Thursday, July 7, 2011

[End] Deadman Wonderland: Fizzled


The first half of the series were somewhat interesting mostly because we were still trying to figure out what's going on. But once they revealed the big secret, it had just went downhill from there and never looked back. At the midway point, I was so fond of its concept that I gave it a unusually high second look score. But then, for the next 6 episodes, it just completely fell apart.

The first half of the story is just clue gathering so there isn't much of a coherency to speak about. But when they did reveal the big secret, the story still hops all over the place without care for some continuity. And there is a lack of coherency in terms of what's been happening and what has caused it to happen. Characters were acting surprised when anybody has the ability to assess the situation with common sense wouldn't have been. And fights that supposed to be exciting just aren't, largely due to the main character being a crybaby and giving everybody a stunningly surprised face every five seconds. That kind of reminds me of the first half of Tales of the Abyss and how annoying it was. The difference between this and Tales of the Abyss is that Luke eventually grew out of it and Ganta never did.

I haven't really read the manga yet, so I don't know whether these incoherent nonsense came from manga or the anime itself. Even if the root of the problem did lie in the story, the directing of the second half is still just out right terrible. It reminded me all about Shyamalan's The Last Air Bender and how much I hate bad directing.

From the ending, you can tell clearly, they're planning to get a next season. But leaving a bigger mess than the series started is not the ideal way to end any series.

Final scoreboard:


Drama: 78 (Maybe, but badly directed)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 75 (Aren't very exciting)
Art/Animation: 80 (Acceptable)
Sound/Music: 70 (The main dude cries too much)
Character: 75 (Annoying)
Plot: 70 (Incoherent)
Ending: 70 (WTF was that?!)

Re-watch value: 10 (No)

Overall: 73 - Could have used a better director

Recommendation:
Maybe if their second season could redeem themselves for this mess they made. But for time being, don't waste your time on it.

8 comments:

yoekix said...

I agree, after the show got into it second part it went way downhill. I was kinda disappointed by that.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I really agree with your opinion with the show. The "end" is definitely just a huge cliff hanger for another season, but I found what they had presented to be very entertaining. I also disagree with the comparison of Ganta and Luke. Luke never got any better, and worst of all with him was that he never really owned up to his faults. I consider Luke to be more like Kouichi from Kurogane no Linebarrels.Ganta acknowledges his faults, and shows noticeable dissatisfaction when he fails or hurts others.

For someone sent to a prison like that for a crime he did not commit after what he went through before getting there, it's easy to give him some room to show a more "child like" side to him where he cries from failure. He's at least trying to do the "right" thing in an environment he understands nothing of.

The show was a fun ride for me with quirks here and there (mostly the other Deadman using conventional weapons), and I would honestly recommend it to friends (which I have).

The Evil Cat said...

The part between Ganta and Luke, I firmly stand my ground. Ganta never grew out of it, and the final big he was able to produce was largely due to what Shiro did. Luke on the other hand, managed to face the challenge himself without borrowing other's power.

As for Ganta acting like crybaby, well, true it's understandable, but the director could have done something to make it get the point across yet not extremely annoying at the same time. That's why I was extremely critical about the directing.

This could have been fun, if it wasn't ruined by bad directing. I know people that thought The Last Air Bender was fun, if you think the same way, well, then there is no convincing you. We just don't have the same thought process.

Anonymous said...

Shinji much?

Anonymous said...

It is true that the main character was annoying with all the crying but you have to give him a break.I mean he was only in middle school when all this horrible unimaginable things happened to him.By the way I didn't see what was so wrong with the avatar ending.

The Evil Cat said...

When I mentioned The Last Air Bender, I didn't mean to say there's something wrong with its ending, rather the ENTIRE movie. The directing job is just terrible. And you also seem to be missing the point I'm getting at there: Yes, I understand why Ganta is a cry baby, but good directing could get the point across without being completely annoying every step along the way. Like I said in the post, I'm not sure where it comes from, but if the director did a better job, he could have completely eliminated that.

Anonymous said...

I guess there were some scenes where the main character was to emotional. By the way I thought you were talking about the show not the movie.

The Evil Cat said...

No, The Avator animation is totally cool, it's the movie and Shyamalan's directing job I was hating about The Last Air Bender