Review for Deadman Wonderland The Complete Series Collection

Introduction

I first caught Deadman Wonderland as it was streamed on Anime on Demand a few years ago, and was instantly engulfed in a warm glow of nostalgia. This was anime as I first discovered it, the anime that got me into the medium a couple of decades ago. My first thought was that this show would be perfect for Manga Video. Alas the company that first brought us Legend of the Overfiend, Genocyber, and AD Police, the company that courted controversy with the tabloids, that regularly ‘fifteened’ content to get the tills ringing to the echoes of ‘ban this filth’ is no more. It’s since transmogrified with the DVD revolution into Manga Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment is the far more wholesome company that brings us family fare like Oblivion Island, Panda Go Panda, the Tamagotchi movie, Naruto, Clannad, Ah My Goddess, Blue Exorcist, Tiger & Bunny, Baccano, Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, Shigurui Death Frenzy?

Actually Deadman Wonderland might just be right at home with Manga Entertainment! This time they’ve pulled off a major coup, thanks to the peskiness of Blu-ray region coding. The Japanese studios refused to let Funimation release it on Blu-ray along with their DVD release, to combat reverse importation. The US fans will have to wait until the Japanese fans have slaked their bloodthirst before they get to see Deadman Wonderland in HD. But the average Japanese anime fan can’t spin Region B, and Manga Entertainment have the right to release it on Blu-ray ahead of anyone else in the English speaking world. We Get It First!

So now might be the appropriate time to address the elephant in the room. Censorship! Deadman Wonderland, if the title wasn’t clue enough, is a show with a fair bit of gruesome violence to it. It’s nasty and exploitative and gory, and all the things that make me nostalgic for Manga Video. Those initial streams on Anime on Demand were significantly obscure when it came to the nitty-gritty of that violence, and the occasional bit of nudity. Rays of light streamed across the image, sudden shadows appeared unexpectedly, bloodstains were black, and nipples were a no-no. Also, certain moments of Japanese dialogue were bleeped out, leaving it up to the imagination as to what was being said. Profane Japanese isn’t the same as profane English, and previously when anime shows have bleeped out dialogue, it’s to avoid copyright infringement. Although this time, the cynic in me suggests it was to let the viewer come up with a more imaginative swear than the writers could.

The important thing to note is that the BBFC in their wisdom have passed Deadman Wonderland at an 18 rating, and have listed it as uncut. That means that whatever was submitted was fine by them. But what is on these discs is censored. The bleeped out Japanese dialogue (and consequent gaps in the subtitles, although only on disc one oddly) is still there, although the English dub lets fly with whatever profanity springs to the scriptwriters’ minds at these points. The extreme violence and gore is also censored at certain points, although certainly not as extremely as the streamed or US TV broadcast versions. Blur effects, shadow and lens flare are still used to avoid anything too offensive, although a lot less is left to the imagination. We still have the censored opening sequence for the show, but on disc 3, we have the uncensored version in the textless credits so you can see all the nipples and boobies that are deemed as too damaging to impressionable minds.

I had a trawl across the internet, trying to determine just what version of Deadman Wonderland we get, and I found this blog site. In it the user does a compare and contrast of the broadcast version next to the Japanese Blu-ray discs, showing just how much more explicit the Blu-rays are, as well as all of the animation that was corrected for home video release. Be warned that some of it is gory, and there are spoilers for the show. What I can determine is that what we get on the UK Blu-ray release is nigh on identical to what the Japanese fans got on their Blu-ray discs, in terms of both visual and auditory censorship. This is self-censorship on part of the studios, nothing to do with the BBFC or any of the distributors, and as uncut as we are ever likely to see this show.


Ganta Igarashi was a normal middle school student, until the day that a mysterious figure appeared, hovering outside his classroom window, and then proceeded to viciously slaughter all of his classmates, finishing off by plunging a strange red crystal into Ganta’s chest. At least that was the last thing he remembered. He woke up in hospital, with no sign of injury, and under guard, arrested for the massacre of his friends. The lawyer appointed to help him promised to get him off, but actually double crossed him, and made sure he was found guilty.

No surprise really, as Tamaki was only moonlighting as a lawyer, his real job is promoter at Deadman Wonderland. In a near future Japan, following a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of Tokyo, a new private prison has been built out of the ruins. Deadman Wonderland combines penal correction with reality TV and tourist entertainment. The inmates are put on display for the pleasure of the viewing public. They have to compete in ‘games’ to earn the prison currency for food and living privileges. For death row inmates like Ganta, it’s also the only way to earn the antidote candy that they need to eat once every three days, lest the poison pumped into their veins from their control collars finally enacts their sentence. Of course the games aren’t fatal. The public are reassured that they are watching the latest in special effects technology.

