Jigokuraku

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Kaku. It was serialized weekly for free on Shueisha's ''Shōnen Jump+'' application and website from January 2018 to January 2021, with its chapters collected in 13 ''tankōbon'' volumes. Set in the Edo period of Japan, it follows the ninja Gabimaru and the executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri as they search for the elixir of immortality. Viz Media has licensed the series for English release in North America. An anime television series adaptation produced by MAPPA aired from April to July 2023. A second season has been announced.

Plot

Captured during an assassination mission, Gabimaru the Hollow is sentenced to be executed, but nothing seems to kill him due to his superhuman body. Believing his love for his wife to be subconsciously keeping him alive, executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri offers him the chance to be pardoned of all crimes by the Shogunate if he finds the elixir of life on Shinsenkyo, a legendary realm recently discovered southwest of the Ryukyu Kingdom. After losing five expedition teams sent to the island, this time the Shogunate sends a group of death row convicts. The convicts are each given a Yamada Asaemon executioner, who they must return with in order to obtain the pardon.

Characters

Main characters

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:The strongest ninja from Iwagakure, where he was taken from his parents as a child by the village chief and trained to become a killer. He is known as for his lack of emotion during his gruesome work. However, he is very much in love with his wife, the village chief's peace-loving nature daughter who treats him with kindness. When he wanted to cut ties with the village and live a normal life with his wife, the chief arranged for him to be captured and sentenced to death.
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:A master swordswoman from the famed Yamada Asaemon family of executioners, where she is one of the only two female executioners in the clan. She recruits Gabimaru for the expedition after seeing his talent and strong will to live. Sagiri is ranked last, 12th, in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy.

Death-Row Criminals

Criminals that the Shogunate chose to embark on the journey to Shinsenkyo and find the Elixir of Life with an assigned Yamada Asaemon executioner.
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:A self-centered, female ninja who is known as .
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:A leader of a gang of bandits in Iyo Province, and Toma's older brother.
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:A famous master swordsman on death row who is known as . Despite being somewhat lecherous and shallow, Gantetsusai's swordsmanship is unparalleled, as he can match many of the Yamada Asaemons in a duel. After the Shinsenkyo expedition, he is pardoned by the Shogunate and opens a swordsman dojo/medical clinic, the latter being a tribute to his executioner Fuchi.
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:The last of the . Nurugai was put on death row after she accidentally lured Shogunate samurai to her village—as the Sanka were a symbol of rebellion against the Shogunate, despite living normally. Due to her physique and behavior, she is often mistaken for a boy.
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:A fearsomely large and strong criminal. Nicknamed , Rokurota is a mentally undeveloped man as he possesses the mind of a baby—as he is unable to speak and cry as such when he is hungry. He is feared for his immense strength, having killed many people with his bare hands, often with a single strike, including his parents, several villagers, and Yamada Asaemons Eizen and Genji. Following an intense fight with Gabimaru and Sagiri, Rokurota gets beheaded by the latter.

Yamada Asaemon

The is a prestigious swordsmen dojo in Edo. They train sword testers to become fully-fledged executioners for the Shogunate. Once fully trained, each swordsman has their name preceded by the title "Yamada Asaemon."

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:The executioner assigned to Chōbei. He infiltrated the Yamada Asaemon in order to free Chōbei, who is his older brother.
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:The executioner assigned to Gantetsusai. He has a blond bob cut, a high level of medical knowledge, and is ranked ninth in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy.
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:The executioner assigned to Akaginu. He is blind and ranked fourth in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy.
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:The executioner assigned to Nurugai. He is ranked 10th in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy.
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:The executioner assigned to Yuzuriha. He is studious, chubby, wears glasses, and is ranked fifth in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy. He originally wanted to be an artist but was forced to train and become a Yamada Asaemon. He hated having to kill people which is why he turned to the study of religions and he becomes captivated by Yuzuriha's freedom of spirit.
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:Leader of the second team sent to acquire the elixir after the Shogunate becomes impatient with the first. He is ranked second in the Yamada Asaemon hierarchy.
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:The first ranked and the head of the Yamada Asaemon. He was killed early in the Shinsenkyō expedition by Rokurota.
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:The third ranked Asaemon who's known to be the laziest of the clan. After the Shinsenkyō expedition which involved the deaths of Eizen and Shugen, he became the current head of the Yamada Asaemon.

