Reviews

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.