Jigokuraku ending in one cour was a pretty implausible idea from the start, so the announcement of a second was not remotely a surprise.  It was a poorly-kept secret to begin with, as there were rumors of a split cour right from the start.  That’s most likely what this is, though probably not in the traditional sense of having a one-season break – with no airdate announced a Fall 2023 return seems unlikely.  Whenever it comes, I have to think the second will likely be tasked with completing the adaptation.  As this season adapted only a third of the manga more or less, that would mean pretty rapid pacing – I suppose we could see three cours total.

All in all this ended up being quite an interesting series.  Full of quibbles for me and inconsistent in terms of production, but interesting.  The two sides of its personality were always at war (Hunter X Hunter vs. Monster Hunter if you like), but it tended in a positive direction as it progressed.  Gabimaru largely disappearing for the final couple of episodes was somewhat surprising, but less so in the context of the series continuing.  This “final” arc was really about setting up what’s to come, and it did that pretty effectively.

Shion to the rescue was also an interesting turn.  In some ways he’s the closest thing to a traditionally heroic character in Jigokuraku.  He’s also someone who’s dodged two situations where he seemed like the logical guy to kill off, only to have someone else (Tenza and Senta) die instead.  As have his comrades (and theoretically his prisoners) he’s picked up a good deal about how the tensen operate – to the point where he thinks he’s figured out how to kill them.  It’s only Senta’s insight – delivered almost literally with his dying breaths – that completes the picture, though.

Jiujun’s death is a watershed moment no doubt, even if we already knew these creatures weren’t truly immortal.  So is the open declaration that here, there’s no difference between Asaemon and prisoners – it’s humans vs. Shinsenkyo, period.  With the Elixir of Life turning out to be a mirage (at least theoretically) everything else about this mission is invalidated too.  That leaves both groups of humans with a problem even should they manage to survive, but it’s a better problem to have than turning into tensen food.

Yuzuriha’s theory about the Elixir and Gabi’s village chief makes sense.  But extending it to his wife is a real game-changer.  I’m not prepared to take that at face value – in fact at this point I’d bet against it being true.  But it would explain certain things, and it would clear the decks for a potential Gabimaru-Sagiri romance (which Jigokuraku has certainly hinted at).  As for Gabimaru himself, he seems to have lost his memories.  He knows who he is but not where, nor the identity of the people with him.  According to Mei-vision, his Tao is pretty messed up.

We still don’t have all the surviving humans joined up, which I half-expected to happen this week.  Gabimaru’s team and Sagiri’s team seems like a formality, though where the Aza brothers fit into the picture is still a bit more obscure.  There’s also the matter of the shogunate sending some new Yamada to check up on the old ones, apparently led by one called Shugen (who I don’t believe we’ve seen before).  That’s a matter for the second cour to sort out, but things are already complicated enough on the island without this wrinkle added to the mix.

I’d like to think that Jigokuraku got most of its juvenile death porn out of the way in the first several episodes, and that the main storyline will continue to follow a more thoughtful path.  There’s definitely the core of something rather good here, and we managed to see a fair bit of it in the second half of this season.  I don’t have complete confidence that the remainder of the series – however long that is – will maintain that upward trajectory, but I feel a lot more hopeful than I did halfway through the first cour.  Battle shounen built around interesting ideas and engaging world-building aren’t all that common, so you always root for them to fulfill their potential.