Tensen

The Tensen are powerful beings living in the Horai at the center of the island who have mastered the five levels of Tao, culminating in their ability to use qi to shift between yin and yang, female and male humanoid forms. Through the use of the elixir which they call Tan, their plant-like bodies are able to regenerate themselves making them virtually immortal. They are served by Doshi, sentient half-human beings who are on the path to mastering Tao, and are a level above the mindless Soshin who are monsters with the appearance of various deities and attack anyone who arrives on the island.
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:A mysterious little girl with limited ability to speak who lives on the island. She has the powers of the Tensen but has been used by the yang Doshi as a yin sexual "training partner" against her will for centuries.
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Iwagakure

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:The eighth daughter of the Village Chief and Gabimaru's wife.

Production

Yuji Kaku originated ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' from a framework that had "several pairs of people whose interests aren't aligned eingthrown into an enclosed space and forced to work together." The story was initially about children sent to a youth detention center and the lawyers fighting for them. But through discussions with his editor, the setting was dropped and they added different characters to the same framework, which was kept because Kaku has always liked the way human relationships change and wanted to write a story about that. He felt a Shinsenkyo setting would work with any type of story and be easy to write, and thought it would be more interesting if a character "who isn't supposed to die" finds themselves in a near-death situation.

The storyboards for the first three chapters of the manga were brought to the ''Shōnen Jump+'' editorial staff in 2017. A big fan of Kaku's art since ''Fantasma'' in ''Jump Square'', Hideaki Sakakibara enthusiastically volunteered to take on the series and became its second editor with chapters two and three. He believed that ''Hell's Paradise'' was the "mainstream battle fantasy" series that ''Shōnen Jump+'' was still lacking and could become a best-seller in print. Sakakibara was initially concerned with the "multi-protagonist story" of the prisoners, executioners, and the island's creatures. Although he thought having the '' Battle Royale''-style story in a manga would be interesting, he worried it would cause a badly paced story where they would have to split up the pages between characters and be unable to show the main characters' actions as much. However, he credits Kaku's genius at quickly and simply introducing characters and his drawing talent for making it all work.

Kaku and Sakakibara planned out what was going to happen in sets of 10 chapters, or a whole volume. At first, Kaku wrote the story with Gabimaru as the protagonist and with a focus on his growth. But while writing, he realized the themes had shifted towards the Middle Way, paradoxes, and conflict and felt it should be Sagiri who deals with those, "so for me, Sagiri became the protagonist of the latter half". The editor gave Kaku free rein as far as illustrations were concerned. Sakakibara said that from the first chapter the series has had "extreme" illustrations, which has resulted in popularity among readers, but made it hard for new readers to get into. Towards the end of 2019, he and Kaku were trying to earn more female readers. With Kaku having been a former manga editor himself, Sakakibara said it is easy to communicate things to him as the artist is quick to figure out what he means. However, Kaku admitted that this has caused him to unconsciously hold back creatively by thinking objectively like an editor.

Kaku created details and backstories for every character in ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'', regardless of whether or not they were actually included in the series. He always intended for Gabimaru, with his extreme attachment to love, and Sagiri, with her concerns about being a woman, to have the same values as someone living in the 2020s, saying, "Despite condemned criminals and executioners being difficult characters to empathize with, if they share our perspective, then we feel close to them, and they stand out as unique characters" in the Edo period, when people had totally different ideas about ethics and human rights. When Kaku first described the character Shion to Sakakibara, the editor imagined him like Kazuo Kiriyama from ''Battle Royale''. But after talking it over, Shion became the kind teacher he is in the manga, while the crazy personality was given to Shugen instead.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Yuji Kaku, ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' began weekly serialization on the ''Shōnen Jump+'' application and website on January 22, 2018. The series ended with the 127th chapter on January 25, 2021. The chapters were collected and published into 13 ''tankōbon'' volumes by Shueisha between December 4, 2020 and April 30, 2021. Shueisha also simultaneously published the series in English for free on the ''Manga Plus'' app and website. Special chapters have been published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', in issue No. 27/28 on August 6, 2018 and issue No. 28 on June 10, 2019. A special one-shot, titled , was published on ''Shōnen Jump+'' on April 8, 2023.

, a comedic spin-off manga created by Ōhashi, began serialization on ''Shōnen Jump+'' on January 20, 2020. It ended with the 21st chapter on June 29, 2020. The chapters were collected and published into one ''tankōbon'' on September 4, 2020.

Viz Media began publishing ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' in English digitally on their website for free on May 17, 2018. They released the 13 volumes in print from March 17, 2020, to March 15, 2022.

