ポッドキャストの紹介
I don't want to live in the world of Gachiakuta, but I am afraid that that's where we're headed.
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK! I'm your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese no otaku, and...
I'm Sisqó, an American otaku.
In this podcast, we share our reviews of anime and manga through our distinct perspectives with commentary on Japanese culture, history, and language.
Sisqó, sing it!
Never let go forever. Never let go forever. Never let go forever. Never let go forever.
OTTACK!
Yeah.
I hope, like, we didn't scare off the listeners.
Sorry. Should I have sung a different part?
No, that's okay. I barely understand what you said.
You said, let me die! Feel pain, pity, pain!
You can tell how much Sisqó loves the opening theme song of what we're going to talk about?
Gachiakuta.
Gachiakuta. So we're going to talk about Gachiakuta today.
We'll talk about opening and the ending theme song and the animation.
Damn right we will.
Also talk about the, like, a whole story without spoiling any stories.
Okay.
And then we can talk about the characters and the, like, scenes and today's word of the day.
Before we start, we'd like to hear from you.
Share your thoughts, ideas, questions, or even suggestions what we should talk about.
Send us a message to the email in the description or you can use Spotify and the YouTube comment section as well.
オープニングテーマの詳細
All right, let's dig in from opening theme song.
Yes.
I think the title is really cute.
The title of the song is Hugs by Pale Dusk.
It's like a capital H-U-G and this lowercase s.
Yeah.
I really want it to stand for something.
I don't know.
I'm not sure it stands for anything.
No, it probably doesn't.
Yeah.
Anyway, so you can tell it's like a death rock.
It has like some death metal portions, but it's not really a death metal song because lots of it are not death metal.
Kind of unusual for anime opening.
Oh yeah.
Very.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've never heard of it.
I thought about just like a let's go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think there are some sections that are sort of death metal ish that it feels like that's the main part of the song.
But if you listen to the entire song, it's like a genre mashup on the level of like Bohemian Rhapsody.
Like it's got a lot of different things going on in it.
And a lot of it doesn't really make like musical sense.
I feel like it's a pretty long song for like current music.
Yeah.
The TV size of the actual, you know, the anime opening is like actually has like more cohesion to it than the real like full version of the song.
It's amazing.
Like every time I watch the opening, I can't help like laughing.
Yeah.
It's so good.
It's so good.
It's so good.
物語の概要
And the story is all about like a trush.
Yeah.
I didn't see that coming.
I thought it was like going to be like a fighting.
I mean, they fight.
Yeah, there's fighting.
Can you say the plot?
I thought we weren't going to spoil anything.
Okay.
I'll try to say some stuff.
That's everything I say is covered in the first episode.
It's about a boy named Rudolph who lives outside of like a fancy city and enjoys like salvaging trash and trying to fix it up.
And it follows him as he goes through some stuff and meet some other people and has a lot to say about trash and about how we interact with objects and sort of about pollution, I feel like.
And eventually there's like a lot of people with powers.
Is that enough summary without giving things away?
I feel like I'm going to give things away if I say anymore.
Okay.
Because the story changes a lot after like episode two or three.
It starts very serious.
Yeah.
The first couple episodes have like a really heavy town and then there's like more comedy afterwards.
Maybe the first four episodes, actually.
But eventually there are some parts that are pretty funny.
Yeah.
Some comedy involved.
I think it's like actually like four or five.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was so funny.
There is finally a really funny part, which like brings some like much needed levity to the series.
Right.
It was very serious and it makes you feel like the opening theme song.
Yeah.
It makes you want to like rage and like destroy and like wreck like the like bad parts of the world.
It could be our Earth.
Yeah.
I mean, like I'm really channeling a lot of this like emotion like this year.
I feel like the opening theme song especially, but also the show as a whole captures like some of like the like rage I feel about like the state the Earth is currently in in a way that was like very cathartic.
And really like let me like access like this emotion I didn't like know I had or wanted to name in a way that's felt really good to be able to like like let out and be like, yeah, I feel this way.
Like so.
So I'm really digging it.
So Rudo lives on Sphere.
What did they call in English?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Like when you find out that I feel like also that's like a giving away thing.
