Ganta Igarashi

Ganta Igarashi (五十嵐 丸太) a.k.a Woodpecker, is the main protagonist of the series. Because of his Deadman powers, he was sent to Deadman Wonderland. He is the son of Sorae Igarashi and the childhood friend of Shiro.

He is currently on a mission to stop Hagire Rinichirō and to kill the Wretched Egg.

Appearance
Ganta has black, messy hair, from which one lock of hair is always standing upwards. He has gray colored eyes. While still in school, he wore the school's uniform. In DW, he wears the standard prison khaki green overall, along with his neck collar. After a few days, he began wearing only the bottom part of his overall, tying the sleeves across his middle. Instead, he wore a black t-shirt.

Personality
In the beginning of the series, Ganta is a harmless and ordinary school boy. Once in DW, he is initially confused and frightened by the brutality of the prison. During his time in prison, he learns to live with the insanity, but is still determined to stop Tamaki's tyranny. He is also quite vengeful, seeking retribution for the death of his classmates at the hands of the Red Man for most of the series.

Ganta cares a great deal for his friends and allies. It is later revealed that he actually has strong feelings of love towards Shiro and that the feelings are mutual. This causes great confusion with Ganta when he is confronted with the absolute need of killing Shiro.

History
When he was little, Ganta lived with his mother at the research institute where Shiro was being studied. He met the girl and told her he liked her hair became her fast friend and playmate.

However, he did not know the torture his mother and Hagire put her through so he did not understand when she lashed out at him in pain and broke his aceman doll, causing him to reject her. However, she saved him from a rabid dog and their friendship became stronger.

Another time, Shiro accidentally hurt him with her strength when they were playing, but he impressed her when he stood back up.

Prison arc
Ganta is first seen sitting in class while looking at an ad for Deadman Wonderland on his cellphone. Mimi walks towards him and asks what he is doing. He replies that he's been thinking about the class trip, that he thinks it's kinda lame to go to a prison. Mimi says that he's from Tokyo and that it might even be nostalgic. Ganta says that he doesn't remember anything from that time. Yamakatsu joins the conversation and they make small talk. Mimi returns to the subject of the class trip and says that it doesn't matter where they're going. She says that wherever they go, it's all about having fun. The bell rings and they get to their seats. It's at that time that Ganta began hearing the lullaby. He looks out the window and sees the Red Man floating outside. Ganta is shocked and the Red Man attacks with her Branch of Sin. Ganta faints afterward.



When Ganta awakens, he sees Mimi. He asks if she's alright, but he realizes that he's only seeing Mimi's head, severed from her body. He looks further and sees the Red Man grabbing Mimi's head by her hair. He looks around and sees his entire class murdered. Ganta is shocked and crawls away from the Red Man, who is standing before him. The Red Man approaches him and Ganta panics, thinking that he is going to die. The Red Man summons a Red Diamond and shoots it into Ganta's chest. Again, Ganta falls unconscious.

He wakes up in a hospital-bed, with policemen entering the room. They tell him that they will arrest him as the primary suspect for the murders. Tamaki moves forward and gives Ganta his card, telling him he's a lawyer. The police officers take him out of the room, but Ganta resists. He tells them he didn't do it and remembers the Red Diamond. He unbuttons his shirt, trying to show his wound, but his chest is untouched. He later meets with Tamaki, talking about his defense.

The next we see of Ganta, he is in the courtroom, facing trial. The court sentences Ganta to death. Ganta is then seen sitting in the bus, going to prison.

In the anime, this was slightly altered. Rokuro created a short movie as ordered from Tamaki, supposedly shot from a hidden camera in his office. This shows how Tamaki talked to Ganta and Ganta confessing to all his crimes. The court acknowledged this as evidence and sentenced Ganta to death at DW. Also, what didn't happen in the manga, is that Mimi's father burst out in rage and attacked Ganta. He blamed him for his daughter's death and punched him in the ground. The guards removed him and Ganta was left alone, in despair.

