It’s time for the latest dark Shonen that has hit the stage. It is still building up to the classic powers of friendship and saving the day but is definitely not holding back with some of the backstories. Well, I should say one in particular since the rest aren’t as crazy. I wouldn’t say it is quite on the level of your classic Jump titles yet but does clobber the last generation dark shonen known as Attack on Titan.

The series starts by introducing us to Rudo who lives in the slums. In this dystopian world there is a clear class divide between those who have means and those who don’t. Rudo at least takes solace in the fact that he has a kind mentor and one good friend. Unfortunately his mentor is murdered and Rudo is framed for it. His supposed friend also betrays him and calls for his death. So Rudo is sentenced to hell which means he is tossed out with the trash. I should mention that this country exists high up in the sky.

It turns out that there is a whole land underneath them though, the land of the trash. It’s a desolate wasteland with monsters everywhere and death is nearly guaranteed. Rudo is saved by a group known as the Cleaners right before some human traffickers could get him. They explain that their goal is about destroying the monsters and keeping things as safe as possible. Rudo joins them for now under the condition that they will help him get back to the surface world where he intends to destroy everyone. Perhaps over time he can lose these feelings of rage but it’ll be difficult.

I can’t say that I blame the little girl too much though. Yes, it would have been nice for her to have taken Rudo’s side or to at least not have said anything but she is still a kid. I wouldn’t expect her to have really been able to stand up for him at this point. The rest of the town is crazy though. The fact that they have a whole process for throwing people out to their doom is nuts and of course the whole setup of the world shows that all of this is normal. The world needs a reset but obviously Rudo’s plan to destroy them all is a bit drastic. I expect that Rudo will change his mind by then but maybe he’ll pull an Eren.

The trash world on the bottom is also particularly rough so I can see why the death rate is so high. The heroes celebrate with snacks every now and then so you see just how rare they are. Mix that in with an active terrorist group running around and every other person being a human trafficker….not a good place to live in. Rudo is really lucky to be with the cleaners because there are no other safe zones around. The show gets a whole lot of worldbuilding done right away. Throughout the show you get to learn more about the state of things but that tends to just leave more questions for future seasons. The main parts are all established right away.

The animation for the series is pretty good. In particular I really liked the effects used to show that one of the characters is using their vital instrument. Their eyes tend to glow and an aura appears to envelop the character as well. It’s something that I guess would usually be seen as a small thing but it really works to add emphasis to the moment. The battles generally look really solid as well. The series isn’t always super action packed but each fight really goes all out.

The soundtrack is also pretty solid. There’s a battle theme that comes out of nowhere for Riyo’s fight against Noerde and it was awesome! The openings are definitely heavy rock but they didn’t really work for me. They’re almost too loud if that make sense. Listening to these tunes can be more distracting than exhilarating. The music within the show still ages really well though and has a lot of great variety.

As this is a modern shonen, Gachiakuta is really good about not falling into any fanservice traps. I’d also say that it’s generally not too violent. There is a dak tone throughout the series but it usually doesn’t fall quite into grim-dark territory. That said, I did think they went too far with Amo’s backstory. The series uses a lot of visual tricks to make sure you don’t actually see anything but you still understand exactly what’s going on. It you actually saw more then this would ultimately bump the series down into the red. At it stands, it’s rough enough to push the series more to the break even point but I wouldn’t use it as a full stop to say that this is a bad show. Titles will try to push the envelope in different ways at times and this one pushed right to the breaking point without going past it.

Now lets talk about the characters. First off we have Rudo who has the ability to turn anything into a sacred object. That means he can use any kind of weapon which is really handy and he can even use multiple ones at once. Rudo has a massive chip on his shoulder and didn’t grow up in a normal environment so he has to really be learning everything from square 1. He’s very earnest about this though and has made a lot of progress.

He’s got a good character arc here and is definitely my kind of main character. There are different ways his character can go so we’ll see how it plays out but I’m confident that he will continue to be a strong figure. His sensei here is Enjin who plays the classic teacher role. The show manages to go through its whole run without letting him get much of a real fight yet. So we’re not sure how strong he is but the rules of anime suggest that the longer you don’t fight, the more powerful you will be. In the meantime he still gets a big role in helping Rudo get used to this new environment.

Zanka is in the opposite boat as he gets to fight right away and as a result solidifies his role as the jobber. He goes down pretty hard in the fights that matter but I give him props for always getting up. Zanka is a good rival for Rudo and always talks a good game. So even if he doesn’t end up being one of the stronger characters he is still a good one to have around. I would like him to get a powerup at some point though. His fighting style just feels too ordinary right now.

