Gokurakugai (written in Japanese as "極楽街", roughly translated as "Paradise District") is a 2022 action manga with story and art by Yuuto Sano. The manga started off as a one shot, The Gokuraku District's Third Avenue Incident, published in 2020.
In Gokuraku, a red-lights district in a world where magical and supernatural creatures live among humans in a modern city; Tao, a cold-hearted and serious woman, and Alma, her upbeat and jovial assistant, are a pair of troubleshooters who offer their services to solve any problem the people of this setting might have. In truth, they work for a secret group called "Snake Pit", which combats the threat of demonic creatures named Calamities/Magas.
Tropes
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the original one shot, Tao had red hair and Alma had blue hair. In the proper serialization, Tao has platinum hair and Alma has red hair. That being said, it's implied in both cases that Tao's hair is dyed from black, Alma's hair, however, seems to really have changed colors between the two versions.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Both the manga and the one shot open with Alma and Tao getting payment from a client for whom they retrieved images of him cheating on his wife with a beastwoman. They're much ruder about it on the one shot though, and their anger at him is much more justified as in the manga, he tried to scam them out of money he was supposed to pay, while in the first one he tried to negotiate it, even if in both cases he was telling lies.
- Age Lift: In the one-shot, Alma is about as tall as Tao is and implied to be in his late teens. In the serialization, Alma is a head shorter and appears to be 14-15 years old.
- Asshole Victim: It's implied that the men that Kanata has killed all tried to harm or assault her in some way.
- Big Eater: Alma can pack away several full course meals and still have room for more. His orders at his favorite Chinese restaurant tend to span several speech bubbles and he's almost always surrounded by empty bowls when he's done eating. Unfortunately, this also means that he accrues a huge tab, leading him to work part-time as a cook and delivery boy at the same restaurant to pay for his meals.Alma: [ordering] Chashu ramen, fried rice, and gyoza!! Also, a pork cutlet bowl, karaage chicken, twice-fried pork, shumai, sweet-and-sour pork, pork liver and garlic chives stir-fry, mapo eggplant, Chinese pork bun, and almond tofu and...
- Big Friendly Dog: Yoki is the largest member of the Snake Pit, a dog beastman, who is big, friendly, and prone to hugging his underlings.
- Culture Chop Suey: The setting, the titular Gokurakugai district, takes cues from both Japan and China in its aesthetics and style. The characters have a mix of Chinese and Japanese names, such as Tao and Yoki, and wear a mix of modern clothing and Chinese clothing from the 40s and 50s. The characters use Japanese-style speech, practice Shintoism, and use yen as currency. At the same time, Alma is aware enough of baseball to use his cleaver as a bat to hit the "ball" into a Maga. All in all, it makes the district resemble a fantastical version of Yokohama's Chinatown.
- Cute Little Fangs: A clue toward Alma being a Maga is his pronounced canines that are visible whenever he smiles. They're drawn as cute fangs during more comedic, super-deformed moments, but grow to a more menacing length whenever Alma pulls out the stake keeping his powers in check.
- Fantastic Racism: Beastmen are often looked down upon by the rich and famous, who see them as a "lowly" species. Yuki feels the need to hide his ears and tails to avoid sticking out. However, most people in the Gokurakugai district seem to not care whether you're a baseline human or a beastman.
- Gender-Blender Name: Downplayed, due to the mixed setting, but Alma is a boy who has a typically female name.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Maga like Alma can rapidly heal otherwise severe wounds. At one point, Alma treats getthing his hand chopped off as a minor inconvenience, catching his own hand with a kick in an attempt to drive his cleaver into his opponent. While the hit doesn't land, he's already regenerated his hand by the time his feet touch the floor.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Alma is a close range combatant who can summon a sword from his chest, where as Tao stays long range, firing off bullets made from Alma's blood.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Tao is indicated to be a much nicer person than her money obsessed, Ice Queen persona shows. In the one-shot, she takes on the case of a young girl who has no means to pay her as she reminds her of her own abusive past, and in the proper serialization, she doesn't charge people when she acts on doing the right thing, or accepts a very small payment only; in chapter 2, for example, she takes cigarettes as payment for listening to the troubles of a grieving young man, saying that the troubleshooters are also open to listening.
- Horror Hunger: Kanata is indicated in chapter 7 to be a cannibal being with the need to feed on humans, something she doesn't want to do, but that she breaks down after a period and after being attacked by humans.
- Human Resources: Tao's bullets are infused with Alma's blood to make them effective against Maga. But this involves lengthy blood drawing sessions that Alma hates, making him even more determined to wipe out the Maga so he can stop having to get his blood taken.
- Idiot Hero: Alma isn't a particularly bright kid. He responds way too bluntly to Yaya's questions about how he Never Gets Fat and has no idea what a "scion" is after Luka tries using his family name as heir to the Kiyomine Zaibatsu to haggle with Tao.
- Living Lie Detector: Alma can literally sniff out lies people are telling.
- Knowledge Broker: Tatsuomi, a womanizing ally of the Snake Pit that sells information to Tao and Karma.
- Magical Realism: Mixed with Urban Fantasy. The story is set on a modern city that seems to take inspiration from both China and Japan. The setting is a world where a lot of otherwise magical creatures live alongside humans, like the beastmen Yoki and Yuki, as well as mermaids in the one shot, in a very matter of fact way. However, the existence of demons called Magas is hidden from the general public and dealt with by the Snake Pit.
- Mercy Kill: Kanata's death is framed as this, as she was no longer able to hold back her Horror Hunger and felt she had nothing left to live for. She begs Alma to kill her already and is happy when he does while trapped in a berserk rage.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The two boys introduced at the end of Volume 1 and that are behind a series of killings are called Yomu and Yoru, whose names mean "Underworld" and "Night".
- Never Gets Fat: Despite eating enough to feed ten people his age, Alma never loses his trim, fit physique. Lampshaded by the people around him.Yaya: Man, oh man. You can sure pack it away, Alma. Lucky dog, you never get fat. Where does the food even go?
Alma: Just out my ass like usual.
Yaya: Too much info! - Replacement Goldfish: Yoru a Maga created from Tao's deceased younger brother, Jin, accuses Alma of being a replacement for him while confronting Tao. They're both young men who mean a great deal to Tao and they're both Maga. But while Yoru embraces his power and "new family" as a Maga, Alma is fighting to live as a human being.
- Stock Shōnen Hero: Alma is a spiky-haired, outgoing, and courageous young man who enjoys helping others as part of his job as a troubleshooter. His Maga powers also make him the muscle of the troubleshooters while Tao is his minder and the brains of the operation.
