One of this season’s most anticipated titles is the MAPPA adaptation of Yūji Kaku’sHell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku,which kicked off on April Fool’s Daywith quite the blazing introduction.Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, which saw its fair share of skepticism and excitement in the build-up since its announcement in 2022, has made a stunning first impression with its tempered yet enthralling start, and if this episode is anything to go by, this will turn into yet another stunning adaptation by Studio MAPPA.
Starting with beautiful visuals,Hell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuhas also built the premise solidly in this first half, getting us to know the protagonist and deuteragonist, Gabimaru and Sagiri Yamada-Asaemon. This is the excellent start fans of Yūji Kaku’s original manga would have hoped for, and it’s very convincing. Here’s whyHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuis an exciting anime you should watch this 2023 Spring anime season.
RELATED:Hell’s Paradise: First Impressions
Like Giants
The first episode ofHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuis built around a protagonist who is what would be referred to as an unreliable narrator, at least at first. What this does is that it manipulates the viewer’s expectation of what the character will be like, based on his appearance, demeanor and perspective; however, his warped view becomes obvious as episode 1 progresses, until Sagiri reveals the unreliability of Gabimaru as a narrator by pulling him out of his own miasma.The dynamic between Gabimaru and Sagiriis established, with her calm yet intense personality and perceptiveness drawn into full view. Sagiri is an exciting deuteragonist here inHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakubecause she is in various ways the same as Gabimaru – she has been raised in the art of killing and appears aloof or heartless, but exists as a reliable mirror for the other characters to see their true selves. Gabimaru, despite being seemingly overpowered compared to most normal people, establishes early that the scope of possibilities in theHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuuniverse is not only unclear, but otherworldly, which also helps establish the central theme of immortality, and the contrasting cosmological constructs of Heaven and Hell.
The first episode ofHell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuis also brilliantly directed, starting off slow and steadily and presenting the protagonist as part of the narration. Death, particularly violent death, is the first thing we see in the series. Immediately, the series juxtaposes the horror of decapitation with the beauty of flowers — a white plum blossom; symbolic of purity and perseverance as it blooms at the very beginning of Spring while the Winter snow thaws, is stained with the blood dripping from the severed heads of criminals, and a crow is shown cawing nearby. In this sequence, the beautiful flower being sullied with blood before the heads are seen in the reflection of the blade that (assumedly) severed them, encapsulatesHell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku’streading of the fine line between overwhelming beauty and horror. In this way, the series is comparable tothe jötnar (giants) of Norse mythologyin that it teeters between the extremes of being incredibly beautiful, or overwhelmingly grotesque. This opening sequence also symbolizes the contrast between the powerful vigour of nature — the plum blossom flower emerging while the winter air still bites — is placed in the context of the extinguishing of life’s flame.
Fire
Speaking of flames, fire is a major motif in this first episode ofHell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, and the first scene after the opening theme is a lit candle burning steadily to provide light for the woman taking notes as she speaks to a detained Gabimaru. She provides further information about the protagonist, particularly his origins in the ninja village of Iwagakure; a brutal place where he was taught only how to kill in training so rigorous, many don’t survive. Those who do; however, are said to develop “superhuman bodies”. In her first scene, Sagiri helps explain Gabimaru’s physical fortitude as these interrogations are punctuated with attempts on Gabimaru’s life. The narrator returns to explain the horror of these violent ways to die, but Gabimaru survives each time, despite his claims that he has no attachments to life, reminding himself that holding onto life doesn’t suitsomeone who has killed so many. He wonders why he can’t - or won’t - die, while Sagiri’s character is established as aloof and detached from the horrors of death being drilled into us as viewers through the varied execution attempts. Attempts included beheading, burning at the stake and dismemberment by bull and finally, death by boiling (or cauldron) is the final, most intense execution attempt presented.
Over time, Gabimaru reveals more about his situation to Sagiri – how the greatest ninja from Iwagakure found himself getting arrested and put to death despite having married the daughter of the village chief after gaining his recognition, but came to dislike the effects of married life on his work. Fearing that he’d lose his killer’s edge, Gabimaru decided to defy the village chief and abandon the village. Later, an officer warns Sagiri not to get too involved with Gabimaru, whose notoriety earned him the moniker, “The Hollow”, who gained a reputation for being “without blood or tears”. Unlike Gabimaru’s earlier explanation of the circumstances of his arrest, Gabimaru actually killed twenty men while resisting arrest. The conversation also introduces another main theme inHell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku;immortality via a so-called “Elixir of Life”. The officer apologises for speaking about nonsense, as he does not know what Sagiri knows: that Shinsenkyo, the legendary island that ishome to the Elixir of Life, really exists. None who have visited have ever returned, and flowers are again juxtaposed with death as the fates of those who visited are revealed.
The Awakened and The Hollow
Sagiri’s influence on Gabimaru gets him interrogating his own intentions as Sagiri is able to see through the distortion or obfuscation and find the truth: Gabimaru is not behaving like someone who wants to die. Over the course of the episode, the execution methods increase in intensity, with fiery deaths making up half of the attempts, reiterating the thematic significance of fire. The last resort brings us back to the beginning – decapitation, this time, by Sagiri herself. This second decapitation attempt is nothing like the first, as Sagiri is revealed to be one of the Yamada-Asaemon family; ronin who have served as sword-testers for generations and produce warriors capable of what the episode initially presented as nearly impossible: beheading with a single blow. Sensing his own imminent death, Gabimaru’s demeanour changes, and he acts like a cornered rat. The following fight between him and Sagiri serves as a mere taste ofthe dynamism and fluidity of the movementthat can be expected fromHell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku,and its lovely use of imagery, symbolism interesting approaches to the composition throughout the first episode give even more bite to the beautiful visuals.
The Deadly Mirror
The fight between Sagiri and Gabimaru also reveals both their characters and sets them up as mirrors of each other. As someone who has seen countless people die, Sagiri has learned to see a person’s true nature, which presents itself in the face of death. Sagiri reveals the fruits of her days of observation: Gabimaru’s biggest anchor to life is his love for his wife, bringing the increasing intensity of the first episode to its true objective as they cross blades. Mid-fight, Sagiri reveals that the Shogunate is offering criminals on death row a chance of being pardoned if they return from the legendary land of Shinsenkyo, not too far from the Ryukyu Kingdom, with the fabled Elixir of Life. She also tells Gabimaru that his wife is alive and waiting in Iwagakure, which returns his repressed memories of the woman he loves and fills him with a desire to live and return to her.
Gabimaru accepts the terms, shedding tears representative of the return of his emotions as he chooses a different path to a likely death, while the warden and officers who’d been tasked with his execution are swiftly razed by the flames that the episode had been building towards: the gorgeous multi-coloured fire bursting forth from Gabimaru’s “Ascetic Blaze” technique; a blazing fire fueled by a man’s (literally) rekindled desire to live with his wife, a far cry from the baby flame from the candle in his tiny cell – the one he had in his own mind. Thematically brilliant and directed with great sense for the beauty and horror presented in the original manga, the first episode is a convincing start for the series seen as the final piece in the “Shо̄nen Dark Trio” (as well asthe Seinen series,Dorohedoro), all of which have been adapted by MAPPA and created immense excitement in the anime community.Hell’s Paradise: Jigokurakuhas had the strongest start it could have had, and it is definitely a must-watch this Spring anime season.
MORE:Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku - What You Need to Know Before Watching the Anime
