Deadman wonderland is quite an interesting and entertaining anime. An anime with lots of promise for the road ahead. Its characters are portrayed very well, being dynamic with conflict and exciting yet with much mystery as to their full motivations and backstory. The story is captivating and entertaining to watch unfold, yet also holds an air of mystery as to how the story will end, what conclusion we will find, and why the events of this story are taking place. (Not to mention the animation is quite good. However, admittedly I've never been one to focus heavily on animation. To me, it's always more of a bonus if a great plot has good animation to go along with it, but it's not a requirement for a spectacular story.) It draws the viewer in exceptionally well, getting you completely immersed in the story and world being built. As the final episodes come to a close, I along with many others imagined how the plot would continue, how our questions would be answered, and how this great spectacular start to a story would end, only to quickly find out it would never come to an end, another season would never be made, and that the 12 episode anime is a stand-alone. which is why this anime scored so nothing but slightly high-end mediocre in my eyes.
Deadman wonderland was presented as a pilot, in other words as the first season of a series. It would have done this job extremely well, however, due to a second season never being greenlighted, this 12-episode anime acts ts as just a beginning of a story with no middle, conclusion or end. It almost feels unfair to judge the only season of deadman wonderland as a stand-alone title because it's clear that this was not the (honestly quite talented) writer's intention. It is clear the anime was supposed to continue on, the cliffhangers, unresolved mysteries, and questions at the end of the 12th episode prove this completely. However, there would never be a continuation of the story, and the series would come to an abrupt end after its short first season run time.
In total, deadman wonderland is a story that could have been one of the greatest, maybe even a 10/10. As a first season, it was amazing, but due to it never receiving another season as intended it ended up being another abandoned project.
A true shame for something that could have been so great.
If on the odd chance that over a decade later they finally decide to make the second season I would gladly remove this review, but as it stands I would not recommend this anime unless you hold hope that the anime will someday continue. Hope sadly I do not have to make this anime, in total, just OK. Not good, not bad, just OK and a general waste of time.
