Score: 8.0
Genre: Action, Thriller, Supernatural
Version: Dubbed
Episodes: 12 + OVA
Where I watched it: Funimation
Synopsis:Â Ganta Igarashi was just sitting in class, when a mysterious cloak figure crashes through the 3rd floor window, into his classroom and brutally slaughters his entire class. Just before the attacker left, it shot a blood red crystal bullet into Ganta’s chest. Naturally, as the only survivor and witness he was convicted of the massacre and sent to Deadman Wonderland. Sounds like a theme park of horrors doesn’t it. Well it kind of is, but not for inmates. The inmates work the theme park as the attraction in a gladiatorial like events.
Soon after arriving at the prison Ganta meets a odd girl who seems to know him, named Shiro.Despite her happy-go lucky demeanor, she has the fighting skills of a ninja. She plans to protect Ganta. But Ganta discovers that he now has the power to use his own blood as a weapon. He soon finds out that others have the same power, but each person’s weapon is different. One person’s could be a sword, a projectile, a whip, plus many more. These weapons are called Branches of Sin.
The OVA is the backstory of one of the secondary characters, Crow. It takes place after the Red Hole incident . Which means that some people have Branches of Sin. Crow was a cop before getting locked up. But after meeting someone else with a Branch of Sin his life turns rotten.
My Thoughts (spoilers): I found Deadman Wonderland quite enjoyable. I just wish there were more episodes. The story really felt too short. Now the story didn’t feel rushed, in fact I thought that it dragged a little right before the end. I wish they would have spent more time in certain areas. For instance, we only saw the Dog Race I would have loved to see more games of death that the general public cheering for as inmates die; while thinking that it’s all fake. I would have also liked to see more Carnival Corpse and see more Branches of Sin. And more Hummingbird please; this is my personal opinion but I love insane, bloodthirsty characters in anime. Plus I felt like there could have been more character development from her and her brother.
I also was disappointed that we didn’t get any on who or what Shiro was. She wasn’t human, I don’t think, that or she was a created in a test tube. They only revealed her split personality once and what was that at the end with the Ganta “power transfer?” (That’s what I’m calling whatever it was.) He was all glowy and shit and so was Shiro, why? Maybe it’s answered in the manga. In the end I didn’t end up liking Ganta all that much. He still felt useless and boring. It was everyone around him that was interesting.
I couldn’t help but compare this anime to Future Diary. In both shows the main character are weak and not one to take charge. They are unwillingly thrown into a live or death situation and are unable to protect themselves. The only persons able to protect them are their female friends (girlfriend in the case of Yuno Gasai in Future Diary). Also both animes are quite gory and caulked full of blood. So if you like Future Diary you’ll most likely like Deadman Wonderland.
Now for the OVA. I didn’t really like the OVA at all. I felt like it was a waste. Because since I felt like the show was lacking the number of episodes department, I felt like the time spent on this could have been used better. Plus the OVA itself was subpar compared the rest of the show.
Overall I did enjoy the anime even with it’s major flaws. And would recommend to anyone who likes the hacky, slashy, gory, psychotic animes; like me. I give this one a 8.0.
