Anime: Deadman Wonderland

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: October 31, 2013. Review #66: Deadman Wonderland

What happens when you combine Alice in Wonderland, The Hunger Games, Prison Break, and something that Stephen King could’ve written. You get Deadman Wonderland!

Ganta Igarashi has been convicted of a crime that he hasn't committed, (Trust me, it’s not like Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo). He is sent to a new, privately owned and operated prison facility, where the inmates are the main attraction in a modern day twist to the gladiatorial coliseums of ancient times. Ganta meets a weird girl named Shiro (he he, because she’s Albino, go figure) and he discovers a new found super power powers, and a little conspiracy theory. Welcome to Deadman Wonderland.

To be technical, this is a Studio Manglobe production. Ever heard of Samurai Champloo? Well, this studio worked on that anime and it was a stylish anime. This anime has some stylish action and the animation looks really good for the most part. Maybe too good, Samurai Champloo had some hiccups, but the animation is Deadman Wonderland’s greatest strength and sadly, it’s the show’s only good factor.

The music by NARASAKI isn’t really as memorable as some would hope, the soundtrack does have a couple good tracks, but there are some pretty forgettable themes in the show, so don’t expect a spectacular soundtrack out of this one, but here’s one highlight of the music and that is the opening theme song. The visuals are pretty badass, but the song really kicks ass. Some of the imagery is kind of messed up, but what do you expect when it’s about someone competing in something that is similar to the Hunger Games but in Prison and more brutal. The Closing theme is ok but nothing much. The music is fitting, has some memorable themes, but mostly forgettable.

As for the Japanese casting, Romi Park is pretty damn good as Ganta. Kana Hanazawa sounds fun to hear as Shiro, and I really don’t want to go over the entire cast, as small as they are. Noteworthy seiyus include Junichi Suwabe as Tamaki, Yuji Kaji as Yo Tamaki, Daisuke Ono as Nagi Kengamine, Jun Fukuyuma as Rokuro Bundo, and Toshiyuki Morikawa as Higashi Genkaku. As for the English dub, It is performed very well… But I am probably going to get flamed for this but here goes… Greg Ayres is not a bad voice actor, but he was not a good choice as Ganta. Every time I hear his voice and see Ganta’s voice, I just don’t see it match. My only complaint with the dub is Ganta. So get used to hearing his whiny voice while watching the dub. Monica Rial on the other hand was terrific as Shiro. Noteworthy Dub voices include Aaron Dismuke as Yo Takami, Colleen Clinkenbeard as Chief Makina, Eric Vale as Tamaki. J. Michael Tatum as Nagi Kengamine, and Patrick Seitz as Senji. The Dub is good, but I would suggest the subs if you don’t like Ganta’s english voice. But the ADR direction by Joel McDonald is pretty good for the most part.

As for the characters, Ganta is pretty whiny from time to time and this is excused for quite a while because of what Ganta goes through. But as it progresses…He does stay whiny, and doesn’t necessarily toughen up as he should be. As for Shiro, I really find her adorable. She is cute, she can kick ass. But that is all I will say about her. Yo Takami is a pretty decent supporting character, but the complication between him and her sister was a bit interesting. Tamaki is a bastard, but Chief Makina is a badass, even if she’s not fully developed. I wouldn’t screw with her even if she has G cup boobs. Nagi Kengamine is interesting along the way, but there is one major problem.

The premise may have been very interesting, and there were some interesting flashbacks. But there are some things that were not fully explained that needed it, and the ending is abrupt and makes the series unfinished. The ending to this show is one of the worst I have ever seen. But that is not really the show’s fault, oh wait. It was their fault unfortunately… You see, the anime adaptation sadly did not fare well in Japan and even though this anime ends with a possibility of a sequel, we are most likely never gonna get it. If you wanna take my advice, stick with the manga on this one. But I still recommend the anime in case you are unsure of the manga. Yeah, it is odd that I am recommending you to see this anime even though the manga is more complete than this incomplete show. I was contempt that it wasn’t a masterpiece, and I was entertained as well as in for a twisted ride, but unfortunately. The ending is the greatest disappointment to this show, after all that much potential of seeing Deadman Wonderland as a great series. But it isn’t meant to be.

