Closure, what’s that? No seriously, we’re getting none of that. You would have had no way of guessing this was the last episode of the season. It resolves nothing, it answers nothing, it reads like any other episode. Also, we know the company that produced it went bankrupt and is going out of business so….hell if I know if we’re even going to get a second season!
At least the manga is being published in English for anyone who really wants to follow the story. All of that being said, I suppose we should pause one last time and take a look at this episode of Gangsta.
The episode opens with Alex having dreams of her life. Her mother killed by Tags, selling herself to Barry to support her family. Her brother begging her not to go. Meeting with Nicolas. As she wakes up, she wants to know if her and Nicolas had met before. I think what i’m getting from this is that he might be the Twilight that killed her mother?
I might be wrong, not that we get a chance to explore that as Nicolas is reigned in to be a bodyguard for the young miss Integra Hellsing…er, Cristiano. How I hadn’t made this comparison before now is a wonder to me, though as she pulled back her hair and really got into ‘boss’ mode. I saw the similarities. Just as her underling saw her father in her in that moment.
Worick is in the Monroe’s mansion and it’s under attack by the Twilight hunter that he bumped into on the streets a little while back. I have to say, the step up they had in that office was pretty damn clever. If they were against any normal? Trapping the door with guns would of killed them for sure, if Worick’s hanging out, outside the window trick didn’t.
They tossle and in the end, well, Worick gets stabbed but manages to hit the guy with what I think was two downers. Which should put him out for a bit, but not before he throws Worick out the window. We’re pretty much led to believe that Worick is dead.
I didn’t buy into that for a second.
The important thing to note in this episode is everyone’s concern for Constance. She seems like a good girl, so I’m hoping that whatever body Mikhail was ripping up near the end of the episode was not her. I don’t think he’d be ripping up a normal like that, but I wouldn’t put anything past this show honestly.
This episode was good…the problem here is, this is the end. As I said in the beginning, it gives us no closure what so ever. So I guess it’s on to the final impressions.
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Final Impressions
I was late on the Gangsta train. I don’t think I would of watched it at all without Oki vouching for it. My first reaction? Was along the lines of “Boy, this show will be amazing once it’s dubbed.” because the style, the tones and even the characters seemed a lot more fit to an English language setting. My second reaction was something along the lines of ‘A deaf main character? That’s amazing.’ after spending the first half of episode one thinking that Nicolas was an asshole for not picking up the phone.
In the end, I settled on this. I really liked these characters, in particular. I liked Worick, Nicolas and Alex. They were this series strength.
This series weakness lies in the fact that while they were tied into the conflict they were not the center of it. On it’s own, that wouldn’t be so bad, but it was twelve episodes to introduce us to a grand plot which was much bigger then the time frame they were given to tell it in. I still don’t know half the names of the members of the gangs.
Characters like the police officers got a lot less focus then I would of like. While Dr. Theo got some interesting things in the series. He still wasn’t as important as I would of enjoyed. A gang war, much less one centralized on such important topics as the survival of an entire class of people is a huge story. Much larger then 12 episodes gives you.
I mentioned earlier that Manglobe studios filed for Bankruptcy and that leaves us with no promised future for Gangsta. The manga is being published in the States so that’s good for American fans, but it still leaves us with a rocky anime future. We also have the dub that Funimation is putting out. Which sounds pretty solid so far. While I’m not a fan of the entire cast for the most part it sounds really good.
In particular Ian’s Worick is sexy…
Well anyway, all we can do is hope for more anime. Who knows for now. We’ll just have to hold our breathes and pray. I hope to see more of Gangsta, it had a lot of potential that I feel will be wasted if we end it here. Resolution? What’s that!?
~Midnight
RIP Manglobe. 🙁