Ganta Igarashi

Ganta Igarashi (五十嵐 丸太) a.k.a Woodpecker, is the main protagonist of the series. He is the son of Sorae Igarashi and the childhood friend of Shiro. Because of his Deadman powers, he was sent to Deadman Wonderland. There, he swore vengeance on the "Red Man", for framing him of murdering his classmates.

Background
Birth name Maruta, Ganta was originally conceived by his mother Sorae Igarashi in order for her to continue her research with human testing. Shortly after his birth, Ganta's presence awakens the maternal instincts within his mother. Hagire meets with Sorae in the maternity ward and rejoices at the thought of continuing his experiments and goes off to prepare. Soon afterward, Sorae had begun regret her choice of using her child as a subject for her experiments. After a conversation with her lab assistant and presumably Ganta's biological father who offers to take the child and leave, Sorae procures another child to be used as a test subject in his place, Shiro.

While living at the research facility, Ganta met Shiro. He told her he liked her hair and became her friend and playmate. At that time, Ganta didn't know the cruel torture his mother and Hagire Rinichirō put her through so he did not understand when she would lash out at him in pain and one time 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. Ganta would celebrate his birthday with Shiro, due to her not knowing when she was born and both would receive homemade presents from his mother.

One day, while Ganta was looking for Shiro to play, he accidentally stumbled upon a room where Shiro was subjected to experimentation. At that time, Shiro already created her second personality, the Wretched Egg. Ganta, witnessing the slaughter of other scientists, ran away shocked and scared, dropping his Aceman doll which triggered Shiro to prevent Wretched Egg from killing Ganta. While the Wretched Egg was loose, Sorae sent Ganta to his father for his own protection and begged him to forget what happened with Shiro, to which Ganta replied he doesn't know who Shiro is, due to his shock causing him to forget everything about her.

For unknown reason, Ganta lived with his new stepfather even though he was sent to live with his biological father. It is presumed that he lived with his father and that he had possibly died or left Ganta. Once there, he started a new life and when he was old enough, he enrolled in Nagano Middle School. There he met Mimi and Yamakatsu and became best friends with them.

Personality
In the beginning of the series, Ganta is a harmless and ordinary school boy. Once in Deadman Wonderland, 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. He follows the prisoners rules and trying to avoid them and not get involved. After being sent to G-ward, he is even more confused and scared of being forced to fight each other for others amusement and grossed out by Tamaki's punishment game. His life turns for worse when Scar Chain is betrayed by Rokuro and, again, witnessing the slaughter of his comrades, driving Ganta into a rage of wanting to get revenge and save his remaining comrades. In moments of great emotion, Ganta's character can change and he begins to curse and make use of derogatory actions.

When Ganta is released from the solitary confinement he hits great depression due to Owl's passing. His fear led him to believe that nothing he does will matter, cause nothing changes, but thanks to Senji, he learned that fearing is not a way of life, it's only going in circles. After a few days, he realizes that he cannot change the past, but can shape his future, still having friends to protect and wanting to stop Tamaki once and for all.

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. He believed that the only way to save Shiro was to kill her, due to her being the Wretched Egg. Yet again, he was saved by Senji who taught him that he cannot kill Shiro without understanding her, saying everyone has their own reasons. After Hagire's death and learning the truth about Shiro's past, Ganta has matured to a point where he can fully understand Shiro and save her from herself.

By the end of the series, Ganta's personality has evolved to the point where he can face the irrationality of his life, which does not mean he does not feel fear, but rather that he possesses eyes that can gaze upon fear.

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 has 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 was 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 by 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 acknowledges this as evidence and sentences Ganta to death at DW. At this point Mimi's father burst out in rage and attacks Ganta. He blames him for his daughter's death and punches him. The guards remove him and Ganta is 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 meets and 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. The prisoners, seeing Ganta's power, run away in fear, calling Ganta a monster, while 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 he's having feelings for Shiro. Shiro asks Ganta if he's 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, find strange masks in their rooms. Inside, they were written with every person's 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 being 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, a 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 wherever 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 controlled 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. On their way to destroy the machine, Ganta, Shiro and Azami are confronted by Hajime, Ikazuchi and Uzume, the Complete Forgeries. They try to kill Ganta but are stopped by Senji, Chaplin, Idaki and Minatsuki. They still refuse to accept Ganta's apology and are 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 two girlfriends, which Ganta denies. Madoka then volunteers to show them the control device.

