criminals have been sent to a monster-infested island to find the "elixir of life." Upon achieving their goal, the nation would pardon their crimes. Every criminal has an executioner to monitor them. Gabimaru’s is Sagiri. She is a blank slate, a hard-working, disciplined rule follower known as an Asaemon. Sagiri's internal monologue spoon-feeds Gabimaru's character development. If they want us to understand how emotionless yet emotional he is, she will tell us painstakingly. Let's just say neither of them will make any "Best Character of the Year'' lists. It's not only Sagiri, either. Half of the screen time is devoted to people dumping exposition onto one another or, worse, the viewers. For an anime with such mature content, it treats us like children! We can handle visual storytelling, natural dialogue, and context clues. Is that asking for too much? Aside from its overly literal nature, the script is blander than an unseasoned boiled chicken breast. I like humor, wit, charm, irony, sarcasm, or flavor. There's none here! If there's one thing Hell's Paradise does better than its contemporaries, it's how it doesn't waste too much time on world-building. It keeps its terms comprehensive. The monsters on the island are just called monsters. The energy that monsters harness to fight is called Tao. Ninjutsu, basically ninja superpowers—all pretty basic stuff. Aside from the Mcguffin storyline, I didn't care about the generic world. It's an exciting anime for the violent death island and increasingly grotesque monsters. There's some lore behind how the monsters came to be, but it's mostly an excuse for big bug battles and giant killer statues. Body horror lovers won't be disappointed. The most challenging enemies heroes encounter are the Tensen—seemingly immortal flower/human hybrids. The Tensen control the island's monsters and use Tao to slice and dice human trespassers. Early in the series, the writers establish that cutting off a Tensen's heads doesn't kill them, yet no one seems to share this information, leading to predictable outcomes. One of the side characters chops off a Tensen's head, then it regrows, and now they're disadvantaged. Marvelous, what else do you have for us? Hell's Paradise embraces a recurring theme of women's empowerment. A significant moment occurs when one of Sagari's superiors tries to belittle her by suggesting her weakness as a woman. He also urges her to leave the island. However, Sagiri courageously stands her ground, and it is refreshing to see the show firmly supporting her stance. As one of the few female Asaemon, she must demonstrate her combat prowess to silence misogynistic criticism. There are other female characters in the anime, and the overall portrayal can be deemed feminist in its approach. Caring about Hell's Paradise characters could be an Olympic sport. After a few minutes of development, the series dispatches them so quickly that you may wonder what's the point. The supporting character development resembles Demon Slayer's worst aspect—they develop right before dying. Usually in the form of a badly-timed flashback meant to make you pity or sympathize with the short-lived fighter. This first season offers plenty of unique faces with likable personalities. It's a shame it's over right before you get to know them. Thankfully, they don't do this with the Tensen monsters. Flashbacks work in moderation, but their overuse here looks like lazy writing. The series' only alternative to quick flashbacks is inserting a character whose sole purpose is to spew background information. Like Sagiri, random people will appear just when we need to hear about the person's life story. You'd have to be blind not to see the played-out formula. Speaking of played out, it's no surprise the production is mediocre. As the compositing shows, Hell's Paradise was a less significant production for MAPPA. Whether their productions will come out well is a coin flip. One of the problems is overexposed art and excessive brightness—this results in a loss of detail and a washed-out appearance like a low-budget anime. Additionally, the characters seem alien to their surroundings due to a significant disparity between the background art and characters. Instead of seamlessly integrating the characters into the environment, it looks like stickers haphazardly placed on wallpaper. The issue is made worse by slow fights. Combat constantly pauses for flashbacks, basic observations, or monologues. The battles aren't particularly well choreographed, relying on wild camera movements and close-ups to avoid animation. It's a lot of build-up for a fight that ends up being lame. Hell's Paradise falls short in many aspects, especially character development, scriptwriting, and art. The forced exposition and dependence on flashbacks hinder the story's natural progression, leaving little room for viewers to form a genuine connection with the characters. The lack of humor, wit, and charm further detracts from the overall enjoyment of the anime. However, the series succeeds in concise world-building and delivers on the promise of violent battles and grotesque monsters. The body horror elements and the Tensen enemies provide genuine excitement. Hell's Paradise deserves credit for highlighting the strength and determination of the female deuteragonist, Sagiri. Hell's Paradise falls short in production quality and writing competence, resulting in an irritating sense of disappointment.