Deadman Wonderland is available by Funimation, the manga written by Jinsei Kataoka and illustrated by Kazuma Kondou was available by Tokyopop but was rescued by Viz Media, the 1 episode OVA prequel “Red Knife Weilder” is also available by Funimation which was released with the show.

With all that said, Deadman Wonderland was a twisted series that manages to entertain and frighten. It has damn good animation, a somewhat generic soundtrack with some memorable themes and a kickass opening, some interesting characters, and a plot that is kind of like Hunger Games, Prison Break, and something that even Stephen King could’ve written… all mixed together. But sadly, the ending just flat out killed everything the series was going for and has made Deadman Wonderland turn from being something that would have standed out into a show that became a huge disappointment.

I give Deadman Wonderland a 5.2 out of 10, it is SO and SO!

Feel free to leave a comment

Deadman Wonderland (DW) is yet another of those shows that try to overwhelm the audience with gore and try to force entertainment that toys with serious stuff. Here you'll see hundreds of convicts living in a amusement park where they play death games for big happy families to watch and have some laughs... wait, is that right? Yes, that's DW starting point that already doesn't make any sense, the rest is even more absurd and retarted. But regardless of the stupidity, it's a fun watch for its small size and decent production values.

Art & Animation
DW features artwork on par with the recent trend of animes, which means is quite good. The art is sharp and the show is quite colorful, perhaps even too much for a gore-fest show. Besides that we have decent animation job, never harming the experience in this regard. Overall we don't have an outstanding show here, but it also owes nothing to any other of its contemporary other than being unfit for the storytelling. If you expect deaths to be red dark, full of bloodstains, despair, fear, or dark feelings, that's not the case here. You'll just watch bright red dudes being killed randomly and in an colorful amusement park that looks like a japanese game show.

Sound
A great opening and an average sound direction as a whole. Voice-acting is fine, but the protagonist can really annoy with his voice, as well as Shiro and her dumb genki stereotype. Background music and sound effects are nothing remarkable, but not an issue as well.

Story
Ganta is a young boy wrongly accused of mass murderer and sent to the craziest of prisons. In this bizarre place he needs to survive, endure life without taking a mind-controlling candy, find the real murderer, confront a souless cruel warden, and uncover his special power origins. Yes, superpowers, like in shounens around. Ah, and he has a side-kick that is a dumb happy girl that is absurdly strong and mysterious as well.

1. Death? Who Cares? Let's go with magic!
   I was okay with the bizarre prison, the death games being treated lightly, and even with the stupid protagonist. But hell, hidden psionic super powers? Wasn't this supposed to be a gore-fest show? Well... whatever.
   
   Shounen's Core
   DW sadly takes the road of a typical shounen, aided by the standard protagonist and his sidekick. In order to make things even worse, the pace is plagued by forced situations, with events happening almost randomly and without any kind of excuse or previous thinking. This kind of thing, usually common in 50-long or longer shounen shows, manages to be an issue even here with only 12 episodes. Stupid coincidences, the way no one notices or questions Shiro's existence, the lack of intelligence in the plot progression, all the typical issues of a long-running shounen takes over and the gore and death remain only as an background element after the first four episodes or so.
   
   Surprise!!!!
   To further the problem, the show has no clear end. Oh yes, yet another incomplete show released! Hurray!
   

Character
The premise was good, but execution was terrible. A big reason for that is the typical shounen progression and elements tossed in the plot. However, perhaps even more troublesome than the plot elements is the cast. Ganta is far too typical, that annoying guy that only makes mistakes and never really suffer with bad consequences, he just bounces back as a typical shounen lead by taking the most stupid course of action. Shiro is certainly just a fanservice tool that tries to bring a carefree attitude to a world of freaking criminals sentenced to death. The other convicts are shounen-super power allies with no development and very stereotypical personalities that are instantly reflected by their character designs. The villain is on the total extreme and never even tries to be a character at all, it's just a embodiement of evil doing without any sign of humanity or likeable personality.

