Fascinating visual storytelling with a gripping style. It’s unique and enjoyable work from a talented creative team.

Down on the surface, the cast-off waste of humanity has bred vicious monsters, and if Rudo wants to have any hope of discovering the truth and seeking vengeance against those who cast him into Hell, he will have to master a new power and join a group known as the Cleaners who battle the hulking trash beasts of the Pit!

Really fun manga! I will definitely read more!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance copy of this book.

I love unique art styles in manga, in which this does not disappoint. It has an interesting build up as well, and fully establishes the world in which the protagonist lives in. I appreciate the commentary about societal norms in this world as well; I was hooked from the beginning. I look forward to continuing this series!

I really enjoyed this art style. It was easy to follow the storyline, too! I am definitely interested to check out the next one!

I really enjoyed the first volume of this series. The art style is refreshingly different and lends itself well to the action displayed in the manga. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who likes to read action mangas set in a dystopian world.

Really enjoyed this one.

Loved the art work.

I also love the front cover to this.

Hope to get a physical copy one day.

From the outset, Gachiakuta's heavily graffiti-inspired art is striking – with deceptively simple and immediately cool-looking character designs depicted with clean, thick line-work contrasting with a grimy, lived-in world. The opening chapter, in particular, plays with perspective and warped proportions to instantly draw the reader into a kinetic, breathless action sequence. Although instantly recognizable as manga, creator Kei Urana imbues their art with such unusual characters and personalities that they make reading through troubled protagonist Rudo's story a pleasure.

I had a lot of fun with this manga, especially with the unusual, very cool art style. Gachiakuta's world seems interesting, and author Urana leaves multiple plot hooks to be explored in the future. It's a series I'll keep an eye on in the future since it fulfills that persistent Mad Max-esque itch in the depths of my soul. Similarly-minded fans of post-apocalyptic and eat-the-rich chaos should check this one out.

I got this book for free via NetGalley for a review.

Billed as a dark, dystopian fantasy it immediately appealed to me. Add to that the comparison to Battle Angel Alita and Attack on Titan and I was sold. I had to give this one a go. The rich discard their trash into an abyss. Rudo is falsely accused of murder and thrown into the abyss too. There he needs to master his new powers to defeat trash beasts.

The world building is really interesting. I have so many questions about how the world developed in this way that I hope will be answered in future volumes.

The characters are all well written. Although I may not overly like Rudo I am already fairly invested in his story and routing for him to succeed.

The plot had me hooked pretty quickly. It moved at a good pace and set up enough questions that I want to keep reading to discover more.

The art style reminds me of Soul Eater. While it's not my favourite, I think that it works really well and in a way suits this story.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and I would be keen to continue with the series.

I really enjoyed this manga by Kei Urana!

It was fast-paced and showed the character really well for the short book, if youre a fan of fantasy and adventure then this is a great book for you!
For me this was a 4.5 star read :)
I can't wait to continue this series and see what happens next.

THIS WAS SO GOOD! I love the art so much it’s so good! The plot is amazing and I love the characters. I can’t wait to read more!

An original manga story, but the artwork was not to my taste. The storyline was different but unique. Fun to read but hard to follow the plot at some points. The cliffhanger did leave me looking forward to seeing how it was resolved in the next one. Artwork 3, Story 3.5

Gachiakuta takes place in a trash apocalyptic world, which centers its hierarchy around both material and human value. The environment is separated into three bubbles: the rich who live in a more managed part of town, the slums who are descendants of criminals (referred to as tribes' folk), and “the pit” where both trash and deviant people go to never be heard from again.

Volume 1 of this series takes place over 4 chapters, 165 pages. We follow the life of Rudo, known as the “trash raider” who believes that if material items are well taken care of, they have the chance to form a soul. This also introduces a unique magic system.

Although this is an uncommon concept, the magic system unfortunately was not as well explained or delivered in a way that was intriguing. There may be future potential to build a want to root for the main character, but there was not enough information or backstory given within the first volume to make that decision. The story is fast paced and more focused on Rudo’s internal monologue compared to dialogue. However, this should not discourage readers to give it a chance, as this story may fit into the category of having to read more than one volume in order to be satisfactory.

Netgalley Review

Rating: ★★★★★

I really enjoyed this one. Can't wait for the next one to see how it plays out.

