Hell's Paradise
Finished
Chainsaw Man
Chapter 163
Jujutsu Kaisen
Chapter 258
Welcome to the Dark Side!!! The recent Shonen trinity has several names with Dark Trio being the most famous among them. For those that knows the name already knows exactly which three franchises I'm going to talk about today. Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and Hell's Paradise make up the new Shonen trinity.
Warning, all three of these possibly give people nightmares. There's some form of nudity but mostly violent death moments. It's kinda impressive none of these got labeled as Seinen. Especially when a good amount of their stories comes dangerously close to stuff like Berserk. I don't recommend kids seeing even a piece of any whatsoever, it's truly graphic material.
I will be comparing all three of them. I will be honest I have more interest doing that than doing the same with the two previous Shonen trinities together. I'm not a fan of Naruto as well as some stuff over the years involving Dragon Ball turns me off. RIP Akira Toriyama, a true legend in his field. I figured this would be perfect to discuss close to or on Halloween this year.
I will kick this off with a first I never done before. Especially when it comes to many comparison blogs I done. I will be judging Chapter 1 as well as Episode 1 of all three franchises. To clarify, this is a good idea to start small. Of course overtime expectations can get rather high depending on things. I will try to keep things simple by discussing the beginning to each their stories.
My first thoughts on each first chapter of the Dark Trio honestly
Hell's Paradise
This beginning surprised me the most out of the three. We got a legendary ninja that claims wanting to die. But virtually every opportunity he kept resisting it. Keep in mind, he was sentenced to death. They go into details about every brutal death sentence they performed on him. He starts to realize thanks to an executioner, he still has a reason to live.
Very quickly this reminds me of Rurouni Kenshin because both stories involves legendary assassins that wants to life a peaceful life. It also reminds me of Deadman Wonderland because both protagonists are prisoners that had to survive Hell. Gabimaru also reminds me of Yu Yu Hakusho's Hiei as well as Hunter x Hunter's Killua.
Considering all three of them are assassins. Very skilled ones at that the comparison is fitting. The artwork is strangely interesting. I quickly came to like two of the main characters right off the bat. Parts of it also kinda reminds me of Berserk in many ways. Hunter x Hunter once again in a few ways I haven't mentioned.
Chainsaw Man
I will give this credit for taking a rather bold risk like Yu Yu Haksuho. In the first chapter, Denji gets murdered in a horrible way. He gets revived becoming the Chainsaw Man. You kinda felt bad then his revival quickly changed that to yeah rip em apart!!! This is a straight forward beginning learning some stuff about Denji.
His bond with a creature ultimately changed his life in a huge way. When he was getting revived, it reminded me of Parasyte when Shinichi prevented Migi from fully claiming his body. They also had a similar bond within their respective stories. Both these characters took the fight against creatures regular humans can't handle.
The artwork alone is very impressive stuff. Chainsaw Man design alone is easily one of my favorites to date in any Shonen series. Yes you can expect a lot of blood spill as the story goes on. It also somewhat similar to Tokyo Ghoul. Again both the protagonists became unique hybrids to protect humanity. It also reminds me of Marvel's Ghost Rider in a few ways too.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Once again this reminds me of Yu Yu Hakusho as well as Bleach. All three stories involves an high school student that becomes a protector against the supernatural. You get to learn just enough of Yuji's past to feel sorry for him. They had guts to have his grand father die within the first chapter. Don't worry he didn't get a rather unpleasant end like many characters do.
Yuji's personality is very similar to many Shone Jump's protagonists over the years. I was surprised he ate a cursed object just to see what would happen. To be fair, he wanted to save his friends from the supernatural. The other guy was struggling against em. To willing swallow a curse in an attempt to save people is something I must give praise for.
Jujutsu Kaisen quickly starts becoming more complex. In a similar matter to Hunter x Hunter. The artwork works for a first chapter to show some promise early on. Honestly, the story takes the perfect time to go dark. Yuji just started getting more interesting I can't wait to see what the future brings. There's also some aspects I could compare to Soul Eater as well.
A quick side note, I actually took the time to read all three stories online. This process took a week and an half to do. I was really excited to do this manga comparison. I also know some might ask me to do the same for the Big 3. Which is kinda already something I'm in the stages of planning out mostly manga comparison.