When they finally arrive, Madoka commends Ganta about how brave, innocent and courageous he is and that he is a wonderful person. However, he reveals that he must kill him, or else the world will never be peaceful and 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 a 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 he is not well, because 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 paralysis and uses her branch of sin to try and stop him. She fails and is put under Madoka`s poison " Iron Maiden." Shiro, screaming in agony, enrages Ganta to beg Madoka to let her go and kill him instead, but he decides to torture Shiro, because it brings Ganta great agony. As Shiro collapses, 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 Madoka's Jūshin Shinjū. Madoka dies at the hands of Ganta's Ganbare Gun, wondering why they were still mobile while under excessive pain, while Azami is surprised that even after everything they just experienced, they still bear a smile. Both Shiro and Ganta confess their love for one another. Makina informs the trio of the whereabouts of Tamaki, when Ganta replies that he will 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 tells her to take Shiro to Yō, being more skilled with medicine. Wounded and exhausted, Ganta uses all of his might to continue. When he gets to the passage that Tamaki took, he finds Rei and the Forgeries slaughtered by the Red Man. When he arrives, he finds Tamaki committed suicide, Makina injured and the twins with Toto alongside the Wretched Egg. Ganta bursts in rage trying to kill the Red Man to no avail while the latter satanically laughs. Makina uses Necro Macro to try and stop The Red Man but it gets destroyed. She tells Ganta that he should run and that he shouldn't die alone, but Ganta desperately wants to avenge his friends.

When he turns around, he sees the Red Man clutching Azami`s decapitated head. Ganta, in terrible shock, starts questioning why his friends had to die. Makina uses gasoline to try and burn down the Wretched Egg, where she appears behind Ganta. Ganta, after seeing Azami`s dead, wondering Shiro's whereabouts, with the Wretched Egg replying that Shiro is dead. After attacking Ganta, he falls in to a huge pit where he uses his Ganbare Gun. While the Red Man fights back, Toto replies that the "original" sin cannot disappear. The Ganbare Gun breaks the Red Man`s attack and knocks off her helmet. Shocked to find out that the Red Man is actually Shiro, Toto and the rest retreat, leaving Ganta wounded mentally and physically. After the battle, the Forgeries were all captured with some killed, most of their comrades were wounded, Makina becomes bound to a wheel chair and all of the dead bodies, including Azami's, were wrapped in bags and taken to a burial. Deadman Wonderland has been permanently shutdown and the rest of the prisoners were either emancipated or transferred to a regular prison.

Return to Deadman Wonderland Arc
In the end, Ganta is finally cleared of all false charges and set free. However, he is left with nowhere to go, and was forced to live in the Minori Garden orphanage. Ganta is depressed due to everything he had experienced. When the prison returned his belongings, he said that he didn't have anyone to call nor did he want to talk to anyone. After a while, Karako comes to visit Ganta. She explains how she's working along side Makina and she wants him to help them out. Ganta refuses because he wants to forget everything about Deadman Wonderland. He asks Karako how she felt when she saw Nagi's true self. She says that she never knew nor that she wanted to know, but there's no other way to see it other than yourself. Before she leaves, she tells Ganta that they won't force him nor can they decide what he wants to do, but they will be waiting in hopes that he changes his mind.

