This season's MAPPA adaptation of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku has been an entertaining and colourful completion to what has been referred to by fans as the "Shо̄nen Dark Trio"; the adaptation of Shо̄nen Jump titles JUJUTSU KAISEN, CHAINSAW MAN and now, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. Now that the anime narrative has progressed significantly, there's a lot of material that can be used to compare this anime adaptation to the original manga created by Kaku Yūji.
While MAPPA hasn't deviated significantly from the original sequence of events found in the original manga, there are several interesting differences between the two. Here are the biggest differences between the Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku anime and manga.
Tafel Anatomie?
While dishing out what is effectively the same level of violence and gore as the original manga, the anime's presentation of some of the Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku manga's more adult themes and elements is significantly toned down in MAPPA's adaptation. Characters like the Tensen engage in sexual activity through the concept of training via Bо̄chū Jutsu, and pendulum in their expressions of the extremities of masculinity and femininity. The anime, while violent, tries not to be as explicit as the source material in its depiction of nudity, of which the fair majority in the series is of feminine bodies. An attempt at this is the censoring of nipples
The possible reason for these censorship decisions may lie in the fact that despite its mature themes and violence, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku is still aimed for the Shо̄nen demographic, which may lead to certain expectations regarding what can and cannot be depicted in full. The decision to depict nudity of the breasts in this manner over simply opting for characters who aren't depicted in the nude at all is a rather confusing one, but perhaps a change that is far less dramatic and ultimately, it's a detail that bears no ultimate significance on the quality of the Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku narrative overall.
Rewrite
Another aspect related to censorship is perhaps undetectable by English-speaking fans of the series whose translations have incorporated the changes that have occurred to the names or monikers of certain characters introduced in Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. The minor character Hо̄rubо̄, also dubbed "The Killing Prayer", had his moniker altered from "The Killing Buddha", possibly due to reservations regarding depicting significant Buddhist concepts in a negative light.
This also extends to the Tensen, whose monikers are taken directly from the names or monikers of various bodhisattva (a person on their way to Buddhahood) and are altered in the Japanese script of the show to grant Japanese variants to Hindu terms like "Amoghavajra". The various changes applied to the narrative for the anime adaptation of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku; however, do not result in a changed overall narrative as the series' various significant moments continue to be adapted with high levels of faithfulness to Kaku's original manga. Despite these censored changes, the dramatic violence and bloodshed seen in the manga is adapted almost in its entirety.
Direction
Given how one episode can address events from several chapters in the manga, the order of certain events while still the same in terms of the chronology of the events in the series overall. For example, the anime first introduces Yamada Asaemon Tenza's past before delving into the battle against Zhu Jin in which he later loses his life protecting Nurugai. In the manga, Tenza's past comes after Shion briefly saves him and Nurugai from Zhu Jin; after Tenza himself introduces the man to Nurugai as his swordsmanship master. The anime's sequence of events is deliberate: seasoned anime fans know what to expect when the origins of a likable side character are explored with a special level of significance within an episode. However, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku plays upon this expectation a little bit through the varied introductions to members of the Vanguard Party, such as episode 4's special focus on the Blade Dragon, Gantetsusai Tamiya.
There was a certain level of extension of Tenza's backstory, but another element that made it feel significantly more emotional in the anime than in the manga was the fact that Tenza was the narrator – Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku episode 8 moved with the understanding that Tenza would die, and centered him in what was one of the anime series' most emotional moments so far. The scene with Yamada Asaemon Eizen taking a young Tenza to the grave of a former student of Shion's who fell to a life of crime after quitting his tutelage is actually not from the manga, as the deceased, Yamada Asaemon Tesshin, was only introduced in the light novel spin-off, Jigokuraku: Ephemeral Dream, written by Hishikawa Sakaku with illustrations from the original series' author. Through connecting Tesshin to the events of the original series this way, the Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku anime adapted a fairly decent moment in the manga and turned it into an emotional masterclass and reminiscent of classic Shonen character deaths.
Extension
Extension also applies to some of the series' fight scenes. Gabimaru's first ever display of the Ascetic Blaze was brilliantly animated and given the kind of dramatic attention that it deserved, while in the manga, the panels were drawn in a way that emphasized Gabimaru's swift decimation of the enemy and dedicated a beautiful double-page spread to the moment right after the conflict when he's sitting atop the mountain of groaning samurai – the very moment he agrees to go on the expedition. In the anime; however, the Ascetic Blaze itself is given focus because the narrative up until that point had built up to Gabimaru's first-ever display of Ninpo.
Despite these vibrant moments; however, the Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku anime adaptation may be a bit too faithful as it doesn't fill in some of the gaps in the action that were found in the manga, meaning that there are several high-tempo moments that feel like a series of cuts rather than a fluid depiction of life in action. While it may not be quite as vibrantly animated as its popular siblings JUJUTSU KAISEN and CHAINSAW MAN, the MAPPA adaptation of Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku is highly enjoyable and respects the source material enough to satisfy manga readers who have been itching to see this series come to life on screen. The animation has incredibly gorgeous moments, and the aforementioned first-ever Ascetic Blaze is surely one of this anime season's most beautiful shots. With the 2023 Spring anime season drawing to a close, it can safely be said that MAPPA's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku was very well done.