He arrives in DW, lines up with the other prisoners, who notice him and recognize him as the mass murderer. Makina introduces herself and explains Deadman Wonderland. When Makina ends her speech, Ganta looks inside his bag with the primary necessities in it. Then, Yō bumps into him with a cart. Yō apologizes and rushes to Ganta. Makina intervenes and tells Yō to return what he just stole (a Candy from Ganta's bag). Yō pretends he doesn't know about anything and Makina slashes him across the chest. Ganta shouts that this is wrong, that he didn't do anything, that her actions were twisted. Makina replies that reality is made to be unfair and unjust.

Ganta first meetsand befriends Shiro when he was agitated by the fact that he was sentenced on death row, saying that he wanted to die (which he denies after Shiro comforted him). After picking a fight with other prisoners, leaving Shiro unconscious, the ball statue on top of a building begins to fall on top of them. To his fury of will to live, Ganta encounters his Deadman powers and destroys the boulder, saving them both.

The next day, he meets Azami Midō, she tells Ganta about Cast Points. Knowing that he'll die the next day, Ganta decides that he can only survive if he won the Dog race and receive 100,000 cast points to buy a candy. During the Dog Race, Ganta was constantly "disturbed" by Shiro and therefore lagging behind. But soon after, he finds out that Shiro had been protecting him all along. Ganta then shows mercy and saves Shiro, but since the Dog Race can have only one winner, this means there is no winner.

Deadman arc
As a Deadman, Ganta is forced to fight and survive in the Carnival Corpse under the moniker Woodpecker while trying to locate the Red Man, who apparently is held captive in Deadman Wonderland. Ganta's power, dubbed the Ganta Gun by Senji, allows Ganta to gather variable quantities of blood in the palm of his hand and then shoot them at high speed, as if they were bullets. While advantageous as a long-range attack, due to Ganta's small stature, this also puts him at risk of experiencing symptoms of excessive blood loss, however he was able to endure Senji's attacks and hit him with a point blank Ganta Gun, winning his first Carnival Corpse.

Scar Chain arc
Ganta participated in Scar Chain's attempt to escape from DW, and helped several members escape along with video and audio evidence of the atrocities being committed below the prison. Ganta, however, chose to remain behind to continue his search for the Red Man. Shortly after these events, Ganta's power began to change, evident by a strange tattoo-like mark radiating out from the crystal in his chest. His Ganta Gun now emits a much more powerful blast than before, though it is much less controllable and causes him physical pain.

Forgeries arc
After the events of Scar Chain rebellion, Ganta is placed in the solitary confinement for one week, because he refused to tell anything about the escapees. After Nagi's death, Ganta fell in depression not wanting to eat. Later, he runs in to Senji, who he admits he`s scared of living every day with nothing changing, where Senji tells him that that's how a brat thinks. When he gets back to his room Shiro tries to cheer him up with a home-cooked meal. After seeing Shiro's meal full of sweets and spices, he realizes that every day thing will change a little bit more.

The next day, the G Ward is opened and the Deadmen can freely exit, Ganta goes to see Azami. He complements Azami for her circus performance with Kincho, her pet armadillo. A group of prisoners appear and start to bully Kincho, where Ganta uses his Branch of Sin to stop them. Prisoners, seeing Ganta's power, run away in fear, calling Ganta a monster, where on the other hand Azami is impressed and thanks Ganta.

When Ganta and Senji start training, Tamaki shows a live feed of the battle between two Deadmen, with one masked and having strange powers of Branch of Sin, where he convinces people that the Deadmen are monsters who want to kill and that he was trying to protect other people from them by keeping them a secret, while Ganta notices the similarity between the masked Deadmen and Azami. After this, Ganta meets Toto Sakigami who explains that the Deadmen they saw on the broadcast were Forgeries created for "Humanity's sake". After this, while everyone else celebrates Toto's return, Ganta hopes he mistook the masked Forgeries for Azami. Toto appears, trying to tell Ganta  the "Red Man"'s identity, but before he can, he is interrupted by Shiro, who then leaves, while Ganta finds out hes having feelings for Shiro. Shiro asks Ganta if hes having fun and Ganta realizes that even though he lost his old friends, he gained some new friends.

