Deadman Wonderland

To start things off, I'd like to inform anyone coming in off of the anime adaptation to disregard that. It was not a good adaptation, and ended prematurely while leaving out a lot of plot points. The manga is leaps and bounds better, and certainly worth most people's time.

In the world of fiction, having a piece of work involving humans with supernatural powers is definitely not rare. In fact, the market is saturated with such things. This in and of itself is not inherently a bad thing. It's all a matter of how the concept is used, and if the work can achieve something its predecessors couldn't. Does Deadman Wonderland bring anything new to the table?

In my opinion, not really. What it does offer is a very compelling and interesting rehash of things we have seen before. To me, at least, this is also not a bad thing. Let me explain.

I'd like to talk about the setting first. A prison that doubles as an amusement park. That is something that I personally haven't seen in fiction before, though I'm sure it has been done at some point. Still, it is a pretty interesting setting. There are some issues with it that I can't talk about too much because of spoilers, but suffice to say the manga doesn't play up its setting as much as I would have liked.

And what of the characters within this setting? The quality and genericness of these characters vary. I found the main character generic, and the fact that he was 14 seemed a little unneeded. He could have been an adult, or at least an older teen, and the story wouldn't have changed much, except making some things more believable. The manga has a lot of gore and even touches on elements of rape a couple times, so the argument that he is 14 in order to appeal to the intended audience is invalid. Most of the other characters were interesting, and I liked that almost every major character (and even some minor ones) rather they were "good" or "bad" got a backstory segment, giving each one a tad of development, even if that development was a little shallow.

The overarching plot had a few pacing issues, but generally it is easy to follow if you pay attention. The pace is quick enough that the reader probably won't find themselves bored at any point. Also, I'm glad to say that most questions are answered by the end of the manga, and the ending wraps things up nicely without feeling too rushed. I found the plot pretty interesting, if not predictable in some places. There are a few good twists that I didn't expect here and there.

The last thing I would like to talk about is the art. The character designs were definitely designed to be "cool", and the powers of most of the characters are drawn very nicely. Plenty of gore too. The backgrounds can be simple at times, but never ugly. Overall, I don't remember ever seeing a panel or page and thinking it looked bad.

I'd recommend this manga to people who like the "super powers" concept, or just like action in general. Although there's a little bit of romance, comedy, and quite a bit of drama, this manga is definitely an action manga at heart. Worth a chance if you are looking for a good manga that does a lot of things right, even if it's not anything new.

It's hard to describe Deadman Wonderland. It's definitely not a Naruto or an FMA or a Vampire Knight. It's much better than all that- but only for the right kind of person. Because the biggest caution about the series is the amount of gore involved, and despite the brilliant and innovative story, if you get queasy easily- I don't recommend it.

STORY
Deadman Wonderland is a brilliantly crafted, innovative, and fresh story that breaks away from all the other manga out there. It's dark, morbid and creepy, and it won't try to delude you with false happiness. There is no "joy". There are only people trying to make the best of a horrible situation. Because the setting is at a prison, which happens to be Deadman Wonderland itself, and dually serves as an amusement park of sorts for the public. From there on the story evolves to center around the protagonist, a young boy named Ganta, the odd people he meets, how they survive, and the day to day life of the living hell of Deadman Wonderland.
There are loads of twists in the story, which usually takes action because of the characters that trigger it and drive the plot. Everything is very dank, very depressing and very psychological- and if you're interested in that type of story- it'll probably be right up your alley.

ART
In a quick statement, the art is fantastic. It's by the same artist and author of Eureka Seven, so it's very crisp and clean, but detailed at the same time. Gore and backgrounds are done intricately and believably, the character designs are beautiful, but their expressions are by far my personal favorite. You can see the pain in each character's expressions, and they're all extremely vivid. Sometimes it's not pretty, but neither is their pain.

