Jigokuraku
Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku

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Holy shit, this is probably one of the most overrated things I have read in a long time. I hope this is one of those things that I couldn't get because after 20 chapters or so this is probably one of the most boring mangas in terms of story and character writing I have read. I cannot believe I was foolish enough to manage to read through it expecting something good at the end.

The story loses its initial hook very quickly when you realise any fucking random thing is possible with the author's convenience, it does not even have a basic consistent power scaling system ... that most shonen mangas have and the fights have 0 suspense or tension behind them.

I wish I could say at least one of the characters was interesting but all of them are very one dimensional and most of them seem to serve no fucking purpose in the grand scheme of things but the author wants to forcefully enter them somehow in every context.

The only good thing about this manga is it sometimes looks great with the art, and the side stories were almost okay i guess ?
But the main take away is that at least for me this manga did nothing good to justify reading 127 chapters. I wish I could say this was an average shonen manga, but at least for me, this manga had nothing to offer after 50 or so chapters to warrant even reading the whole thing.

If you are planning on reading this manga and have read any other shonen manga before, don't. It isn't worth your time. This manga isn't really bad, but it's not good either. I went into it with high hopes and was hyped to read it, but was wildly disappointed. I kept reading, hoping that it would get better. Other people must be seeing something I'm not with this manga. The only redeeming factor is the art, and even then there is WAY too much fanservice for 0 reasons. Character designs are also pretty cool if I'm being honest. Other than that, don't waste your time ... on this manga. There is so much better manga that you can read that would be somewhat enjoyable. I didn't care about any of the characters, no matter how many random ass flashbacks the author stuck in right before a character they introduced less than a chapter ago died. This manga is the epitome of shonen tropes and manga stereotypes. Even its main message about morality made little to no sense, with the main character killing hundreds of people and just being excused "because he's doing it for his wife." Another thing that pissed me off was character stamina. Someone will say "I don't have much left, if they hit me one more time we all die!" and they'll proceed to defeat three supposedly invincible beings after having their skull caved in. The power system was uninspired, the characters were flat and boring, and the story was so incredibly mediocre that I didn't even laugh at how terrible it was. I was just straight-faced reading this, hoping it would improve. Anyone who is saying this manga is good has probably never read anything that wasn't published by shonen jump.

Pros:
- Art
- Character design

Cons:
- Pacing
- Tension
- Character personality and nuance
- Excessive fan service
- Message
- Unoriginal and boring power system
- Confusing character stamina
- The entire story

Hell's paradise review:

It's a cliché power fantasy that feels like it should be the final arc of any other manga.

Setting:

The manga is set almost entirely on an island called Paradise. (Spoiler-ish about the design of the island) The island is full of religious body horror monsters with some being quite creative. But the island itself is quite boring besides that which lives on it. The only standout areas in this entire claustrophobic area the manga takes place in is the Palace. The palace has some memorable scenery and is just as wild as the monsters that Guard it. However the fast paced nature of ... the manga makes it so that you can never truly appreciate the palace as there are barely any establishing shots, especially during fight scenes. The inner palace is very dark and dull, with all rooms being samey (for story reasons, alas) despite having the opportunity to be wildly different because of the characters which inhabit each room pursuing different "goals" but end up being quite plain and traditional old Japanese and Chinese architecture. The opportunity to have a truly stunning island with creative flora and fauna and an even more beautiful Palace is instead opted for a run-down, bland and barren setting in both nature and buildings. For story reasons this is acceptable, however it is insanely stale and uninteresting.


Art/Structure:

The art in general is fine. With Lackluster and mediocre panelling, choreography and layouts. Though some panels with Hatching and calligraphy-esque art are praise worthy albeit rare. The manga has many Biological-Lovecraftian horrors that are genuinely creative and unorthodox. There are a few outliers with some panels genuinely leading well into the next, which warrants praise albeit it's few and far between. Ultimately, this manga is as standard as you can get. There's no creative angles, the medium of manga is not used in any way whatsoever to enhance the structure in an out of the box way. For an action battle shounen, there NEEDS to be unending creativity to keep your reader hooked, Lest the action becomes stale. Which is exactly what happens here. So much repetition.
A good thing about this manga is it's uncensored freedom. The mangaka always says that they let him "draw whatever he wanted" and that shows, that freedom you feel from this manga is pretty unique and adds to the visceral carnage of the unrelenting world of Hell's paradise.




Story/Characters:

Interesting premise with a cliché execution. The manga consists of 90% fighting with little character development, though the "The strongest bonds are formed in the toughest situations" saying can apply here. Characters are eerily similar to Bleach both in design, function, and looks and are all 1 dimensional. The problem with battle shounen, Is that there is no hype. No buildup. It's constant stimulation and you get numb to it without periods in between to build up tension and hype, leading to boredom no matter how good the choreography or art is. There is a story reason for this initially, but it still does not negate the issues in retrospect. Villains are extremely boring and offer nothing, despite being different in designs, they all offer the same functionality despite supposed to be filling different roles and could easily be merged into one entity with the way the awful power scaling functions.
Characters are laughably overpowered, to the point where a Character who lost their right hand literally learns to become left-handed after a few swings of a sword. There is a power system in which almost every character masters or is a prodigy at immediately. Therefore, the fights have no tension or stakes behind them. The wishy washy power system leaves lots of plot convenience, anything can happen so long as the author wills it, rather than it being grounded in the power system's scaling and rules. Pretty good ending that's not rushed. The biggest issue I have with this manga is that it feels like the last arc in any other manga. All of the characters are already trained, and have already been through large moments of their lives. Unlike Naruto for example, we don't experience that with them, we are simply told them. Leading to not being attached to the characters, being told what to feel is not an effective way to make people care about your characters. As such, while all the characters have decent designs, they are all shallow. Or rather, Hollow.

Overall, If you only care about fights, this is the manga for you. I do not recommend this otherwise.

Rating: 4/10