But that’s just a front. The real Deadman Wonderland takes place underneath the public facade of brutality and violence, and is a legacy of that earthquake that tore Tokyo apart all those years ago. That time the Red Hole opened up where the prison now stands, and unleashed with it strange powers that afflicted some of the survivors. Now those Deadmen, most of them in the prison on death row, have the ability to manipulate their blood in strange ways, and since the attack on the school, Ganta has developed an ability too. These Deadmen are pitched against each other in lethal battles, all for the enjoyment for an invisible elite, and the sadistic promoter. In a world full of psychos, Ganta’s going to have to find his inner sociopath to stay alive.

Twelve episodes of Deadman Wonderland are presented across three dual layer Blu-ray discs from Manga Entertainment, plus some significant extras.

Disc 1
1. Death Row Inmate
2. Antidote – Candy
3. G-Block
4. Crow Claw

Disc 2
5. Carnival Corpse
6. Hummingbird
7. Wretched Egg
8. Scar Chain

Disc 3
9. Worm Eater
10. Undertakers
11. Gig of Despair
12. Grateful Dead

Picture

Deadman Wonderland gets a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer at 1080p resolution. There’s certainly room to breathe on these dual layer discs, and the image is clear and sharp throughout, with strong colours, and no visible signs of compression. The main tell-tale about the quality of anime Blu-ray transfers these days is digital banding, where large areas of shifting colour show distinct lines of gradient as the shades change. Other than a couple of darker scenes on disc 2, Deadman Wonderland is almost free of digital banding. You’ll probably notice it most when scenes fade in and out, and in comparison to shows that pack more episodes in per disc it’s hardly worth mentioning.

The animation is strong for the most part, especially given the corrections made for home video release as mentioned in that blog I linked to before. The character designs are excellent, singular and stylish, while the animation is vibrant and energetic. The world design is strong, and one of the only criticisms I have of the animation is that it really should have been an OVA project, not a broadcast animation. Some of the decisions regarding self-censorship that have made it through to the home video release are a little bizarre (a blurred out hand being ripped off by a whirlwind), while others, like eyeball gouging are understandable.

The other criticism I have is of digital zooms. In a couple of scenes, rather than animating a close up of a scene from scratch, they just animated the whole thing at a set distance, and then zoomed in on that frame, to make a close up. I don’t know how it looks on DVD, but on the Blu-ray, the drop in resolution at these points is immediately apparent.

The images used in this review are sourced from the PR and aren’t necessarily representative of the retail release.

Sound

You have the choice of DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English, and PCM 2.0 Stereo Japanese (2.3Mbps) with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track (you can only turn the subtitles off completely with your remote, as the default is signs only). I went with the original language track and was happy enough with the experience, the characters are cast appropriately, and the action comes across well. One issue might be that self-censorship again, which declines as the series progresses. On disc one, Japanese dialogue might be bleeped out at certain points, and there will be gaps in the subtitles at that point as well. Disc two has a couple of bleeps, but no gaps in the subtitles, while on disc three there is no bleeped dialogue at all. Where Deadman Wonderland scores, and scores big is in the theme songs. Shiny Shiny by Nirgilis is a cute bit of pop to end each episode on, but the opening theme, One Reason by Fade is about as suited to the show as possible. You’ll be playing the uncensored version of the opening more than once on disc three, I can guarantee.

I watched one episode in English... Actually I dozed through one episode in English. The surround does add much to the action sequences, and the LFE had my subwoofer at its most active in weeks. But it is a fairly standard Funimation dub, albeit one from the Panty and Stocking school of profanity. They definitely need someone with a little more imagination and lyricism when it comes to spicing up the English dialogue. Just spraying four letter words at a script and thinking that it’s edgy doesn’t always work. Also another whiny brat voiced by Greg Ayres may not be to all tastes.

Extras

I really ought to re-iterate that this Blu-ray release of Deadman Wonderland is a UK exclusive. No other English speaking territory has it as yet. That means Manga Entertainment have had to author it from scratch, and my guess is that they got the English language materials, the subtitles and dub track from Funimation, and the actual HD video for the episodes from Japan, and they put it all together themselves. That explains why the subtitles are typical Manga (they can’t show signs and translated dialogue simultaneously, and just flash the captions up in sequence at that point. It can be a tad confusing), and it also tells in the way that the discs are authored.

