Hell's Paradise (TV series)

Hell's Paradise,^[a] also known as Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, is a dark fantasy anime television series produced by Twin Engine, directed by Kaori Makita, and animated by MAPPA. The series stars voice actors Chiaki Kobayashi as Gabimaru along with Yumiri Hanamori, Rie Takahashi, Ryōhei Kimura, Tetsu Inada, and Makoto Koichi. The anime is based on the manga series Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku by Yuji Kaku, and follows the infamous ninja Gabimaru and executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri as they search for the elixir of life, upon orders from the shogunate.

The first season premiered on TV Tokyo and its TX Network affiliates from April to July 2023. A second season premiered on the same network and affiliates in January 2026. Crunchyroll streams the series internationally outside of Asia, while Netflix streams it in most countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Critics praised Hell's Paradise for its character-building, action, animation, visuals, and humor. Reviewers had also commented on characters' backstories.

The story follows ninja Gabimaru being sentenced to execution, but nothing seems to kill him due to his superhuman-like body. Gabimaru believes his love for his wife is what subconsciously keeps him alive. Executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri offers him the chance to be pardoned of all crimes by the Shogunate if he finds the elixir of life on Shinsenkyo, a legendary realm recently discovered southwest of the Ryukyu Kingdom. After losing five expedition teams sent to the island, this time the Shogunate sends a group of death row convicts. The convicts are each given a Yamada Asaemon executioner, who they must return with in order to obtain the pardon.

In November 2022, Crunchyroll announced an anime adaptation based on the manga series Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku by Yuji Kaku.^[13] The anime series is produced by Twin Engine and MAPPA and directed by Kaori Makita, with Akira Kindaichi writing the scripts, Koji Hisaki designing the characters, and Yoshiaki Dewa composing the music.^[14][15] The first season ran for 13 episodes and aired from April 1 to July 1, 2023, on TV Tokyo and its affiliates.^[16]

Immediately following the conclusion of the first season, a second season was announced.^[17][18] The season premiered on January 11, 2026, with the cast and staff from the first season reprising their roles.^[10][19][20]

Crunchyroll streams the series internationally outside of Asia, while Netflix streams it in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Mainland China, Australia, and New Zealand).^[4][13]

The music for the series is composed by Yoshiaki Dewa and the first original soundtrack album was released digitally on July 19, 2023.^[21] In February 2026, the original soundtrack for the second season was released through Fujipacific Music Inc., and Milan Records.^[22][23]

For the first season, the opening theme song is "Work", performed by Ringo Sheena and Millennium Parade,^[16] while the ending theme song is "Kamihitoe" (紙一重; lit. 'A Fine Line'), performed by Uru.^[15] For the second season, the opening theme song is "Kasuka na Hana" (かすかなはな; lit. 'Faint Flower'), performed by Tatsuya Kitani featuring Babymetal,^[24] while the ending theme song is "Personal", performed by Queen Bee.^[25]

Digital Spy's Ali Griffiths described in his review of the series' premiere that the series makes up a group affectionately known as the "dark trio of shōnen" by anime fans along with Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man (coincidentally, all animated by MAPPA) due to their similar tone and themes, especially compared with their peppier peers. Ali praised the show's character-building, action, animation, visuals, humor, and the handling of Gabimaru's versions of his story which tells about "how he's feeling and what he wishes he'd done differently". He felt that some fans might found that the opening episode of the series was a little slow, but stating that "the way it centers the backstory of its protagonist and immediately emphasises the relationship between Gabimaru and Sagiri is emblematic of the kind of character-first action show they're hoping it will be".^[26]

MrAJCosplay of Anime News Network reviewed the first three episodes of the series. While praising the anime for its colors, sound design and animation, he considered Sagiri's character as "strong" and endeared on how she can see right through Gabimaru's façade. He felt that "her decision regarding walking down the path of an executioner and characterization as a stickler for the rules wasn't the direction he expected the show to go". Her introduction in episodes two and three was considered to be a "little inconsistent", although he needs more time to root her. He also noting that Gabimaru was one of his favorite characters, while he found the character's backstory as "sweet" due to the subversion of his mentality.^[27]

Adi Tantimedh of Bleeding Cool in his review of the first two episodes gave them a 8/10, feeling that they had a "stylish opening chapter to a brutal, bloody journey of death and redemption as a ninja is forced to take a suicide mission to find the elixir of eternal life, melding the samurai saga with a supernatural thriller drawing from Japanese folklore".^[28] While Den of Geek's Daniel Kurland would rate the first episode of 4 out 5, writing "quite the bloody affair and is absolutely obsessed with death. That being said, this is far from a callous series. If anything Hell's Paradise doesn't criticize this brutal behavior, but rather emphasizes how there's a right and wrong way to slice off a head and bathe in blood".^[29]

The series ranked third in the anime category of Yahoo! Japan Search Awards, based on the number of searches for a particular term compared to the year before.^[30] The series was nominated at the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in eight categories: Best New Series, Best Fantasy, Best Art Direction (e-caesar), Best Character Design (Kouji Hisaki), Best Opening Sequence and Best Anime Song ("Work" by Ringo Sheena and Millennium Parade), Best Voice Artist Performance – English (Marisa Duran as Yamada Asaemon Sagiri), and Best Voice Artist Performance – French (Yoan Sover as Gabimaru).^[31] It was also nominated for eight categories, including Anime of the Year at the 10th Anime Trending Awards in the same year.^[32]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Hell's Paradise at IMDb
• Hell's Paradise (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia