An innocent teen in a strange prison!

Tweekums

This anime has been one of the best of the season; it has drama, interesting characters and rather a lot of gore! The protagonist is a school boy called Ganta; he is the sole survivor of an attack on his class at school, unfortunately for him he finds himself framed for their murder and is sentenced to death in a strange prison. This prison is like no other; it is called 'Deadman Wonderland and the inmates are forced to compete in strange gladiatorial events where death is likely! Ganta has been given a poison and if he is to survive he must win one of these events every three days. He soon learns that something strange has happened to him; he now possesses a strange skill known as 'branches of sin' which enables him to use his blood as weapon. He isn't the only such prisoner there and if he is to survive he must learn to use his skill. Inside he meets a strange white haired girl named Shiro; she acts in an almost childlike way but frequently manages to save Ganta. Ganta is determined to find the person responsible for the death of his school friends but to do that he first has to escape and that will not be easy.

I'd certainly recommend this series to people looking for something a little different so long as you aren't bothered by the sight of copious amounts of blood. Ganta is not a particularly heroic main character but that doesn't mean he isn't interesting even if he does whine a bit too much. The enigmatic Shiro is a more interesting character though as we knew so little about her. Tsunenaga Tamaki; the assistant warden of the prison makes a great villain as he is both sadistic and more than a little mad. The animation and character designs were both good helping make the unbelievable situation believable. The final episode didn't wrap everything up so I'm hoping that there will be further series of this excellent anime. If this series sounds interesting to you it can currently be watched legally on Crunchyroll.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

score 8/10

Tweekums 9 July 2011

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2455744/