__This review contains spoilers. Proceed at your own discretion.__ Hell’s Paradise was fun. I think the negatives are pretty obvious: The show looks rough, and is also rough on delivery on some things it wants to tell, such as how differently Sagiri is treated because she’s a woman. The pacing is also not the best all the time and struggles to balance characterization, action sequences and lore dumps. And I think I don’t need to talk much about the production issues behind the scenes because they’re glaringly obvious, with drawings being constantly off-model, which creates together with an already dull aesthetic not an impressive visual look. However, Hell’s Paradise was still fun. I like the power system and some ideas such as balancing the extremes and finding the right middle. I like how it plays a lot with life and death (by also literally having some characters die, but it also plays into the power system and the idea of immortality). img(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtNPlnxWIAExYkX?format=jpg&name=900x900) The characters also grew on me. Gabimaru and Sagiri are a solid pair of main characters, boasting both pretty nice character progression arcs caused by the other, while also being likable with their personality and backstory which makes it easy to sympathize and root for them. I especially like Gabimaru’s character arc of realizing being “soft” is not weak at all, but I also liked how Sagiri learns to confront death and the act of killing and gains a personal motivation apart from just following orders. The series also devotes a good amount of time on the side cast, and it mostly succeeds at doing so, even if the character is only explored to be killed off soon. With Tenza and Senta there are two deaths which were highly focused on and both of them worked well for me and managed to give the series more emotional gravitas. And yes, a lot of times this series is very on-the-nose with its storytelling but it's not that bad that it ruins the experience for me, it still works overall. The story as a whole feels more streamlined and more focused on the themes, the characters, and the story, instead of just the fights and creating adrenaline by making protagonists and antagonists stronger and stronger, so story-wise it’s also much more interesting. I’m definitely interested to see how it will continue. And even with the production-issues, the direction in this season is good. The fights and emotional moments were well-executed, proper staging and the soundtrack were able to create intensity and immersion despite the lack of animation and drawing quality. It probably wasn’t able to please manga readers despite that though, because it probably didn’t manage to exceed its source material but as an anime-only I had a good time. I do hope that the 2nd season will have a better schedule though, because this is not sustainable by any means, of course. img(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtxrG5rX0AE-_QN?format=jpg&name=900x900)
Since the beginning, the idea sounds interesting and make us excited to know more about the Elixir of Life. When they go to the island, the place and the creatures there are the best parts of the show visually speaking. The beautiful landscape mixed with bizarre creatures and blood is pleasent to see. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ___edgy___ or a Mirai Nikki lover, but it's cool to see these contrasts. By the way, talking about edgy things, the protagonist SUCKS. His motivation (seeing his wife) is cool but... it's just that. Being emotionless, serious all the time and overpower isn't cool, it just makes him boring. The other main characters are also nice, specially Sagiri with her trying to surpass the prejudice she suffers. I specially have good expectations for Nurugai, her moments with Tenza made them a good duo and would be good to see her growing up to as a kouhai of Shion. Until the end of the show, Yuzuriha was there just to be used as ~~rule34~~ material, but her last moments with Senta got me. Gantetsusai is probably is one of the duller prisoners and I hope he dies in the begining of the second season. In addition to the main characters, I enjoyed the background of the other characters. Even though some of them will just die soon, knowing their stories gives a reason for them being there, they're not just random characters used to die or to make the story continue. Tenza and Rokurota backgrounds are particularly my favorites. The power system of Jigokuraku, Tao, together with gurus, is also cool. The gurus themselves are not the best, they seem to be there only because the anime need villains, they all look the same and with no proposal or something that makes them stand out for each other. Also, Gabimaru, _the edgy_, learning how to use Tao almost instantly is pretty annoying. Wasn't him already OP enough? Anyway... Just like the landscapes and monsters of the island, the fights are pleasant to watch, mainly Gabimaru flames. And since I got into this topic of "pleasant to watch", MAPPA does a good work during the 13 episodes. It's not awesome and it's not terrible, it's just good. In addition of that, the soundtrack isn't memorable, it's just OK. It's far from being perfect, this first season isn't enough to tell if Jigokuraku is a good story, but talking only about this season, it has potential to be better in the future. The fanservice parts are unnecessary (as always) and there are some other bad characters (I mean... despite his cool backstory, Aza is terrible. Just another generic character with the worst design of the series). To summarize, the problems are obvious, but you can have some fun watching this.
