Hell’s Paradise Season 1 (Limited Edition Blu-ray & DVD) Unboxing

Hell’s Paradise (地獄楽, Jigokuraku) is a 2023 television anime series based on Yuji Kaku’s manga series of the same name. The series was adapted by studio MAPPA, and the staff credits include director Kaori Makita, series composition writer Akira Kindaichi, character designer Akitsugu Hisagi, and music composed by Yoshiaki Dewa. The anime first aired in Japan on April 2023.

Background:

“Betrayed by his clan’s leader, damn near immortal, and stuck on death row far from his love, Gabimaru is given a chance at freedom. The task? Venture deep into an island filled with competing convicts and demonic beasts in a race for the Elixir of Life.”

Plot Synopsis via Crunchyroll UK, October 2024.

Hell’s Paradise is one of those manga series that you often hear a lot of discussion about in recent years. The premise and artwork pretty much gradually gained the attention of many anime and manga fans to which Viz Media eventually translated and released the manga in English. I have also picked up all 13 volumes of the source material, but because of the anime adaptation I wanted to wait until the adaptation was complete before jumping into the books.

What also increased the hype for the anime was the chosen studio behind the adaptation, which ended up being studio MAPPA. Now while MAPPA have been working on so many projects at once and their reputation in terms of their work process is rather messy, there’s no denying the amount of effort the staff put into their animation and Hell’s Paradise in my opinion looked pretty solid.

I read somewhere that all of the focus was put towards Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 hence why people felt it wasn’t as well animated compared to other MAPPA titles but it doesn’t need complex and detailed animation to get the point across though I understand why some would want that quality. I think the Blu-rays polished up the animation but I’ve not checked in a while. Regardless I found the anime adaptation to be pretty interesting, and while the season ends on a semi-cliffhanger, they did confirm a second season which is exciting.

Crunchyroll licensed Hell’s Paradise for their streaming platform and also for home video. A simuldub was produced which helped increase the chances for home video and then they eventually put one out with a limited edition none the less. I don’t believe they have the rights for Season 2 as of yet but it’s expected that they’ll pick them up sometime before the season starts airing in the future.

Limited Edition Contents:

Hell’s Paradise‘s source material was very popular and when you combine that with a very popular studio in the form of MAPPA, then you’re going to get a lot of people watching the adaptation, if done right. So from that, it makes perfect sense for Crunchyroll to offer a limited edition.

This release is presented with a rigid box plus a slipcase and inside the box contains an Amaray case that houses the discs, as well as a 64-page Artbook. Bundled outside the rigid box is a separate custom envelope that includes 5 Art Cards. The Artbook contains character designs, background designs, and opening/closing and episode storyboards.

The rigid box artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and there’s a wraparound covering that information and specification like recent Crunchyroll UK limited edition releases. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack has an unspecified amount of units printed for an SRP of £69.99, with a standard edition Blu-ray also available same-day for an SRP of £34.99.

This is a relatively new release but I didn’t get around to pre-ordering it like I normally would for other releases, but the series was on offer as part of Crunchyroll UK Store’s Black Friday sale which is a first given their UK store only started a few months prior. The price on offer was £36 which normally goes for £60 (or £57 if you have a Crunchyroll Premium account which is 5% off any product).

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 64-page Booklet
• 5 Art Cards

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Crunchyroll UK
Released: 28th October 2024

The limited edition release for Hell’s Paradise Season 1 contains the complete first season, episodes 1-13, across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs. All the discs were authored and encoded by Crunchyroll.

Audio options include Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Crunchyroll English dub. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the regions are accessible with Blu-ray players set to A & B and DVD players set to 1 & 2 (Region 4 has not been tested).

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2 BD-50s

DVD Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
Video	Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	1 2
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

• Promo Videos (02:57 runtime)
• Textless Opening Song “WORK”
• Textless Closing Song “Kamihitoe”

DVD On-Disc Extra Features:

No extras across all discs

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Hell’s Paradise Season 1 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Crunchyroll in the UK & Ireland. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack release can be bought across different retailers including Amazon UK, Anime-on-Line, and Crunchyroll UK Store. A standard edition Blu-ray is available and can also be bought across different retailers including Amazon UK, Anime-on-Line, and Crunchyroll UK Store.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)