Deadman Wonderland - Episode 12 (Completed)

Just when things couldn't get any worse for Ganta and company, up pops a new, "improved" Nagi, now with "kill everything in sight" action.  With his exploding blood Branches of Sin (no, I don't know how that works either), he certainly makes a mess of the place, with Shiro the next in his line of violent and destructive fire.

Cue Ganta at this point to make one of those rare shows of bravery of his, putting himself between Nagi and Shiro and allowing the former to beat seven bells out of him for a while until (speaking of bells) the jangling of the bell around Karako's neck wakes him up from his depressive rage, snapping him out of his madness.... just in time to see Karako stabbed, before Nagi himself has most of his internal organs blown out by a shot from Genkaku (not that this stops him surviving for most of the remainder of the episode mind you).

This horror is followed by yet another display of destruction, as it's Genkaku's turn to shoot up everything in sight - an event which in turn sends Ganta into a rage, despite the fact that his recent lack of candy is now catching up with him rapidly with potentially fatal consequences.  This brings us to a rather pointless little flashback into Genkaku's past in an attempt to explain the roots of his madness and his decidedly "unique" take on the world, before returning us to a moment of obvious importance as the crystal in Ganta's chest activates to give him an excessive amount of power at the same point as Shiro has a "funny turn" of their own.  This wins the day from any immediate threat, and come the end of the episode the inspection of Deadman Wonderland is over while Ganta remains incarcerated, unlike some of his Scar Chain friends who are now happily sailing away into the sunset as things look likely to become even more vicious in the world's craziest prison.

So, it's all over, and with a pretty hefty assumption that it'll be getting a second series - but what can I say about Deadman Wonderland?  It's debased, gratuitous, bombastic, crass and pushes the limits of decency... but that's entirely the point.  Sure, it's plot has more ridiculous and unintentionally funny elements than was previously thought humanly possible, and its opportunity to do a little thoughtful analysis of the world introduced by the series (private prison and all) is thrown to the wolves in deference for more death, violence and an unholy amount of whining from Ganta, but somehow I can't really fault it for that as it became increasingly clear that this was its goal from the outset.  This gave Deadman Wonderland rather an old-school feeling in a sense, reminiscent of some of the decadent "video nasty" anime that made it to the west in the 1980s at the start of anime's growing interest outside of Japan - that doesn't make it particularly good, or particularly my cup of tea (I can stomach pretty much everything, but that eye being gouged out was the first time I've ever been grateful of censorship in an anime...), but somehow it makes me just a little bit forgiving of this ultimately silly series that seems geared towards the strange predilections of the rebellious teenage male.