The next day Ganta, along with Senji, Minatsuki, Chaplin, Idaki and the rest of G ward, found strange masks in their rooms. Inside, they were written with every persons trauma. They were sent by Tamaki to provoke them for tonight's Carnival Corpse. Ganta's stated "All of your friends, they pleased the red man so, thank you for all of their severed heads". Enraged, Ganta, as well as the other Deadmen, go to take on Tamaki, but are met with countless Forgeries that Tamaki placed for the Carnival Corpse. The Deadmen fight through the Forgeries when Ganta knocks one of the Forgeries mask, identifying Azami. Shocked, he lets down his guard and nearly getting killed, but is saved by Toto. When the rest of the Deadmen charge, he tries to stop them but accidentally fires Ganbare Gun, destroying the whole arena and injuring all of his comrades.

After 3 days of beeing unconscious, Ganta wakes up with Shiro who helps out Ganta. Learning what he did 3 days ago, he tries to apologize to his friends, but no one will accept his apology. After this, bunch of inmates start beating up Ganta because he is a Deadman, but Shiro stops them. Ganta notices that Shiro might be a Deadman too. Knowing that Shiro will go where ever Ganta goes, to keep her from danger, he says he hates her because she's a Deadman. While searching for Azami he gets caught in the girl's dormitory, where he is tricked by Makina to go after Azami. He encounters Azami who is controller by Tamaki's mask, but Ganta manages to free her from his control. When they try to go back, they were stopped by Rei and the forgeries. Ganta hid Azami and told Rei that he had killed her, after which he is then captured for Rei to experiment on.

Revolt arc
After being captured by the Forgeries, Ganta wakes up at a table full of food, where Tamaki tells him that Ganta's mother, Sorae Igarashi, worked alongside Hagire and accidentally created the Wretched Egg. Tamaki wants for Ganta to join him to destroy Wretched Egg. Ganta refuses, because Tamaki uses people as weapons and says he will kill the Red Man himself. When he refuses, he is captured and used as an experiment. After being tortured by Rei, a strange man known as Madoka appears and gives him a drink, that has Madoka`s blood to control five senses, that stops his pain. After Tamaki lets the Forgeries go on a rampage, Ganta tries to stop them, telling them they're being controlled, but they attack Ganta, saying that they're in heaven. They are suddenly stopped by Shiro and Azami. They try to rescue Ganta but a Forgery tries to kill Shiro, who is then stopped by Makina with her Worm Eater sword.

Makina tells them that there is a device that controls the Forgeries and in order to stop them they need to destroy it. Ganta, Shiro and Azami, on their way to destroy the machine, are confronted by Hajime, Ikaduchi and Uzume, the Complete Forgeries. They try to kill Ganta but are stopped by Crow, Chaplin, Idaki and Minatsuki. They still refuse to accept Ganta`s apology and still angry at him, but agree to assist him in taking out the Forgeries, while Ganta, together with Shiro and Azami, advance to destroy the control device before its too late. On their way they find Madoka crying. He says there's nothing wrong and tells Ganta he did not know he had 2 girlfriends, which Ganta denies. Madoka then volunteers to show them the control device. When they finally arrive, Madoka starts talking about how brave, innocent and courageous Ganta is, that he is a wonderful person and says "...but I must kill you. Otherwise, the world would never be peaceful." Madoka reveals that the reason why he can`t resist Tamaki's orders is because, instead of masks, he has receivers implanted in his head that act exactly like masks. Madoka uses his Branch of Sin, Jūshin Shinjū, which has the ability to control the target's five senses. He paralyzes Shiro and Azami and uses his poison to torture Ganta, giving him sense of being hit by a truck and crucifixion. When Ganta finally defeats Madoka and destroys the control device, Madoka says that the main control over the Forgeries is switched over to Tamaki.After seeing Ganta struggle so much to protect others, Madoka says that hes not well, cause feeling pain and misery makes him happy and for someone to be happy others need to be unhappy. That`s why Madoka tries to be a " rubbish bin. " Shiro, not wanting Ganta to suffer, breaks out of Madoka`s paralyses and uses her branch of sin, trying to stop him. She fails and is put under Madoka`s poison " Iron Maiden." Shiro screaming in agony and enraged Ganta begs Madoka to let her go and kill him, but he decides to torture Shiro, cause it brings Ganta great agony. As Shiro collapses, angered Ganta, uses his Ganbare Gun, but Madoka uses his " Jūshin Shinjū: Jaws of Demise " earlier then Ganta and just as he`s about to kill him, Shiro uses her branch of sin and slices of his Jūshin Shinjū. Madoka dies at the hands of Ganta`s Ganbare Gun wondering why can they move with that much pain, while Azami is surprised that even after all that they smiled. Both Shiro and Ganta confess there love for one another. Makina informs the trio, the whereabouts of Tamaki, when Ganta replies that he wont no longer try to save everyone, but he will try to stop and kill Tamaki, including the Forgeries. As Ganta is about to depart, he leaves unconscious Shiro at Azami`s hands and says to take Shiro to Yo, since hes more skilled with medicine.

