EXCUSE THE TYPOS :p This just gets better and better. I love the creativity of the author, I love how every giver has their own background, and how all the instruments have managed to surprise me. The powers of Amo are really problematic, we can see the effect it can have on people, and just for the nature of the power we can tell her background is deep, they gave us part of it and now I’m hoping they’ll give us the rest in the next volume. QUOTES “You’re filthy, and you contaminate everything around you” “There’s something inside of him. And it’s growing. To put it simply… Hmm… It’s something that might destroy the world. PARDON ME? “Because Amo saw an angel crossing between the heavenly sphere and the ground on earth” “PARDON ME?” 0.2
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was a really good volume. I continue to love these interesting characters that are still being introduced, but it is done in a way that I am not overwhelmed by this crazy cast of people. Everyone's personality is cranked up to 10, which is sometimes too much but given this harsh world everyone is interacting with, it really doesn't bother me. It feels right for the story being told. I love how Rudo as the MC makes mistakes and not in the "but in the end it was the right thing to do" way but in the "no actually that was a bad choice" way. This also got very dark at the end, which I could see foreshadowed with this new villain(ish) character we got this volume but dang I wasn't expecting to see it play out. I liked this read a lot.
Even though this series is tagged as "shonen", a genre of Japanese comics and animated films aimed primarily at a young male audience, typically characterized by action-filled plots., Gachiakuta is rather dark. The last chapters of this volume are somewhat disturbing by their violence, whether physical or psychological. What I mean is be warned that the overall vibe of the series and this particular volume is closer to a grim Demon Slayer than a joyful Naruto.
That being said I’m still in awe with this series. Impressive dynamism, filled with contained aggressivity and amazing designs. Joy.
Every chance the author had to over sexualize the child 🍇 victim they took it. The author took every chance to highlight her chest, her underwear, tie her up, and put her into poses where her legs were spread as far as they could. Enjin criticized her clothes when one of his allies is wearing about the same amount of clothes. Rudo is shown repeatedly punching her in the face after she was unable to defend herself anymore. This was to show there’s something terrible in Rudo that he’ll need to deal with, that it’ll be part of his character development. But a teenage boy beating a defenseless barely clothed 🍇 victim is disturbing. There’s better ways to show Rudo has anger issues.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was a stellar volume! I had been looking forward to the introduction of Amo’s character, and she certainly didn’t disappoint. Man, that girl is all levels of fucked up 😩
First and foremost, excuse you how dare you make me emo for Delmon? What happened to his beautiful wife? WHO TOOK HER FROM HIM? That’s just foul and dirty! It’s clear he loved her so much too 😭 Just unacceptable to use that against him! That man just wanted to live a happy life with his wife and grow flowers for her 🥺🔫
Then we have Rudo’s whole existential crisis in this volume. Amo also completely fucked with his brain. Thanks to that, we get evidence that his fear of all the rage and ugliness inside him isn’t just hypothetical. We had Semiu basically confirm it 😩 And I can’t help but love a story that strongly features a character who is trying to battle what they’ve inherited from their parents. Rudo is so scared of what his father was and what it means for him, but he still has no real idea how to navigate the strong emotions. Get my son into anger management classes STAT! He’s a good boy 😭 I promise! It’s just that there’s no healthy way, so far, for him to release all that ugliness. Bottling it up is not the solution, as shown here, because that will just mean that it’ll come out in unpleasant ways. Please just let my trash son be happy and kind, which is his TRUE nature 🥺
Finally, the little we learn about Amo’s past in this volume is sickening. Truly repulsive what has happened to her 🤮 Have these people never heard of true love and nurturing of a child? The life she’s lived up to this point sounds dire. Please give this girl some clothes and proper care stat!
Naturally, I’m going to pick up the next volume in .2 seconds because it’s already in my grasp from the library ✨
P.S. Tamsy’s vital instrument was cool as fuck! He really went there and crossed some lines because he knew everyone would be fine 🙂↕️ I support his vision.
I’ve seen so much hate floating around for Ado, and honestly… I don’t get it. I went into this volume already knowing a bit about her backstory, so watching everything unfold here hit way harder. The whole scene where she invites people over — only to realize they’re just there to use her, to get information — like??? Of course she’d spiral after that! That’s betrayal and manipulation layered on top of already deep trauma. Her crash-out felt valid, and I wish more people would recognise that instead of labelling her “annoying” or “dramatic.” 🙄 Just say y’all aren’t used to seeing complex female characters who don’t immediately soften up or fall for the first sign of affection.
Also, I’m not usually into the whole “friends get mind-controlled and attack each other” trope — it’s been done so many times — but I’ll give credit where it’s due: this one was actually pretty solid. It didn’t overstay its welcome, and it served a purpose beyond the chaos. Plus, it gave us a chance to see Ado’s Jinki in action, and that alone made it worth it. The design and power of her Jinki? So slick.
