Deadman Wonderland: Volume 9 review

Manga
Deadman Wonderland: Volume 9 review
By Leroy Douresseaux
June 8, 2015 - 20:32

Viz Media
Writer(s): Jinsei Kataoka, Joe Yamazaki, Stan!
Penciller(s): Kazuma Kondou
Letterer(s): James Gaubatz
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6417-3
$9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK, 180pp, B&W, paperback
Rating: T+ (Teen Plus)

Deadman Wonderland Volume 9 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Fourteen-year-old Ganta Igarashi was framed for the brutal murders of his classmates. He was sentenced to death and imprisoned in Deadman Wonderland (DW), 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. 9 (Chapters 37 to 40) opens, Chief Makina (chief warden of the prison) launches an attack on “G Ward” against Tsunenaga Tamaki, director of Deadman Wonderland. Tamaki tells Makina his secrets, involving the earthquake and DW, but there are crashers determined to break up Makina and Tamaki's “party.”

Toto Sakigama, the previous winner of the “Carnival Corpse,” and the Red Man a.k.a Wretched Egg also return. Igarashi takes on Red Man, and the government makes a bold move.

THE LOWDOWN: Because the Deadman Wonderland manga is published on a bimonthly basis, the story moves fast. Each graphic novel is a package of reveals and surprises.

This is especially true of Deadman Wonderland Volume 9, although it is not quite the three-quarter-point of this 13-volume series. Vol. 9 is one of the better volumes in a quality science fiction manga. Without spoiling it, I will say that regular readers must have Vol. 9. It is a payoff for DW fans, but it really teases the unexpected to come in the series final four volumes.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Readers looking for shonen science fiction action will want to spend some time in Deadman Wonderland.