Value
So, good production values joined by a premise full of gore and death, joined by a questioning about silly entertainment and how to handle convicts. How can that go wrong? Easy. Transform it into a typical shounen. In a world where no one cares about people dying right beside it, you just need to have super powers when they go to prison, a sidekick that is all happy and fluffy in a death corridor, a protagonist that doesn't fit a world of gore, and dozens more of things... this could only fit a comical show. But no, the show tries to be serious and dramatic, but you can't manage that with such an execution. It falls beyond shows like Tokko, Elfen Lied, Another, and others that try to be scary or impactful but only ends up as lame or with a bad combination.

Enjoyment
Want to watch some random deaths? Perhaps DW can be a good show for you. Want some shounen? Wow, surprisingly this can really please you. Want a take on gore and death sentence? Nah, move away and go watch a movie or something else. Regardless of all the problems that naturally comes from merging a shounen with gore and death, DW can be fun if you just don't mind the nonsense and watch it as a shounen show. Besides that, however, don't even try.

Comments
I tell you, I had fun watching this for a while. The start makes you think you'll see a protagonist growing from a coward boy to a fearless man, or to a crazy guy. But when the super powers kicks in and the secret levels of the prison are revealed I lost all my faith. I watched the rest by inertia and was deeply disapointed. The importance and impact of deaths vanishes, it doesn't serve as comic relief, dramatical presentation, questioning, anything, it became just an acessory for a shounen show where the lead finds allies with other super power, whee he fights other guys, faces a villain that is absurdly stereotyped, etc.

Perhaps I would liked more the show if it started already as a shounen. But misleading or badly using such a strong component as death makes this perhaps even more nonsensical than D.Gray-man's bad use of a premise. I think this a trend. Trying to lure the audience by proposing something good and just throwing typical garbage afterwards so the authors don't need to think, they just right randomly for the sake of their own pleasure. Still, it's watchable for anyone who manages to understand that this is only a shounen, nothing more.

DEADMAN WONDERLAND

1. INTRO

This anime was really a surprise for me, just when i was thinking that the end of anime era was drawing near, this one - deadman wonderland - then appears.



The story is about a boy who was incarcerated into a new kind of private prison - substituting the public penal system, the one in which we all live in this world - what may cause a bad impression (at first glance) due the fact we all know this kind of penal administration is not the one lawfully instituted on the current days. But it is not at all unbelievable if we take into account that, before such a prison was created, a tragic event occurred in Japan (in the story) making room, thus far, for a possible alteration on the ways of the mankind path of law and justice (for the worst, though).

And when the private corporations - instead of the government - take the lead, then one can only expect abuses, like exploration from the inmates, to the point of almost death in benefit for profit (thanks for the so called wild capitalism). Things like this already happened in our history, when some countries accepted a hybrid penal system (private but supervised by the public administration).

But this suppression of human rights is not the only one portrayed into this anime. There is others, like those concerning the exposure of prisoners to a big public audience, be it into the form of humiliating weird games or "sadist" presentations (the prison have a section that exposes the inmates to such "shows" before the normal people that pay the fee for such attractions, in the way of the ancient Rome and the gladiators). Also with precedent in history (middle and modern ages), in the words of Michel Foucault:

"The switch to prison was not immediate. There was a more graded change, though it ran its course rapidly. Prison was preceded by a different form of public spectacle. The theater of public torture gave way to public chain gangs. Punishment became "gentle", though not for humanitarian reasons, Foucault suggests. He argues that reformists were unhappy with the unpredictable, unevenly distributed nature of the violence the sovereign would inflict on the convict. The sovereign's right to punish was so disproportionate that it was ineffective and uncontrolled. Reformists felt the power to punish and judge should become more evenly distributed, the state's power must be a form of public power. This, according to Foucault, was of more concern to reformists than humanitarian arguments.

Out of this movement towards generalized punishment, a thousand "mini-theatres" of punishment would have been created wherein the convicts' bodies would have been put on display in a more ubiquitous, controlled, and effective spectacle. Prisoners would have been forced to do work that reflected their crime, thus repaying society for their infractions. This would have allowed the public to see the convicts' bodies enacting their punishment, and thus to reflect on the crime. But these experiments lasted less than twenty years.

