To ring in April we’re trying out something a bit new for our book of the month. We've done a few series and stand alone novels and even tried out a Graphic Novel series so it’s about time we showcase our smaller Manga section a bit and offer up something new and fresh. Maybe a bit antithetical to the themes in the manga in question though.
Gachiakuta is a world of trash, literally. The world is littered from the excess garbage of the elite floating high above in the floating island known as the Sphere. It rains down crushing people and littering the landscape turning it into a barren dump full of foul creatures born from the trash. But not only is the trash of the Sphere that gets discarded down below but its unwanted citizens as well. Meet Rudo, falsely accused of murdering his guardian by the upper class he’s sentenced to execution by expulsion and tossed over the side. Somehow surviving the fall through a mystical impenetrable death barrier into the wastelands of the ground he’s saved by a Giver named Enjin who works for The Cleaners. Givers are people who have a special item that they’ve cared for long enough that it’s been imbued with their feelings and takes on magical powers and The Cleaners are a team of Givers who hunt trash beasts to protect the various settlements and cities on the ground. Rudo joins the Cleaners determined to find a way back up to the Sphere to get his revenge, but Rudo isn’t the only person on the ground with a Vendetta against the Sphere and being a Sphereite who has somehow survived the mysterious death barrier that circles the floating island paints a large target on his back.
The manga is written and drawn by Kei Urana (With graffiti designs by Hideyoshi Andou.), a former assistant to Soul Eater and Fire Force manga author Atsushi Ohkubo. You can see the influence in the extremely stylistic art and character designs. I’ve personally read about 80 chapters of the manga and just finished watching the first season of the anime adaptation and have had a great time.There are so many good characters and the art is so expressive and stylish and cool. The story itself also tackles more mature and darker subject material than most shonen in a pretty serious way at times that makes it much more interesting than just a bundle of genre tropes and cool art that other series sometimes fall into. Character motivations are extremely varied and feel real and fleshed out which makes the cast exciting and thrilling to learn more about.
If any of this sounds interesting at all we’ll have the entire series out so far on sale for the month of April. While we’ll only be carrying the first few volumes directly on the shelves we will take special orders all month for any of the 10 volumes that are out and will provide the 20% discount as long as the books were ordered this month. I do apologize that our restock on some of the issues was delayed as well so we might not have volume one on shelves until later this week. But it’s coming!
