Gangsta. (yep, it is written with a dot) is a manga belonging to seinen demography (young adult), halfway between noir and science-ficiton. As at home we have subscribed to a monthly offer of series and films, I decided to give it an opportunity. Furthermore, I have spent some years far from anime. This series tells the story of Worick and Nic, a pair of punks to rent from Ergastulum, a prototypical noir city that would never appear in a tourist guide. Nic has superhuman strength because he is a twilight (the Spanish dub maintains this name), suffering however a reduced life expectance (so, "twilights") and certain physicald effects, Nic is himself deaf. I didn't find it a bad idea, but while I was watching it, I noticed everything I explain hereafter. While I don't spoil the whole plot, maybe some readers won't like reading it if the prefer watching the series before.
Plot finishes on a cliffhanger
The relation between comic and animation is interesting. In Japan there is a strong tendence to transform in series or film every succesful comic (and even video games). In that place called West, a term that is a pretty broad generalization, isn't the case. In fact, it can be said that, from some decades ago, Western comic has lost the popoularity it enjoyed in other times, which has made it to become specialized. In other words, it has abadoned mainstream. The proof relies on the medium difficulty to name a recent and popular comic not belonging to a publication that started quite a lot of decades ago.Very likely, that comic will have an animated adaptation that has made it famous. Franco-Belgian comics in francophone countries are the only exception.
About animation, it is sometimes said with a bit of sarcasm that in the West the only valid paradigm was Disney-Pixar for all audiences, while the one not addressed to children (be aware that I am not saying adult) is either The Simpsons and its clones (also known as "Seth McFarlane's series") or South Park and its clones. There have been others, of course, but they were generally minoritary. Nowadays, we can enjoy Adventure Time, Avatar, Bojack Horseman and Rick & Morty.
In the case of animated adaptations from reknown comics, there have been both good and bad. The series of Batman: The Animation Series is revered and the classic Peanuts adaptation was also pretty good, while other adaptations have been pretty unsucessful, so I shall not mention them here. In other countries, such as France or Spain, it was the same case, sometimes almost better than the original.
Anyway, one of the clearest features of Western adaptations is the independence of plot and related stuff. It is somewhat obvious when the original work has been running for some decades, who could adapt so much material? But in Japan it is not usually the case, actually adaptations follow the progression of the comic plot almost to the letter. For two reasons:
-Japan is the model of a consumist country. It shows a clear tendence to rate novelty over almost every other consideration. So, as a general rule, adaptations won't wait until the comic has finished or at the least there is enough material to do a good adaptation, but the latter is considered another way of advertising.
-The studio is not always working with all their efforts in the project. It is unknown both when it will finish and the plot is not conveniently adapted.
And, here, at the least it has been the latter: the story suddenly gets cut when the city of Ergastulum is at the break of a civil war with genocide rising. Who knows how it will finish! The creators consider that, in the scenario where the series doesn't continue, credit for the comic is guaranteed... But from a perspective of the series like an independent artistic work, it can't be more pathetic.
Of course, it could be argued that an original series may cease suddenly, may it be animation or not... But in Japanese animation it has become the norm. Only adaptated films offer really conclusive plots, due to force majeure.
Another possibility is the author's pressure: comic authors can be almost as intolerant as novelists with a speech bubble, as there are no commas, being removed from their original work. A disaster anyway.
Characters' construction
A topic to create an edgy character is developing a tragic past (that was my first option to name this section). As this anime is a bit noir, it is not strange. And be aware, this is not necessarily bad. The problem appears when it is the only thing that the character has. It is the case of the deuteragonists, with the too familiar revenge, with neither their relation being original nor developed in a convincing way, too. Maybe the comic has more, but it isn't here. Indeed, their present lives are more interesting, Worick himself is a gigolo in his spare time (it must be admitted this is pretty a novelty).
