Anime Review:
Hell’s Paradise
- Episode 3 -
Weakness and Strength
WARNING:
Cartoon Violence & Some Spoilers Might Sting!
Hello, fellow Hivers. I’m back again for a review of the Hell’s Paradise anime’s third episode in which we get more development on the stakes for the convicts and executioners’ quest for the immortality elixir on the mystical Shinsenkyo Island. This third segment follows not only main characters—legendary ninja assassin Gabimaru the Hollow and kind law-abiding executioner Yamada Asaemon—but gives more glimpses at other duo’s reaction to the extraordinary absurdness of their destination.
In case this is your first time reading from this review series on Hell’s Paradize, here are links to my other previous reviews on this show:
Hell’s Paradise - Ep. 1 Review
Hell’s Paradise - Ep. 2 Review
I think last episode’s title shot was one of the initial shots of all the convicts sitting in front of the shogun and his men but I don’t remember exactly.
Episode three’s Weakness and Strength kicks off with a another brutal scene: a young Gabimaru recalls watching his ninja-village’s leader being run through and pin-cushioned by arrows, spears, and swords by masked ninja from their village … but the old man miraculously survives. According to Gabimaru the village chief claimed to be unkillable due to having drank the legendary elixir of immortality. In the present, Gabimaru tells Yamada that’s how he knows the elixir is real but that he doesn’t know if it’s truly on the mystical Shinsenkyo Island.
Like episode two before it, episode sure knows how to hook thr audience from the start. Last time we saw Yamada Asaemon, the executioner woman, lop off two criminals’ heads—but this time we’re presented with the intimidating chief of Gabimaru’s ninja village … before several masked ninja basically throw an armory of weapons at them, which all mostly hit their mark.
I want to say this crowd of masks represents the dehumanizing nature of killing, or the replaceability of agents in the ninja-assassin world—but really they just look super badass which is more than enough.
Why would a village of legendary ninja-assassins serve one man? Because the gap in power between them and him is thiz monstrous: how does one depose a guy who can take a sword through the skull with a smile on his face?
Another great thing about this scene, is that no major villain or big-bad has been introduced yet, so to see the man who betrayes Gabimaru to the shogun, the father of his beloved wife Yui gives us a potential future target for our main character Gabimaru.
It’s also nice to see a younger Gabimaru and his potential childhood friends or rivals.
Meanwhile on the Shinsenkyo Island in the present, we get conflicting perspectives on their mystical surroundings: Yamada finds the extremely-wide variety of plant life beautiful, while Gabimaru calls it creepy.
He explains that most of these species shouldn’t be able to grow there, or alongside eachother, hinting at their possibly artifical origins due to their seemingly impossible placement. While Yamada Asaemon is a specialist when it comes to execution, swordsmanship, and medicine—Gabimaru’s observation seems almost impressive until you wonder why she wouldn’t know the same information. Maybe the plants are too exotic and unknown to her? Perhaps he learned about foreign flora while concocting poisons for his ninja-assassin work?
Due to their previous rapport or possibly because he doesn’t view Yamada as a threat, Gabimaru breaks the rope binding his hands …
… Yamada responds to Gabimaru freeing his hands by threatening to chop his head off.
I like that Yamada’s not a softie and is willing to slice heads if necessary, even Gabimaru, but she has shown hesitancy.
While left suddenly pondering whether or not to kill Gabimaru, his head apparently gets smashed by a giant chained wrecking ball — but he miraculously survives. Him and Yamada then see another executioner and their convict who has decided to eliminate the competition on the island—other convicts. Yamada looks to her coworker and he explains that he doesn’t care what the convicts do as long as they either get the elixir or die—since he’d rather be home.
Despite his size, Gabimaru can definitely take a hit from this bloodthirsty monk’s assortment of weapons.
Gabimaru kicking a spear into the monk, after flinging the much larger man in the air.
How did the crazy monk survive a spear to the gut? He’s got armor sown into his chest and abdomen.
And yet despite his seemingly endless arsenal and size, Gabimaru makes quick work of the giant monk.
Since his convict is dead, Yamada’s coworker chops off the monk’s head and proceeds to leave while giving her and Gabimaru a warning: the island isn’t the only one with deadly secrets.
Yamada’s coworker says she can’t trust someone like Gabimaru—despite them both being paid to kill people: he is criminal who lives on the wrong side of the law.
He goes on to say that there will be endless betrayals, which have already started among the lawless.
Some are already crafting alliances.
Some are planning to attain freedom through any means necessary.
