Bastard!! (Crime & Punishment): I See a Red Door & I Want it Painted Black... No Colors Anymore, I Want Them to Turn Black

Previously on the Bastard!! review:
"In the end, Hell's Requiem is a transitional arc, one that allowed Kazushi Hagiwara to move Bastard!! from a simple D&D-inspired fantasy story to something with more meat to it... One with greater stakes & more apocalyptic consequences."

After finishing Hell's Requiem in the 1992 Winter Special, Bastard!! soldiered on, with the next story arc debuting in the following Spring Special. Unfortunately, Kazushi Hagiwara's infamous penchant for being a perfectionist artist, alongside his obsession for constantly making his own Wonderful Megadeath doujinshi & simultaneously co-creating the Combustible Campus Gaurdress OVA with Satoru Akahori, resulted in Bastard!! missing the 1993 Spring Special; he also did artwork for the Bastard!! side-story novels, so he was extra busy at this point. However, unlike missing an issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, this meant that readers now had to wait six months in total for the next chapter! This wasn't a one-off, though, as he also missed the 1994 Winter & Autumn Specials and the 1995 Autumn Special. Hagiwara was also no longer being consistent with page counts either, as they now wildly varied from 30+ to 90+ pages. The result of this is that the next six volumes-worth of content took until the 1996 Summer Special, a little over four years, to come out. In fact, said Summer Special marked the end of the seasonal specials as a whole, as Shueisha would replace them with Akamaru Jump at the end of the year, which featured only one-shots again. Coincidentally, Viz's English release of Bastard!! suffered a change in scheduling of its own during this specific portion of the manga, as after Volume 14 in January of 2007 the series slowed down to a crawl of only two volumes every year, mainly due to low sales. I guess, if anything, we got an experience similar to what Japanese readers had to go through with this series at that point.

While all of this was going on, though, Bastard!! itself was going into a new direction. As I mentioned at the start of The Dark Rebel Armies' review, one of Hagiwara's major influences for wanting to become a mangaka was Go Nagai's Devilman, and that manga is notable for its wild tonal shift in the final third. While Nagai's series already had a darker tone with its whole "fusing with a literal demon to protect humanity" concept, it wasn't until the last stretch of the manga, in which the demons finally just initiated full-on war with humanity, that it truly became legendary. At this point nothing was sacred... And literally no one in the series was safe from brutal, violent, & horrific death. To more general anime fandom, people are familiar with Kentaro Miura's Berserk, which obviously took some inspiration from Devilman with the end of its Golden Age Arc, better known to all as "The Eclipse". In it, main character Guts & his Band of the Hawk brethren are offered as literal sacrifices to a seemingly unending horde of demons, which had only previously appeared in very small numbers, & no one was safe. I bring this up mainly because Berserk wouldn't get to The Eclipse until around 1996... Which would be around the time Bastard!! was coming to the "end" of Crime & Punishment, the story arc which can erroneously be interpreted as "Bastard!!'s equivalent to The Eclipse".

[NOTE: At this point, MAJOR SPOILERS are going to be a given, & for more than just Bastard!!, so continue on at your own risk! Also, this is a LOOOOOONG review, so abandon all free time, ye who continue reading.]

The "God of Destruction" Anthrasax has managed to remove the final seal that prevented its complete revival, & has one goal in mind: To kill Dark Schneider & everyone on the flying "Ark" that is King Crimson Glory, before destroying the world once again. D.S. eventually manages to defeat Anthrasax through his own power, even refusing the mantle of the Dragon Warrior he was created to be 400 years ago by the Wise Men of Europea, but it's a Pyrrhic victory as the end result is simply the two of them destroying each other... Or so everyone thinks. Instead, Anthrasax reveals its true form, that of a Dominion, the fourth level of Angels that do the work of God itself, which has decided that humanity has fallen too far to be worth forgiving anymore, due to Original Sin, & must face absolute eradication. The Samurai of Aian-Meide, the Sorcerer Shogun, the Four Divine Kings (yep, Kall-Su & Abigail are still alive, & are good guys now!), & Tia Noto Yoko all deny this fate put upon them, but fighting back against God's will simply means having to face even more of the heavenly host, this time lead by the Taxiarch herself, Michael the Archangel; plus, what's the real deal with Lucien Renlen? Meanwhile, D.S. has been banished to the lowest level of Hell, Cocytus (specifically Ptolomea), where he comes face-to-face with the Demonic God himself, Satan, and the only way for D.S. to even start to escape is to get past one of Satan's strongest "devil commanders", the voluptuous Porno Dianno.

