Gangsta.

Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo, known in the city of Ergastalum as the "Handymen," are mercenaries for hire who take on jobs no one else can handle. Contracted by powerful mob syndicates and police alike, the Handymen have to be ready and willing for anything. After completing the order of killing a local pimp, the Handymen add Alex Benedetto—a prostitute also designated for elimination—to their ranks to protect her from forces that want her gone from the decrepit hellhole of a city she has come to call home. However, this criminal’s paradise is undergoing a profound period of change that threatens to corrode the delicate balance of power.

Ergastalum was once a safe haven for "Twilights," super-human beings born as the result of a special drug but are now being hunted down by a fierce underground organization. This new threat is rising up to challenge everything the city stands for, and the Handymen will not be able to avoid this coming war.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Brown, Nicolas Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Arcangelo, Worick Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Benedetto, Alex Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Doug Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Ginger Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Adriano, Marco Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Cristiano Amodio, Loretta Supporting

Ueda, Kana Japanese

Delico Supporting

Hashizume, Tomohisa Japanese

Nina Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Paulklee, Gina Supporting

Sakakibara, Yoshiko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kouchiyama, Takashi Producer

Shioya, Yoshiyuki Producer

Nishide, Masayuki Producer

Reviews

Jan 10, 2026

Sousannah

Recommended

Gangsta. is a series that doesn’t sugarcoat anything and shows life as it is: raw, dirty, and brutal.
The characters are neither purely good nor purely evil — the series is a perfect example of true moral gray areas.

That is exactly what makes it so compelling to me. The characters feel human, broken, and contradictory, and for that very reason you want to stay with them. Each of them carries their own story, and you can sense that there is still so much left unsaid. After every episode, I wanted to learn more about them.

The art style and animation support this tone perfectly. Everything feels cohesive; ... nothing seems out of place or glossed over. Gangsta. is not a series that tries to please — it pulls you into its world and leaves a lasting impression.

It would be truly unfortunate if there were no second season. Not because everything is left unresolved, but because these characters deserve to have their stories continued. Even though it seems unlikely, I still hope for a continuation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 27, 2025

Aham_Anityah

Mixed Feelings

Gangsta is an anime that left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I genuinely loved its unique blend of crime, politics, and supernatural elements, which gives the mafia genre a fresh and stylish twist. Set in the lawless city of Ergastalum, the show introduces a world filled with power struggles, discrimination, and morally ambiguous characters. Right from the first episode, I was captivated by its striking visuals, atmospheric cityscapes, and gritty noir aesthetic. The character designs were sharp and memorable, perfectly complementing the bleak, violent tone of the series.

However, as I kept watching, it became clear to me that Gangsta doesn’t fully realize its ... potential. The world-building, while intriguing, felt frustratingly underdeveloped. I constantly found myself wanting to know more about the city’s factions, politics, and history, but the show only offered vague hints. It introduced interesting ideas but never expanded on them, which left me feeling disconnected from the larger conflict.

The power system was another missed opportunity. The concept of the Celebrer drug and the genetically enhanced Twilights was fascinating at first, but the Twilight ranking system (D to S) felt disappointingly generic. It reduced many of the fights to predictable power scaling, which made them feel formulaic rather than creative or intense. The action sequences themselves started off strong, but as the series went on, the noticeable decline in animation quality made the battles feel less impactful.

Narratively, I was genuinely invested in the early episodes. But in the second half, the pacing started to fall apart. The story rushed through events, introducing a flood of new characters and plotlines without giving them the development they deserved. Even the main trio, Worick, Nicolas, and Alex, despite having compelling backstories and emotional struggles, felt somewhat underexplored due to the limited focus on their arcs.

What disappointed me was how Gangsta only scratched the surface of its themes. It had the potential to explore discrimination, power, corruption, and trauma in meaningful ways, but it never really went beyond a surface level depiction. By the time the anime ended abruptly, on a cliffhanger, it felt incomplete and unsatisfying. Knowing there’s no second season only made it more frustrating.

Ultimately, Gangsta offers a stylish and intriguing crime-noir world with strong initial appeal, but the rushed pacing, underdeveloped world-building and character and lack of narrative payoff prevent it from reaching its full potential. With more episodes or better pacing, it could have been a far more impactful and memorable series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Dec 24, 2020

ajbutterfly

Not Recommended

Since when did Shounen with dark colour tones come to be categorized as Seinen?

Tell me if this sounds familiar- a guy unloved since childhood, hated even by peers and teammates, has an incredible power within him and lives his life as a weapon. He finds one person who shows him compassion/kindness and treats him as a human rather than a living weapon and actually loves him. The Weapon becomes indebted to the kind one for life and stays unquestionably loyal to him. The Weapon while being an efficient cold-blooded killer in all respects still has a child-like personality simply because he can play with ... children or get scolded by the elderly. He is committed to the "greater good" and even though is often faced with foes much stronger than him pushes himself to his limits to win and save the day.

Gangsta. is anything but gangsta. It is the same old bullshit that shounen anime has championed for generations. The show could have seriously gained from delving into the background of the Tags- why the Cerebrers were invented, how they were used, how the tags were commissioned, who were selected for becoming Tags, why so many Twilights came and settled in Ergastulum, the situation of Twilights outside Ergastulum, why the 3 laws came into being, and the obvious existence of other tags for secret governmental missions. The series doesn't even get into the history of Ergastulum and its crime families, something that would have been crucial to understanding the conflicts which escalate in the later episodes. The Esminets are plain gimmicky stereotypes of characters (btw no background on them either). It keeps on setting up more and more things without any of it adding up to anything. After keeping up the pretense of a plot for 6 episodes by the 7th episode it starts delving increasingly into Shounen territory and by the 9th deep dives into full-on bullshit with the shit getting smellier with each succeeding episode. They even fail to explore the prejudices and hatred people harbor for the Twilights, as if the only threat marginalized communities face is that of direct massacres. And can we get over the romanticizing of the Mafia already?

The character design though is on point, if only at a visual level. So trailers and AMVs should look good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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