There are many mangas and anime which fall into the survival horror. I am sure you have seen some of those tournament based games where violence is a way to get out of the game. And so each one falls into pure survival and temporary team ups. A lot of those animes are being remade with various other concepts.
Deadman wonderland is one such anime where you will find the hyper violence matched with the survival horror plot.
So let's review Deadman Wonderland Anime.
Image Credit : Myanimelist
Story
Ganta is sitting in his class and his classmates are waiting for the teacher while doing the routine. Suddenly a mysterious figure comes in kills all the classmates except ganta. And then that figure embeds some crystal in his chest. It seems like he is chosen for some sort of curse. He wakes up realizes that he was blamed for all the killings and now being transferred to the new prison.
This new prison is interesting, here the prisoners are forced to work all day and also being forced to entertain the crowd with various tasks. Every step of the way there is either pain or there is some sort of the way they are being taken closer to the death.
Image Credit : Myanimelist
From here the story takes ahead and you would come across few other characters who ganta sees around while his resolve to get out of the prison. So the entire anime is all about how ganta tries his best to survive and find his way out of the prison while there are people with powers who are forced into this prison too.
Art & Animation
Considering the anime falls into survival horror and action. You would come across a lot of violence and also there seems to be a lot of violence there in the anime. I loved how they showed various powers and also the audio around the various power effects. I know they could have done better but considering this is more or survival theme, the powers and the audio associated with each is pretty interestingly done.
Image Credit : Myanimelist
Each wonderland character is nicely drawn and also you would be surprised at the power of each of them. And though there is nothing surprising about it. You would appreciate how each of that is being used in the anime. So the overall animation flow for the series has been good. I didn't find any strong reason to critic the same. Though some people may expect Elfien lied type of the art and violence but I don't think that is needed here.
Story Execution
This is not your typical battle royale or prison break type mashup. The story is pretty deep if you check the manga before you watch the anime. The thing about the ganta is that first it appears that he is innocent looking face makes you worry a lot about the life and the survival in general. Then slowly the story shows you how ganta adapts to the current scenario and tries to use his power for the survival.
It is kind of pity that they didn't extended the season 2 for the anime and the worst part is that they strayed a lot from the manga. They could have focused on the manga but they did not due to show value. I think that is where the execution went wrong. They didn't worked up with the story and the execution as it goes deeper.
Image Credit : Myanimelist
A lot could have done with the story. And the execution of such plots could be easier with the depth if done right. I struggled a lot trying to connect the dots. Things could have done better with the story but they kind of pushed a lot of violence and utter one sided bias on a lot of places which is kind of expected yet not done better in my opinion.
Is it worth binge watching?
If you have Netflix then you can watch the 1st season there. You don't have the OVA on netflix and for that maybe you have to try out the crunchyroll or any other japanese anime. I have found them mostly on netflix and I have not watched the OVA unfortunately. I don't know if the OVA is even worth the effort considering the story is a bit dragged in anime.
Good Parts in Story
I'd say the premise was better. Animation was better too. I thought the characters around the ganta were developing slowly and it was kind of fun too. I think if they stick with the manga there is definitely potential for the further seasons. I would love to give it a shot if they do some justice with the story and execution.
Bad Parts in Story
A lot falls bad in the execution. And there are wrong ends of the story which kind of makes you a bit falling into tangents which does not connect proper dots with the original story. I think more character development and better survival scenarios could be designed but for some reason I guess they were not into that.
I wont' say this is the best anime in survival action and horror category. I would say however that this anime has more of psychological vibe. And if you continue the manga you would notice the same. I do however have found out that anime like this needs depth and also not meant to rush things.
I'd definitely recommend this anime if you like survival action, horror and twisted stuff.
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