It's the end of the world as they know it (and they're not fine).

You know things are pretty bleak when a story arc begins with a "God of Destruction" summoning its own "Army of Evil Demigods", totaling at over 100,000, & destroys over a million human & demi-human lives in just six hours; also, the first two chapters of said story arc are literally titled "Funeral March". Not just that, but in place of the standard magical explanations, the author describes the sheer potential power of said God of Destruction in pure scientific & mathematical logic, like the fact that combining its power with that of its Army increases the pure destructive power of Anthrasax by a factor of 4/3πr³, a.k.a. the volume of a sphere, allowing the total destruction of 65% of the Earth in "a mere" 168 hours, a.k.a. seven days. Volume 13, though being mainly set up to the actual direct confrontation between Dark Schneider & Anthrasax, sets the general tone of Crime & Punishment extremely well. This is not the Bastard!! of the late 80s & beginning of the 90s, which focused on being loud, brash, violent, lewd, & fun, like a D&D campaign can be if the dungeon master is rowdy & dirty-minded. In place of that is the equivalent of a new DM who decides to go with the "rocks fall, everyone dies" route, wanting to wipe the slate clean because they've had enough of all the evil & debauchery that had gone on with the prior DM, but the players all decide to have their characters fight back... And they succeed at the two-thirds mark of Volume 14.

So said new DM, pissed off to no end, decides to throw in a deus ex machina (from a certain point of view), unleashing the hand of God at the players in the last chapter of Volume 14... And yet they continue to fight back, which makes up the remainder of this story arc, even if it looks hopeless. I bring up Berserk's Eclipse for this review because there are very distinct similarities between what Miura would later do in his manga & what Hagiwara does here in Crime & Punishment. Both follow up a hard-fought & nearly tragic dilemma with essentially a no-win scenario, one where everyone is meant to die for reasons that have little-to-nothing to do with their own direct actions. In Berserk it's the Band of the Hawk having rescued their leader, Griffith, from torturous imprisonment & having managed to escape impossible pursuit, only the be "rewarded" with literal ritual sacrifice so that said leader can become a demon god, partially due to his jealousy towards Guts. In Bastard!! it's D.S. unleashing the full extent of his power, doing things no one thought he was capable of, to destroy Anthrasax & save the world, only to be "rewarded" with D.S. being exiled to Hell & everyone else on KCG being left to slaughter by the literal heavenly host, due to nothing more than their sheer existence. In both series, an entire group of people that the reader has followed for a good while are just left summarily beaten, bloodied, maimed, mutilated, quartered, eviscerated, atomized, & just downright killed by an effectively insurmountable force, and all of it is meant to feel a bit senseless, because their deaths aren't directly because of their own actions. Now, sure, fighting against Anthrasax is obviously a more direct reason to warrant repercussion in Bastard!!'s case, but the reasoning behind that was a simple one: They fought for their very existence, their right to live, because otherwise what's the point of even being born in the first place?

Of course, a major difference between Berserk's Eclipse & Bastard!!'s Crime & Punishment is that Miura aimed to make the slaughter in his manga feel horrific & tragic, while also having it feel quick & painful, as it's only 21 chapters, including the one that Miura later banned, all told within a year. Hagiwara, in comparison, aimed to give everything more of a heroic feel, one where you want to root for the Samurai, Sorcerer Shogun, & Yoko, who fight for survival against the forces of Heaven. All the while the Divine Kings search the data banks of KCG in order to find out the truth about the "Great Destruction" 400 years ago, if it was even Athrasax that truly destroyed the world, & why the Angels have returned to finish the job, which also doubles as a nice primer for Judeo-Christian mythology, including even the Book of Enoch... Oh, yeah, and this is all happening while KCG itself is on a crash course with the Earth, due to all the damage it suffers from the Angels' attacks. Also, the entirety of this part of Crime & Punishment took over three years, and a little over four volumes, to tell. Sure, Miura's Eclipse does feature a couple of heroic moments, like Pippin's last stand or Judeau protecting Casca, but he still made sure to make their final moments feel pathetic & worthless, to help sell the sheer futility of it all. Compare those to Vai Staeve standing tall against a demonic abomination, while missing an entire arm, just so he can give fellow Samurai Joshua Berahia time to escape to safer ground with Kai Harn (who had one of her legs blown off earlier). Or consider Sorcerer Shogun Yngwie von Mattström, who in his final moments gets a good look at Michael & can only remark at how one known as the "Angel of Death" is so beautiful, yet has such sadness-filled eyes. Sure, Bastard!! still delivers fast & gory death during this arc, two Samurai & two Sorcerer Shogun are super dead in the final chapter of Volume 14 alone, but even in those instances the characters die either steadfast or even smiling, knowing that they did everything they could; they have no regrets left behind, while all in the Band of the Hawk die in fruitless despair.