But yeah, he's like he's living in the beginning in a place where, yeah, the translation is Sphere.
But he lives like outside of the main city and in like the place where the quote tribes people live.
And there's a clearly like rich people part.
Yeah.
And then not rich people part.
There's like a gated community.
Yeah.
Literal gates.
Yeah.
And then there's like the people who live outside of the gated community on like the outskirts.
And there's like another part that you find out about later.
OK.
物の魂
So Rudo is the main character.
He has these special gloves and they apparently give him some like interesting powers.
Right.
And eventually you meet other people who all have powers based on the objects that are important to them.
So for him, it's his gloves.
And for other people, it's like their staff or their umbrella or like their scissors or something.
And so the idea that the series is really big into this idea that like care and love for an object can give that object a soul.
And in this way, the story actually reminds me a lot.
And this is like such an enormous, like a cross out of nowhere connection.
The story reminds me a lot of a book that I was like that I read as an elementary schooler called The Velveteen Rabbit.
And I don't think you're familiar with the story, but I don't feel bad about spoiling the plot of The Velveteen Rabbit.
Which is about a stuffed animal that a kid loves like very much.
And as a result, like it comes to basically be like actually alive to be real.
And the main idea of The Velveteen Rabbit is that when we love a thing enough and we want it sort of badly enough to be real,
it becomes real in like whatever way that that is a meaningful thing to call it.
Velveteen Rabbits is truly for like kids who are around the age of seven who are like engaged in what's called magical thinking,
where they sort of like believe that things like that can happen.
But it's a great story. It's really like a very sort of poignant moving story about like investing an object with love.
And then like, I don't know if it's about moving on from that object,
but like anyone who reads it as an adult will like instantly recognize like their own beloved objects like when they were a kid.
And so I think like this actually has like a lot in common with that in terms of this idea of like you can love a thing enough
to like make it sort of have like magic.
And I think that's an attitude that we need more of in the modern world where everything is disposable
and where we like run through material objects just like incredibly quickly.
It also connects a lot to the Japanese idea of motainai.
It's an idea that like you shouldn't waste stuff.
And again, this is like the opposite of what like modern culture wants us to do,
which is like run through material objects as fast as possible so that we can be sold more.
It's environmentally damaging, and I don't think it's good for our souls or for the souls of the objects we use.
Anyway, that I think like this show is really drawing on that motainai concept.
But I thought it was interesting that it also has this idea of like investing things that we care about or love
with like either power or souls in a way that's similar to this.
Like, you know, I don't know how well known Velveteen Rabbit is.
I guess like our children, I don't think, did read Velveteen Rabbit.
Now I'm thinking I should read it to them because it's like a poignant book.
And also like they're a little too old for it, but I would like to pass that message on to them.
I was thinking the same thing.
Like each like object has soul.
It's such a Japanese way of thinking.
Oh, totally.
And then like you said, motainai.
And then like I tend to use stuff for a long time until I can't use it anymore.
It's true.
Even when I can't use it anymore, I feel kind of attached to a thing.
When I throw away something I'm attached to, I don't say it out loud, but in my mind I say, thank you.
Goodbye.
And then like, you know, Marie Kondo is the same way.
Like that's how she does.
Yeah, I think it's interesting that for Americans, I think Americans see Marie Kondo as like a person who encourages you to throw stuff away.
But I bet if you asked her, she'd be like, actually, like I encourage you to like form deep emotional attachments to the things that you have and then not buy anything else.
Right?
Then she started to produce like her own like merchandise.
Right.
Well, I mean, everybody does, right?
Once you like get there, like it's, you know, but it's kind of motainai.
世代間の価値観
I don't know about like young people in Japan, but like my generation or even like my parents' generation and the grandparents' generation, they try to use as long as they can.
And I heard from some marriage because of like Japan went through war and people didn't have much stuff.
So they need to use the same thing over and take care of things like it's embedded in.
Yeah, I think the same was true for Americans who lived through the Great Depression.
And there's somewhere there's like a quote that I really like.
And I can't remember where I saw this or who said it.
But this idea that like everything, you know, our our grandparents or maybe our great grandparents at this point used to have a saying waste not want not or like penny saved is a penny earned, that kind of thing.