Normally Funimation re-version the episodes to show the credit sequences in English, but for this Blu-ray release, Manga have kept the original Japanese credit sequences. Manga have also given the discs elaborate and extensive animated screens and transition sequences. Some of the transitions can be a little long, but the menus suit the show down to a tee. Also Manga’s history of chaptering anime continues here, with the episodes merely divided into two, with no means of skipping credit sequences or episode previews.

Disc 2

... is where the extra features begin. First up is the audio commentary on episode six, with voices of siblings Takami Yo, and Minatsuki, Aaron Dismuke and Leah Clark stuck in a booth together trying to see who can embarrass the other the most. Leah wins. Be prepared for profanity, drinking games and nothing of consequence or meaning regarding the episode. I would have liked to have seen the video version of this though.

The OAV: The Red Knife Wielder is the special episode for the series, which looks at one of the Deadmen prior to the story. Senji Kiyomasa was actually a policeman, and the episode encounters him two years after the earthquake, trying to keep the peace in the ruins of Tokyo with the ragged populace terrorised by gangs, and the rest of the police force either indolent or on the take. He still manages to make a statement with his new powers though. This lasts 26 minutes and is presented in Japanese only with English subtitles.

Something clearly went wrong here, as Funimation’s DVD release (and indeed Funimation’s Youtube channel) has this episode as dubbed into English, and we are missing that dub. I think one of two things must have happened. Either Manga simply forgot about the dub, or they don’t have the rights to the English language materials for the episode. I suspect the latter, as rather than use Funimation’s subtitle track, they’ve had to create their own (no US distributor will use the word ‘fag’ in reference to cigarettes). If, as usual Manga have used the Madman masters for the DVD release of Deadman Wonderland, then I won’t be surprised if the dub for the OVA episode is on that.


The US Video Commentary last 24½ minutes, and you can watch ADR director Joel McDonald, Greg Ayres (Ganta), Monica Rial (Shiro), and Leah Clark (Minatsuki) lined up in a booth talking about the show, while the episode plays in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It’s nice to actually see what a commentary looks like, and it turns out that the booth isn’t as small as I thought it would be. More shows should have video commentaries, as it’s much more interesting to watch, than to just listen in on a gigglefest.

Disc 3

Here you’ll find the textless songs for the show, and it’s also here that you can watch the uncensored version of the opening as well as the broadcast version. There’s just the one ending sequence though.

There are seven minutes of promos for the show, and unfortunately they aren’t subtitled. You do get more than 90 seconds worth of Fade’s One Reason though, which is one reason to partake of the promo reel.

Finally there is the audio commentary to go with episode 12, with Greg Ayres and Monica Rial. It’s your usual Funimation commentary, in that it’s 90% light and frivolous, and 10% relevant to what is on screen. It holds the attention for the duration though.

All of the video extras are presented in some form of HD, either 1080p or 1080i.

Conclusion

I like Deadman Wonderland a fair bit. It pushes all those 90s anime nostalgia buttons in me, a modern day reminder of all the extreme cyberpunk gore and violence that so attracted me to the medium in the first place. It pushes the limits, goes the extra mile to shock, and it does what few TV anime shows these days dare to do. When it comes down to it though, Deadman Wonderland isn’t very good. That isn’t the end of the world, as let’s face it, a lot of the shows that are being nudged by nostalgia weren’t all that great in the first place. And Deadman Wonderland fails in much the same way that those shows failed as well. On the other hand Deadman Wonderland has some failings all its own too.

Deadman Wonderland has a great premise though, a collision between Battle Royale, The Running Man and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. In a post apocalyptic future (the apocalypse being the earthquake that befalls Tokyo), the penal system has been privatised, and is now being run as an entertainment for the masses. The earthquake also had a fantastic element to it, the Red Hole, which unleashed strange destructive powers among some of the Tokyo survivors, abilities that involve manipulating blood as a weapon. So now, the Deadman Wonderland prison stands at the epicentre of that earthquake, and it’s where prisoners are sent to entertain the public. For those with death sentences, this means death from slow poison from their control collars, or dying in competition for the candy that serves to extend their lives another three days.

But that’s just a front for the real prison, the one built to hold the Deadmen, those people with the fancy blood powers, and they are pitted against each other in lethal battles for the entertainment of a hidden elite, with losses punished in a horrific way, all while experimental research continues into the Deadman phenomenon. Into this hellhole is thrown Ganta Igarashi, a 14-year-old boy sentenced to death for the massacre of his class in school. He’s been falsely accused of course, set up by his slimy lawyer, who turns out to be the slimy promoter of the Deadman matches, all on the odd chance that as a sole survivor he somehow awakened to Deadman abilities. It’s a good thing for him that he did, as he wouldn’t survive long in the prison otherwise.

