Well, this episode did stretch the suspense of disbelief again, but I liked it. There is of course a problem with Owl mowing down a small army in an instant, only to take a minute to punch Ganta, but heck: if it’s established that the Deadmen have superhuman healing powers… I guess it could have been worse. It’s a cheesy episode in any case with this episode relying a lot on the vaguely defined rules of insanity, but in the end the characters were good enough to make up for it. As a final episode though, this one left a lot to be desired.
To the people who are hoping for a second season, just based on that final scene: I’d like to introduce you Yumekiu Merry, Kuragehime, High School of the Dead, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu, Sekirei Pure Engagement, Uragiri, Durarara, Darker than Black, Aoi Hana, Umineko, 07-Ghost, Guin Saga, Pandora Hearts, Tytania, Skip Beat, Blade of the Immortal, Amatsuki, Shigurui, Mushiuta and Zombie Loan: all ended with a huge cliff-hanger, all ended with the promise of another season, and all of them didn’t deliver. It’s probably all going to depend on the DVD-sales, but I’ve yet to find any data on that. Will the sponsors be able to give enough money for the sequel to actually be animated? Those are going to be important questions.
In any case, when a second season DOES come out, I’ll definitely blog it because I enjoyed this first season a lot.
Rating: * (Good)
You can add Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt to that list. That probably has the worst setup for a new season that has yet to appear.
It would be a pity to end it like this as the manga story becomes even better from now on, but like you said, it all depends now on the DVD/Blu-ray sales. After checking the Japanese Amazon page I saw that the Deadman Wonderland vol 1 DVD had very low sales, ranking #528 in the Anime DVD category, while the Blu-ray ranked #323 in the Anime Blu-ray category. I should also add that the first volumes of other series that aired this season like Ano Hana, Steins Gate and Tiger & Bunny ranked in the top 10, and they were realesed about the same time as Deadman Wonderland. I hope this doesn’t keep up with the next volumes, or else we won’t see a second season.
@Hyper
Yeah, I saw some people discussing on a forum that Deadman Wonderland didn’t even sell 1000 copies with both formats (DVD+Blu-ray)combined, altough I’ve yet to confirm this information. Anyway, we’ll probably see the sale rankings next week, but if it really did that bad, then a second season won’t happen, which is sad.
This is probably split 2-cour. I doubt sales matter at this point. We won’t see a third season though.
I though Darker than Black did? The second season with Suou and then the OVAs?
Nyitora: it indeed did, but it still ends with one heck of a cliff-hanger that screams for a third season.
I just noticed you put DtB2 with all those failures. DtB2 had excellent sales, Bones just hasn’t gotten around to making a third season.
Guin Saga shouldn’t even be on the list. There is 130 volumes worth of novel and something like 1,000+ main characters and 20,000+ secondary characters. You simply are NEVER going to see all of that animated in your lifetime no matter how good sales are and how long they keep making it. It’s just not feasible.
As mentioned Darker than Black got good sales and will probably get a third season. Studio Bones is just busy with other stuff at the moment. Maybe they just don’t like doing the same thing over and over, they want variety in their workplace.
Of course there is a lot of stuff in your list both good and bad (opinions) that might be deserving of more and will never get more simply because Japan has bad taste. A global market would certainly help reinvigorate the industry and if video game sales are any indication even “too japanese” stuff can sell better worldwide than in it’s home country.
Man Deadman was pretty good, but it also shows that anime is dying… when one piece, Naruto and bleach are the only one still kicking after all this time, it shows that no mater how good a anime you are, if you didn’t show up on American TV your time is limited
If you don’t show up on American TV? Are you for real? Naruto already had 100+ episode by the time America licensed it, and it was doing just fine. One Piece had even more episodes, and how do you explain Detective Conan’s 500+ episodes?
R1 is meaningless in the big picture.
Some of those shows like highschool of the dead have good reasons for there not being a second season though. Also look at Kaiji and FMA brotherhood, both of them took years to come out (5 year wait for kaiji’s second season)
Umineko lost the plot from the game and there was no salvaging that trainwreck, should have just gone with the original format and enhanced character designs (like how higurashi was approached)
I agree with the commenter above me though, not showing on american tv doesn’t mean anime is dying at all… You want to look at long running series? Gintama is on it’s second season in japan now and (220 something atm) not every series is made to go on for as long as naruto or onepiece you know… This said some of these series could do with ending -looking squarely at naruto-
Anime is far from dead or even dying.