Move Over One Piece: Crunchyroll’s Post-Gachiakuta Pick Is an Animation and World-Building Juggernaut
After just one season, Kei Urana’s Gachiakuta has exploded in popularity, and Crunchyroll has named 10 anime that mirror its ruthless power structure, kinetic animation, and layered world-building — with one surprise pick stealing the spotlight.
Gachiakuta blew up fast. One season in, and Crunchyroll is already recommending lookalikes. Of the ten shows they put next to Kei Urana's series for shared power rules, animation punch, and world-building, the one that jumps out is Atsushi Ohkubo's Fire Force. Fair pick. And with Fire Force wrapping up soon, the timing is pretty perfect.
Why Fire Force keeps getting compared to Gachiakuta
Both shows drop you into worlds teetering on the edge, then point you toward a specialized crew trying to hold it all together with extremely specific abilities. Gachiakuta gives us the Cleaners taking on Trash Beasts in a society that looks like it got fed through an industrial shredder. Fire Force has the Special Fire Force companies battling Infernals with, well, fire in about a dozen flavors.
The power systems are where the split really shows. In Gachiakuta, abilities are built around treasured objects and the bond to whoever passed them down. It is clever and grounded by design. Fire Force plays bigger: characters kick around on jet-flame feet, swing plasma blades, set off controlled explosions, even mess with magnetism. The toolbox is deeper, and the show likes to use every tool it has.
On the world-building front, Fire Force is the more fleshed-out machine right now. Multiple companies, defined power tiers, and a baked-in history that ties the whole plot together. Gachiakuta still has lots of runway, and it could absolutely scale up from here, but as of today Fire Force has the clearer, denser map. For what it is worth, there is a loud corner of fandom that swears Fire Force's world-building is bigger and better than One Piece. Spicy take, but it tells you how highly some people rate it.
So where is Fire Force at right now?
Endgame mode. The anime has worked its way into the final arc, and Season 3 is the finish line. Part 1 aired back on April 5, 2025, and as soon as it wrapped, the studio locked in the window for the second half. Part 2 lands January 9, 2026 on Crunchyroll, and that is the last chapter for Shinra's story.
Part 2 is set up to answer the big mysteries the show has been sitting on since the beginning: the true nature of the Adolla Burst, what the deal is with the doppelgangers, all of it. Part 1 left things hanging on some wild notes, including Shinra getting a glimpse of the world before the first cataclysm and then waking up with suddenly blonde hair. Those threads are front and center in the final stretch.
The plan is twelve more episodes to close it out. If David Production sticks the landing, we should finally get the payoff the series has been building toward.
Why the Crunchyroll list matters here
Crunchyroll putting Gachiakuta on a recommendations list after just one season says a lot about how fast it caught on. And putting Fire Force at the top of that conversation makes sense: if you are chasing stylish action, inventive powers, and a world with actual rules, it is an easy hand-off from one to the other.
- Series: Fire Force (by Atsushi Ohkubo)
- Season 3 Part 1: premiered April 5, 2025
- Season 3 Part 2: premieres January 9, 2026
- Episode plan for Part 2: 12 episodes
- Studio: David Production
- Where to watch: Crunchyroll
- IMDb user score: 7.6/10
- MAL score for Season 3: 7.70
Bottom line: Gachiakuta is on the rise, and Fire Force is in the home stretch. If you are curious why people keep linking them, it is because both shows are built on clean rules, big style, and worlds that feel like they could fall apart at any second. Right now, Fire Force is the more complete package. Let’s see if Gachiakuta catches it.