Hell’s Paradise Episode 6

Genji and Eizen

Hell’s Paradise Episode 6 was the worst episode of the series so far. The majority of the episode focused on the fight against Rokurouta. And that was a boring fight for two reasons. He’s a very minor antagonist and there was a lot of talk about how hard it’ll be to kill him.

So, I’m going to ignore the whole Rokurouta thing for now and focus on Genji and Eizen Yamada Asaemon. These are the two samurai who Rokurouta killed. But, maybe that’s not actually true. What if Eizen never died?

You see, we never actually saw Eizen die. It was heavily implied Rokurouta killed and ate him. But, we never saw him die. On top of that, what’s the point of having Rokurouta kill both him and Genji? Both Eizen and Genji had similar relationships with Sagiri. They were samurai she looked up to.

Now, think of how the events in this episode differ if Eizen is still alive. Specifically, think of how Sagiri’s development differs. There is no change. Whether Eizen is alive or dead, Sagiri still gets the same character development. Why? Because all of her development came from Genji’s death and what he said to her.

With that in mind, it doesn’t make sense to me for Eizen to have been killed off, as well. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Eizen was Sagiri’s mentor. He’s the most important person to her. So, why would we overshadow his death with Genji’s?

My prediction is that Eizen isn’t actually dead. But, how does that work? We saw Rokurouta eating something after attacking Eizen. Well, I never said Eizen wasn’t injured. He may have lost an arm or something in the attack. And that’s what Rokurouta was eating.

Rokurouta’s Execution

As much as I really don’t want to write about the fight against Rokurouta, I suppose I should. After all, it was the majority of the episode. But, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of this fight wasn’t actually fighting. It was thinking about fighting.

I don’t know about you, but I could have done without Gabimaru and Sagiri’s commentary. I get it, Rokurouta is strong and it’s going to be difficult to execute him. You don’t need to keep bringing it up every few seconds. All this did was waste the episode’s run time.

And let’s be honest, it’s not like Rokurouta was an interesting antagonist, to begin with. Sure, he got his little tragic backstory. All he wanted was to play, but his hunger kept getting in the way. And because of that, he ended up killing and eating his family.

Well, that’s a good backstory, I guess. But, there’s a major problem with it. Isn’t that the exact backstory of Big Mom from One Piece? I’m not saying two series can’t have characters with the same backstory. But, One Piece already did it better because it wasn’t crammed into a single episode.

Something else I wasn’t a fan of in this episode was the scene of Sagiri holding Rokurouta’s head. She’s speaking to his decapitated head, telling him that he doesn’t have to suffer anymore. But, how does she know that he was suffering from whatever his condition was?

It’s not like the fight stopped and Sagiri also got to watch Rokurouta’s backstory with us. And considering he never spoke a word, it’s also not like he told her. Was this supposed to represent some connection between the executioner and the condemned? I think it kind of missed the mark.

Hermits of Shinsenkyo

The one part of the episode I thought was interesting was the mention of the hermits of Shinsenkyo. I’ve been calling the island that the series takes place on “the island.” so far. But, it’s supposedly the legendary Shinsenkyo, where the Elixer of Life can be found.

Maybe in future episodes, I’ll refer to the island by this name. But, for now, we still don’t know if the island actually is Shinsenkyo or not. And that’s where the hermits come in. According to Touma, Shinsenkyo is supposed to be home to hermits, not monsters.

So far, we haven’t seen any hermits on the island. At least, none that match their alleged description. It’s said that these hermits look like old men, but are immortal. And if that sounds familiar to you, that’s exactly how I would describe the leader of Iwagakure. So, is he one of these hermits?

While it’s possible that the leader of Iwagakure is a hermit of Shinsenkyo, that’s only one theory. To be fair, it’s the theory I’m expecting to be correct. But, I have two other theories for you to consider, as well.

The first of these is that the monsters we see on the island are the hermits. Or, at least, they’re what the hermits became. We might find out that there once were hermits on the island. But, something caused them to turn into monsters. Were they corrupted by the Elixer of life?

My other theory, which I’ll admit seems far less likely, is that the women we see at the end of the episode are the hermits. But, how could they be the hermits? They don’t look like old men. Well, the information we have about the hermits comes from a legend. It could be wrong.

Conclusion

What do you think of Hell’s Paradise Episode 6? Do you think Eizen is still alive on the island? Did you also notice that Rokurouta’s backstory is the same as Big Mom’s? And what’s your theory regarding the hermits of Shinsenkyo? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 7 is available now.