Reviews

Jul 3, 2016
Mixed Feelings
Preliminary (5/12 eps)
Story: It is your generic shounen. Characters with a jargon name that have super powers. Here they are called "tags" because of the specially marked dog tags they wear. The story presents itself as if it was a fusion between Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Shamploo and Gungrave. Gungrave because "tags" need medicine to survive and there is a silent protagonist who is exceptionally skilled among his peers due to dedication. Samurai Champloo because of the black girl in the show who would best be described as a blank slate happening to live among two high-spirited, skillful warriors. Cowboy Bebop because of the emphasis on not following a serious plot and being more like a travel experience, minus the fact that the setting in this anime does not change much - it is a much more local aesthetic.

Take all of those attributes together and you basically get trash that looks good at first. The story seems like it could get interesting, but nothing is ever deep enough to catch your attention completely. Eventually you realize that the world is extremely generic because it runs just like any other gangster show with the fanfiction-level twist that there are super powers involved. The writing in general approaches fanfiction levels because it does not feel like it was making its own story. It seems to just be built out of empty templates of other animes and dramas that the people producing the work has seen. Even if Gangsta. probably was aiming for the generic angle, it slips too far away into fantasy to feel like its urban environment and the authentic experiences produced really matter at all when the story gets to its most important moments. It resembles a highly traditional good guys vs. bad guys narrative where stronger and stronger opponents are sent to them by a mysterious enemy and it is so poorly put together that it feels like that is the fake part of the anime and the buildup sections are the real thing.

Art: The two man characters have nice expressive designs. The third main character has a terribly bland design and she moves in a stiff way, which makes me easily realize how boring this show actually is. It sounds weird, but art can do something like that. There was a lolita character who is designed quite well.

Sound: Expertly done voices, especially the deaf guy and the lolita girl. The soundtrack is really daring and takes center stage throughout. The opening and ending themes are really good, but I am not sure if they are among the best. Sound effects are nothing I remember vividly, but I think they might have been exceptionally good at times.

Character: The only character I liked was the lolita girl. She is someone I can identify with. Maybe it is just because I am a lolita at heart would enjoy being with criminals. She also is very smart for her age and it is interesting to think of what she might do as a professor's assistant. Not to mention how forward she was with trying to help Miss Blankslate understand the world better.

Enjoyment: Not really enjoyable. The fight scenes were very typical. The scenes about getting requests for errands and things like that were decent at first, but the fact that the action itself was boring ruined that solid acting and cinematography.

Overall ------ 5 ----- Mediocre
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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