Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Hell's Paradise
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garfield15
 Posts: 1535 |
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Well, the anime is up and coming if that's what you meant. The manga itself actually ended a while ago. The anime announcement was a bit of a surprise because of it. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 13918 |
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I can totally see why this show was part of the "Dark Trinity" of Shonen Jump titles, and the atmosphere, the colors, characters, the all-star cast, and the conflict so far have me very interested...especially Gabimaru's quest to be reunited with his wife.
Also reminds me of anime Suicide Squad. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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This show is pretty weird, half of the story seems like it can't wait to be rid of the other half. They introduce this whole criminal death game aspect, but they just constantly kill them off-screen and the main character is so much stronger than them that the show doesn't even bother showing his fight against them. Actually the real threat is these other people who are also going to be sent there. Why even have that criminal aspect then?
Also, why bother trying to kill the executioner? Sure she's slowing him down, but why not just run in one direction? She can't keep up with him anyway and the whole "priority" aspect doesn't mean nothing else matter, his chance of them not killing him are much better if she's still alive at the end. Maybe it's just supposed to be dumb action, but there's not a lot of action for that to work... |
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b-dragon
Posts: 498 |
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He was operating under some (reasonably valid) assumptions: that she's an active hindrance presently. That even should he escape, find the macguffin, and return, she'll try to kill him for stepping out of line...y'know, as she said she would. That in a fight where she isn't emotionally hamstrung, she is potentially deadly. That no one else will care if he "bends" the rules except her. Therefore it makes sense to just eliminate the obstacle when she's off guard. Until emotions and ethics yadayada. And yeah, I do hope she gets to be a more active character going forward. I like Sagiri, and want to see her be the badass we got a glimpse of before. |
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db999
Posts: 337 |
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I actually really loved that part. As you said none of the other criminals would really be able to hold a candle to Gabimaru, so the author decides to get rid of most of them to 1 sell the danger of this island, 2 to subvert expectations, and 3 up the mystery aspect of the whole series, which I think was actually a really strong decision. The criminal aspect is also there to set up the main themes of the series which is all about showing the hypocrisy of people who think that killing is ever ok. So while most of the criminals die really early it's setting up most of them to be morally complex so it can explore these themes and also give a reason for why everybody just doesn't leave the island. So while the death game doesn't happen that actually makes the series way more interesting to me. edit. Also this is a shounen jump manga so it needed to differentiate itself from the rest of the magazine, ok technically it’s a Jump+ title, so I think it’s pretty clear this was done in order to drive reader engagement and to shock the audience |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4611 Location: New York |
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Two episode in and I can see why Shounen Jump’s Twitter essentially sold the series as “member Ninja Scroll?” There’s a very similar vibe even with a wildly different art style. I do like the directions the first few episodes have gone, setting up one cliche only to go around the other way, even if it’s something as basic as our hero essentially lying to himself to make his end easier.
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druv
Posts: 40 |
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I really hope this series takes a turn with Sagiri soon because "female character presented as cool and competent in the first episode/s and is then useless at the thing she was presented as competen at" is too common and sucks.
Especially in this show where Gabimaru is such an obvious counterpoint: he has his doubts and fears, but end up dealing with them in a way to survive, while her doubts and fears makes her essentially dead weight. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 13918 |
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I'm really curious to see the origin to these creatures and why they have such a religious bent to them. And exactly how sentient are they?
Yuzuriha absolutely steals every scene she's in, and I'm not just talking about that outfit, body, or Rie Takahashi voice. She has such charisma that she could probably entrance most men that aren't a loyal husband like Gabimaru who knows all her tricks. And she's the type of girl you can never really predict, though it makes me more curious about her real backstory. I feel bad for Sagiri that she's at a point where she's questioning her own relevancy as a main character and getting princess carried twice in one episode. Kensho Ono yelling "nii-san!" was not what I expected but I'm interested to see the journey Chobei and Toma go on. They seem like the biggest wild cards here. |
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Dumas1
Posts: 85 |
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Does the manga ever establish where the island is? The first episode says it's somewhere southwest of Japan, "beyond the Ryukyu kingdoms," but that's fairly vague. The mix of Buddist and Taoist images in the living statues suggests it's somewhere in the old Sinosphere. My personal theory is that it's Formosa, which lies in that direction and also quite close to China. It's also a candidate for the location of Mt. Penglai (Horai in Japanese), a legendary dwelling or gathering place of immortals and a source of the Elixir of Life.
The shape we saw in the last episode doesn't match, but it's at most a conjecture from someone who only saw a bit of the island and doesn't seem to be much of a mariner. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 254 |
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Formosa is the old Portuguese name for Taiwan. Considering the story mentions the 47 ronin of the Ako Jiken, that would place it several years after 1703 at the earliest (the two brothers who mention it were small children when it happened). Taiwan was definitely inhabited and had already been invaded, colonized and fought over by several countries by that time. Japan had also been trading with Taiwan for more than a hundred years by that point as well, so it seems unlikely that it could be a candidate for this seemingly isolated, unexplored and uninhabited (by humans, so far) island. |
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Dumas1
Posts: 85 |
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You're probably right, I'm just a bit vague on when the story's set. Anyway, the indigenous population has been there since well before the Chinese, Portuguese, or anyone else tried settling there. It's just that Taiwan seems to be the origin for a strangely large number of assassins and weirdos in anime and manga.
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ronri
 Posts: 86 |
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The reviewer mentions an inconsistency between the presentation of Sagiri's character but I don't believe that's the case at all. She has doubts and insecurities that prevent her from being the skilled samurai/executioner that she should be, but that weakness acts as unfair confirmation bias for the other samurai who view her unfavorably or unsuited for the role. It tries to handle her character's plight in a multi-faceted way, with the initial obstacle being sexism and her self-doubt, then much later in the series, how that culminates to her duty as a samurai for the Shogunate vs the bonds she's made in her journey.
As for complaints of Sagiri being "useless" after her initial introduction... Well I'm a fan of the manga and Sagiri is my favorite character, so that's enough of a hint that she truly ends up pulling her weight in the series. It's worth noting that while Gabimaru is generally more experienced in battle, this experience lends to him taking unnecessary risks during a fight. In contrast, Sagiri's rigid personality often makes her reluctant to take the initiative, but when she gets her shit together her fighting skills really shine due to her measured approach. Honestly these early parts are somewhat unflattering for her character as they serve more in laying the groundwork of her personality flaws than anything to do with her actual contributions for the rest of the series. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 498 |
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This is definitely the Sagiri I wanted after episode 1, and the action delivered as well. Now that she's no longer a liability, I look froward to seeing what fresh insanity they island- and the creatures on it- have in store.
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MFrontier
Posts: 13918 |
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It was nice to see Sagiri really come into her own and find her own form of being a samurai that is both true to her desire to be a true Asaemon while also being a woman. Even managed to get a in a good team-up with Gabimaru and bring Rokurota to peace, mentally immature as he was.
I kind of want to see a flashback to the Asaemon training together. I wonder how well they knew Touma. Um...surprise lesbian sex? |
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3ngag3
Posts: 222 |
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This episode screenshot is on point...
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