Gangsta.

Set in the city of Ergastulum, two Handymen take on criminals both the police and the underground cannot handle. Partners Worick Arcangelo and Nicolas Brown are the go-to guys of the cops and the mafia. Worick is the charismatic brains of the duo, while the deaf Nicolas acts as the muscleman.

Underneath the intrigues of Ergastulum's gangs lies the mystery of the Twilight, humans who possess extraordinary abilities through the use of a drug called Celebrer. These super-humans are ranked and identified through dog tags. Nicolas wears an A/0 tag.

Meanwhile, from across the Handymen's office and residence lives the prostitute Alex Benedetto. Worick and Nicolas are both aware of Alex's wretched condition. The Handymen decided to take her in when her abusive lover died.

Nicolas Brown

Worick Arcangelo

The Handymen

Alex Benedetto

The first thing you'll notice about this series is its great animation. The choice of the voice actors was also a factor why I had to watch it. Suwabe Junichi (Worick) and Tsuda Kenjirou (Nicolas) have two of the sexiest voices in the industry.

With a title like that you'd expect a lot action, guns, drugs and prostitutes, intrigues and crimes. Gangsta. fulfilled all such expectations so much so that you can feel the desperation and the anticipation of violence. Despite that, there are moments in the series when nothing seems to happen. Sometimes you forget what it's all about, if there was any point to the story at all. The intervals between action scenes and dialogues tend to lull you almost to boredom.

When it finally showed the back story of Worick and Nicolas, the series got more interesting. However, the story about the Twilights wasn't fully explored and the ending posed more questions than answers.

Rating: 6 out of 10