Anime Review: Gangsta

“It’s not always the tears that measure pain, sometimes it is the smile we fake.” -Nicolas Brown (Gangsta)

          This week's anime review is based on Gangsta. This anime series came out in the year 2015 and the genre involves some action, crime, and drama. It's a pretty short series with 1 season and a total of 13 episodes. To be honest, I feel like they should make a second season because they totally left me at a cliff hanger in the last episode. I was like...table flip! No lie. But seriously, the makers of Gangsta need to make another season. They have a manga for this, but I haven't read it..."yet". It's not enough to satisfy me though. Either way, hopefully you get to learn a bit about this anime and probably get interested enough to watch it or read it.

                                            (COVER)
                            

Synopsis: This series basically revolves around two men who are referred to as “Handymen” who are hired to take on jobs that normal people can’t really handle or take on. Their names are Nicolas Brown and Worick Arcangelo. The action takes place in a town called Ergastulum and it is no ordinary town. Unlike the rest, Ergastulum is a place filled with people who work with the mafia, some are prostitutes or hoodlums, and you can’t rule out the cops. Also, you’ve got what they call “Twilights”, in other words super-humans who are ranked using dog tags that basically measures their strength. Nicolas is a Twilight in this series. Worick is just a normal human. Later on, a new threat rises that hunts down these so called Twilights in a fierce battle that can’t be avoided. This challenge creates for a whole bloodbath of carnage for the city and its people. A must watch anime that you just can’t resist.

Characters: There are many characters for this anime. The picture in the bottom are basically the main ones. Of course there are plenty more and if you want to learn more about each individual, I suggest clicking this link ⇨Gangsta Characters.... (it'll help)

My favorite character out of the whole series is Nicolas Brown. What makes him so unique out of all the others is that he is deaf and uses sign language to communicate which is something that I've never seen in other anime. He can talk a bit but it's not prefect. To me, I really like his character and personality. He also has a cool vibe and he's pretty awesome too. My second favorite would have to be Worick.

          

Art/Animation: I thought that the art style was different and unique. I enjoyed that dark and gloomy feel it gave off while I was watching this anime. Not a lot of color. Most of the colors that you'll usually notice the most is gray, black, and white. It wasn't bad, it makes sense if you put the pieces all together and consider the fact that this anime is about crime and killing. As for the animation, I liked it and I enjoyed the way that sign language was incorporated as well. It was interesting and fun to watch in my opinion. The characters designs were great too.

I have several scenes that I favor the most and find excitement in watching. One of them include the part where Nicolas shows off his tags during a battle which is what Twilights usually do to demonstrate their strength and to see who's stronger.

Another of my favorite scenes is when Nicolas kicks Chad's car which I thought was pretty cool.

                  

There were some sad parts such as when Worick and Nicolas were both little kids and in this scene, Worick's father decides to punish him and since Nicolas was somewhat like a slave and not really considered human back in those days, stood by and watched. You should definitely see this part. It gets intense, (*spoiler) Nicolas kills Worick's father and then his mom and I think his brother (not sure) after receiving an order from him, his "master". Worick ends up losing his eye from the cigar burn and Nicolas took it out which is later shown (hense how he got the eye patch) Very emotional!!!

As for this last scene, it just demonstrates Nicolas' battle skills during his youthful days as a kid; he was only used in combat since he was a Twilight. 

                 

Music: The opening was pretty great. I was really fond of the opening song. It was up to beat and it got me moving and getting to the groove of things. I liked listening to it. On the other hand, the ending song was the total opposite. It was more mellow and calm. It sounded somewhat sad and changed the whole mood. Very different from the opening song. If I were to choose which one was my favorite, it would have to be the opening.

Overall, this concludes this week's anime review and I really hope that you take a look and consider watching this anime or read the manga. Tune in next time!