When the Hell’s Paradise anime dropped in April 2023, no one knew that the anime was going to become one of the Dark Trio anime series, along with the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. Yuji Kaku, the creator of the series, was actually one of the editors for Chainsaw Man, and now his own series is being compared to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s magnum opus.
While the manga series had decent popularity, the main fame that Hell’s Paradise earned was after the release of the first season of the anime last year. The series was produced by MAPPA and Twin Engine. But Kaku did not want to contribute to the anime series. In fact, the director of Hell’s Paradise, Kaori Makita, revealed this information himself.
He explained that while they asked Kaku for advice on how to make the anime better, the manga creator preferred to keep his distance from the anime series and let the animators and the producers do their jobs.
Yuji Kaku Did Not Contribute Much to the Hell’s Paradise Anime
During the MAPPA x Crunchyroll Panel at Anime Expo 2023, Crunchyroll interviewed Makita and asked him about his experience while working on Hell’s Paradise and what kind of discussion he had with Kaku regarding the various elements of the anime series and how to direct it.
Makita revealed:
“Kaku-sensei is very open-minded. From the start, he told me “anime is anime so you should do whatever you need to do to make it work” but there were times we had to ask him questions to make sure we were creating something that captured his intention.”
Kaku not contributing to the anime series was quite odd and completely different from what other manga creators generally do. Even legendary mangakas like Eiichiro Oda get involved in the anime adaptation of their manga. Oda not only contributed to the One Piece anime, but he even held an important role during the production and creation of One Piece live-action Season 1 by Netflix.
Yuji Kaku’s First Experience After Watch Hell’s Paradise Anime
During the interview, Makita also talked about how Yuji Kaku felt after watching the anime series for the first time. According to the director, Kaku was looking forward to the anime series and had a lot of expectations from it as it was his first anime adaptation. There were even moments where he might have felt a little doubtful about certain aspects of the anime.
Makita stated:
“As for Kaku-sensei and what he was looking forward to in the anime, he probably had many expectations, and there were probably many moments he felt a bit anxious. I felt it was very important to not let him down, so we did our best to make something that would satisfy him.”
Despite all this, Hell’s Paradise has made quite a name for itself, and it was one of the biggest anime productions of 2023.
Now fans are eagerly waiting for the second season of the series, which was already announced just after the first season ended.
You can watch Hell’s Paradise on Crunchyroll.
