Gangsta. – 03

I really don’t understand Mangalobe’s thinking on this changes, for you see this episode was an adaption of the second chapter in the manga. I don’t see the reason why they felt that they needed to mix around the order of these episodes but I suppose it’s no harm done. To be honest I found this episode to be far more entertaining than the action episode of last week. This episode mainly acted as a character development episode for Worick, where we learn he was abducted by Nicholas after he killed his parents. There definitely feels like a lot missing from the point where Worick and Nicholas became friends but at least it shows just how much the city changed him. The underlying point being that this city is the kind of place that once you become used to it, you will find it difficult to leave. Alex is really playing the same role as Rock in Black Lagoon, being a relatively normal person thrown into a crime filled place. But she shares a strange connection with Worick seeing as both were forced into prostitution.

Their thoughts are quite different however as Alex greatly resents her occupation whereas Worick thinks nothing of it. But one really telling thing was just how angry he got when Nicholas was brought into the conversation. His client seems to desire a less professional relationship while Worick keeps his distance but when she suggested a threesome with Nicholas he got quite irritated with her. And when someone mocked him for being his friend Worick got downright murderous. There’s a disconnect here as with the opening scene it was shown that Nicholas threw him into this world after killing his parents so why is it that Worick regards him so well when by all accounts he has every reason to resent him?

Another part of this episode was Alex and Nicholas making deliveries of what looks to be drugs for these people known as Twilights. A decent way of introducing the main players of the town who will likely play a much bigger part in things to come. It really pointed out how abnormal this town was as Nicholas was having fairly normal conversations as people were getting shot dead in front of him. Seeing Nicholas interact with people in general was quite interesting, as deaf characters in anime are rare. Generally he tries to avoid talking as much as possible hence his character has a lot of body language in the animation. Alex seems at a loss on how to interact with him and it’s actually a flaw on the animators part to have her say in the episode that she was afraid of him yet here she doesn’t seem all that threatened by him. Though Nicholas doesn’t look to like her very much and a lot of his interaction looks like he’s just putting up with her for Woricks sake.Also on the matter of Nicholas it seems the dying girl at the brothel they were delivering drugs to has some connection to him. All and all we have lots of setup this episode and that’s good. Three episodes in and Gangsta is proving to be a solid show, more so than Jormungand the other Black Lagoon styled show. I really need to come up with some sort of term for these kinds of shows as I am sure the Black lagoon comparison is getting worn out.