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EP. REVIEW: Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation




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MyMasterMatthew



Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2025 3:17 pm Reply with quote
As a long-time Twisted Wonderland fan, I very much enjoyed this episode. I kinda wonder how people who are unfamiliar with the series felt when so many characters popped up in the very first episode, though. When that happens in shows I'm unfamiliar with, it usually overwhelms me. Trying to give everyone a cameo when you're starting a story feels risky. I haven't read the manga, and it's been a long time since I played the prologue, so maybe 21 of the 23 student characters really do appear in those, but I'm guessing it's unique to the anime. That's a LOT of faces and voices to hit you all at once.

Edit: I don't see an option for users to rate the first episode of Twisted Wonderland. Hopefully, it'll be added soon.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 12754
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2025 6:43 pm Reply with quote
I'm enjoying this so far. I thought it was rather unfair for Crowley to threaten Deuce (or Ace, haven't sorted them yet) with expulsion since not only did he not participate, he tried several times to stop it. But I especially appreciated the cleverness of the whitewashing of the villains' histories. Totally spot on commentary there. I also got a chuckle out of Yu optimistically thinking about getting a good night's sleep while the expression on his face while watching the sleeping ghosts floating above his bed said that wasn't going to be easy.
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SrkSano



Joined: 05 Oct 2008
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2025 5:32 pm Reply with quote
MyMasterMatthew wrote:
As a long-time Twisted Wonderland fan, I very much enjoyed this episode. I kinda wonder how people who are unfamiliar with the series felt when so many characters popped up in the very first episode, though. When that happens in shows I'm unfamiliar with, it usually overwhelms me. Trying to give everyone a cameo when you're starting a story feels risky. I haven't read the manga, and it's been a long time since I played the prologue, so maybe 21 of the 23 student characters really do appear in those, but I'm guessing it's unique to the anime. That's a LOT of faces and voices to hit you all at once.

Edit: I don't see an option for users to rate the first episode of Twisted Wonderland. Hopefully, it'll be added soon.


With series that I read the manga before watching the anime this kind of thing bothered me more. Not that I particularly want every anime to be one to one with the manga, but it does bug me when they introduce characters right away that are not in the first manga chapter or even the first arc in the manga. Like they don't feel that we will stick with the show if we don't see our favorite character ASAP.

In Twisted Wonderland it didn't bother me. Seemed natural that everyone would react to what was going on in the first episode. Granted, if I was familiar with the manga or the game this may have urked me like it has in the past.

I like that they can use stock footage from Disney's animated movies. I suppose it's a given that they can, but it's a nice surprise.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 5300
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2025 7:14 pm Reply with quote
MyMasterMatthew wrote:
As a long-time Twisted Wonderland fan, I very much enjoyed this episode. I kinda wonder how people who are unfamiliar with the series felt when so many characters popped up in the very first episode, though. When that happens in shows I'm unfamiliar with, it usually overwhelms me. Trying to give everyone a cameo when you're starting a story feels risky. I haven't read the manga, and it's been a long time since I played the prologue, so maybe 21 of the 23 student characters really do appear in those, but I'm guessing it's unique to the anime. That's a LOT of faces and voices to hit you all at once.

Edit: I don't see an option for users to rate the first episode of Twisted Wonderland. Hopefully, it'll be added soon.

I had a friend twist my arm (ayyyy) into watching this, and I didn't really bat an eye at it. It made sense that since all of the characters were gathered together in one spot for this ceremony, anyone significant later on would get a bit of screen time to react to it. Plus, as my friend has said many times, the whole reason this franchise exists is to sell pictures of pretty Disney boys to fangirls, so of course they're going to tease everyone's favorites nice and early.
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Anne F



Joined: 17 Sep 2021
Posts: 134
PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2025 8:55 am Reply with quote
Quote:
However, salvation came for Twisted Wonderland fans early Wednesday morning, when the franchise's official YouTube announced a second season is already in the works. That confirms my theory that this season will cover everything from the prologue to the end of Riddle's arc.


When the anime was announced, it was announced that three seasons were greenlit. Plus this season is called Episode Heartslabyul and the op/ed focus on Heartslabyul so I thought it was pretty obvious that this would only cover Heartslabyul.
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Silver_Foxfire



Joined: 04 May 2004
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2025 6:14 pm Reply with quote
I thought reviews tried to keep to what's been revealed in the anime, even when the reviewer knows the source material. Pretty sure the word spoiler["Overblot"], much less its definition, is a spoiler this early on.

(Also, nitpicky, but technically spoiler[the monster is a phantom, which is created by/left behind after an overblot.])

