Deadman Wonderland

Im not quite sure why this anime is so damn popular...
First of all, I believe the Story was decent but I cant help but believe that it could have been executed in a way better form. As far as the Art / Soundtrack go it was also pretty good, but what bothers me the most about this anime is without a doubt the MC (Igarashi, Ganta). I dont think I have ever hated a MC character more than the one in this anime, everything he does is just so damn irritating and I cant help but believe that he is nothing more but a ... useless pus$y and it pisses me off so damn much. During the entirety of the series Im just hoping that he would die and therefore I would never have to see him again. But other than that, the anime is quite enjoyable and therefore I am giving it a solid 6/10. <3

Overall an anime with great animation, style, and a deep interesting plot. Unfortunately it got about half the episodes it needed, making it little more than a 12-episode trailer for the manga.

The story deals with some very interesting themes and has many surprising twists that keep you asking questions. However, the ending cuts off about half of the ongoing plot threads, leaving many questions unanswered. They even start new arcs in the second-to-last episode that never get resolved. There was honestly huge opportunity for an epic ending that would put FMA to shame here, but it was pissed away.

The animation and art is high-quality, the ... music and voice acting are also top-notch thanks to the incredible folks at Manglobe.

The characters are varied and interesting, but never get enough screen-time or development because of the rushed nature of the show. You have badass incarnate who's afraid of girls, a psycho monk who's trying to free people from the material world of suffering, and a sweet-loving albino girl in a bodysuit who hides a dark secret.

If you're looking for a fast-paced action anime to pass the time, this is a solid choice, but it doesn't stand on its own as an anime, so you'll be forced to read the manga when it's over.

I didn't have any expectations about this anime because I had no idea what it' s going to be about. In the beginning, the plot line turned out being very interesting and intriguing. I hoped that it would stay that way,but unfortunately from the middle it started getting a little bit not what I expected. There is quite a lot of gore and violence,which is okay for me,but something about the development of the plot didn't make me feel that interested in a story anymore. After finishing it, I definitely feel that there could be more to the story,especially when the main plot twist and ... the main secret were not opened. I have a lot of questions unanswered and I'm not a big fan of this fact. However,it was still an interesting story, I just wish there was more to it.

Unfortunately, my experience watching Deadman Wonderland was not very satisfactory. Overall, I found the anime weak and disappointing, with a quite annoying protagonist who didn't add much to the plot. Additionally, the main girl was often sexualized in an unpleasant way, which bothered me quite a bit.

Although the premise of the story is interesting, the overall development of the anime left much to be desired. It was difficult for me to emotionally connect with most of the characters and their journeys.

However, I must say that Senji Kyomasa and Nagi were the only characters that really caught my attention. Their unique personalities and well-crafted motivations kept ... me interested and engaged in the story.

Despite everything, Deadman Wonderland may still be a good choice for fans of the genre or for those interested in the story's premise. Although it was not a very pleasant experience for me, it is still an anime that may have appeal for other viewers.

Having recently finished the anime, I am on the fence about Deadman Wonderland. If it was nothing more than a fighting anime, intended to just be blood, guts, and explosions, It would have done just fine. In fact, if that's all you want, don't read ahead, just go watch it. Instead, however, it tried to look into some deeper human emotions and failed. As I said before, the action scenes are actually pretty good, and the mixed soundtrack fits the fight scenes quite well (Shiny Shiny, the closing theme, is still stuck in my head). However, the people in the scenes besides the battles were ... mediocre at best. Cliché after cliché, trope after trope, stereotype after stereotype, the characters couldn't have been more unoriginal if they cosplayed another anime. The brawny guy who's crazy and likes to kill people, yet for some reason conveniently shows mercy to the main character. The strong willed leader with a dark past and family problems. The supporting cast members that have a shorter lifespan than a redshirt or a Walking Dead side character. These things bothered me, but one bad area can't kill an anime, so what else broke it for me? The story. A boy survives a tragedy and gets magical powers, and has to use them to a). Atone for the tragedy b). Protect the innocent c). Seek revenge. It's been done a million times, and that's not necessarily a bad thing; new animes and movies have this theme all the time and work it well. The thing is, Deadman Wonderland didn't do too well at it. The power growth is ridiculous, with Ganta jumping from the bottom of the barrel to the strongest deadman in the wonderland in a matter of seconds, with no intermediaries whatsoever. The main nemeses had potential to be tools in exploring certain aspects of insanity, but the flashbacks lasted about 3 minutes at the very longest, just telling the viewer "I got hurt this way so I hurt someone else this other way." No elaboration, no development, just that and boom-battle. Gratuitous violence sugarcoats the writing, and the idea of blood as a weapon - literally - shows potential. But, as it stands, this anime is just something I would recommend watching if you're in a bad mood and want to see something explode.

