When a show has a great premise but is made poorly.
Summary:
- We were expecting another banger from Mappa.
- And the story of Hell's Paradise is cool enough for that.
- But Mappa's staff is overworked and the project wasn't prioritized.
Studio Mappa is currently one of the most famous ones when it comes to the animation quality and diversity of their projects. Their latest releases seemed consistently great: Dororo, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, Dorohedoro — all these projects were successful, to an extent, and provided stunning visuals, though some were a bit tamed down by the specifics of the broadcasting.
Then came Hell's Paradise (Jigokuraku), and something went wrong.
The world that you get to know in increments
The mysterious action-packed adventure follows Gabimaru, a ninja who's been sentenced to death yet could not be killed. Instead, he got a chance to be fully pardoned if he can obtain an Elixir of Life that supposedly grants immortality and bring it to the shogun. He's not alone in this race for freedom, and the island where the Elixir is supposedly located is filled with unknown dangers.
The premise is exciting, and the manga that the anime adaptation is based on feels simple at first, but then adds layer upon layer of complexity onto the lore, keeping the story fresh and gradually unraveling the specifics of the world that the characters live in and the power system that grants them their abilities — and on that basis the character development blooms beautifully. The plot is filled with multiple twists and points where the reader questions the morals and has to decide who's exactly the good guys and the bad ones in this specific moment.
Mappa has a lot on their shoulders
The manga ended in 2021, and the anime was released in April 2023. And at first it seemed to be the next banger of the season: the world seemed captivatingly puzzling, the action looked cool, the characters felt interesting to dive into. But then the production quality significantly dropped: the animation became simpler and duller, character models felt stiff, clothing lost details that reappeared in the next scene, and the fights lacked movement and weight. Usually, anime elevates stories like this when the action and mood are properly translated into the medium, but that wasn't the case with Hell's Paradise.
The problem stems from the fact that was stated in the first paragraph: Mappa is one of the most famous anime studios currently that produces banger after banger. The team that worked on Hell's Paradise consists mostly of those who just finished working on Chainsaw Man — a production that was filled with crunches. Also, part of the animators and episode directors were simultaneously working not only on Hell's paradise but also on Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) finale and the second season of Jujutsu Kaisen. That resulted in overworked staff and a lot of tasks being outsourced, which made the overall series' quality inconsistent. A lot of corners were cut so the crucial points of the story could shine — like Gabimaru showing off in the 2nd episode.
But the thing is, the quality of Hell's Paradise is not awful. It's just not on par with the other recent projects by Mappa, and this story deserves a much, much better handling.