Round five of children suffering to atmospheric music. I believe we should be getting some volume 7 stuff now, unless they change up the order of the material again. Either way, let’s dive into this again, shall we?
With Nanachi and Mitty reunited under the watchful eye of a hauntingly terrifying Belaf we start off the episode again and jump right into the opening. The episode is titled “concealment.”
Reg is lost and still being chased by a Turbinid-dragon. The creature is strong enough to damage Reg’s armor and send him flying. Luckily the village guardian is nearby and rescues him. He requests Reg to leave because he will turn the village to ruin. The guardian explains some things to Reg and uses some abilities that are similar to Reg’s abilities. Faputa wants to restore Reg’s memory. The guardian calls himself an Interference Unit and assumes Reg is the same even though they’re different. Most Interference Units can’t leave their layer, but Reg can for some reason.
We cut back to Riko and Maa in the restaurant. I never know how many a’s are in Maa, so it might change on a week by week basis. After the other patrons leave, Riko talks to the restaurant order about a quick Duolingo session about the language of the Hollow. I’ll be honest when I say this is where the manga kind of lost me. The logic behind how the language works feels very alien to me, how can you assign a percentage value to a part of a word? Maybe I’m missing something or maybe it’s supposed to be completely alien by design. Either way, Riko learns some basic words. Riko then goes to find her friends.
She goes to a place on the edge of the village with Maa and Meinya to explore. Apparently the villagers can’t enter this place because they’ll be physically unable to do so. For outsiders it’s no problem but it still looks creepy and unpleasant. Then there’s suddenly a voice in the darkness, that’s not eerie at all. And now it’s revealed where Vueko is. Both of them are surprised by how the other looks human.
Vueko is locked here with chains and they talk for a little bit. Vueko helps her find her friends, but she’s very nervous. She reveals that she has something to do with the origins of the village being not very nice. She tried to avoid it from happening and was locked up here instead. Vueko considers herself to be a bad person for this reason but Riko very clearly disagrees and immediately frees her. She has a somewhat similar sense of morality as Gon from HxH where she doesn’t care too much if people are bad or good, as long as they don’t do anything bad in their vicinity. And thus Vueko has been freed from her chains. She leads Riko the Belaf’s home.
We find Belaf with Majikaja, Nanachi and Mitty, where it seems like Nanachi is unconscious. Belaf introduces himself and explains that Nanachi sold herself in exchange for Mitty. This means Nanachi and Mitty will both stay here forever. So much for being a good guide Majikaja! At least they seem regretful of their actions. Remember how last week I talked about how messed up this manga is? Yeah, Mitty has literally been here just to serve as food. Worse even is, Riko reckons it’s the exact same Mitty as the one who was with them earlier in their journey. It makes me wonder how Mitty got there. And just like that we learn that the Sovereign of Dawn is the one responsible for bringing Mitty. It turns out that Belaf used that knowledge to create a perfect copy of Mitty in the village at a pretty steep cost to his own body. So it makes sense that belaf would want something extremely valuable in return. Now it’s time for Riko to bargain like her life depends on it because, well, her life depends on it. Belaf requires either her legs, eyes or half her innards. Pretty steep price but it does match up with what Belaf had to offer up to get Mitty in the first place. And like that we’re at the ending credits of another pretty crazy episode of Made in Abyss. Next episode is the luring, so get your butts ready for more craziness. What did you think of this episode though? Did it give you more questions than answers? I do feel this show is more comprehensible in anime form but it could also be that it’s to do with this being the second go around of me consuming this story, so I have a better framework. Either way, I have still been enjoying the anime, even though it’s very, very weird. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 