Gangsta: Cursed., Vol. 5 (5)

Thank you my bf loved this book

~3.5 StarsThe fight between the hunters comes to a head in the first half of this volume. Spas has turned on the other hunters, and despite his grief and his wanting to stay with his friends, he has to be honest and do what he believes is right.It gets real bloody there for a bit. It's a bad stand-off, a bad fight. But thankfully it proves, at least to one person, that Spas isn't a hunter anymore and he wants out. This leads to some more hardships for him, as he knows he's done terrible things, and no one wants to accept him.I haven't read any of Gangsta, so I don't know where that series starts up after this prequel. I'm not sure where Spas/Marco's story goes from here. This history was definitely dark and bloody and awful, and there's hints of more underlying issues aside from the major ones. But I actually found this to be an interesting spin-off series nonetheless, and I did like Marco's character and the way it was done, how he realized they were doing awful things and yet we still saw that they were his makeshift family with happy memories.(A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!)

I don't think I'll ever be able to rate a Kohske book less than 5 star - the pathos contrasting with the violence, the good people fighting with all the bad, the peace with all the war. It's such a heady mix of extremes bookended by hard and nasty fighting. All with that clean illustration style that relies on the graphics more than the text to tell the exquisite tale of the emotions.Story: Spas has killed Maverick and he is stunned that he has turned his back on the hunters and changed his way at looking at the Twilights as people and not trash. But fellow hunters Striker and Beretta don't share his revelation and instead are determined to kill him for changing and turning on their mission. Barely alive, about to be finished off by Striker, Don Luca arrives and decides Spas' fate. Later, living under Don Luca, Spas is slowly turned human again - but it isn't an easy path when he has so many deaths on his hands.This concludes the side story of Marco Adriano, aka Spas. The volume finishes the stories of several side characters as well as sets up the story of the return of the hunters at the beginning of the original Gangsta series. Perhaps the most lovely moment is the slow turning of Connie from hate to respect as she watches Marco Adriano dedicate his life to protecting Don Luca's daughter.In all, this was an excellent side series well worth the read. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.