Gachiakuta
Gachiakuta is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by. It began serialization in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine in February 2022. As of November 2025, the series' individual chapters have been collected in 17 volumes.
An anime television series adaptation produced by Bones Film aired from July to December 2025. A second season has been announced.
Synopsis
Setting
Gachiakuta takes place in a dystopian world where there exists a floating country-sized structure known as the Sphere, which runs on a social caste system that divides the rich and wealthy society from the poor "tribesfolk" living around the outer perimeter—descended from notorious criminals and exiled by the upper-class—by way of a heavily-guarded wall. Both sides of the caste dump their trash and unwanted waste, as well as people convicted of any crime, down the "Pit", a never-ending expanses below the Sphere in which the Spherites—the inhabitants of the Sphere—deemed inhospitable to all forms of life.Unbeknown to the Spherites, beyond the Pit and the "Border" separating it from the Sphere lies the "Ground", a lawless wasteland with a mostly toxic environment infested with the Spherites' waste due to the constant downpour of trash from the Sphere, its heavily polluted areas are often roamed about by Trash Beasts, living creatures literally made of trash. Amongst its various inhabitants and wandering troublemakers—mostly survived being thrown down the Pit by the Spherites and has since made a thriving civilized network of towns—there exists the Cleaners, a group of super-powered individuals known as "Givers" specialized with handling odd-jobs and exterminating Trash Beasts as conventional weaponry doesn't work on them due to its regenerative properties.
Each Giver has access to their respective Vital Instrument, powerful weapons converted from everyday objects by infusing them with the Giver's own capacity to generate Anima from their body. Often the only thing capable of taking down Trash Beasts, Vital Instruments are usually the manifestation of a Giver's love and care for these treasured objects, allowing their Anima to awakened and make these worthless items valuable in combat. Additionally, the longer a Giver tends to their valued object with love and care, the more seasoned and better it becomes as a Vital Instrument, thus “improving its quality” and making it more powerful, as it also serves as a conduit for a Giver's own experience and ideology as a person. Amongst the many Vital Instruments used by the various Givers of the Ground, there also exist the Watchman Series, a set of five unfathomably powerful Vital Instruments said to be connected to the Watchman—a gigantic, incomprehensible being guarding the border between the Sphere and the Ground—and that usually require the wielder to have lost something in their life to use them without going insane from their power.
Plot
A young teenage boy named Rudo lives in the slums of a wealthy society among the "tribesfolk", a population descended from criminals and exiled by society. Rudo detests the upper class's wastefulness, as they often dump anything deemed trash, including criminals, into a massive dump site below the town known as "The Pit". Rudo was told by his foster father Regto that his biological father was dumped into the Pit for a crime before Rudo was born. One day, after rummaging through a dump site, Rudo returns home to find Regto murdered. Apprehended at the scene, Rudo is immediately charged with murder despite being innocent, due to his status as a tribesman. Unable to escape his fate, Rudo swears revenge upon the people and is dumped into the Pit.After being dumped into the Pit, Rudo awakens to find himself disoriented in a foul-smelling, endless landscape of trash. Rudo is then attacked by large beasts made of trash and fends them off until he is rescued by a man named Enjin. The man explains that he is not underground but has fallen to the surface from "The Sphere". After testing him and awakening his power as a "Giver", Enjin invites Rudo to join him as a "Cleaner". Enjin explains that the Cleaners are an organization of Givers who use the power of unique weapons known as "vital instruments" to hunt the trash beasts that attacked him. Rudo reluctantly accepts Enjin's offer to join the Cleaners, so long as it helps accomplish his goal of returning to the Sphere and enacting revenge on those who dumped him into the Pit.