Not being able to forget everything he saw and experienced, he attends the meeting, where Makina tells the Deadman how it all started, about Hagire, Wretched Egg, the earthquake and the red crystals. Although she hides the fact that Ganta's mother, Sorae Igarashi, was also the masterming behind Wretched Egg. Finally she asks help from all of Deadman, who showed up to assist her, to go back to Deadman Wonderland and kill Toto and The Wretched Egg, so that the incident that happened 10 years before does not occur again. After 5 days, the Deadmen gather and Ganta is the last to show up. When they depart, Makina gives them a piece of paper where they are able to write down their will in case they die. Ganta shreds the paper, exclaiming that he didn't come back to die, but to kill the Wretched Egg, knowing that he will have to kill Shiro.

When they arrive, Shiro comes to greet Ganta, when he yells at her and asks why does she have to be the Wretched Egg. Shiro uses her Branches of Sin and pools out the Walfisch out of the water and onto the land. Ganta screams at her, saying that he will avenge all of his friends. The Wretched Egg questions Ganta whether he can kill Shiro as well. He says that he loves Shiro and that he doesn't want anyone to kill her, which is why he will personally kill her. Ganta fires a barrage of bullets that all hit Shiro, but she quickly regenerates. She says that today's game was boring and that she will be waiting for the continuation of the song. As she leaves, Idaki stops Ganta from going after her, stating that if he went after her, he would be killed.

After the incident, Makina explains that the Mother Goose System is meant to seal the Wretched Egg's powers and that the system is still operational. If the powers were not sealed, Tokyo would cease to exist. The main goal is to strengthen the power of the Mother Goose System to further weaken Shiro`s powers, so they need to collect Chorus Blocks in order to figure out the "key" on how to control the system. The Deadman are separated into groups of 3 where Ganta goes with Senji and a strange girl named Yosuga Mitsuzaki. She asks Ganta if he's going to kill Shiro because he doesn't understand her, which tempts Ganta to wonder if he even has the ability to understand her. When they find the Chorus Block, Senji notices that Ganta starts spacing out. Ganta says that he spent his entire childhood with Shiro, yet he still does not understand her.

Senji tells him that he should try to understand her first, but Ganta doesn't want to, because if he starts worrying, people might die again. Senji tells him that they should make a bet. He will flip his coin and if it lands on the lizard, nobody dies. Ganta says that he should stop joking around, but the coin lands on the lizard, giving Ganta a sense of relief. While Yosuga is resting, Toto appears and knocks her unconscious. He then appears before Ganta and Senji. He tells Ganta to come with him and that he doesn't want to kill him. When Ganta refuses, Toto attacks him. Senji tries to kill Toto, but he says that he is not the weakest one anymore and uses all of the Branches of Sin he had copied and quickly defeats Senji. He threatens Ganta, saying if he does not come with him, he will kill Senji. Ganta agrees and goes with him.

Toto prepares the machine to transfer his own memories into Ganta, for the sake of the "key" to unlock all of Wretched Egg's powers by using Ganta`s Branch of Sin. The Wretched Egg appears before Ganta. Terrified, Ganta prepares to fight, but Wretched Egg asks him if he is going to kill her. He replies that she is the enemy of his friend and she says that they are no longer friends, because Ganta doesn't kill his friends. In the middle of the conversation, Shiro's personality surfaces and takes over. She runs away crying and tells Ganta that it is alright if he hates her, because she hates herself as well. Toto shows up and says if he wants to know, he will tell him everything.

Toto reveals that he is actually Hagire Rinichirou, the mad scientist who created the Wretched Egg and that he is trying to recreate another Wretched Egg, but unlike Shiro, nano machines aren't stable and he could die in a few years. For this reason, he is transferring his own memories to other people, so that he can extend his life. He also says that in order to get closer to Shiro, he needs strong Deadman like Toto Sakigami. The twins, Chan and En, use their Branch of Sin, "Hollow Swallow", in order to transfer Hagire`s memories into Ganta. When the transfer starts, Hagire, through Chan and En's Branch of Sin, shows Ganta the creation of the Wretched Egg. Ganta is shocked at how much Shiro had to suffer as a child, while Hagire only perceived this as an experiment, Sorae was in great pain of what she was doing to Shiro. Unable to handle the pain, Shiro manifests a second personality to cope with the pain, the Wretched Egg. While the experiments continue, Shiro develops the ability to control her blood and later to regenerate flesh. Hagire`s interest in her just keeps on growing and growing to the point where he calls it "love". One day, Shiro breaks loose and slaughters the scientists. Ganta, as a child, accidentally sees her and runs away in fear. Sorae sends Ganta away to his father and Ganta reveals that he does not know who Shiro is, unconsciously ridding her from his mind due to the shock.

