Only 17 chapters yet I am instantly addicted. I love the premise of this series, and I love semi-historical epic manga like Berserk, Vinland Saga, Dangu (Shaman Warrior), and Mugen no Juunin (Blade of the Immortal). Shut Hell just added to my list. I can see this becoming an excellent masterpiece already.
The premise with the modern characters and gender bending made gave Shut Hell a very interesting and unique twist to its historical setting that got me hooked. The three layers of the plot (the modern, the events after Shut Hell's revival, and the retelling of Shut Hell and Yurul's past) makes excellent story telling that makes me like this series even more.
The characters are amazing, especially Shut Hell. I love that expression on her face that's not quite a frown, not quite a smile, and not quite a sneer, but something in between. Man, does Itoh Yu know how to design her characters! Alfald, Harabal, Yurul. I just stare at them for hours and wonder how she how she designed and drew them.
I love the action sequences, I've never seen anything quite like it. Given Shut Hell is female, there are a lot of acrobatics involved which is very different from the masculine actions in the series mentioned previously. Most of the actions are depicted realistically which makes it even more awesome. And I just enjoy unentangling the complex twist of action that Shut Hell and her prey are engaged in.
Shut Hell has everything that I like it in: wolves, tigers, blood and gore, China, redheads with swords, and a good little bit of history and geography.
Shut Hell is similar to The Twelve Kingdoms (both being about China and redheaded heroines with swords), yet very different at the same time. The only thing that mars Shut Hell is the god-awful translations. Its so bad that I have to ignore the speech bubbles and make up my own dialogue. Hopefully somebody else who actually knows the language picks up the project soon.