Manga Review: "Deadman Wonderland"

I was just down at Barnes and Noble the other day, and I saw a new volume of this series.  A few days later, I find that same volume available at my local library.

I think it came out a few years ago here in America, but then died out or something.  But it's recently made a comeback, especially with the Funimation dub of the anime coming out a year or two ago.  Greg Ayres, man.  That guy is good.

And, so we're all clear, we are talking about the blood-slinging adventure-horror series known as Deadman Wonderland.

Ordinary middle school student Ganta Igarashi is enjoying an ordinary day at school.  Suddenly, a mysterious humanoid creature only known as "The Red Man" somehow floats up to the third-floor window, breaks in, and violently slaughters all of Ganta's classmates using some unknown power.

Wrongly framed for the incident by a phony lawyer who is actually a crooked prison administrator, Ganta is sentenced to life imprisonment in the titular prison of Deadman Wonderland.  There, he discovers that The Red Man left him with some of his own powers during the attack, and Ganta is thrust into a series of life and death battles with similarly-powered fellow inmates known as Deadmen.  All the while searching for the one who slaughtered his friends.

The entire anime series only lasted for 12 or 13 episodes, but they were pretty good.  Unfortunately, it only covered material from the first 4 or 5 volumes.  They still had much further to go.  That is, at least according to the wikia.

I enjoyed Greg Ayres' portrayal of Ganta, first thing.  But then I began watching the drama and intensity unfold.  The battles are excellent, as well.  In point of fact, the blood-based Deadman powers from this anime directly influenced the abilities of Demon Sword wielder Chrona from Soul Eater, another series which I enjoy.

You wouldn't think there was a heck of a lot you could do with blood alone, but you'd be wrong.

Now that the anime is finished, I look forward to seeing how the story moves forward in the manga, beyond the place where the anime left off.  Reading how it all goes on the wikia is just too time-consuming, taking what you learn from one article and trying to connect it to the next.

Unlike Sword Art Online, this is a series that I highly recommend.