Reviews

I am a fan of the Ikebukuro west gate park, the live series. It was amazing. Characters with actual personality, a very realistic approach to a social problem Japan used to have (the colour gangs), mental issues, illegal immigration, drugs, prostitution, relationships, hikikomori... All of those issues were very present in the series. I was so excited about it becoming an anime that I rewatched it for like the fifth time.
Turns out, I was excited for nothing. I can tell they were trying to adapt the series to the modern times and that's fine... But whoever wrote the script seems to have very little real life experience with the issues at hand. Probably not even second hand experience... I watched the whole thing expecting it to get better at some point... To be fair, it did get from an overall 1 to an overall 2.
Huge waste of time. It's the opposite of what the live action version was.
If gang series are your jam, you're better off watching the live series.