Foucault argues that this theory of "gentle" punishment represented the first step away from the excessive force of the sovereign, and towards more generalized and controlled means of punishment. But he suggests that the shift towards prison that followed was the result of a new "technology" and ontology for the body being developed in the 18th century, the "technology" of discipline, and the ontology of "man as machine" (book: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison).

Anyway, the apparently unrealistic background story (weird justice system in general) have its way etched into history itself.

To summarize, i quote a few lines: "The story follows a young boy named Igarashi Ganta, voiced by Romi Park (Bleach, Denno Coil) who witnesses the slaughter of his entire class one day at the hands of a mysterious figure known as the Red Man. The Red Man leaves shortly thereafter, but not before implanting a strange red crystal into Ganta’s chest. Ganta is accused of committing the murders and is sentenced to do slave labor at a strange amusement park called Deadman Wonderland. Here he is forced to participate in a series of dangerous games to win Cast Points, the currency at Deadman Wonderland. The plot only gets more bizarre, for he is aided by a mysterious white-haired girl named Shiro, voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Last Exile, Fractale) who possesses a child-like innocence and a deadly fighting nature/ability" (twistedmanga.com).

1.1 Incongruences?

And i must also add that the anime, in whole, is not illogical or incongruent. At first glance (episode 01-02) i thought to myself: - oh no, more crap anime! But i was wrong, because it really makes sense if you don't let the improbabilities of such a eccentric prison establishment - if actually viable or not into our society nowadays - take away your fun. And this is so for a simple reason: the way how the story unlace is just ingeniously executed, in the same way like the literate works from Franz Kafka (se "the Trial" and "The Metamorphosis"); being so, despite having "unreal" background elements (like the prision), you cant help but stay hooked til the end, and still wanting more, due the way how the elements - the ones that really matter - are perfectly (and technically) well executed and blended (including all departments: character development, presentation, sound, story, visuals et cetera).

In fact, after the third episode you wont ever remember anything like that anymore, due the incredibly compelling storyline. To corroborate this, see what normal people who watch this animation are saying:

"The story was amazing, I mean. I haven't seen anything like this before and it really caught me, the story kicked off from the start and kept me wondering what will happen next or if Ganta actually finds out about Shiro's other persona (...)" (crunchyroll.com).

"(...) While this show appears to be only 12 episodes in length, the series does a good job in explaining why each character is in jail to begin with and how they each struggle with their past as well as their present life" (ibidem).

1.2 Is there any ecchi?

Given the serious nature of the story and others elements, there is not any "ecchi" in Deadman Wonderland. Important not mistake, though, scenes of artistic nudity (without any cheesy moments or foolish sexual appeal for the youngs) with those seen in others "baka" japanese cartoons (unfortunately the most nowadays), only pleasant for kids and dumb teenagers. In similar way express another reviewer:

"(...) it does not also glory in nudity, with the fan service primarily limited to Shiro prancing around in her tight-fitting body suit and one female character introduced in episode six showing off some skin" (animenewsnetwork.com).

1.3 How much violence and gore there is in this show?

Sadly, a lot. However, despide two or three episodes - and into relative brief scenes - i didn't see gore just for the sake of gore, this because there is scenes that the gore is actually just a natural consequence of a certain and not unnecessary action inserted into the plot. Overall, it is not emphasized these gory scenes too much, being very brief and (relatively) discreet (except for the episodes mentioned above: i had to close my eyes). To sum it up, i roughly estimate that 90% of the so called gory parts is not unwatchable, being not different than the view from a zombie being cut in that popular video game franchise named Resident Evil four.

2. ART & ANIMATION



As already told, Deadman Wonderland excells in all departments, so, in order to not be redundant, i take the liberty to quote some significant comments already done:

"A lot of the credit for that goes to the stunning visual effort that rookie director Koichi Hatsumi and his crew from Manglobe put into the visuals; this one will be hard to beat as the best-looking title of 2011. The appeal of the character designs starts with Shiro, a flawless balance of sexy and cute whose albinism even extends to her eyelashes (a rare detail to see) and who can captivate with her expressions and occasional bursts of comic behavior, but all of the character designs feature wonderful detail and looks varied enough that any of these characters would stand out amongst their peers. Detailed, layered backgrounds and effective variances in color schemes for certain environments support the beautifully-rendered characters, giving the whole a nicely round and textured feel which offers the illusion of depth without depending heavily on obvious CG effects. The gory parts get loving detail, though the most extreme elements are subject to shadowed censoring on Crunchyroll's streaming broadcasts. The animation is also top-rate; there may be series out there with more spectacular action scenes, but the smooth, impressive movements and flashy blood effects in these do well enough and, unlike many of its peers, this one does not skimp on animation in more ordinary scenes" (animenewsnetwork.com, by Theron Martin)

