Review of Gangsta.

Since when did Shounen with dark colour tones come to be categorized as Seinen? Tell me if this sounds familiar- a guy unloved since childhood, hated even by peers and teammates, has an incredible power within him and lives his life as a weapon. He finds one person who shows him compassion/kindness and treats him as a human rather than a living weapon and actually loves him. The Weapon becomes indebted to the kind one for life and stays unquestionably loyal to him. The Weapon while being an efficient cold-blooded killer in all respects still has a child-like personality simply because he can play withchildren or get scolded by the elderly. He is committed to the "greater good" and even though is often faced with foes much stronger than him pushes himself to his limits to win and save the day.

Gangsta. is anything but gangsta. It is the same old bullshit that shounen anime has championed for generations. The show could have seriously gained from delving into the background of the Tags- why the Cerebrers were invented, how they were used, how the tags were commissioned, who were selected for becoming Tags, why so many Twilights came and settled in Ergastulum, the situation of Twilights outside Ergastulum, why the 3 laws came into being, and the obvious existence of other tags for secret governmental missions. The series doesn't even get into the history of Ergastulum and its crime families, something that would have been crucial to understanding the conflicts which escalate in the later episodes. The Esminets are plain gimmicky stereotypes of characters (btw no background on them either). It keeps on setting up more and more things without any of it adding up to anything. After keeping up the pretense of a plot for 6 episodes by the 7th episode it starts delving increasingly into Shounen territory and by the 9th deep dives into full-on bullshit with the shit getting smellier with each succeeding episode. They even fail to explore the prejudices and hatred people harbor for the Twilights, as if the only threat marginalized communities face is that of direct massacres. And can we get over the romanticizing of the Mafia already?

The character design though is on point, if only at a visual level. So trailers and AMVs should look good.