Volume list

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced by ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in January 2021. It is produced by MAPPA and directed by Kaori Makita, with Akira Kindaichi writing the scripts, Koji Hisaki designing the characters, and Yoshiaki Dewa composing the music. The series aired from April 1 to July 1, 2023, on TV Tokyo and other networks. The opening theme song is "Work" by Ringo Sheena and Millennium Parade, while the ending theme song is "Kamihitoe" by Uru. Crunchyroll has licensed the series for streaming in America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS, while Netflix has licensed the series in Asia Pacific (excluding Mainland China, Australia, New Zealand).

A second season was announced after the airing of the thirteenth episode.

Episode list

Other media

A novel adaptation, , was written by Sakaku Hishikawa and published on September 4, 2019. A second novel, , followed on April 4, 2023. Shueisha published on April 30, 2021. The "fan book" includes character profiles, concept art, new manga stories, and an interview with Tatsuki Fujimoto.

An exhibition of Kaku's manuscripts and illustrations from the series was held at Tokyo Manga Salon Trigger from November 3–9, 2018. Another exhibition was held at Tower Records in Shibuya from August 29 to September 22, 2020, where collaborative goods designed just for the event were sold.

Gabimaru is a playable character in the July 2022 Nintendo Switch video game ''Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions''.

A stage play adaptation of ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' ran at Hulic Hall in Tokyo from February 16–26, 2023.

Reception

In August 2018, ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' was cited as the most popular series on ''Shōnen Jump+''. Over 1 million copies of the series were in circulation by June 2019, a number that grew to 2.5 million by August 2020, and more than 3.6 million by April 2021. By December 2022, the manga had sold over 4 million copies. Volume two of the series sold 16,328 copies during its first week of release. Volume four sold 20,139 its first week, while volume five sold 45,912 copies. The thirteenth and final volume of the series sold 39,759 copies in its first week.

With 16,510 votes, ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' came in at eleventh place in the Web Manga Category of the 2018 Next Manga Awards, organized by Niconico and ''Da Vinci'' magazine. The series ranked fourth on Honya Club's Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2018 list, compiled by surveying 1,100 professional bookstore employees in Japan. In the 2019 edition of ''Kono Manga ga Sugoi!'', which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry, ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' was one of the three series tied for sixteenth place on its list of the best manga series for male readers.

''Publishers Weekly'' wrote that the mysterious first volume and Kaku's detailed illustrations, which they found to be reminiscent of Junji Ito's horror manga and give the series an unsettling, gruesome charm, start the series off with promise. Reviewing the first chapter for ''The Fandom Post'', Chris Beveridge gave it a B grade for its artwork, interesting ideas and covering a lot of ground in its setup so it can move forward. The end reveal reminded him of the novel ''Annihilation''. However, he felt the structure was a little awkward and expressed concern that it would fall into the "usual manga storytelling traps." In a review of the second collected volume, Beveridge's colleague Richard Gutierrez said that while the nightmarishly beautiful images and action might be what initially draws in readers, its the "underlying complex character construction within this sadistic story which forces us to stay."

Leroy Douresseaux called ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' volume 1 as one of the best first volumes of a manga ''tankōbon''/graphic novel that he has ever read in a 9/10 review for ''Comic Book Bin''. He stated that Kaku enthralls readers with the mysteries of the island while his illustrations are "like taking some of the most shocking art from the legendary EC Comics' horror titles and multiplying it by the power of 10." Kiara Halls of ''Comic Book Resources'' called the first volume a "great, emotional bloodbath" that provides "bloody, classic shonen action with uncommonly sincere emotional depth." She explained that while establishing the relationship between Sagiri and Gabimaru forms the crux of the volume, it's an uncommon one as their bond is "of mutual respect formed by an emotional connection," not of dominance or lust. That coupled with "solid, detailed art and supernatural intrigue," had Halls call the series a potential breakout hit.

Reviewing the first volume for '' Anime News Network'', Rebecca Silverman and Faye Hopper both gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. Both critics praised the main characters Sagiri and Gabimaru and their relationship, with Hopper stating the way their struggles mirror and allow each other to empathize and grow despite their opposed roles is executed with "thoughtfulness and real power, and imbues a gritty, gory seinen with heart." Silverman felt that despite containing some elements derivative of other works, ''Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku'' manages to make them into "a story worth paying attention to" and is entertaining. Hopper wrote that while the violent manga is not for everyone, it has terrific, macabre art, a solid hook, and rich characters, and she admires it for showing how "casual, uncritical brutality hurts the soul, and that revulsion to it is normal and should be accepted."

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Official play website

Official page at ''Shōnen Jump+''

Official Viz Media page
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2023 anime television series debuts
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