Also is worth mention that the censored version (on TV) puts some black shadows on the scenes (literally "erasing" most of it) making difficult to understand what is going on (may be the reason why - incomprehensibly - i already heard one or two people complaining about not being able to understand somethings, because if you don't see it, how will you sort out things?)

3. SOUND

As all the rest, equally fantastic: the backgrounds (themes) music adapt themselves flawless to each scene, constantly pumping more thrill into our brains. The Op and Ending sound are really good too. Thinking equally, in verbis:

"The music I thought was fantastic, like during the start of episode 11 as Ganta is getting emotional you feel sorry for him as that music plays as it immerses you" (crunchyroll.com). And not only in episode 11, but in the show as a whole.

4. STORY and CHARACTER

The Storyline is very believable, even when considering the impratical prisional system onto our reality nowadays (see dissertation from item 1, above). Even when we arrive into the supernatural powers ambit, it is not worse than thoses "spiritual" balls seen in others animes. There is a "scientific" explanation for it: some kind of microscopic life (similar to a kind of virus or nanomachines) residing into the blood of certain infected individuals produces a certain range of phenomenon named "Branch of Sin", which allows them to manipulate theirs own blood at free will. And the origin of it, despite all the mystery, is related to the supernatural big earthquake that took away the most of Tokyo. The prison where the main character went is located in the middle of it.

Another good point about the storyline is that there is not a single cheesy moments, not even a ecchi second. Even the behavior of the characters and interations are all psychologically accurate. Nothing seem unreal (like Franz Kafka novels) although the reality itself (if rationally confronted with ours) is surreal. And despite the serious nature of the plot, you still will eventually laugh, the same way one would smile after the storm e be delighted by the fact that good things are - potentially - on the way.

One thing to note: The environment (i.e. "world") where Ganta (main char.) was thrown in is, essentially, relentless and brutal, in which only the strong survive. But this must not be understood just as a "bad taste from the producers", no. I see it differently, and the explanation comes from a character from the same show (not Ganta) when he says that would rather remain in such world than to flee (from such a prison), because the "real" world (outside the prison) is where the cruel and brutal things really occurs, with the difference that "out there" things are masqueraded while "in here"(wonderland) everything is just straightforward.

Said this, the oppressing reality seen in this anime must be, then, analyzed under the prism of a metaphorical lens. And while into it, the lights embodied into pure souls daring not to let themselves be corrupted into the chaos and madness from that ominous world, shall then - in the due time - finally prevail. Another review had this piece to add:

"(...) The series accepts a pretty rotten view of humanity, with Ganta as the innocent hero who must try to muddle through it without getting his soul poisoned by it. It's a classic and time-worn set-up, but the execution and thrill level is high enough that it mostly works" (animenewsnetwork.com).

4.1 SHIRO and GANTA



The main characters of the shown, both reveals that still might be possible the existence of a true friendship - and a inconditional type of love (not the usual romantic thing) even into this rotten and fallen world. Even when the madness try to consume it all, the love that nothing asks in return still manage to spark through the dense veil of darkness.

5. VALUE and ENJOYMENT

Pretty High, like almost everything else in this prodution. Certainly there is its flaws, but compared with the huge batch of others releases in the latest years, it is a winner, probably the best of 2011 so far (can't wait for the season 2).

But be careful, so that you don't end up misunderstanding certain events in this series. There is pretty heavy stuff in it, and if you don't have the wisdom necessary to filtrate it all and reallocate every little pieces into the right places, well, then... don't know (just don't ask Ace Man for help).

