Gachiakuta

Episode 20

The best thing an anime like Gachiakuta's can do when it is this late in the cycle of an extended battle royale is to switch things up. We've already gotten several excellently animated and choreographed battles that have all come with their fair share of thrills, suspense, drama, and bloodshed. Zanka's bout with Jabber offered a compelling look into the former's obsession with proving himself against a world full of “naturally talented” people, while Riyo got to show off her incredibly dangerous skills as a professional killer when she just straight up shot both Jabber and Noerde with a gun. Simultaneously, Rudo has been engaging with Zodyl in a game of psychological warfare as the villain does the usual thing of trying to persuade our hero to see the truth and reason behind his evil quest to use the Watchman series to obliterate the sphere. While Dear and his Bro are cute enough, they're obviously the tertiary characters in this fight - the Cleaner equivalents of Tien and Chiaoutzu, if you will. After a straight month of nonstop fighting, I will admit that I was a feeling a little tired at the prospect of the duo engaging in yet another protracted showdown against Bundus the cowboy.

That's why I was so pleasantly surprised when the trio ended up careening through the insides of this giant Trash Beast in a derelict car, instead. It's still an action-heavy sequence that is light on plot and big on spectacle, but it's a different spectacle than just showing off powers and jumping around a static cave set, which is enough to get me on board completely. As always, Studio Bones is up to the task of staging a clean and exciting combination of 2-D and 3-D animation, with the whole scene making good use of the Trash Beast's twisting interiors and volatile digestive issues. Also, as always, my complaints lie specifically in the bland and overly dark colors and lighting that sap some of the fun out of the proceedings. Surely we could have found some sort of way to justify throwing some mangled street-lights or flares into the Trash Beast's gullet that would allow us to actually see all of the cool animation on display?

It seems that even animation has fallen victim to this decade's stubborn refusal to use anything but “natural lighting” in cinematic presentation. I could complain about this grievous sin on the art of cinematography all day, but Gachiakuta still has plenty left to wrap up before we can finally be free from the belly of this beast. Now that all of the sub-bosses have been cleared by the supporting cast, everything is starting to converge, and the gang has to make their way to Rudo to try and stop Zodyl's schemes once and for all. This also means that Rudo has to complete this stage of the classic manga hero's journey by resolutely denouncing Zodyl's worldview and dedicating himself to fighting for the right reasons (which are, of course, rooted in the power of friendship). There's nothing here we haven't seen before, but Gachiakuta continues to execute on these classic tropes with enough verve that you still can't help but get wrapped up in them all the same. The minute Zodyl compared Rudo's friends to expendable trash, it was all over for the guy, and I immediately began shouting for our boy to start cleaning the bastard's clock but good.

We'll have to wait at least one more week for Rudo to finish the fight, but with Enjin descending from the sky like the history's Mary Poppins cosplayer, we've got every reason to believe that it'll be an exciting conclusion. Even if Gachiakuta continues to switch up its approach and finds some way to conclude this arc without the explosive boss fight that these sorts of shows have conditioned us to expect, I have faith that the series will come up with something creative enough to keep us all satisfied.

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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.