GANGSTA. is an ongoing manga series written and illustrated by Kohske. It is published in Monthly Comic @Bunch. The title has been running in the magazine since its first issue as a monthly serial and currently has six compiled volumes in print.
GANGSTA. tells the story of Benriya, a pair of underground handymen-for-hire in the slum city of Ergastulum. Between Nicolas, a deaf former mercenary and Worick, a gun-toting gigolo, Benriya can handle any less-than-legal job the town's gangsters have to offer. After unexpectedly crossing paths with Alex, a local prostitute, Benriya expands to become a three person operation. As Alex tries to recall her own past, she begins to expose pieces of Benriya's history against the backdrop of brewing unrest between local gangs.
is the manga licensed in english?
Yes, the manga licensed was announced by Viz Media at Anime Expo 2013. You can read the announcement here. The volumes are being released every three months (as of February 2014).
who scanlates the manga?
GANGSTA. was scanlated by Easy Going Scans. They dropped the series at chapter twenty-four due to VIZ Media licensing the series. They still host details at their site.
WHEN WILL THE English SCANLATIONS UPDATE?
Easy Going Scans no longer scanlate the series thus there will be no more updates to the scanlations in the forseeable future. There are some English scanlations being produced on Tumblr, but due to licensing I cannot link to them through this blog.
where can i buy the manga in japanese?
There are lots of stores to choose from~! Some I’ve personally dealt with in the past include: HMV Japan, CD Japan, Amazon Japan, and Mangaoh. There are plenty of other stores out there for international fans, just surf around and see which suits your needs. If you’re living in Japan, Animate stores tend to keep GANGSTA. well-stocked on their shelves. I strongly urge fans of the series to support Kohske and purchase the original Japanese volumes where possible.
Where can I purchase the GANGSTA. tarot cards and other merchandise?
As of this FAQ being written, most of the GANGSTA. goodies featured on this blog are items bundled with other purchases. The only exceptions to this being an official poster + postcard set available through Shinchosha, the drama CD adaptations and the limited release AGF merchandise. The FORTUNESTA. tarot cards were released over the course of six months with individual issues of Monthly Comic @Bunch (and first press copies of volume three). The replica dog tags were only available with Limited Edition copies of manga volume three. The rubber character straps with LE copies of volume four. The GANGSTA. ARTWORKS art book with Go Go Bunch #1. The revised tarot deck with Go Go Bunch #3.
In other words, none of these goods were manufactured for individual sale. To track down these items now is incredibly difficult and expensive. Amazon Japan sometimes lists users selling copies of LE manga volume three (usually for 10,000-18,000 yen). Yahoo! Japan Auctions has on occasion had FORTUNESTA. tarot cards listed for auction. The best way to go about obtaining limited GANGSTA. goods is to pre-order them before their release as sadly, choices become very limited once they are no longer available for sale.
Where can I pre-order the manga in English?
Quite a few places have pre-order options available for the manga volumes in English. Here are some links to get you started.
Pre-orders are very important in the book world. Essentially, pre-orders count towards a book's first week's sales. This is important because of the compilation of best-seller lists, but also because the initial interest in a series book helps shape its print runs and marketing budget for volumes to come. So if it's at all possible, I'd suggest pre-ordering your English GANGSTA. volumes so that VIZ knows they've picked a series with serious potential. ;)
How are you able to read chapters not currently scanlated?
Me personally? I purchase Monthly Comic @Bunch. It's not exactly cheap to get magazines shipped EMS every month, but I'm sadly that devoted to GANGSTA.. I try to post information on each new chapter when my @Bunch arrives however, I do not scan full chapter raws. I also do not post full chapter summaries. In an ideal world I would, but I work 12 hour days and that's just not going to happen. As @Bunch is not an exceedingly popular publication, raws aren't readily available from the usual illegal haunts (not that you should be looking on them anyway, mind you). My advice is to either purchase the magazine or wait for Chinese scanlations (or the Tumblr produced English ones). There's not a whole lot else the Internet can offer right now, I'm afraid.