Facing irrationality doesn't mean not feeling fear, but rather possessing eyes that gaze upon fear and standing against the world.

Deadman Wonderland seems to be built upon quite an interesting premise when you look at it. Deadman Wonderland is the name of the only privately owned prison in Japan but it’s a prison with a twist. The prison makes its convicts face off in brutal matches to the death just in order to amuse on looking crowds of people, the general public! It’s like gladiator fighting in the 21st century except you’re not making it out alive, sooner or later you will die. Death is literally ... around every corner, if you aren’t killed in the games, good luck surviving with all the other weird and twisted inmates, this isn’t quite the show it seems!

Now, the main story revolves around Ganta, we start the show with him in class and just talking with his classmates, everything’s pretty normal, I mean what could possibly go wrong? Proceed with weird floating mad man with powers to appear out of nowhere and throw around a bit of red magic and end up murdering everyone in the class. A few limbs here and a bit of blood there, didn’t see that coming now did you? Oh and of course don’t kill Ganta, no, no, we can’t be killing the main character in this show in the first minute now can we.
Ganta then wakes up and is accused of being the killer since he’s the only one alive and a strange clip of him confessing to the murders just randomly pops up. After a few court trials (which probably have empty-minded people on the panel of judges- such irrational people) he finds himself sentenced to death and joins Deadman Wonderland as a death row inmate. Oh and did I mention Ganta doesn’t look like he’s older than 12, so they’ve gone on and sentenced this 12 year old or so kid to death, wonderful. Ganta meets various people in the prison where no one is what they seem like and is sucked into a fight for survival, which is riddled with twists, not that all of them make very much sense. Over the course of this show he also finds out he has a superpower and slowly learns to control this power and there we have it ladies and gentlemen, that is more or less how this show starts out and to be honest, it’s actually quite interesting, even if it does seem like things are just going from bad to worse to this poor kid so fast, so fast.

Character wise I think this show is actually rather interesting, it has a fair share of characters it seems to fit in over the short span of episodes and it does make you get to know them more- not that you’ll necessarily like them all. Ganta himself isn’t the tough kid with a temper or the macho man, in fact, he is portrayed as a weak character who has a very strong will and strong desire to keep pressing on in adversity. So often during the show when he is just getting the crap beaten out of him, you do often feel a bit a pity for him. He can be a bit frustrating at times because he isn’t always the best at thinking rationally and keeping his cool but you can’t really blame the guy after all he has been through, although there are times when his emotions and actions can leave you frustrated, mainly because he seems to have very wild mood swings in the depressing and dark end of the spectrum. The other main character who we are introduced to is called Shiro and she is by far the best character in the show. Shiro just pops up around Deadman Wonderland and often follows around Ganta and asks him to play with her and just generally spend time together. Shiro has a very peculiar white look about her (Shiro means white in Japanese) and combined with her eyes, something doesn’t seem quite right about her. However, with her super bubbly and extremely childlike behaviour you can’t seem but to really get behind Shiro, she keeps the show interesting and gives the show a very interesting angle. Also, she’s actually really strong and when I say strong, I am probably seriously understating her powers, something is most certainly not right about her, so given how her childish tendencies, it’s best to stay on her good side. The other characters all have their own distinct stories and aren’t all moulded around typical character traits- so this is certainly the best part of the show.

There is a lot of gore in this show, some of it is the usual blood spattering everywhere and limbs flying around although sometimes they really do go into detail with some scenes and actually touch upon some very serious situations without holding back much on the details. It’s the kind of gore that I would describe would make you really uncomfortable at times and while you get used to it by the end, it certainly is enough to put some people off the show.

Now in terms of how this story goes about unravelling itself, this is the aspect where it seems to take a nosedive. After building itself up with an interesting story, surprisingly good characters and some sort of direction, the plot just fails. It sinks into its own giant plot holes and leaves you very frustrated at the end since it just simply does not tie up any loose ends and keeps the viewer thinking, wait….what? It’s not the good type of open ending where you are left to ponder what could’ve been, it’s the kind of ending which screams we didn’t have enough episodes to fit everything in, so we will just forget about half the things we introduced earlier. It’s a shame because this was actually quite a mature show and had quite a lot of potential but I’m afraid the show does the plot no justice at all and you can tell the show is falling apart towards the end.
I’ve mentioned this show is mature, it certainly does touch upon some topics which require a lot of maturity to understand, which is nice to see in an anime, even if the topics can be a bit uncomfortable to deal with. However sometimes they have some terrible one-liners which are just so out of place and unnecessary that it proves to be an annoyance and you will know when you’ve heard them, don’t worry about picking those up.

