Gachiakuta

Episodes 13-14

Good lord. I think it ended up being a good thing that my Gachiakuta reviews got delayed by a week, because I don't know what I would have done if I just had to linger with “An Empty Gaze” for an entire week without a palette cleanser. Last week, after Rudo's terrible outburst that left Amo in bloody shambles, Amo told the other cleaners that “Mama gave Amo her first love,” which is a red-flag line if I've ever heard one. Unfortunately, all of the worst possible implications turned out to be true, and Amo's backstory is just as ugly and sad as we could have feared.

The decision to depict Amo's childhood from the girl's own warped, subjective lens is as brilliant as it is cruel. On the one hand, the use of childish crayon drawings acts as a kind of filter that prevents the show from depicting Amo being sold to a trafficker and raped in graphic detail. Despite being spared any exploitative or harmful visuals, though, this stylistic shift also underlines how awful and disgusting this “Mister” guy's actions are. Regardless of how long she's been trapped in this tower, Amo is still a child, one who has been emotionally stunted and neglected all her life, whose only understanding of “love” comes from the grooming of her captor and rapist, who himself is clearly suffering from a cocktail of personality disorders and delusions.

Needless to say, it's not a sad day when the “angel” arrives and sets into motion the events that lead to Amo claiming Mister's boots for her own and sending the bastard plummeting to his death. It's hard to feel good about it either. Amo is still shattered from a lifetime of suffering, and she's still going to have to live with that pain for the rest of her life. The only solace we can take, as viewers, is perhaps the moment of reconciliation and connection that Rudo shares, now that he understands that both of them are victims of the same cycle of abuse and neglect. His reaching out a hand to her in connection doesn't erase the pain he caused her, but it can help lead them both to some form of healing. At least, provided Amo survives that encounter with Jabber at the end of the episode…

“An Empty Gaze” was another incredible showcase of what Gachiakuta is capable of, but it was also a bit harrowing to endure. Thankfully, I was able to jump right into the very next chapter of the story with…okay, so “The Storm Before the Storm” is not a title that promises a complete lack of friction, but we also get a reprieve from the truly grueling despair of the last couple of episodes, so we have to take what we can get.

In actuality, “The Storm Before the Storm” is a lot of fun. We get interesting world-building with the regular storms of falling garbage from the Sphere that everyone on the surface has to endure, and the crew gets into some goofy shenanigans with the crazy Doctor Alice that they visit to get patched up after the Amo incident. Most important of all is the confirmation that Semiu can indeed whoop unholy amounts of ass when the need arises, such as on an occasion where a gang of marauders tries to raid the Cleaner HQ. Plus, after some more goofing around at the local diner, the gang meets up with a bunch of new wacky cleaners and gets sucked through a manhole portal into another fight with Jabber and the Raiders.

So, if you were worried that Gachiakuta was going to start leaning way too hard into its most grimdark and nihilistic of impulses, don't worry. This is still the same bizarre and energetic trash-fest that we fell in love with all those months ago. The only difference now is that we know just how much depth and emotional power are buried underneath all of that greasy, gloppy muck.

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Gachiakuta is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.