Most members of the animanga community would have no trouble naming multiple series that are packed full of fan service. From High Rise Invasion’s problematic sexualization of school girls to the size of Nami’s bust slowly increasing throughout One Piece, this often irrelevant phenomenon is difficult to escape. It seems the fixation has been prevalent from near the beginning of the medium.
When it comes to nudity in anime and manga, artists walk a fine line between fan service and exploitation. However, Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku mangaka Yuji Kaku seems to have mastered the craft. The series is not shy when it comes to nakedness, so much so that fans questioned if the manga would ever be able to get an anime adaptation. In spite of this, every scene presenting nudity steers clear of any suggestive nature or fan service.
There’s Nothing Sexual About Jigokuraku’s Depiction of Nudity
One unique aspect of Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku is how differently it depicts nudity from other anime or manga. Outside the manga’s sexual contexts, there’s nothing vulgar about scenes where the characters are naked. When Nurugai and Yamada Asaemon Tenza were cleaning themselves off in a river, there was every opportunity to include some fan service, but instead, the characters respected one another and their nudity just felt normal.
Similarly, when the group was taking baths at Hoko’s house, the panels could have been filled with vulgar depictions of the naked body, but they weren’t. Gabimaru, Sagiri, Mei and the others took their respective baths without the need for fan service. There was no sexualization of the young girls, just a natural depiction of nudity where none of the characters were fawning over each other. In Jigokuraku, there’s rarely anything sexual about the character’s nudity — they’re just there.
Making Love in Hell’s Paradise Is Essential to the Plot
The power system within Hell’s Paradise is called Tao. Similar to Hunter x Hunter’s Nen, it’s the use and manipulation of an individual’s life force energy. This is based on the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, and thus to master Tao one must understand the idea of balancing the yin and yang, strength and weaknesses. To train in Tao, the series’ main antagonists, Lord Tensen, use a technique called Bōchū Jutsu — which translates to Art of the Bedchambers. This trains Tao through sexual intimacy; it is one of the most important training techniques as it requires a partner of the opposite chi.
Because of this, there is the occasional scene in the manga where nudity is shown in a sexual context. However, the naked characters still avoid fan service despite the apt opportunity. Characters are often intimate with one another, but never once does this seem to purposefully appeal to the audience. Sexual intimacy isn’t intentionally added to the manga for the purpose of pleasing fans, it’s used to further the plot and understanding of the main power system. There are explicit scenes throughout, but they aren’t there as fan service— they’re actually vital to the plot. Additionally, Bōchū Jutsu is only successful when the two parties cooperate, so all examples of sexual intimacy throughout are depicted consensually.
Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku had many opportunities to fall into the same fan service trap as its peers, but it’s never happened. Many anime and manga use irrelevant and crude sexualization just to appeal to the audience, but in this series, nudity and even sex are normal and destigmatized features of the plot.
