Review of Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Ikebukuro West Gate Park (IWGP) was one anime I was really looking forward to watching. The synopsis sounded amazing. Quote: "Crime-ridden Ikebukuro is a haven for violent gangs, the Yakuza, and home to Makoto Majima -- when a rising tide of violence results in Makoto losing a loved one, can he ride out the storm, or will he drown in all the spilled blood that floods his streets?" Does that not sound amazing? Gang warfare, intrigue, mystery, blood and violence. Complicated criminal and gang activities while following the perspective of a 3rd party. And while there were certainly moments that had aspects of this, they're incrediblywatered down. To the point of near non-existence. And what little there was had such wasted potential. It wasn't bad, but there's very little I could recommend. Very much style over substance, and it will not leave a lasting impression.
In summary, I would not recommend this anime. It's mediocre personified at best and a let down at worst. For a spoiler free explanation and recommendation for similar anime, please continue reading.
From what I understand, IWGP was an urban mystery novel produced in the late 90's. And again going by the synopsis I figured this sounds like a great premise for an anime. My major worry however came when I read the synopsis above, and saw the show with no rating (I believe this has since changed to PG-13). There was a massive disconnect to what was happening in the show and what the description of both the original novel and anime. Ultimately this had led to the disappointment that most will feel when thinking back on this show. This however was not the only negative I found when watching. The actual structure of the anime was in my opinion, lacking. For a 12 episode anime I was expecting rather tight story telling. But after finishing I feel like I've watched 9 episodes of fluff and filler (emphasis on the fluff as a lot of these episodes completely contradict the synopsis), and barely 3 episodes of the main story. And I say the story very loosely as most of it was pushed through in post episode narration. A lot of it was told at the end of an episode through exposition and flash forward. There was no time given to reflect or to think about what had happened and effects these may have. But worse is that most episodes had no lasting effect or any play in future episodes. It was very episodic in nature.
Further to this, it felt like the story was shrink-wrapped down and only the bare minimum was allowed to seep through the cracks. There is a wide cast of interesting looking characters. Perhaps in the novel these are expanded upon but in this show they are mostly for window dressing. I couldn't really tell you any of their names other than the MC, and even the ones that appear more regularly are not given any time to be fleshed out or explained. At most, they are just there to turn the tide over while the story is told around them. There was a lot of wasted potential here.
I wouldn't say the entire show was bad. The art direction was OK with interesting characters and the show had a catchy intro and outro. That being said I wouldn't say there was anything standout, and any BGM playing throughout the show is forgettable.
In all I was hoping for a lot more but in the end they were all dashed. I was hoping for an in-depth look at interesting characters in a gang warfare setting. There was very little of that latter and the parts we got to see were not that interesting. I was hoping that the episodic and sporadic nature of the show would come together for an amazing ending. While it did try to do that with the final 2 episodes, it again felt rushed and wasted compared to what it could have been.
I can not recommend this anime to anyone interested in it unless they have a lot of time, and even then I would likely say to watch something else. For an alternate recommendation I would go with:
Banana Fish - Similar setting with gang warfare and intrigue, but a slower paced feel giving you time to breathe. A much better fleshed out story and overall more enjoyable while hitting all the notes I was looking for.
Thank you for reading.