Have you considered death or made a life decision that may cost you everything? This is what the Hell's Paradise is about. Gabumaru does not remember why he is in prison and wants to die, but he can't for an unknown reason. So he was being executed by an elite executioner Sagirl Asaemon. Then, an invitation was given to Gabumaru to be pardoned if he headed to an island for the elixir of life to be delivered to the Shougen, and he suddenly realized that he wanted to be alive for his wife. So his journey begins. Hell's Paradise is a masterpiece in spring anime. Animation (8/15): The quality of the animation is above average at best because of production issues that are being overcrowded with many productions in Mappa's Studio A. But still manages to give out a great product in the end. The fluid walking and the fast past look very decent when shown. Although in earlier episodes and a little later, many black scenes seemly ruin the scene's pacing slightly. At least we can imagine what could have been there for bloody scenes mounted for a mature audience. While the black screens may ruin the background, like when Gabumaru beats other executions to show Sagirl his powers of being a Shinobi all offscreen. Although expressions are diverse from character to character and angles, shots are superb when watching, like in the fight scenes such as Shion verse Mu Dan where Shion was going to stab Mu Dan (one of the Tensen, an immortal group that makes exile of life). The angles are shown by Shion and Mu Dan's Kishikai state. This fight is one of the best angles in the show, such as a top view and a side view of what is happening in the battle. In short, despite some black screens here and there, the fight scenes and expressions are well choreographed. Audio (8/10): The sound hits perfectly with the show's scenes, such as when we encounter the Tensen, it is a sound that holds a mystery with some religious influences giving out that immortal vibe. Along with the opening, not just slaps in animation. The audio and lyrics match the show's overall story and themes. The audio should have been added to some scenes when it was too quiet. Otherwise, the audio may be less, but it is a decent opener with good attention to detail. Characters (15/20): The characters may seem stereotypical or one-sided in the first seconds introduced. But later on, there are multi-layered and complex people with flaws and determination to get back. Such as Gabuamaru to see his wife for one more time. Sagirl seems like the stereotypical shy and weak kid but is part of an elite family. But she is a caring and determined person to get out of the island and admires Gabumaru for being nonchalant about death when she fears it. All the characters, in general, are relatable and have personality traits that give out different vibes with every interaction. In summary, the characters seem dull but are very compelling and relatable. Story (12/20): We follow Gabumaru trying to be executed, but it fails every time, to the shock of everyone. Whoever he is being executed fires, is hit by a bull, and decapitation. So the executors sent by the shogun, one of their elites Sagirl Asaemon do not perform him but pardon him if he gets the elixir of life in Shinsekyo, sometimes refer as "paradise and heaven." It split after episode 6 into three stories plot, following Gabumaru and a few asaemon with finding a girl named Mei. Along with Sagirl with Senta and Yuzuriha to find out about the immortal Tensein. And a little subplot focuses on the brothers' Aza and Touma's journey on the island. All these plots felt equal. There could have been more of Aza and Touma, with a bit of Gabumaru more fleshed out in the story. Although there were all enjoyable in their own right. All plots are equal time despite some needing more screen time. Overall (4/5): This anime is enjoyable despite what people said about productions and its haters. This show delivered one of the most complex characters and plot lines ever seen in anime. Along with having a diverse cast and, in the end, getting hype for the next season. By visiting a strange man asking him to go to the island for unknown reasons, and being willing to take the offer from someone. Give this show a chance, and un-follow any of the haters until the show is being watched. Thanks for reading! PS Don't listing to the Mappa haters till you see it yourself.
I have read Jigokuraku manga right before Mappa announced that they will adapt it into anime. I was so happy since they did a good job with plenty of manga before. I was thinking "oh this one gonna be lit as hell" and I can't stop put a high expectation on them. Even when I watched the opening, I came to realize maybe Jigokuraku has find a good studio. One and two of the early episodes, honestly, I liked it very much and didn't see anything wrong about it. It's quite enjoyable and I can tolerate some animation bug. But then I could feel that they ran into some problems about the deadline date (?) and how they couldn't maintain a neat animation. I never dropped this anime, never, since I really love Jigokuraku and I wanna see how they will improve in the coming weeks. Luckily, in the last two episode, they actually improved a lot and the last fight scene was soooo amazing. Personally, I am quite disappointed in those terms of production, but there are lot of good things I could find in this season. The character design is exquisite especially for Lord Tensen and of course the one and only Yuzuriha of Keishu, she is so beautiful like ... geez come on, she's such a goddess, isn't she? They did a good job on her so thank you very much. I love how they add Tenza and Shion story background from light novel to bulid a good emotion for Tenza's pride to protect his teacher and Nurugai. Since we only know Tenza for 2 episodes before uh... yeah, I think that was fair from Mappa to highlight his life and his interaction with Shion. I can't argue with it and absolutely love that genius idea. Then I wanna appreciate a very good voice acting from Sagiri since she represents "neither intensity nor tranquility". Sagiri voice sounds like ... soft and commanding (?) to me, and it was so beautiful. Tensen switch voicing also very interesting and I love the way they put a creepy voice from Suwabe-san which has given a pretty badass villain vibes of the series. But again, as a manga reader, sadly I didn't have the same vibes when I watched the anime adaptation. Some scenes felt like they made it in short deadline, even funny punchlines from Shion sounds cringe even though it made me laugh when I read the manga. I don't know what happened (maybe because the directing?) but at least for anime onlies it will be enjoyable to watch. I recommend to watch the anime first, then you can read the manga for better experience. Yeah, maybe they could have done better with this first season, but it is what it is. Still kudos to Mappa and thank you for the hard work, and hopefully they will improve in the next season. As a Jigokuraku fan, of course I am still looking forward for the second season :")
