Ganta Igarashi

Maruta (Ganta) Igarashi was a former Deadman and is the main protagonist in Deadman Wonderland and childhood friend of Shiro.

His bird alias in DW is: Woodpecker.

Personality
In the beginning of the series, ganta is a harmless and ordinary school-boy. Once in DW, he was initially confused and frightened by the prisons brutality. 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 by the Red Man for most of the series. He follows the prisoners rules and tries to avoid breaking them and not get involved. After being sent to G-ward, he is even more confused and scared of being forced to fight fellow Deadman for others amusement and grossed out by Tamaki's punishment game. His life turns for worse after Scar Chain is betrayed by Rokuro, and again, witnessing the death of his comrades, driving him in to rage of wanting revenge and save his remaining comrades.

When Ganta was released form 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 about his friends and allies. Halfway later in the series, he even developed strong feeling for Shiro, which is equally reciprocated. This caused him confusion to Ganta as he is confronted with the desire to kill Shiro. He believed that killing her was the only way to save her (due to her being the Wretched Egg). Thanks to Senji's suggestion, he taught Ganta that he must understand her situation before making those kind of decisions, saying that everyone has their own reasons. After Hagire's death and learning the truth about Shiro's past, Ganta had matured to the point where he can fully understand Shiro and save her from herself.

By the end of the series, Ganta's personality had evolved to the point where he can accept the irrationality of his life, which doesn't mean that he can't feel fear, but rather that he possesses eyes that can gaze upon fear.

History
Ganta was born to Sorae Igarashi on July 9, 2010. When Ganta got older, he meets an albino girl named Shiro after she saved him from a rabid dog, the two often played together, while imitating their favorite hero Aceman, and at one time the two fought, which ended with Ganta getting unjured, but he got back up right after. Things started to change after he realized she was a test subject and killed the researchers, but was later told by his mother to forget everything that happened. The traumatic events caused him to forget both the girl and the event that happened.

Prison Arc
Ganta was just an ordinary high-school boy, until a mysterious figure suddenly appeared outside the classroom, and slaughtered everyone except for Ganta (while also embedding a red jewel in his chest). He was later framed for the murder and was arrested, he along with some other regular people were transported to Deadman Wonderland where he meets the Warden Makina, who explains the prisons guidlines. Ganta met Shiro after she tries to put him out of his misery (from eavesdropping on his earlier self-conversation), he had became entangled in a scuffle with 3 other prisoners, at that moment, the building suddenly collapsed, which nearly killed him, until awakening his Branch of Sin to destroy it.

The next day, he met Azami Mido (Yo Takami in the anime), She tells Ganta about Cast Points. Knowing that he'll die the next day, Ganta decided to participate in the dog race, in the hopes of getting 100,000 cast points to earn candy, thereby prolonging his life. During the race, Ganta was "disturbed" by Shiro and was lagging behind. But soon after, he realizes that Shiro's been looking out for him the whole time. Ganta decided to show mercy, by saving her from possible death. Though because the dog race can only have one winner, this means that there is no winner (much to the crowd's frustration).

Deadman Arc
As a Deadman, Ganta was forced to fight and survive in the Carnival Corpse (with the birdname Woodpecker). While trying to locate the Red Man, who was apparently held captive inside Deadman Wonderland. He meets Senji (Bird Name: Crow), who (like Ganta) has the ability to freely control his blood. Ganta mistaking him for the Red Man, launched an attack, but was overpowered. They later fought in the Carnival Corpse match, Ganta tries to use his Ganta Gun against Senji, but proves futile. Despite the seemingly one-sided match, Ganta got back up and was able to defeat Senji by hitting him at point blank range. Afterwards he watches to Penalty Game, where Senji lost his right eye, making Ganta lose his appetite and vomiting in the toilet after witnessing it.

The next day, he meets Minatsuki Takami (Bird Name: Hummingbird), and saves both her and her flowers from the glutton Masu (Bird Name: Pelican), the two were able to escape, and ended up in her room. She shows him the scars on her back, while explaining the primroses (a memento of her late mother) and her past. After hearing enough, Ganta decides that they should both escape, until they were stopped by the prison staff, who tells them of their upcoming match. During the Carnival Corpse match, he was initially hesitant to fight, but Minatsuki revealed her true color by attacking Ganta, all the while goading him for being gullible. Moments later, Yo (disguised as a security guard) enters the fray (revealing that he is vaguely aware of the situation concerning the death of their father), though she just brushes it off, and uses him as a shield against Ganta's strikes. Ganta had finally managed to ricochet his Ganta Gun, which hits her behind the head, and seconds later defeats her with a head-butt.

Scar Chain Arc
After being introduced by Karako (Bird Name: Game Fowl) Ganta participated in Scar Chains attempt to escape from DW, while helping several members escape with videos and audio evidence of the prison's atrocities. Ganta chose to remain behind to continue the search for the Red Man. Failing to save most of his new allies from the Undertakers, he decided for Senji to train him on how to better utilize his Branch of Sin (finally mastering the Supersonic Branch of Sin), and bypassing the Undertakers worm-eater. Shortly after, during the fight with Genkaku, Ganta's crystal emitted a tattoo-like mark on him, allowing him to use his strongest technique: the Ganbare Gun, that puts Genkaku in a comatose state, and was left to mourn Nagi's (Bird Name: Owl) death.

Forgeries Arc
After the event of the Scar Chain rebellion, Ganta is placed in solitary confinement for a week, for refusing to give information about the escapees. Naji's death caused him to fall into depression not wanting to eat. Later he runs into Senji, who he admits he's scared of living every day with nothing changing, where Senji responds that that's how a brat thinks. When he got back to his room Shiro tries to cheer him up with a home-cooked meal. Shiro's meal full of sweets and spices made Ganta realize that every day things will change a little bit more.

Physical Abilities
Enhanced Endurance: Ganta has displayed enormous amount of endurance. From his childhood, being beaten to a pulp by Shiro, to his teens.
 * Pain Tolerance: 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: 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.

Fighting Style
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 force 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. However due to being a long-range attack, he cannot recover his blood like most of the other Deadman, and can suffer anemia if he misuses it.
 * Ganta Gun: 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. Depending 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. The bullet can also ricochet against other objects, thus changing its course.
 * 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.
 * Ganbare 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, shiny red-pink lines to cover his body. It also looks slightly different than a regular bullet. When the bullet hits it's target directly, it expands and explodes quite rapidly causing huge amount of damage.

Trivia

 * In the latter half of the manga, Ganta's Branch of Sin was slowly killing him as parts of his skin became darker, but that threat was adverted when the jewel in his chest broke.
 * All of his major opponents were either defeated or killed by his Ganbare Gun.
 * The status of Ganta's biological father is unknown.
 * Ganta uses his Branch of Sin in different ways:
 * When using the Ganta Gun, he shoots it like a cannon (he sometimes appear to throw it).
 * When using the Supersonic Ganta Gun, it shoots in a machine gun-like fashion.
 * When using the Ganbare Gun, it acts as a rocket launcher.