Some protagonists feel dangerous because the plot says so. But Gabimaru from Hell’s Paradise feels dangerous because he moves like a finished sentence. In my interview with Alejandro Saab, the English voice of Gabimaru, we went straight at the stuff that makes Hell’s Paradise hit harder than a typical “survive the island” anime.
We joked about alley rankings, but the conversation kept circling the same truth. Gabimaru terrifies you because he stays human, even when the show turns into a waking nightmare. If you want the full energy, the full cadence, and the full laugh beats, the embedded interview brings all of it.
Gabimaru “In An Alley” Is A One-Second Trip To The Clouds
I opened with the most honest power-scaling question possible. Where do you rank Gabimaru on the list of people you never want to meet in a dark alley? Saab did not hesitate, and the visual he paints feels like it belongs in the show’s universe.
At the top, for sure. Yeah. I mean, I feel like if I bump into him, I’m dead. Like, you know, those, like, shorts, right? Where it’s like, you tap and then you see the background is like heaven, like in the very next second. That’s what I think would happen for me if I ran into him in an alley.
That answer lands because it captures what Hell’s Paradise does best. It sells violence as inevitability, not spectacle. The joke works, but it also clarifies the fear factor. Gabimaru does not posture. He ends the conversation. He makes you look up and realize you already lost.
Hell’s Paradise Season 2 Starts With A Truly “Hollow” Gabimaru
Then we got to the part Hell’s Paradise fans actually stress about. Gabimaru’s emotional core. It is why the body count never feels empty. I asked Saab how he keeps that humanity alive while Gabimaru walks through what feels like a horror show. His answer gives a clean map from Season 1 restraint to Season 2 emptiness.
Oh, sure. Well, in season one, when we first started, Gabimaru was like giving off the impression that he doesn’t care for anyone, but I started him off a bit on the softer side because he did care. He does care for his wife. He was just hiding that fact. And then as the show goes on, he’s like trusting people. …
And then when he starts getting his memories back, I started to bring in that softness because as much as he claims to be hollow, you can see throughout the show that Gabby motto was just full of emotions. So.
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That is the kind of character work that makes a season-to-season shift feel earned instead of abrupt. Saab treats “hollow” like a specific temperature, not a vague vibe. Gabimaru does not turn into a different person, he loses the restraint that kept him tethered. Then, as memory returns, Saab lets the softness bleed back in, even when Gabimaru tries to deny it. That push and pull is the engine of the character.
The Performance Lives In Collaboration, Not A “Voice Trick”
After that, I told Saab what every Hell’s Paradise fan hears. He plays huge contrast, loud and soft, rage and calm, and it still feels like the same man. When I asked how he switches gears without breaking the character, he described a process that stays grounded and practical.
Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, like you said, it’s it’s still his core, right? Like it’s it’s about how how to make it sound as authentic as possible to still be true to the character. For me, it’s a collaborative process. Like, I have an idea of it’s like, okay, he’s meant to be in this realm, like I know how he is because I think about my spouse in a similar way. …
So it’s always a collaborative process. And it definitely does help getting to work with so many talented people and and just getting having played Gabimaru for quite a bit, it almost has gotten to the point where it’s second nature, getting to finding who Gabimaru is.
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This is why the dub works. Saab does not chase “cool lines.” He chases truth, then trusts the director to calibrate the dials. That feedback loop keeps Gabimaru consistent across extremes. It also explains why the emotional beats land. They come from a defined core, not a random spike in intensity.
You can stream Hell’s Paradise on Crunchyroll. Hell’s Paradise Season 2 premiered on Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 7:15 a.m. PT, and new episodes have been rolling out on Sundays. The Season 2 English dub also launched on Crunchyroll on Sunday, January 25.
Does “hollow Gabimaru” make Season 2 scarier, or does it make it sadder? Which side of him hits you harder, the one-second alley threat or the quiet husband energy he tries to bury? And what do you want the dub to explore next, more rage, more softness, or more of that brutal middle ground? Share your thoughts in the comments or @me.
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