Rudo sentenced to the Pit. Photo: ©Kei Urana, Hideyoshi Andou and KODANSHA_ “GACHIAKUTA” Production Committee
Gachiakuta (ガチアクタ) quite literally translates to “legitimate trash.” But what exactly constitutes trash in a hyper-capitalistic society like ours?
One of the first scenes in the anime adaptation of Kei Urana’s manga shows us a little girl throwing away a brand-new plush bunny because it has been ripped at the seams. Rather than getting it fixed, her mother insists she throw it away. “It’ll look ugly, let’s just get a new one.” It’s the easy way out.
Cut to a very scruffy, soot-covered Rudo, our young protagonist, who has an entirely different idea. He’s a tribesman living in the slums on the outskirts of the impeccably clean city occupied by the wealthy Spherites (the upper-class citizens of Gachiakuta’s world). Rudo hasn’t had it easy since the minute he was born. The son of a murderer, his reputation isn’t exactly stellar. Between his heritage and fondness for turning trash into treasure, he’s constantly skating on thin ice.
So, when he’s falsely accused of murdering his foster father, Regto (the only one who truly cared for him), it’s natural that no one protests his sentence. The Spherites, who are fond of discarding trash and other damaged goods into the Pit, throw Rudo in without much fanfare—an ironically similar fate to that of his birth father.
Rudo vows revenge on the Spherites who’ve wronged him, and is determined to avenge his foster father’s murder. That isn’t going to be easy, though, as the Pit he’s thrown in is crawling with giant, sentient trash monsters and highly toxic air.
According to Japanese mythology, an inanimate object develops its own soul after a hundred years of existence. “I had a pen that I really loved, and I broke it in two. Along with the sense of loss, I had a feeling like the pen was pleading with me,” Gachiakuta creator Kei Urana writes in the afterword of the manga’s first volume.
When Kei Urana was a little girl holding the two fragments of her pen, this concept that even mundane objects could carry anima stuck with her. One could say it clung on like the grime on Rudo’s well-worn gloves, until she ultimately used this childhood memory to avenge that broken pen by wielding a new one to create Gachiakuta.
There’s a lot of folklore and Shinto mysticism entwined in the plot of Gachiakuta. Rudo’s belief that every object should be cherished and every broken item can be fixed, is one of them. He takes the discarded rabbit toy and mends it so that it is good as new.
The weapons used by the Cleaners, who fight the trash monsters in the Pit wield, are called Jinki 人器. In Gachiakuta, the word is written with the kanji for “human”, meaning a human instrument or vessel. In Shintoism, however, Jinki (神器), written with the kanji for “God,” refers to sacred ritual objects used to worship Kami-sama (God). While the kanji may be different, Gachiakuta’s version clearly draws from these roots. Interestingly, nearly all the Jinki in Gachiakuta are made from mundane, everyday objects.
For a gritty, dark fantasy story, Gachiakuta has exceptionally stylized visuals. The art style is complemented by Ando Hideyoshi’s graffiti. Rudo’s character design conveys everything there is to know about him. Scrawny, covered in dust, with tired eyes and a pair of gloves that seem to dwarf him, he looks marginally better than the discarded items he gathers and fixes. Despite the trash-lined hellscape they inhabit, there is a certain air of dignity about the characters, Enjin, Regto and Rudo.
The worldbuilding is also fascinating. The stark contrast between the ultra-rich upper class and the poverty-stricken tribal folk employs a show-and-don’t-tell formula. The subtle changes in body language, especially the way Rudo’s only friend, Chiwa, views him before and after he is sentenced, are also depicted this way. Throwing away the rabbit he had mended and gifted to her is the nasty shock that makes Rudo understand that, at the end of the day, everyone is the same. He’s trash in their eyes, an object that can and will be easily discarded when he outlives his usefulness in their eyes.
Gachiakuta’s dystopian world may seem fantastical at first, but what’s really horrifying is that it hits a little too close to home. Look no further than the difference between Dharavi and Bandra in Mumbai, India. With the hyper-capitalist consumer mindset, there are tons of trash thrown into landfills every day, every hour, every second. It’s piling up and there’s nowhere for it to go. Obliterating them has harmful consequences for our environment. And who knows how long it is before we too start coughing up blood like Rudo? There’s never been a more important time than now for us to truly practice what was preached back in every environmental class in school—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
But there are always silver linings. If Rudo’s stitched-up rabbit tugged at your heartstrings, it’s a reminder that even the things we discard can be worthy of a second life. In the real world, second-hand toy stores lovingly and carefully restore once-beloved playthings, giving them a second chance to be cherished.
Gachiakuta gives us a lot of food for thought. Be sure to think long and hard before throwing away your phone when you see a slight crack on the screen.
Streaming every Sunday on Crunchyroll.
Leave a Reply