The OP and ED are both okay, the ED especially really creeped me out for some reason probably because they showed Ganta and his school friends hanging out, which just made me feel uneasy. In terms of a soundtrack, this show did well enough in this department too, so no issues here. The art was mediocre, nothing was wrong with it, if anything, the most impressive aspects for me were the character designs for some of the characters and especially Shiro, not for details but for the styling and just how it seemed to work, even if it wasn’t very flashy. The colours used in this show are mainly quite toned down and mellow, so the palette they chose from was very muted and dark, which helped with the idea of the show.

Overall, this is a show with massive potential which really could have gone on to be something great, however it is riddled with missed opportunities and sometimes it just seems to give up with the idea of closure or at least even explaining anything. Also the awkward script writing can spoil the flow of things at times, so in the end it’s a bit of a love-hate show. It’s certainly well worth a watch to enjoy something which feels a bit different to your standard anime, however be prepared to be disappointed. I would love more shows like this to be made in the future, except they should actually have a decent end.

Final Score: 6.7
Tukky12
=)

In terms of recommendations, I would say “Another” is well worth a watch, the show also has a lot of gore and an interesting pull with the story, however in the case of Another, it actually has quite a thrilling end. Or Elfen Lied, watch that at your own risk xD (I’ll leave you to find out about that on your own!)

It seems our world is ruled by television. Every chance we get, we sit in front of the T.V. to watch either someone escaping from a tank full of spiders, some girl bitch slapping another girl or the next stop for a spaceship and its crew. Probably (and sadly) the most popular of all television is reality T.V. I know it, and you know it to be true. We enjoy watching real people each week do crazy uncontrollable stuff just to gt attention because they are having a shinning moment. Now imagine if some dude took the concept of a bitch slapping another bitch and ... some dude trying to escape from a tank of spiders and combined them into one reality television extravaganza and you will probably get "Deadman Wonderland."

DW (as I will call it for short) started off as an interesting survival/wrong man story. A young high schooler innocently sits in his classroom with his friends, joking and laughing about the next field trip. When suddenly a guy dressed all in red smashes through the window and kills everyone in the classroom, except Ganta. He is arrested and charged with the murders, (idk how they could possibly thought one kid could of done this, I mean that room was a disaster) and is sent to hell on earth, the prison/fun land known as Deadman Wonderland. And this were the really interesting stuff happens, Ganta is put to the test, as he must survive the brutal murders that occupy this prison, as well as survive the games they have the prisoners play. This stuff is great, its brutal and intense, kind of like how Shawshank Redemption would be if crossed over with The Hunger Games. its a perfect example of taking reality T.V to far and showing that we are not far from showing killings on T.V. Then... it goes down hill.

It starts to develop this story. Giving Its main character this background that makes little to no sense. Somehow, Ganta is connected with the white haired girl Shiro, who is this playful gitty girl who can suddenly turn into this deadly assassination. The problem is, there wasn't enough time to fully develop that. There is so much other stuff going on, like a group of deadmen trying to escape prison, but are stopped by this group of people called Undertakers who are the only ones who can defeat the deadman and there special powers to turn their blood into weapons. Suddenly a huge cast of characters introduced and the show is already half way over, so it feels rushed and the final climatic battle, is anticlimactic.

DW starts off interesting. Pitting its characters in a battle of survival that earns them candy that keeps them alive, while the loser gets a piece of their body part taken off. it was brutal, it was bloody, but it was something different. But then it went in the direction of Bleach or One Piece, were one to many characters are put into the mix, certain things are never answered. (Who was the Red Man!) certain characters just disappear, never to be heard of again. And the last two episodes were it should of been an awesome bloody fight, ended in a useless monologue and an anticlimactic fight. I liked the first half of DW, but the second made no sense and was rushed. It needed more episodes and hopefully will get a second season. Also the opening theme in English dubbed version is one of the worst I've ever heard. Too bad.

Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not, have high hopes for this series, it will disappoint you, unless you're into gory stuff, this isn't the anime for you, I'm not saying that I dislike gory thinks, in fact I love them, but there is little to no development in the story and characters.

