“Gangsta.” is an action-packed series about mysterious two assassins for hire in a crime-filled land and a former prostitute who starts working for them. And now they face the most dangerous and brutal crisis to ever come to their city. Brutal, shocking and riveting, Kohske’s “Gansta.” vol. 6 is recommended!
Image courtesy of © GANGSTA. Kohske 2011. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Gangsta. Vol. 6
STORY AND ART BY: Kohske
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shinchosha Publishing Co.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Viz Signature
RATED: M for Mature
Available on May 19, 2015
As Erica stalks through Ergastulum, leaving a trail of dead in her wake, Delico copes with the heartbreaking news that this most dangerous Hunter is actually his long-lost little sister. After a lifetime of separation, he’s determined to bring her back, but a fragile sibling bond may not be enough to counter the merciless force of destiny.
Delico Monroe has found out that his missing sister, Erica and another named Mikhail were responsible for the slaughter of many Twilights.
Now Delico with help from Yang and Nicolas Brown try to stop her.
Meanwhile more tragedy and the person responsible for the slaughter against the Twilights will be revealed in the sixth volume of Kohske’s popular manga series, “Gangsta.”.
What is “Gangsta.” about?
In the city of Ergastulum, the area is full of thieves, whores and murderers. And as for the police, they are corrupted and chaos is king.
This is the setting for the manga series known as “Gangsta.”, written and illustrated by female mangaka Kohske.
Debuting in 2009 with the short story “Postman” for Shonen GanGan Magazine, “Gangsta” has been running in “Monthly Comic Bunch” in 2011 and a total of five tankobon volumes have been published in Japan.
And now the manga series was released in Feb. 2014 in the U.S. as part of Viz Media’s “Viz Signature” line.
“Gangsta.” begins with a prostitute being assaulted outside a building. Meanwhile, inside a building are two owners of the business known as “Handymen”, Nic and Worick, two men paid to take on assassination or difficult jobs that police or big business can’t handle.
As Nic and Worick are completing a job with the elder businesswoman inside the building, they see the beaten prostitute going inside the building.
The Handymen are then called for business with the police department and are sent to go after a gang leader named Barry Abbot (the man seen beating on the prostitute in the opening pages). Both Nick and Worick are hired by the inspector to eliminate him and his gang (including his prostitutes) as they are doing business in the restricted zone. They work out a deal that they can take whatever they can in return for killing them.
As Nic and Worick go after the gang and eliminated everyone including the gang leader known as Barry. They run into the prostitute and give her the opportunity to escape. But instead, the prostitute named Alex comes back and instead of killing her, they decide to take her (as in agreement with the inspector) and make her as part of the Handymen as one of their employees.
Meanwhile, as Alex continues to work for the Handymen, she tries to figure both Nic and Worick out. Is Nic an ex-mercenary, does he talk at all? Why does Worick wear an eyepatch?
One day, Alex sees a newspaper article about a massacre of the Arcangelo family 20-years-ago, all were killed except a 13-year-old boy who was 13 at the time. And the perpetrator, said to be a boy hired as a mercenary by the family. And Alex begins to wonder, can the two boys be Worick and Nic? Is Worick the missing boy that was never found?
In volume 2, a gang war seems to be inevitable as Corsica and Cristiano are engaged in a battle of outwitting each other and destroy each other’s families with the use of Twilights. But what happens when the Handymen come and Nic must take on another Twilight A/O.
And for volume 3, we learn about the history of Nic and Worick and how they met. The volume also provides valuable insight to the Twilights, the mafia families and the employment plus backstory of the hatred towards the Twilights.
In volume 3 sets up the storyline of what is a Twilight, volume 4 features a storyline in which the Twilights have become the hunted as anti-Twilights have infiltrated Ergastulum. Many Twilights are killed in the process but the Cristiano Family led by Loretta Cristiano Amodio, are trying to make sure that the Twilights are protected. And an important family for the Monroe Family which distributes Cerebret, essential to the survival of Twilights.
