Anime Series Like IWGP: Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Ikebukuro is a haven for violent gangs, and also the home to Makoto Majima. In order to protect his friends, Makoto mediates different disputes. However, when things go too far, can his skills overcome the tide?

While it squandered some potential, IWGP gives that nice taste of thuggery that we all crave sometimes. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Ikebukuro West Gate Park, then head on down below.

For Fans of Gangs

Durarara

Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro is awash in strange rumors, everything from colorless color gangs to a headless rider roaming town populate the rumors. For Mikado Ryuugamine who just moved there from Tokyo, he is but one witness to the district’s slew of strange events.

Is real life Ikebukuro known for gangs? Because it seems odd to have two series set there and about small time gang events. Regardless, unlike IWGP, Durarara has a supernatural element that consumes that gang plot.

Tokyo Tribe 2

Tokyo may seem like a city of individuals, but a number of tribes inhabit it. The Saru run Musashino, the Wu-Ronze have Bukuro, and the Hands are in Shindyuku. If they stick to their own territory, everyone lives peacefully, but things never stay so for long.

Both series are about the gang events going on in Tokyo. Tokyo Tribe is a little more realistic in its dealings by making the characters look and act like actual gang members rather than slightly idealizing it like IWGP.

K

In this world, there are those referred to as Kings. They were individuals bestowed with great supernatural power and they use it to recruit others to their clan. To protect those members is a King’s great duty. However, after a murder of a Red clan member, a student is accused of homicide. During the man hunt, the city devolves into full-on war among the Kings.

While K definitely has a bigger supernatural element, like IWGP, K is also about gang warfare and mediating the conflicts in between them. However, it does get a bit wilder than you would expect.

For Fans of Fixers

Gangsta

Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo work as handymen, mercenaries that will do anything for the right price. Working for the mob and police alike, they delve into the underbelly of the city, a place that was once haven for Twilights, people who were augmented by a special drug.

Both series follow characters that live in a hard city where there are problems, and they fix them. The city is a difficult place, by there is a nice sense of community there as well. However, Gangsta, despite the name, doesn’t have many gangs in it. It is more organized crime and corruption.

Heaven’s Memo Pad

Narumi Fujishima doesn’t really fit in at school, but still craves friends. When another misfit introduces him to a strange NEET girl that lives above a ramen shop, he is drafted into her ultra elite private detective agency.

While this obviously has less of a focus on the criminal element, like IWGP, Heaven’s Memo Pad focuses on characters that investigate various incidents in their neighborhood. It also shares main characters that don’t really want to be doing the work they have to do.

No Guns Life

Thanks to the Baruhren Corporation, powerful cyborg soldiers known as Extended now exist. Juuzou Inui is one such Extended with no memories before he was used for war. Now, he helps take care of Extended-caused incidents around the city. Recently, rumors of an Extended kidnapping a child have spread, and when Juuzou returns to his office, he finds the Extended there with the child in tow. With everyone seemingly out for this kid, it leads Juuzou into a mystery that threatens to unravel everything.

Despite the more technological world, No Guns Life shares a similar sort of noir detective element in which the main character unwillingly gets pulled into bigger conflict because they often serve as a problem solver.

For Fans of Underworld Grit

Banana Fish

During the Vietnam War, a soldier named Griff goes insane and starts killing his own platoon. After being subdued, all he kept speaking was the words “banana fish”. Years later, Griff is taken care of by his brother Ash, a boy who ran away from home and was taken in by mob boss Papa Dino. Ash was groomed as both heir to the Mafia family and sex slave to Papa Dino. Now he seeks to unravel the mystery between this banana fish, a phrase that keeps mysteriously popping up in his life.

Both series take place in a city where everything seems like it is shit. There are drugs, crime, and most people are miserable in their own way. While the main characters have vastly different motivations, they also get pulled into a variety of mysteries.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

The city of Fukuoka seems pretty normal, but it is awash in dangerous individuals. In the mix is Banba, a detective investigating hitman companies in the area and Lin, a hitman that is fed up with his lack of jobs. After being refused pay for a target that killed themselves, Lin is tasked with killing Banba, but instead asks him to team up.

Both series take place in a rather normal looking city that has an underbelly full of crime. You follow criminals as they navigate this underworld for their own reasons. However, while Makoto in IWGP isn’t necessarily so bad, Lin and even Banba are a bit badder.

Great Pretender

After life turned him down the path of crime, Makoto Edamura cockily thinks himself the best swindler in Japan. However, after trying to swindle a tourist only for the tourist to swap it back, he finds the police on his trail. Making his escape, he runs into this tourist again, a move that would take him all the way across the sea to Los Angeles. There he learns that this tourist was in fact a man called Laurent Thierry, a successful confidence man, who wants to recruit him into his team.

While the heists in Great Pretender are different from the gang mediation in IWGP, both series focus on criminals with a little suave flair. Both main characters are a little spastic, but are good enough with words to make people do what they want.

Do you have more anime recommendations like IWGP? Let fans know in the comments section below.