__Overview: __ Immortality is something that every person from no power up through a high ranking position tend to strive a dream to achieve. Immortality to continue their admirations through to the end and beyond. However the way of achieving immortality is always an illusive reaching dream that has never been reached. Only seen and heard about in legends. One such legend is that the source of becoming immortal is found on an island of unimaginable fears. A place of true hell that any who have visited have never been able to return from in their natural state. With only recorded and seen visuals of those who have returned, in such a state that is not unlike anything human. The Shougun however, does not care of the obstacles that are in the way. With the looming possibility of becoming an immortal, he gathers up the strongest available. Gathering them is the easy task of grouping the outlaws and criminals with sentences that are inescapable until death. Their promise of freedom is the reward they will receive upon finding and bringing back the item that will make the Shougun immortal. It seems to be a fair deal, except there are only a certain number of spaces available to be shuttled over to this island of hell. When all the criminals are done killing eachother with only the strongest remaining that meet the total requirement to not overflow the slots. There is another that is tagged along with them. Elites that are trained and specialize in executions. For if any of these chosen criminals are to break free or try to escape, they shall be executed without thought on the spot. It is a mutual agreement of peace that both *partners* will share on this adventure. Once on the island, it is clear that nothing is as the picture book would have shown. Their imagination couldn’t comprehend without first being a first hand man on the ground. A place of seeming wonder, untouched by anybody else. An adventurous land that will soon show its true color. Shortly after the search begins, death reigns upon them as unidentified and mysterious creatures gang these visitors who have come to this foreign land. Many die in the process while only a select few are strong enough to outwit this lands challenges. Delving deeper to the forests core, learning more as they go. Some encountering what would appear to be inhabitants that are willing to express their knowledge of the land. With certain points slowly unfolding and a callback to yin/yang and the truth of the immortality legend being expanded upon to them. Where its more of a fma philosophers stone than anything else. Further sealing the fate that will come to those who enter the island. None escape yet a true cycle of life is funded for those who are for lack of better words one with the figurative philosophers stone that the island hosts. Wrapping up the season with those who are directly connected to said stone above, fighting and furthering those who are left. With the remaining few grasping onto a higher power that was latent inside every living thing. Only now able to begin to realize how to utilize it. Natures Chi to be simple, the flow and motion of the ocean… not that ocean though :mrclean:. __Visuals/Music: __ Visuals are quite simple, it is a MAPPA production and they have a low bar of peak animation. Be it CGI incorporation or just raw dog 2d from start to end. Their animation is top notch with little criticism to say. Vibrant colors, smooth animation, clear expressions of characters faces and emotion. All the goods with only problem being, there is only a single season. From the water to the clouds and background landscapes, its all done quite well. Not movie esque, moreso high quality for seasonal. It’s a joy to look at and enjoy watching. Similar to animation, MAPPA doesn’t disappoint when it comes to music either. Entire OST is packed with unique and engaging soundtracks that suit the mood and feelings of each scene. Bundled with the ending and openings being ones that are listened through before having a chance to skip… very easy to say the viewer is immersed enough to breeze through only skipping the preview for the next episode. __Final Thoughts: __ Highly recommend Hells paradise to any that are wanting a unique experience that is different from any of the generic trends. Main problems would be that the shounen genre does have its head poking through with a breaking of suspension of disbelief through how much damage the character takes. Certain fights could have been planned out better for how the enemy is defeated. At a certain point the character should just be mincemeat dead, yet now has a stronger attack than before… shounen genre though so have to keep within the previously set bars and standards that are from the genre. That’s part of what the story is going to have, a fall and great powerup to not fall. I would say that is the weakest point of the series. However, the fights are animated and executed animation wise with choreography that counters such points to a degree that its more than bearable. Overall it really does not detract from the show, more of something to be aware of. Final note is while Yuzuriha is a girl, best girl is still Sagiri hehe. It was a tossup and depending on the mood swings either direction. Sagiri more of the keeper rather than lets get fucked up and make use of my bodily ~~ooze~~ one :D lol. Basically Sagiri cleaner, proper and more of the have a nice convo with, but again a feisty mood is something you cant go wrong with either, just all depends. Characters (main) – 4/5 Characters (sub) – 4/5 Enjoyment – 4/5 Visuals – 5/5 Music – 5/5 Story – 4/5 ```Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 86%```
After some months of thought, it finally clicked with me why I was super duper lukewarm on this anime. Jigokuraku has potential indeed but it's the little details that build up by the end of the season and bog down into an anime that is not bad or good, just middling. Story- Credit where it's due, this anime does accomplish a lot in its first season. Like the characters are already introduced to the villains, the