Review by Frank Plowright

At fourteen Ganta Igarashi has been convicted of murdering his entire class. Readers of the opening volume were shown he didn’t do it. Instead of being immediately executed he’s held in a maximum security jail from where deadly tasks are televised. Inmates can refuse to participate, but that leaves them in danger of dying within three days by a poison that’s constantly injected via a collar. An edible antidote can be bought at a high price, but prisoners only earn money by participating in the sadistically devised tasks. The person who did kill Ganta’s classmates is referred to as the Red Man, and contact with him seems to have given Ganta some destructive powers.

After the events of Deadman Wonderland 1 Ganta hears rumours of where the Red Man may be kept, and heads straight in that direction.

The only stalling in Jinsei Kataoka’s plot is Ganta learning what’s happening to him only slowly pieced together comment by comment. By contrast other information comes tumbling out, while the action is immediate and a headlong rush. One thing Ganta rapidly learns is that he’s not the only one with powers, and how those powers are activated, along with several more major revelations are dropped before halfway.

Deadman Wonderland being plotted as an action rush means Kazuma Kondou only very rarely slows things down, many of the disclosures occurring as Ganta and his allies are punching their way through someone or something. Blood is key to the entire plot, and Kondou’s visual imagination enables it to be presented in unexpected ways by those able to control it better than Ganta. The chapter in which a staged conflict occurs is spectacularly delivered. However, there’s no toning down gruesome aspects, so be prepared for a stomach-turning moment near the end.

To date the cast has been relatively restricted, but new characters are introduced here, all of them eccentric and with something sinister or disturbing about them. The same might be said about Shiro, who’s so far been Ganta’s friend, but the final chapter delivers something profoundly disturbing about her.

Heading into Deadman Wonderland 3, the series defies predictability in any respect. It continues to be violent, but there’s obviously plenty more to be revealed, and the sheer pace is incredible.