Another member of the group is Riyo and she has the ability to make a giant pair of scissors. Now that is a fun ability to have! Additionally she is able to fight in hand to hand combat at a high level. She’s my favorite character in the series and ends her big climax fight in a really hype way. Lets just say it remains the most iconic moment in the entire franchise for good reason. She’s another good friend for Rudo to have and is also a bit messed up in her own way so they are both really learning how to act more normal.

The rest of the Cleaners don’t get a huge role quite yet even though they are around. Tamsy is a fairly quiet member who has a really strong ability in the cloths that he can use to tie people up. Even divine weapons have a hard time cutting through them. There just hasn’t been a chance to really learn much about him yet. Same with Delmon who is also quiet. He has pretty strong powers involving water and nearly ends up crushing the heroes when he was mind controlled early on. We get hintings of his sad origin story but the show hasn’t gone into that yet.

Bro and Dear work well as a tag team. Dear tends to act too much like a kid. His super strength is good but I don’t see him winning very many fights. Bro is really the one who makes sure that Dear is in the right place at the right time. I tend to give him all of the credit for how well they do in the season. Even then they only get to share 1 fight so far. Guita also only gets one moment for now but being able to turn into a Kaiju is cool. I assume that eventually everyone will get their own arc so this is really a waiting game until then.

There is also the leader of the group, Arkha. For now you can just tell that this guy has a lot of power but he is content to stay in the background. More solid lore for the future. His secretary Semiu is also very on the ball. She can fight and then has some pretty good appraisal abilities. While some may say these are too many characters for season 1, it’s nice to have an early intro for when they eventually become bigger characters. There are also a number of supporting members who don’t have powers and will probably get a role soon. It’ll make later scenes hit harder.

Amo shows up as one of the first big villains but she’s certainly not in league with the terrorist group. She went through a lot and ultimately didn’t learn any good lessons. So this put her on the wrong path right from the start. Actually you can say we’re seeing a common pattern here where everyone s messed up in some way or another. Unfortunately things do not end up going well for her even after the main arc as she is immediately taken down by another villain. Hopefully things will look up in season 2.

The big villain of the season is Zodyl although this was mostly just an introduction to his character. He wants to find a way to get to the upper lands where Rudo once lived. To this end he is working on getting some sacred items and then the upper world will be doomed. It’s unclear if he wants to destroy them all or just conquer the group but either way things will not go very well for the surface dwellers. He seems really strong although he clearly hasn’t used all of his powers yet. I’ll need to see more of him before putting the guy too high but right now he’s off to a good start. The guy’s insane while still staying focused on his plans.

Then we have Jabber who is the type of villain who loves a good fight. He’s probably the craziest of all and he has a very high pain tolerance. This allows him to keep getting up even after taking a ton of damaging hits. You definitely have to give him a lot of credit in the fights. He doesn’t take any direct losses in the show as it took some cheap shots to bring him down. I expect a lot more out of him in the next arcs.

Cthoni hasn’t done much but the teleportation is always handy. It’s a super good way to split up their forces while also keeping the heroes off guard. The villains also have a coward on board who hasn’t done much yet but will be a big figure in season 2. For season 1 there were just two other villains who got a lot to do. The first was Noerde who is a warrior that has aligned herself with the terrorist group. She has really solid thunder abilities that let her go toe to toe with everyone. It’s fortunate for the Cleaners that Riyo was the one fighting her. I dare say that she would have made short work out of any of the other heroes. Her electricity is just hard to stop and of course she also happens to have top notch speed and hand to hand on top of that. She was a really fun villain.

Finally we have Bundus who is another tough threat. He has metal arms like Doc Ock from Marvel and a lot of experience. He seems to be hiding a lot of secrets so I would treat him as a wild card right now. Definitely an antagonist but the other villains also have to keep him at arm’s length. I don’t think he is super dangerous in a fight but is so strategic that he can outsmart someone who isn’t fighting very carefully. I look forward to seeing more out of him as well.

Now as for where the series goes from here, there are a lot of different paths. The plots I care about the most are getting back to the surface world and seeing what the villains want to do there. I am a lot less interested in learning about the symbols connecting the two worlds since that part of the lore doesn’t seem like it should change the goals for the leads. Still, I’m ready to strap in and see how this plays out. The series is already heavily implying that we’ll be learning some more origins soon as well but I feel like we can already glean all of the important information from the quick scenes that we do get. For example I don’t want to see Riyo’s backstory because it’s much more fun to just rely on the headcanon there.

Overall, There is really a lot going on here. Gachiakuta has done a good job of setting up the stakes and introducing a bunch of characters. It may not have constant fights but makes for an interesting series. It definitely did establish that anything can happen though so it may not be the safest watch if you’re looking for consistency. This is a series that will be taking massive swings in each season and you’ll just have to see if the title connects or misses. Either way you can be sure that it will be around for a long time. There are a ton of plots and storylines that need to be concluded after all.

Overall 5/10