Comparing the Dark Trio to the Big 3
There's a few ways this differs from the last Shonen trinity. These stories are notably darker more meant for an older audience. They also surprisingly started manga wise the same year 2018. Currently Hell's Paradise is the only one to be finished. The other two franchises are currently ongoing. Another major difference is the insane level of detail within the artwork alone.
I do wanna point out Hell's Paradise for whatever reason not as presented in conversations as the other two franchises. Which sorta comes off like treating it a similar way Bleach got treated in the previous Shonen trinity. I am about to say some stuff not a lot of people are going to like. I personally could care less about Naruto, it just isn't my thing period.
I don't know what's actually more rude from some people. Either wanting to remove one of these series for another one or adding another one in altogether. Neither group was designed to work that way. There's a lot of reasons each one got selected for their particular trinity. I figured someone had to say it because it's just not right plus it's actually disrespecting the entire trinity too.
Bleach has it's problems but I still love it with an passion. Hands down One Piece was the best of them in nearly every possible way. Also since I'm taking shots at Naruto. I don't see any of those characters as ninjas!!! No I took one look at Gabimaru the Hollow in Hell's Paradise. Now that's what I call an ninja!!!
Even Ninja Scroll movie was way more shinobi than Naruto ever was. Maybe I'm very strict how I want to see ninjas portrayal in things. Honestly, I actually like all three these franchises in comparison. Each one has a few things the other two lacks. But together they make it a rather complete experience. A crossover would be rather difficult to pull off but somewhat possible.
Obviously people's taste changes overtime. The fact the Dark Trio exists proves the world needed a change. A lot of people wanted the writers to take more risks which this very group known for. Yes kids likely going to get nightmares watching or reading em. The stories are shorter making it easier to get into.
Personally you really can't go wrong with either group. Both sides has many things going for it. In truth it really depends on what you like more. Not only that, both of them are inspiring a lot of people too. I kinda prefer the Dark Trio for a few reasons. Mostly due to much dark stories with abilities done in ways I surprisingly haven't seen prior.
This is not to add salt towards the Big 3 by any means. I strongly felt One Piece is overall the best story out of both these groups hands down. The Big 3 is notably lighter stuff with some dark moments. Essentially the golden standard of the genre that helped put manga companies on the map. A very strong possibility a lot of otakus are deeply happy with it's success.
Can you imagine if the Big 3 wasn't successful? We likely wouldn't get the Dark Trio or any future ones for that matter. All these stories proves there's still a lot that can be done. Earlier I mentioned I'm amazed the Dark Trio didn't get labeled as Seinen. Seinen is basically a more mature stories focusing on male protagonists.
We are talking about stuff like Berserk that has some nightmare fuel moments. You kinda see that in all of them. Seinen isn't usually set up like Shonen where the main character fights to improve themselves. Seinen is actually more directly story driven in comparison. Jujutsu Kaisen is the most Shonen out of the three.
The Dark Trio is already changing things. Sadly some stories got altered out of no where like My Hero Academia because of it. Personally that story didn't need to go darker thus ruining the overall appeal. This is a negative inspired by them with some newer stories starting as darker stories. A great example of this being Demon Slayer, yes I heard a lot about it.
Some people also would mirror the Dark Trio to the Big 3. What I mean by this is each one heavily similar in many ways to a particular series in the other group. If you don't know some or any of them these won't be that obvious. But if you are a huge otaku, you quickly know which one spiritually following em.
Hell's Paradise is obviously following in Naruto's foots coughs way better story. In terms of the main character being an ninja with a similar system design to a degree. I felt this one was very obvious but not as much as the other two in comparison. Jujutsu Kaisen is hands down Bleach in so many ways. I also could say the same about Chainsaw Man following in One Piece's foot steps.
Yuji has a lot of strong similarities with Ichigo. There's so many concepts in Chainsaw Man already done differently in One Piece. Let's just say it's truly mind blowing!!! You actually could do a mess up, people quickly get it. Honestly I am curious to see what the next trio going to be. As a joke in a meme I made my own WTF Trinity with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Beastars and Undead Unluck.
Spoilers I will be revealing a lot of stuff in all three stories down below
Dark Trio comparison
Just like the Big 3, all of them are vastly different from each other. Two of them does have some strong similarities with each other. I felt Hell's Paradise being the one to stand out. Considering it's reputation from people wanting to remove it from the Dark Trio. I figured I should start the comparison with that first.
