‘Hell’s Paradise’: What Is Arborification?

Hell’s Paradise has become a major hit in the world of anime and manga thanks to the recently-premiered anime series. Fans all around the world, of all ages and genders, love Gabimaru and his adventures on Kotaku, which is why it only makes sense that they want to know more about the series and some of its concepts. One major concept introduced in the series is called Arborification, and in this article, we have decided to give you a detailed insight into the whole process and how it actually works. So, this article will be your best guide to the Arborification process in the Hell’s Paradise series.

Arborification is a process of transformation in which living beings sprout flowers from their bodies and enter a state of blissful trance; they seemingly remain alive but are basically plants, and after a while, they simply die or turn into trees. In that aspect, the process is not unique in its effects, so different people experience different symptoms and outcomes. It is manifested in those that have been infected with Flower Tao or have drunk the Tan elixir.

The rest of this article will focus on the process of Arborification and its role in the Hell’s Paradise series. Arborification is undoubtedly one of the most important and intriguing elements in the Hell’s Paradise lore, and it only makes sense that the fans want to know as much as they can about it, so we have decided to compose this article. This article will contain some spoilers from the Hell’s Paradise manga, so be careful how you approach it.

Arborification is a specific, yet dangerous procedure that changes a person completely in more ways than one

If you remember a scene from one of the first episodes, when the criminals bound for Kotaku gathered in front of the shogun, an Asaemon covered in flowers in a death-like trance was presented to them. He was presented as an example of the biggest danger that awaits the criminals of Kotaku. The unknown Asaemon was actually subjected to the process of Arborification and was turned into a plant. He wasn’t technically dead, but he wasn’t alive anymore, and he was not his former self in any way imaginable.

So, what exactly is this Arborification? Well, it is the name for a transformation that is manifested by living beings sprouting flowers from their bodies and eventually turning into plants after a while. The process is complex, and we don’t really have a complete understanding of what is going or there. It is also clear that there is no single process of Arborification and that the transformation itself can have different forms and different consequences.

How is Arborification initiated? Well, there are two known ways of starting the process. The first is if a person is infected with Flower Tao, while the second is when a person is exposed to the effects of the Tan elixir. Most people cannot really handle either of these, so they are subjected to Arborification. The butterflies on Kotaku seemingly have large amounts of Tan in their needles, which is how they initiate a transformation in a person. Gentetsusai quickly sliced off his own hand when he was stung by a butterfly early in the series.

But there is a way of counteracting the process, but it is quite complex, and certain conditions have to be met. Namely, if a person is close to dying, which means that the Flower Tao is not being absorbed in sufficient amounts by either breathing, thinking, or living, but they have a very strong desire to go on living, the process of Arborification can be stopped.

If the person affected manages to do it, they would continue to have a balanced relationship between their own Tao and the Flower Tao that causes Arborification, ultimately giving them regenerative abilities. However, there is a catch: even if the human is successful in balancing out the fusion of these two types of Tao, the symptoms of Arborification might come back more deeply if they regenerate too much, which will result in the person affected having to struggle to stop the process once again.

So, what does Arborification do? Well… this is where things get confusing. Namely, several different effects of Arborification have been observed. First, we know that the people affected become like plants – they sprout flowers out of their bodies, and their skin becomes like the root of a plant. This is incomplete Arborification, and the Tensen uses these people to produce more Tan elixir. But other effects can be observed. In Hoko’s case, the Arborification turned him into a humanoid sentient tree-like being, but even that, as it seems, was not the complete process, as those tree-men that had not been used to create more Tan elixir turned into singing trees, as explained by Hoko.

This seems to be the final phase of Arborification. But, there’s the case of Mu Dan, who has his own brand of the process, which results in the victims sprouting peonies with his plant stingers. This seems to be completely unique to Mu Dan. Also, we know that the Horai houses Arborified horses that are alive and are used in battle, but it has never been explained how and why that happened to them.

As you can see, the effects of Arborification are quite complex, and there is no single answer. It is also unknown whether Arborification is a disease or not. The Tensen certainly don’t treat it like a disease, and it doesn’t seem that it actually spreads or infects people in that way, but it is spread like a disease by others, and it causes disease-like symptoms in humans. As we’ve said earlier, there is no single unified answer to this question either. Arborification is a transformation that much we know, but whether it can be classified as a disease as well is unknown at this time.

Before we end this, we’ll just bring you a real-life example that might have inspired the manga concept. Namely, Arborification looks a lot like a real-life disease known as Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, or Lewandowsky–Lutz dysplasia, or treeman syndrome. It is a very rare skin condition of genetic origin. An anarchic push of cutaneous horns manifests it due to an abnormal sensitivity to papillomaviruses. The condition usually begins between the ages of 4 and 8, most often before the age of 20, but can exceptionally appear later and lasts the rest of life.

It results in the appearance of scaly macules and sometimes exuberant, pseudo-tumoral papules, mainly on the hands and feet. In these lesions, we find papillomavirus types 5 and 8, viruses that are found in 80% of subjects in a normal asymptomatic population. Other types of papillomavirus can sometimes be identified.

Felix Lewandowsky and Wilhelm Lutz made the first clinical description of this condition. There are approximately 200 people with this skin condition, also known as, as we have said, treeman syndrome. We don’t know if this was the actual inspiration for the process, but it is the best real-life similarity we found.