A massive earthquake ravaged Japan's mainland and destroyed most of Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of the city into the ocean. Ten years later, the story shifts to Ganta Igarashi, a seemingly ordinary student attending Nagano Prefecture's middle school. As an escapee, a survivor of the great earthquake, Ganta has no memories of the tragedy and has lived a normal life and that all changes when a strange person covered in blood and crimson armor floats through his classroom windows. Grinning madly, the Red Man massacres Ganta's entire class but instead of killing him, embeds a red crystal shard in Ganta's chest. Within days of the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect. Following a quick trial, Ganta is sentenced to death and is incarcerated in Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme park like prison.
Okay, now the main character Ganta Igarashi is portrayed rightly as a character who knows he’s been wronged for what happened that day and like any teenager, he’ll be scared shitless of what’s coming to him as he goes into Deadman Wonderland (Speaking of that, is it me or does that sound like a rock band to you?) from the stuff he heard from his friends. Now, in the character development department, once Ganta enters the prison as a scared boy, as of now, he is still a scared boy. He does tried to defend himself against the prisoners but I don’t know if got anything to do with his whining, cracking voice or the fact you would be scared, too, if you see what he has seen in there.
Shiro, or as I call her, my favorite character of the show. She is a mysterious albino girl who has the resemblance of one of Ganta’s deceased friends, who I assume he had a crush on before any of that happen. She also possesses inhuman physical abilities and has an intimate knowledge of the prisonWhile the other prisoners are threatening, blood-thirsty, and/or murderous, Shiro’s mannerism is very playful like a child but she doesn’t go overly annoying about it. Matter of fact, if anything, it makes the show calmer than what it is now but the show is still tense on its subject.
Other characters include Yō Takami, an ally of Ganta during his stay and his story was that he became a prisoner of buying his sister’s freedom with the Cast Points he received while playing these games of life and death, and speaking of his sister, Minatsuki Takami, also known as, Hummingbird, she may seem like the innocent, scared girl but when she show her true colors, damn, she can fight like hell out there and curse like a f***ing sailor while she’s at it. Oh yeah, one more thing, when hearing this version of TV, expect a lot of bleeps to happen on this show (think about that, people who wanted PSG on Toonami/Adult Swim).
Halfway into the series, there is a rebellion group Scar Chain who’s determined to escape the prison and expose the illegal actions of the prison with themselves having their own struggles to deal with the prison, especially the leader of the group, Nagi.
The animation is done by Manglobe, or as the previews quote, “From the studio that brought you Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy”, and the quality is shown to be not quite a visual feat but there was a great effort of amount thrown in, although the blood does like less bloody and more like fruit punch but that’s not a deal breaker, just a minor tidbit of the style. The opening music sequence used in the Toonami version was nothing more than a quick tease, only showing 20 seconds of the theme song. Why does Bleach airing in its umpteenth season has a full opening but Deadman doesn’t? The full opening theme sequence can be found on YouTube and that and the opening song "One Reason" by DWB feat. Fade completely fits the tone of the series and wow, it is glorious to listen in your ears but I can’t say the same thing to the ending song "Shiny Shiny" by Nirgilis. It’s a very calm and upbeat J-Pop song but hearing that after watching an episode feels like an emotion whiplash and for the voice acting for the English dub…..
Greg Ayres as Ganta = mostly whiny but fits the character; Monica Rial = very decent as Shiro, one of the reasons why I like her in anime roles; Aaron Dismuke = last time I heard him was in Cat Planet Cuties, this is an upgrade from that; Jamie Marchi = somewhat okay but passable; Eric Vale = he tried.
FINAL VERDICT: While it’s not a great series, I managed to enjoy the series regardless of that. Some of the characters are not very relatable but there is a good amount of character development even if it does go by fast with what little episode order they gotten. I personally would rate this over Elfen Lied in the psychological horror department of anime.
