So which anime is better Elfen Lied or Deadman Wonderland?

I've only seen one episode of Deadman Wonderland, so... too early to tell.

ooh you must have seen english dubed on toonami.

Well I am more of a fan of romance and well Elfen Lied has more of a love intreast as to Deadman Wonderland if you want two lovers cought up in fate your best choice is Elfen Lied it gets ★★★★★

I haven't seen much of DW, but I don't see these two having enough in common to be compared like this. As Slow says, it's too early for most of us to decide anyway.

I guess it depends cause some sites showed all the sub of DW and well there are some genre similarities such as in case of Drama, Horror, Psychological & Tragedy. so compairing the two are not so far off.(SpoilerAlert) I will end that right here due to the fact I may give away the ending.
but my vote is for Elfen Lied.

I'd say they're about equal because both of them are

I really don't see how the 2 are similar enough for this. Besides copious amounts of blood there isn't anything similar. imo Speed Grapher might be a closer comparison, due to its societal statements and superpowers, but speed Grapher was a much more serious show. Deadman Wonderland is ridiculous and comically bloody without a "greater purpose" while Elfen Lied is a more legitimately dark show that tries to have a "greater purpose", though it also has some really shameful and gross (IMO) fanservice. It's serious some of the time, when the main female character is in her murderous personality instead of her fanboy pandering personality, while Deadman wonderland is serious none of the time.

I also don't remember Elfen Lied regularly reducing its action scenes to a few panned and zoomed still shots, as Deadman does, but its been a long time since I've seen it.

The dubbed versions definitely can't be compared as Funimation < Sentai/adv, forever and always. Thankfully they got Greg Ayres in this, he's been holding down quite a few funi dubs. Like explosion sauce, he's good on his own.

Can I say no to either. I'm sure a lot of people like these shoes, but I wasn't a fan of Deadman Wonderland when it came on TV. My thoughts were "Why the hell did Funimation pick this title up?"

Vata_Raven wrote:


Well you weren't the only one to think that.

celestial_being wrote:

I just pretty much heard it's a c-list anime that Funi most likely got for cheap. I sort of wish DGM was putting on TV...it needs finished.

Vata_Raven wrote:


Now I have the Todd Haberkorn Action Figure "commercial" stuck in my head. Thx

Nothing like giving "Toonami" a new c-list show to start it out...

I wanted Deadman Wonderland to be good. I am liking the dub more than the sub, MUCH more. Monica Rial and Greg Ayres are great on their own, and Monica Rial's character sounds slightly less brain-damaged in the dub. Her voice doesn't make me rage at my tv as it did in the sub. Anger issues? Maybe lol. I liked Prison Break (when they were actually in prison) and I liked Death Race 2000, but this show fell short of even the weak 2008 Death Race remake imo. Where's my gritty scifi gorefest that is awesome? Future Diary was weak as well (and also a comedy). Towanoquon might be good, I'm still waiting for it, but the only confirmed gritty scifi gorefest show for the year, as far as I know, is Funimation's re-release of Texhnlolyze

celestial_being wrote:

Yeah, Tex is going into Funi's classic line. I wasn't too much of a fan of that, I couldn't really watch episode 1...maybe I should rent it again. <.<...I didn't like how there was hardly any talking.

I had the same problem with ep 1. I tried watching it originally, in Japanese, and didn't care for it. The first ep has practically no dialogue and didn't suck me into the story. Literally years later I went back and watched the dub, starting at ep 2, and enjoyed it. I really don't know what the director was thinking with that first ep. I had the same issue with gungrave. The main character is definitely a man of few words throughout the show, but there are many other more talkative characters. Patrick Seitz pretty much plays the same role he did in ergo proxy, if you're familiar with that. The ending is rather unique, but that might not be a good thing. Definitely not a show for everyone. The depiction of amputation early on is pretty graphic and much more mature than that of FMA, which surprised me.

Texhnolyze would be a closer comparison to Lied, IMO, than would Deadman, a show which seems better compared to future diary. Maybe it was just me, but in Deadman and future diary the scores of brutal and graphic deaths felt comedic and lacked impact, whereas in the other 2 they felt "serious". Deadman has gore and violence, but I just can't call it a dark show, and I frustratingly can't quote come up with why.

celestial_being wrote:

I love Gungrave. The character backgrounds and the whole story is just amazing. And the blu-ray is nice buy. I like Bradan Heat, he might've not talked a lot, but he's a cool guy...and as a female viewer, he's very nice to look at, it was a plus for me.

I think my taste bounces around. I'll tell people that I don't like mecha, but I like a few Gundam titles and Code Geese. I don't like horror, but I love D.Gray-man...which is a horror anime in a way. I hate Clamp's work both manga and anime, but I enjoy Holic and two of their shonen-ai titles.

I meant that the first ep of gungrave kept me from watching the series for a long time, like with texhnolyze. I did finally see most of it and it was alright IMO. Very, very, very bromantic, and Tony Oliver dropped the ball on the dub IMO, but alright. Japanese Hamlet.

I don't think there's a clamp title that I like, I thought there was but I'm drawing a blank as to what it could be. I tried xxxholic right after mushishi which was a mistake, but it probably didn't matter as the character proportions were too weird for me.

To be slightly on topic, if I absolutely had to pick one of the 2 shows as being better than the other, I'd say that Elfen Lied is the better of the 2, going by the Japanese audio.

celestial_being wrote:

The proportions...it's because of the manga. They draw like that now because it only takes 1 day for them to put out a chapter. if you watch it again, it won't bother you. Besides, I personally enjoy the characters, they're just a fun set.

I agree with the Speed Grapher comparison. I picked it up a while ago as a blind buy and wasn't expecting anything exceptionnal but boy was I wrong. Although it's not as memorable as Elfen Lied was, it had many similar themes : excessive violence, freaks of nature, characters with tragic backgrounds doomed to tragic lives, characters with no morals whatsoever and sad music box jingles.

Elfen Lied ransk at # 2 on my all-time list and, so far, Speed Grapher is the closest series I can compare with. I love anime with drama / dark elements such as these. Gungrave is the next series to play from my DVD backlog, anymore suggestions for similar series?

Sensei Terry Silver wrote:

Evangelion??? I mean, it's not 17+ mature like the other ones, but it's dark themed that about the end of the world.