When Yamada’s coworker offers to kill Gabimaru so she as a woman can return home before the approaching chaos breaks out, Gabimaru skill-checks him tapping the guy’s sword back into its sheath when he tries to draw it.
Before the other executioner leaves, Gabimaru is warned that his ninja-village has decided to kill him on the island soon, and Yamada learns that the new leader of the executioners will be decided by the Shinsenkyo Island quest—a place where unexpected tragedies may occur that will be quickly blamed on their lawless company.
While these new developments were intriguing, I was annoyed this information was conveyed in dialogue instead of action—like one of Yamada’s trusted coworkers trying to kill her. But this does set up a decent fight between Yamada and Gabimaru later, since he calculates that Yamada will be a weakness to him later when his fellow ninja arrive to kill him. The solution? He decides that killing her before the two of them become any friendlier would be better.
Even though we get a still-shot of his fellow ninja, it still feels odd that Gabimaru would appear so fearful of them due to his legendary skill and supernatural prowess—maybe something that in his village is not exactly unique. And yet, the true source of his fear feels like the monstrous old man we saw at the start of the episode—his village leader/father-in-law, which makes a lot more sense when we find out what truly happened to Gabimaru’s parents seconds later.
Very quickly we see how skilled Yamada is and how conflicted Gabimaru is about the decision to kill her.
I believe this is him trying to be nice.
Gabimaru’s freshly skewered parents who were deemed weak due to expressing love for their child.
And here we have the skewerer himself—Gabimaru’s father in law/ mentor/ father-figure/ boss. The dynamic between Gabimaru and the village chief must be a little awkward.
I like that Yamada isn’t shown as completely helpless, while Gabimaru’s going easy on her due to his emotional conflictiom she manages to put up a pretty good fight against someone who basically has super powers.
I like the above imagery of all the grotesque hands clamoring over the naked figures of Gabimaru and Yamada, as if to illustrate the burden and guilt they feel about the lives they’ve taken. It shows that they’re, while not perfectly moral, still sensible human beings that know they have done something that might’ve not been truly necessary. Monsters exist but the only thing that stays the same is change so snuffing out evil, can potentially eliminate the possibility of a future chance for good.
Gabimaru’s wife Yui.
One of my other issues in this episode is that while Gabimaru’s wife Yui, the ninja-chief’s daughter, acts as his moral compass—I had a hard time just accepting that Yamada was good … just for the sake of being good? We know from last episode that she got her sense of honor and duty from her father, who was also an executioner, so it would’ve been nice to see her receive moral guidance from him, or her mother, or even a baby sitter. Instead, she’s just used as a reminder for Gabimaru of his wife.
I thought this part was a bit much …
… But I really like the imaginary presence of the village ninja-chef, reminded me of the Ninja Scroll anime movie from back when. Also, he kind of looks like an older version of Toguro from Yuyu Hakusho.
This was a little confusing me to: because the village chief looked solid while the imaginary presence of Gabimaru’s wife Yui looked almost ghost-like, so it made me wonder if she was dead or not.
This turn of events felt a little rushed but I don’t remember feeling that way while reading the manga—plus it just makes Gabimaru seem less bad.
Gabimaru breaks Yamada’s sword during this fight so her using her scabbard to sheathe his sword felt like a nice touch.
It was nice for the episode to finally switch to a different pair of characters—not that I don’t like Gabimaru and Yamada but there was a lot of focus on them. I find this crazy swordsman slightly humorous and his scene really reminds you how gruesome Hell’s Paradise is and how strange Shinsenkyo Island is—there’s moths with faces and flower-sprouting poison in their abdomens! Also it’s a bit ridiculous that they would have this tiny kid in charge of this giant of a man.
At first you’re led to think—how cute or pretty, this colorful bug landed on his hand …
and then the swordsman remembers what happened to the Shogun’s last expedition when he sees this moth’s weird demonic face.
No hesitation: survival at all costs.
Why? Because the crazy man and the magic ninja are the only ones paying attention. Also, this kid doesn’t know he’s on a show with the word hell in it, which means bad stuff will happen.
I’d say it doesn’t get creepier than that but I’d be lying.
This post ended up being a lot longer than I planned: I’ll have to make it a lot shorter in the future haha
HELL’S PARADISE has been decent so far! If you like anime, ninjas, samurai, or supernatural stuff—check it out and see if it’s the kind of show for you!
I’ll end this post with some final screenshots and Youtube trailers.
Image Sources:
Cover Pic
iPhone screenshots from streaming site
