Ikebukuro West Gate Park

This anime series did not have an easy time with audiences from the very beginning. In fact, even before the first episode aired, content appeared on many anime sites promising something completely different from what this show was actually about. What happened there? Well, someone used the content of the official novels, which the live-action TV series of the same name draws from entirely. However, this anime series is not another adaptation, it is rather a sort of sequel loosely speaking. So the audience got something different from what they were expecting. For example, the romance that was promised does not happen in this anime series at all (there is a bromance at most), the style of the show is more like stand-alone stories from a Japanese neighborhood full of gangs and unpacking various interesting social issues (which is probably the best thing about this anime series). The other problem is that you do not slowly get to know the main male protagonist from the beginning and follow his journey into the position of local chief negotiator and fixer (a great term, which I am borrowing from Cyberpunk 2077 which I am still playing), so we do not see where and how he built some of the important relationships that shaped him. We join him when he is acting from a position he is pretty much assured of. Again, this does not sit well with everyone, because logically it is better if we see the main male protagonist’s journey from its beginnings, to build our relationship with him. It can also quickly disappoint those who, after the first few minutes, get the impression that this is for some reason similar to the likes of K, or perhaps Durarara!! - because of the colorful gangs and King(s)! It is not primarily about being full of action scenes either, because the protagonist does everything in his power to quell any violence! On the other hand, when there are fight scenes, they look pretty good. Thus, the main driving force of this anime series is merely its attempt to show various problems in society and how they can be dealt with. This is often very interesting, sometimes boring, and at least with one episode (with the YouTuber) I feel like I wasted twenty minutes of my life. Fortunately, more interesting subject matter prevails, the screenwriters were also lucky that Jeoffrey had done some research into this anime series beforehand, and so knew what he was getting into, thus nothing of the above put him off or dashed his false expectations, and so now at the end I can safely say that it was actually quite good... 6/10. (24.12.2020)