Ganta’s put into a crazy choice of a position once again where he may have to kill something he actually likes.
What They Say:
“This place is demented.” Though Ganta is left hopeless and dejected after his first Carnival of Corpses, things change when he meets a sweet young girl named Minatsuki. Ganta quickly finds himself moved by the tearful descriptions of her tragic past. Elsewhere, Yoh turns his back to the brutal scene before him and starts moving once again… moving to accomplish his own goals!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Deadman Wonderland shifts to a bit of a quieter episode this time around to start, but it keeps plenty of the brutality to it. With the fallout from the Carnival of Corpses to deal with, Ganta is getting a bit of quiet time at the moment and ends up meeting a young girl named Miatsuki. Mina’s the typical very sweet, lightly spoken cute girl who you can easily feel protective of and even more so in a place like this. When the two spend some time talking together, she unloads on him easily with her life’s story and it’s pretty brutal with what her father did to her and how she landed in the Wonderland. With her being the same as him with the Branches of Sin power, there’s a connection that he feels to her, but there’s also the smutty side to it as well when she ends up half naked in front of him by accident and he certainly gets red about it.
Considering how their relationship starts at first, it’s no surprise that they end up being thrown into a Carnival of Corpses match against each other with her taking on the name of Hummingbird. Ganta’s totally freaking out about it and unsure of what he can actually do since he doesn’t want to hurt her, and she’s obviously feeling the same way. Or at least, that’s what Ganta figures would happen, but she instead goes off the rails with her deception and is ready to take him on completely and brutally. But to make matters even worse, it turns out that Mina is actually Yoh’s sister, which pushes his despair to even greater levels. It’s a fun moment as Yoh ends up in the ring with the two of them and it’s filled with emotions that are all over the map.
What’s especially nice is that we get to see that Ganta will at least intend to go the distance since he knows that Mina’s pretty much crazy at this point and she’ll kill him if he doesn’t stop her first. While it’s no surprise to see Yoh get in the middle, I definitely like this approach by Ganta instead of having him get all emotional and stressed in his head about what to do. Considering what he’s seen so far in Wonderland, having him being proactive when he understands the stakes like he does after Mina reveals herself shows some growth for him and definitely a different approach than most male characters would have at this point.
In Summary:
Mina’s a fun little addition to the show as she brings in some sweet moments with her past, some cute moments with her in the present and some sexual bits as well. She also brings in a big dose of the freaking crazy as she’s had some things in her past that have left her cracked in the head and even Yoh is now just learning the depths of her deception. Though the battle is weak here, minimal overall to the length of the episode as a whole, it has a certain kind of brutality and craziness to it that just works very well. Ganta continues to come across as an interesting character now that he’s being proactive with things, both in action and in voice, but he still has his moments where he can be swayed by a young woman’s boobies. Deadman Wonderland continues to play things in a rough and brutal way that lets it stand out from the sea of other shows. While it may not always work well, it does work overall and leaves you curious as to what nutty thing it will do next and just how sprawling the back story to all of this can be.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
