THAT anime blog made a post of this series, so I couldn’t help but like the artwork it offered. I will start watching Eureka 7, since I’m new with it and I can’t believe I never appreciate the original artwork.

The plot revolves around Ganta, whose classmates get killed by a mysterious man in red, “Red Man”, who uses strange powers. Everything would have been an unfortunate tragedy, a crazy murder, but it turned out to be more. Ganta is actually accused of the killings, and is sent to “Deadman Wonderland”, “Japan’s only publically operated prison, build after the earthquake as a tourist attraction to help revive Tokyo. The prisoners serve as staff and ‘entertainment’ for visitors” (wiki).

WARNING. Spoilers ahead.
Plot twists. This manga has them, and I like them. Along the characters Ganta meets, the most important of them is Shiro, a girl with an incredible physical power, which talks in a childish manner and helps Ganta when she can. The biggest revelation is that the red man…is actually her. Whoa, that was not expected. I am stupid though, I never paid attention to the start of the manga, except for the woman playing the piano and crying, I even forgot the word “Woodpecker”. Questions to be answer, a lot of them. Does Shiro have a double personality, or just hides her true self, being a plain maniac? What is the “Branch of Sin”, and how is the Great Earthquake related? I didn’t understand, or failed to notice, how the melody that refrain Shiro to returning or becoming “Red Man” got to her ears…and, if Red Man is her real personality, what are her motives? I guess slaughtering Ganta’s classmates was both to become her only friend and obviously, to meet him again…make him a “Deadmen”. Yet, why? Shiro has suffered a lot of experiments as a child, since she is The Wretched Egg, so maybe, as a common plot device, that suffering would have make her develop a strong, wretched personality…

Someone mentioned the use of children fairytale words, which I can’t remember at the moment, but this manga has elements I remember from Mirai Nikki and Rule of Rose (PS2). The use of child-like actions or words + twisted characters + blood and gore + psychological empathy has always made a good combination. Dark series indeed.