Really, the best way to describe the difference in tone between what Hagiwara first did & what Miura later did is this: For a panel I did at AnimeNEXT one year, I made a video where I showed bits of the 1997 Berserk anime's adaptation of The Eclipse set to "Yakety Sax". Aside from some stupid black humor, I felt that this mix worked because it matched the pure absurdity of that moment in the series, mainly in the fact that what's happening to the Band of the Hawk is utterly unreasonable; you have to laugh at the video, because otherwise you'd cry. In comparison, if there was an anime adaptation of Crime & Punishment, "Yakety Sax" wouldn't work here, because the arc still gives a feeling of wanting to be triumphant, even if it's only fleeting. No, this arc needs power metal, something along the lines of Sabaton's 2016 album The Last Stand. However, both Hagiwara & Miura were obviously inspired by Devilman for these respective parts of their manga, with Hagiwara paying closer homage in some ways. For example, angels are actually never seen in Go Nagai's iconic manga until literally the final page, where they are shown to be so almighty & powerful that they alone are able to clean up the mess that the finale left behind; Hagiwara, in turn, decides to have that type of power be shown, & fought against, front & center. In fact, just prior to the reveal of Anthrasax's true form, Hagiwara does a double-page spread showing Dark Schneider drawn in a purposefully rough & wild style, in homage to how Nagai had sometimes drawn Devilman himself back in the 70s.

In fact, all of this death & resistant last standing by humanity is almost enough to make you forget that the supporting cast, most of which is being cast aside & killed off in this arc, was never really given much to work with in this entire manga, in terms of development. Schen Karr's deal with his brother Zion Sol Vanderverg is given a quick extra line here about Schen originally wanting to kill Zion because of an incident involving Schen's wife, but since Zion sacrifices himself to let the Samurai escape, Schen kind of treats it as water under the bridge, because they're still brothers; this is literally the most we ever get of their story. Likewise, Ran Di Rhodes Shutein Neubaten stays behind with fellow Sorcerer Shogun Zion, and the most we get is Kai & him giving each other acknowledging nods, establishing that the two had already previously known each other, which was only brought up single time early in Hell's Requiem, & in an inner monologue by Ran, at that. At least Ross Zaboss Friedrich actually shows off what Hagiwara had no idea he was capable of in the first place; plus, his ultimate fate is left unknown, as he's not just outright killed. In fact, the three Shogun who had the most to work with previously (Macalpine Toni Strauss, Ba Thory, & Shella E. Lee) actually factor in no way during this arc, as they were never on KCG in the first place; it occasionally cuts back to them on ground level, to show how things look there. At least when it comes to the Samurai we had those early parts of Hell's Requiem to establish some sort of character for many of them, but even then it's only just enough to make you care a little more; also, the Samurai are out the picture after Volume 15, with Joshua & Kai's ultimate fates left unknown. Still, when Jorg loses his arms deflecting a blast in this arc, I literally thought, "Ha, that's nothing! He once survived without having ANY of his limbs!". In the end I will give credit where it's due, though, because Hagiwara manages to make these moments still count, mainly because of the passion & conviction the characters carry with them, alongside well executed set-pieces.