And that like all of the messages of modern society are the opposite, like waste, want, like spend, you know, borrow or whatever, like that we've like inverted those values and are now more focused on like like, you know, spending and consuming than we are on saving and taking care of things.
Yeah.
And that seems like a huge mistake.
Yeah, I started doing zero waste life since 2017.
And when I started, I was so excited.
There's like way to deal with like plastic or trash.
And the more I learned about environment, it was depressing.
Right.
Like what kind of world we live in, like we are so messed up.
Right.
Or that the systems that exist are all configured to sell, sell, sell and towards convenience and like not making people like ever have to do any work that it's very it's going to be very hard to engineer our way back out of that system.
I think it's all about education.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, we start learning about trash or like not try to try not to waste stuff from like the early stage in Japan.
But like, I remember when our son went to preschool and they had like some kind of a party and each parents brought like pizza or like, you know, vegetable sticks, fruits and everything.
And then my son, he didn't even ask for a plate.
Like just, you know, somebody put a lot of food on his plate.
And of course, he couldn't finish everything.
And he was like, he said he was done.
And he talked to the teacher, what should I do?
And she was like, just throw it away.
That was like my culture shock moment.
Yeah.
Why?
I don't understand.
You're not going to tell him trying to finish the food or like take it to the house or like give it to somebody?
I was in shock.
Yeah.
It's different now in Japan.
But when I was in school, like every student had to finish their own food.
Right. I mean, that seems like a problem in other ways, honestly.
I know.
But like, yeah, we should have better solutions for food waste than just throw it in the trash.
Some places do, but lots of places don't.
Yeah.
So I think really education matters a lot.
And then we can change, maybe.
I sure hope so.
I do my part.
I don't want to live in the world of Gachiakuta, but I am afraid that that's where we're headed.
Yeah.
So like there's a scene, like everybody has to wear a mask.
The COVID scene.
Like a really intense mask.
Right.
Yeah.
Because it's dusty and the pollution is everywhere.
And it reminded me of the Nausicaä.
Nausicaä.
Yeah.
Of the valley, because like she was wearing a mask and it was really important how to
wear so that she doesn't get affected.
Yeah.
Like people are so aware about these problems, but like it's so hard to change.
Right.
Yeah.
That's depressing.
Anyway, so I think going back to what I like about both, especially the opening theme song,
is that like it provides an outlet for some rage about the way things are.
Yeah.
And like, I wish I felt more productive emotions about like the way the world is going right
now.
Like we can fix this, you know, but like sometimes I just like, I don't know if we can fix this,
but I like, if we can't, then like, it makes me want to break everything.
And like this show and especially the opening, like really gives some like, I don't know,
some release to that kind of like, yeah, like break it all.
You know, which is probably not like that productive, but does feel good.
Yeah.
There's like, you know, you told me about grief process.
There are like seven ways.
Seven stages of grief.
Sure.
There's like, I think the same thing for climate change and then like, you know, those things
and the rage is one of them.
Anger is one of the steps.
Sure.
It's one I keep returning to, apparently.
So like whenever you come back to the opening, you get like, yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
I do.
Such a perfect song.
It's so good.
キャラクター紹介
Can you give us a little bit more talk about the characters?
Sure.
So we only really introduced Rudol.
He has like a father figure, Negito, who seems like a really nice, good person.
And so he's sort of like a nice mentor character.
And then there's a whole group of people from an organization called The Cleaners, which
I think is kind of funny because it makes them sound like in America, like if you call
a group of people The Cleaners, like you think they're probably like hit men for the mob
or something like they take out the trash or whatever.
Anyway.
So this has like a funny like connotation in English that I don't think is there in Japanese.
The first cleaner he meets is Enjin, which is a hilarious name in English because it
sounds like he's just an engine.
That seems sort of intentional, actually.
Yeah, yeah.
But he's pretty dope.
He's very funny.
Seems like, you know, kind of wise.
I'm trying to remember who the other what the other two major cleaners names are.
The guy with the staff is named Zanka.
Zanka.
He's the staff guy.
Yeah.
And who's the scissors girl?
Ryo.
Ryo.
