Hell's Paradise Characters

A young shinobi from the village of Iwagakure, known as Gabimaru the Hollow, who was raised by the village chief to kill without feeling. When he asked to leave and live quietly with his wife, the chief had him captured, and after execution after execution fails on him, Sagiri recruits him for the island instead. He insists he is empty, but the wish to get home to his wife, Yui, is what keeps him alive, and on the island he slowly lets other people matter to him too. He loses his memories after overusing his Tao at the end of season 1, and gets them back with Sagiri's help.

An executioner and sword tester of the Yamada Asaemon, ranked twelfth — last — in the clan, and the daughter of its former head, Yamada Asaemon Kichiji. She is assigned to watch Gabimaru on the island, with the right to execute him if he breaks the rules. Many in the clan think a woman has no place among them; Sagiri carries her fear and doubt openly instead of burying them, and that balance, which her clansman Genji calls the middle way, turns out to be her real strength. After Senta's death, she is the one who declares that convicts and executioners must work together to get off the island alive.

A kunoichi on death row, known as Yuzuriha of Keishu, whose one rule is to stay alive. Cheerful, charming and perfectly happy to let other people take the risks, she teams up with Gabimaru for his strength and refuses to fight his battles for him. Her executioner, Senta, admires her because she is always honest with herself, even when she lies to everyone else, and she stays with him at the end. By season 2 she is fighting beside the others, and it is her strike that finishes the Tensen Ran.

The Bandit King, leader of a gang of bandits in Iyo Province, who comes to the island with his younger brother, Toma, as his executioner. He adapts to anything and answers to no one. Thrown into a pit of flowers by a Tensen, he climbs out carrying Toma, able to heal almost any wound, and in season 2 fights Gabimaru until Mei ends the battle. He then goes over to Lord Tensen, or appears to, and everything he does comes back to protecting his brother.

Chobe's younger brother, who joined the Yamada clan under false pretences so that he could be assigned as his brother's executioner and get him off death row. For most of his life he has thought of himself as an extension of Chobe. Separated from him in season 2, he cuts his hair and asks Gantetsusai to teach him the sword, and when the brothers meet again inside Horai they turn on the Tensen together.

A celebrated swordsman known as the Blade Dragon, sentenced to death after cutting down a daimyo's gate when the lord doubted his title. He has no interest in the pardon: he wants to become immortal by going down in history, and the island's monsters and gods look to him like the perfect way to do it. Loud, vain and always ready for a fight, he also has a soft spot for Mei, whom he carries on his shoulder across the island. He loses his left hand on the island in episode 3 and fights on with a hook that Fuchi fits for him.

The ninth-ranked Yamada Asaemon, assigned to Gantetsusai, with a blond bob and a passion for anatomy and medicine. He would happily dissect a Tensen in the name of science, but he is also the group's doctor, treating Gabimaru, Toma and his own convict. Travelling with the criminals changes him: from a scientist's point of view, he decides, an executioner and a convict are not so different, and he wants them all to get home.

The last of the Sanka people, condemned after she accidentally led shogunate samurai to her village; because of her looks and manner she is often taken for a boy. At first she believes she deserves to die, until her executioner, Tenza, makes her admit that she wants to live and go home. After Tenza's death she stays with Shion, learning the sword by watching him, and in season 2 she is the one who talks him out of giving his life for revenge.

The fourth-ranked Yamada Asaemon, blind, who senses the world through what he calls waves — the force the island knows as Tao. He took Tenza in as a boy living rough on the streets and trained him. After Tenza dies saving him and Nurugai, Shion leads the survivors, divides them into teams for the raid on Horai, and goes after the Tensen who killed his student. He is strict, kind, and fond of jokes about his own eyesight.

The tenth-ranked Yamada Asaemon, a former street kid whom Shion took in and trained. Assigned to Nurugai, he is convinced she is innocent and tries to get her off the island by boat, promising to plead her case with the shogun himself. In episode 8 he holds off a Tensen with everything he has so that Shion and Nurugai can escape, and his death drives both of them for the rest of the story.

A small girl who barely speaks, found living in a ruined village on the island with Hoko, a man whose body has turned to wood. She has the powers of the Tensen and once lived in Horai. She saves Gabimaru twice, explains Tao in single words — strong, weak — and after a great burst of power in season 2 she briefly takes on an adult form. Before she leaves the island, she wants to see Rien one last time.

The leader of Lord Tensen, the seven immortals who rule the island from Horai. Like the other Tensen, Rien can move between a male and a female form and recovers from almost any wound. Fascinated by Chobe's ability to survive Flower Tao, Rien takes him to the palace to study, and in season 2 is close to completing the elixir, with a plan to carry its production to the mainland and turn its people into Tan.