Deadman Wonderland: Volume 7 review

Manga
Deadman Wonderland: Volume 7 review
By Leroy Douresseaux
February 8, 2015 - 21:24

Viz Media
Writer(s): Jinsei Kataoka, Joe Yamazaki, Stan!
Penciller(s): Kazuma Kondou
Letterer(s): James Gaubatz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6415-9
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK, 212pp, B&W, paperback

Deadman Wonderland Volume 7 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

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Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

After 14-year-old Ganta Igarashi was framed for the brutal murders of his classmates, he was sentenced to death and imprisoned in Deadman Wonderland. This is a privately run, carnival-like penitentiary built on the ruins of Tokyo. This bizarre and fatal theme park is a place where the prison bosses force the inmates to perform in notorious gladiatorial fights to the death. This is the near-future, ten years after the Great Tokyo Earthquake put 70% of Japan underwater.

As Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 7 (Chapters 27 to 31) opens, Ganta looks for his friend, Azami Mido. She was turned into one of the Ninben during a publicly viewed “Carnival Corpse” show and lost her mind. The Ninben are man-made Deadmen, created by Warden Tsunenaga Tamaki, through horrific human experimentation.

Meanwhile, the residents of “G Ward” band together to confront Tamaki's Ninben. Chief Warden Makina hatches a plan to stop Tamaki. She calls its “Ende Faust,” and it involves the creation of the Deadman Wonderland's “Special Jäger Squad.” Ganta will go all out to save Azami from a Ninben fate, but will he suffer the same fate?

THE LOWDOWN: I like that the Deadman Wonderland manga is published on a bimonthly basis. Every time I read one volume, I cannot wait for the following volume. So we come to Deadman Wonderland Volume 7; it is the half-way point in VIZ Media's plan to publish this series in 13 volumes.

As open rebellion dawns in the prison called Deadman Wonderland, I wonder where this series is headed. How close are we to the end of the prison (assuming that it will be destroyed)? Will the story become a series of pitched battles, stretched over the remaining volumes? I hope not. Deadman Wonderland's setting speaks to the oligarchies and dictators that seem to be gaining more ground and more control in our real world. I want some smarts with my violent fighting. Anyway, like other volumes, Vol. 7 ends with a cliffhanger that demands that I plan on a return to this prison.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Readers looking for shonen science fiction action will want a sentence in Deadman Wonderland.

Rating: A-/10