Honestly this series had a lot going for it but failed to execute the story and character development properly and almost seems like they gave up mid way through the story, they often bring up the so called "redman" but they don't dive in deeper into how the person came to be known as ... the redman, the place of origin or it's true power. Deadman Wonderland is explicitly a gore anime, a bloodbath of an anime to compensate for it's terrible story and little character development. Deadman Wonderland quickly turned into a show about super powers after the first couple of episodes was introducing many themes, why the prison they stay in is privately owned and made to look like a circus; how can they have a circus where the inmates die in games but the public thinks it's all fake? Why is he specifically framed for the massacre of children. This show could've been a lot about character development and how life in prison can really affect you mentally and physically, the uprising of prisoners could've been better developed over a course of 20+ episodes or 2 seasons and would have been far more entertaining.

Story: 5

Art: 6 Nothing special, pretty nice effects

Sound: 6 Music fit the mood and tone of the show

Character: 4 There were some instances of character development, but for the most part, many characters personalities and beliefs are unknown

Enjoyment: 7 Although this was more of a blood bath anime meant to entertain in the gruesome deaths and fights in it, it was still somewhat entertaining and made me want more of this series, but only because I'm interested in how the story and characters could develop.

Overall 5.6 but we'll round it to a 6

Deadman Wonderland is antoher story of this blood-thirsty game the author plays. An innocent guy gets trapped in this game where he has to kill or survive till last. Plot is actually similar to Mirai Nikki but Mirai Nikki has more depth to everything.
Story is stupidly stupid and its just there to show the blood.
Character development is worse than any anime I have watched.
The sound effect is nothing much just few soundtracks and blood splatering efects.
Art is good which is why I gave a fair 7 but its used in wrong way because all they did was add blood to everthing.
Enjoyment is also ... very less. I was intrested for first 3 episode but then later it was just Shiro saving Ganta and the Ganta sorry about everything that is happening to him. It looks like the Ganta wants to be innocent but then next moment he looks like a psychopath. Shock factor might be like 8.
And also this anime is extreamly unrealstic. It mostly is a mash up of Mirai Nikki and Elen Lied.
*****************
Spoiler Review- Opinion
The ending was bad they did not even show the whole story. It looks like there no open interpertaion also. Its just a unfinished ending. The ending makes you feel like there are more episodes of this anime but no. For complete story you need to read the manga no other choice.
Anime would be 6/10 but manga would around 8.
Anime missed the whole oppurtunity to develop everything from characters to art to story.
Conclusion: Just an unfinished anime with no point of anything. Like an anime that just there.
Watch if you like blood and blood and blood and crazy psycopaths.

Before I review this I just want to state that this is my opinion so you may agree or disagree at your own will.

Review:
Deadman Wonderland is a average anime with a pretty interesting plot. Starting with the intro. The intro is really catchy but the problem is that it doesn't fit the anime. It's a lot heavier and more rockish than it should be. Next is going to be characters. The MC is a whiny bitch and can't do anything to for himself and has an annoying voice (watch sub not dub because the dub is so bad it makes my ears cringe). The side ... characters are really cool. I enjoy them more than the MC which is a good thing sometimes but not in this case. There are some side characters that are useless but the main ones are a lot more interesting than the MC. The plot is well done and has really cool things but the while you watch you won't care because the MC is so annoying. All in all Deadman Wonderland disappointed me.

When Toonami was back and on Adult Swim, my childhood dreams exploded with happiness again. Now that is getting better (they picked the rights for Sym-Bionic Titans now!!), I decided to pay my respect to Toonami by reviewing Deadman Wonderland. Based on the manga by the writer of Eureka Seven, the anime adaptation of Deadman Wonderland is a loose adaptation of it's source material, just like FMA 2003 series and was released as part of the Toonami block but already ended since it's only 12 episodes. I already saw the whole series and I even bought the complete series on DVD, I find this show ... to be my fun guilty pleasure but with some flaws of course.

Deadman Wonderland takes place in Japan where 10 years ago, an earthquake shattered half of Japan's cities into the ocean and that event was named as The Red Hole, as we see a student named Ganta Igarashi, who has a normal life and has great friends. Then fate takes a turn for the worst when a mysterious man in red appears out of thin air and kills the whole class, leaving Ganta as the only survivor. When he wakes up at the hospital, he's been charged and framed for all the murders, then Ganta gets sentenced to death and they send him off to Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme park like prison where tourists enjoy cruel and sadistic games that involves around prisoners forced to survive these gruesome games to win Cast Points, which is the currency for Deadman's own economy system. On the prison, he meets a mysterious girl named Shiro, who knows Ganta for a reason and knows everything about Ganta's childhood than he does. Later on, he discovers that he has the power to use his blood as a weapon known as "Branch of Sin" and now he must survive the deadly prison in order to find the one who killed the classmates and uncover the dark secrets behind this prison.

