Gachiakuta’s Anime Adaptation Is Finally Here, And It’s Very Angry
Stories about class disparity are all the rage right now, and it probably has something to do with the fact that, in the real world, the chasm between the wealthiest individuals and everyone else continues to insurmountably widen. At their best, these tales streamline the many injustices that define the moment, concocting clever metaphors and circumstances that tie into these commonly felt problems. And in this media landscape where an increasing number of popular shows and movies passionately indict the status quo (Severance, Squid Game, Parasite, Andor, etc.), it seems very possible we may have a newcomer to that list: Bones Film’s adaptation of the popular manga Gachiakuta.
As Rudo goes about life in a walled-off slum that sits in the shadow of a decadent metropolis—which literally and figuratively looks down on him and the other “tribesfolk”—he goes about his days collecting trash discarded by the wealthy. Years ago, his foster father, Regto, told him that if items are shown a proper amount of love, they can develop a “soul.” Whether he still believes this or not, it instilled a deep respect for objects wastefully thrown away by the cityfolk, so much so that he sifts through piles of garbage that the rich greedily protect.
The classist imagery here isn’t particularly subtle, but in an increasingly unsubtle world, this feels appropriate. In the beginning minutes, the wealthy openly gossip about the people who live on the other side of the wall in earshot of Regto, continuing to whisper how they find the tribesfolk “filthy” and how they “wish they’d stick to their side.” The cityfolk’s pristine white clothes and equally pristine white architecture contrast nicely against the rusted, lived-in feel of the other side of the wall, where people wear quilted garb with a great deal more personality than those of their condescending counterparts. The visual design here is quite striking across the board as both the background art and the clothing place us in this specific place.
These readable visual metaphors are further sold by the cherry on top: the slums are designed to slope downwards so that no matter where you are, you can see the gallows that sit at the bottom of the incline. If it wasn’t clear, the cityfolk lead an incredibly punitive society, one where tribesfolk are sentenced to death without a trial: specifically, they’re dropped off a giant cliff. It’s gnarly, it’s unpleasant, and it makes it quite clear that this place is rotten to the core.
However, where a lot of the nuance comes into play is that this tendency towards punitive measures is drilled in at every level of society: the tribesfolk also resent the “criminals” being executed because they believe these alleged “crimes” end up giving the cityfolk more reason to distrust them and collectively worsen their reputation. It’s a good stand-in for how those at the top of the pyramid often find ways to sow division and self-hate in those underneath them, the frequent executions a means to keep them in line through fear that has the added benefit of lowering their self-worth by making them feel like human “trash,” as the series repeatedly puts it. We see how deeply this viewpoint penetrates when Rudo is subject to bullying by other tribesfolk kids because his dad was executed for murder, making him largely shunned even in this lower rung for something he didn’t do.
Unfortunately for Rudo, it doesn’t take long for him to find out just how deeply the cityfolk love punishing people, and after being falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he finds himself being sentenced to death with no semblance of due process. But of course, since this is just the prologue to the story and not its ending, after narrowly escaping his demise, Rudo finds himself in the place where we’ll presumably spend the rest of the story: the Abyss.
