There are some Spoilers in this Review. About 4 volumes or so.
Hey Hey People, Shell Here.
Deadman Wonderland starts with a massacre of our Protagonist's class and with him being the main culprit's and Japan's incredibly questionable police force he gets the death Penalty. However in 2013 there was a big earthquake which caused 70% of Tokyo to be submerged in Water. Now to restore Japan's to its former Glory a Prison Named Deadman Wonderland which is a for profit prison. And now 10 years since the earth quake, Ganta (MC) is sent here to suffer the wrath of his consequences. He soon realizes that this prison is more than what it seems and Just how much of a circus a for Profit Prison can be.
Deadman Wonderland is pretty by the book series. MC is a nice guy. Follows girls around/vice versa. Realizes what he knows wasn't the truth. Deals with the situation where everyone wins. Rinse and repeat for some subplots and bam you got a 13 volumes series. Now don't get me wrong, Despite me stating this I didn't actually think the series was repeating itself. It always felt like the story was moving forward. Stopping to give proper breathing room. The problem are a few things but First I'd like to talk about what I liked the series.
The Art and setting of this series is fantastic. It felt like I was being sucked in another world. A lot of this can be attested to the fantastic art the series has. It really does a fantastic job. I honestly have nothing but praise for the art. Never did it feel like the author was cutting corners.
This is also one of the battle shounen series where the ecchi actually is separate from the action and the author isn't trying to shove panties and breasts into my face every 5 seconds. Characters do get occasionally sexual but more during exposition to keep me interested. And you know what? It works because I'm a red hot blooded male damn it!
The main issue I have with this series basically boils to character Depth or more importantly, the lack of it. Sure the action and art is great to look at but after a while what's the point of If I don't care about the characters. That is the main problem with Deadman wonderland. Both Shiro (FMC) and Ganta were fine as the main characters but neither of them can really carry the series. Them together was basically made in interesting enough since you partially knew where the story was going. Them alone... It just doesn't work.
This becomes a much bigger problem when you get into the last arc where the last fight is meant to be emotional rather than something bloody, violent or action heavy. Honestly the final fight scene was probably the more boring fight scene in the entire series.
Should You read this manga? Well depends. The side characters, action and story is interesting enough. But at the same time its predictable and lacks the character depth a series like Kingdom or One piece would produce.
Overall the series is enjoyable enough. I don't really have anything super bad to say about this series. But if you skip it you aren't missing much either. It just basically falls into enjoyable but forgettable zone of entertainment. 6/10.