The story is very interesting but it offers little answers to all the questions that keeps popping up in each episodes. Like what is the connection between Ganta and Shiro or better yet, what the hell triggered the earthquake to glow red? It's a shame cause the concept for the show is really neat and it offers some interesting themes like society's thirst and hunger for human violence and the corruption of the justice system but instead, it focuses a little too much on the violence and gore. Don't get me wrong, i like violence and fun gore in movies, shows and anime (I'm a gore hound fan), but I also like that the writers can focus on story and character development as well cause I want to know more about the world that a certain film or anime takes place and while Deadman Wonderland does a decent job on introducing the world and it's characters, it falls short and while it doesn't hurt the experience that much, I wish they could expand the world a bit bigger with more episodes instead of 12 and that's my main problem with it: It's only 12 episodes and since the manga has a LOT of story, just 12 episodes isn't enough to end the series. Why they didn't go with 51 episodes just like FMA 2003 series did is beyond my reach.

The characters in Deadman Wonderland range between normal to fucked up and to put it simple, they're awesome. Ganta is the normal kid stuck in a complicated mess that was blamed on him and therefore, having his life sentenced to rot in a hellhole like this and even with his Branch of Sin, he is still weak cause he is a child and he's afraid to die despite having such awesome power but keeps moving on to fight for his freedom and exposing the secrets of the prison. Shiro is like the mystery girl. On the outside, she looks and acts as a fun friend to Ganta and in occasions, she helps Ganta in situations that he can't handle but in later episodes, we get to see her real side and there's an episode where it reveals that Shiro is something more dangerous that we could have ever imagined. There other crazy characters like Senji, Tamaki and Toto but the less I say about it the better. The action and violence in Deadman Wonderland is brutal and twisted. Limbs get blown to pieces, characters go AWOL for carnage and little girls transformed from good hearted people to twisted little fucks that wants your ass punished, It's pure insanity but with a twist of fun to it. Something about using blood as your weapon against your enemies just sounds and looks cool.

The animation by Manglobe (Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy) is stunning. The art is luxurious and grand just like the park itself with rich color palette, amazingly detailed background art and top notch character models that each has a neat style on their own. The music by NARASAKI is awesome, kinda like a mix of dark techno rock and industrial music that fits the shows dark tone perfectly and it has it music orchestrated moments but the overall music package is excellent. The dub by Funimation is a big surprise for me just because it's so damn good. Like Greg Ayres, a veteran voice actor who's 43 years old voicing a 14 year old boy and he nails the voice of a 14 year old boy and it's incredible to hear it. That is until I found his record of voice performances and just recently found out that he ALSO voiced a young boy protagonist in Oh-Edo Rocket! Wow, he's damn good. Monica Riel as Shiro was also great and yes at times, she sounds like Stocking cause she voiced Stocking in the anime Panty And Stocking, she does get gradually better in the later episodes delivering the lines in a very chilling kind of way. Leah Clark was a badass in her role as Mitsuki. The scene where the character taunts Ganta like a bitch is probably one of my favorite moments to see her performance go nuts and it's a thrill, you just gotta listen to the dub cause it's very rewarding to listen to.

While the story could have been better if it was expanded to more episodes instead of only 12 episodes, Deadman Wonderland still offers fun thrilling moments of gore and violence while providing a strange but interesting world where a prison is a tourists entertainment park for audiences to enjoy blood splattering goodness and it offers just that: A fun and twisted gory mess of a show. It will be a while to possibly get a season 2 for this show cause it has potential for the story to expand even further instead of leaving unanswered questions behind, but we have to wait and see if it will happen someday. For now, Sit back and enjoy the wonderment of death for your enjoyment.

Well, I think you can enjoy this anime if you are the type of person that likes the action, sci-fi,and horror genres, even though I think it is a gore genre anime. In my own point of view I didn't like too much this anime, because you could already know it would end, also I didn't because it ends in a cliff-hanging and I hate cliff-hangings. Also it was kind of fun because the main characters likes to cry at any time and it is the typical kind of anime in where the main characters says he or she isn't strong enough to defeat the ... villain, and out of nowhere he or she appears with a great power and defeats the enemy. I personally don't recommend it to watch, but it is up to you.