This is also the story arc where finally get a bunch of mysteries revealed, hence why I had to give the spoiler warning at the start, because there are a lot of major revelations here. Aside from the true identity of Anthrasax & the reveal of the Angels, we find out who the Wise Men of Europea actually are, Abigail's general backstory is told, Lars the dragon finally manages to revert back to his original form of Prince Lars Uhl & leads the battle against the Angels, Lucien reveals the true extent of his power & his purpose in the story as Lucifer the Fallen Angel (who tries to plead for humanity to be given another chance), we're given an explanation as to how the "modern day" world we live in became one of fantasy & magic after the apocalypse came about, & even how exactly everyone managed to escape the destruction of Castle Meta-Rikana all the way back in Volume 8; that last one was heavily indicated, but never downright explained until now. In a nice touch, one of them technically DIDN'T survive, but was revived via a spell referenced at the start of Hell's Requiem, during the Samurai stronghold attack; an excellent case of foreshadowing by Hagiwara. We also learn the exact date the "modern" world came to an end by Anthrasax... July, 2008 A.D. (you know, the future), which would place Bastard!! as taking place around the year 2408 or so. Finally, we also learn a fair bit of the truth behind Dark Schneider, both in his origin as well as what his "true" purpose in life may even be, which in turn actually gives context as to why the manga itself is named after what's generally viewed as a pejorative profanity. Not just that, but we also see D.S. at his most vulnerable, showing sadness over his realization that his actions & behavior keep Yoko from loving him like he loves her, despair when he's banished to Hell by Anthrasax ("Darkness can never win against the Light!"), & even fear/confusion when he first comes face-to-face with Satan himself, who calls D.S. the "Adam of Darkness" & their "Dark Messiah".

Speaking of Satan, Bastard!! features what might be one of the most wonderfully absurd & legitimately insane portrayals of the "Adversary" ever put to page.

Dressed in black leather adorned with spikes, & his entire head (minus one eye) covered in belts, Bastard!!'s take on Satan is to make him absolutely, positively, undeniably, without a shadow of a doubt... "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" bonkers. He laughs maniacally, strikes JoJo poses at random, gyrates his hips while announcing his meeting with D.S. to be a holiday for his forces, has a habit of ending his sentences with "Oh yeah!" or "Yahoo!", speaks most of his lines via wild screaming... And is even portrayed numerous times as though he's the Genie from Disney's Aladdin; yes, this is literally "Satan as portrayed by the late Robin Williams". Of course, that's if this Satan is even the "real" one, as the end of Volume 17 shows off what's going on at the "Central Nucleus of the Galaxy", as the Seraphim Uriel (remember that name for next time, too!) arrives to see that a giant monster has been conceived inside of the giant black hole "Abyss" that God banished all of its foes away to, one that looks similar to the same beast that fought the Angels 400 years ago... One also called "Satan". This is also not helped any bit when Kall explains Satan's origin from the Bible at the start of Volume 18, which goes with the "Lucifer is Satan after falling from Heaven" concept that some denominations follow, even though this arc already has its own Lucifer via Lucien Renlen; Satan himself even tells D.S. about his fall. Therefore, Bastard!! technically has three Satans, who may or may not be the same exact being: The "Divine Demon God" that helped destroy the world in 2008 & was sealed away, the robed man D.S. meets in Hell, & Lucifer/Lucien Renlen, who co-exists alongside D.S.; Lucifer is also the namesake of the Dragon Warrior, as if things weren't confusing enough. As for Porno Dianno, she's purposefully portrayed as the most sexually-designed character in the entire manga, wearing almost nothing else but lingerie that leaves nothing to the imagination (plus a cool hat to imitate devil horns) & donning "uber-titties" so large that D.S. calls them "inexcusable" & instantly gets a massive hard-on for, with Hagiwara blatantly showing D.S. ejaculating over his first sight of Porno, with the only thing censored being D.S.'s shlong via massive mosaics. Still, Hagiwara somehow was allowed to show a literal ejaculation in the pages of (technically) Shonen Jump... Maybe. Viz's Volume 18 is from Hagiwara's "re-mix version", in which "some things within have been changed" (Hagiwara's own words), so he likely added in the more overtly sexual moments in this final volume for the story arc, including the literal ejaculation; also, just like with Volume 9, the original release of Volume 18 had a cover that was too risque (& NSFW).

