Gachiakuta

Episodes 7-8

“A Score to Settle” is another action-packed episode that is all about bringing Rudo's first job as a cleaner to its pulse-pounding conclusion. Narratively, that doesn't leave too much for us to break down, since this storyline is serving the very simple and predictable purpose of introducing the gang of psycho rascals that look to be our main antagonists for the time being. Jabber is definitely a cut above the rest when it comes to delivering a scenery-slobbering good time performance. Still, he's just one guy amongst a whole cast of n'er-do-wells, and I suspect it will be some time yet before we get to properly meet them all and understand what the grand scheme of our villains even is. Such is the way of the shonen battle anime.

That's fine, though. “A Score to Settle” doesn't need to be a thematically heavy meditation on deep themes or complex social issues. All we can really ask of it is to give Rudo and Janka the chance to team up and whoop Jabber's ass and buy enough time to escape and live another day, which they technically do, even though the masochistic weirdo is only stopped when the rest of the Cleaners arrive to save our hero's butt. At the end of the day, though, Rudo gets to unlock his Giver powers and share some scrappy and entertaining banter with his mentor in a slickly animated and well-choreographed battle. That can easily be marked as a win for Gachiakuta.

The more story heavy material comes in Episode 8, “Moving Forward,” which goes through the requisite (but appreciated) motions of allowing Rudo just enough time to reckon with how serious the stakes have become and grieve the death of Gris…before Enjin decides to cut the kid a break and take him to the hospital to visit a very much still living Gris. One of the challenges I have encountered with “Gachiakuta” over and over again has reared its head once more, because this is another sequence that is difficult to evaluate on a level more complicated than “It's doing the exact things you would expect a shonen anime to do at this precise moment in its run, but it's doing them all fairly well, so there isn't much to complain about.” That isn't very exciting criticism, I know, but Gachiakuta has proven to be an anime that is very much content to deliver simple, no-strings-attached popcorn entertainment.

The reunion with Gris is a great example of this quality in action. Gris isn't a character that I could not describe to you without a headshot and a character profile right in front of me, even if you had a gun pressed to my head, but I still felt happy to see that he survived Jabber's surprise attack. We also meet the healer Cleaner Eisha, who is the kind of solidly designed one-note female character whose entire personality is that she's shy; again, when she got all bashful over Gris' praise, I found myself thinking, “Aw, that's nice.” Even the long-awaited arrival of the actual leader of the Cleaners himself lands in that same realm of being completely standard yet still vaguely satisfying. Outside of the exposition, he rewards Rudo with his confident, even-keeled demeanor. The most notable thing about Arkha Corvus is that he is the second significant Black member of the Cleaners that we've met, and his character design holds up to the quality of the other cast members without falling into cheap stereotypes. Good on you, Gachiakuta.

The title of this most recent episode is appropriate, since “Moving Forward” does the job of moving Rudo's journey toward its next major stage. His first job is in the bag, he's an official member of the Cleaners, and he is beginning to reap the rewards of his new position, such as the crew of cool new friends and access to all of the decadent sweets he can eat. To bring back the JRPG analogy I used a few weeks ago, we've cleared the barrage of overlong opening cutscenes and finished the short, linear tutorial dungeon that maybe spent a little too long holding our hands through the basic mechanics, though the boss fight at the end was pretty fun once our main character was allowed to use more options than the basic attack move. Now, the party is expanding with new, permanent members; the home base has opened up at least the basic questing and leveling functions; and, best of all, we can start to make some real progress with the main quest.

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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.