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Jigokuraku is a great manga when viewed as in isolated piece separate from the rest of manga or stories in general. The story is compelling and the characters are diverse, but it tends to fall into typical shounen tropism.

Story: 8/10
The story has an extremely strong start. Everything is mysterious, deeply disturbing, and very dangerous. While the plot may follow those of 'typical' shounen manga, it is appreaciable because its setting is so unique. Half of the interest I find from the manga was learning about the mysteries of the land and the machinations behind it. Longtime manga readers will most likely be able to ... easily identify where the plot is going, but as a newer reader I still find it very interesting. There are several twists that I found were very well executed, but there were also some that were sort of unessecary.

The final chapters fail to really throw anything new into the mix, so the plot is easy to guess once it reaches the final arc. The twists feel repetitive, and the sudden power-ups take away from the raw sense of risk the early story had.

Art: 9/10
The art is ridiculously good. The uncanny beauty of the island, along with the monsters that inhabit it, are great. The combat is visceral, and the attacks feel like they have weight.

The body horror aspect of Jigokuraku really shines in this aspect, and it is captivating and disgusting at the same time. The sheer difference between what you are seeing and what it represents is so huge it throws you for a loop.

However, it does show a lot of nudity, and while that may be appreciable for some I find it not within my preferances for a serious manga with characters that I like.

Characters: 8/10
The characters are very compelling and all have at least a bit of backstory to them. I felt very invested in their sucess, especially with Gabimaru. This deep intriuge in his backstory helped carry me to the end of the manga, as I was genuinely worried for him.

The relationships between the characters are also interesting and dynamic. The plot demands the characters be paired 1:1 samurai-convict, and seeing the connects between them wither or strengthen is exciting.

Sagiri is definitely a character with a lot of potential, but gets overshadowed towards the end of the story.

Readability: 7/10
Unfortunately the manga is very packed with terms, titles, and names that is hard to take in all at once. As well, the story feels way too short, leaving a lot of potential untapped. Lots of names are thrown around rapidly, and it gets confusing at first to tell the characters apart.

This is especially prevalent with the villans, I find.

There are many conventional plot twists that end up making the story a little predictable by the end, as to typical shonen fashion.

Overall: 8/10
Great manga.