Review of Ikebukuro West Gate Park

A walk in the park : Ikebukuro West Gate Park is your typical hard-to-rate anime. You won't easily find much to say about its execution, which might lacks a bit, ... but not that much either. There are not that many flaws in that show, despite a lot of targeted critiscisms. To me, it raises the question whether this anime is a potential victim to the expectations it seemingly pushed on its viewers. So when these expecations are not met, this anime suffers. Truth to be told, it's a bit unfair to the whole story of the show. It's entertaining, in its own way, and without exactlyrelying in a deluge of blood splatters for a change.
It might come a bit weak (around the corners) for the mystery genre, but I still think it was able to provide some interesting interlaced links between all episodes that reminds me some movies with a similar narration.
I can only think of 2 things at times that can get a bit cringing : the overwhelming kind feelings of the supposedly
"not-so-kind" main character that "pretends to be a nice guy" (especially when he's really a nice guy and it's not even
a debate, seriously). And the relative ease in which a kid has so many connections that even the police is at his beck and call. Apart from this, this anime is still an easy recommandation, providing a nice story as long as you go with the flow.