Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18 – Quick Summary
In Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18, “Humans and Sages,” Shion came up with a plan, and it required the team to learn concealment. So, Yuzuriha and Gabimaru taught as much as they could. Learning Gabimaru’s skills proved difficult, as the students had to break their own necks. But soon, they were ready. They had a plan to both obtain the elixir and to escape the island. But you know what they say about plans and enemies – and the Tensen certainly qualify as an enemy.
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18
This wasn’t anything new for Gabimaru. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I’m still impressed with the cast’s range of characters. Each individual has a particular perspective, and they interact in natural and interesting ways.
Keep in mind: they’ve been on this insane murder island for a season and a half now. It’s made an impression on all of them, and that impression is consistent with who they are. Their reactions aren’t a consistent, “Well, it’s all insane, but I’m used to it now.” I appreciate that kind of realism.
Take my favorite quote, for instance. Sagiri and Mei partnered with Gabimaru and Yuzuriha to go after the elixir. To find it, they used their tao sense to identify the concentration of dead bodies. And there were a lot of them.
Mei at first looked away, then steeled herself and looked at them straight on (18:46). Sagiri was aghast and brought her hand to her mouth. She belongs to a clan of seasoned executioners, and the scene was almost too much for her.
Gabimaru, in a level voice, said (18:49), “If it’ll disrupt your tao, you don’t have to look. I’m fine. I’m used to it.”
No judgment. Just a calm assessment of the field of operations from a seasoned operative. Yururiha, scanning the same field, added (18:55), “I’m fine, too.”
They’ve all seen too many horrors so far. It’s good to know it hasn’t deadened all of them.
Favorite Moment from Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18
Gabimaru certainly has his share of challenges. But he wants to support Mei as much as he can. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: Spectacles and Plans
I had to laugh at the shots of Yururiha and Gabimaru as teachers – wearing glasses. As if glasses conveyed a sense of education and learning! Though I will admit that Yururiha looked pretty good in glasses.
Gantetsusai seemed to think so, too. Though I don’t think it was her glasses that caught his attention.
One of my favorite things in a story is when a group of intelligent, experienced people come together, hammer out a reasonable, intricate plan, and try to execute it – only to have it blow up in ways they could not have anticipated.
They’d come up with a good plan. Too bad the enemy had so many tricks up their collective sleeves. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
It’s a theme you see in some of my novels. One of my beta readers pointed it out, and honestly, I hadn’t even realized that’s what I’d been writing. It just sort of came out. So, now I try to be more creative and deliberate about it. But there’s just something about cold competence coming face-to-face with reality and blowing apart that appeals to me.
I think it has something to do with seeing how those same intelligent, experienced people react. Plans simply do not survive first contact with the enemy, as Helmuth von Moltke the Elder more eloquently said.
Interestingly enough, Shion actually implemented the second (and less famous) of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder’s sayings, which was: “Strategy is a system of expedients.” By breaking down the Tensen’s tao affinities, he provided such a system.
It’s almost like this show is well-written or something.
Delivery: Mei’s Hopes
Anyway, on to my favorite moment. It has to do with Gabimaru. I’m really glad to see him regain his sense of self. His dedication to Yui is, as far as I’m concerned, the emotional heart of the show. When he temporarily lost sight of that, it made me feel physically queasy. No, I’m not exaggerating, and honestly, if you don’t react to fiction on a visceral level, what’s the point?
Gabimaru wants to get back to Yui. That’s the foundation for the story. That framing makes his concern for Mei even more resonate. As they prepared for battle, he saw that she hadn’t said all she wanted to say. He gently nudged her to speak.
Mei wanted to speak in her own words. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Yes, she said, she wanted to leave the island. But she had something to do first. Waving off Fuchi’s kind offer to translate, wanting to get her ideas across in her own voice, she said (09:49), “I think what Rien doing bad. Killed lots and lots. Why Grandmaster Shufu not stop them? I want to leave island. Everything scary. But I want to see Rien and Grandmaster one more time. Want to ask why they changed. They used to be nice. They were nice, but then…”
It would have been easy to dismiss her feelings in this matter. But Gabimaru remembered Yui speaking to him of a normal life. He showed his true colors when he said (10:59), “Then let’s go. If you just want to look, that might be possible… Otherwise, your normal will never begin.”
On a brutal, savage island where the Tensen rip humans apart with impunity, Gabimaru wanted to ensure that Mei’s hopes saw expression. In that moment, I hoped that the two of them could get off the island, and he could take her home to Yui to raise her as their own. I hope she gets a future like that. Because nothing good will come to her if she stays on that island. To any of them, actually.
What did you think of Choubei selling them out? What were your favorite moments? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Jigokuraku Season 2 • Hell’s Paradise Season 2 – Episode 5 discussion
- Leisure Byte: ell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Escape Plan Is Ready
- Anime Rants: EPISODE 5: HUMANS AND SAGES
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 14: Dawn and Confusion
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 15: Reality and Fantasy
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 16: Immutability and Change
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 17: The Samurai Code and Carnage
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 18: Humans and Sages
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 19: Hindering and Restoration
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 20: Two People and One Person
- Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Episode 21: Chrysanthemum and Peach
Personally, I am appalled that Yuzuriha believes that Yui is fake. Just because mind-control ninjutsu was common in Yuzuriha’s village doesn’t mean it was used on Gabimaru. Yui’s large scar seems to be too thought out of a detail for a mind-control ninjutsu. Yui always behaves very consistently, which would make sense if she were real, such as how she tells Gabimaru that it’s okay to feel emotions and that he’s not his old self anymore. A shinobi raised to be a killing machine wouldn’t be grounded by such emotions and fondness over having a wife. This is probably why the village chief wants Gabimaru executed since he’s more loyal to his wife than the clan and given he made a point in telling baby Gabimaru that the emotions such as the love between a parent and child makes you weak, showing that the village chief believes that emotions make you weak.
I hope Yuzuriha is wrong. Your rationale gives me hope, and I’ve seen the same things.
Actually, I can’t tell yet if this is a romantic story about Gabimaru and Yui or if it’s a tragedy. I hope it’s not the latter; I could see the chief killing Yui in real life.
That would seriously bum me out.
I don’t think the chief would kill off Yui before executing Gabimaru. If Gabimaru were to learn of her death, he’d swear revenge upon the entire clan.
That’s a good point. Gabimaru would absolutely go after them.