PROPER MINDSET
Recipe: Take a third of Battle Royale, a third of Prison Break, and a third of Akira. Stir them in a bawl until the flavor is all gone and add lots of bad storytelling around the plate it is served upon. The result is Deadman Wonderland. Or as I prefer to call it, BrainDeadman COCOland; a completely unrealistic and chaotic show, with lots of gore thrown in to attract the casual viewers with superficial entertainment. It attempts to look special with nothing more than overblown violence and forced drama. It will definitely work if you shut your brain off and expect to see nothing more than gore and unexpected plot twists that jump at you from the ass of its completely chaotic and unreasonable storytelling. Needleless to say, if you were looking for consistency, originality, reasoning, and other elite / snobby / culturist stuff, you found something that was better off hidden.

SCRIPT
DW is the story of a boy being accused wrongfully to be a mass murderer and being sentenced to prison. Albeit not any prison but an amusement park where the inmates fight in various death games for the entertainment of the populace and where everybody is dressed as a silly plushy animal. The boy needs to find a way to survive the games as well as discover the real murderer, who seems to be an inmate in the same prison. He gains psionic powers (queue for the typical hidden dark superpower of every shonen lead) and needs to train in order to survive in prison, avenge the death of his friends, and prove his innocence.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, the premise sounds a lot better than the actual plot, which is not taking itself seriously in the least. Instead of an interesting action/survival/mystery we get a braindead action shounen that aims to be just coo-coo entertainment. The plot is random, as elements are introduced without any sort of foreshadowing and are thrown to the side just as easily.

- Amusement parks featuring death games for families to go watch while eating popcorn? Sure, why not? Let the kids watch as well; it is very amusing. Don’t mind how some of them are your friends and family.
- A minor who is sentenced to prison without a real alibi, or even being given the option to defend himself? Sure!
- A warden who can do anything he likes and nobody questions him? Why of course, let him blow a school bus in daylight, then get some tickets from him, go to his prison and see people being butchered while eating pop corn.
- A prison where the inmates are allowed to leave their cells and go anywhere they like? Sounds legit.
- What is that you say? Everybody is wearing explosive collars in their necks that blow up if they do something bad? Sure, that was very helpful when dozens of prisoners rebelled and no collars were triggered.
- Candy drugs that are supposed to addict the inmates as means of control? Yes, again very helpful for the dozens of rebels who did as they pleased and had no candy problem.
- Special armored prison guards that negate the inmates’ superpowers? Very helpful, until they just learn an easy way to negate the negation.
- Psychotic inmates being used as prison guards? Ingenious; especially for killing your ACTUAL non-psychotic, non-inmate prison guards.
- Why are there rebel teams and inmate prison guards even allowed to form and roam around freely with deadly superpowers?
- Where are the relatives of the hundreds of people that are constantly being killed in there, making some sort of protest? Oh that’s right, they are eating popcorn and watch their loved ones being killed in an amusement park.
- Why isn’t anyone questioning Shiro for her weird appearance, how she pops out of nowhere or most of the time not even noticing her passing by them?
I can keep asking whys and the answer never comes because the show is BrainDeadman; everything is running on Idiot’s Plot. And sure, it’s anime, it doesn’t have to be realistic. For the same reason, you don’t care about whatever random stuff happen in it.

Unlike most anime, the pacing is fine since each episode provides lots of progress and revelations. Of course this also means not much time is invested in any event, so everything feels rushed and superficial. If a major character dies for example, everybody will be sad for a few minutes before forgetting him and moving to the next event. It also doesn’t end since it is an incomplete adaptation of the manga, which to no one’s surprise keeps going without making any sense as always.

PRODUCTION VALUES
Animated by Manglobe, a studio with many nice looking (but almost never too good quality-wise) titles in its roster. The opening song kicks ass and the prison/amusement park is quite memorable as a setting. It’s otherwise not something that makes sense in the way it is supposed to function; you are not supposed to think about it and accept it as a magical thing.

The gore is the main spectacle and even that is not that extreme as the OVAs of the 80s I grew up with. Furthermore the tv version censored with darkness all the juicy parts so you will need to get the DVDs if you want the full course. Anyways, past the gore the battles are fun to watch even if they lack good choreography and are full of lazy motions and frozen panels.

