Jigokuraku

[neflight86]

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"* Based on an action-adventure fantasy horror manga by Kaku Yuuji.

Gabimaru the Hollow is one of the most vicious assassins ever to come out of the ninja village of Iwagakure. He's ruthlessly efficient, but a betrayal results in him being handed a death sentence. He has only one hope—in order to earn his freedom, he must travel to a long-hidden island and recover an elixir that will make the shogun immortal. Failure is not an option. On this island, heaven and hell are just a hair's breadth away.

Source: Viz"

Genre(s): Action, Horror, Period

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1-2

Not really at all what I expected, at least at first. Gabimaru is on the executioner's block, accidentally refusing to die via conventional means and is saved when an offer for a pardon is presented for whoever among a bunch of condemned criminals can brave an uncharted island who's previous interlopers have died mysterious plant-like deaths.

The first episode threw me through a loop with how they handled Gabimaru's attachment to life being his wife, who he rationalized contempt for until it was revealed he was, in fact, very much in love with her that resulted in a resounding 'dawwww'. Clumsy, but cute; like the couple itself.

The second episode fire-hosed the rest of the main cast/competition in the death game scenario for better or worse. I think this show does not have the budget for a proper action series, and thus relies on some smart directing to shift focus away from sakuga and any fluid motion most of the time and let the violence be more conceptual. You'll know when it doesn't and we get some awkward motion shots of stiff looking murder and heads popping off shoulders (that is ironically quite funny).

The remaining draw is the strangely compelling mystery of the island itself. If that is handled well, it will forgive a lot of sins this thinner production may cause, so here's to hoping we get some more!

[David75]

Yakuzas with no results within 2 days of trying under the radars... felt logical they'd try a lot harder and shift to stronger methods.

Edit:sorry, wrong thread

[neflight86]

...wrong thread?

[KrayZ33]

EP3: I think there was 1 scene that had a lip sync issue for sure and one other where I'm not sure if it was meant as an internal monologue or if it was meant to be actually said.

Other than that, great episode. I like that the motives/power between the swordsmen and the criminals are all over the place.
You have criminals attacking the swordsmen and the other way around as well because they want to be the next head of the clan and thus find the elixir themselves.
Alongside the external threat of the other ninja village under Hattori to enter the search as well.

Not to mention the monster who look creepy as fuck - and make me think that eventually, the teams will form alliances for the time they are on the island at the very least.
At the very least, they have an arsenal of weapons to choose from now. I wonder if they remember to pick up a weapon from that warrior monk.

[neflight86]

11

This has managed to remain somewhat interesting, but the characters aren't as dynamic as the show wants them to be, and the mysteries have all but dried up at this point. All that is left to carry forward is the uneven action scenes.

My disillusionment began in episode 7 when they had an onsen/bath scene. That's when Jigokuraku became just another anime for me.

Unless there are many episodes left to scrape together an epic conflict, I can't see this story having much hope of a satisfying resolution; a pity for one of the most hyped shows this season. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy this, but it has lost alot of the luster of the first few episodes.

[KrayZ33]

Dunno,

everything's stil lfine for me.
Show suffers from the weekly schedule though, because it's not having a whole lot of cliffhangers that keep you hyped and go "oh my gaw, what's gonna happen next"

Show needs like 36 episodes with all the side characters. Main cast is fine, but the others seem rather important as well (the brothers, the tribe-kid etc.) and I feel like they won't get the attention they need.

[shinta|hikari]

I enjoy this a lot and think this is going fine, but I understand netflight's opinion that this could've been so much more, but what we got was a somewhat different yet fundamentally the same shounen story.

[neflight86]

This episode got especially shounen.

It played out well enough for a simple 'training' fight.

That was the longest, most convoluted explanation of intention to rape I've ever seen. Seriously, that meandered so long to get to the point of why they were bad guys for her.

[KrayZ33]

That was weird.

The rape/forced sex implication was actually well done and took me by surprise. I think it did accomplish everything it wanted to. I do now hate the guys, I feel sorry for the girl, and I like that MC understands what and why he starts to feel stuff. That was a nice accelerator and will drive the story forward.

But the enemy dude said "since I'm defeated, I will now tell you everything" or something along those lines.
Wtf. That was so unnecessary and forced.

Just shut up and serve your gods and don't help the enemy for no reason?

[KrayZ33]

Episode 12:

____________

great episode, but now matter how well the show was doing without the shounen quick stabby stab stab fighting, and still manages to show "absurd speed", it seems like japanese animation studios do have to include it, as if they are trying to pay homage to dragon balls

[neflight86]

great episode, but now matter how well the show was doing without the shounen quick stabby stab stab fighting and still manage to show "absurd speed", it seems like japanese animation studio do have to include it

I always see that as bumping against the limits of time/budget. Its an ugly animation technique that reuses frames and is instantly recognizable in a bad way. I wish they wouldn't, but it is what it is.

Pretty good team fight, otherwise. The flower spear doing in the raccoon would have been anticlimactic if it weren't (part of) the baddy taking on his new form. Surprising that the blind one could defend against that barrage, but not the humanoid one six eps ago.

Raise of hands, did anyone come to this island not accidentally using tao in some form?

I like that they have divulged this whole island just being a long experiment. More satisfying than the supernatural implications earlier in the series.

[KrayZ33]

Episode 13:



sums it up rather nicely. The pacing was all over the place. It wasn't even a bad episode or bad development, but it sure as hell was way too fast and you could tell there are no episodes left.

Still quite enjoy the whole story of this show. Now with Gabimaru losing his memory, it got even better.