This week’s episode of Gachiakuta was without question the most emotional thus far, even more so than the series’ opening episodes that thrust Rudo from the Sphere to the Ground in the first place. In weeks prior, the series introduced us to Amo, an incredibly peculiar girl living by herself in a tower in a No Man’s Land. A Giver herself, Amo’s power nearly took out an entire squad of Cleaners by manipulating their minds via their memories and turning them against each other, a unique ability that doesn’t seem that useful against something like a Trash Beast but is exceptionally handy when taking on a group as an individual. While much of the episodes that introduced her focused on the combat between her and the Cleaners, her various quirks left questions initially unanswered for the viewer. Why did this girl, who clearly was at least a teenager, speak in third person like a small child? Why was she dressed so strangely, barely wearing anything at all? How did she end up living in the middle of such a dangerous area? And was behind the twisted yet sincere conceptions of love and affection she seemed to show?
After seeing the sorts of powerful foe + tragic backstory narrative combos from anime like DAN DA DAN, I was expecting there to be some nuance to Amo’s behavior. Kei Urana is a talented mangaka and clearly puts effort into characters. Each episode of Gachiakuta has intention, so it makes sense that Amo would as well. And while I was right to expect that, I certainly wasn’t prepared for how sympathetic of a character she’d become for me.
Spoilers ahead for Gachiakuta Episode 13: An Empty Gaze.
Sold Away
The very first scene of Amo’s flashback is worth breaking down a bit. I don’t think the Gachiakuta anime or manga were wrong not to linger on it too much, but it’s obviously a foundational moment for Amo’s character and the way she relates to other beings around her. Amo sees what appears to be a crow (or some kind of corvid, who knows) and initially expresses some abnormal affection towards it, which quickly turns into disgust as soon as her mother points out that the bird will never love her. Her cognition is changed easily from the words of an authority figure she’s grown to trust, and, more importantly, her perception of the world around her is through a lens of what will offer her love and affection, prioritizing what will and despising what won’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was something drilled into her throughout her entire childhood; it feels quite intentional that her mother at multiple points on their short walk remarks about what will and what won’t love Amo. Normally, I might also assume the crow represented something more symbolic about death or misfortune, but I think that might be reading too much into it and / or projecting memories of an American high school English literature class.
What I think is most impactful, and most impressive in terms of the construction of the scene to me, is the choice to depict segments of Amo’s memories as childish drawings of a child. This is something that comes straight from the manga, but the color and animation enhances it quite a bit in the anime. At multiple points in the episode, these colorful, bright drawings feel like Amo mentally romanticizing what’s happening to her as a defense mechanism. As a viewer, it’s gut wrenching to see it happen and witness human trafficking adorned in flowers and sparkles. I think the anime succeeded in making the trafficker even must despicable than he came across in the manga. In the original work, Urana makes use of shaded speech bubbles to convey different things about different characters. The trafficker for example switches from white to black speech bubbles when he gets especially violent with Amo while fighting to regain his Vital Instrument. In the anime, this isn’t possible, but voice acting more than makes up for it. The voice of the trafficker is downright unsettling at times, and from the very beginning his creepy mannerisms, job, and aesthetic makes a watcher painfully aware of what his intentions likely are. Even more, the warping and modulation of music during their “ritual” has a strong effect. That particular section is elongated more in the anime too.
Like her mother, the trafficker makes use of his position of relative authority in Amo’s life to warp her perception of him into an ostensibly loving one. It raises the question of how someone could possibly mistake sexual abuse like that for love, with the answer likely being that Amo hadn’t been shown love from others and as a consequence didn’t understand it. Her only frame of reference was a near infantile understanding of the kind of love that happens between a girl and a prince in a picture book, teaching her perhaps the aesthetics of love but not giving her the mental fortitude to reject someone else’s false characterization of love outright. The fact that, years after she was sold, her mind was still being manipulated in the same way it was when she was a child speaks to her not being in an environment where she was permitted to grow as a person, more than explaining the somewhat childish way she oscillates between different whims in conversation with the Cleaners. That childishness also adds a layer of innocence and makes her more sympathetic. In aggregate, the almost creepiness of the out of context oddities of her personality become sympathetic as we’re shown context, strengthening the emotional impact of the scene. It’s quite a strong way to construct a character’s introduction.
Filling What the Heart Has Lost
As if a tragic and heart-rending backstory weren’t enough, there are even some lore implications behind Amo’s suffering, her receipt of an item from “that series,” and Rudo’s own experience. Both of them were discarded as children, something they have in common alongside the insignia on their vital instruments. Obviously, there’s a significance to this that we aren’t meant to know yet, especially since Amo was able to immediately form a strong attachment to an item that wasn’t really hers to begin with. My hypothesis for why, apart from any mystical qualities the boots themselves might have, is that, for the first time in her life, Amo was gaining a degree of autonomy and control over something else, as opposed to being the object that others exert their control onto. Whether that thing was previously owned by another probably makes no difference to her. As she even points out, the trafficker only has things that he’s stolen from other people. By extension, that means everything he gave to her belonged to someone else first. Amo likely doesn’t see past ownership as an impediment to current ownership.
The moment she has something to own, something that suits her rather than suit the wishes of those who control her, it’s like her entire personality is invigorated (and the scream she manages to let loose was genuinely chilling). She starts making demands, protecting what is now hers, and resisting. With such a despicable person as her captor, it’s quite easy to see his death as at least unsympathetic and at most deserved. It’s nice to see her be given some degree of power over her own destiny, even when we know she goes on to use it in some harmful and twisted ways. And, as far as plot is concerned, I like that Gachiakuta was able to accomplish all of this for Amo’s character while also pushing forward the mystery of exactly who killed Regto and led Rudo to be thrown from the Sphere to begin with. His and Amo’s dynamic grew more compelling this episode, especially since they have some common emotional pitfalls and Giver abilities very much derived from their childhood traumas. It makes me wonder what sorts of experiences shaped the powers that some of the others have.
Overall, this was a very impressive episode. I’m certain that I’m not alone in thinking that. It’s rare for battle Shonen to achieve such drastic displays of character in such a short amount of time. The fact that Gachiakuta was able to do it is a testament to the brilliant world that Kei Urana has created and the strong work that all of the staff of the anime put in to animate that world. I’m looking forward to what’s next for Crunchyroll’s most viewed Summer 2025 anime, though our favorite chaotic lightskin’s return to the screen has me worried for Amo’s ultimate fate.
© Kei Urana, Hideyoshi Andou and KODANSHA/ “GACHIAKUTA” Production Committee
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