
I have seen not that many titles with well portrayed disabilities in manga before stumbling upon Gangsta. I must hurry to say, before I start the real part of the review - the characters' build-up, personality wise, is amazing and well paced. Nothing feels too out of the blue or too rushed. Now, let's begin!
Plot: The story is put through the psychological lenses, so, whoever enjoys dark and angsty titles - that's your pick. The main character, and actually my favorite one, Nicolas Brown, is a deaf man. The plot, somewhat, portrays how human and how inhuman one community, society - if you will, can be. So, within such a cruel world, the manga-ka tried to develop a character with sort of a disability - a man who is as fragile as strong he appears to be. But if we dive even deeper, beyond the obvious, you will notice that the manga actually goes further than just portraying just one disability. So to say, the author showed that with or without disability - we all can break. That masterpiece reminds me of one well-known, rhetorical question - "Are monsters born, or created?" Overall, I would rate the plot with an 8 out of 10. I hardly ever give 10/10, but if only the author deepened the character's development, by that I mean diving deeper into the world of disability and the ups and downs with it, I would probably rate it higher!
Characters' Design: Well, from body language, whoever follows that in manga knows what I mean, to creation of atmosphere around the character - everything is well thought up and nothing is done on the spur of the moment. I would rate the style and design of the characters really high, I would give it 9/10. The idea, the details, the psychology hidden in the body language - just superb! I also like that the design doesn't focus on outer appearance (e.g. clothes, accessories etc.) but on inward appearance (e.g. personality, values, ideas etc.)
Art Style: Well, it's not my typical pick. Because I am into pretty/beautiful art, which you mostly get either in BL or in shoujo genre - duh, but I have to give the applause. The art is really good. Well, through the eyes of someone who ogles at guys with hot bodies, damn Nicolas and Worick. The joke aside. I must apologize but I am really picky when it comes to art, thus I can't give anything over 7. My rating on art is 7 out of 10.
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