WARNING: Cartoon Violence and Spoilers because of … Shinobi Rule Number Five!
Gabimaru and Sagiri (I called her Yamada in my previous posts but that was her clan name)
Hello, fellow Hivers! We’re back again for another review of MAPPA anime series Hell’s Paradise. This time we’ll be covering episode four, which is appropriatetly titled, “Hell and Paradise.” I’d say we just get a ton of colorful action but we also get character development for not one, not two, not three—but five other characters.
Last time, the story focused in on Gabimaru’s past, his tutelage under his intimidating ninja-village chief, the ruthless philosophy ingrained in him, and the conflicting kinder teachings from his wife who he loves and wants to return to. The twist there is that Gabimaru’s seemingly benevolent wife is none other than the very daughter of the immortal monstrous ninja-village chief himself, Oso.
Gabimaru’s wife Yui, daughter of the ninja-village chief.
Gabimaru’s ex-mentor/ ex-boss/ father-in-law, Oso, and the leader of the ninja-village he is from.
After Gabimaru defeata one of his fellow convicts, a giant bloodthirsty monk, him and Sagiri are told by her fellow executioner that Shinsenkyo Island isn’t the only with dark secrets: Gabimaru’s ex-mentor’s ninja-village members will soon arrive on the island to kill him and the next head of the Yamada clan will be decided by the unsupervised results of the elixir-quest on Shinsenkyo Island. Concerned that his friendliness with Sagiri will hold him back, Gabimaru attacks her while struggling to summom the nerve to do something he doesn’t want to do. At first he attempts this by returning in his mind to the ruthless teachings of the village chief but thanks to him remembering his wife’s kinder words he submits to his own inner decency.
The framing of shots in Hell’s Paradise is rather picturesque, which I really appreciate.
I love how evil Yui’s father Oso appeara in Gabimaru’s imagination: he even has a red eye to signify his helplessly dark nature.
The way his impression of his wife Yui burns/fades away her father’s influence reminds me of those pictures of tiny angels or devils on people’s shoulders.
The way Gabimaru broke Sagiri’s sword but then allowed her to live and sheathed his blade with scabbard was a nice touch too.
But it wasn’t all changes-of-heart and imaginary spousal-embraces, Gantetsusai—a tall swordsman with a comedically tiny executioner Fuchi accompanying him—gets stung by dangerous man-faced Shinsenkyo butterfly and sacrifices his hand to save himself from its deadly poison. We also get a nice flashback of learning how Gantetsusai ended up a death-row convict: he’d destroyed the property of an incredibly wealthy man who’d insulted him—specifically when the man mocked his nickname of dragon, claiming that it was impossible for a swordsman to kill a dragon so Gantetsusai sliced in half a giant wooden sculpture of a dragon the rich man had above his door.
Seconda after dismemberment, Gantetsusai severed hand reveals the mystical poison within.
Despite unhanding himself, Gantetsusai doesn’t spare a moment to complain over cut hands.
The giant Shinsenkyo monster approaching Gantetsusai.
The fish-headed monk confronting Gabimarud Sagiri.
Episode four really delivers on the gore and monsters. We have convicts and executioners versus giant demon, fish, and insect-headed monks on Shinsenkyo Island. While they are initially creepy-looking, it is revealed that they truly act as massive distractioms from the island’s true first line of defense, the poisonous butterflies and plants on the island—like the one that stung Gantetsusai’s hand. But before they learn this, Gabimaru once again displays his supernatural speed, strength, and magic by dispatching several of the giants.
Here the giant demons look sort of dopey, like oversized clowns.
Gabimaru blows up a giant demon’s head with his flashy fire-jutsu.
A nice flashback Gabimari has while fighting the giants is of his village-chief Oso telling him that Shinobi Rule Number Five is to never fight an enemy you don’t know because fighting without knowledge is fighting withouut an advantage—which Gabimaru interprets as the giants possibly having a small advantage that will only grow the longer they fight so he decides to kill them all as fast as he can.
Sagiri watches in awe as Gabimaru takes down a horde of Shinsenkyo’s towering monsters.
Despite seeing her as a weakness, Gabimaru rescues Sagiri from certain death.
Thankfully after being ambushed by last episode’s giant monk—female ninja Yuzuriha and two executioners arrive to save Gabimaru and Sagiri. She offers him a shaky alliance and they agree, while we get to see how devious she is as a comedic femme-fatale.
Female ninja Yuzuriha and executioners Genji and Senta.
Yuzuriha tries to seduce Gabimaru.
So Gabimaru reminds her he has a wife.
For a brief moment, Yuzuriha shows a glimpse of her true dangerous side and tells Gabimaru they can work together until they find the elixir — and then the strongest ninja gets to go home.
After this pseudo-alliance is made, the episode switches to one of my favorite pairs, Chobei and Toma: two brothers who are sons of a disgraced samurai who tried avenging his lord. The older blonde one, Chobei, is smart and strong while the younger black haired one, Toma, is kind and pretty fast.
Toma and Chobei facing Shinsenkyo Giants
Surrounded by towering demonic creatures, Chobei orders his brother to fight through the monsters instead of fleeing. For a momeny, Toma’s hair is caught by a demon and it looks like Chobei abandons him but Toma instead sees it as a moment where he’s not living up to his brother’s logical expectations and frees himself by quickly chopping off the beast’s fingers. And then in the next instant, Chobei returns and cuts the monster in half with one of their own giant weapons and congratulates Toma for distracting it.
I was a little worried here that Toma would be a helpless character but then I wad reminded that as an executioner he must have some level of skill.
Being a mix of Buddhist and Taoist imagery, the creatures spout adages and verses while trying to encircle them.
Chobei goes on a rampage after being the monsters’ mantras remind him of his and his brother’s punished father.
I’m not sure if Chobei has supernatural strength or if he’s just supposed to be super strong here.
Chobei makes quick work of these guys and I like that he used one of their weapons. His logic was, what better way to kill a monster than with monster weapons?
We get a glimpse of other convict-executioner pairs felling their own respective beasts—hinting at equal or greater power.
I really enjoyed how colorful this episode was and how a lot of different backstories were explained.
It’s a bit tough to believe that Gantetsusai was put on death-row for destroying property but it did belong to a super rich man so maybe there was corruption involved. I’m wondering if I didn’t fully grasp the backstory there and he had actually slain someone, or maybe that’s something we’ll learn in future episodes.
Chobei and Toma’s backstory as brothers from a disgraced family who became bandits is interesting. They did what was ruthlessly logical to survive and it’s touching to see how loyal they are to each other, especially how Toma became a executioner in order to free his brother Chobei when he was caught. It also made me wonder how long or easy it was to become an executioner, especially from what sounds like a renown group like the Asaemon.
So far, I’m really liking the anime and think MAPPA’s done a great job adapting the manga. I hope the momentum from keeps building and that the action and story continue to be depicted in a great way.
If this is your first time checking out my review for this series, here’s some Youtube trailers to give you a further look at the show.
