Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation

Episode 1

Disney Twisted-Wonderland has always reminded me, in a Bizarro sort of way, of Sanrio Boys. The saccharine love child of Hello Kitty and “cute guys doing cute things club anime,” it was the result of a huge corporation melding its nostalgic, kid-first entertainment product with some handsome dudes. The reason Twisted Wonderland is far more popular than this predecessor ever was, however, comes from more than its addictive mobile game vehicle. It's that this Mouse-led franchise tapped into the Dark Academia vibe just as it was heating up. Twisted Wonderland focuses on the Disney villains of the 20th century—that undeniably hypnotic, queer-coded bunch—and puts them in a boarding school setting, infusing their most memorable and idiosyncratic traits into hot guys (my favorite is Epel, who can best be described as a ginjinka of the Evil Queen's poison apple in Snow White.) If this Hot Topic level of slight edginess seems familiar, it might be because it shares its author with Black Butler.

The first thing I noticed about “Stranger Waking” is that it was less of an adaptation of the original source—the mobile game—than it was an adaptation of one of its manga. In the game you play as “Yu” (get it?) whose gender and attributes are all up to the player. But the graphic novel stars Yuuken Enma, a male high school kendo star—and that's also the case for the anime. (I also reviewed another Twisted Wonderland manga that starred a judo-adept girl named Yuuka.) There's just enough time for Yu's kendo club members to fawn over his amazing skills before Carriage-kun sweeps in with the isekai kill, whisking Yu to a high school entrance ceremony that seems more like a death cult—bro literally emerges on the scene out of a coffin. If you're a player, you probably recognize the content from here on out, a lightly embellished version of the first three chapters of the “Welcome to the Villains' World” prologue, edited to show off every main character early. We're not just meeting the fractious, flustered Riddle Rosehearts, but each head of house from Savannahclaw's sleepy Leona to Octavinelle's scheming Azul Ashengrotto. Their beauty is well-depicted in gem-toned art that focuses especially on their detailed eyes.

Plush, expensive looking settings and a glittering post-credits theater sequence that depicts all of the main characters like the charms on keychains shows that the Twisted Wonderland anime has as much style as the game. But there's one component where this production glaringly skimped on quality, and it isn't the animators' fault. All you need to do is turn on English closed captions while watching the dub to notice that they're dubtitles. Part of the freedom of subtitles is that an editor can offer a more accurate portrayal of what's being conveyed without having to work around lip flaps, but we're not getting that this time. That addressed, the voice performances are evenly well done across the board, which ought to be expected in the Japanese dub of the show, considering the voice actors are the same star-studded cast as you'll find in the game. (Hikaru Midorikawa as Lilia is a particular standout, though you won't hear much of him in the first episode.) I was equally impressed by the English dub, where J. Michael Tatum outdid himself as the illustrious Dire Crowley.

If the rest of this eight-episode anime follows the premiere's example, I'm expecting a fairly loyal adaptation that will veer from the narrative for purely dramatic purposes. The way Grim's fire breathing was allowed to continue until it nearly enveloped the room in flames, and the way Riddle lost his cool this early in the story are both examples of what I'm talking about. I wouldn't call this opening a knockout, but it's well executed enough and I'd say it could even serve as an entryway into the franchise. I look forward to seeing if it can match its style with substance.

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Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation is currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Lauren is a freelance journalist with a focus on anime fandom. Both of her kids are named after Gundam characters.