toaster

I see a lot of people saying that Gachiakuta has an amazing power system because magic based on someone's most loved object inherently reveals their ideals, values, and personality, as well as offers a lot of backstory potential, and like yes that is all true. BUT ALSO it is amazing because it is so entwined with the thematic fabric of the story. One glance and you already can tell that this is a story about how people rejected, devalued, or demonized by society are able to grow and thrive through caring for one other. This is mirrored through how objects thought of as "trash" to others, ordinary and worn as they are, gain power because of that history of care put into them. There's this whole undercurrent of street culture and punk and defiance against a world that makes people feel worthless, and Kei Urana is saying that the way to obtain power against a cruel world is to redefine what worth means to you. And you do that through caring for the people and things around you, and them caring for you back. The real punk has been love and community all long.