Ganta Igarashi (五十嵐 丸太) aka Woodpecker, is the main protagonist of the story. Because of his Deadman powers, he is sent to Deadman Wonderland. He is the son of Sorae Igarashi and the childhood friend of Shiro.
Ganta has dark brown, messy hair, from which one lock of hair is always upwards. He has grayish blue eyes. While still in school, he wore the school 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.
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.
Ganta cares a great deal for his friends and allies. 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 is first seen sitting in class while looking at and 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 his Branch of Sin. Ganta faints.
Ganta struck by the Red Diamond
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. Ganta is sentenced to death.
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.
Shiro comforts Ganta telling him that he was lying
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.
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 meant to protect him. Ganta then shows mercy and saves Shiro, making there no winner of the Dog Race.
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.
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.
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.
Enhanced Endurance: It has been noted by Shiro that no matter how much damage he has taken Ganta always gets back up. 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.
Ganta Gun
Ganta with his Ganta Gun
Ganta uses Ganta gun for the first time
Ganta Gun's bullet in the anime
Multiple Ganta shot
Ganta attacking the Undertakers with his Supersonic Ganta Gun
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 usually. Whereas the regular Ganta Gun is like shotgun, the Supersonic Ganta Gun fires like a submachine 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.
Ganta'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 colour.
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