Ryo and Zanka.
Zanka is an unusual name.
Is there anything there?
Zanka Nijiku.
What?
That's his name.
Okay.
Well, anyway, yeah, the characters are pretty unique.
The art style of this whole anime is very different.
It seems like it's it's got like a lot of sort of like rage in it, like in terms of
like the lines are kind of like eyes.
Yeah.
The eyes especially are like very intense in this anime.
And there's a lot of graffiti.
アートと日本のストリート文化
Like this is a this is an anime that really takes graffiti seriously as an art form, which
I'm kind of into.
Japan as like a society that elevates graffiti to me is just very interesting because there
is almost no graffiti in Japan.
Like, it's not tolerated at all.
But there's this kind of fascination at the same time with like American street culture,
essentially, like that produced graffiti and graffiti is awesome.
But so like Jet Set Radio Future that's, you know, Jet Set is the first one is Jet
Set Radio.
The second one is Jet Set Radio Future.
And like other games like it have really picked up on this sort of like love for graffiti
and like hip hop culture in Japan.
That's sort of like embedded in this a little bit, but especially in like the there's some
episodes where they go to like a graffiti town and like a cult canvas town, like really
express like a love for taking somewhere that is like, you know, has been sort of abandoned
and transforming it into something beautiful with the power of art.
And like, I really like that message that's in this about like sort of freedom and artistic
creativity as being like a thing that can bring some salvation, even in places that
are otherwise like deeply messed up.
So I don't know.
There's there's a I love that they this anime includes like that aspect too.
アニメのトーンとテーマ曲
Okay, let's do today's word of the day.
All right.
What is today's word of the day?
I think we need to do the title of this anime Gachi Akuta.
Gachi is slang, which means like super or like really or like hardcore, like sort of
all of those things at the same time.
And then Akuta, we had to look up and it appears as a component of the word Garakuta,
which means junk or trash.
So Akuta probably mostly means trash, although the kanji that it's written with can also
mean dust or mustard.
So but in this in this one, it's for sure trash.
So this is like total garbage would be like a decent translation of like this anime's title
or like like super trash.
But either way, I think like the the notion of both the show being about trash or like
objects that have been discarded or thrown away junk or whatever.
And then also the characters in some ways like being treated that way, too.
But then like developing these like super powers and like leveraging like, you know, items
that other people might think are trash into power is like very cool.
And then Ryunosuke Akutagawa's AKU is the same kanji.
His AKU?
Yeah.
Is it?
So it's Akuta, like trash river?
I didn't know.
Mustard river.
Wow.
What a name.
Yeah.
Damn.
We should talk about the ending theme song, too.
OK.
Yeah.
The ending theme song is also really different.
It's kind of a cross between like a hip hop song and like a regular anime ending theme
song.
It's called Tomoshibi by Dust Cell.
Yeah.
And it's the animation is like very regular Japanese ending animation.
Like not that much happens.
It doesn't really contribute.
So white and black.
Black and white.
It's just a person sort of falling.
It has like a weird box that transforms into a beating heart.
But I like the song kind of a lot.
And the transition from like the sort of hip hop elements to like the regular pop elements
is like very interesting.
And I like the instrumentation that's like sounds really industrial.
I like the animation.
It's very simple.
Yeah.
And then like you can see trash everywhere.
Right.
And you're falling into it.
The ending theme song really gives like platform vibes.
Even the actual story like reminds me of Platform.
The Platform.
Yeah.
Yeah.
アニメのメッセージ
I think, I mean, as much as this is like a regular shonen anime about like dudes with
powers fighting, it's also got some interesting things so far to say about class, materialism,
garbage, and like how we treat both objects and each other.
And so I think that's like what I like best about this and the opening theme song.
That's one of the most important part.
Well, for me, it is.
So I think there'll be about 24 episodes in total.
Yes.
I hope they don't change the opening theme song during the second core.
I'll never forgive them.
Just kidding.
We are halfway through.
Yeah.
So we'll see what's going to happen next.
Okay.
Anything else you'd like to add?
You should watch Kachiyakuta.
I failed to convince the anime club to do it this season, but it's great.
It's great.
It has potential.
Yeah.
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From the top!
