Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku (Season 1), Episode 8: This episode delved deep into the history of who Tenza is. It makes you empathize a lot more with the character and his actions. In the previous episode, we saw that Tensen is a powerful creature, but in this episode, we get to see Tensen’s real power. The episode has a lot of flashbacks, emotions, and a bit of action as well. This article contains spoilers.
Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku (Season 1), Episode 8 Recap:
“Student and Master”
The episode begins with a flashback to Tenza’s life. Tenza as a teenager was treated like a piece of trash by everyone. He survived by stealing food or by killing someone. His parents neglected him and didn’t care about his well-being.
Tenza and Nurugai walk on the seashore, discussing the strategies to flee the island. Tenza becomes more protective of Nurugai after he realizes she’s a woman. As they talk about getting married, Tensen appears on the water in the form of a woman. Tensen says that the forest is unusually noisy and turns into a man. As they try to flee, Tensen flicks his finger at Tenza, making him fall back hard on the ground. As the monster is trying to attack Nurugai, Tenza counterattacks by slitting the monster’s eye but is shocked to see the eyes grow back perfectly.
Tenza orders Nurugai to run on his command. Tenza admits that he has low stamina, but he takes pride in swinging his sword and cutting Tensen into many pieces and commands Nurugai to run. As they run, Tensen catches up to them and tells Tenza that he tore his clothes; before Tensen can regrow himself, he is attacked from behind by Tenza’s sensei (teacher). The teacher orders them to run.
As both Tenza and Nurugai run, Nurugai asks Tenza who his sensei is, and he responds by saying that it is Yamada Asaemon Shion. Nurugai notices that Shion is blind, and Tenza explains that he moves with the help of smell and sound. As Tenza introduces Shion to Nurugai, he is interrupted by Shion. Shion points out Tenza’s weakness by saying that he focused only on his speed and didn’t aim for the opponent’s head first. He also mentions that his lungs were weak, embarrassingTenza.
Upon asking Shion what he was doing alone, he explained that he finished his duties and was looking for a way to leave the island and could only find one spot with currents leading away from the island. But he sensed a strong presence, and his disability prevented him from figuring out what or who it was. So he was looking for other people trying to leave the island. Tenza gets excited and tells him that they can come up with something, requesting him to take them to that spot.
Shion points his sword at Nurugai and asks Tenza to explain his actions as to why he was protecting a criminal and didn’t kill her yet. He tells Tenza that the criminal he was escorting tried to seduce him, so he killed her and wanted an explanation for his behavior.
Tenza explains that that child had not committed any crime, to which Shion responds by saying that he had memorized the entire roster and knew of the child’s circumstances.
He warns Tenza that one man’s action can threaten an entire clan. Tenza reminds Shion that he taught him how to use a sword and picked him off the streets even though he wasn’t obligated to do so. Shion tells him that when he did that, he saw potential and resourcefulness in him, and Tenza argues that it was the same for him.
After listening to Tenza, Shion agrees not to execute Nurugai. But he does warn that if she threatened the clan or him, he would need to do what’s necessary. Hearing the word “her,” Tenza is shocked that Shion discovered that Nurugai was a woman. They officially introduce themselves to each other.
As the group tries to strategize on how to defeat Tensen, Tensen appears. Shion grabs Tenza and Nurugai away from Tensen. Tenza thanks Shion but sees his neck cut because of Tensen’s attack that went unnoticed. Tenza marches ahead to attack Tensen. Soon, Tenza realizes that they need to run, but seeing Nurugai, he realizes he needs to kill Tensen first; as he decides and is about to attack, Shion tries to stop him but to no avail as Tenza attacks. Tensen tells Tenza that he will kill him and flicks his finger, making four huge holes in Tenza’s body, making him cough up blood.
In his dying moments, Tenza has a flashback to his training days with Shion showing how Tenza was trained. Shion then guided Tenza by telling him that he was not required to follow the Samurai code. But with his training, one day, if he needed to protect something or someone, his training would come to use. He tells him that his potential would come to use. However, Tenza argues that from the time he was born, he never had any potential and said he would quit.
Shion agrees to let him quit if he lands a blow on him once. But Tenza ignored it and tried to leave the training. Subsequently, one of the Yamada clan members stopped him. He took him to one of Shion’s junior’s graves, and his name was Tesshin. While showing his grave, the Yamada clan member tells Tenza that Tesshin was just like him when he was being trained. But one day, he left the Dojo to live as he pleased, only to become a criminal and die at the hands of Shion. He tells him that Tesshin’s last words were, “I’m sorry, Sensei.” He then asks Tenza if he still wants to leave without landing a single blow.
Tenza stands opposite Shion and asks him to spar with him. As they do, Shion realizes that Tenza has never sparred with so much determination before. Moreover, Tenza realizes he was never passionate about doing anything before this.
In the present time, Tenza realizes that they are all going to die but refuses to give up that easily. He starts attacking Tensen to buy time for Nurugai and Shion to escape. With one blow, Tensen pushes Tenza to the ground. Tenza’s throat is damaged completely, and he cannot speak. Shion is getting ready to attack. But Tenza prays he can say one word and attempts and is successful. Shion grabs Nurugai and runs.
The episode ends with Tenza’s death and Shion explaining to Nurugai that Tenza was like a brother to him, and he risked his life to save them both. He also told her they were in no condition to fight with Tensen but would beat him eventually.
Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku (Season 1), Episode 8 Ending, Explained:
In the episode’s finale, we see another beloved character fall to the ground. The episode was written and made interestingly because, through the episode, we learn about Tenza’s hard life and how Shion was the one who gave him a reason to live by recognizing his potential. We start to understand and love the character only to see him die at the hands of Tensen in the end. The series hints at Gabimaru and Sagiri’s enemy- Tensen.
We see in the flashback that Shion had lost one of his students, and Tenza will be the second. What will Shion do after being severely injured because of Tensen’s attack, losing his beloved student, and now a responsibility towards Nurugai? How will he be able to cope emotionally with the tragedies of his life?
We get to see how powerful Tensen is. He can destroy the opponent with just one tap or a flick of his fingers. We will surely see more battles that will keep us biting our nails in the coming episodes. In the next few episodes, we may encounter Gabimaru and Tensen face to face making it an intense battle. Even at this stage, the series introduces new characters that add a lot more connection to the story. We must look forward to how Tensen can be challenged in the next few episodes.