If you like this kind of genre and you dont fret about every little details, you will like it.
If you hate the pathetic characters and so dumb scenes, you will ended up just like me, too frustrated that I signed up just to make a review for this.


The main storyline is good but the details suck, really suck. Especially like how the MC ended up in prison, it is too mediocre, the evidence, the laws and the court execution. There are so many inconsistencies.

The main character is too pathetic and dumb.
The anti character are well established, otherwise most are dumb like they cant think alone.

Most ... like character: kenji or the owl, he is not dumb for a muscle head character

Non spoiler review ahead. I didn't really enjoy this anime, I kind of did in the beginning then things went downhill as the story progressed. There should have been a second season, but it would have been hard to do given the ending.

I have read about the manga and the story behind it after the show, had it stayed true to that, had they animated all the arks, then this could have been an awesome anime, instead you have characters not explored properly, not even the main character Shiro.

Shiro's personality and mental condition are not explored, barely mentioned. Shiro could have been up ... there with Lucy, Gasai Yuno, instead she remains a toddler hooked on candy throughout the series. It's a realy pitty Kana Kanazawa voices this one, talent wasted.

The realism is quite bad in this series, the gore seems to be there just for people that want to see blood, beating, hacking, putting holes through people, loosing blood, doesn't stop them because they need to rise back for a few seconds.

I don't think this should be watched if you are interested in a coherent story that explains or even teases a bit the begging of the manga. Save the time and watch the manga instead.

If you want to watch a 12 episode trailer for the manga and some animated blood then this is for you.

I don't agree with you who want a second season. This does not require a second season, it requires a reboot!

In this Review you will find very few spoilers.
Review first in English and then in Portuguese (PT/BR).


Dark ambiance reminiscent of horror movies, but in an action story (wtf?)
Poorly built and developed characters, a mediocre and poorly told story and an ending without explanation and no continuation.

The anime had the potential to be amazing, the intention is very good, but it was poorly told and developed.

Deadman Wonderland just doesn't have a worse score because the character "Shiro" is one of the most charismatic characters I've seen in animes, the animation/drawing is good and the soundtrack pleases me.
...
I would honestly watch a second season, the ending makes you want to understand the story, but unfortunately the anime was discontinued and finished.

It's definitely not a horrible anime, but it's not a good anime either.



PT/BR:

Ambientação escura que lembra filmes de terror, mas em uma historia de ação (wtf?)
Personagens mal construídos e desenvolvidos, historia medíocre e mal contada e um final sem explicação e sem continuação.

O anime tinha potencial para ser incrível, a intenção é muito boa, mas foi mal contado e desenvolvido.

Deadman Wonderland só não tem uma nota pior porque a personagem "Shiro" é uma das mais carismáticas que já vi em animes, a animação/desenho é boa e a trilha sonora me agrada de certa forma.

Eu honestamente assistiria uma segunda temporada, o final te deixa com vontade de entender a historia, mas infelizmente o anime foi descontinuado e finalizado.

Definitivamente não é um anime horrível, mas também não é um anime bom.

Konnichiwa, my fellow anime lovers!

Today I will be doing a review on the trending action series namely - Deadman Wonderland.

***PLEASE NOTE***
Please keep in mind when reading, that this review is solely based off the anime and with no reference to the manga at all.

STORY : 5

Deadman Wonderland hits the ground running and to no surprise as it is only 12 episodes in length (excluding the lone OVA). However, it is plagued with lack of depth, unanswered questions by the time the series came to a close, and has its fair share of plot holes. The pacing also gets flak for being inconsistent and spirals down ... fairly early.

ART : 6

The animation was on par with modern anime series - nothing more, nothing less. Even though it has elements of gore throughout the series, it isn't to the extent to that of a true horror anime would be. It also lacks depth in non-human objects directly linked to the plot such as the timed devices around their necks, rarely displaying much needed information.

SOUND : 7

The OST of Deadman Wonderland is absolutely huge in comparison to the majority 12-episode series out there and this would be its highest praise. Unfortunately, no part of the OST stood out in particular, but it served its purpose in setting the atmosphere. The opening was fitting for the show but nothing worth writing home about. One positive aspect about the show was the dub. It was on par and one can even say it exceeded its Japanese counterparts. This probably explains its popularity in North America.

CHARACTERS : 5

Similar to the OST - the show has loads of characters for a 12-episode series, however in this case this causes a major headache in the character development department for main characters, let alone side-characters as most of their motives or side-stories are almost non-existent (and not taking the OVA into account). None of the characters stood out with the exception of Shino who was "likable".

