Deadman Wonderland Anime.. wtf? someone explain this to me, please

[Jaythulhu]

So a good friend of mine loaned me these dvds, and I've gotta be honest, after watching all 12 episodes and reading the wiki, I still have absolutely no fucking clue what the hell the series was about. Could one of you please, please explain it to me in "over-30s white-dude who's only ever seen stuff like ranma and macross before"?

I was confused as shit from the opening moments, where some dude blows up a school room and a kid gets sent to prison for it, and after 12 eps and a wiki I still don't understand a damn thing that happened.

Usually I can at least work out what the basic plot is, but after all my watching and reading I'm still as confused as I was from minute 1. If you can help me put the pieces together, please do.


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Captcha: More Cowbell.

Sigh, more comprehensibility would have been better.

 

[Smertnik]

I only read the first volume of the manga but I remember it being rather straightforward. A kid gets framed for killing off his classmates (or whatever), gets send to prison and has to survive by completing challenges, fighting and whatnot and everyone has special powers.
It's shonen, you don't have to understand the logic behind it.

 

[Jaythulhu]

I only read the first volume of the manga but I remember it being rather straightforward. A kid gets framed for killing off his classmates (or whatever), gets send to prison and has to survive by completing challenges, fighting and whatnot and everyone has special powers.

Well, yeah, I got the basics, what I don't get is all the references to a "Red Quake" and crystals, and tv ratings and all that guff. Is it just a case of me being too old and too out of touch for this stuff?

 

[The Wykydtron]

I really can't remember. It's like, Shiro was the Red Dude all along but that was kinda obvious after a point and there were like... Superpowered people.

It has been far too long since i've read it to be honest.

Also I consider the fact that he got sent to prison so quickly and matter-of-factly as a giant plothole. Did nobody even think how a 14/15 year old boy managed to kill his entire class and teacher with, what was it? One knife? Yes his defense was a fraud that was actively trying to get him declared guilty and i'm told that the Japanese court system is more of a Guilty until proved innocent type deal but still.

One person must have realised. There's one or two pieces of circumstantial evidence one of which is a fake video of him saying that he hid the weapon and was gonna be all evil (as an excuse to bypass the lack of a weapon at the scene i think)

Oh and someone tell me how the wall blew in when it's a kid with a knife. Also there was way too much gore for a simple mass murder.

IT MAKES NO SENSE

 

[lotrfanatic1]

GO READ THE MANGA!

the anime cuts off at a point where it isnt fully explained properly, however the manga carries on for a good while, its a very good, complex story that when you get your head around it ... your like "wow ... that was unexpected & truly mind blowing" ...

 

[snekadid]

Wyk..... you need to use spoiler tags from stuff like that first sentence....

Anyways, yea there was apparently a big catastrophe in japan and they called it the Red Quake due either the number of people that died or the crystals that caused the branchs of sin and gave a ton of normal people the ability to control their blood in various ways. TV ratings have to do with the rich people watching the normal events up top and the fights down below.

Honestly I'm 27 and i never had a problem understanding too much of the series, I remember trying to watch the anime but shiro and ganta's voice actors made my ears bleed.

If you have more questions ask them here.

 

[Cyfu]

some dude blows up a school room and a kid gets sent to prison for it

answered in the manga.

Spoiler: Super amazing ultra hard SPOILER WARNING!

Shiro is the red dude and shiro and the main character, don't remember his name, were childhood friends. She wanted to see him again, but she was in deadman wonderland and had to some crazy shit to get him there. Or somthing like that

 

[Ruedyn]

>_>

<_<

Yeah I'm a pretty big fan of DMWL. The red quake was a earthquake that totaled Tokyo, spred out the Deadmans virus (the crazy bloodpower shit), and paved the way for the prison the show is named after. The prison was owned by Haigre (the old guy who fought Shiro, and later became 'Mockingbird') who made the Deadmans virus with Gantas' mom (who died in the red quake), and he invents the Carnival Corpse so that the deadmen can fight to the death for peoples entertainment.

That's pretty much the basics of the show, and don't worry, I barely understood what happened in it either.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Thanks for cluing me in, everyone. I have to admit, while I don't mind watching an anime every now and then, I'm not going to start buying and reading manga (it's just not in the budget). This anime confused the absolute hell out of me though, so I'm thankful for the explanations you've all given me.

Cheers!


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Mods, feel free to lock this thread down, I think I now understand as much about this show as I'm going to

 

[infinity_turtles]

It's never claimed to be a knife to my knowledge. It's always referred to as "the weapon". Not that the whole thing isn't kinda stupid with it's lack of evidence and the degree of mutilation and all that, but the idea is supposed to be they rigged the trial and then faked a little evidence primarily so people wouldn't question it.

Okay, as I understand. Big freaky unexplained natural disaster event happens. Gives people super-powers, but this is covered up. Many years later kids school is attacked by a crazy girl(has split personalities, one incredibly naive and the other ax-crazy) he knew as a littler kid, and because she's seen as the most powerful of the superpowered people, and potentially the source of them, the only survivor has behind the scenes shit done to get him into their testing/research facility for super-powered people, which has the cover of a prison that's also a tourist trap, using the prisoners as slaves/indentured employees.(Excuses for this I've heard as "Super-powered people will blow things up. This gives an excuse for why things blow-up occasionally") Previous runner of the research facility is basically on life-support, and his insane sadistic son who is now in charge is more interested in using the super-powered people as toys and guinea pigs. And that's... more or less it I guess. If there's anything that that confuses you go ahead and ask and I'll try to explain.


Captcha: and that's the way it is (Captcha error'd, probably timed out)
New Captcha: you're fired!

 

[Schadrach]

I only read the first volume of the manga but I remember it being rather straightforward. A kid gets framed for killing off his classmates (or whatever), gets send to prison and has to survive by completing challenges, fighting and whatnot and everyone has special powers.

Well, yeah, I got the basics, what I don't get is all the references to a "Red Quake" and crystals, and tv ratings and all that guff. Is it just a case of me being too old and too out of touch for this stuff?

Without touching the manga, AFAICT there was something that happened called the "Red Quake" that destroyed Tokyo, which Deadman Wonderland was built on top of the ruins of. There was an outright mention of "crystals" being found at the site of the quake that contained the virus that gives the deadmen their powers, but that the crystals found were inactive (presumably this means that the virus was dead). As opposed to the one the Red Man (Shiro/Wretched Egg) put inside Ganta which contains live virus and is why he gained his powers then rather than from the quake like other deadmen. Shiro is patient zero (Wretched Egg/Red Man likely being a dissociative personality [based on Ace Man] created to manage being a guinea pig), and I'd suspect was responsible for the Red Quake (rather than a product of it, since she clearly has the power to infect others) though there's nothing to prove it in the anime.