Speaking of which — I adore how creative the Jinkis are getting. Every time a new one shows up, I’m like, “wait, that’s what you turned into a weapon??” 😭 Tamzy’s yarn pull especially stood out to me — it’s such an odd, clever idea for a weapon, and it somehow works. It’s the perfect mix of eerie and beautiful, which honestly describes this series as a whole.
But what really got under my skin this volume was Amo’s backstory. It’s disturbing in such a quiet, human way — those childish drawings of her memories, her obsession with being loved, her total misunderstanding of what happened to her. She’s literally idolizing the same parents who sold her off, calling them “the best,” and it’s just… chilling. The innocence of it makes it so much sadder. I actually had to pause and sit with that for a minute.
This volume is just sad. Everyone is this series has been through wayyyy too much shit. Even Amo, with how despicable Urana made her, I felt terrible for when reading her backstory at the end of this volume.
Love Rudo as a protagonist, though. His crash out towards the end was a bit vicious, but valid tbh. Especially when Amo made the four of them that were affected by her abilities relive awful shit, while laughing too…
Every character in this series is so complex. And cool. And the fights are great. I love this series so far!
I'm officially addicted. Read this all in one sitting as I wasn't stopping till I found out what happened. The story is so engaging and fun to read and I'm loving each character more and more cough especially Enjin cough. I also find it very clever when an author can hide the solution in plain sight. That ending however was DARK 😳
This turned so dark so fast- still good though, and shows just how brutal life on the Ground really is. I freaking love Tamsy, he's by far my favourite! I'm so curious about the entire mystery surrounding the angel and the symbol on Rudo's gloves and Amo's shoes...
Amo’s design is so cool I wonder what her color palette is (I probably could just look it up lol) and she is such an interesting character to me mostly because I don’t understand what’s going on with her necessarily…
Hey so…this one was a little (lot) dark. From Rudo's moment halfway through (which I found sad but so relatable in so many ways D: ) to the end scene(s). Ohhhh boy…
i'm struggling to find words to express how i'm feeling after that. i KNEW amo's backstory would be horrible from the moment she opened her mouth but wow. that was beautifully and horrifically done. the art style changing to super cutesy child's drawings when she dissociates is haunting and such a poignant way to show her attempts at coping by falling back to the fairytales and love stories that she was probably told as bedtime stories before she got sold off. it's also SO horrifying that she's so attached to the boots and her power because it just goes to show how traumatized she still is. i wonder if the nature of someone's power can change over time if they start to attach different value to their vital instrument.....if so, i'd LOVE to see amo join the cleaners and begin to heal and shift her attachment to the boots, potentially changing her power to be less about other people mindlessly protecting her. i love the idea of using smell to give opponents hallucinations, but maybe instead of them seeing her as an object of affection, they could see her as something to fear instead?? idk just something that gives her more agency over her life and safety. that would be incredible. the amo stuff really really got me but i'm also loving where we're going with rudo and how the mystery surrounding him and his lineage keeps unravelling slowly but surely. enjin is such a fantastic mentor, nice juxtaposition to gris' mentoring in the previous volume. zanka and tamsy are SO cunty i'm obsessed with them and need more immediately. can't wait to figure out riyo's probably heartbreaking backstory. this manga just keeps getting better and better
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
everything about this manga so far is so creative, the outfits, the hairstyles, the powers, the fights. it’s so unique
edit after reread:
I cannot express how well written this is. subtly pushing it to the back of our minds that they have remlin’s spells cast on them so we’re right with zanka when he doubts tamsy, just to pull us back to reality in a comedic way so our suspicions are cleared even though we were right to be concerned that tamsy would be so fast to harm his so called friends. AND how this leads into the next load of fights because again it’s easily forgotten that zanka’s spell never activated so when he’s in trouble after fighting with jabber, the stakes still feel super high and the consequences real. AND every time tomme takes care to be extra thorough with her notes and gris lightheartedly scolds her for it, it’s SUCH good setup for the fact in more recent chapters tomme is observant enough to notice tamsy acting odd when the others don’t. rereading this manga is so fun, it feels like it’s meant to be read over and over again and each time you’ll notice something new.
I also find it super interesting that zanka fully sniffed amo’s scent and identified that it was familiar but didn’t see hallucinations of a loved one in amo’s place. maybe I’m just reading into this but perhaps this means he doesn’t have anyone (at least outside of this group) that he considers his ‘loved one’ because of his relationship with his family and his upbringing in general. it’s rather sad to consider
Heavy material at the end of this volume (to the point they put a human trafficking helpline number at the front of the volume), but it's handled well. Painful, but well.