Jigokuraku - The Dark Horse of Shounen

# Introduction The story centers on Gabimaru, the most powerful Ninja from the renowned village of Iwagakure. Once he met his wife, Gabimaru began to gradually give up his murdering ways. This infuriated the village chief, who then put him up for execution. As the plot unfolds, Gabimaru joins a group of condemned criminals who have been given the mission of exploring a recently discovered strange island in search of the elixir of life in order to make the shogun immortal. The shogun himself will offer a complete pardon to anyone who returns with the elixir of life. Each felon is assigned with a top-tier executioner in case they attempt to escape. According to the legends, the elixir of life was to be found in Heaven, but as Gabimaru lands on the island, he realizes that this was not Heaven... This was hell.

# The Stage is Set in One Chapter Jigokuraku was one of the few manga that grabbed my attention right from the first chapter. The first chapter was 67 pages long and had the ideal generic start to a shounen. It's as if the author decided to say, "Hey. Look at my work. This is the world, and this is everything the main character can do. Cool right? Join the ride." Gabimaru is an interesting character with some super cool powers like ninjutsu, and the author conveys this in one single chapter. Of course, he isn't like a typical shounen MC. He is depressed. He has lost all hope and he just wants to die. The only thing that keeps this murdering monster going, is the thought of going back to his wife who he loves dearly. He is hence kind of an anti-hero.

# The Art The art style was one of the first things that caught my eye, if it wasn't already obvious. It's pretty similar to Fujimoto, but more in-depth. The paneling is excellent, and the characters are nicely illustrated. really simple to comprehend. Although the fighting occasionally made the art appear sloppy and hard to follow. So get ready for some exciting battles against the main antagonists.

Another issue I have is that Yuuji sensei occasionally missed the background markers during battles since he was so intent on the characters. The art was great other from it. Really detailed background setting for the island and it's inhabitants.
# The Plot Setting & Theme 90% of the story took place on the island, which somewhat limited the story's breadth. Because of the story's fast pace and the author's use of religious aesthetics, character design, and superb background setting, this wasn't a major problem. It is genuinely based on Buddhism and embraces it, as well as other Chinese elements like the power system and Yin and Yang, which I'll discuss later.

Morality is a major subject in the story. What exactly does being evil entail? Are all those who do evil really horrible people? Do our past mistakes define us? Should a criminal be put to death for his past wrong doings?

Jigokuraku isn't just another generic shounen manga. I refer to it as the "dark horse of shounen" for a reason. It does away with most of the conventional clichés, such as having a noisy, dumb main character who would sacrifice anything for his friends. There involves graphic scenes involving the island's inhabitants, who are worshiped as gods. I can never imagine how a shounen manga could pull that off. The gods also known as Lord Tensen, can change their gender at will. So, this sometimes happens during the middle of the fight where they are fighting, and suddenly the Lord Tensen are bare-breasted. This was one of Jigokuraku's most unique features since it gave the battles the appearance of being between gods. It was quite relatable to me because I'm from a country where I regularly see gods like that on posters in buses, schools, etc. There is also no cringy power of friendship bullcrap, only a bunch of enemies working toward the same goal. Which I have major respect for. The author also did not seem to give a damn about who dies and who lives. There is little to no plot armor. These are some of the reasons which I believe, sets Jigokuraku apart from the other new-gen shounen like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen.

# The Characters There are 3 main forces in this story - the criminals, the executioners and the inhabitants of the island (mainly the Lord Tensen). All of the characters contributed to plot, and the ones who died had fitting deaths. All of them impacted the story in one way or another. Each of them differ in personality, interests and powers. We can even see the conflict between the ninja way and the samurai way. There was also a great dynamic between the criminal and executioners, especially the one between Gabimaru and his executioner, Sagiri. Most of the characters are written well, not top tier but good. Gabimaru is a great character with a pretty plain story until they unveil a twist on his past, which greatly questions what he is fighting for on that island. That was the moment that Gabimaru became a really interesting character. I would put him in 'A tier'. My favorite character is an executioner named Shion. He is a generic blind guy in anime, op as hell. The author knows his character is generic and he even jokes about it in some panels.

The Lord Tensen are great characters too as a group. Individually they are good, but not so well-written. There is a reason for that which is a spoiler, so I will not discuss. Their powers and origin are well written. Like I said, they are revered as gods, and they have a god complex which is kind of hilarious.

# The Power System The power system is similar to that of nen from HunterxHunter. Tao is a life-force that exists in every single living thing. Just like nen, it can be used to create fire, harden swords, conceal presence, etc. However, unlike nen, Tao is very realistic. For starters, none of the main characters even knew it existed, so there is a phase of them gradually finding out what it is and learning how to use it themselves. There is no one to properly guide them on how to use it so they do it through trial and error. Secondly, Tao is quite literally life force. So the more you use Tao, the more you age. There is also a limited scope to what you can do with this power. There are only 5 elements of Tao and each element is strong against one element and weak against another just like in Pokemon. So fire Tao is strong against wood Tao, but weak against water Tao. I also want to point out how overpowered Gabimaru was on the mainland, but as he and the other criminals set foot on the island, it was as if they weren't op anymore on the island because they didn't know Tao. These reasons were what makes me believe that Tao might just be one of the best power systems in a manga. It is simple, understandable origin, realistic unlike breathing from Demon Slayer and there are major consequences to using this strange power. Even the Lord Tensen's powers were derived and improved upon using this system.

# Final Thoughts I think it's come to that point where we expect a lot of generic things in shounen like a fun looking talkative mc who would die for his friends. The first manga that somewhat broke that wall was AOT, but I can guarantee that Jigokuraku broke that wall further. Jigokuraku was better than most new-gen manga in almost every single way. It even ended pretty decently even though the ending was super rushed; shounen rarely ends well. 127 chapters, short and sweet and dark unlike any other shounen. Is it worth reading? Yes, definitely. It does get boring somewhere around the middle, but gets interesting again around chapter 80. It is still more interesting than Demon Slayer and way better than the culling arc of Jujutsu Kaisen. Give it a read, or if you decide not to, it's fine. One of the main problems in Jigokuraku was the fights, but that won't be a problem, because Jigokuraku is getting an anime adaptation next year I believe. Be sure to check it out. It is going to be a banger. I'm pretty sure a lot of people will compare this to Demon Slayer at first, but this is better than Demon Slayer in everyway, and they will understand that when the story keeps progressing. Thank you for reading.

Written By: Shehan Reshin