I wonder who he's flippin off. Maybe it's me and he just read this review.





Since Adult Swim brought back Toonami, I thought I'd checked out one of their new animes, Deadman Wonderland. Just saw the first episode online and it really wasn't what I was expecting. The episode starts off with the typical, cliche, high school setting of most Japanese anime. An effeminate boy, Ganta is sitting in class when he notices a floating monster in the window. His classmates are all killed by this monster and he becomes the sole surviver and the prime suspect in the massacre of his classmates. That's when I start to realize this might actually be good. A few minutes later, I realize this might actually turn out to be crap. Ganta is sentenced to death and is transferred to a co-ed privitized prison called Deadman Wonderland. Deadman Wonderland is also a theme park and major tourist attraction run by the prisoners. Apparantly, the guy who wrote the manga thought it would be a genius idea to make the prison warden a hot girl with big boobs. Not only that, he made the prison co-ed. Maybe he wants someone to make a hentai adaptation of his work. Or it could just be fan service.







❝ What the hell is going on? Why won't any of you people listen to me. ❞ - Ganta







In the real world, most prison wardens are 40-60 year old, fat, balding men. Co-ed prisons are rare and and also a really bad idea. Don't ask why. They just are. Within the prison, Ganta bonds with a mysterious girl. Sound familiar? Yes, it should since this happens in almost every shonen anime. The boy always bonds with the mysterious girl. The girl's name is Shiro and the two of them get picked on by a bunch of thugs. Maybe those thugs were going to rape Ganta. Happens in prisons all the time. Afterwards, A large object falls toward Ganta and Shiro. Ganta discovers he has "special" powers and uses these to save both Shiro and himself. Just like every single shonen anime hero, Ganta learns that he is "special". Yes, he is SPECIAL. What's with all the cliches? Can anyone think of something original? Interesting premise but it ultimately falls flat. Judging from the first episode, Deadman Wonderland will be another typical shonen anime with slowly paced, long fight scenes. You know like Bleach, DBZ, Naruto, etc. Not saying that it's a bad thing but Deadman Wonderland could have been something more.





Hi, I'm the warden of Deadman Wonderland and I got big boobs. Look!! Look at them!!







As for the voice acting, it's terrible. Then again, voice acting for most dub anime is atrocious. You'll recognize many familiar voices, since all dubbed anime are dubbed by the exact same 7 or 8 voice actors. I haven't seen the subbed version, which I assume has far superior voice work. The animation, on the other had, is superb. The art style isn't very original but the animation is nice and crisp. Will I be watching episode 2? Probably not. There are better ways to spend my afternoons such as playing real life frogger. Yeah, it's dangerous but also loads of fun.







✔ Pros: Great animation. Dark Story.

✘ Cons: Many cliches. Poor voice acting.





Story: 7

Animation: 9

Voice Acting: 5

Overall:





7 Decent (all scorces out of 10)





