Gangsters get into fights.

I loved the setting for this one. It’s set in some third world city where everyone’s living in poverty with rampart drugs in prostitution, ruled over by mafia families with crazily overpowered humans who are doomed to a short lifespan. And the show does a great job developing this setting, you know there’s a lot there, but they never just explain everything with an exposition dump, but slowly reveal more and more through what’s going on. This kind of development, where the characters just treat the setting as the perfectly natural state of the world, helps greatly with believability and depth.

Gangsta also has older characters which is a plus. One guy is deaf which is especially interesting. And this show has a lot of  style. Just people going in with guns blazing, slacking with their spooky grins, it’s pretty hilarious.

So overall, great show. I loved it.

The reason I gave it such a low rating is solely due to the ending. They ended the show (which is unlikely to get a second season) in the middle of the worst possible cliffhanger. It’s like the ending of Code Geass Season 1 but even worse. (Well, worse assuming I care about Gangsta as much as I did about Code Geass, which of course I don’t.) Still, an extremely frustrating ending.

• Storytelling – B – Great portrayal of the setting, show don’t tell.
• Voice – A – Excellent sense of style.
• Characters – B – Such a unique set of characters, especially compared to what we usually get in anime.
• Attention Grab – B – Kept my interest throughout.
• Production – B – Looking good.
• Ending – F
• Overall – C-

Recommendations – Baccano, Black Lagoon, Samurai Champloo