Right when Hagire is about to take over Ganta's body, Senji appears and cuts off the connection. Chan and En try to stop him, but are quickly beaten. He tries to get Ganta but is stopped by Hagire. Hagire tries to fight off Senji, where he uses his extended Crow Claws to break Ganta's chamber. He orders Ganta to run and requests to let him be "cool" for once. Hagire orders Chan and En to retrieve Ganta and if he doesn't establish connection within the next 60 minutes, he will not receive a second chance. Senji stops them using his Crow Claw barrier. While Senji and Hagire fight, Chan and En assist Hagire by using their "Hollow Swallow: Dance Macabre", which synchronizes their moves, but Senji still manages to defeat them, while Hagire chases Ganta. Hagire is stopped again by Senji. While running, Ganta realizes that he has been running away since he was a kid and nothing good came of it, so he decides to go back. While Hagire uses an unnamed Branch of Sin to defeat Senji, Hagire questions Senji why he is protecting Ganta, to which he replies that he is an honest kid, and strikes Hagire with his evolved Branch of Sin.

Before he can kill Hagire, Chan and En use themselves as shields to protect Hagire. Despite being in their way, Hagire attacks, killing the twins and shredding Senji's right arm. When he is about to kill Senji, Ganta shoots a bullet piercing Hagire's arm, saying that he's not a child and that he cannot run away anymore. Hagire attacks Ganta, which he then counters with Supersonic Ganta Gun. He then tries to finish off Hagire with Ganbare Gun but his chest, where the crystal is, starts to inflict pain again. Hagire launches Ganta outside and starts using all of his Branches of Sin to finish off Ganta while he is hanging from the edge, but is saved by Senji. Hagire catches up with Senji evading every one of his attacks, only to find out he was aiming to take down the Deadman Wonderland giant sign, but Hagire shreds it, feeling that he had seen that move before. He then remembers the Carnival Corpse match between Ganta and Senji, and right after Ganta uses his Ganbare Gun in close range, despite the pain, Hagire is sent flying back, to which Senji uses Crow Claw to slice off Hagire's right limbs which also slices the tower, causing it to crash on Hagire.

After the battle, both Ganta and Senji, who are terribly wounded and lost a lot of blood, are taken back by their comrades to Walfisch. Karako starts operating on Senji, because hes wounds are life threatening, while Ganta, whose life is not at risk, lies unconscious. Karako also says that Senji will make it because of his strong will to live. Minatsuki asks about Ganta, where Yō states that his injuries are not the cause of " this " and shows them Ganta's chest, were the crystal is located. His chest and a little bit of his right arm have burn scars. Kasuga states that the crystal, because its special, has always caused pain to Ganta, but up until now, the nameless worm started to eat through his muscles and nervous system and if Ganta keeps on using his abilities, he will die.

After 2 days of sleep, Ganta finally wakes up. He sees Senji without his right arm and feels like its his fault, but Senji thanks him and says that its thanks to him he managed to get away with this much. He also finds it cool that he's like Tange Sazen, famous fictional Japanese swordsman who just like Senji lost his right arm and eye. When Ganta's away, Makina states to other Deadmen that Ganta won't recover because his Branch of Sin. While controlling the blood, it eats away tissue that he can't control consciously. If he continues using his Branch of Sin, he would later lose control over it because he will have lost all the important tissue, like the heart and the brain.

