Three Laws of Robotics Twilights.
Gangster thriller doesn't appear as a typical genre of Japanese animation, because it usually requires a presence of serious drama, realistic depiction, adult characters, and much more.
In this field you can emphasize shows like Gungrave, Black Lagoon, Jormungand and perhaps that's all. But if the latest was released in 2012 then two previous were released 10 years ago(plus/minus). It seemed that we can put a cross to this genre but a rather well-known studio Manglobe decided to prove the opposite, and released the anime series Gangsta in 2015 - an adaptation of the manga with the same title.
Many people waited for the series, because of finally grown heroes, gloomy atmosphere, serious plot and of even more that could have been red about the story on lots of forums. But the show is over and it's time to sum up whether they put up a good show, outdo the other works on this theme or at least did not strike the mud with the face? Unfortunately no. But first things first.
It starts quite well, not without disadvantages in terms of animation though. But not a big deal, can hang on, cause of unusual characters and the setting, which is not so worn out, will hang on.
And the characters are indeed unusual.
Worick - one-eyed man of about 30. At first glance, humorist, but at the right moments gets serious. Also noteworthy for the side job of a gigolo within his spare from the orders time.
Nicolas - an antipode of his partner. Basically quite gloomy personality, but sometimes he is not averse to joke. However, the main feature is that he is deaf and therefore predominantly communicates using sign language. Well, very untypical.
And Alex - a doxy that was saved by Warrick and Nicholas in the first episode.
Seemed like, author could just invent a ton of interesting situations for the characters and reveal them as was done in the same Black Lagoon. But no, apparently the author of the manga had found that boring. That's why it was necessary to include a bunch of mystics and drain off all the good things in the toilet.
Besides, the situation is similar to what was happening in Gungrave except that there was pushed a precisely gangster story line during which the viewer was attached to the heroes. That's what was the reason to look beyond all that trash. And what about Gangsta? Unfortunately no. Yes, Worick and Nicolas are interesting characters, somehow very similar to Harry and Brandon from the Grave. But Worick lacks that incredible charisma of Harry MacDowel, and silent Nicolas is a much more mysterious person than a silent Brandon, who is revealed through his thoughts.
So it turns out that when the battles with various Usual Japanese Students equiped with piercing-cutting objects, who jump on the vertical walls like superheroes and cut mafioso's packs alone, substitutes mafia's showdowns, the series can be safely sent to the scrap. Another thing that is pouring oil on flames is that the plot develops extremely slowly and informational content of series is very very small. Everything is so slow, that viewer practically falls asleep.
But that's not all. Despite its record quantity of decent work with quality graphics, Manglobe obviously decided not to strain here. And if the graphics quality of first 5 episodes is more or less acceptable, then begins a nightmare. Curved eyes, distorted faces, mouths on the side of the faces. And it would have been okay, if that was portrayed the background characters, but nevertheless. Sometimes you can guess who of the characters is in the picture only by clothing or hair. Sometimes it was just physically painful to look at the characters, how crooked they are drawn. The same Alex, for example, is drawn crooked during entire series, besides in in each frame. There is nothing special to say about the music, something was playing on the background, but somehow I do not even remember.
Total, pretty mediocre series about superheroes, which then tries to look as a serious gangster thriller with a seamy side. What for? Unclear...
6/10 - for interesting protagonists, dubber, that voiced Nicolas and screensavers, at the end of the episode, on which, apparently, the entire budget was spent.