ENJOYMENT : 5

The show started off well, but then the pacing went to hell until it caught up again mid-series. The open-ending was also disappointing as there are no current plans for a second season. Not that it would've saved it as the show induced its own spontaneously combustion by the end.

OVERALL : 6

Taking into account the OST and characters, it is daylight obvious that this series was intended to have at least 24 episodes which would've made it much, much better. That being said, Deadman Wonderland can't be regarded as a waste of time as it is fun for casual viewing, but I'd rather recommend Mirai Nikki as it is also intended for the same audience and succeeds in most of the departments where Deadman Wonderland fell short.

When I was recommended Deadman Wonderland I was told it was the next best thing to watching Elfen Lied and had a pretty nifty plot and some cool ideas. What I wasn’t told was that I would be subjected to another unlikeable protagonist and all the cool ideas seem to get thrown out the window halfway through this twelve episode romp and are replaced by a fairly uninventive, though still entertaining second act.

The reviews for this show are fairly mixed, and I can see where you can love it or you can hate it. First of all let’s look at the story. Ganta Igarashi is ... in middle school, has a bunch of friends, and is the only survivor when his whole classroom in brutally murdered by a person simply known as the Red Man. Ganta is framed for the murders and sent off to a prison called Deadman Wonderland, a privately owned facility that doubles as a kind of amusement park where the prisoners perform for the civilians. This idea is fairly cool and it gets even cooler when we learn that the prisoners also participate in death games such as obstacle courses full of guillotines, electrified water and snipers. There are also fights called the Carnival of Corpses that are one on one battles between the prisoners. This was awesome. Another plus were the Branches of Sin, something never explained in the anime where a prisoner’s blood can be used as a weapon. Ganta for instance can shoot blood bullets and Senji Kiyomasa can turn his blood into arm blades. The biggest part of the plot was some of the prisoner’s ability to manipulate their blood.

With that said, yes, this is a bloody and gory anime, though I can’t say it’s that bad. Elfen Lied is a lot worse in the gore department, though there are some cringe-worthy scenes scattered throughout Deadman Wonderland, especially at the beginning and toward the end. Personally, there was only one moment where I was kind of yucked out, and this involved an eye being ripped out of a head, but otherwise it seemed fairly tame, at least for something that touts itself as bloody and gory.

The series starts off strong and the story is really good. The use of this carnival as a device for killing prisoners is both smart and entertaining, but after a second Carnival of Corpses fight, the series seems to taper off and it never uses the setting for anything else. The second half of the series never includes a portion such as a game or a Carnival of Corpses, it’s just this resistance attempting to escape. In a longer series, this may not have bothered me if the next story arc pertained to another obstacle game or something of the like, but in a twelve episode series, it is disappointing. And to add to that disappointment is the fact that there is no conclusion. It ends one story arc, starts up another, but leaves it hanging. While I understand that twelve episode seasons are the norm for anime, I just wish that decent series would wrap up at least a little more soundly, or even forgo following the source material and try for something different. Elfen Lied strayed from the source material and it worked. I think it could have worked here too.

So the plot starts amazing, and flatlines toward the end with the same generic action and boring scenery I can get out of a long running shonen title.

The animation is good, not great. The middle school kids looked weird. I mean, Ganta isn’t that great looking either, but I couldn’t get over how freaking scary Mimi looked. Backgrounds are…blah. The scenery during the first act and the games and fights is pretty cool, but the end of the series follows the characters through dull gray areas and bright white areas and boring brown areas. It’s all very unappealing.

The sound is pretty good. I really, really liked the opening. Not only was it a badass opening that really got you pumped for the anime (and fit the first act’s adrenaline pumping action much better than the second act’s dullness), the song was done by Japanese band Fade in English and it makes sense! For those who may not know, Japanese songs tend to intermix some English in the lyrics and it typically makes no sense whatsoever with lines like “Oh my God is Jesus Christ!” being sung. This song is perfect English and is also pretty catchy. I sat through the opening every episode because of it and the cool sequence. The ending is meh and doesn’t seem to fit the grittiness of the show that much. It’s like an upbeat pop song or something. Music during the show is fitting.

In the character department we have some flaws. As stated, Ganta Igarashi is not a fun character to watch. At first I liked him and felt sympathetic toward the fact that he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. But later on you grow to get sick of his constant crying and wimpiness. Hell, even the other characters get sick of his being a total loser. He constantly screws up and talks about saving the bad guys and helping them escape and protecting his friends. He’s the classic teenage wuss found in anime such as Guilty Crown, and most notably, Neon Genesis Evangelion. How a kid who whines and bitches as much as he does survives a prison as hardcore as Deadman Wonderland is a mystery. I guess it’s something about friendship. But I don’t care because I didn’t watch this to learn life lessons. I watched this to see bloody action.

