Review of Gangsta.

Story: 1 Gangsta had a phenomenal beginning but unfortunately, quickly fell into a tedium which then deteriorated into a poor plot with little explanation. Unfortunately, gangsta did not live up to its initial hype. While the first episode was amazing as it provided a well balance between action and exposition which established to the audience as to what to expect: ultra violence and shady dealings. However, several episodes later, it still could not establish a plot and it really just became a “Gangsta no nichijou” or “The everyday lives of gangsta” at that point. When it does finally introduce a plot of some degree it’s so poorlyexecuted and explained that it may as well have been written by a primary schooler. Basically the plot becomes: a new organisation wants to overthrow the established powers. And the reason why this plot is poorly executed is that very little is explained to the audience and all we’re given is just a bunch of fight scenes between Twilights. So basically at this point it’s like watching two idiots slugging it at each other and waiting to see who falls down first.

The other problem is that, with whatever time it has left, it is spent explaining backstories of its characters. Not that there’s anything wrong with backstories, but having no developing plot means that I may as well be reading LoL character pages. In fact, reading LoL character pages is probably more enjoyable than watching several episodes of backstories. And lastly, the show fails to give any actual conclusion and everything is just left open, so open that that the audience is unable to imagine a conclusion because there isn't enough information.

All in all, the lack of an actual, gripping story which it tries to fill in with violence was what made this show become as disappointing as it did.

Art: 8
The character designs are alright, but the backgrounds really helped develop the mood and feel of the setting. The faded out, dull backgrounds helped establish a slum-like feel.

Sound: 8
The OP is exceptional, both visually and musically, the ED is alright but not as good as the OP. The BGM is nothing memorable and is often just forgotten in lieu of focusing on the fighting scenes.

Character: 9
Probably the forte of gangsta. Gangsta has been able to develop their characters quite well through dialogue and interaction scenes. We even get a good sense of support characters due to their characters actually being explored, as well as how they relate to both the main characters and other supports. However, one thing I cannot get over is Alex’s character. Her existence is utterly contrived and she adds very little to the story and even development of the main characters, even though she’s literally next to them most of the time. She seems to be some kind of emotion device in that we’re supposed to feel sorrow/empathy for her at certain scenes but it comes out so forced that they may as well have put a ‘feel sad here’ textbox in her stead.

Enjoyment: 4
If I had to rate the first episode alone, I’d have given it an 8. But as the series stretched on, it became clearer and clearer that it would be a mindlessly, nonsensically violent show that would rely more or less on its action scenes. The fights between twilight and gun users became stale after a few scenes as the gun users posed no threat. Twilights appear to move faster than bullets while the gun users seem to contain one of two traits: they either can’t aim or they take several decades to pull the trigger which allows the Twilight to throw stuff at them or just run up and slash them.

Overall: 5
I was really hoping that this would be an anime that would redeem this season’s collection of lacklustre titles. Unfortunately, the overreliance of blood and gore to excite viewers quickly wears off and the poorly contrived plot makes this show dismissable.