Review of Gangsta.
Don't pay any mind to any of the other clearly-misguided reviews on this particular anime that are ranking it so low. The only thing, and I mean ONLY thing wrong with this anime is the length and where it abruptly ends. It was quite clear the company ran out of money by the last couple of episodes. This is potentially a story that could have gone on as long as Monster or Rurouni Kenshin and still stayed interesting, but it didn't. Both of the main characters are older, neither of them having internal psychological wars with themselves as to whether or not theyshould do what they're going to do. They both have a general sense of purpose that is completely lacking in so many typical Shounen animes of today. The main characters are clearly friends, with deep backstories and a believable friendship that makes itself persistently obvious over the course of 12 episodes.
The dub is great, one of the main characters is deaf but it is voiced so extremely well that I REALLY liked this difference in the overall cast setup. For once the characters are actually older than me too, in their mid+ 30s. Their friendship is organic and believable, the terms of their coming together is both rich and deep. Very easy to sympathize and see why they became friends over the course of watching the first season.
The feminazis might have an issue with this show, as it starts out with the classic stereotypically fan-service stacked females, one of which is saved from a life of prostitution and rescued by these darker 'knights in shining armor'. It develops quickly though. Everyone's a jiggalo, not just the females, which I think serves to even the Feminist playing field. The chick still gets stuck with the role of helpless secretary / nanny (she gets stuck with taking care of a baby in one episode).
The story is your classic "born a certain power-level, get stronger and push your power level higher by defeating stronger foes and/or overdosing on a drug". It's still quite good and fits with the overall atmosphere. The backstory is great, from what I got of the first season, but incomplete. A lot of unanswered questions / content for at least one extra future season. Hopefully they'll bring it back. I'll give it a 7.5 until then, although with another season this show could easily be another Cowboy Beebop.. with much less digression from the overall storyline.
Overall 9/10 - I do recommend. It's like samurai x meets DBZ meets something dark with medium-strong sexual undertones.