Deadman Wonderland - Episode 3

Given the brutal lengths taken to turn the so-called "Dog Race" in Deadman Wonderland's last episode up to eleven, it probably goes without saying that plenty of people are asking questions of the prison's promoter in light of all the deaths it caused, be that the inmates or said promoter's superiors.

Regardless of the chaos that made up said event, there are bigger issues at foot in episode three, namely the escape of the "Wretched Egg" from his confinement hidden away in the bowels of Deadman Wonderland... and individual better known to Ganta as the "Red Man" which killed all of his classmates.  The Wretched Egg's escape leads to a brief face-off between Ganta and his nemesis which sees both parties making use of their decidedly strange powers in what the authorities label a terrorist attack to cover up the truth of events.

Of course, making Ganta forget his experience is another matter, and he takes things into his own hands in his search for the Red Man and his unmarked "home" within G-block - a mission he embarks upon with the largely unwilling assistance of Shiro and Yoh, ignoring the fact that the entire facility has just gone into lock-down in the name of stopping Ganta in his tracks.  Cue a decidedly dangerous killer robot to put paid to Ganta's efforts, even if said robot can do nothing in the face of the powers it invariably comes up against...

Much like its opening episode, I get the feeling that this instalment of Deadman Wonderland absolutely ripped through its source material as quickly as possible - little to no time was spent upon introducing the Wretched Egg's involvement with the facility, while the ensuing conflict between Ganta, Shiro and Yoh and that deadly machine weren't given all that much screen time either.  Unfortunately, I get the feeling that things are moving too fast to really spent any time focusing on the characters or their situation, which instead leaves us concentrating on the action set pieces and use of (censored) swearing and violence to get its story across.  This isn't entirely a bad thing in itself, but it does relegate the series to cheap entertainment over anything more cerebral or deep.  Perhaps that's the whole point, but at the moment Deadman Wonderland is setting itself out as an entertaining enough series that is going to prove anything but memorable in the long run - not quite what I was expecting given all the gushing praise I've heard for the manga it's based upon in recent times.