While the executioners fail over and over to kill Gabimaru, the series doesn’t skimp out on explaining or illustrating the grisly details of each execution method used on him. For example, the exact effects of fire burning humans alive.
The results of one expedition out of five sent by the Shogunate to retrieve the Elixir of Life for Shinsenkyo; a single boat filled with beautiful flowers sprouted from a member of the search party, including his eye sockets. The man also has a listless smile on his face.
After the most recent expedition, one sergeant—out of roughly 60 members—returned alive with lumps all over his body. When he woke up a day later, the plants started to erupt from those lumps. The shogunate presented his body to the prisoners, and he’s still alive, blissfully stammering.
The Shogun ordering the convicts to cull their own numbers. Not only because the Asaemon are supposedly too understaffed to be assigned to each of them, but clearly for his own amusement. And they aren’t allowed to untie their hands.
Chobe starts off by choking a man to death so hard that his face turns red and he foams from the mouth, followed by him crushing another’s face with a rock. The other convicts follow suit, displaying such brutality as eye gouging and stomping each other to death.
When some of the prisoners are ordered to kill Gabimaru specifically when the latter calls them out for the bloodbath, the Hollow doesn’t hold back in defending himself and brutally rips his assailants apart... right down to ripping their throats open with his bare hands and teeth. Even the Shogun and the Samurai are disturbed by his brutality.
Tamiya and Fuchi discover the process that turned the last expedition crew into human flower beds; Tamiya's hand suddenly gets stung by a butterfly with a human face. He immediately cuts off his hand along with the insect, and his severed hand turns into a mass of branches and flora. After that, they’re encroached upon by giant centipedes with faces and several fingers coming out of their mouths.
Sōshin, the giant Titan-like monsters that roam Kotaku. Abominations that resemble deities with humanoid and animalistic characteristics.
The first one Gabimaru and Sagiri encounter is a bipedal creature with a fish for a body, six arms, and a set of spiked tails.