CAST
All the characters are either stupid or crazy and use some really insane powers. And if you think that makes them interesting or memorable, then you are wrong, since as I mentioned there is very little time invested in anything that happens and nothing makes sense for you to give a damn after awhile. Their looks are fairly typical for shounen standarts and even the superpowers feel generic after awhile since despite the blood bending motif they all follow, they fail to give the show any real identity or purpose outside braindead entertainment. There is no philosophy or concept behind characters and superpowers besides juvenile attempts at themes such as survival, teamwork, and the bonding of bloodlines. All that are there without ever going anywhere. Some may claim that all the crazy stuff that happen to them are more than enough to make them dramatic, but in reality you don’t care about them as you do for the gore that they experience. Meaning, you will only remember a lot of bloody stuff happening to people whose face, names, and most likely storylines will have been erased from memory.

But even if we assume you have all the good intentions to remember them, a close inspection to the major ones is more than enough to drive most fans away.

For example, let’s take Ganta the lead boy. He is the average low intelligence, high ideals shonen lead. There is absolutely nothing special about him and he could have easily been replaced with any other protagonist from any other shonen show. Not only he is as generic as it gets but ends up being obnoxious as well. His voice is so lame like his balls didn’t drop yet; you hate him just for hearing him talk. He is so stupid; he falls for the simplest tricks. You can say it’s because he is like a fish out of water but then you see how he performs the most impossible comebacks, such as mastering superattacks in a few seconds or surviving lethal injuries with nothing else than willpower. He is never hacked to pieces with attacks that turn other minor characters to beef jerky. Veteran inmates stand no chance to this rookie’s plot armor, plus all his plans never go any further than simplistic straightforward attacks. Basically he is the constant winner only because the scriptwriter feels like it.

Then there is his best friend Shiro, the super positive girl with an IQ of a monkey. Her behavior makes no sense; too genki and stupid for the setting she is in. Yeah, ok, you can say that is done just so we can have a contrast to the really grim atmosphere of the prison. That still doesn’t change the fact that she is also a plot armored character that acts completely inappropriately for the setting she is in and yet wins all the time because the writer feels like it. To the most part she is there only to eat bread and act like another Potato Girl from Attack on Titan, before helping Ganta with her antiques. Why? Because she really likes him stupid! All generic and obnoxious protagonists have stupid girls who love them. Anyways, she has a multitude of roles in the story, from Deus ex Machina, to comic relief, to fan service thanks to that really skin-tight uniform of hers. The biggest offender though is how everybody just accepts her presence like it’s something normal, even when it’s definitely not. She appears and disappears anytime she feels like it and nobody questions how easily she enters dangerous places or why she even popped out of nowhere exactly next to them in the first place.

The warden is above the law no matter how far fetched his actions are. He is a generic power crazy maniac who organizes death games for the people outside the prison and even conducts inhuman experiments in order to harness some weird psionic powers for his evil world domination plans. He is just there as an untouchable asshole and nothing more; he completely lacks depth or sympathy from the viewer.

As for the rest of the characters; they are all following their own shounen stereotypes, crazy and stupid, with hardly enough immersion to care about them. And guess what, all development the secondary cast receives, is to begin as adversaries to Ganta and as soon as he defeats them, they immediately become his buddies. Well, that was easy to overcome decades of bloodlust and murder intent in just 5 minutes of sparring. And I love how they never use their ultimate attack right away and just waste time in gloating. Later on they use those very same ultimate attacks to save Ganta and claim they always were far more powerful than him. Plain ass-pulling!

LEGACY
After the fuzz from the initial shock of you being thrown in a setting where people go to watch inmates being dissected in an amusement park goes away, chances are you are left with nothing else to care about. It is nothing but retarded violence, forced drama and random script, around people you don’t give a damn about.

I really can’t find anything good in it besides the crazy looking setting. The gore is not as bold as in the retro anime I grew up with, the battles are more silly than exciting, the plot is always about the generic shounen fuss regarding the hero losing badly, getting up full of resolve and performing a move that gives him the upper hand, followed by some lame morality monologue around friendship and justice. Not even the finale is rewarding since it is rushed and left open, in an almost anti-climactic way. Not recommended as anything past a time waster.