Characters
Cleaners
Team Akuta
;Rudo Surebrec;Enjin
;Zanka Nijiku
;Riyo Reaper
;Shikage
Team Eager
;Tamsy Caines;Delmon Gates
Team Child
;Bro Santa;Dear Santa
;Guita Hebby Fantasia
Supporters
;Gris Rubion;Follo Tunito
;Tomme Mima
;Meriege
;Mildretta
Other Cleaners
;Arkha Corvus;Semiu Grier
;August Stilza
;Eishia Stilza
;Amo Empool
;Fu Orostor
;Adderoy Twins
Raiders
;Zodyl Typhon;Jabber Wonger
;Cthoni Andor
;Noerde Hew Amozo
;Bundus Begalkeit
;Momoa Rukel
Hell Guard
;Hyo;Kyouka Nijiku
;Goka Nijiku
Sphereites
;Regto;Chiwa
Others
;Alice Stilza;Remlin Tysark
;Gnomulas Ridd
;Mymo
;Gil
;Felix
;Kuro
;Too Lily
;Wing
;Gountess Knock
;Alan
Production
Urana credits experiences in her childhood as the main inspiration for Gachiakuta. The story's premise, where actions and feelings are imbued into personal belongings as "Anima", developed after Urana broke a belonging of her own as a child: "I had a pen that I really loved, and I broke it in two. Along with the sense of loss, I had a feeling like the pen was pleading with me". Urana's experience is reflected in Gachiakuta as the story focuses on many characters who explore strong, personal connections to Anima-imbued objects called "Vital Instruments", and in Rudo's case, even trash thrown away by others. The idea for these Vital Instruments also originated in Urana's youth from observing the hangers that came with her grandmother's dry cleaning, a testament to Gachiakutas themes about seeing value and potential in seemingly mundane and discarded things.Gachiakutas art style is due to illustrations by Urana, complemented by graffiti designs from Ando Hideyoshi. Graffiti and street art provide not only avenues for expression, distinction, and safety for the story's characters, but also narrative significance for readers due to its use in storytelling. As for character design, Urana states that her process involved unexpected changes for Gachiakutas characters: "I create them to be decent people, but then I actually draw them and for some reason, they turn out to be freaky weirdos. I've given up, realizing that this is who they truly are".
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by with graffiti designs by Ando Hideyoshi, the series began serialization in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine on February 16, 2022. As of November 2025, the series' individual chapters have been collected in 17 volumes.In August 2022, Urana stated an "overseas version" was in production. In March 2023, Kodansha USA announced that they licensed the series for English publication.
Volumes
Chapters not yet in ''tankōbon'' format
- 150. "Wait for Me"
- 151. "Something Inhuman"
- 152. "Locking Eyes with Stranger Things"
- 153. "Flame"
- 154. "What You Can Do"
- 155. "The Source of Power"
- 156. "The Ancient Rulers"
- 157. "The Reason for Reliance"
- 158. "The Kind and The Gentle Avenger"
- 159. "Daily Hire"
- 160. "Opening"
- 161. "Opening"
- 162. "Grandpa!!"
Anime
After the airing of the first-season finale, a second season was announced.
Crunchyroll is streaming the series. Medialink licensed the series in Southeast Asia for streaming on Ani-One Asia YouTube channel.
Episodes
Video game
In December 2025, it was announced that a RPG video game by Com2uS Group, with the working title Gachiakuta: The Game, is set to be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Windows.Stage play
A stage play adaptation of the manga was announced in December 2025. It is set to be held at the Stellar Ball in Tokyo from May 22–31, 2026, and at the Rohm Theater in Kyoto from June 5–7. Go Ueki will direct the show, and Watashiomu will write the script. The music will be directed by Ken the 390 and written by Yoshizumi and Mush Tanaka will write the music.Reception
The columnist for liked the world building, action, and dark fantasy elements of the story, as well as the main protagonist. Masaki Endo from Tsutaya News liked the artwork and the main protagonist of the series. Atsushi Ohkubo recommended the series.In North America, the volumes of Gachiakuta were ranked on Circana BookScan's monthly top 20 adult graphic novels list since July 2025.
In the 2022 Next Manga Award, the series ranked 13th in the print manga category. It was also the most popular choice among English voters, even though the series had not been released in English at the time. The series ranked 14th in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2023. It was nominated for the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the category in 2023; it was also nominated for the 48th edition in the same category in 2024.