A little after, Ganta gathers up everyone to tell them, while Hagire tried to steal his body, he was able to see Hagires memories. He saw that the seal on Mother Goose system can either be strengthened or released and to control it requires Ganta's key, his Branch of Sin, which then he says that he will without fail stop Shiro. When they get to the Mother Goose System, Ganta uses his Branch of Sin Ganbare Gun to overwrite the security system, leaving Ganta exhausted. When they try to strengthen the Mother Goose System, Hagire appears with Yosuga, barely alive and patched up. The Deadman try to stop him, but he easily overpowers them, with Yosuga's help who shields him from other attacks with her Branch of Sin, and tries to release Shiro`s true power. As Ganta tries to stop him, Hagire reveals to him that he was the one who decapitated Azami and asks him if he would like to die the same way. He then whispers to Ganta a secret about Shiro.

Hagire tries to kill Ganta, but is saved by other Deadmen. They counter attack with both sides taking heavy damage. Yosuga begs Hagire to stop and to return her Toto, which Hagire ends up killing Yosuga by piercing her head and asks why does everybody get in his way. At the end, the Deadmen overpower Hagire. Hagire, at brink of death, says that he doesn't want to die cause he still hasn't figured out what love is, saying it's irrational. Ganta approaches Hagire, telling him after hearing his words, he knows what to do with Shiro now and that he won't run away from his sins. He then uses his Ganbare Gun to kill Hagire. As Hagire passes away, Toto retakes his body back and tells Hagire that his reason for living was Yosuga. After that, they both die.

After the battle, they try to strengthen the Mother Goose System, but Wretched Egg appears and destroys it, unleashing her full power and destroying half of island. As the island collapses, Edo Kaido and the rest arrive to save Ganta and the others, saying that they need to get away from that monster, where Ganta rejects saying that Shiro`s not a monster and that he needs to save her. Senji supports him and gives him his coin to flip for luck, where Ganta realizes that its head on both sides.

As Ganta goes to stop the Wretched Egg, he remembers what Hagire whispered to him, that Shiro was Ganta`s substitute lab rat. He also remembers Hagire, telling him that he can see it for himself, since he has his memories. He then recalls Hagire`s memories and sees that his mother offered herself, to get pregnant and use her own baby as a test subject, since none of the parents would agree to give their own child for an experiment. After 9 months, Sorae had a baby boy, Ganta. She then changed her mind about letting him be experimented on, and adopts an albino baby girl, Shiro, where Hagire accepts her offer. After Ganta is done thinking, he approaches the ferris wheel, he enters in one of the capsules and confronts Shiro.

Shiro recalls her and Ganta's past and tells Ganta that, after he left, she learned that she was his substitute for experimentation, so she stole Sorae's journal and learned the truth from it. She later confronted Sorae asking her if this was all the truth, when Sorae started crying and apologizing. She didn't know the hard truth, but could understand the pain Sorae felt. She finishes recalling the past and says to Ganta that he's the source of all her pain and hatred. Ganta regrets that he left Shiro and forgot about her, but she stops him by cutting his cheek with her Branch of Sin. She tell Ganta that all this pain and hatred reinforced her power and that her single "wish" was fulfilled. She then reveals that the Great Tokyo Earthquake was her doing trying to kill herself, but instead failed where Sorae built the Mother Goose System to prevent her power from overheating. Confused, Ganta asks Shiro if she hated him so much, why she embedded the red stone in his chest. Shiro reveals to Ganta that she killed Ganta's friends out of jealousy and hatred towards Ganta because he led a peaceful life while she was always alone and suffered too much, and that's why she wanted to die but by the man she loved (Ganta) and that was her wish which was why she embedded the red crystal in Ganta's chest. Ganta notices that her personality is not that of the Wretched Egg, but not Shiro either. Shiro tells Ganta that, just like his coin with identical sides, there is also one of her, meaning her personalities have finally merged. They conclude their conversation and Ganta says that he will kill Shiro if that's what she wishes, where Shiro replies with a smile and thanks Ganta, telling him that they should play like the old times. They use their Branches of Sin and clash with each other. The collision causes an explosion that destroys the capsule. They both land on the ground and start their fight.