Then it is Alex, the typical good-hearted whore exploited by a wretched guy; doctor Theo, who wants to ve independent and help anybody (Damned Japanese and their lack of social security!), officer Adkins, the only honest policeman who has to work in a city ruled by four crime syndicates; and others like that.
Now we must talk about young girls. It happens that Gangsta. features two very young girls... and at the least one case is slightly weird. I don't find Loretta Christiano, leader, after her parent's death, of the most benevolent syndicate among those that handle Ergastulum business, strange. I do find Nina, doctor Theo's nurse/apprentice, strange. Maybe it's me, but I would say she is horribly young.
She is. The wikia says she is twelve.
I can imagine that Ergastulum may lack public education (Maybe even one compulsory!), but it still surprises me. She may be gifted and that's why she is learning medicine at such an early age, but I can't give up on the suspicion that it's an excuse to present a loli... Anyway, at the least plot doesn't sexualize her innecessarily (I shall speak of that later).
It isn't like that for Loretta, who in a given moment puts off her clothes in a room with some of his hitmen because she decides so, when she could have gone into another room and changed clothes calm, without making a scene.
About the themes, we've said that in this world there are superhuman beings called twilights. They appeared after certain war that is only mentioned superficially, in what certain serum was tested to obtain soldiers doted with superstrength. It was too successful, as the doped subjects suffered mutations and the effects got permanent, transmitted also to their descendence. Like Marvel mutants, they face discrimination and racial purists. In fact, Ergastulum looks like Genosha, because in the past twilights were enslaved until, after various riots, being given their freedom back. This point is treated with correction, though they could have used less time to explain it. Furthermore, as the series finishes suddenly in chapter 12, we don't know the exact circumstances of this manumission.
That said, it's fair to state that Nic's deafness defines him as a character and is useful to expose the communication problems between him and Alex.
Irregular animation
And we use the term in its most primary meaning: lacking regularity. Some chapters show a high level in animation and others are pitiful even for a simple background shift. The same happens for fights: two are animated in a pretty awesome way, but towards the ending everything is resolved by the hateful method of the frozen image and characters so fast that their movement isn't visible.
The frozen image is a bad technique that Japanese animation normally uses: it consists in showing the scene like in a comic, with nobody moving, sometimes not even camera. For adaptations, it isn't unheard to take a panel coloured for the occasion and, maybe, with some petty movements, but unchanged for the rest. And of course, it doesn't work. It creates a terrible feeling of cheapness. Some studios seem to believe that, as both animation and comic are drawn media, this technique is permitted, when they are different media. Good grief! THE NAME IS ANIMATION FOR VERY GOOD REASONS!
Fanservice
Let's first speak clear: I don't think fanservice is bad. No. Nein, non, niet, HELL NO! Indeed, I like it. I'm Spanish and, like most of Europeans, I'm more familiar with nudity, comical or not. In that sense, I have always been marveled by American puritanism around this point. Indeed, you can look for some recent censorship by Facebook of a historical magazine cover: when Marisol appeared naked on Interviú, which is very important for these reasons:
Here come two examples by Rumiko Takahashi, one of my favourite comic authors ever.
Why do I consider this scene well introduced? Simple: it happens in a damned public bath, and in public baths, people are naked. And here is the second, more illustrative because the horny guy is the monkeybuttt.
Nobody dislikes a sweet... The problem appears when nudity is present or breasts are mentioned when it isn't the best moment. One of the problems of manganime in the 90s was the continuous scenes in baths. Nowadays, nevertheless, even that excuse is ignored, remember waht I said about Loretta earlier. To top it all, in Gangsta. Alex can't speak to other women without being told that her rack is fantastic, except in two occasions. Maybe Ergastulum has a taboo against speaking about weather. It's even worse because Worick, representing male fanservice, makes it natural: in bed, when rain wets him or when he is changing clothes.
Spontaneity isn't exclusive for a gender. At the least, that's my opinion. But the worst, aggravating the innecessary fanservice, is the cowardice. There was a time when manganime only censored genitalia, but it must happen that, in order to make it acceptable for American audiences, they have adapted porn that isn't porn.