CHARACTER
Characters in Deadman Wonderland are perhaps the biggest gem of the series. All of them are severely flawed in different ways- and they have every right to be, considering their surroundings. Ganta, the protagonist, is simply a young boy. It's understandable that he's likely to get on the nerves of many readers, but he has every right to act the way he does. He's been thrown into turmoil with trauma that comes one bit right after another- and think about it for a minute. If you were the sole survival of a mass murder of all your friends and classmates, if you were framed with said mass murder, and then thrust into a prison that holds no boundaries on violence where no one will listen to you, and more? In less than a month? He's an ordinary boy who has lived a peaceful life before this. He never got into fights. And now every second is a fight for his very life. He struggles to understand this place and these intimidating criminals,
But it's not only Ganta. This series has Tamaki- the main villain, and never before have I seen such a hateful antagonist. He gets delightful and sadistic joy out of what he does, and doesn't show remorse. It's quite a good break from many other villains out there in manga today. You can't help but hate him, no matter how you try.
And apart from our main two, there's a dozen other easily memorable characters included in Deadman Wonderland (Shiro; the strange girl who speaks in third person and appears to know Ganta, Azami; an oddly normal woman who supplies advice to Ganta on his first day; and so forth.) All of them witness trauma, and all of them suffer severely from this environment- but they evolve. They grow and we learn more about them. We see what makes them tick. There have been multiple times within the story that it was the characters themselves that honestly caused me to cry.

ENJOYMENT
I enjoy Deadman Wonderland a great deal, and I get excited with each development and new chapter. However, I also enjoy the well-done gore, which if you perchance don't like that sort of thing, it will definitely hinder your experience with the whole series. But if you are looking for something substansial, something different and fresh, something that breaks out of the normal- it's a perfect series to try.

OVERALL
Like I've stated, it's not a perfect series, but it's pretty close for the right type of person who can appreciate it. And once again, if you're looking for something happy- don't look here.

In a world of mediocre story lines we get something so fresh and so new

Deadman wonderland gives us a buffet of plot and setting from the first page we get thrown into the deep end of the story already asking questions and making theories and every thing seems to be connected the further and further the manga goes with twist and turns every chapter.The Main setting the prison it"s self seems to be a world on its own even having its own money system and the amusement park theme has made its way into almost every aspect of the prison giving it this distinct kinda creepy style .Plus it's weird rules like eating an antidote every three days or you die and cruel merciless treatment of the prisoners like death matches puts you in the shoes of Ganta (the main character)and have that "same this place is insane" vibe he does.DW is filled with some refreshing new archetypes with their own deep trouble pasts that defines their personality from insanity to childlike innocence or both .The prison is really designed to contain and study "deadmen" special prisoners with something called the "nameless worm" inside of them which gives them the ability to control their blood called the "branch of sin" i.e shooting it like a bullet or making a blade and every power is different and can be used in multiple ways giving the fights more personal flare.
Though this manga is heavy on story it doesn't skip on gore from skin peeling to beheading this manga dose it in a tasteful way instead of meaningless slaughters
even fan services is supported by current events

To summarizes this manga is deep,engulfing and'l keep you on edge every chapter its a definite read on my list

Deadman Wonderland is wonderful, there isn't much like it.

It has a wonderful story, it all fits together quite nicely. There are some chapters that could have been done better, I will admit. Sometimes it is very complex to me, sometimes it very simple, which can get a little confusing sometimes. I do enjoy how unique Deadman Wonderland is, it isn't like any other anime or manga I've came across.

The art of 'Deadman' is very well done to me, not too realistic, not too anime-ish. The art fits Deadman very much. Usually everything is drawn, the characters and the background all together, and the background is worked on very well, which makes it seem almost like you picture the anime in your head. I also think that the way the characters were made matches their personalities amazingly.

The characters, they were usually a mixture of insane and normal; or where just insane or normal. They had realistic reactions, which is good, at least for me that is good. Every character has their own personal background, and Ganta (the main character) of course has his own motive through the manga. The support of the cast was a good number, in my opinion, not too much, not too little. Not of the characters (main and supporting) were alike, they were basically their own person.

I think most people would enjoy this manga, just for the fact it is unique and it has some different genres mixed into it.

Sorry, if this wasn't a good review. It was my first time..