Hell's Paradise is essentially a polar opposite to Naruto. In Naruto, Naruto's main goal was to become the next hokage for his village. Therefore being the best ninja in the leaf village. He becomes the leader of the village for many years. In Gabimaru's case, he already was the best ninja of his village. Gabimaru goes from being an monster into a human being as the story goes on.
He wanted to live peacefully with his wife. But the clan didn't take kindly to that. Thus, he gets captured in order to sent him to those working for the shogun to carry out death sentences. An executioner/sword tester named Sagiri convinces him to go on a dangerous task for the shogun. This is also why it quickly reminded me of a classic Shonen story I absolutely love.
Rurouni Kenshin, both the main protagonists were legendary assassins. They had to use many challenges on their way to eventually living the rest of their lifes in peace. They also took a similar inspiration of a particular era in Japan. Kenshin in majority of the story doesn't kill people. In Gabimaru's case, he simply got forced to kill a lot of people as the story goes on.
Kenshin was the best manslayer in history. Only Shishio Makoto could rival his skills. Gabimaru was later revealed to be the greatest ninja with his title in history. I actually could see a crossover work with these two. Despite the supernatural stuff in Hell's Paradise, it's the most realistic of the Dark Trio. Rurouni Kenshin itself was among the most realistic Shonen stories of it's era.
Hell's Paradise also has a combat system somewhat similar to Pokemon. Where everyone has a particular element they represented. Depending on their opponents either has a higher or lower chances at winning fights. I also got to mention Tao the overall system it uses the energy comes from people's tandem's much like in Tokyo Ghoul's case.
This dangerous task was on a mysterious island with strange creatures we as well as humanoid plant people. Whom are called Lord Tensen that specialized in five techniques representing immortality. Shuten, Do'in, Shu'itsu, Taisoku and Bochu Jutsu. The last one was a major surprise since it actually was sex no joke.
Hell's Paradise I felt in terms of the pacing, how the story was told as well as in the art work the most constant story. Even with so much fighting somehow it actually works to it's favor here. Once again this actually has real ninjas!!! When you think about it Gabimaru and Rien in this particular case were two sides of the same coin.
Gabimaru was working with the others to escape the island literately going through hell. It was revealed he is in fact married with his wife still alive a big spoiler. In Rien's case, they lived with the Grand Master until they died. Rien became desperate spending one thousand years to revive her late husband. Effectively lying to everyone including her own creations the entire time.
Up next is Chainsaw Man, this was the first of the Dark Trio I learned about. When I watched the anime I was instantly hooked. I became even more sold as I kept reading chapters of the manga. Speaking of that, currently it's split into two parts. A lot of them do that like Naruto but the most famous example being JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Currently that's in Part 9 with each part changing out the main characters. Chainsaw Man does follow suit with that as we go into Part 2. I will talk about Part 1 first otherwise you would be very confused. Denji was forced to work off his late father's debt from the Yakuza. One night he gets ambushed by Zombie Devil that lead to his death.
It's very risky to kill off the main character very early on a story like Yu Yu Hakusho. Pochita the strange dog creature turns out to be the Chainsaw Devil. Denji's corpse got possessed by Pochita to become the Chainsaw Man. Shortly after this, a mysterious woman named Makina recruits him into her line of work to protect humanity.
A lot of his co-workers are either humans with several contracts to Devils or Fiends that's Devils taken over a human's corpse as a last resort. The most famous example of an Fiend was Power. I really felt my wife going to love her lol. Devils are supernatural beings that represents multiple types of fear. The more common the fear is the more powerful they'll become.
I'll give a quick example Chainsaw Devil by himself isn't going to trigger fear out of people. But Darkness Devil is a virtually guarantee fear to essentially be considered an deity. Denji agrees to help take down the Gun Devil whose responsible for a lot of deaths. Several panels with a long lists of names yeah!!!
Gun Devil is among the most common fears in the franchise. After Gun Devil gets taken down, Makima reveals her true colors to Denji. Up to that point, he had feelings for her shortly after they met. Makima was the Control Devil with a crazy plan to bring back the old, berserker Chainsaw Devil. To sum it up more directly, she carefully planned everything out to ruin Denji's life on purpose.
Makima up to this point was one of the scariest characters in the franchise. There's multiple things her concept represents since many nations were afraid of her powers. To help paint a picture, he made the Prime Meister agree to a particular deal. Which allowed Makima to control to the entire popularity of Japan.