Still, with all of this death & destruction, that's not to say that this story arc is bereft of the comedy that Bastard!! had plenty of in the past, because there's still tons of that to be found here; if anything, the comedy helps keep things from getting too depressingly bleak. Among all the gore & death you get bits like Angels literally stretching their eyes out in order to have telescopic vision (possibly a reference to the Kikaider tokusatsu series?), or Kai Harn awakening to find one of her legs cleaved off, only to jokingly think "Huh... One of my legs is shorter". There's even a gag where D.S. finally has had enough of being buck naked during his time in Hell, especially after Porno Dianno insults his "masculinity", so he just rips off his skin to reveal a new outfit underneath. In fact, it's at this point in the manga that Hagiwara starts doubling down on referential humor, with the Dominions being downright Ultra Series references (right down to doing the poses when firing holy blasts onto the arc), Anthrasax does Sailor Moon's iconic "In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" pose when declaring the destruction of humanity, Abigail calls upon "Abigail Crystal Power, Make Up!" to heal himself into a new outfit after getting attacked by some newborn Angels (& also putting Yoko into a more combat-ready outfit), & Zakk Walder has a move that's literally just Geese Howard's Raging Storm from Fatal Fury; there are many, many more, so I'll just stop there. In fact, during the giant clash between the Sorcerer Shogun & the Angels, where Zakk does his reference, Hagiwara just tosses in fighting move special commands in the margins of each major attack... And it actually kind of works perfectly.

Volumes 1-12: "Fun, wild, & debaucherous D&D-style action!"
Volumes 13-17: "Humanity must die, because God's had enough of their Original Sin crap!!"

Most importantly, though, is that the pace never lets up once things get going. Once D.S. starts the fight with Anthrasax, there is little real down time during this entire arc, making each chapter feel like a life & death struggle, even when it's something as basic as Abigail telling Yoko all the truths about the world, & that the God that clerics like the two of them worship has actually wanted them dead the entire time. In fact, once D.S. is banished to Hell in Volume 14, his only appearances for the next three volumes are literally just a handful of pages in each, allowing everyone else on KCG to get the spotlight, which helps in making their plight feel all the more effective. Think about that for a moment: Considering the seasonal specials Hagiwara missed, & his placement in each volume, this means that, at one point, Bastard!! went close to two years without D.S. appearing even once! Volume 18, however, brings things back to D.S., where he eventually gets into battle with Porno Dianno, and it's revealed that the magic humans need to chant incantations for are just natural to Angels & Demons, who can cast spells instantly. All the while, the events of Volumes 16 & 17 technically all occur over the course of a little over 15 minutes, technically just 5 for the latter, as that's all the time everyone aboard KCG has to even attempt to free D.S. from his banishment until the Ark crashes into the Earth; it's the whole "five minutes until Namek explodes!" joke, only here it flows a bit better.

Finally, I just want to bring up how much Kazushi Hagiwara's art has improved since the manga's debut in 1988, because it's certainly something. Whereas back during The Dark Rebel Armies it was easy to see his origin as an assistant on Kimagure Orange Road, by Crime & Punishment Hagiwara more than grown into his own style, and it's just beautiful. His characters look more fully featured in general, making them easy to instantly recognize (though having fewer of them to remember eventually also helps), which is great; naturally, his female characters just look stunning (Sean Ari even looks unrecognizable, in the few scenes she's in). Hagiwara also manages to avoid making characters look similar in any way, unless it's specifically on purpose, like human Lars looking vaguely like an adult Lucien, which Yoko specifically thinks about. Also, I feel like Hagiwara designed Lars to be as blatantly cliché "90s fantasy hero" as possible, complete with a giant energy sword, but still manages to make him look awesome. The Angels are also given a surprisingly large amount of variety, whether it's the fully-armored Dominions, the more rough & somewhat grotesque-looking foot soldiers, or even the more humanoid forms of the higher ranks. This isn't really shown until the last couple of volumes of the arc, but the Angels do have human-esque forms that they can take, and Hagiwara decides to play around with the concept of Angels technically not having defined genders by having some of them just be portrayed as blatantly female, most notably Michael; when she first comes out of her giant form, the other Angels even react with horny glee, which is amusing. If I don't really get into the Angels much here, it's mainly because they get more focus in the next story arc, so wait until then for my feelings on that part of the cast. In this arc, they're mainly lethal extremists who feel that everything they're doing is inherently the "right thing". However, I will say that their techno-futuristic designs when in humanoid form are just cool as hell, complete with shoulder pads & pauldrons that'd make Satoshi Urushihara proud, & Hagiwara gives them a cool, Ghost in the Shell-esque scientific look when it comes to their "Demonic Demon God" surveillance in space.

And, to think, the artwork is only going to get even better!

D.S. lookin' miffed that there's barely
an image of him in this review...

