Looking at the cover page of the very first chapter feels like opening the gate to Hell, matching perfectly with its title: Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku. This contrast of Hell and paradise is exactly what you will get in this manga. Suffer and joy, beauty and ugly, rough and smooth, all this at the same time! How could such a contrast story work? How is it possible to create a pure evil protagonist, but still be a kind-hearted hero? How can you make a total madness of action, but remaining sane? All these questions will be answered in this Hell’s paradise!

Note: see below for a short overall review.

- Story (8/10):
The story itself starts as simple as it could: a bunch of criminals go to an island where nobody came back from until now. Each of them gets an executioner to overwatch their doings. The mission: bring the Shogunate the elixir of life, which may lay on the island. However, just one of them gets a full pardon if she or he comes back… Until now, it sounds like any other battle royal story. Of course the action, the characters and art are nice to watch, but with such a simple story the joy remains simple… At least, that’s what you may think! After the start it begins to develop and construct its own world on this island, literally!
The best way to show that, is the power concept. For example in Naruto or My Hero Academia the concept of chakra/jutsu or quirks are mentioned at best in 2-3 sentences, and it is there from the beginning. You just accept that is the power of this world. However, not in this manga! You will experience a new kind of power or the evolving of it at the same time as our characters. It is like seeing the birth of something new, but not like in a ‘training arc’, rather like fighting an undefeatable boss again and again, until you suddenly learn something which increases your chances to kill it. So you try harder and harder, until you finally win! This struggle makes it so exciting and real!
Okay-okay, these are the reasons for a really good action manga and a basic good story, but for an 8 out of 10 you need more… And you get it! After the roots of this power concept are deep enough, the main story, worldbuilding, character development and backstory trees can finally grow! Learning more about this living hell of an island, about our protagonists and antagonists, while the outstanding action keeps the whole natural and thrilling! Not to mention, that at every corner something sudden can happen, which holds the death tense permanently.
And while you learn more, your own morals get questioned. Are the criminals good? Are the Shogunate/executioners bad? Is being weak the true strength? Is the meaning of life to die? Of course, right now these sound like total nonsense, but this balance of contrasts is the core of this manga. It makes you think. And a story which does that, is truly outstanding!
However, there are some little stains on it. First, it touches the dark/mature surface, but at the end it fears to really dive in. So nearing the end the surprise elements get duller. The second problem is the enormous amount of action, which is amazing, but suppresses the story.

- Art (9/10):
I saw some truly extraordinary manga artists in my life, like Boichi (Dr. Stone, Sun-Ken Rock) or Takeshi Obata (Death Note, Bakuman, Platinum End). To be such one, you have to have your own special style with long-term high quality. The speciality could be super realism, high variety or both (just to name some). For heavier/darker mangas the “rule” is, the more realistic, the more it devours you. If the mature parts of the story are not realistic enough it could easily feel childish and it won’t convince you.
I wouldn’t say that Yuuji Kaku is on the same level (for example) like Boichi, however it is still on a very high level. That is because of his outstanding artistic style. While other mangas feel like robotic drawings (even if some of them are really high quality) due to a too simple/uncreative world, this feels definitely more like art. As mentioned, the very first cover page catches the reader’s eyes instantly! It looks like a surrealistic portrait. This is also true for the character designs (particularly the antagonists), the action scenes and the whole environment in it. It feels literally like a famous painter would have drawn a manga.
Further on, the diversity. It isn’t as simple as you may think, because you have a specific style, so to draw different characters is not easy. For example, delete 1-2 individual marks of a character and it looks equal to another one where you delete 1-2 particular marks. That’s one of Boichi’s weak points (in my opinion), but one of the strengths of Tite Kubo (Bleach), and also of Yuuji Kaku. Jigokuraku shows you many different character types, physically and mentaly. This is especially important for the villains, where the gender characteristic became meaningless.
However, the manga has one deficit. There are too many backgrounds which are empty or at least felt like it.

- Characters (8/10):
Continuing with the characters. Every character has its interesting and mostly individual backstory, development and goal – especially the protagonist, Gabimaru, is well-written, and his struggle represents the manga’s contrast theme perfectly! – however, the problem is with this ‘mostly’. We get a nice amount of characters, so we have enough time to focus on each of them. Learning their backstories and goals one after one, but with the 6th or 8th character you will get suspicious. Something doesn’t feel right…
Thinking about it a bit, the solution was simple. Villains or heroes, side- or main-character, everyone has kind of the same development and backstory. Of course, they are all criminals or evil beings, so they have one certain point where they turn vicious, but I don’t talk about that. And don’t misunderstand me, their stories are different, but somehow still are the same. For example, one character's purpose is to fight and defeat as many as possible, and he doesn’t care about others. But at the end, he is one of the team helping and fighting together. Okay… Then we have another one, she is rotten to the core, egoistic and wants an easy life. But at the end, she is one of the team helping and fighting together. Hmm… Sounds familiar… Then we have… I think you got the picture, so let’s stop here.
So the best way to describe this, it’s like all our anti-heroes, villains and heroes turn from pitch black/bright white to greyish. And yes, that’s also somehow the concept of the whole story. Nothing is pure bad or good, everything is both. However, it still felt a bit uncreative, and I missed, like I mentioned at the beginning, the risk of going really dark and not just touching it.
One other thing which was disturbing is the amount of characters. As mentioned we have… or had a really good pool, but nearing the end ‘suddenly’ we get 3-4 new totally unnecessary personas. They had their own short backstory and even shorter developments, but their purpose was just to be there or to die, which felt like failed story dragging or deus ex machina events.

- Enjoyment (10/10):
This manga has some weak points, yes, but none of them are really disturbing. The art is amazing, the action is overwhelming, the story concept is basic but modified to something interesting! Especially how the powers in this world got explained and constructed was very exciting,and that is what I loved the most.
The characters are also really enjoyable. I'm the kind of person, who is bored of all this shiny and perfect or super weak but with huge development protagonists. Also I love anti-heroes. So a manga full of them, plus brilliant designed villains and different ideologies are more than satisfying.
However, someone who is searching for a darker and more mature, or a less action manga I would rather recommend something else. You could still find it good, but not as good as a 10 out of 10.

- Overall (9/10):
Altogether, we get a great constructed story, especially if it comes to the powers in this world, but it is missing a scent more darkness and due to a lot of actions it gets a bit duller/predictable with time. The art is amazing, with an artistic style. Action scenes and character designs are positively unique, however, the backgrounds are time-to-time too empty for such a good fantasy. The characters are all individual and well-written, with good back stories and developments, but they show little similarities. But at the end, the enjoyment is at the maximum, if you can overcome these small mistakes. It’s definitely a high-class manga and not some average work.