Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo work as handymen, mercenaries that will do anything for the right price. Working for the mob and police alike, they delve into the underbelly of the city, a place that was once haven for Twilights, people who were augmented by a special drug.
Gangsta is a series with much potential, but an accursed one. Production issues saw the anime stray off course and illness keeps its author from continuing the manga. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Gangsta, then head on down below.
Anime Like Gangsta
For Fans of Criminals
91 Days
Set during Prohibition, a man named Avilio returns to Lawless, a town famed for brewing illegal liquor, after the murder of his family by the mafia. A mysterious letter prompted him to return and infiltrate the Vanetti family to get his revenge. This anime tells the story of the 91 days leading to the tragic end between Avilio and Nero Vanetti, the Don’s son.
While Gangsta isn’t quite a mafia story, the earmarks of it are there. 91 Days is more of a traditional mafia story of revenge and shares similar themes of brotherhood with Gangsta. It’s gritty and violent, but 91 Days lacks any element of superpowers.
Gungrave
Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowel grew up on the streets together and both turned to crime in order to get by. However, when their activities are noticed by the eyes of the expansive Millennion mafia syndicate, the pair find themselves brought under their wings and rising through the ranks. Things go well until one fateful day that changes it all. Years later, Brandon Heat is brought back from the dead to fight Millennion and its new leader, Harry MacDowel.
Both series tell the story of two men bonded in crime that work together to make it in a hard and violent city. While it isn’t initially about augmented humans, Gungrave also develops an element of superhuman abilities later. While it also stresses brotherhood at first, it does later become a story of revenge.
Tokyo Revengers
For Takemichi Hanagaki, his second year of middle school was when he peaked. He had a small amount of respect as a thug, a loyal group of friends, and even a girlfriend. Fast forward twelve years later, and he is a single adult that can’t hold down a job. He has even found out that his middle school girlfriend was murdered by the vicious Tokyo Manji Gang. After an accident, he finds himself back in middle school and discovers that he can travel back and forth in time in order to help change his past and his future.
Tokyo Revengers is more shounen in tone, but still has a large emphasis on thuggery in a violent city like Gangsta. Furthermore, while not outright superhuman, the fights in Tokyo Revengers do often feel similar to Gangsta because shounen action does tend to over-embellish.
The Great Pretender
After life turned him down the path of crime, Makoto Edamura cockily thinks himself the best swindler in Japan. However, after trying to swindle a tourist only for the tourist to swap it back, he finds the police on his trail. Making his escape, he runs into this tourist again, a move that would take him all the way across the sea to Los Angeles. There, he learns that this tourist was in fact a man called Laurent Thierry, a successful confidence man, who wants to recruit him onto his team.
While Gangsta is more about crime through violence, The Great Pretender changes things up by being about crime done through heists and intricate plans. If you like the suave attitude and cleverness of Worick, much of the characters in The Great Pretender exude the same.
Jormungand
After being raised in a conflict area and living as a child soldier, Jonah hates weapons, but when he takes a job as a bodyguard to the arms dealer, Koko, he is left with no choice in the matter. Alongside a number of other skilled bodyguards, Jonah must protect Koko and her idealistic goal of world peace in a vicious world.
While less action-oriented, Jormungand full explores the criminal underworld through the guise of a clever arms dealer. If you enjoyed Gangsta for its creative variety of characters and its deep dive into the rougher element of a city, Jormungand can provide.
Michiko and Hatchin
For the fourth time, hardened criminal Michiko breaks out of a South American prison in order to search for a man from her past. This search leads her to the young Hana, a girl trapped under the thumb of her abusive foster family and daughter of the man Michiko is looking for. Breaking her out to lure out her father, the unlikely pair set off on their search, only to be embroiled in everything from betrayal to gang warfare.
Do you know how Alex added a certain boobilicious element to Gangsta? Michiko provides that to Michiko and Hatchin, while also having the attitude of Nicholas. Unlike Gangsta where the story follows them getting tied up in increasingly complicated affairs, Michiko and Hatchin focuses on a more linear story as they look for someone and get caught up in rather self-contained adventures.
Banana Fish
During the Iraq War, a soldier named Griff goes insane and starts killing his own platoon. After being subdued, all he kept speaking was the words “banana fish”. Years later, Griff is taken care of by his brother Ash, a boy who ran away from home and was taken in by mob boss Papa Dino who abused him. Now, Ash seeks to unravel the mystery of this banana fish, a phrase that keeps mysteriously popping up in his life.
What Gangsta and Banana Fish have most in common is how their plot progresses. Both series have something going on in the city that slowly unravels itself as you follow the criminal main character that gets caught up in it. However, Banana Fish is oriented towards the dark and gritty, but without any superhuman elements to it.
For Fans of Fixers
Black Lagoon
Average business man Rokurou Okajima found his life turned upside down when he was captured and held hostage by a mercenary group in Thailand called Black Lagoon. After learning how disposable his life was to his company, he decides to quit the salaryman life and join the very group of mercenaries that held him hostage. While he finds himself unexpectedly good at their various work, his ideals about the world vastly clash with those of his companions.