This brings us to the "end" of Crime & Punishment... And by that I mean that there isn't really one. Aside from the seasonal specials coming to an end, Hagiwara was left in a pickle when he was unable to properly continue the story from where Volume 18 left off at. I don't believe it's ever been clarified what happened, but somehow the pre-production work for the next part of the story either went totally missing or was accidentally destroyed, so Crime & Punishment just comes to a sudden stop shortly after D.S. manages to covertly strip Porno Dianno of her bra/thong onesie, showing that he's not exactly helpless against her. The last chapter suddenly jumps ahead to Satan somehow managing to finally escape imprisonment, likely to just set up what Hagiwara would do next. We don't find out what happens to everyone on KCG, either, as the story switches from them to D.S. early in that last volume. Hagiwara would decide to institute a time skip in order to simply move on to the next story arc, which is for next time, but in 2000 Hagiwara self-published Bastard!!: Unused・Revised Edition, a book which collects all of the work he had gotten done for the continuation of Crime & Punishment, regardless of how unfinished some of the pages or paneling is. While this all technically happens after what's shown from this story arc, Hagiwara had actually started work on some parts of it well before he even got to Volume 18, as he made reference to some of these events in his You Gotta Hagiwara! afterword back in Volume 16. While a major aspect of Crime & Punishment is about everyone on KCG valiantly fighting against the Angels in order to continue existing, Hagiwara also delves into some strong philosophical directions, like humanity's seeming inability to move away from committing horrible atrocities to itself & people's insistence on keeping the truth from others. This "unsued" content shows more of that, like correlating Neanderthals & Eden, as well as blaming the "corruption of humanity" to the frontal lobe, as it's the last part of the brain to have evolved. Sure, it likely is a bunch of wacky science in the grand scheme of things, but it also shows just how grand a scale Hagiwara was thinking with this story arc; I mean, just look at his four-page dissertation on the physical, spiritual, & astral planes.

The book is made up of various segments that aren't properly connected, showing things like D.S. managing to escape from his fight with Porno Dianno & coming across Angel Lieutenant Gabriel, who's been sealed in Hell for the past 400 years. There's also Kall, Nei, & Gara finding out about "Project Apocalypse", "System A/Angel", the "Ultimate Dragon Warriors", & the creation of D.S., only to be attacked by the Wise Men of Europea themselves, one of them riding a giant monstrosity of a beast & shouting about "Becoming a God!". The Kings finding out the truth also sees Hagiwara very blatantly parody Evangelion, which is funny since Bastard!! used Judeo-Christian mythos first, & its penchant for showing tons of text in quick succession, even literally plastering a two-page spread with nothing but text; it'd easily give a translator & typesetter massive conniption fits. The main attraction, though, is the latter half of the book, which goes super heavy in the lore of Bastard!!, detailing the creation of Anthrasax (then known as "Anslasa-X"), the start of "the other 'System D'", showing all of the Angels on Earth combining together into a form that looks like a massive cross of light for more destruction, Lars attacking the nuclear core of KCG in order to free D.S. from his banishment by creating 5.67 billion "tera-adelheids" of light energy to match the creation of the universe, KCG finally crashing into the Earth & creating a massive explosion, & the rise of a new flying monstrosity called Behemoth, seemingly by breaking through reality itself! Without a doubt, it's a whirlwind of mind-blowing reveals & indications, even without a translation, and while some of these elements are actually explained in the Crime & Punishment story arc itself (namely the Wise Men & their ambitions to become like God itself), it's sad that it's unknown whether or not Hagiwara will ever actually implement much of these things, as they are drawn here, into Bastard!! proper.

