I’m glad I did, as although the anime is rather faithful to the manga, the art style really carries the manga. Becoming a little disappointed with the drop of art style in the anime, I decided to pick up the manga. I started with the anime first, not actually hearing about the manga till about half way through the series. Bundling these all together, it’s a fantastic way to draw the reader to the facial expressions, which is a big plus, as Nico is deaf and we rely a lot on his expressions to judge his emotions and thoughts. A lot of black is used for each character as well, drawing the eye to the face of the characters.

The character designs, as stated above, can come across as rushed, and with rather exaggerated propositions (hands, feet, noses, eyes, chests at times, and ears). Buildings are basic in design, but with just a few lines here and there we see that they are all worn, rudimentary shells, squashed together with alleyways intersecting everywhere. Generally, I dislike these styles, as I think them sloppy and rushed for a deadline, but here it adds another layer to the tone and setting. You can easily see that the style is split between rather basic drawn lines for buildings, rushed, almost sketching lines for the characters. This first page sets the tone for the entire manga, in both art style and the gritty depths of the story.

The story revolves around Nicolas ‘Nico’ Brown, and Worick Arcangelo, two ‘Handmen’ that are essentially guns for hire, doing odd jobs for citizens, cops and mafia families and their serendipitous encounters with the previously mentioned prostitute Alex Benedetto.Īs mentioned, the first chapter throws us in the middle of Alex being beaten by her pimp, which pans out to be just across the street from the Handyman building. This volume packs in five chapters, set in an alternate reality, in a city called Ergastulum (which we can agree is a mouthful for a name).

This is the start of Gangsta, an on-going manga series written and drawn by Konske, which started publishing in 2011. Opening the manga, you’re presented with a rather basic rendering of a town, then thrown right into the middle of a pimp beating his prostitute for not gaining enough clientele.

Gangsta vol 1