First introduced to Shueisha's JUMP Square magazine in July 2022, Yuto Sano's supernatural shonen manga, Gokurakugai (Red-Light District), was added to VIZ's library and made available in English on March 2, 2023. Gokurakugai follows Alma and Tao, a pair of "Troubleshooters" at the Gokurakugai Troubleshooter Agency, who take on various jobs in the Red-Light District for the right price.
The series released its first volume in November 2022, and those first six chapters are available to read on the Shо̄nen Jump app and its associate, MANGA Plus by Shueisha. Here's why Gokurakugai is an exciting addition with a lot of potential to become an outstanding shо̄nen title.
Plot and Background
Alma and Tao are a pair of Troubleshooters at the Gokurakugai Troubleshooter Agency, a small business involved in various "odd" jobs, from retrieval of incriminating evidence for sleazy businessmen and politicians, to missing persons cases. Their town is a strange one, with humans living in simmering contempt of the beastmen who hide in the shadows and keep their existence a secret. With several people going missing on a daily basis, a prevailing sense of unease grows among the public and the situation grows more ominous as rumours of badly mangled animal carcasses appearing near sites where people have been reported to have gone missing make their way across the town and eventually to the Troubleshooters' ears. A young mangaka named Luka whose beastman friend Yuki is among the missing finds the Troubleshooter Agency and enlists them to look for Yuki; however, Luka ends up finding him first and is soon attacked by a horrific monster known as a Maga, otherwise known as "Disasater Beasts". The Maga are monsters created from the reanimated corpses of humans and beasts that feed on human flesh, are extremely hardy and are contorted into disgusting and convoluted shapes. The Troubleshooters exist as investigators straddling the thin line between their little Red-Light District, and Hell.
Gokurakugai was initially presented as a one-shot titled The Gokuraku District's Third Avenue Incident, which was released in Shueisha's Jump SQ.Rise magazine in January 2020, with the official serialization starting on July 4, 2022. Four months later, the first Gokurakugai volume was released on November 4, 2022. The first volume, consisting of six chapters and one extra, was published in English by VIZ media on March 2, 2023, with translation by David Evelyn and lettering by Kyla Aiko.
Art
One of the standout elements in Gokurakugai is the quality of the art, which is crisp and extremely detailed, particularly in combat scenes. The character designs are particularly interesting, but not necessarily in a never-before-seen kind of way. On some level, the main duo of Alma and Tao have a master-and-student relationship, but also one that is akin to beast-and-tamer. The visuals make for a story that is easy to follow, but also pleasing to the eye. While the Maga are terrifying, they are reminiscent of Hollows from BLEACH, and curses from JUJUTSU KAISEN in their initial presentation, showing some possible inspiration from major Shо̄nen Jump titles.
There were a few pages in the third chapter of Gokurakugai that weren't quite of the same quality as the rest of the first volume, with the shrine fight being seemingly incomplete, sketchy in some parts, while others were clearly unfinished pages in which guidelines, basic shapes and unrefined images were rampant for thirteen of the 45 pages in that chapter. It is possible that time constraints affected the outcome of the third chapter. The quality of the art returned to normal after that particular incident, and no such glaring contrast in quality was seen in Gokurakugai since. Overall, the quality of the art and the action in the manga is high, comparable to the aforementioned Shо̄nen Jump hits, as well as titles like Yuji Kaku's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku.
Characters
While the series is building up to a particular narrative and presents its possible first main antagonists, Gokurakugai introduces characters in an almost-episodic kind of format, with each chapter correlating with a different case. However, the third chapter begins the construction of the upcoming story, introducing a villain who has been murdering young women who look similar. The series' side characters are simply support for Alma and Tao, and even within that duo, Alma is the one more readily explored given that he's the red ogre to Tao's blue.
Alma
Alma is a red-haired 21-year-old who is honest and simple and possesses a great deal of positive energy, making him pretty similar to the standard Shо̄nen protagonist. He is incredibly athletic and physically strong, traits that he partly owes to the fact that he's not actually completely human: he's a human-Maga hybrid – a Half-Maga. With permission from Tao, Alma is able to tap into his Maga abilities and unleash a cleaver constructed from his blood that also changes his appearance, giving him a single blackened sclera, fangs and demonic markings of some kind that double as a single black horn. In this form, his appearance is comparable to that of Black Asta from the Black Clover series by YÅ«ki Tabata.Tao
A young woman who is only concerned with exterminating Maga, smoking cigarettes and getting paid. Despite her seemingly selfish priorities, Tao is the person responsible for giving Alma his strong sense of justice and belief that his life has value. It is because of Tao that Alma is able to combat the Maga and kill his fear as he does so. Without Tao, Alma is rendered incapable of fighting, as he needs her permission to do so. Tao presents this as Alma's one true weakness that he must overcome if he is to make Gokurakugai safer.
Overall
While it may be too early to tell where the story is going, Gokurakugai is a promising shonen title that is yet to come into its own and show the true merit of its narrative. However, the first six chapters of the main story are interesting enough, especially for fans who enjoy supernatural narratives with a leaning towards horror. At this point, it is worth checking out especially for its brilliant art and visuals, especially because its entire first volume is available as a sample test. The action is gripping and the characters, while not mind-blowing, are likable enough to follow. With an overarching narrative beginning to piece together, Gokurakugai is definitely an exciting one of VIZ's new additions that is worth catching in its infancy.