Makima has multiple lifes through a ridiculous number of people. But wait there's more, she also has a lot of Devils and a few Fiends under her command too. Denji fights Makima at a cemetery eventually fighting her to fight him directly. Just when you think she won, here comes Denji to finish her off. Now for those with weak stomach I won't fully reveal everything Denji does to her but it's disgusting.
All of this just one Part 1 folks we're about to dive more into the insanity!!! In Part 2, a new main character named Asa was on the verge of dying. Until a mysterious voice spoke to her leading to Asa becoming an Fiend. It turns out she got possessed by War Devil aka Yoru. Denji's story in Part 1 was more of a hero story that does continue into Part 2's story.
Asa sorta reminds me very heavily in fact of Wednesday from Wednesday Netflix show. Yoru wants revenge against the Chainsaw Devil that's currently inside Denji. You should know Denji doesn't often speak to Pochita but due to how he gain the powers makes him very difficult to put down. This is vastly different for both Asa and Yoru's case.
It's two people that doesn't quite see eye to eye often. Asa wants to save Denji's life while Yoru doesn't care if Denji still has the Chainsaw Devil or not, she wants blood. I also need to mention a few critical things regarding a few characters. When Makima died, the Control Devil reincarnated as Nayuta a little girl.
Two of her sisters, Yoru and Fami working together to stop their other sister. The Death Devil whose actually the most feared Devil in existence. Let's be honest, Death is a really common fear most living beings has. Obviously it makes perfect sense to do such an concept here. There's more differences Yoru has from Denji to make her portions stands out from his.
Denji has to put this cord on his chest to transform into Chainsaw Man. Which also depends on how much blood he has. Devils can come back from any injury just drinking a little blood. Parts of his powers are somewhat similar to Marvel's Ghost Rider. Obviously, he's more of a berserker type that loves violence.
Both Asa with permission from Yoru or Yoru himself can transform objects, living beings and parts of locations into weapons. This is actually similar to two Joestar family members' powers respectively in Parts 4 and 5. Also considering she represents war, enough people afraid of war. Neither of them no longer needs to make physical contact to use their powers.
They are more vulnerable than Chainsaw Man whose more ridiculous in several ways. I also wanna make another point that's not intended to come off sexist by any means. Shonen is mostly aimed towards a younger male audience. Thus majority of the main characters are men. However there are a few notable exceptions when a story has a female protagonist.
A good example of this being Jolyne Cujoh in Part 6 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Part 2 is mostly about stopping the Death Devil. There's even a cult that's willing to do some truly horrific things to cause Denji and Asa's powers to go up. By making the public terrify of them both. I am really surprised the burning apartment with a lot of pets happened, I was disturbed by it.
The gore in either the anime or the manga is amazing stuff. I felt both sections of this story going to be great. I don't fully see some people issues with Part 2. I will say this I would prefer seeing a little less Denji. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love watching him cut up Devils as Chainsaw Man. I just felt Part 2 was suppose to be more Asa/Yoru's story.
I just don't want the author to lose focus trying to keep Denji around a little too much. Otherwise I'm absolutely loving everything else about it. If I had to pick a particular Devil that actually put chills right down my spine. There's absolutely no question it's the Falling Devil. I will confess I have a fear of heights aka falling.
The way this Devil recreates such a fear was mind blowing stuff. It somehow made that fear into one of the scariest things I ever experienced while reading the story. A random woman's gets ripped off then two of her extra arms in a particular angle kept the head above where one would be. This thing can even talk through the decapitated head perfectly.
The Falling Devil has some control over gravity as well as manipulating humans to fall off high places. Not only that she's dressed up like a chef too. Chainsaw Man couldn't kill her no matter what he tried. Ultimately her target was Asa causing a lot of craziness to happen. Eventually she decides to go back to hell.
Now you could only imagine how scary this character was to me. I usually don't feel fear when reading mangas. Let's be honest even throwing in Berserk, I never had a feeling like this before. In fact, for stuff like this I strongly felt Chainsaw Man to me is the best of the Dark Trio. I also liked how the author goes about the arcs, I felt that's done perfectly.
Jujutsu Kaisen is the most successful of the Dark Trio. I'm about to upset some people, it's also the most overrated. I will explain the story like the other two before I dive straight in to rip it apart. The story centers on an teenager named Yuji Itadori. He came across an cursed object that causes some of the cursed spirits to attack members of his high school club.
