Overall Review: Deadman Wonderland

A part of my childhood has died. A very disturbing and extreme part of my childhood, but a part nonetheless.

Way way back in the early days of my anime watching career, I was introduced to Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou through the somewhat underappreciated Eureka Seven manga adaptation. It wasn't a brilliant manga by any stretch of the imagination, but it did have charm by the handfuls. A very specific sort of charm, an almost grotesque and somewhat uncomfortable charm. There was a lot of style in what Kataoka and Kondou weaved, and that style was what immediately drew me to Deadman Wonderland when I learned of its existence shortly after. This is a violent series, a hideously overexaggerated commentary on sadistic horror and human nature, but it is also absorbing and entertaining to a very high level. The art is always somewhat uncomfortable to look at, with its bold and slightly unnerving style, and the story is just as bloody as it promises to be, with blood and mangled carcasses everywhere. The story of Shiro and Ganta Igarashi in this lunatic prison of death and despair is easily devoid of hope, but not of occasional sweetness intermingled in the twisted despair at the heart of the manga. Seeing this series end is really rather heartbreaking for me, in a weird sort of way; it was a manga I loved for its insanity and shounen charm, and one I'll definitely miss now that it's finally ended.