With this season of Made in Abyss having 12 episodes that means that after today’s episode we’ll be three quarters done. I wonder if they plan to cover the entire arc in the remaining episodes. Episode 8 covered the remaining content in volumes 7 and 8. That means 8 episodes covered the first three volumes of this arc. There are two volumes left until the arc is completed. If the anime wants to cover both of them they have to seriously rush it, but if they don’t want to cover both of them, I don’t know what their plan is. Save part of it for a movie, or perhaps have the final episode be an hour long special. If they do the latter, they might be able to fit everything somewhat decently. Enough about that though, let’s start the episode and see for ourselves what the pacing is like.
Reg is holding Faputa’s detached arm like it’s about to be a snack for Luffy, the bone sticking out and everything. Faputa is now living rent free in, I mean on top of his head. We’ve learned so far that Faputa never had a parental figure and was born with a hatred for everything around her. Somehow she seems to have become friendly with Reg at some point in the past although Reg doesn’t recall it. Faputa notices Riko’s whistle and comments on how nice Prushka looks now. We jump into the opening theme.
The villagers freak out about the appearance of Reg with a part of Faputa. Not just the villagers, but the village itself is upset as well. Tentacles similar to that of the balancing appear and a distressed Vueko explains to Reg that it’s probably not a good idea to bring this directly to Belaf. This is because she knows how upset Belaf got at the knowledge of eating Irumyuui’s children. Perhaps he still feels that way inside. Apparently Reg has the power to let Faputa into the village by using his incinerator. At least Faputa seems to believe he does, and he’s now promised he would do so, allowing Faputa to wreak havoc on the society that wronged her and her family so much. And of course this is the moment Wazukyan decides to show his face again.
We learn once again that Riko is a total psychopath by treating Wazukyan fairly normally as opposed to acknowledging he’s a total psychopath too. Everyone who’s made it to this part of the abyss isn’t fully sane, I suppose. Cat’s out of the bag almost immediately. Riko figures out Wazukyan’s motives almost immediately and sees through him completely. Wazukyan isn’t done traveling yet. My favorite part of Wazukyan’s manipulative personality is that the keeps saying the others will make the choices for him, pretending he has no responsibility in the matter. And then a monster appears at the center of the village.
Juroimoh, the beast, is back and they’re after the piece of Faputa that Reg holds. Wazukyan doesn’t like Vueko sharing this information and nabs her. I do love that Wazukyan says Vueko is quick to give in to despair, as if the situation they’ve gone through isn’t something unthinkably insane and she’s just being a drama queen. Vueko’s life has been more horrific than any of us can imagine and Wazukyan seems to have no respect for that. Vueko uses the opportunity to ask why Juroimoh is named after the guy who mistreated her. I don’t think it was revealed to us in the anime yet that Juroimoh has been active as one of the three sages, in place of the locked away Vueko. Apparently Irumyuui created him from thoughts she found in Vueko out of loneliness. Things get pretty abstract in this half of the arc, but he’s basically there to protect the village from outside threats, which includes Faputa’s arm. In the manga we learned he was one of the sages through the info page in volume 8, before we got to the flashback arc. Here we learn it a bit later, apparently.
Juroimoh, now harnessing the powers of the balancing shadows, locks up all the exits. Reg now has to decide what to do, with Wazukyan gleefully looking on. Luckily Vueko still informs them of the proper situation. The balancing shadows also attack Riko and the villagers, which is a problem. I can’t help but feel like the raging Faputa has the moral high ground here. Her family has been exploited for 150 years just so the village can prosper. Reg’s decision to shoot a hole through Juroimoh and blast away the barrier protecting the village is correct. Sorry Riko, I know you like this place, but it’s time for the village to meet its maker, literally.
I completely forgot that Reg would pass out from using his incinerator. That’s a problem. He asks the villagers to keep him and Riko safe in exchange for the part of Faputa. Speaking of Faputa, someone just blew a massive hole into the protective layer around the village and Faputa is angry. She’s been angry for a very long time and she finally has a way of aiming that anger at some of the ones responsible for her pain and suffering. With her interference unit at her side, who quickly disposes of what is left of Juroimoh, she is ready to go. Faputa does not forgive.
Can I just say, the soundtrack for this episode is absolutely fantastic. From the low bass filled sounds that accompany Faputa’s walk into the village, to the almost more ominous music accompanying Nanachi’s dream of being Irumyuui. And with that, we jump into the next part of the story next week. I can’t wait to watch more of it. I definitely think the anime makes a lot clear that I didn’t quite understand when reading the manga, and it’s improving the story a lot. I wonder if I should have read the manga twice or even three times to get a better understanding of things, but it’s too late for that. This episode was haunting in many ways, and we didn’t even see Maa’s cake this week. All in all, one of the better episodes so far, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 