Shiro is cool. And not because she’s almost naked. She’s cool because I know nothing about her. The series doesn’t explain much about her and who or what she is. She’s kind of silly, kind of sweet, but also the only character who has any sort of depth. Now, I could be wrong, but I felt like if the anime did continue she would be the character with the most development.

Other notables are Minatsuki Takami, a teenage girl who acts all cute and adorable and turns out to be a crazy-freaking bitch. I knew she wasn’t all flowers and smiles, but holy cow did I not see how totally insane she would turn out to be. I loved her.

Nagi Kengamine is another pretty decent character. He has a bit of backstory and is real calm under pressure. He was enjoyable to watch and I wish there were more scenes with him. Senji Kiyomasa is another cool character with very little backstory, but he’s a total badass.

Toto Sakagami shows up about two thirds of the way through Deadman, but he never gets much screen time and the time he does get makes me want to see more of him. Who is he, what is he? These things are never explained and apparently left to a second season.

And that’s where I shall start my conclusion: There will be no second season. Sales of the DVD and Blu-Ray were horrible in Japan, meaning this is another anime that just leaves off and is going to be the target of terrible fan fictions for years to come in an attempt to conclude it. Actually, the manga does continue the story and I believe I’ll be heading over there to see if it’s worth my time.

I wanted to love this Deadman Wonderland and be a raging fanboy about it, but I can’t because of it’s many shortcomings. The plot, Ganta, some of the side characters being dull, the animation being dull and lifeless toward the end: they all detract from the experience.

It annoys when the main character is utterly pathetic and useless to the point people around are all affected by it. I do not understand why people like this anime as I would love to hear their point of view on why this was a good anime. There were some good points to the anime as it presents where the main character changes from being pathetic to being mediocre. Overall, if you're into useless, weak, coward type of main characters then by all means you will enjoy this anime as it does have a good plot. I just wish that the main character had a ... bit more of an actual ballsack rather than 2 dried raisins.

I wanted to enjoy this anime. It had an awesome opening and while the protagonist was annoying from the get-go, he was at least believable. It starts strong and then putters out as the series progresses.
Starting off, the art style and animation work is absolutely phenomenal and at no point did it ever falter. Characters are crisp, movements are fluid, and the amount of work the creators put into the visuals is evident in every frame. The violence and gore is top notch and every wound is visceral and fulfilling.
The sound is also superb. No overused soundboard effects.The music could overall have been ... a bit better and that is my only complaint.
As for the story, you will be let down. There is much intrigue toward the beginning but then the story quickly develops major pacing problems that plague the narrative up to the final seconds of the last episode. Characters are introduced and killed within seconds, characters that deserve full introduction never get one and the viewer is left wondering why they should care in the slightest about a character they've known for a little over half an episode. Except for several side characters, character development is slow and we get a meager piece of it in the final episode.
Characters come and go without warning and simply disappear with no explanation. Several of the characters have far more interesting backstories than the episodes give them time for. This is especially so with the villains. Antagonists go from being on the side of the hero to simply not with little explanation as well.
There are so many loose ends at the end of this one. There is no fulfillment for the viewer and nothing is explained. There are major subplots that you never see come to fruition. Shiro's backstory is barely explained and her true nature is barely revealed at all. So much is left unresolved that it's frustrating and was honestly upsetting for me. because the investment I had in the series never paid off.
Much is hinted at but it feels like it ends halfway through a season, not at the end of one.
Speaking of that, there are no plans for a second season (at this time) so you'll have to read the manga (which this detracts from slightly) if you want to know what happens.

About halfway through I would have recommended this anime but by the end all I can say is steer clear or read the manga.

This anime felt like a total copy paste of other animes. It's loaded with cliché scenes and characters. Lots of unnecessary fan-service. The protagonist is your typical 14 y school boy. He meets a mysterious girl with an IQ below 80 talking about herself and others in 3rd person. Turns out he has super powers and have to take on evil guys. All the characters in the anime are exaggerated and acting very unnatural. I'm surprised this anime has an average rating above 7.
The fighting scenes are good though and there's a cool female guard-something girl.
The story has a dramatic start with lots of potential, ... but already at the second episode it's slowing down and getting kind of silly until about the 8th episode where it picks up again but then falls flat with the ending.