Shiro jumps on the Roller Coaster tracks as Ganta chases her and fires multiple bullets which Shiro destroys with her Branch of Sin causing another explosion and destroying the Roller Coaster tracks. With the build up smoke, Ganta uses this as his chance and fires a strong bullet at Shiro surprising her, but only rips out a lock of her hair. Ganta tells Shiro that he was supposed to come here with his friends, which she killed. As Ganta screams at Shiro, he fires multiple bullets. Shiro counterattacks and says that she forgot how people are fragile and asks if he would forgive her if she would apologize.

She destroys most of the Deadman Wonderland and overpowers Ganta. One of the props that's a giant bird cage falls on Ganta and, ironically, traps him. Shiro then comes to Ganta saying that he is too weak. Ganta agrees with Shiro, but tells her how much he has grown and that he will always get back up on his feet, to which Shiro replies with a smile. He then uses his Ganbare Gun to destroy the cage. As they continue on their battle, Ganta starts having second thoughts about killing Shiro. Even if she did cause him all his pain, she consoled and saved him. He wanted to tell her once more before he fell in love, to which Shiro replies that if he really loves her, he should grant her wish. As the battle continues, they both use high power attacks at each other. Shiro then pins Ganta down with a kick to the face. Ganta uses both of his hands to create a stronger bullet, bounces himself into the air and counterattacks. Lacking blood, they start a hand-to-hand combat. Exhausted and heavily injured, they rush at each other for their final attack.

Shiro pierces Ganta's chest, cracking his crystal as well as her own, because of overuse. Ganta caught Shiro and prepares to fire his final Ganbare Gun, at which Shiro smiles. He then misses Shiro intentionally and destroys the sphere-like object that was falling on them. Shocked, Shiro tells Ganta that he's too weak, not being able to kill her. Ganta tells Shiro that dying isn't her true wish, as she starts to break down. She tells Ganta how she wanted to live a normal life, but she couldn't and tells him that she should have never been born, that she's a woodpecker with a poison beak. After hearing Shiro's true self, Ganta uses his blood to write his mark on her hand telling her that, even if he can't forgive her, she'll still be in his possession. She asks Ganta if she has a right to love him, to which Ganta tells Shiro that they will eat all the pudding in the world and make up the rest of the song together. Shiro, overwhelmed with happiness, runs into Ganta's arms. The red crystals then shatter in both of their chests. Their remaining powers collide with each other creating a giant explosion, while a small woodpecker on the island and the rest of the group on the coast, view it from a safe distance.

In the final chapter, after a small timeskip, it is revealed that both Ganta and Shiro have survived the explosion. Due to the shattering of the crystals in their bodies, both of them have lost their powers and the truth about Deadman Wonderland was buried, leaving the public in confusion, believing it was all a sham. Ganta has returned to school, met new friends and restarted his everyday activities. He's seen skipping class for failing to do the homework he was assigned by his teacher. He frequently visits Shiro at the hospital, who's lying unconscious, updating her about his newly reformed life. As Ganta leaves the hospital, he stops on the crosswalk reminiscing about his past with Shiro and Sorae, while she played the woodpecker song on the piano. He remembers the song and says to Shiro: "Hey, Shiro... will you listen to how the song goes on?" With that, Shiro wakes up from her coma with a smile on her face.

Abilities
Enhanced Endurance: During the series, Ganta has displayed enormous amount of endurance. From his childhood, being beaten to a pulp by Shiro, to his teens. He also endured a lot of cases were a regular person would die from enormous pain. Such as cuts, deep wounds, anemia, constant pummeling, chest stabbing, being electrocuted and being hit with all sorts of Branches of Sin.

Resolve: Similar to his endurance, Ganta has developed a strong integrity and perseverance to achieve his goals. This started out as simply surviving to kill the Red man to gain vengeance 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.