But Ganta is the sole sane voice of reason in a psychotic bedlam, the only reasonable human there, and faced against such insanity, he quickly has to find some inner strength, and some degree of controlled rage and insanity inside himself just to stay alive. The characters do really make the show, and they all offer different degrees of psychopath to counter Ganta’s almost incessant whining, and they do fill up the screen. The other Deadmen are all as fruity as a nutcake, and all have reason to be, given their tragic pasts, but there is something to appreciate about Minatsuki’s two-facedness, Senji’s utter bloodlust albeit contrasted by a fear of women, while the head of the prison guards Makina is a total dominatrix, and the promoter Tamaki sees Deadman Wonderland as his own personal toy box. The nuttiest of them all has to be Ganta’s new best friend, Shiro, a cute albino girl with what appears to be multiple personality disorder, with the face that she shows Ganta naive, innocent and trusting, yet she has an instinctive ability to fight, and there is an air of mystery around her. She doesn’t wear a prison collar, yet she wanders the prison like it’s her home.


Deadman Wonderland really has three arcs to it. The first four episodes concern Ganta’s introduction to this hellhole, and sees him facing life in the outer prison, coming face to face with some of the colourful characters, and facing his first real challenge in the Dog Race. While he can’t come to terms with the injustice against him, he does hold on to the feelings of vengeance that he has, the need to find the Red Man that did attack his class, and he becomes certain early on that the Red Man is in the prison as well. It’s searching for him that leads to the next arc, when he discovers G-Block, meets the other Deadmen, and gets put into the Deadman battles. It is a prison, and quite naturally the final arc concerns escape, but the final four episodes are also about Ganta finally growing a pair, and deciding to fight the injustice of the system. It’s also here that we meet the Undertakers, the psychopathic guards with the abilities to counter the Deadmen, and most notably the Monk Genkaku and his lethal guitar.

The first problem with Deadman Wonderland is that it’s just too short. It’s just a window into the world of this story, and there’s rarely enough background to any of the characters, none of the plot lines are sufficiently developed, and some plot threads are just left hanging, or forgotten completely. The show should have been twice the length, each arc should have had eight or so episodes to it, to properly develop the scenarios and get into the characters. So much of Deadman Wonderland is a case of blink and you’ll miss it. The one arc that stands strong through the story is Ganta’s search for the Red Man. He never does find him by the end of the series, but the viewers do find out his identity, which is even more frustrating than if we never did. The OVA actually goes into the back story of one the characters, and judging by the photos from the end credits, it might have been the intention to do the same for the other characters as well, but unfortunately that didn’t come to pass, as Deadman Wonderland is one of those shows that didn’t do so well in its native Japan. Not only is the series half the length it should be, but it leaves things hanging at the midpoint of the story. The show feels bitty to me, rather than one cohesive narrative.

The other problem is censorship. There’s only so much that you can show on a TV broadcast, and Deadman Wonderland skated the line with its content. But when it comes to home video release the studios should have free rein with what they can show. But with Deadman Wonderland, while the studios went back and cleaned up the animation, and reduced the censorship, they didn’t eliminate it completely, so we have the oddity of a gory and violent anime with the gore and violence obscured to some degree, and with a strange approach to censoring dialogue. The bleeps are prevalent in the early episodes, but by the end of the series they just don’t bother. Speaking of not bothering, in the early episodes there is a visible attempt to reduce the censorship, show a little more detail in the violence, not be shy about the blood, but by episode 12 it’s as if they’ve given up. The final episode on this Blu-ray looks nigh on identical to the broadcast episode, any blood is covered up with black mist, and gore is blurred to the point of non-existence. The Japanese studio chickened out in the end, and I get the feeling that the BBFC’s 18 rating is down to the Funimation dub rather than any visible content. They say that Deadman Wonderland is gruesome and nasty, but really those 90’s Manga Video titles make it look like Bagpuss in comparison. Try some Genocyber or Angel Cop if you’re strong of stomach.

Deadman Wonderland is fun to watch, particularly if you need some accompaniment to a lager and kebab evening, but it’s not all that great a series. The disappointing thing is that the elements are there for a great series, it just drops the ball by trying to do too much in too little a time. Speaking of dropping the ball, Manga Entertainment did so with the OVA episode, missing the existing Funimation dub track and US subtitles. Other than that, the AV presentation on this Blu-ray is really quite good, making it technically one of the better anime Blu-rays in the UK market. Rent it and you’ll have a nostalgia inducing blast.