Will there be a GANGSTA. anime series?
Yes, an anime series was announced on the obi of volume six. The drama CD cast will continue as the leads. Further details to come.
What are the official romanizations of the characters' names?
The following are the official romanizations of the GANGSTA. cast's names. All have been verified through the manga and official merchandise.
- Nicolas Brown
- Worick Arcangelo (Wallace)
- Alex Benedetto
- Chad Adkins
- Cody Balfour
- Nina
- Dr. Theo
- "Big Mama" Georgiana
- Veronica
- Daniel Monroe
- Yang
- Delico
- Ivan Glaziev
- Miles Mayer
- Diego Montes
- Doug
- Gina Paulklee
- Ginger
- Marco Adriano
- Loretta Cristiano Amodio
- Galahad Woehor
- Mikhail
- Erica
- Uranos Corsica
- Constance Raveau
- Joel Raveau
- Sig
- Colt
- Beretta
- Striker
- Emilio Benedetto
- Arthur
- Lancelot
- Hausen
- Heather
- Tristan
- Gawain
- Bors
Some of the confusion about how to correctly romanize these names stems from early translations and scanlations, which weren't initially privy to official romanizations. Many character names didn't get clarified until after the publication of the first volume (and its character detail list). Additionally Nicolas and Constance's names have been mispelled at times in chapters, only to (generally) be corrected upon volume release. These mispellings include "Nicolas Blown" and "Constans".
There are still some newer characters that have yet to have their names officially romanized.
Which seiyuu have been cast for the anime and drama CDs?
The following are confirmed (via @Bunch announcements and the official GANGSTA. Twitter) castings for the GANGSTA. anime and drama CDs. Original announcements for roles such as Yang and Delico did not list their seiyuu as necessarilly being featured in the anime (as this announcement had not been made yet). As of this writing, subsequent posters displayed by the official GANGSTA. store at AGF 2014 appear to confirm their anime casting.
Worick Arcangelo: Suwabe Jun'ichi Nicholas Brown: Tsuda Kenjirou Alex Benedetto: Moto Mamiko Chad Adkins: Kaneo Tetsuo Cody Balfour: Ishikawa Kaito Dr. Theo: Mikami Satoshi Nina: Yuuki Aoi Doug: Yoshino Hiroyuki Gina Paulklee: Sakakibara Yoshiko Ginger: Komatsu Mikako Joel Raveau: Isobe Masako
Ivan Glaziev: Kirimoto Takuya Miles Meyer: Koyama Tsuyoshi Daniel Monroe: Houki Katsuhisa "Big Mama" Georgiana: Yokoo Mari Marco Adriano: Sakurai Takahiro Loretta Cristiano Amodio: Ueda Kana Constance Raveau: Koshimizu Ami Galahad Woehor: Inada Tetsu
Cast announcements are still being made on a monthly basis through @Bunch magazine.
What is the official romanization of the city's name?
Ergastulum. This is a reference to Roman ergastula, underground prisons frequently attached to farms in which chained slaves were housed. (See here.) Depending on which text you refer to, a group of slaves, rather than their enclosure, could also be referred to as an ergastulum. (See here.)
Ergastulum was founded in 1913 as a quarantine area for Twilights, before eventually growing enough to become a city in its own right. In 1926 the city began accepting hardened criminals and desperate refugees as transplant residents in addition to Twilights. Ergastulum is still used as a quarantine area and Twilights born outside the city limits are still forcibly relocated there and equipped with dog tags for identification. (See chapter 12/15) Twilights were originally treated as slaves, but this was pushed aside in favour of using 'The Three Principles' to control the population in later years.
are 'the three principles' a deliberate reference to asimov's three laws?
The three principles Twilights must abide by in GANGSTA. are indeed a reference to Asimov/Campbells's Three Laws of Robotics. They are as follows:
1) A Twilight must not intentionally harm humans.
