Deadman Wonderland - Episode 8

Last weeks instalment of Deadman Wonderland was a pretty busy one between introducing us to the "anti-Deadmen" in the form of so-called priest Genkaku, while also allowing Ganta to meet the resistance movement known as Scar Chain, which was pretty much exactly the kind of thing he was looking for to help along his escape.

With Genkaku about to do some serious damage to Ganta and company, it's up to Shiro to save the day with a random appearance as per usual, affording Ganta the chance for a proper introduction to Scar Chain as well as their immediate plan - to make use of an imminent inspection of the Deadman Wonderland facility to organise a break-out, complete with the data required to discredit the prison and the way in which is operates.

While this plan seems sound enough, there's more than a little distrust between Ganta and Scar Chain on both sides of the equation early on the episode - some of it entirely justified, as it turns out.  Who is friend and who is foe will doubtless play a big part in next week's episode, while it seems that Makina is also planning some tricks of her own to pull during this all-important inspection.

After some of its dafter moments in recent weeks its hard to take Deadman Wonderland too seriously, but this was a pretty well-delivered episode that seemed to race through its source material once again to decent effect, making the most of its good bits (and yes, that does include someone being melted to bits by acid and then run over by a robot, because I'm mean like that) without dwelling too much on the less interest stuff (which includes the flashback to the death of Nagi's wife, again because I'm mean like that).  The only real problem with the series as shown in this episode is that it's too easy to read - the supposed plot twist of the "double agent" within Scar Chain was no utterly non-shocking that it was laughable, and Shiro's interruptions whenever Ganta gets into a tight spot are tiresomely regular, which takes the sheen off things somewhat.  Still, I suppose that's what Deadman Wonderland is all about - it can be stupid and head-shakingly dumb quite a lot of the time, but as long as it manages to cover it up with enough blood and guts it somehow gets away with it.