【Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku】 Dark-Fantasy x Action! Cited as the most popular manga series on Shounen Jump+ in 2018!!

Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku is a Japanese dark-fantasy franchise written and illustrated by Yuji Kaku.

The manga series was serialized in the Shounen Jump+ website and platform. Its chapters are compiled and collected into 13 separate volumes. The manga series has over 4 million copies in circulation, worldwide.

An anime adaptation of the manga was also announced recently in 2021, with the anime adapted by MAPPA.

The story is set in the Edo period of Japan, and follows the ninja Gabimaru alongside the executioner Yamada Asaemon. The both of them are in search of the elixir of immortality.

The manga starts off by showing a young shinobi, Gabimaru, held captive by the enemy, while a woman named Sagiri questions him. Gabimaru is set for execution.

They try beheading him, burning him alive, but his body is soo trained to the brink of immortality, that nothing has any effect on him. They try Ushizaki, tying his both legs to running cows, but even that fails as the cows are unable to slit him apart. As Sagiri questions him, he realizes that him getting caught must have been setup by the village chief.

Gabimaru tells the recorder that he was quite skilled in the art of killing, enough to be acknowledged by the village chief and be married to his daughter. But since the daughter was so sheltered, it was off-putting for him. So when he tried to leave her, her father set him up, or so he says.

The warden comes up to the recorder and tells her to be careful of the shinobi. The shinobi is known as “Gabimaru the Empty” who is known for being a cold-blooded killing machine. He even killed 20 men before they were able to arrest him.

Gabimaru realizes that he is resisting for no reason and decides to end it tomorrow. They boil him alive the next day but he survives that as well. When all else fails, as a last attempt, they bring him to Sagiri Asaemon, revealing that she belongs to a family of executioners. Sagiri was known as The Beheader.

Instantly, Gabimaru realizes that Asaemon is the real deal. She dashes towards him with a sword and his instincts compel him to dodge. As they battle, Gabimaru realizes that he doesn’t want to die and defends himself against Asaemon’s onslaught.

Asaemon tells Gabimaru to stop lying to himself about coming to terms with his own death. In reality he loves his wife. He has attachment to his wife because she is the only one who ever cared about him, but he is in denial about this fact.

Gabimaru remembers the real reason which lead to his capture. He wanted to live a normal life with his wife but the village and the chief wouldn’t allow it to happen.

Asaemon stops him in his tracks when she shows him a writ of pardon issued by the Shogunate which would allow him to live a normal life. But she says there is one condition before she hands it over.

Her condition is to go to Nirvana in search of the Elixir of Immortality. She explains how the Shogunate has sent many people to the island and all that has returned was a boat with flowers in it and the bodies of the people cut up.

The shogun has ordered to find people on death row to go there and get the elixir for him. Asaemon also informs him of his wife who has shut herself out and is waiting for him. She asks Gabimaru if he is willing to go through these ordeals to get his freedom.

The warden resists letting them go. Gabimaru finally gets serious, using his ninjutsu to kill the guards, while Asaemon holds off the warden. He agrees to finding the elixir of life at any cost.

Will Gabimaru be reunited with his wife?