And as the Handymen are hired to protect them, what happens when a mysterious group infiltrates the Cristiano’s club and tries to massacre everyone including Loretta and those employed by the Cristiano and Monroe Family.
This could be the beginning of a major gang war in Ergastulum!
In volume 4, with the shocking massacre by the Hunters, word is spreading of what has happened to the Cristiano family and the Monroe family are put in alert as they know they will be next. Meanwhile, the sadistic hunters consisting of Erica and Mikhail have targeted the Paulklee Guild for their next massacre where Doug, Ginger and Gina Paulklee live.
Meanwhile, Nicolas worries what will happen to his love Constance Raveau and Worick Arcangelo does what he can to protect the Monroe family.
But more hunters start to emerge!
In volume 5, out of nowhere, two hunters come out and slaughters hundreds of Twilights. Could it be the making of a major gang war in the city?
Which leads us to volume 6, with Delico Monroe finding out that his long lost sister was involved in the slaughter of Twilights, he, Yang with the help of The Handymen’s Nicolas Brown go to stop Erica, but they come across the other hunter, a young powerful boy named Mikhail.
In order to fight against the powerful hunters, Mikhail is given an experimental drug. But being the first test subject, will he survive from its first use?
Meanwhile, it is revealed of who has been pulling the strings on the slaughter of Twilights.
After the extreme violence featured in vol. 5 of “Gangsta.” as the hunters elimination of Twilights in Ergastalum shocked many. But more for the fact that everyone who fought the Hunters were not strong enough to fight them.
But the biggest shock was Delico finding out that one of the deadly hunters responsible for the deaths of many is Erica Monroe, the sister of Delico who was kidnapped years ago.
And now Delico, Yang and Nic go to find Erica and stop her before she can kill anymore Twilights.
As the fifth volume showed many countless people dying, vol. 6 shows us several major tragedies, a major revelation and ultimate backstab plus one horrific finding that ends the sixth volume.
Reminiscent of Frank Miller’s “Sin City”, where the world has gone corrupt and in the city of Ergastulum, a city overrun by thugs, gangs, mafia, whores and murderers, the police are just as bad and when the going gets tough, the only way for the police to maintain order is by hiring mercenaries, in this case, the Handymen, Nic and Worick.
Nic is the silent, deadly killer with a sword. Worick is the playboy with an eyepatch that is good with a gun and together, they are two men who aren’t afraid of taking on the most corrupt people in Ergastulum. And it’s not a duty done for the sake of morality but to them, it’s money and survival.
As these two men are mysterious individuals and through the eyes of former prostitute Alex, who joins the Handymen as their personal secretary or whatever she can be used for in order to get the job done, even Alex, has her thoughts on both men and their mysterious background.
As Nic and Worick’s past are slowly revealed, as with Alex’s past background, these three will need to work together but most of all be careful with the new dangers that have come their way.
And once again, through another volume of “Gangsta.”, we get to see how corrupt this world they live in but how they fit in to all the chaos. There is no one character that is pure in Ergastulum, everything is corrupt, a lot of violence over runs the city and this volume does a great job as showing background of these Twilights and why they have become the hunted and characters that we have seen in past issues, will not survive in the wake of the Hunters’ onslaught.
But with the major revelation of who is responsible for the slaughtering of Twilights, the city of Ergastalum will never be the same!
As for the manga, Kohske has developed a intriguing series full of sex and violence but also an illustration style that is unique to her style of work. The manga is different from your standard yakuza storyline or your assassins for hire manga series. There is a western influence and it will be interesting to see how the story of “Gangsta.” will continue to grow overtime.
Overall, “Gangsta.” is an action-packed series about mysterious two assassins for hire in a crime-filled land and a former prostitute who starts working for them. And now they face the most dangerous and brutal crisis to ever come to their city.
Brutal, shocking and riveting, Kohske’s “Gansta.” vol. 6 is recommended!