In 2009, after (eventually) finishing the next story arc in Ultra Jump, Hagiwara decided to return back to where he had abruptly left off at in 1996, deeming it the next story arc in the manga: The Seal of Magical Power/The Number of the Beast; at this point, Hagiwara was giving arcs two official titles. Unfortunately, Hagiwara only produced enough content for a single book released in 2012, Volume 27, & hasn't made a new chapter since 2010. As for what's in Volume 27, it's a greatly expanded version of the two "Hell Chapter" segments seen in Unused・Revised Edition, extending a mere 23 pages into ~180. Hagiwara finishes up all of the original pages seen in that original version, new pages were added in between those older pages to help expand on some things, & close to 100 brand new pages were made to actually showcase the rest of the D.S./Porno Dianno fight, which was skipped over in the original, unfinished version. There's also some basic setup for Dani, the "Priestess Shaman of the Elves", who is shown images of the looming threat of the Divine Demon God by Princess Kukuri, the oracle of Sona Ark Tatika, an elven city located on another continent. There are English scanlations for this content, but it's taken from rips of the issues of Ultra Jump they ran in (and is missing the fifth & final chapter), and comparing them to the collected Volume 27 tankouban really shows how even the serialized versions weren't quite "finished"; Hagiwara even used his old "describe what's going on, instead of actually drawing anything" ploy once. Not only do some pages get extra details added for the tankouban, but Hagiwara outright adds numerous pages to some of the chapters, either to help add detail to the overall flow... Or to add in sexuality that not even Ultra Jump could honestly show. For example, Porno Dianno manages to pull out D.S.'s heart during the fight, and in the serialized version it goes straight to him kissing her & revealing that it was all a fake out, as he bursts into the mini-D.S.-es that were first shown during Hell's Requiem. In the tankouban, however, there are four extra pages which blatantly show D.S. not only kissing Porno, but outright having oral sex with her, complete with french kissing, fondling her breasts, & even caressing her butt. There are also extra pages showing Porno outright having an orgasm after D.S. delivers a Hokuto Hundred Crack Fist so sexual that it puts her into a rage that not even Satan & the Seven Kings of Hell, who are all watching the fight, thought she was capable of.

Oh, yeah, the Seven Kings of Hell: Asmodeus, Beelzebub (which is funny, as Satan calls himself the "Lord of Flies" in Volume 18), Paimon, Byleth, Astaroth, Belial, & Bael. They're first shown late in Volume 18, & commentate on the fight in Volume 27, but otherwise have little importance at this point, other than setting up that they all hold a piece of something that D.S. himself also unknowingly has within him: The Judas Pain; stick yet another thumbtack on that for next time.As in the old "Hell Chapter" segments, it all ends with D.S. coming across Gabriel after falling into Judecca, & I imagine she is meant to become D.S.'s new surrogate sidekick for the remainder of his journey to escape Hell, like Lars' dragon whelp form was during The Dark Rebel Armies. We'll be seeing more of Gabriel in the next story arc, anyway.

Bastard!!'s Crime & Punishment story arc is a lot to take in, if you couldn't tell from the sheer length of this review, but it's also why it's easily the greatest part of the manga, up to this point. If Hell's Requiem was Hagiwara showing what he could do with his manga's storytelling without having to work with weekly restrictions, then this story arc is the apex, as he manages to cram each & every chapter with so much content, whether it's action, drama, character development, world-building, lore, literal passages from the Bible, long-awaited reveals, hints at a greater picture that you never knew even existed, gut checks, violence, heroism, death, love, despair, comedy, & even (in the last volume) some sexuality, all without feeling like anything is being rushed; in fact, in an ideal world, Hagiwara would have crammed even more content in! Sure, Volumes 13 & 18 are the slowest parts, as the former has to set things up & the latter introduces some new things, but Volumes 14 to 17 are a damn roller coaster ride of emotion, and it hits all the harder for me now with this reread, because I didn't have to wait six months for each new volume to come out anymore; seriously, this is a story arc that needs to be experienced in quicker fashion, so as to maintain emotion. You also get such a strong feeling of pathos & philosophy from Hagiwara here, and while most of it (at least what isn't "unused") isn't technically anything we haven't seen from other works, it's definitely a shock to see it in a series like Bastard!!, which had always prided itself on excess & absurdity, and it all adds up in this story arc truly being the point where Bastard!! went from being simply a fun & raucous fantasy manga to, legitimately, one of the all-time greats that many might know of, but few have actually bothered to truly give a legit chance.

Even if it's technically unfinished, Crime & Punishment is Bastard!! at its most ambitious, taking the manga into a direction that only makes one wonder "Where the hell can it possibly go from here?!"... And that's likely what all the fans in Japan were wondering once the Seasonal Specials came to an end. Come back next time for the last of the Bastard!! reviews, as the series returns to its old stomping grounds, before eventually moving out for good, to tell The Tale of The Immoral Laws & the Defender of the Faith.

Manga © Kazushi Hagiwara 1993-1996, 2000, 2009-2010