Viz Media recently released Vol 1 of Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou’s Deadman Wonderland. This was actually released years ago when Tokyopop was around, but the manga division of Tokyopop ended in 2011. Viz has now taken it upon themselves to release it, and it made its North American debut Feb 11. Manjiorin, Maggie, and Justin read it, and decided to discuss it.
1) How much did you know of Deadman Wonderland before reading Vol 1?
Manjiorin: If I remember correctly, I’ve seen around the equivalent amount of anime episodes to match this volume — just a handful — really.
Justin: I happened to pick up a volume of Deadman Wonderland some months before Tokyopop announced they’d kick the proverbial manga bucket.
Outside of that, I watched some of the episodes on Toonami, got tired of it, then Funimation had sent copies of it for me to potentially review. So I was pretty sure I’d go do that. I didn’t.
Maggie: Absolutely nothing.
2) What were the first thoughts that crossed your mind after you finished it?
Yeah, this place is pretty crazy
Manjiorin: “This was better than I expected.” Not that I expected it to bad per say, but I was surprised at how taken in I was by the story so far. I don’t know that anything is super original — the potential power reveal, Ganta being too trusting, the odd things going on behind the scenes — but all of that but together with the amount of violence compelled me through the volume.
Justin: Why were some of these elements hard to get excited for? Is it because I’ve read (and watched) it before? Has reading/watching survival works since I read this years ago (Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Future Diary, Battle Royale, etc, etc) completely ruin my taste for this stuff? Or is the characters not sticking out like a sore thumb the main issue? All of these are factors as to why I didn’t have the best of impressions of Deadman Wonderland.
Maggie: It’s over already?! I thought this 200-page volume would take a lot longer to finish, but it flew by.
3) What was the one thing that stood out to you, in a good way?
Manjiorin: I was actually surprised by the amount of gore/violence. I hate to call that a “good” thing, but I don’t particularly shy away from it in my manga. The violence really upped the stakes for me. I kept thinking, “Well crap, one wrong move and they may very well just cut Ganta up.” That race towards the end? Brutal.
Looks like your average normal prison doesn’t it?
Justin: Clearly the Deadman Wonderland Prison. It is about as absurd and crazy and wonderful and intriguing as you’d think it is. It holds the worst of the worst in its chambers, it involves inhumane logic and politics, and it’s currently explored in a manner where the general public is convinced the system is perfectly acceptable when in fact they’re just being manipulated into believing that’s true. Clearly there’s something wrong within this place, and it bears an explanation and exploring. There’s a lot of potential in regards to what we can learn about the place, how the criminals and officers use or abuse its privileges, and what secrets it holds. The story can go a lot of ways, and that’s a credit to an interesting setting.
Maggie: Hard to pick just one thing. Ultimately, though, I really enjoy the setting for this volume. The prison and its unique dynamic is interesting enough to justify the stagnation of setting (being trapped in one place for a while at least). I’m curious to see if Ganta will somehow escape from prison. It seems unlikely that the entire series will take place at Deadman Wonderland, although I actually don’t think that would be a bad thing.
4) What was the one thing that you did not like, or was inconsistent?
Manjiorin: I sort of found a little hard to believe that Ganta resigned himself to be executed towards the end. Granted he was probably pretty beat down after those first few days with no idea what was going on, but that took me out of the story. Ganta in general was a meh character for me; the stereotypical shounen character who’s a bit too trusting and always does the righteous thing even if it means getting his butt kicked. I was more interested in the moments when it looked like self-preservation might prevail (debating whether to let Shiro fall or whether to follow along and hurt his friend to avoid being hurt himself), but we haven’t seen much of that yet.
Justin: There’s a lot to not be happy about when it comes to caring about the characters, but I’ll instead comment on the action scenes, specifically any time Ganta fights. None of them get me excited or seem to inspire any other reaction aside from, “Ok, whatever.” The problem with giving a stereotypical, wimpy shounen male lead a power he has no idea how to use at a consistent rate is said shounen character does not know how to use it properly. And in Ganta’s case, the way it’s drawn with a full-page spread when he attacks the Red Man, one of the main villains/unknowns of the series, seems amateurish, which, ok, it is predictable and expected, but is still a turn off anyways.
Maggie: Some of the characterization at this point is just “meh.” The red man, the prison chairman, and even Shiro all just seem one-dimensional. Hopefully, though, their development will come with time because I enjoyed everything else about this so far.
5) Finally, would you recommend this volume, and what would you hope to see from this point?
Who is the Red Man? What is his purpose?
Manjiorin: I would definitely recommend this volume. I’m super glad it was licensed rescued. I’m hoping in coming volumes that we get more background on everything that’s going on — why Ganta’s there, what the power at the end means, etc — as there was a lot of terminology thrown around towards the end that hinting at something bigger going on. I’m hoping that Deadman Wonderland delivers on all that and doesn’t fizzle out underneath all the questions.
Justin: Most definitely yes. For all of its faults, it’s still too early to write this volume off when the potential for greatness is still there. The Deadman Wonderland prison is still a motivating factor in continuing to follow up on a few more volumes, and how it can be used — from how it treats the criminals to the power structure of the prison potentially coming to question, for example — there’s a lot of ways it can go, and I can’t wait to see how it’s explored. The characters do need to have more personality and exploration, because aside from me irrationally liking Azami, the prisoner who gave Ganta a part of her food, there’s not a single character I give one whit about. If they got sliced and diced tomorrow, only Ganta would be kind of jarring to me, and that’s only because he’s the main character with a unexplained superpower.
Bottom line: I hope it continues to make use of its setting, improves the current characters, and add one or two more characters to shake things up. It has some of my attention; it needs to make sure it gets all of it at some point.
Maggie: Yes. Deadman Wonderland is a wonderfully mature and gore-filled shounen series. It has a lot of typical shounen fantasy/adventure elements, including the normal archetypes and character molds, but the setting and violence of the entire plot, as well as its fast pace, make it an enjoyable read even for a more adult audience. At this point I’m just along for the ride, and I expect that more and more elements will fall into place and the character and plot development that this first volume hints at are going to be explored in the next few volumes.
