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A review by readeranew
Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 1 by Jinsei Kataoka
4.0
Deadman Wonderland is a science fiction, horror dystopian shounen series, 13 volumes long. This story takes place in an alternate Japan, 10 years after the Great Tokyo Earthquake which sank 70% of Tokyo.
Our main character Ganta Igarashi witnesses his entire class slaughtered by a mysterious character in a red cloak and mask, as Ganta calls him 'The Red Man'. This character slaughters everyone in the class except him for some unknown reasons. He then inexplicably is blamed for his friends' slaughter and sent to death row at the local prison. BUT they do not send him to any regular prison. Nope. That would be too easy. He was sent to death row at DEADMAN WONDERLAND (hence the name of the manga), where saying that inmates were treated poorly would be an understatement.
They are forced to fight and participate in deadly competitions for the enjoyment of the general public. Imagine the Hunger Games, except a million times more brutal and gory. Like most of the times while reading this I was like, ‘How the HELL is this shounen and not seinen?!’ The prisoners also have a mechanical collar around their necks which pumps poison in them, and that is why they have to participate in these games so that they get the antidote, which looks like candy but tastes horrible.
Ganta is not completely helpless, because after his encounter with the Red Man he gets these super-powers which enable him to use his blood as projectiles. This power is called 'The Branch of Sin' and the people who use these powers are called 'deadmen'.
Characters
Ganta Igarashi/ Woodpecker is the main character and he is extremely whiny and is surely not the strongest character. People complain that he whines a lot but in my opinion I find his whining very understandable. If I was in his position, I would be doing the exact same thing. His life was fairly normal, then he was blamed for a crime that he did not commit, all his friends are slaughtered, everyone hates him and he is sent to hell on earth.
The next major character in this show is Shiro, the crazy hyper and over-excited albino who is just pure awesome. Her wacky personality is the exact thing we need to balance out Ganta's constant whining. She really reminds me of Lucy from Elfen Lied, except she does not want to murder every person she meets. She is really sweet and cute and she loves sweet things.
Then there are several side-characters such as the chief wardens, the inmates and the other deadmen.
Personally my favourite character in this manga is no other than Senji Kiyomasa. He is such an awesome character, plus his powers are so cool. He enjoys violence and his favourite phrase is Dead Centre. Despite that, he does have a sense of honour and respects Ganta's determination. He also appears to be against the idea of needless killing, having opted to leave Ganta alone on their first encounter when he made no effort to defend himself against Senji. I also like his background and his back-story with him previously being a police-officer. I also really like Minatsuki/ Humming Bird, Nagi/ Owl and Karako/Game Fowl but I am not go into detail because of SPOILERS.
I highly recommend this series and I still recommend the anime adaptation although not being totally accurate.
Our main character Ganta Igarashi witnesses his entire class slaughtered by a mysterious character in a red cloak and mask, as Ganta calls him 'The Red Man'. This character slaughters everyone in the class except him for some unknown reasons. He then inexplicably is blamed for his friends' slaughter and sent to death row at the local prison. BUT they do not send him to any regular prison. Nope. That would be too easy. He was sent to death row at DEADMAN WONDERLAND (hence the name of the manga), where saying that inmates were treated poorly would be an understatement.
They are forced to fight and participate in deadly competitions for the enjoyment of the general public. Imagine the Hunger Games, except a million times more brutal and gory. Like most of the times while reading this I was like, ‘How the HELL is this shounen and not seinen?!’ The prisoners also have a mechanical collar around their necks which pumps poison in them, and that is why they have to participate in these games so that they get the antidote, which looks like candy but tastes horrible.
Ganta is not completely helpless, because after his encounter with the Red Man he gets these super-powers which enable him to use his blood as projectiles. This power is called 'The Branch of Sin' and the people who use these powers are called 'deadmen'.
Characters
Ganta Igarashi/ Woodpecker is the main character and he is extremely whiny and is surely not the strongest character. People complain that he whines a lot but in my opinion I find his whining very understandable. If I was in his position, I would be doing the exact same thing. His life was fairly normal, then he was blamed for a crime that he did not commit, all his friends are slaughtered, everyone hates him and he is sent to hell on earth.
The next major character in this show is Shiro, the crazy hyper and over-excited albino who is just pure awesome. Her wacky personality is the exact thing we need to balance out Ganta's constant whining. She really reminds me of Lucy from Elfen Lied, except she does not want to murder every person she meets. She is really sweet and cute and she loves sweet things.
Then there are several side-characters such as the chief wardens, the inmates and the other deadmen.
Personally my favourite character in this manga is no other than Senji Kiyomasa. He is such an awesome character, plus his powers are so cool. He enjoys violence and his favourite phrase is Dead Centre. Despite that, he does have a sense of honour and respects Ganta's determination. He also appears to be against the idea of needless killing, having opted to leave Ganta alone on their first encounter when he made no effort to defend himself against Senji. I also like his background and his back-story with him previously being a police-officer. I also really like Minatsuki/ Humming Bird, Nagi/ Owl and Karako/Game Fowl but I am not go into detail because of SPOILERS.
I highly recommend this series and I still recommend the anime adaptation although not being totally accurate.