Gachiakuta

Episode 19

There have been more anime than I can count that have indulged in massive info-dump episodes that land smack in the middle of an extended battle arc. But to have one of those indulgent info-dump episodes be genuinely good is praiseworthy. Exposition in and of itself is rarely - if ever - truly compelling. It takes dozens of tricks and flourishes in style and delivery to turn the narrative equivalent of eating the worst vegetables on the plate into a well-seasoned main course all on its own.

In Gachiakuta's case, “Watchmen Series” essentially boils down to getting to major pieces of information across to the audience. One of them takes quite a bit of time and explanation, and only gives us a taste of what is to come in the show's grand scheme. The other revelation is a much simpler and more immediate twist, and while it's easily the most fun turn that we get this week, there isn't much to say about it other than that, so I'll break down the meatier morsel first.

As Rudo learns in the midst of Zodyl's endless monologuing and his own flashbacks to the time when Regto took him in, the gloves that Rudo has been using to protect his scarred hands all of these years are actually just one part of a mythic set of gear: The Watchman Series. Zodyl's jacket and Amo's stinky boots are two other such Watchman relics, and Zodyl has been searching for a way to create even more, because they are Vital Instruments of unimaginable power. Once wielded by a single individual in what must be the punkest Hot Topic fit that any manga artist ever dreamt up, the individual Watchman Instruments have been passed along to different Givers over the years, with their one common side-effect being the unsurprising tendency to drive their users to madness. This, of course, raises all sorts of questions about how Regto got ahold of the gloves and that book which bore the same symbol in the first place, and I do not doubt that Gachiakuta has plenty left to uncover in due time.

On the one hand, the Watchman Series makes for undeniably cool world-building that fleshes out Rudo's place in the story's larger conflict quite nicely. It's a typical adventure trope for the main character to be gifted an object or power that ties him inextricably to the villains and their society-smashing plans, but Gachiakuta wears it well. That said, I don't necessarily love the idea of previously complicated and messy character flaws being attributed to magically induced hysteria, since Gachiakuta has been doing a great job of infusing its traditional shonen trappings with surprisingly complex characters. Still, I can chalk it up to the Watchmen doohickeys amplifying the negative tendencies that were already latent within their users. It would be rather absurd for Gachiakuta to suggest that Amo's rapist slave-master would have been just fine and dandy if only he'd never put on those smelly, smelly boots.

The other twist related to Zodyl's violent ambitions is the twofold revelation that Zodyl apparently created the Trash Beasts as a result of his tinkering with potential Watchman Series Instruments, and that the battleground we've been hashing these fights out in for the last month is itself a giant Trash Beast. This makes me a bit less salty about the boring “underground” tunnels, though I'll be even happier once we get a better look at the monstrosity that our heroes are crawling around in. In the meantime, though, Dear looks to finally have his chance to show off some nifty energy absorption powers in what will hopefully be yet another fun and frantic Gachiakuta brawl. We'll just have to tune in next week to see just how hard the widdle baby can swing.

Rating:

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.