power systems, and the history of the setting and I feel like the anime would be perfectly paced if it wrapped up in season 2. Jigokuraku has an amazing setting, an island full of plants, bugs, and weird kyojin people made where everything can kill you. One thing I love is how the island and its history are really shrouded in mystery and bits of information are revealed throughout. Unfortunately, this isn't made in Abyss or anything so the setting didn't play much of a role in the story as much as the characters did. The best thing about Jigokuraku hands down, is the Villians, holy shit these villains are unhinged. The sense of mystery really built up hype for them and when they revealed their true powers it was insane, also I find it really creative how the mangaka used their genders and sexuality to tie into the Tao power system. Some of the best fights in the anime are because they are in it and their attacks feel very unpredictable leaving you on the edge of your seat at times. And by times I mean like a couple of times. They also have a level of uncanniness and trickster-like personalities that the heroes lack. Speaking of which the power system of Tao is really creative, which is like this weird energy that strengthens by combining opposites, in other words, you can literally have strong powers by having sex which is a first in a shounen that isn't ecchi I guess. While the way the characters understand it feels a little rushed, their fighting prowess doesn't feel like an asspull or overpowered. I appreciate the characters having a history already as samurai instead of just being random ass-school kids who just conveniently happen to be kung fu masters. Characters- Feeling too nice now .Time to get to the main problem. Despite a crapton of people getting killed before arriving on the island and many killed right when they set foot on the island, the story still feels overcrowded with characters and their backstories. There are 11 people on the key visual for the anime and that's not even everyone lol. I mean a stacked cast like this is doable, but there is just something missing with them. Everyone more or less has a decent character arc but they still feel lacking of something to make me care, and thinking it over, I think that it is the lack of a character flaw or a desire of some sort. Humans are flawed and they desire things, but most of the characters have very ambiguous goals. I mean everyone for the most part just wants to get the elixir and the hell out of hells paradise, but the anime doesn't really convince me that they have something to look forward to if they leave, so I'm not really wanting to root for them, The few times that the show does convince me to root for a character is either right before they die, or if they are fighting one of the crazy ass villains of the anime. Starting with Gabimaru, the “main character” I guess. Most of his character is shrouded in mystery so it was really hard for me to open up and connect to him like I did with Sagiri or Shion. Trust me, if Gabimaru died, I probably would have been like “Oh well I guess, I hope Sagiri is okay” but she probably wouldn't be okay since her main goal is making sure Gabimaru gets off that island and pardoned of his crimes. He has his moments, I mean who doesn't love a stone-cold ninja having his heart defrosted, but the problem with him being a part of such a large cast is that almost everyone has just as much development and characterization as him so he feels like a side character. So I guess the true protagonist is Sagiri, which is fine because she is my favorite. Her arc is one that resonated with me the most because of her insecurities and struggles to prove herself in a patriarchal society. The speech she gave to one of her superiors was really quoteworthy, especially for this day and age. But she does get sidelined a great bit compared to the other battle-crazy characters. While she is responsible for the more down-to-earth moments in the anime, I'm still waiting for her huge Nobara moment where she can immediately prove herself and not get upset by someone. Shion also had a descent arc along with Tenza, and both of them experience a level of trauma that gives them that vulnerability that makes me root for them. The same goes for Senta even if he was the quirky bookworm character for like three-quarters of the anime. Yuzuriha provided some comedy/ cheeky fanservice but she does break out of her trope by providing smart tips and contributing to fights. Also, her ninja power is kinda gross ngl. Nurugai has a decent backstory and I love her role as a student training under her persecutors, her joke of “Oh i look like a boy but I'm actually a girl” is kinda a cringe trope that lived and died back in 2010 when Hideyoshi Kinoshita owned it. This trope is also in a critically acclaimed isekai that I will not mention and it was stupid there too, so and it should stay dead honestly. But I look forward to her learning more in season 2. Then there are the others, Gankatetsu is a big meaty crackhead who just likes to fight all the time, and his samurai buddy Fuchi is this weird evil genius character, I don't even remember if the show talked about his past. Choubei is also another big crackhead who likes to fight all the time, When I see characters like this, all I see are a bunch of Astas running around, and the fact that the only things they think about are just dominating everything they see is comical so there is not much to get out of those two. Touma is probably the weakest written character because it feels like he is only there to support his crackhead brother. If this anime was made like 20 years ago, I bet you, he would be a hot and sexy female side character. ‘ Animation- Okay, MAPPA, we need to have a talk. This is by far what really bogs down the anime. And looking at the show compared to MAPPA’s other recent works, you should understand how underwhelming the visuals are. I don’t know what Makita Kaori was going for stylistically but it's just not working out too well. This isn’t a dumb manga vs anime conversation, I’ve had enough of those, especially in 2023. The show just feels weird sometimes. the character designs are great but I give credit to Yuji Kaku for that. The anime style doesn't do them much justice. Despite the colorful and trippy vibe of the setting, the characters look muted and super washed out, and the shading is minimal, it looks like some shit from Shinsekai Yori. The animation feels really odd. This is insanely weird for MAPPA, a studio that seems to set, raise, and lower the bar of animation