Branch of Sin: Ganta Gun (丸太・ガン, Ganta Gan) 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. Even though he can use both of his hands, Ganta collects his blood in his right hand and shoots it away (similar to a bullet, hence the name Gun). He can draw his blood from any part of his body into the palms of his hands. He first used this ability at the first day he was in Deadman Wonderland. A boulder was thrown down at him with the intent to kill him. Refusing to die before getting revenge on the Red Man, his strong will to live awakened his Deadman powers. Ganta then fires his Ganta Gun, shattering the giant boulder to pieces. Depending on how much blood he uses, the stronger the shot. He can compress his blood to make a more powerful bullet which can deal more damage. By using both of his hands, Ganta can form the bullet faster and make it stronger than the regular one, strong enough to repel him into the air. The bullet can also ricochet against other objects, thus changing its course. It was shown that Ganta can change the shape of the bullet, from round to spike-like shape, but this was mostly present at the beginning while Ganta was still learning how to use his powers and constant change in the bullets shape is mostly present in the Anime. At certain times, the anime version makes it look like Ganta throws the blood bullets instead of shooting them. At the beginning, he had trouble shaping the bullets into strong projectiles. But thanks to his training with Senji, he learned to shape and shoot the bullets fast with ease. His weakness is the power itself. Due to being a long range Branch of Sin, he cannot restore his blood or keep it in check unlike the close-ranged Branches of Sin, meaning it's more likely that he'll end up with anemia if he misuses his powers. He has trained his Ganta Gun to be faster and stronger with the help of Crow, as well as learning to shoot multiple bullets at once. It can also be noted that throughout the series Ganta has overcome his weakness, being able to fire more bullets with a small chance of anemia. This is probably due to his body getting used to his powers.

Branch of Sin: Supersonic Ganta Gun: During his training with Senji, Ganta developed a new kind of Ganta Gun. He uses his blood to make a bullet that is smaller and slimmer than his usual one. This way the bullet travels at a much faster speed and can be fired multiple times one after the other, as well as overpowering the worm eater weapons and can even pierce other objects and his opponents. This also reduces the chances of anemia, because Ganta uses less blood this way. While the regular Ganta Gun is more 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. Ganbare Gun's bullets also look slightly different than a regular Ganta Gun bullet. When the bullet hits it target directly, it expands and explodes quite rapidly causing huge amount of damage. At the beginning, Ganta couldn't awaken nor control the Ganbare Gun, which at one point led him to accidentally use it and injure his comrades. A major weakness to this attack is that Ganta can lose a lot of blood and consciousness. But over time, like his regular Gun, Ganta overcame the anemia effect and was able to fully control it. Due to the overuse of it, Ganta sustained burn marks starting on his chest where the red crystal was implanted all the way to his elbow, where the marks appeared, as well as having heavy chest pain. Before the crystal in his chest was destroyed, Ganta's Branch of Sin was slowly killing him because of the overuse of the Ganbare Gun and if it wasn't destroyed, he could have died.

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 were children, and the piano his mother used to play the Woodpecker Song.
 * In the real world, Maruta's were codenames for human experiments that were conducted by the Japanese Army's Unit 731 during WWII, which is the true meaning behind Ganta's name since he was meant to be used as an experiment at first.
 * Ganta's birthday is July 9th, as mentioned in Sorae's diary. Given his current age of 14, it's quite possible that he was born in 2010 since the current year is 2024.
 * Along with Senji's Crow Claw, Ganta's Ganta Gun is one of the only two Branches of Sin known to have evolved over time and the only two that haven't been copied by Hagire (while in Toto's body).
 * Both, him and Hagire fulfilled their promise to Shiro. While Hagire was the one to release Shiro from her binds, Ganta was the one who stopped her.
 * The status of Ganta's father is unknown. Since Ganta went to an orphanage after being in prison, it is assumed that he is either dead or missing. However, there was a male colleague who, alongside Hagire, consistently accompanied Sorae throughout her career as a scientist and was seen with her throughout her pregnancy. When he states that he planned on resigning from the institution due to the inhuman experimentation, he asks Sorae "Is there something I should be taking with me?", in reference to the infant Ganta. It can inferred from this exchange that the scientist may have been Ganta's biological father.

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