Beautiful art accompanies an interesting story. The setting is the actual rise of the Mongols in the 13th century, although many events and characters are reimagined to fit a more adventure and action oriented plot. The main weakness of this manga is that it doesn't spend any time on the history it's borrowing from, which I think is often more interesting than the characters in the story.

... Last updated on October 11th, 2017, 1:36am

What a mess... things happen because the author wills it, not because there is a logic or sense to the actions of the characters, they kill who they shouldn't save those they should kill, 10 beat 1000, 1 man takes a castle, and 100 beat a whole army, a blind man fights as he's been blind his hole life the moment he looses his sight, hair grows and shrinks out of nowhere, battles are hectic at best, strategy is a joke when rarely used, the characters can't seam to decide if they are warmongers or pacifists and change back and forth all the time, use of fingerprints in 1200-1300, a japanese is transported to china but has no issue speaking old chinese... I could go on... I get the feeling the mangaka couldn't decide if he wanted this to be a sort of realistic historical manga or a more fantasy oriented one, the result is this strange thing where it's neither, just inconsistent.
It does have a few good things, the story is actually not bad, it's just not well presented and not very believable, even contradictory, since the importance of the jade script is not the jade tablets but the script itself, for their "purpose" transcripting them and trying to save the academy makes more sense, or even take the transcription and go to their destination. I also find it does a great job in how it depicts how barbaric those times were.
As a whole thou I found it lacking.
Also, I don't dislike the art-style but at times, mainly during fights, it lowers in quality, also, the fighting sequences are hard to follow.

... Last updated on October 3rd, 2017, 2:13am

Shut Hell is a very unique manga that deals with many ideologies pertaining to both historical and modern day topics. It gives the reader another perspective on war, race, and life itself. Unlike other manga, Shut Hell is very realistic yet very idealistic at the same time. It delivers a striking display of art, presenting ideas that makes the readers think. It's conjures a clash between ideology and reality to focus on the bigger picture by viewing it through the smaller picture. A truly magnificent peace of art filled with rich and powerful display of character and stature. I would recommend people who are looking for something new and outside of manga norm to read Shut Hell. It is by far, one of my favorite manga of all times rating at 6/10 which is the second highest rating that I ever gave.

... Last updated on June 29th, 2017, 7:24pm

For what I read on internet, Shutoheru (シュトヘル) means demon in mongolian, the official name in romaji in japanese is Shutohel, look here ( http://goo.gl/YKxXeV ) the production page name "shutohel" appears above the japanese title. (production notes were published on February edition of Gekkan spirits of this year)

Great manga but sometimes you don't need to translate everything to proper english ESPECIALLY when it's a GODDAMN NAME! They should just leave the name as "Shuto Heru" At least it'll sound like a name not a phrase.

And the awful translation hurts my brain. Don't they have proofreader? It feels like I'm reading a direct google translation.

I'm actually enjoying this, it's a bit twisty but I think I get it now. I really like Shut Hell, she's cool and I want to see what happens with Sudou in her body. I really hope the scanlators keep going with this manga because it's worth it. I'd also like to know her real name because somehow calling her Shut Hell seems rather awkward.

... Last updated on June 17th, 2014, 4:41am

The content is not bad, even though i may not agree with the directions the mangaka took. But the one thing most damned is the name Shut Hell. frankly, the original name shuto heru is better.

the next group that pick up this series should use it instead of shut hell. What the heck is shut hell?

I second Ichen's comment. This series was fun, but the story could have been told more efficiently with a tighter focus and less characters. The series suffers the more you reread it, because the initially shocking motivations of characters are actually shallow and not convincing. Despite the interesting premise and ancient setting, the delivery is just a popcorn movie.

I tried and got to the hanging but this story misses all the marks. Everyone's backstories are told, there is no mystery and usually I don't care for "mysterious" characters. Maybe it's because the backstory of Shut Hell herself is beyond lame and senseless. All the characters' motivations are not particularly deep or even believable. The time travel/body swap thing kept me reading longer than I would've with just the main story of the past. It's just frustrating, good idea but something went very wrong with the execution. It really lacks the depth to back up emotions they throw at you, it's no Ares or Claymore.