Both series ultimately follow a group of mercenaries. In Black Lagoon, they travel all over as they take a variety of of jobs. In Gangsta, the pair of handymen are contained to one city. Regardless, both emphasis the distinct badassness of the characters and balance both action and intrigue well.
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Ikebukuro is a thriving commercial district by day, but the different gang activity at night can cause issues for those that live there. Makoto Majima works independently of any gang loyalty to solve various disputes in the neighborhood, often aided by the G-Boys, a strong gang led Makoto’s school friend Takashi Andou. However, when a rival gang known as the Red Angels starts to move in on the G-Boy’s turf, tensions rise between the two factions.
Unlike Gangsta that always becomes about violence, IWGP is more about investigation and, only after which, solving the problems through well-place violence. If you enjoy your gang politics as well as those that work independent of them in order to keep the peace, this is a lovely watch.
Darker Than Black
After the appearance of the Heaven and Hell Gates, then rose the Contractors, individuals that gave up their humanity for supernatural powers. In Section 4 of Japan around the Hell Gate, Chief Misaki finds herself constantly at odds with a Contractor named Hei, a man who takes missions from the ruthless underground Syndicate that slowly peel away the layers covering a threat to all Contractors.
Contractors and Handymen are similar, though Contractors are more of an organization. Regardless, both series sees these fixers caught up in something deeper that is going on beneath the surface of their city.
Getbackers
Mido Ban and Amano Ginji are the Get Backers. Their job? Well, it’s to get back whatever was stolen from you with a 100 percent success rate. However, even though they are good at their jobs, they are terminally broke, forcing them to take even more dangerous jobs.
While Getbackers is a much older anime at this point, both series follow two men that advertise themselves as being able to complete any job for anyone. Both also involve superhuman abilities as well, though Getbackers remains more action-oriented.
For Fans of Superhumans in a Gritty City
No Guns Life
Thanks to the Baruhren Corporation, powerful cyborg soldiers known as Extended now exist. Juuzou Inui is one such Extended with no memories before he was used for war. Now, he helps take care of Extended-caused incidents around the city. Recently, rumors of an Extended kidnapping a child have spread, and when Juuzou returns to his office, he finds the Extended there with the child in tow. With everyone seemingly out for this kid, it leads Juuzou into a mystery that threatens to unravel everything.
While distinctly more sci-fi, No Guns Life and Gangsta follow human experiments who take small jobs in a tough city. As things go on, the both find themselves pulled into the unraveling plots that are happening around them.
Dorohedoro
Hole is a disorderly district where death and mutilation are common. The residents of Hole are the dregs of society and the test subjects of the magic users that live separate from it. Residents are constantly tested on or just murdered by these mages. In Hole is Kaiman, a man with a head cursed to be that of a lizard, but with an immunity to magic. He spends his time set on hunting down these magic users in one small bit of justice for the people that live in Hole.
Dorohedoro takes on more of a fantasy element, but both series follow men who were used for experiments that now work independently in violent professions. While Dorohedoro can be more comedic, it excels in showing off its wide variety of unique characters as well as painting villains with a believable purpose.
Akudama Drive
The region of Kansai is overrun by powerful criminals known as Akudama. One night, after picking up 500 yen dropped by an Akudama, an Ordinary Girl finds herself wrapped up in a huge plot to foil a public execution. Now with a bomb collar around her neck, she and other Akudama must complete tasks given by a mysterious Black Cat.
Although different in their initial plots, both Gangsta and Akudama Drive follow characters that are pulled into a plot going on in their tough city that is filled with crime. They are gritty and violent, but most of all they are pretty over-the-top with their action since Akudama, like Twilights, are quite superhuman.
Bungo Stray Dogs
The orphanage that Atsushi Nakajima has been living at has been recently plagued by a tiger that only he can see. Blaming him for the incident, they kick him out. Now homeless, he wanders the streets until he meets the eccentric Osamu Dazai and saves him from drowning. As it turns out, Dazai is a supernatural detective and agrees to help him solve the mystery.
Both series feature men with superhuman abilities solving problems in a city that is pretty chocked full of other people with superhuman abilities. They also both start out intriguing in their plot, but become more akin to shounen battlers.
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Vampires, fishmen, supersonic monkeys – They are all normal residents living alongside humans in Hellsalem’s Lot, formerly known as New York City. When a gate between Earth and the Beyond popped up there three years ago, old NYC became dominated by monsters, and now Libra, a secret organization, is tasked with keeping it in order. After hobbyist photographer Leonardo Watch obtains the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, he finds himself recruited into Libra.
Both Gangsta and Blood Blockade Battlefront feature a city that is a haven for those with superhuman abilities. You follow in each show as those who investigate various incidents get dragged into an overall larger plot. However, BBB takes the superhuman fights above and beyond what Gangsta has.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Gangsta? Let fans know in the comments section below.