My favorite part was the thought provoking concepts of the manga. It makes some interesting parallels to our real world without being obnoxiously blatant about it. The story is interesting and those parallels just add a depth to the story, they don't take over the story themselves. (That makes sense in my head, I hope in makes sense in text form also.) We'll see how future volumes are, but so far so good.

Set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Poor is segregated. If you are deemed guilty of crime, you are thrown into the garbage abyss. Rudo is bullied because of the crimes of his father. He is taught that if you take care of your belongings, they can earn a soul and will take care of you. This power is helpful when he faces more evil in the abyss.
Beautiful lines. Minimal dialogue. I want to know more about his relationships.

I thought I outgrew my anime phase a long time ago. I was so sure of that whilst reading the first pages of this, especially with the exaggerated reactions and facial expressions. But, after "The Fall", I was hooked! I might take some time to get used to the sense of humor here, but that wasn’t so outrageous to turn me off the story. It is just that it been so long since I’ve read this type of mangas.

This is a super gloomy dark, fantasy manga about a society divided into the rich and poor, "clean" and "dirty". Wherein, obviously, the dirty side doesn’t have any say in being that, and the clean side enjoys the privileges they get out of making the poor’s lives even more miserable.

The story in its essence is not unique. But the environment and structure makes it super interesting and worth reading. Although this is only the first volume, it, absolutely and incredibly, did the job, which is to grab my interest and to make me want to read more.

Looking forward to reading the next volumes!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC!

The dystopian world that this manga is set in has me absolutely hooked!! I love the idea that when you care for something enough, it gets a soul of sorts. I think the message also has great impact because we’re living in such a consumerism era.

The pacing and the mystery around the main character’s background is art, honestly. I love how the main character’s will to survive just flows out of the pages and into me. I definitely feel his panic and desperation grip my heart.

I’m so excited to see where the author’s going to take this very talented, can wield anything main character!

I can’t wait to read the second volume!!!

I had low expectation of this manga heard a lot about it but I didn't think was for me but I give it a try and i end up liking a lot. From the art style that is clearly unique which I find it so good and I loved it.
The story was good not the best but it was entertaning and we can see the start of the amazing characters going on within the story which I can't wait to continue. And The world it made me think about Astro boy so maybe it's because of that I really liked the manga.
But definetely I can't wait to read the second volume to get to kmoe more about the main characther which by the way I love it. he is a strong charactes with great values and a cool power.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Gachiakuta 1 by Kei Urana is a shonen action manga set in a dark, rough, post-apocalyptic world that is divided between two people of upper and lower class and the most ominous threat is being sentenced down to the trash heap called the abyss. We follow a young boy named Rudo who's always digging through trash to try and find some reusable items to sell. When tragedy strikes, he finds himself dropped into the Abyss, and instead of dying as he expects, he lands upon a strange new world where monsters and a sort of magic reside. Now he'll do everything in his power to get back to the surface and take his vengeance.

This manga was just okay for me. I am in no means the target audience, but if you like dark, heavily lined art and a depressing world this might be for you! ;-) This volume was pretty much just the setup for the world, but the ending did have some intriguing information that dropped and I'm sure will be important in future volumes.

I really like the concept of objects being imbued with souls that reflect how much or little they were cared for; thus trash turns into monsters and well-loved objects can be used by those with special powers to defeat those monsters. I thought the world was well built in a short amount of time, and enough of the plot was shared for a first volume. Although fantastical, the plot feels relevant to our consumerist world where planned obsolescence, waste management, and pollution are very real problems.

— 3.5 ⚝

thank you to kodansha comics and netgalley for an e-arc of this manga. all thoughts are my own and not influenced in any way.

this was an interesting first volume. i think the premise of the story is very compelling and so is the world. i felt terrible when the mc gets wrongfully convicted of a crime and got sent off the edge. it was heartbreaking. i feel like that scene was written very well. overall, a very solid start to a series, one i don't know if ill be continuing because it reads like every other shonen manga ever. there's nothing particularly different about it that distinguishes it from other shonen. i still might give the next volume a shot but im unsure in this moment.

i think the power he has is super cool and enjin is hot so for him alone i might keep reading. i do think it has potential tho!