basically every single year. Despite the source material being really popular, the anime is about on the same level as that Netflix show Yasuke, except Yasuke had remarkable sakuga moments that kinda cover up the wonkiness, and Jigokuraku does not have nearly as many sakuga moments. Maybe Jigokuraku was in the same situation Yasuke had where animators were barely underpaid, overworked, and exploited. But that's another conversation for another day. If that was the case, though………………..well it shows.Not only in the animation but in the editing which makes the animation look worse than it is. I wasn’t expecting the editing to be the worst thing about the show but here we are. There are multiple POVs since there are a shitton of characters but sometimes the editors jumble up the scenes of them together. Sometimes one character would spout exposition while another scene is going on involving a completely different group and location that has nothing to do with what the character is talking about. Sometimes there would be these weird nanosecond cuts of a whole new scene but it cuts back to the previous scene. Like nothing happens. It feels haphazard like the editor was throwing clips into the timeline without looking over it to make sure it makes sense. Hell, it might be intentional and the director was fine with it. Well if that's the case. Yikes. As I mentioned before, it's the little details, once you notice it, you won’t unnotice it. I surprisingly haven't seen anything recently with such noticeably messy editing. It feels like a rush job which is unsurprising for an “ENERGETIC” studio like MAPPA. Now, there are some good things, a few good directing moments, also appreciate the anime refraining from turning everything into 3D. While it seems like I'm dunking on Makita, I did appreciate his work on Banana Fish and I appreciate some of it here. There are some brilliant scenes, but they are really few, really short, and really far in-between moments. It felt like this director saw the backlash that the Chainsaw Man director got for his creative liberties with the anime and just played it straight, doing the bare minimum when it comes to an adaptation, while there are some creative things here and there it is just not enough for me to say that Jigokuraku looks spectacular. It's fine, but it doesn't feel like Mappa, it feels like Studio 8bit on a good day. Sound- I guess the soundtrack was decent, It was really minimalistic at some points, sounding like run-of-the-mill traditional Japanese music, other times it sounded like something from a Harry Potter PS2 game, which isn't too much of a roast because Harry Potter PS2 music kinda slaps, but those games came out in the early 2000s and this anime is something from 2023, so it doesn't help make the anime look less dated. -One huge complaint I have sound-wise is the opening by Millennium Parade and Sheena Ringo. Don’t get me wrong it's a bombastic song with a lot of trumpets and guitar. But when I heard the opening, it did not fit the style of Jigokuraku at all. It feels like an anime opening for something like Tokyo Revengers. When I listen to it, I don’t get an Edo period story about samurai on a mysterious island vibes, I get boys on motorbikes fighting in Tokyo city vibes. And for now, I feel like this pie is just a sample size, I know I shouldn't expect a lot for a show with only one season, but JJK oops I mean Jigokuraku compared to other shounen after their season 1’s(like aot,mob psycho etc) didn't really leave too much of an impression on me, I feel a lot of the elements about this show leaving my mind, and when I wake up tomorrow, the only thing I will remember is the villains, the setting, and really wonky ass editing in parts. I know it looks like I'm shitting on this anime, but it's far from being bad. It's just that the good things about it are things that literally everyone has praised at this point and the other things I'm just kinda meh on. The best thing visually about Jigokuraku is the background art, which is expected because the setting is what the whole story of Jigokuraku centers around. I guess that definition would put it in the average category. I dislike the internet stigma where if something is average that means it's mid which means it's forgettable which means it's worse than bad for some reason. But the way I categorize its averageness is the good kinda average, that doesn't blow your socks off but it does the job. Jigokuraku does have the potential to be a solid series. Just a nice little clean up of all the technical things and just a tad more creative vision, and season 2 will be a fun time. I don't need a new genre-defying masterpiece, I already have Chainsaw Man for that lol.
~~~
# **This Review is Spoiler-Free**
img400(https://i.postimg.cc/mDmLxFBc/e3c8e-16713666655077-1920.jpg)
~~~
What might look like an average Shonen anime at first glance, is more than meets the eye: Hell's
Paradise sets itself apart from similar anime in multiple areas and delivers a highly enjoyable
journey full of action and character development through a wondrous setting.
## ** Engaging Narrative**
First, there's the highly compelling story: While there is a clear-cut goal to keep the viewers
engaged, the actual course of the narration is never clear. You never know what direction it will take
you next. The mystery aspect is well done - information is revealed quite slowly, bit by bit, and the
story takes some very interesting turns. Certainly nothing phenomenal, but good enough to make the
show more exciting.
## **Compelling Cast**
However, what I believe to be the strongest aspect of this show is the cast. Characters aren't shallow
and are easy to root for. Backstories and continuously developing relationships shape strong bonds
between the cast as well as the viewers. As a result, we care much more about what is happening in the
show, we are emotionally involved. I consider this the supreme discipline of any work of fiction as it
significantly influences all aspects of a story.
## **Stunning Fights**
The fights, another main attraction, are very pleasing to watch and carry lots of suspense - partly as
a result of said emotional involvement. Additionally, both the choreography and the animation are a
feast for the eyes. The author certainly isn't afraid to kill characters - this results in higher
stakes and more tension during fights, as the outcome is totally unpredictable.
I have to say, I genuinely don't understand any complaints about production. In my eyes the show had
beautiful, uniquely colorful visuals as well as fire animation.
