This review is for the entire series, as Volume 14 has no listing on Goodreads. Please note that this is a mature manga and it deals with sexual assault, murder, existentialism, inherited will, etc. It has some supernatural elements and is highly inaccurate to actual events, but there is still a bit that one can learn of history from this manga.
"Everything is going to disappear"
"Shut Hell" is a historical fiction that takes place at the height of Genghis Khan's reign. The manga, in truth, revolves around the survival of Tangut script (The Voice of Jade) — a real system of writing used for the now extinct language of the Western Xia dynasty. The desire to ensure people become 'immortal' through writing is in direct contrast to the Mongols' eradication of conquered cultures.
"This is how I became the old man you see before you today. Can you carry that weight?"
Shudo, Shut Hell's descendant, is willed into her body after her hanging and resurrects her for the sake of Yurul, the illegitimate son of Genghis Khan, and the writing of his people. Shudo's own future and that of Suzuki, Yurul's descendant, is in question alongside the lives of their predecessors. I was very disappointed to see that Suzuki's role in the story goes no further than being a blank slate damsel-in-distress, as it makes the back-and-forth between past and present seem almost entirely pointless.
Chapter 29 made me BAWL... that was a particularly tough portion to read. Shakira's love saving Veronika one last time made the kind of tears that hurt to let loose...
I will say that the story does lean too far into the supernatural at times. Shut Hell is a walking corpse that cannot die for the majority of the story. Harrabal shoots a greatbow made of fresh bamboo and uses an entire tree as an arrow at one point. Genghis Khan could only be felled in old age with a ballista. Veronika gets both of her legs amputated at one point and doesn't become even a little sickly. A 200 lb. beast of a man needs an instant amputation seconds after an extremely lethal poison is applied by a guy whose poison-filled arm looks like like a vacuum-sealed Grimace plushie. There is a little girl who touches the ground while singing a song in order to instantly knock out all horses in a wide range. Etc.