Anime Editor Alice brings us Gangsta, a new twelve-part anime  sneaking into American under the cover of Funimation, that’s a clever, violent cool combination of street-level superpowers and urban grit that is strictly not for kids.

So much of even the good urban fantasy anime out there, like Tokyo Ghoul, is so stylized and often so shrieky that it tends to lose real impact. Gangsta, only three episodes in here in the U.S. of A., tells its story with a cool detachment, a minimum of extra verbiage, and mercifully little of ‘ooh’ ‘ahh’ cartoonish overlay that is so frequently as aspect of even the best anime.

Here you’ve got a couple of buddies in the crime-ridden urban jungle of District 7 who do lot of ‘cleaning up’ for the four different crime syndicate that rule the city. And one of ’em happens to be a ‘tag,’ a fellow with enhanced sensory and combat skill, way pas human norms, who also happen to be deaf. They mix it up with the local cop and criminals, befriend a smart and tough street hooker, protect children and old ladies,and are are smack in the middle of some very cool alley-bound fight scenes.

It’s one of the least gimmicky and most sophisticated storytelling styles in the field this week and well worth a look. Only available on Funimation, but worth the low-low subscription rate.

Oh, it’s also a long-established manga. If you want to read ahead, start here.