Gangsta

This is a review of Gangsta volume 1 by Kohske.
I gave this book ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 stars, I loved it.

In the city of Ergatstulum there are three mafia families that keep the peace.  Everyone is free to go about their shady business as they wish but the three families keep all out gang war from happening.  It is a dark city with a nasty underbelly full of dirty cops, murder, prostitution, violence, bloodshed and mercenaries.  There are also the mysterious enhanced humans called "Twilights" or "Tags."

Nic Brown and Worick Arcangelo are the Handymen.  They do jobs for the three families, the police and anyone who pays them.  They take the jobs that no one else wants or can handle.  Like taking down a fourth gang that is trying to mess with the peace or protecting an unaffiliated doctor from thugs.

Nic & Worick aren't saints by any means but so far they seem to have a sense of justice that they follow.  Nic is deaf and the way they treat that in this book is great.  No one treats him special or like he isn't capable of doing things for himself.  Worick is an interesting character.  He is funny, cheeky, flirtatious, handsy and a strange mix of noble.  He chose not to kill someone that he was supposed to and saved them instead.  He is violent and shoots people but he also reins Nic in and stops him from killing too many people.  Both of them have an unexplored past but hints have been made about it and I am interested to see what is revealed later.

This is being published as part of Viz Media's "Viz Signature" line.  It is a larger trim size and has some cool extra touches.  The gold foil on the cover is nice and I like the matte finish.  There is a color page at the beginning and some special extras at the end.  This book is rated M and it definitely deserves that rating, blood, violence and prostitution are very prevalent in this series.

I highly recommend this book.  If you enjoyed Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop or Jorgmungand you will enjoy this.  If you like a story with rich complex characters and violence doesn't turn you off this is a great series.  I am interested to see how the rest of it plays out.