Anime Review:
“Hell’s Paradise”
- Episode 2 -
“Screening and Choosing”
Warning: Cartoon Violence & Spoilers Ahead
Hey fellow Hivers! Back again for another review of the new series,
Hell’s Paradise”. My
previous post was on episode one so this time we’re looking at episode two’s “Screening & Choosing.” And right from the start I have to say this time I was much more entertained. MAPPA studio doesn’t hold back with the action in this one and really shows the audience what kind of series this will be.
Episode two’s “Screening and Choosing” starts off rather gruesome. It opens with a flashback within a flashback of Gabimaru’s executioner-handler, Yamada Asaemon, executing a criminal while remembering how skilled her fathwr before her was at the same profession. She starts with a tale about how a deathrow convict once asked to be killed while telling a story. Supposedly her father’s execution-technique with his sword was sow fast and smooth that, even with their head chopped-off, the convict had still continued to tell their story before eventually dying.
It felt rather daring to start an episode with criminal execution but there’s a repeating theme in the series about the weight of death and killing, so it makes sense that the story would have dark moments like this. Plus, it wouldn’t be a proper anime without a durge of flashbacks: here we have Yamada as a child, watching her father end a man.
Gabimaru’s executionar-handler, Yamada Asaemon, comes from a family of so-called “neck choppers.” She talks about how while death and killing can be very weighted concepts in everyday life and society in general, it was the legacy profession of her family. Death was how they made a living. Killing criminals deemed past the point if redemption, hopefully learning more about human anatomy and makong medicine from their corpses.
The truth within the blade.
Yamada Asaemon is both proud amd troubled by the mantle of duty she has inherited. It left me wondering if the only issue with her killing-technique was not as technical as she believed but rather a problem of intent. Her teaching told her that the blade reflected the truth of the human soul, whether a person was bad or good, whether they died with or without suffering. The very act of killing told her not just about those labeled unforgivable but about herself as well. I think she imagines her imperfect technique causes those she kills an instant of pain because she is actually the one who feels that pain.
MAPPA studio does a great job framing the kill shot here. The execution of those judged unfit for society is not just a solo process: someone must judge the criminal, someome must tie them up, another person must blind them so they live their last moments in anticipatory fear, and other people must restrain and hold them so that the executioner can carry out their finishing touch.
This is perhaps fan-service but it can also be seen as Yamada’s soul which she may believe is being corrupted or burdened by all the lives she’s ended. It is hard to dedicate your existence to something that feels intrinsically wrong.
After these flashbacks, we return to to the present where Yamada and other executioner-handlers guard death-row convicts seated for an audience with the shogun. It’s an interesting set-up, a small crowd in a white partitioned area on a beautiful beach, armed standing guards, and a stage with officials and the head leader.
I’ve lately in certain recent anime that distant shots can be a bit low in quality but here get a very detailed display of the beach’s mixed assembly.
The shogun beach scene gives us a lead-in to the other deathrow convicts who will potentially be accompanying Gabimaru and Yamada to the mystical Shinsenkyo Island. At first some dismiss the task of retrieving an elixir of immortality as fanciful—especially after seeing what happened to one of the shogun’s retainers who recently traveled to Shinsenkyo—but one of the executioners, Eizen, quickly beheads him. This reveals the what happens if they refuse.
It’s both creepy and also a little pretty so see a body with flowers growing out of it — even more bizarre is that thr man is dead but comatose while the plants from within overwhelm him.
It was kind of funny to see one of the biggest deathrow convicts get up to leave and one of the executioners end him in an instant. This both shows the consequences and how formidable Yamada’s friend Eizen is.
After seeing death granted to quitters so quickly, the rest of the convicts all agree to try and retrieve the immortality elixir in exchange for the shogun’s pardon—but of course that’s too easy and the shogun appears to be either a practical or sick man: there is supposedly not enough room on the boats destined for Shinsenkyo … and kindly asks them to “reduce their numbers.”
So after some grim exposition and a lot of talk, we get to see some of the rest of the cast in action:
A young bandit-king.
A slippery kunoichi.
A masked giant.
And a mad swordsman.
There’s an almost touching moment where they ask Gabimaru why he hasn’t joines the killing—since he’s a famous ninja assassin—and he says something along the lines of “I promised my wife to be less violent” and “There is nothing more humane than not killing another person” but when reminded he must kill and retrieve the immortality-elixir to see his wife again … he’s like, “Here I go slaughtering again!”
Told he has no choice but to kill in order to proceed, Gabimaru reluctantly follows as required.
One of the biggest points of this episode is that death can be be quick and messy, which Gabimaru captures in his own string of barehanded executions.
It’s all incredibly brutal and this repeats the reality that these are all murderers, which makes them perfect for a circus of bloodlust.
All the convicts are pretty brutal but no one kills with the ease and violence of Gabimaru, making his work look like that of a wild animal compared to the others bloody brawling.
The resulting carnage looks like a blood tornado just tore through the beach. And beauti, Gabinmaru’s power tears through the partitions to reveal the ocean behind it.
Yamada looks at Gabimaru’s imagined soul within her sword and sees someone entrenched in death, someone who carries the guilt of his actions and moves forward.
I like that Yamada finds a potentual solution to her discomfort with killing in Gabimaru’s practicality about killing but also aversion to it based on a promise to his wife to be maybe less violent. They both find themselves steeped in death but it’s also, for now, a necessary part of their lives.
This was a much better episode than the first one. Watching it made me wondee why Hell’s Paradise didn’t start with this and just make their first episode a flashback for two or three.
Being familiar with the manga, I have a basic idea of pivotal events and the ending but I do feel more interested in MAPPA’s anime adaptation now. There’s really nothing as detailed as the manga art but the anime style is as usual a lot cleaner. Plus there’s nothing that can compete with color, seeing characters and environments in motion, and the expectedly badass soundtracks. I really likes getting to see the other supporting characters in full moving color. There were a couple moments during the fights where things got a little too blurry or distorted but I understand that’s a perspective or stylistic choice. Who am I to judge? I can barely draw stick figures. I think Hell’s Paradise could potentially improve a lot from here and I really can’t wait to see the beautiful scenery and hauntingly grotesque creatures and villains on Shinsenkyo Island.
If you’re interested in this new anime series, here’s some trailers to help decide if this is a show for you!