~~~
img300(https://i.postimg.cc/fLNtWdGB/jigokuraku-hells-paradise.gif)
img300(https://i.postimg.cc/RFhFZTP1/tumblr-22089ec957d4b10ae844d527554b18b0-a8369765-540.gif)
~~~
## ** Gabimaru & Sagiri**
Gabimaru and Sagiri, our main characters, are both beautifully written. While their backstories might
seem somewhat generic, the show does add its own twist to them and executes them very well. Over the
course of the show they both progress, and while they do influence each other a lot, the pace of their
development is quite different.
Gabimaru changes a lot in a very short time - due both to his personality and his extreme
circumstances. He does also fall back at certain times, making this much more realistic, but overall,
he is a changed man.
Sagiri, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. Due to her hesitant and somewhat indecisive nature
she struggles a lot. Admittedly, her predicament is different and arguably more complicated to resolve
than Gabimaru's. Nevertheless, while it may be in smaller, more uncertain steps, she also grows a lot
as a person. In her case, I'm very interested in the long-term changes: What will she be like at the
end of the story? Will she actually turn her life around? The only way to know is to keep watching,
and I gladly will :)
Overall I very much enjoyed these contrasting, yet similar main characters and their constantly
evolving, fascinating relationship.
~~~
img300(https://i.postimg.cc/qqYCTF4C/gabimaru-anime.gif)
img300(https://i.postimg.cc/q79csg93/hells-paradise-jigokuraku.gif)
~~~
## **Conclusion**
While I did like the show from the start due to its compelling main cast and interesting premise, it
did falter at mid-point. I was tired of just watching small-fry fights and not getting much progress
on the mystery. However, as the focus shifted again to the mysteries of the island and certain things
were revealed, it only went uphill.
The final quarter is pure bliss - everything pays off: you root strongly for the protagonists, as you
have stood through many tough fights and emotional moments with them and watched them grow. Many major
mysteries are finally revealed and I absolutely love the answers. The 'new' premise and setting are
phenomenal and I can't wait to see more. Fights have higher stakes and more powerful enemies than
ever.
Even so, the show hasn't hit a standstill and keeps on evolving ever further, with more shocking turns
and yet more powerful foes. The ending being a huge cliffhanger and leaves me extremely hyped for the
sequel. Hopefully the show can retain its momentum and stay as amazing as it is at the current point.
Can't wait for the next season!
~~~
img400(https://i.postimg.cc/L6Xqs2WK/hells-paradise-hell-s-paradise.gif)
~~~
As far as light, digestible shonen stuff goes, this is pretty good. The soundtrack, voice acting, art direction and even the animation are pretty good. Where I think it falls flat, I think, is the characters. On the one hand, early on, it's pretty good at surprising you with their disposability. Some cliche types I thought would be in it for the long haul get snubbed out which keeps things a little interesting. But ultimately what stops this show from being great, mostly, is the main character. Gabimaru is a really bland and uninteresting character. Generic Sasuke 2cool4u type. The only quirk is liking his wife but it's almost mechnical in how they use it to justify him doing heroic or likable things - there isn't a sense his relationship is indicative of another layer to his character underneath all the trite power level stuff. It's just that he's the protagonist, so his motivation is his wife makes him Feel Like A Good Person so he Acts Like A Good Person. It's pretty terrible, actually. Compounding this are 1) the fact that most of the other characters are more likable and would function better than him as protagonists and 2) the big twist of the story is just sort of thrown at you in the last episode with no pageantry. Would have actually been a cool, emotional moment and surprise but no I guess they thought it would as a hook for a second series? I say most of the main characters, but the female lead is similarly very dull. I didn't dislike her as much, because I prefer more normal, banal characters, but I'd be surprised if the average person found anything to like in her really. She's a good guy. Her character progression begins at episode 1 and ends at about episode 4 or 5. So she's a little boring, but the ninja girl...Hoo boy, she was badly done. I think I just hate the archetype of smarmy, obnoxious girl only out for herself, but it was especially bad in this case. She's entirely without depth - which is fine, but they give her the "mature, pragmatic, voice of wisdom" moment at the end and it is completely unearned. I would say a pretty dreadful character. That said it's worth a watch for the other reasons I mentioned - like the aesthetic of the island and the monsters. They feel like they were influenced a bit by Sekiro, with the perverse dharmic mysticism that's present, a degenerate immortality and so on. The problem is, I think, that the premise of the story, that the criminals can earn a pardon for succeeding in their quest, feels entirely ridiculous after you see that the island is a horrible death trap. The main character girl is babbling on about getting a pardon for Gabimaru in the 13th episode - so many of people have died, you're all gonna die, why are you bringing that up?! Who cares?! The pacing is very good though, so you don't feel like you've wasted your time. And I love the opening! Thank you.
