- Trailer: PV Trailer
- What it’s about: The city of Ergastulum is rotten to the core, a battleground for mobsters and chemically-enhanced former soldiers known as Twilights. But even – or perhaps *especially* – in a place as corrupt as this, there’s room for some honest mercenary work, and it’s here that the “Handymen” ply their trade. The suave and laid-back Worick Arcangelo and his deaf Twilight companion Nicolas provide their services to both sides of the law, from bodyguard work and errand-running to more…hands-on cleaning-up of the city.
- Why you should watch it: Gangsta is violent, gritty, and a heck of a lot of fun. Action shows with an adult cast are few and far between in anime, and ones with a production value as high as Gangsta are even rarer. The fight scenes remind me a lot of [Attack on Titan](https://animesuggestblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/attack-on-titan/) with their focus on superhuman sword-wielding acrobatics and the heavy-lined and clean character art in grungy urban backdrops. The general “noir” feeling of the Ergastulum underworld is a welcome break from the anime norm, and I definitely appreciated the focus given to a character with a handicap.
- Caveats: The art is gorgeous for the first half of the show, but budget issues definitely affected the quality in the second. Normally with shows with such an explicitly Western setting I’d recommend the English dub, but I think in this case one is pretty much as good as the other, with the Japanese voice actor for Nicolas putting on a more convincing “deaf voice”.
- Similar works: Black Lagoon, Gunsmith Cats, Darker than Black
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I felt like the whole thing took a head first dive sometime during the second half.
No question about it, that its apex point was the beginning, in which we got to know the Handymen. Once it steered off the trail, and focused on everything else, it stopped being as interesting.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect works that have the stones to sideline their main leads, to introduce and present the world and its inhabitants, but only if they do it well.
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