Return to DW arc
In the end, Ganta is finally cleared of all false charges and freed. However, he is left with no where to go, and was forced to live in an orphanage.

When the Deadmen returned to Deadman Wonderland, Ganta joined them in order to kill the Wretched Egg, fully knowing that he will have to kill Shiro. During the mission to retrieve a Chorus Block, he was captured by Hagire Rinichirō and was about to get his memories overwritten, when he was saved by Senji. He is now making his way back to the Walfisch.

Abilities
Enhanced Endurance: It has been noted by Shiro that no matter how much damage he has taken Ganta always gets back up. The first example of his high endurance is when he was a child and Shiro accidentally hurt him when they were playing. Even though he was covered in bruises and scratches, he only cried for a minute before getting back on his feet and shouting "Aceman Revived" surprising both Shiro and his mother. His endurance is so great that he can take numerous punches and Owl's Eyeball attacks from Nagi Kengamine and still stay standing.

Branch of Sin: As a Deadman, Ganta possesses a Branch of Sin. This allows him to freely control his blood. He usually bites his thumb to forcedly bring his blood out. His ability came from the Red Man who forced a Red Diamond into his chest after all of his friends were murdered.

Branch of Sin: Ganta Gun (丸太・ガン, Ganta Gan): Ganta collectes his blood in his right hand and shoots it away (simillar to a bullet, hence the name Gun). He first uses this ability at the first day he was in DW. A boulder was thrown down with the intent to kill him and Ganta fires his Ganta Gun and shatters the boulder. He has trained his Ganta Gun to be faster and stronger with the help of Crow. The bullet of blood can also ricochet against other objects, changing the course of the bullet.


 * Supersonic Ganta Gun: During his training with Senji, Ganta developed a new kind of Ganta Gun. This time, he makes the blood bullet smaller and slimmer. That way, the bullet is way faster and can be fired multiple times after each other. This also reduces the chances of anemia, because Ganta uses less blood that way. Whereas the regular Ganta Gun is like a cannon, the Supersonic Ganta Gun fires like a machine gun.

Branch of Sin: Ganbare Gun (頑張る・ガン, Ganbare Gan, lit. "Do your best" Gun): During his fight with Azuma Genkaku, Ganta discovers an improved version of his Ganta Gun. This version has a faster and much more powerful bullet that causes patterned, black lines (shiny red-pink in the anime) to cover his body. However, in the anime only, Shiro is shown to have identical lines on the right-side of her face at the same time as Ganta's appear, this suggests that the Ganbare Gun is linked to Shiro and further suggesting that this BoS is the key Branch to open the Mother Goose System. This Branch of Sin is the only one that has not yet been copied by Toto.

Resolve: Similar to his endurance, Ganta has developed a strong integrity and perseverance to achieve his goals. This started out as simply survivng to kill the Red man to gain vengaence for his friends, but has progressed to protecting his friends, especially Shiro. This resolve couple with his endurance allows him to survive and win against superior opponents and to keep his goals in sight.

Trivia

 * Ganta cellphone.png's name can also be read as Maruta, which means "round, cut log". This expresses itself in Ganta's mark, that has the form of a round, cut log with a leaf on it. Apparently, he marks a lot of his stuff with this mark, but it has only been seen on his cellphone in the first chapter and episode, as well as on Shiro when they are children, and the piano his mother uses to play the Woodpecker Song.
 * Ganta's birthday is July 9th, as mentioned in Sorae's dairy.
 * Ganta's BoS is slowly killing him as revealed in chapter 51 and has caused parts of his skin to become a darker color.
 * The status of Ganta's father is unknown. Only his mother has been seen and a possible male partner hasn't been mentioned as well. Since Ganta went to an orphanage after being in prison, it is assumed that he is either dead or missing.