He assists an Jujutsu High student named Megumi to stop the cursed spirits. In desperation, Yuji does the unthinkable swallows the cursed object to possibly him save them from the cursed spirit. However this cursed object was one of twenty fingers of Sukuna. Whose the King of Curses that got reincarnated through well that.
Yuji ends up transferring to Jujutsu High to become an Jujutsu sorcerer. Cursed sprits is kinda like hollows in Bleach. Both are evil spirits that targets humans. More or less, cursed energy is virtually negative energy that could come from actual negative emotions or some concepts. Such as natural disasters, a particular villain group except Mahito represented this.
There's several major problems I simply can't ignore. Jujutsu Kaisen is too focused on nostalgia bringing a lot of stuff from many Shonen series. Without that, it really doesn't offer much. A lot of the newer chapters has a lot of the same problems. You can tell they got rushed out in the art work. You also can tell due to rushing, parts of the story telling not going into the right direction.
Culling Game arc started to go down at a point. The following arc is still falling with the newer chapters becoming too predictable. Sukuna obviously currently struck in the Madara Uchiha problem. When one powerful character that's incredibly skilled as well as tedious takes on everyone. This final fight with Sukuna directly following his victory against Gojo kinda painful to read.
The author uses a pen name while keeping their identity a secret. Well that's fine but having some racist dialogue late into the manga series however isn't at all. Also Sukuna vs Gojo as amazing that fight truly was. Let's be brutally honest it was way too soon to do the fight. We gave us such an epic showdown. Now everything that's going to follow simply not going to come close to that.
I will say I surprisingly did enjoy Kenjaku having fun with Fumihiko. Along with Sukuna vs Gojo being the only two notable parts in the current arc I liked. I do actually like a lot of the characters. I really didn't like some of their deaths either. Obviously Gojo's death isn't setting well with people. But I also didn't like the principal to Yuji's school getting killed by the other principal.
Jujutsu Kaisen tries to be the next of every Shonen series it's inspired by. It simply isn't nearly as good as them. Not only that, I do respect what Yuji has been through. I felt he's the perfect protagonist for this story. Sadly the current direction likely going to cause people to leave the franchise. I highly doubt there's anything they could possibly do to change that otherwise.
Another reason I'm mixed towards Jujutsu Kaisen is there's a sequel anime directly based on Culling Game. I am not sure if it would also include the final arc or not. But skipping two shorter, more decent story arcs that does have some importance to the story isn't right. I do see Yuji being the next Ichigo with everything considered.
The author tried to combine Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter and possibly Soul Eater respectively. Jujutsu Kaisen heavily pulls from all those. At least, Hell's Paradise differs itself much more from Rurouni Kenshin in comparison. Chainsaw Man did a more interesting usage of Bleach's inspiration too.
To me, it felt like without pulling all of this. Jujutsu Kaisen wasn't going to be a good story on it's own. The author chosen to keep the training wheels on too long. Which further explains the current decline in the manga. Yes Megumi was inspired by Hiei but more Sasuke. I surprisingly like the character but the author really do him dirty with the story now.
One of the main reasons the heroes got involved with Culling Game was to save his sister. Unfortunately, she got possessed by an old sorceress. Who was obsessed with Sukuna leading to a fight where she does also killing the vessel off. Obviously being his sister while Sukuna himself now possessing Megumi during all of this.
I don't know if the author getting rushed or simply wanna stop writing his story or out of ideas. It is very possible any or all could be reasons for it's decline. We even had a black hole got used as a bomb that killed a character we barely see any real combat from prior. I will be brutally honest, Bleach got it's final story arc rushed heavily.
I am glad Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach is directly involved to make the anime adaptation of it better. He plans to add majority of the stuff cut due to getting rushed as well as being sick at the time. I don't think the author of Jujutsu Kaisen going to do the same for the sequel anime. I'm quickly approaching a point, please end the story already it's not going to get much better.
Revealing my favorite characters in the Dark Trio
Hell's Paradise
5. Sagiri
4. Shion
3. Gantetsusai
2. Gabimaru
1. Chobei
Chainsaw Man
5. Galgali
4. Falling Devil
3. Yoru
2. Power
1. Denji
Jujutsu Kaisen
5. Jogo
4. Yuji
3. Gojo
2. Maki
1. Yuta
Ranking the Protagonists
4. Yuji
3. Asa
2. Denji
1. Gabimaru
Ranking the Dark Trio
3. Jujutsu Kaisen
2. Hell's Paradise
1. Chainsaw Man
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