With one exception, we’re off to a pretty rocky start you guys, and for another of these shows, I barely made it through the episode.

Jigokuraku (Hell’s Paradise)

Do you like shonen shows that are “cool” and “dark” but are still somehow like every other shonen title out there with the random yelling, and also ninjas? Then congratulations, Jigokuraku, aka Hell’s Paradise, is probably for you. I honestly have very little to say about this one – I neither liked nor disliked it, it was just kinda there. With MAPPA behind the production, no surprises that it looks pretty good, but I’m just not the right audience for anime like this I guess, and no doubt that clearly shows in my complete lack of emotional response. In a weaker season, I might be tempted to give it a couple more episodes to prove itself, but I have a lot to get through so I’m happy just to cut my losses here and move on.

Score: 5/10

Daimakyou (Heavenly Delusion)

I’m not a major fan of the supernatural aspect that was introduced towards the end of this premiere, but I enjoyed most of what I saw before that, and it was enough to keep my invested for the time being. If, like me, you watch part of this and get serious Promised Neverland vibes and start rolling your eyes, not to fret – while the premise may give off that feel in some regards, that would seem to make up roughly only half the plot, and then only on a pretty surface level given that the walled school apparently isn’t the Big Bad. The two main characters, who are thankfully older teens/young adults rather than kids, are fairly tolerable, and while I could have done without the fanservice in the back half of the episode, it wasn’t too egregious and appeared to serve a purpose beyond just “hey, viewers, stick around because this chick has boobs and we might show them again sometime.” Like I said, I would probably have been happier had the anime stuck to vague sci-fi apocalypse stuff rather than also monster-zombie-emu, but whatever, I’ll see where this one goes.

Score: 7/10

My Home Hero

I hated pretty much every second of this. Not because of the themes involved, or even because it looked and sounded extremely cheap, but because those themes were executed so poorly, so cringe-inducingly, that the single redeeming quality was that (most of) the violence was generally more heavily implied rather than shown in much explicit on-screen detail. Even so, everything was incredibly on-the-nose to the point that this almost felt like a parody of itself at times, complete with the flashy baddie wannabe yakuza guys “mwahaha-ing” to each other about how they rupture their girlfriends’ organs and crack their skulls on the regular – and I guess when they’re not doing that, they’re just out randomly assaulting middle-aged guys on the street in broad daylight, and are apparently so intimidating about it that everyone else just stands around looking awkward.

Look, there’s a way to portray domestic violence and physical/sexual assault, but being this blatant and over-the-top about it isn’t just being unsubtle, it comes across as downright offensive. I get that that’s probably what works for the target audience in terms of being a suspenseful male revenge fantasy, but personally, I’ll be steering well clear of this total mishap of a show.

Score: 2/10

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