Witchblade almost encarnates the concept.
So, in Gangsta. we don't see nippes, but braless women whose whole breast is visible, escept for the nipple. Just observe the next example to finish this section.
Ridiculous, huh?
Action
Well, this story features superhuman guys: as a seinen, Gangsta. needs to explain their power within science-fiction. Here, people can neither fly nor spit beams through their mouths. Even twilights' awesome physical skills respect physics until some point: if a strong, but of slight weight, character is hit with enough strength, they will fly under the second law of Newton, even if unhurt. It is also nice to not see typical manganime bullshit such as "OMG! He's charging towards me with his dynamic ball-reversing blow of geez!".
Similar to Yū Yū Hakusho, twilights are classified in levels with letters and numbers. They're required to wear tags with the aforementioned level and their data, so they're also called tagged. Power levels as a narrative tool can be confusing sometimes, but it's fair to admit that they generally work. Furthermore, this level doen't exempt physical constitution: giants are usually strong for their level while dwarves are fast, specialized in stabbing with knifes while jumping and running around.
Of course, as a good anime, almost all twilights prefer using melee weapons in a goddamned world where handguns and rifles are present. It's OK when they face normal, standard people, it's cheaper, but it's a nonsense when they face another twilight.
To add salt to the wound, the twilight deuteragonist, Nic, is "Asian" (well, the Spanish dub says "asiático") and patrols the streets with a katana, which he rarely pulls away. I know this is a Japanese work and that they love their culture, but all the samurai/rōnin motiv is becoming a sad stereotype! Western heroes, I must say, show a wide range of weapons and tools.
But, hey, it could work... Then we find a supreme cliché: David and Goliath, featuring an enormous black guy (there is a bad tendence to represent all blackmen as enormous...). And the guy comes up saying about Nic:
"Bah! He's a dwarf."
And I thought: "This guy is thrashed". Well, you see, when the same motiv is used approximately one thousand times, it can be said it's very predictable. Of course, Nic wins from the moment his level is revealed to be higuer than the mountain's one. That said, I would lie if I said the fight is badly animated, as I would lie too if I said the same of other fight later. They're very likely the best animated bits in Gangsta., with the first chapter coming along.
But when reaching the end, everything becomes the same old archetypical plot where manganime seems to revel ad nauseam. First, we discover that Nic has a very high level because he has defeated very powerful foes, but, while fighting, is doped with the drug twilights need for their health... So he's really weaker. This is an already hateful mechanism: the main character always has transformations or objects that augment their strength during limited periods of time, al the cost of becoming weary later. However, their rival is always strong by himself, without needing to transform in supersaiyajin or whatever the hell. That's why some of us have a preference for Piccolo.
Maybe those weren't enough topics, so another, such a wild Pokémon, appears: a new kind of punks even stronger that twilights, without twilights' weaknesses. And, oh, the humanity!, they're worse than a novel by Dan Brown. It's lucky they only make their first appearance in the ninth chapter and there was little more, because I'm already too old for this nonsense. Because, I wonder, where is poor twilights' drama now?
This point could have been discussed in the former section of character's construction, but here it is better explained: lots of seinen aren't "adult" at all, their plots look a lot like Dragon Ball and One Piece, with junkies and whores making the only difference. Maybe the manga explains it, because in any case, as I said earlier, the plot is very badly adapted. When something fails, it isn't strange to see the rest of the work to get impaired
Conclusion
Gangsta. has very good points, such as a deaf main character: disabilities aren't always presented in manganime. The noir appeal is usually an inteligent election when a science-fiction story hasn't been thought to be speculative or social. Main characters aren't badly designed, too. Sadly, it's yet another case of the symptoms that Japanese animation industry suffers, lost in a stagnation of mannerisms and navel-gazing.
Notes: Images has been obtained from wikias of Gangsta., TV Tropes, Mangafox, Witchblade and YouTube, in that order.
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