2) A Twilight must obey orders given to them by humans, orders that conflict with Article 1 being an exception.
3) A Twilight has the right to defend itself, so long as the situation does not conflict with Articles 1 and 2.
These are almost straight-up The Three Laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
In text, the three Twilight principles were founded in part by Daniel Monroe and became enforceable when slavery was abolished in Ergastulum (this occured when Nicolas and Worick were teenagers - see chapter 10). References to the Three Laws of Robotics are common in popular culture (see here). Part of what makes the application of the Twilight principles so interesting is that they are moral and legal bindings placed on genetically altered humans, rather than machines.
what is the name of the black cat that sometimes appears in GANGSTA.?
Her name is Betty (get the reference?). According to Nina, Worick named her this because she is a "black-haired beauty". (See chapter 14.) Betty appears sporadically throughout GANGSTA. and can often be seen in the background or simply milling around the Benriya residence. Recently she was depicted on the free papers given away with copies of volume four in Japan.
How was Worick able to remember all those details about the murder victims in chapter 7?
Worick has some form of exceptional memory (likely the fabled Eidetic). Chad and Theo liken this ability to the electronic storage of data. (See chapter 14.)
Where is the quote on the wall in chapter 11 from?
The quote left in blood by Mikhail is simply "the wages of sin is death". It is a compressed version of the line "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" from Romans 6:23 . The signifiance of this in the context of GANGSTA. has yet to be explored.
Do Nicolas and Alex get together?
The series is ongoing, so at this point your guess on that subject is as good as mine. Presently however, they have not.
No, Kohske is her nom de plume. At present she has not revealed her actual name.
HOW DO YOU WRITE THE AUTHOR'S NAME CORRECTLY?
コースケ. If you are romanizing her name, she has stated that her preference is Kohske (rather than variants such as “Kousuke” or “Kosuke”). This is also how her name is written on series goods/manga volumes, how the author chooses to romanize her name on social media and how she signs her autograph.
Does the author like us using her icons and graphics?
No she does not. Although she is far more lenient on non-Japanese speakers than she is on Japanese fans, she still says her punishment of choice for graphic thieves is sodomy with a plastic katana. (Yeah, she said that.) Kohske has stated on Twitter that she dislikes people using her icons and other edited material on their own accounts and, even though she gives foreign fans leeway due to our different approach to copyright, it’s still not very polite to pillage her graphics. She doesn't seem to mind the sharing of her unedited work within reason.
Kohske posted a picture but I don’t recognise the characters?
Not everything Kohske posts is about GANGSTA. and, if you’ve ever visited her site, you’ll know she has lots of original characters she has written about in the past. If the character isn’t from GANGSTA. and isn’t explicitly fan art, chances are it’s of one of these original characters (like Hitman, Bitch or Hana).
Why does that bird appear in kohske's GANGSTA. art so much?
Fumi is Kohske’s real life pet — a finch she helped raise by hand. Fumi does lots of cute and silly things in real life, so often Kohske replicates these events in her Twitter doodlings and GST 4koma work. Kohske also operates a photo blog that exclusively features Fumi's antics.
What anime/manga does Kohske like?
Kohske is fairly open about the fact that she doesn't really consume much anime/manga. She much prefers Hollywood movies and foreign television dramas. Anime she has watched and commented on recently include Kill la Kill, Aku no Hana, Shingeki no Kyojin, Fate/Zero and Lupin III: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna.
Who is H?
H is Kohske's @Bunch editor. The @Bunch staff are referred to by selected letters online (S, C, A, H, and so on) rather than by their actual names..
Why does Kohske keep taking breaks?
Kohske was diagnosed with a form of Idiopathic Eosinophilia after an extended period of sickness in 2012. Due to the severity and chronic nature of her illness, she is prone to being hospitalised. The only hiatuses GANGSTA. has taken over the years have been due to Kohske's health. If @Bunch is missing a GANGSTA. chapter, chances are Kohske has spent part of the previous month in her local hospital. Please refer to this post for more details.