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Deadman Wonderland (デッドマンワンダーランド Deddoman Wandārando) is a manga series written by Jinsei Kataoka and illustrated by Kazuma Kondou, who also wrote and illustrated the Eureka Seven manga, and published in Shōnen Ace since 2007. Tokyopop acquired the licensing rights to distribute the manga in English and released the first volume on February 9, 2010. An anime adaptation aired between April and July 2011, pulling content from the first 21 chapters of the manga. The anime is licensed by Funimation Entertainment and aired on Adult Swim's newly revived Toonami block.

A massive earthquake ravaged Japan's mainland and destroyed most of Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of the city into the ocean. Ten years later, the story shifts to Ganta Igarashi, a seemingly ordinary student attending Nagano Prefecture's middle school. As an escapee, a survivor of the great earthquake, Ganta has no memories of the tragedy and has lived a normal life. This all changes when a strange person covered in blood and crimson armor floats through his classroom windows. Grinning madly, the Red Man massacres Ganta's entire class but instead of killing him, embeds a red crystal shard in Ganta's chest. Within days of the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect. Following a quick unfair trial, Ganta is sentenced to death and is incarcerated in Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme park-like prison.
Arriving at the prison, Ganta is fitted with a special collar which monitors his location and life signs. Due to the heinous nature of Ganta's "crime," he has to live out his imprisonment under Deadman Wonderland's 'Death Sentence'. A lethal poison is constantly injected into his bloodstream through the collar, but it can be neutralized by consuming a peculiar candy-like medicine every three days, which can be acquired through various activities in the prison, i.e. performing for audiences, working backstage, purchasing with cast points, etc. In order to gather Cast Points (the prison's currency), an inmate has to perform in the facility's lethal games and survive. Fortunately for Ganta, he is aided by a mysterious girl named Shiro, who apparently knows Ganta, and is known by other prisoners as well.
While trying to survive as an inmate on death row, Ganta becomes increasingly obsessed with the 'Red Man' and tries to find him so he could clear his name. In a bizarre twist, Ganta begins to develop the ability to manipulate his own blood, to the point of turning it into a weapon. Unbeknownst to him, Ganta has become one of the prison's "Deadmen," a segregated group of prisoners possessing the Branches of Sin which makes them capable of controlling their blood. After his ability is discovered, Ganta is forced to participate in brutal gladiatorial death matches known as Carnival Corpse, whose anonymous spectators pay large amounts of money to watch. In his struggle he manages to befriend some of those he fought off in the arena and with their help, Ganta continues his quest to uncover the identity of the Red Man, why he turned into a Deadman, and the dark secrets the prison authorities are hiding.

Main

Ganta Igarashi (五十嵐 丸太 Igarashi Ganta) / Woodpecker

 

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)

The main protagonist of the story is a seemingly harmless, ordinary middle school boy until the Wretched Egg slaughters his entire class, yet spares him and infuses him with a shard of red crystal. Tamaki, posing as Ganta's appointed lawyer, rigs evidence at his murder trial to make it look like he murdered his classmates on a whim. Ganta is thus given a death sentence to be served at Deadman Wonderland. Initially confused and frightened, Ganta resolves to endure the heinous prison so he can prove his innocence and avenge his friends by tracking down and confronting their murderer, the Wretched Egg, whom Ganta refers to as the "Red Man". During his stay, Ganta meets a mysterious girl named Shiro and is perplexed that she seems to know him, but eventually begins to remember her as a childhood friend. Ganta learns that the crystal implanted into his chest by the Wretched Egg has turned him into a "Deadman" empowered with a Branch of Sin, which is later christened the Ganta Gun by Senji. This Branch of Sin enables Ganta to gather variable quantities of his blood in the palm of his hand and shoot them like bullets. While advantageous as a long-range attack, due to Ganta's small size, this strategy puts him at risk of experiencing symptoms of excessive blood loss. Ganta later joins up with the Scar Chain and participates in their attempt to break out of Deadman Wonderland and expose the prison's illegal actions, but chooses to remain behind to settle his score with the Wretched Egg. Shortly after these events, learning that Shiro is the Wretched Egg, Ganta's power began to change, evident by a strange tattoo-like mark radiating out from the crystal in his chest. His Ganta Gun now emits a much more powerful blast than before, though it is much less controllable and causes him physical pain. Eventually, the truth about Deadman Wonderland is made public and Ganta is exonerated of the false charges put upon him. He then joins forces with the former prison's Chief Guard Makina, Senji, and several other Deadmen, and return to the prison to locate and stop Shiro (who has now been completely "consumed" by her Wretched Egg persona). By that time, Ganta learns that his mother Sorae Igarashi was the one who turned Shiro into the Wretched Egg for the Chief Director of Deadman Wonderland and that his Branch of Sin is "key" that can unlock the Mother Goose system so the Wretched Egg can utilize her full power and recreate the devastating earthquake she caused ten years earlier. But despite learning that she is the one who ruined his life, Ganta has strong feelings of love towards Shiro.

Shiro (シロ) / Wretched Egg

 

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

A mysterious albino girl and Hagire Rinichirō's artificial daughter that Ganta encountered during his first days as an inmate; Ganta mistook her for his dead friend Mimi due to Shiro resembling her. Clothed only in a skin-tight bodysuit and large gloves (which help conceal her heavily scarred skin), Shiro stands out among the other prisoners due to her bizarre appearance and mannerisms. It is also apparent that she does not have a prison number, unlike the rest. To Ganta, Shiro's manner of speaking and behavior remind him of a small child, even though Shiro is just a year older than him. However, Shiro possesses inhuman physical abilities and has an intimate knowledge of the prison, having lived there most of her life. From the beginning of the story it is made clear that, as children, Shiro and Ganta were close friends with the latter having no memories of his childhood, which greatly saddens and annoys Shiro. Shiro was infected with a mysterious virus that gave her abilities which was being researched by Ganta's mother Sorae Igarashi. Over the next several years, Shiro was subjected to barbaric experiments, including being dismembered while awake, all in an effort to force her body and the virus inside it to "evolve" into the first Deadman. The trauma of this torturous treatment caused Shiro to develop a homicidal, maniacal split personality that is labeled as the Wretched Egg. Unaware of his target's true nature, Ganta knows her as the "Red Man" due to the heavy masculine full body clothing she wears that was inspired by the Aceman character she and Ganta watched and played with as children. As the Wretched Egg, Shiro's personality changes into a murderous, smirking maniac capable of massacring whole squads of armed men with little effort and causing the earthquake in Tokyo. Soon after, Shiro is placed within Deadman Wonderland in comfortable quarters due to being the "source" of the Branches of Sin. Thanks to the Mother Goose mainframe, Deadman Wonderland's supercomputer, a lullaby is played that is audible only to Shiro in order to repress the Wretched Egg and her murderous intents. Like Shiro, the Wretched Egg has feelings for Ganta, though hers border on lust; it was implied that she butchered Ganta's classmates so that he would be sent to Deadman Wonderland to be with her. Eventually, the Wretched Egg becomes the dominant persona with the Mother Goose system's lullaby no longer repressing her. However, she still has strong feelings for Ganta and Shiro's personality still remains intact.