_This review contains a minimal amount of spoilers_ Jigokuraku is an interesting show, it features fascinating themes, compelling characters and an engrossing story and world. However, as good as these individual elements are, the show never capitalizes on its strengths and falls into the trap of overexplanation, forced exposition, rushed character development and terrible pacing, creating a somewhat memorable series served in an extremely clumsy and awkward way. Maybe this is partly an anime issue but as I've not read the manga I can't speak about it. Instead of showing and not telling, the anime tells a lot and doesn't show much. The show follows a bunch of criminals sentenced to death, accompanied by executioners, embarking on a journey to a mysterious island supposedly holding the key to immortal life. Succeeding in coming back from this perilous adventure would give complete absolution to one criminal. However, things aren't as easy as they seemed as everyone succombs one after the other... Jigokuraku's approach to the way it delivers its story is misplaced, instead of focusing on a few characters, it constantly switches its focus as the criminals each go their own way trying to find the "Elixir of Life". The show's focus, or lack there-of is its biggest downfall. We get introduced to almost every side character, complete with a backstory told through numerous flashbacks, only for most of them to die right after their introduction. The show doesn't know where to focus its attention, it's trying to do everything at once, to be everything, to check all the boxes, but it ultimately fails to keep the viewer's attention. Too many side characters, too many flashbacks, too much exposition, every step forward is followed by 3 steps backwards; watching this show felt like walking through mud or swimming against a strong current. This is not to say that the characters are bad, in fact I found most of them, alongside their backstory and development, kinda interesting. But because of this overloaded cast of characters, the character development is rushed every single time. I would compare Gabimaru, the show's main character, to Killua, as Jigokuraku seems very much inspired by Hunter x Hunter. These two characters are very similar, they were trained since birth to be perfect killing machines, but they come to realize their own worth and to accept their own feelings. Their development is pretty similar, but Gabimaru goes through as much development in 2 episodes than Killua does in 100. The payoff is thus extremely unsatisfying. This tendency to rush development is valid for every other character, it takes them 5 minutes to become a completely different person. Here is also one of the show's issue: characters are very inconsistent, they act in completely unbelievable ways. Gabimaru goes from a stone-cold killing machine to Socrates dispensing moral teachings in the span of a couple episodes. The female main character, Sagiri, is a completely different person in episode 1 and 2. The criminals and their executioners are laid-back and surprinsingly goofy; needless to say, the humour is completely out of place as it kills all the tension the anime is trying to build. On top of that, the antagoniststs are not particularly interesting, they simply lack motivations, they've been fucking each other on an island for 1000 years and that's basically it. The show's most interesting but also seemingly problematic theme is its commentary on Taoism which manifests in the search of the middle-ground. This is a very widespread topic discussed in many different religions and philosophies. Mediocrity used to equate to perfection, the middle state in which nothing needed to be added or removed. This concept is materialized in the antagonists of the series who use it to fuel their strength, but is also embodied by Sagiri. Being a female executioner in a world of men, she must constantly deal with prejudices concerning her status as a woman. She acts as a very remarkable beacon of female empowerment by finding the middle ground in the war of sexes. She finds true strength by being both logical and emotional, both fearless and afraid, both empathetic and apathetic. However, this commentary on sexes comes with a caveat: there's an awkward link between sexes and qualities. The show tries to convey the idea that a perfect being would be the one able to attain the golden mean, the middle ground between good and bad that Sagiri seems to embody. At the same time, the series seems to imply that this perfect being would also be the fusion between a woman and a man. Now, what are we, the viewers, supposed to deduce from this? This notion is never fully explained at the intradiegetic level, but the show repeats multiple times, albeit through morally questionable characters, that males are stronger than females for example. It's then easy to make a link between qualities and sexes. If the golden mean is achieved through reaching the middle-ground between good and bad, but also between woman and man, does it imply that one of the sexes is good and the other bad? This is what I, as a viewer, get from the show: men are strong, logical and dependable while women are weak, emotional and fickle. I hope this is due to the author being extremely clumsy in the way they present their themes or me just not understanding their message as this would render the female empowerment concretized through Sagiri meaningless. But this is not the only thorn in the side of empowerment which is also undermined by the way other female characters are treated in the show: they're all half naked, cunning, instantly try to seduce men to take advantage of them, and seem mostly there for fanservice: one of them literally covers herself in a thick white fluid to become stronger in fights. Jigokuraku is made up of interesting topics and characters that are unfortunately handled in a very awkward way. It's sad to see an anime with such potential squander it in this fashion. I still found it relatively enjoyable to watch. The characters are cool, the fight scenes are nicely animated, the setting is nightmarishly beautiful and fascinating. The author should've tried to apply their own theme to their show by trying to find this golden mean, but they instead went too much to one side, adding too much superfluous expostion, too many needless side characters, too many badly timed flashbacks. Instead of reaching the golden mean, Jigokuraku reaches mediocrity with its pejorative meaning. A 5/10 would've been fitting, but I'll give it some credit for the way it incorporates its themes into its narrative.