REVIEW: Gachiakuta Episode 1 — “The Sphere”

It seems like a series that is pushing against existing shonen structures, and others that take that structure, break it down, and build it into something new. Gachiakuta Episode 1, “The Sphere,” falls into the latter category. Based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by mangaka Kei Urana, with graffiti design by Hideyoshi Andou, the series focused on the haves, the have-nots, and the trash of the world. 

Gachiakuta Episode 1 introduces audiences to a concept that the love we put into items and humans creates something special. But the trash we create by refusing them, throwing them out, or simply changing your mind feels it. To put it simply, in the world of Gachiakuta people and things are no different.

If an item loses its value or a person, they’re cast into a giant black pit that surrounds the floating city called The Sphere. But between the idylic and rich walled city, there is a world of trash, dpeicted as dirty and destitute the slums around the walls is where Rudo (Aoi Ichikawa) calls home. 

Gachiakuta Episode 1 starts the series strong with emotion and high stakes. 

Our series’ protagonist, Rudo, saves the trash. Rudo is a boy with no family who survives by picking up trash on the Sphere, after he parents were killed (his father framed for a series of murders). And to the Shperites, he’s seen as a menace.

Though discriminated against as one of the Sphereite underclass known as the tribesfolk, in Gachikuta Episode 1, we meet him as he rescues a stuffed rabbit, recieves mentorship from his surrogate father Regto (Toshiyuki Morikawa), and finally works up the courage to confess to the girl he likes. Then, the man he looks up to is murdered in cold blood.

When Rudo tries to stop the masked man, he’s detained by cops from beyond the wall, and framed for the murder of the man who might as well have been his father. To end Gachiakuta Episode 1, Rudo is thrown into the pit, the hellscape of mutated garbage beasts live.

Rudo is the most compelling shonen protrotagonist this Summer anime season. 

It’s an entirely different world, but having cursed the people who restrained him and cast him out, it’s all he has left. To survive, he must wield a new power and join the rogue Cleaners. Rudo doesn’t just aim to battle monsters, but the corrupt who cast him into Hell. 

The way the episode’s narrative switches from warm and loving to terrifying is its strength. In the span of minutes, Rudo is taken from a being a loving child to a vengeful boy ready to kill every last corrupt person in the Sphere. That snappy discent into anger is recognizable and understandable even.

It’s also what pushes the series past standard shonen revenge and into something extremely personal. Especially when put in line with current world events. Rudo is a hero driven by anger at the classist society that threw him away and that is a mission we can all get behind now. 

Bones has developed one of its most beautiful series with Gachiakuta.

Animated by studio Bones with Character Design and Chief Animation Director Satoshi Ishino, with Sub Character Design and Chief Animation Director Yoshino Matsumoto, the series boasts some of Summer 2025’s best animation. This spans from the Trash Beast design from Eiji Yamamori, vital instrument design from Arisa Hoshina, the general art design from Nariyuki Ogi, and the impact from Art Director Yusa Ito (Kusanagi). Editor

Rudo’s background is plucked from any shonen hero. He’s poor, his father/mentor is murdered, he needs to fix the corrupt system that led it to happen. Still, Gachiakuta Episode 1 is expertly animated and scored (with music composition from Taku Iwasaki) that it distinguishes itself from the other anime in the shonen demographic. 

But what makes Gachiakuta thrive is that it seems to be starting at the end of Rudo’s story. Up until now, he’s lived a life, he’s trained, he’s loved, and been loved, and now, as he lays in Hell, this is where is quest starts. While we in the audience know that he was framed, those in the crowd don’t. The girl he likes rejects him totally, and now, Rudo is left to be trash and saved by the world beneath the Sphere. 

Fierce anti-caplitalist messaging rings loud in this shonen anime. 

To say “Gachiakuta goes hard” is a severe understatement. The series has begun as a stark take on class conciousness, the joy of falling in line for the circus that is a public execution, and how the rich will always find a way to rig the system in their favor. This anime is aggressively anti-capitalisst and anti-consumption in the best ways. And its all elevated by its gorgeous animation. 

While many series in the Summer 2025 season embracing more nuances and atmospheric approaches to using 3DCG animation, Gachiakuta Episode 1 stands out as one of the best. And it can only get better with the sharpest and most impressive examples coming in the last moments of the premiere episode’s last minutes as Rudo is saved from the garbage. Its hands-down some of Bones’ best work. 

Gachiakuta is revamping expectations for Shonen anime and its doing with a style and messaging that we need right now. We’ll have to see if the series can stick the landing, but for now, its excellently setting the stage. 

Gachiakuta Episode 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.