Hell's Paradise (2018-2021)
It's a story about the best shinobi of his village, Gabimaru. He gets set up by his clan to be executed. However none of them were working on him. A particular executioner named Sagiri offered him an alternative to his fate. Obviously after a little time he accepts the task. He goes to a mysterious island with other death row inmates.
All of them were accompanied by executioners from the Shogun. The task is to receive an elixir of immortality also called Tan. This has a rather unique plant theme you won't expect while getting into it. Majority of the story, we see these characters literately go through Hell to survive. They eventually get lucky to get even smaller breaks, it gets that intense.
I won't shy away from the surprising level of violence, sexual content and possible nightmare fuel content. This manga was unusual in terms of the extra effort put into the artwork. Not to mention, how you could read it officially online from other Shonen Jump stories. Usually costing a bit more than those in comparison.
Also this had a few years run compared to the other two series within the Dark Trio. Jujutsu Kaisen about to end this week while Chainsaw Man got awhile. I came to like everything about this. Most of the characters were quite interesting. They also kept Gabimaru a certain amount of over powered without ruining the story.
I mean come on One Punch Man!!! This would be my Naruto, I don't care what those fans say otherwise. Hell's Paradise is surprisingly constant from start to finish. The author did state to constantly edit himself while writing this. Personally I prefer an author doing that than another author throwing out concepts without fully realizing the entire point of it all.
Yes I'm looking at you, the author of Jujutsu Kaisen!!! There's a lot of interesting back stories as the story goes on. The main enemy group, Lord Tensen is mostly humanoid plant people. There's a major twist regarding them at the end. I knew from the start who my two favorite characters going to be. Neither disappointed me as the story went on either.
Obviously Gabimaru a changed man that wants more than anything to be with his wife. Aza Chobe aka the bandit king was a rather interesting antihero character. Even his ending portions in the story were quite unexpected. Eventually several factors led to a surprising end to those that survived. Even Gabimaru could life a peaceful life now.
His former master over played his hand, he got a fate worst than death. For me, the one part of the story that sticks in my mind the most. When Gabimaru's clan came after him. Most of them were receiving praise as well as criticisms from Gabimaru. Then they died smiling afterwards is something you don't forget.
This task was unexpectedly brutal from the start. You would be very surprise all those that survived in the end honestly. So many fights in later portions, some might felt repetitive. Honestly, all that fighting I felt was justify in this story. You really see how badly they wanna live. All the insane situations they had to endure on the way.
The story ends up being a parallel on the same concept being love. Gabimaru wants to be with his wife no matter what. So does Rien with her deceased husband. Gabimaru was becoming a better person despite all the chaos. Rien finally realized how she became a monster in the end. She also created Lord Tensen for her own resurrection plan that would involve killing a lot of people.
Which would've taken place from the same country the inmates and executioners came from. In the end, an unexpected answer changed Rien. She asked Gabimaru why not destroy her husband's remains? He gave a very pleasant, heart felt answer. She chose to die while healing Gabimaru and Sagiri. Also some previously killed off characters came back as well.
Hell's Paradise is very true to it's name. They go to what seemed to be a beautiful island with a dark secret. This almost doesn't classifies as an Shonen story. Considering Gabimaru doesn't improve as much as your typical Shonen heroes do in these stories. Then again, he already was the best shinobi of his village.
In a way, he actually didn't need to get any better. He does get some changes to how he fights. He does end up as a surprisingly pleasant person with everything considered. Also this is a surprisingly dark story with not as many light moments. Which kinda worked to it's advantage. Not only that, the artwork is truly amazing stuff too.
There's plenty of twists as the story goes on. I know there's people that wants this out of the Dark Trio. In all honestly, this group wasn't designed to operate like that. If you don't like what's in the Dark Trio. Simply go make up your own trio instead. Hell's Paradise I felt is a great story. Sadly underrated and possibly overlooked from the other two stories within the Dark Trio itself.
I will talk about the ending, it's beautifully done. On the way back to the country they got sent from. They quickly came up with a plan. The samurai among the death row inmates would get forgotten by the Shogun. Some characters left to other locations altogether. The brothers went back to crime in a new location.
We get an unexpected time skip to a year following the events. Sadly we don't see Gabimaru talk to Sagiri again. At least, we see her to talk to his wife. Despite all of this, the story had a great, peaceful ending. You really couldn't ask for more than that. It's kinda like Yu Yu Hakusho's ending in that sense. Hell's Paradise is a story you should consider reading soon.
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