Walking into Disney Twisted Wonderland Episode 1 without any prior knowledge of the mobile game felt like being tossed into the deep end of a gacha-game-turned-anime adaptation. I’ll be honest: I expected something far more sanitised, something that felt like Disney playing it safe with an anime aesthetic. What I got instead was a visual feast that leans hard into its villain-academy premise whilst introducing a frankly overwhelming number of characters in 24 minutes.
My Episode Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
Quick Summary of my review: Episode 1 introduces us to Yuken Enma, a Japanese kendo student who finds himself mysteriously transported to Night Raven College, a magical academy where students embody the qualities of Disney’s classic villains. Waking up in a coffin and lacking any magical ability himself, Yuken must navigate a world of strict hierarchies, elaborate rules, and overwhelmingly beautiful character designs whilst desperately trying to find a way home. The episode excels visually with gorgeous animation and captivating character work, featuring clever callbacks to Disney films like Alice in Wonderland and The Lion King, but struggles under the weight of introducing too many characters at once. The result is a promising but flawed premiere that prioritises style over substance, though there’s enough intrigue in the world-building and magical system to warrant sticking around for episode 2.
[Post read time: 10–17 min]
My review in sections:
About Disney Twisted Wonderland The Animation
- Type: TV Anime (ONA – Original Net Animation)
- Season 1: Episode of Heartslabyul
- Status: Currently Airing
- Full Genre List: Dark Fantasy, Isekai, School, Magic, Adventure
- Key Themes: Disney villain reinterpretation, magical boarding school, finding one’s place, strict hierarchies and rules
- Episodes: 8 (releasing weekly on Wednesdays)
- Episode Duration: 24 minutes
- English Dub: Available
- Age Restriction: TV-14
- Release Date: 29 October 2025
- Animation Studios: Yumeta Company, Graphinica
- Director: Shin Katagai
- Chief Director/Series Composition: Takahiro Natori
- Character Design: Hanaka Nakano, Akane Satō
- Music: Takumi Ozawa
- Source: Mobile Game (Disney Twisted-Wonderland by Aniplex & Walt Disney Japan)
- Original Concept/Character Design (Game): Yana Toboso (Black Butler creator)
- Where to Stream: Disney+ (Global) and Hulu
- Official Hashtags: #ツイステアニメ (Japanese), #TwistedWonderland
High school student Yuken Enma is suddenly whisked to the magical world of Twisted Wonderland. Without any magical abilities and not even from this world, he wonders why he was summoned. Yuken, a Tokyo kendo prodigy, finds himself at Night Raven College, a prestigious magical academy where students are sorted into seven dorms based on the spiritual attributes of the Great Seven Disney villains: The Queen of Hearts, Scar, Ursula, Jafar, the Evil Queen, Hades, and Maleficent. All he wants is to return home to lead his team to their kendo tournament.
My Thoughts on Disney Twisted Wonderland Episode 1
Episode 1 of Disney Twisted Wonderland is a curious beast. It knows exactly what it wants to be visually but struggles to balance introducing its world with managing audience expectations about what this Disney-meets-anime project actually entails.
The Visual Hook and Character Design Philosophy
Let me start with what works unequivocally: the character designs are exceptional. Every student at Night Raven College feels like a carefully considered piece of art. The attention to costuming detail suggests a level of world-building care that extends beyond simple “anime pretty boys in school uniforms“. I found myself genuinely curious about how these visual details might play into the narrative later. Will those card suit markings become plot-relevant? I certainly hope so, because they’re too deliberate to be mere decoration.
The eye animation deserves special mention. Whilst not every character benefits equally, certain close-ups showcase genuinely captivating eye work that pulls you into the scene. There’s a theatrical quality to the character animation that fits the Disney villain aesthetic perfectly – everyone performs rather than simply existing in frame.
The Disney Connection: Nostalgia Bait or Meaningful Integration?
Here’s where things get complicated. The opening sequence features brief clips from classic Disney films – Alice in Wonderland, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Snow White, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty. It’s a clever visual shorthand establishing the seven villain inspirations, and as someone who grew up with these films, seeing them incorporated gave me a nostalgic jolt. Pst, Maleficent got much less screentime than the other villains.
However, beyond these brief clips and a few dialogue references, the anime so far has minimal connection to the Disney films themselves. The characters aren’t direct transplants of the villains but rather students inspired by their “spiritual attributes”. This is both a strength and potential weakness depending on what you’re expecting. If you’re hoping for a deep dive into reimagined Disney villain psychology, you might be disappointed. If you want an anime that uses Disney villains as a jumping-off point for its own story, this delivers.
I’m genuinely curious why these seven specific villains from their older catalogue were selected. Why stop at films through the ’90s? The focus on what they call the “Great Seven” – Queen of Hearts, Scar, Ursula, Jafar, Evil Queen, Hades, and Maleficent; suggests a deliberate choice to lean into the classic Disney Renaissance era and earlier. Perhaps it’s about targeting a specific demographic, like myself, who grew up with these films, or maybe there’s something about the aesthetic consistency of these particular villains that works better for the “dark academia” vibe the show is going for.
The callbacks to original film dialogue, like the Queen of Hearts’ “Off with your head”, landed well for me. I hope we get more of these references throughout the series because they help bridge the gap between the Disney branding and the anime’s distinct identity.
The Isekai by Carriage: A Surprisingly Effective Hook
The transportation method deserves credit for style. Rather than the typical truck-kun or falling-into-a-portal setup, Yuken gets collected by a mysterious carriage during a full moon. The Dark Mirror performs the summoning ritual, and the carriage travels through dimensions to fetch the chosen student. It’s theatrical, it’s got that Disney fairy tale energy, and it immediately sets a different tone from thew standard isekai fare.
