Review of Gangsta.

READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE WATCHING, I will elaborate as to why later but this is for your own good, trust me. Gangsta is NOT a finished product. It is a sample platter of a dish that will never come out. When Gangsta was airing, I was interested but never got around to watching it until now, and I must say, it's a bittersweet tale. I went in knowing nothing except what I knew about it, what, 6-7 years ago? Of course, after viewing, with the "ending" the anime has, I HAD to look into it. Apparently, the studio adapting Gangsta, Manglobe,was down to its last dollar and after Gangsta, they closed down. But that's okay, we'd just be waiting until some other studio can get rights to adapt it or whatever, right? I mean, it's not uncommon for different studios to do different seasons of the same continuity, right? Well, not so fast, because there's another bump in the road, or perhaps it's more accurate to call it a wall. The author of the manga has lupus and it has greatly impacted her ability to work. It's been about 4 years since any progress on the manga seems to have been made, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. I wish her all the best, and it would be great if she was healthy enough to work on it more, but for the purposes of this review, this is your fair warning that the series is more or less over.

All that said, I still find compelling reasons to check this series out. This recommendation comes with many caveats, and the first one is that if you expect resolution in any capacity, drop this and don't look back. There are more warnings that I will give but I hope you'll read til the end before making your final decision. First of all, in addition to the story not having an ending, there is a presentation issue: the story progresses slowly, and large swaths of what you are shown is backstory and flashbacks, in a wholly unsatisfying manner that is frustrating when you aren't even clear on the what and why of the action you are currently seeing, only for the show to yank your head to look at some stuff that happened way back in the past with characters you still don't know. However, the story unfolds slowly enough that you will get a sufficient understanding of who the main characters are now before it starts tugging you around, so there's at least some room for you to get a foothold and immerse yourself before the ill-planned presentation of the story starts pulling your focus around left and right. Further compounding this, you will no doubt roll your eyes at so many cliches and archetypes that the characters fall into. Even though I think the more important players in the show eventually get enough of their own identity to transcend their archetypal roles and relationships, even just a little, you will definitely have seen many of their specific traits, personalities, relationships, developments, and arcs in other shows. I'd urge you to stomach it because eventually, they can warm to you and you can overlook these tropified introductions, but if you want strong, unique, novel characters or story beats, I'm afraid this is the second barrier to enjoyment that will alienate another chunk of people.

Now, let's talk about the audiovisual components. First off, the visual design of the show is probably the biggest reason you're still here. If it looked ugly, I doubt you'd tolerate any of the above. The characters and still shots of everything look great. It's definitely a strength of the show. The animation, however, is rather hit or miss. There are times where it's intense, fast, and energetic, but there are also times where it's lethargic, looking very much like the efforts of a studio going through a budget crisis. I don't know how much is laziness, incompetence, or just lack of resources in time & money, but it must still be said that you will notice varying degrees of quality. It was never enough that I thought it looked like shit, but there were a couple moments toward the end of the show where I remarked in my head that it was looking a little slideshow-y. The sound is serviceable, I can't recall anything that stood out negatively, but there was a small moment that made me appreciate this show a little more, and that is Alex's VA. There's a part midway through where she sings, and normally, I'm one to fast forward through singing because it makes my skin crawl. For example, in Kakegurui, when that one Momobami clan girl sings Amazing Grace, I was rolling around cringing to death until it was over. However, here, the singing is gracefully implemented into the story, performed very well (not light praise coming from me,) and the selection itself is something gentle and understated in the grand scheme of things. They don't have her belting out a pop song or done to death license-free song. It's not as grand as I make it out to be but when you're expecting the worst, it being even just decent goes a long way. Overall, I don't think anything in the sights or sound will make you want to give this up if you stomached the story and the character flaws, but be aware that if you just want the greatest action scenes ever, here's the last barrier.

So if the story is in large part missing, the characters are tropey, the animation is inconsistent, and there is next to no hope of it answering anything, you must be asking why the hell I'm even recommending this. That je ne sais quoi that makes me still look at this show positively is the world-building; the immersion that comes with an open ended story, with a broad cast of diverse characters, systems that only work in this world, and endless possibilities to dream. It's the kind of setting and story that you can dream about, write conclusions to in your head, take it in any direction you want. The lasting appeal of Gangsta is something that very few people will likely appreciate, but if you think that at all sounds enticing, I do recommend checking this out and reading the manga as far as it goes after. For those with trepidation, I don't think this is the kind of series that you can give an episode or three to see if you like it because the more you watch, the warmer reception you'll have. If anything I've mentioned is an absolute dealbreaker, go ahead and drop it, but if you think you can look past the numerous, numerous flaws, I think you'll find something nice to chew on with Gangsta.