And yeah, we've known that this season was going to focus on Heartslabyul (and that three seasons have been greenlit so far) for ages, so I'm not sure why the announcement changes anything regarding the pacing.
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lledra



Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 60
PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2025 10:06 pm Reply with quote
I just started watching this show a few days ago, and I'm coming into it knowing nothing about the premise. Lol but I am locked in! I'm invested in this story and seeing what happens from here. There are a lot of characters, but I'm not finding it overwhelming because we're not needing to know everyone at once?

But yeah, as I said, I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to more~
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Mami-kouga



Joined: 19 Jan 2021
Posts: 311
PostPosted: Thu Dec 11, 2025 1:40 pm Reply with quote
lledra wrote:
I just started watching this show a few days ago, and I'm coming into it knowing nothing about the premise. Lol but I am locked in! I'm invested in this story and seeing what happens from here. There are a lot of characters, but I'm not finding it overwhelming because we're not needing to know everyone at once?

But yeah, as I said, I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to more~


Yeah twst more or less alternates with the characters. When we go to a new place the group of the last become our companions with the focus only ballooning in the last two arcs
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laureninspace



Joined: 29 Aug 2014
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2025 8:57 am Reply with quote
Silver_Foxfire wrote:
I thought reviews tried to keep to what's been revealed in the anime, even when the reviewer knows the source material. Pretty sure the word spoiler["Overblot"], much less its definition, is a spoiler this early on.

(Also, nitpicky, but technically spoiler[the monster is a phantom, which is created by/left behind after an overblot.])

That's fair.

And yeah, we've known that this season was going to focus on Heartslabyul (and that three seasons have been greenlit so far) for ages, so I'm not sure why the announcement changes anything regarding the pacing.


Yeah that's on me. I didn't remember we knew there were 3 more seasons and to be honest, that review was even worse before I deleted a paragraph about my concerns about the pacing! I'll do better in the future.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 12754
PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 11:13 am Reply with quote
Does anyone happen to know the origin of the tongue-twisting "Heartslabyul"? Hearts is self-expanatory, but does "labyul" (or is it parsed "-slabyul"?) mean anything, or is it just gibberish someone thought sounded cool?
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laureninspace



Joined: 29 Aug 2014
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 11:51 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Does anyone happen to know the origin of the tongue-twisting "Heartslabyul"? Hearts is self-expanatory, but does "labyul" (or is it parsed "-slabyul"?) mean anything, or is it just gibberish someone thought sounded cool?


You're not the only one who wondered this! I found a Reddit post with a theory: https://www.reddit.com/r/TwistedWonderland/comments/uf9vad/comment/i6u3mw5/
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 12754
PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 12:39 pm Reply with quote
Interesting. Thanks! I wish the anchor post hadn't been deleted (or is somewhere I can't find), as that sounded interesting too!
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SrkSano



Joined: 05 Oct 2008
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 5:20 pm Reply with quote
The use of Blot was cool. Phantom Blot comes from Mickey Mouse comics and has appeared on both versions of DuckTales and House of Mouse. House of Mouse treated Phantom Blot like a living ink stain instead of someone wearing a costume so I think that's where this series was going with it, like Blot being a manifestation of sorts. Pretty dope!
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CamiChan19



Joined: 17 Apr 2024
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Fri Dec 19, 2025 2:33 pm Reply with quote
Thank you for these reviews! As a longtime fan of the game about since it's NA release, it's been fun each week exploring the adaptation choices (for better or worse), and in particular, I have really been enjoying the English dub. The cast seems so genuinely excited to be a part of the franchise, and it shows in their performances.

I loved everyone's work for Book of Heartslabyul. Jonathan Ha did a wonderful job characterizing Yuuken, reserving his vocal energy for the final showdown. Max Mittleman fit Ace like a glove. "I'm gonna ruin that guy's life" made me cackle.
Hunter McCoy nailed Deuce's levels, and particularly his... few braincell moments. "Ar-Artem...Artichoke?" got another big laugh out of me. JYB and Michael Sinterniklaas played their roles with aplomb as well.

The standout performance for me though, undoubtedly goes to Paul Castro Jr. as Riddle.
He owned up to the challenge of Riddle's sharp degrees of emotion, giving nuance when it mattered. His screams leading up to and during spoiler[ overblot ] gave me visceral chills, and the gentle sadness of post-spoiler[ overblot ] made me emotional. Riddle isn't even near being one of my favorite characters, and yet his performance has made me appreciate the character even more beyond the game alone.

It's been a lot of fun to read your reviews & discuss with fans and new viewers alike. I hope we see you with write-ups for Savannaclaw in the future! Mr. Green
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