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My Hero Academia has dominated the shonen anime scene over the past decade since its debut in 2016, guiding fans from their teen years well into adulthood. As the beloved series gears up for its eighth and final season, a new contender emerges to capture the hearts of the next generation of anime enthusiasts. Surprisingly, this successor is not Solo Leveling, despite its immense popularity.
While A-1 Pictures’ Solo Leveling has garnered significant attention, it’s Crunchyroll’s latest sensation, Gachiakuta, by Kei Urana, that is making waves. This new series has captivated audiences, even in the shadow of Solo Leveling‘s Anime of the Year accolade. Gachiakuta stands out with its blend of raw emotion, thrilling action sequences, and compelling weaponry, setting the stage to become as memorable as shonen giants like My Hero Academia and Naruto.
Gachiakuta is a gripping battle anime that balances heart-pounding action with a rich emotional storyline and supernatural abilities. The series introduces a profound idea rooted in Shinto beliefs: the existence of souls within all things, even inanimate objects. This theme resonates powerfully in a world where society’s elite often discard items for minor flaws, adding depth and significance to the narrative.
Gachiakuta Is Crunchyroll’s Newest Breakout Shonen Anime
Gachiakuta is an intense battle anime that gives its characters and story as much heart as it does action and epic supernatural powers. It begins with the meaningful concept that souls can be found inside anything, coming from the Shinto belief that spirits reside everywhere, even within inanimate objects. In a world where the upper class of society is quick to discard things for the smallest imperfection, that concept carries a lot of narrative weight.
This especially rings true for the series protagonist, Rudo Surebrec, a young man who was abandoned as a child. His tragic history is why he obsessively dumpster dives into the trash of the upper class; he has a desire to salvage whatever he can find and give it a new life. Unfortunately, the rest of society doesn’t recognize the value in things that have already been labeled as garbage, including people.
When Rudo ends up being framed for the murder of his adoptive father, the authorities are unfairly quick to dump him off the literal edge of the world into a seemingly endless void called “The Pit.” It’s at this moment that Gachiakuta rapidly turns into a series filled with rage and spite against the injustices of a broken system, as Rudo dedicates his existence to avenging his father and giving those who wronged him their just desserts.
Gachiakuta’s Main Motif & Power System Makes it Stand Out From Other Shonen Anime
While Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto has ninjas and Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia has superheroes, Gachiakuta’s main gimmick is “trash,” both literally and figuratively. The story is set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world that has been overtaken by the vast amounts of waste and pollution that humanity produces—and from humanity’s eagerness to part with anything that isn’t considered perfect or pristine, one of the most interesting and poetic power systems in anime is born.
As a shonen anime, Gachiakuta can’t be without a special weapon or two, and each character in the series has a unique device with powers and functions that are exclusive only to them. The anime’s idea that a soul resides within everything is turned into reality with the supernatural force called Anime, which is generated by thoughts and emotions. When an object holds significant value to a person, that object becomes imbued with Anima and turns into a Vital Instrument.
Vital Instruments can take the form of anything, which is what makes the weapons they turn into so unique. Every Vital Instrument manifests a special ability that parallels its owner’s personality and history. As a result, every fight escalates into battles that go beyond a simple exchange of fists, magical lasers, or guns that have been glorified with futuristic technology.
Gachiakuta Is the Perfect Animation for the Current Generation
Apart from the delicious action that every anime fan craves in the shonen genre, Gachiakuta is an incredibly stylish and modern series that touches on themes, elements, and ideas highly relevant to the newer generations.
Gachiakuta’s trash motif and how the anime’s world and society are at the mercy of human greed and overconsumption tie into the rising concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss, and other environmental crises. Countless Millennials, members of Gen Z, and so on have shown increasing concern for the health of the planet and how its worsening state could affect life in the future, fearing that it may resemble the desolate wasteland that Rudo finds himself in.
The first few episodes of Gachiakuta also introduce unfair and highly discriminatory social systems that reflect real-life issues as well as the recent decade’s hectic political climate. People are angry, and Rudo’s rage against a society that has left him feeling abandoned, alienated, and wronged his entire life resonates with an audience who have suffered under similar circumstances.
Gachiakuta also does quite a few things that anime in general hasn’t done right in the past, specifically regarding ethnic and racial diversity. With anime and manga becoming more popular outside of Japan, diversity has become a necessity when it comes to a series’ success, particularly when the story’s setting poses an opportunity for the cast to include people of color.
Proper representation is now more important than ever across every form of media, and this especially rings true for Black representation. Gachiakuta has offered up characters like Semiu Grier and Arkha Corvus, who are not only well-written but are aesthetically designed with the care and respect that was lacking in much older anime.
English dubs also contribute a great deal to an anime’s success in Western countries. Gachiakuta currently has one of the best English dubbed versions of the decade. Not only does it have flawless performances from talents like Zeno Robinson (Jabber Wonger) and Celeste Perez (Amo Empool), but the English translation has been written and performed with modern slang and dialects that endear the characters to an audience that uses the same vernacular.
Even Solo Leveling Doesn’t Feel as Contemporary as Gachiakuta
Out of the other recently released traditional shonen series such as Kaiju no. 8, Tougen Anki, Dandadan, and especially Solo Leveling, Gachiakuta just hits differently. The anime doesn’t just offer up meaningful character arcs and a lovable cast. It gives its viewership things that they haven’t seen before while still flowing to the tune of a classic shonen series.
Gachiakuta is fun without being too unserious or falling into harmful and outdated humor. It can also get incredibly edgy without being offensive or tasteless. And, most importantly, it resonates with a young fan base who’ve been dealt a hard hand the past decade. Older generational shonen anime like My Hero Academia have been about dreaming and working hard to reach the stars. Gachiakuta is planted in a more grounded mood and focuses on surviving and finding connections in a present where struggling has become the norm.
In comparison to Solo Leveling, Gachiakuta just has more. Solo Leveling has its epic fights and a great protagonist who’s been pitted against the most iconic shonen hero in all of anime, but outside of Season 1, the series doesn’t have strong enough story beats to really impact a whole generation. Beyond Sung Jinwoo’s desire to take care of his family, Solo Leveling is just about being cool and powerful. Gachiakuta, on the other hand, goes above and beyond to give young anime fans something raw, real, and truly memorable.
- Release Date
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July 6, 2025
- Network
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TBS, MBS, CBC, Tulip Television, BSN, tys, NBC, HBC, RKK, i-Television, SBS, IBC, BSS, MRO, OBS, TUF, RSK, TUY, tbc, RKB, SBC, KUTV, RBC, UTY, RCC, MRT, atv, MBC
- Directors
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Satoshi Nakagawa
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Aoi Ichikawa
Rudo (voice)
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Katsuyuki Konishi
Enjin (voice)