Waking up in a coffin is genuinely unsettling, and the show doesn’t rush past that moment. Yuken’s confusion and fear feel earned. The ceremonial hall with floating coffins creates an immediate sense of “you’re not in Kansas anymore” that grounds the fantastical premise.
Character Overload and the Problem of First Impressions
This is where episode 1 stumbles. We’re introduced to what feels like the entire student body in one go.
I don’t remember a single character’s name from watching the episode, I had to look it up as I was writing this. That’s not entirely the show’s fault, it’s adapting a game where players have had years to learn these characters gradually. But for newcomers, like myself, it’s overwhelming. I feel that the episode needed to trust its audience enough to focus on fewer characters and let the rest emerge naturally over subsequent episodes.
The way Grim’s fire-breathing was allowed to continue until it nearly engulfed the room, and the way Riddle lost his cool are both choices that work in terms of creating immediate stakes, but they also mean we’re jumping into conflict before we’ve had time to understand why we should care about any of these characters.
The Japanese Protagonist Question
Before I did a little bit of research, the decision to make Yuken explicitly Japanese felt like a calculated and somewhat opportunistic choice to appeal to us as the anime demographic. Now I know that was not the case. In the game, you play as “Yu” whose gender and attributes are player-customisable, but the manga and anime feature Yuken Enma, a male high school kendo star. His kendo backgroundgives him a defining trait and immediate motivation (getting back for the tournament).
There’s something slightly cynical about it feeling like this anime is not more than a ‘cash grab’. I am hoping that I get proven wrong.
Pacing and Structure: Game Roots Showing
The episode has a distinct “visual novel” quality to its pacing. Scenes feel segmented, almost like chapters or routes in a game at times. The exposition-laden dialogue from Crowley about the school’s structure and the Great Seven feels necessary but clunky. There’s a lot of standing around talking, which works fine in a game where you’re clicking through dialogue boxes but feels static in animation.
The action sequence with Riddle and Grim at the end tries to inject energy. The visual effects are competent.
Voice Acting and Audio Design
The English dub voice acting is solid across the board. J. Michael Tatum voices Headmage Crowley, and the performances are evenly well done.
The music doesn’t stand out particularly in episode 1, which is surprising given that this is supposed to be Disney.
Humour That Misses the Mark
Several attempted comedy beats fell flat for me. The show tries to inject humour through character quirks and reactions, but the timing feels off. Mostly it feels like the jokes don’t have enough context yet. We don’t know these characters well enough for their personality-based humour to land.
The Magical Wands: Gaudy and Glorious
Can we talk about those ceremonial wands for a moment? They’re less subtle magical focuses and more bedazzled sceptres with enormous gemstones. The sheer gaudiness of them is almost charming in its commitment to the aesthetic. When you see the magic channelling through them with those glowing circular effects, it’s pure theatricality. Everything in this world feels designed to be slightly extra, slightly performative, and these wands embody that perfectly.
The BL Potential
As a fujoshi, I’m not going to pretend I didn’t notice the character dynamics setting up potential Boys’ Love interpretations. Whilst episode 1 doesn’t explicitly go there, this isn’t a romance anime, the character designs, the all-male student body, the emphasis on dorm partnerships and rivalries…I can’nt not see it. Whether that’s intentional pandering or not, it’s definitely present.
What Works About the Visual Novel Aesthetic
Despite my criticisms of the pacing, there’s something I appreciate about the show embracing its game roots. The way characters are framed, the occasional use of what I can only describe as “dialogue box” framing where characters are positioned like they’re having a visual novel conversation – it all gives the show a distinct flavour. It won’t work for everyone, but it’s honest about what it is.
The World-Building Potential
What the episode does establish effectively is that there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. The rigid hierarchy of the dorms, the mysterious selection process of the Dark Mirror, the strict rules governing Heartslabyul, Yuken’s complete lack of magic in a school full of mages, these are all threads that could develop into something interesting. The question is whether the show will explore these slowly or if it’ll keep throwing everything at us at once.
Final Thoughts
Disney Twisted Wonderland The Animation episode 1 is a promising but flawed introduction to what could become either a genuinely interesting dark fantasy series or a pretty but hollow game adaptation. The visual design is the show’s strongest asset, these character designs alone are worth it. The world has potential, the premise is solid enough, and there are hints of deeper themes about authority, identity, and belonging waiting to be explored.
However, the episode struggles under the weight of its own ambition. Too many characters, too much exposition, pacing that feels more suited to interactive media than passive viewing. It’s asking viewers to trust that all these threads will come together whilst simultaneously overwhelming us with information.
I’m genuinely curious about where this goes. Will Yuken develop actual relationships with these characters, or will he remain a passive audience surrogate? Will the Disney connections deepen or remain surface-level aesthetic choices? Can the show find a balance between its game roots and the needs of anime storytelling?
Episode 1 hasn’t fully won me over, but it’s done enough to make me want to see episode 2. For a first outing, that’s not nothing.
Episode Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
A solid but not exceptional premiere. The visual design and world-building potential earn it points, but the character overload and uneven pacing hold it back from being a truly great first episode. It’s good enough to continue with, but it needs to find its footing quickly.
Quick Game Info: Yes, Disney Twisted-Wonderland is a free-to-play mobile game with in-app purchases, available on iOS and Android, described as a Narrative Adventure JRPG. It features a gacha system for summoning character cards, combined with story segments, turn-based battles, and rhythm game elements called “Twistunes”. The game launched in Japan in March 2020 and in English-speaking regions in January 2022. If it’s not available in your region, you’re unfortunately out of luck unless you use a VPN or alternative app stores, though that comes with its own risks and complications.
What did you think to episode 1?
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