Disappointment: that's the word that fully describes this anime. A lot of potential being wasted as the episodes progress leaving a bitter taste in the mouth.
Ten years before the story begins, a massive anomaly called the Red Hole caused an earthquake that destroyed most of Tokyo (Japan: a giant magnet for unexplained disasters).
Returning to the present, the story shifts to Ganta Igarashi, an ordinary student that is a survivor of the Red Hole. During a normal day of school a mysterious figure, the Red Man, massacres his entire class, leaving Ganta as the sole survivor and implanting a mysterious red crystal in his chest. Ganta was immediately named as the main suspect in the carnage and, after a sham trial, was sentenced to death at Deadman Wonderland, a private prison that is also a theme park runned by the warden Tsunenaga Tamaki who posed as Ganta's lawyer.
A lethal poison is injected into the prisoners by a special collar, only one candy taken every three days can guarantee salvation, but you can only get it with Cast Points. To obtain Cast Points, prisoners must participate and survive in deadly games. Fortunately, Ganta meets a girl, Shiro, who apparently knows him, and who will help him several times (let's say all the time) during the story.
During his stay in the prison Ganta develops a strange power: he can manipulate his own blood and use it as a weapon. For this reason he is taken to a hidden branch of the prison where experiments are carried out and 1vs1 fights (the so-called Carnival Corpse) are fought to the death between the owners of the Branches of Sin (the Deadmens).
The idea and the development of the plot in the first episodes is really interesting.
Who's the Red Man? Why did he kill those boys? Why did he let Ganta live? What really caused the earthquake that destroyed Tokyo 10 years before? Why the false trial? These questions permeate the series, giving it a very fine atmosphere suffused with mystery.
Unfortunately, however, as the episodes pass, the story becomes confused. Too much! Not in the sense of not understanding the reasoning of the characters or the various events. It's as if it began to lose its narrative power, becoming, all of a sudden, an almost banal series. Nothing happens to keep you glued to the screen. It's just boring, the pace is no longer sustained and the events become monotonous.
Ah, the characters...
Let's start with the main character, Ganta Igarashi: whiny, without being particularly understandable or humane in his choices, obnoxious, illogical and very, very transparent. His actions are all dictated by the plot, not by the personality of the character.
Paradoxically the co-protagonists, Shiro and Yoh, result much more incisive because, in a certain way, both of them seem to "follow" the role of Ganta's dead friends, inducing the spectator to think that the boy will rebuild his life inside the prison with the strangest and morally ambiguous versions of his friends. Instead the character of Shiro seems to have been put as an assistant who appears in the moment of need to advance the story, while Yoh, although he is probably the most characterized and multifaceted character of the whole anime (he is a kleptomaniac who wants to free his sister, also locked up in the prison, buying his freedom with the money he steals...) after about five episodes will be defenestrated into oblivion.
The rest of the characters are nothing but a jumble of muscle men, oversized policewomen, guys with super powers and characters that, once introduced, disappear in the great nothingness that is this anime (just think of the characters of Promoter Tamaki and the super-crazy monk).
The drawings and anatomies are well realised, the grotesque and sometimes disfigured faces are perfect for the setting in question.
As far as the soundtrack is concerned, the opening and ending are very good (the dominant use of red in the opening introduces the viewer to the bloodstained world of Deadman Wonderland while the ending gives a feeling of almost unnatural calm and tranquility) while the OST is rubbish. The main theme is catchy only for the first part, while the rest doesn't remain impressed.
Furthermore, it can certainly be said that this anime manages to use splatter in a more than decent way, managing not to be ridiculous or annoying and at the same time entertain lovers of this genre very well.
The idea of the prison-amusement park was very original but the conclusion came in a flash, blocking a story that could have provided so much more backstory, a pity because such a plot, if well exploited, could have resulted in something of much higher quality.
It can be summed up by saying that Deadman Wonderland is a halfway successful anime, as if it were a stepping stone that entices you to read the manga.
The final mark is an average between the vote at the start (75) and the vote at the end (55).