Made in Abyss – 12[The True Nature of the Curse]

Today’s topic is the curse of the abyss alongside much needed revenge against the creature that put Riko in a bad spot. We get a rare glimpse of the topside village where one of the orphan kids we saw previously is deathly sick on his birthday. This caught me off guard as I believe I heard Regu mention that the boys birthday was soon when he left and it hit me that the two really have only spend a few days in the abyss. Over the weeks of watching them the journey certainly felt a lot longer and that really is a great thing for a series to make me feel a disconnect with time that Riko and Regu feel. The child suffering from a fever is taken to a medical ship and just by looking at it is bound to remind people of Ghibli works. The reason for that is simple for the background artist for this series has indeed worked on Ghibli movies. The purpose of this scene is to show that the child’s sickness disappears once he leaves the island which does seem to suggest that the curse of the abyss doesn’t just affect those diving but also the town on the surface.

Nanochi goes into greater detail over how exactly it works by using a thin sheet as a representative of the curse. One her word the curse appears to be some sort of forcefield that is affected by things pushing against it. The important aspect to this is that more dangerous creatures of the abyss can use the curse to anticipate how targets move, making it seem like they can see the future. Nanochi appears to be able to see the curse and she sends out Regu to take down the orb piercer as a test for him to get a feel for it. In the test Regu manages to save a cave raider and even surprises Nanochi with his beam cannon ability. But even so the beast manages to escape before being blown apart. Our episode ends with Nanochi making a request to Regu to have him kill Mitty with his beam cannon. Quite a depressing turn for the end of the episode and really makes you think on an earlier comment by Nanochi. For earlier Nanochi started that Mitty’s blood can neutralize orb piercer poison but the question is, just how did she find that out? By anyones guess she may have attempted to kill her by injecting the poison into her, only for it to backfire. Nanochi seem reluctant to do the job the messy way so it’s likely she tried alternatives to kill Mitty. Of course not because of hate but rather to put the poor thing out of it’s misery.

That may be something RIko objects to as Mitty and her seem to have had some sort of spiritual connection. The dream which RIko had was odd as it seemed to involve some memories of her being carried in the relic when she was a baby and taking comfort in the eye of Mitty staring at her. In regards to Mitty I had a feeling that she was going to have to be gotten rid of as she is the only thing tying down Nanochi to this place and without her she can then join Regu and Riko on their quest to the bottom of the abyss. Though Mitty’s blood would make for a useful thing if it really can neutralize any poison but it certainly would be cruel to drag her down into the abyss. But she also clearly cannot survive on her own, even if her survival depends on Nanochi’s horrible cooking. That’s an aspect I wonder about as I am not certain if the transformation has killed Nanochi’s taste buds or her childhood was so messed up that she didn’t know what good food tastes like. Next week is the last episode of the series and while we are getting an hour long episode i wonder just how this series will close off. The way it’s currently looking is that Nanochi will join the group and the series will end with them journeying to the next layer which would be a rather anticlimactic conclusion.

Kakegurui – 11[The woman who bets her life]

So…what am i supposed to say here? Yumeko wins, the treasurer loses and now the show looks to be teasing a matchup between the Student council President and Yumeko. I would say it’s a good thing this shows end looms near as my interest in it has just about petered out. I love seeing smug scumbags get just desserts as much as anybody but there is only so many times that the same story beats can be repeated. The games may change and the people playing them but the formula is the same. Yumeko challenges them, forces them to put their life on the line and wins. That’s essentially the admittedly bare bones rundown of this story from start to finish.

In this case the differentiating factor was the inclusion of Itsuki who backs up Yumeko with her cash. The series seems to treat this as some master plan by Yumeko to get the treasurer into putting more into his bet than he can pay off. Who goes as far as to bite off her fingernails because of…dramatic effect? Actually why did she do that? Wait, how did she do that, I mean if she bit down hard she would have just bitten through them and somehow managed to tear off all ten of her fingernails cleanly with her mouth. Honestly that’s very impressive for a ridiculously useless skill. So they managed to trick the Treasurer by doing…something. Honestly i have difficulty in following the logic as it seems to be along the lines of fooling the Treasurer into thinking Yumeko was going for a weak hand and distracting him with the theatrics of Itsuki so that he didn’t take the safer route. A ridiculously risky plan which has me wondering just how the two could be so ridiculously confident in it.

Enter the student council president who seems to display the same level of insanity of Yumeko that no one can quite understand. In fact I say I would be clueless without context as well seeing as the president starts off by talking about supernovas. Overall this talk seems to show that Yumeko and the president are on the same level of crazy and are both addicted to the risk of high stakes gambles. Evidenced by her cornering her own member of the council just to make a gamble more interesting. The way this interest in risky gambles always seems to be displayed is often though high sexual excitement. Which sort of trivialises it as not so much an intellectual thrill and more like a masochistic fetish. In fact, a lot of the interest in this show are visualised in a sexual manner, even the Secretary’s respect for the president is more along the lines of romantic attraction, if evidenced by the heavy blush she had just by the president revealing herself. I swear, what is with this show and yuri undertones? I am pretty certain no one in this show is distinctly homosexual so why? I mean I know the obvious reason why…but why?

Made in Abyss – 11[Nanachi]

It’s been an issue I have wanted to bring up before but the previous episode recaps of this series are rather long. Today’s was the biggest offender as the first three and a half minutes was just footage from the previous episode. While these kinds of recaps are handy for those watching weekly to catch up, they do pose a problem to those marathoning the series in the future as they will likely be moving from episode to episode which each starting with an unnecessary reminder. Of course I realise that these recaps are not so much for informing the viewer of previous events but rather making it that less needs to be animated for each new episode. I doubt Made in Abyss is a cheap series to produce and those backgrounds alone must take serious effort. Regardless being the greedy sod I am I cannot help at feel disappointed that less content is present in each episode. Whether you love it or hate it, Re:Zero did right by making it that the opening and ending were often cut from the episode in favor of animating more content. (Still waiting on a second season White Fox. New Ova is giving me hope, but there better be a second season announcement.)

As the episode title suggests, this episode was all about Nanachi. Nanachi being living proof of what happens when you try to ascend the abyss from the sixth layer. She got off lucky by keeping her sanity and personality despite be turned into a rabbit like creature but her friend wasn’t so lucky. Mitty is more like the real result that would happen should a human try to ascend the abyss, a gelatinous genetic mess with little cognitive function. It’s still uncertain as to what the curse of the Abyss is but this certainly qualifies as a fate worse than death. I really like that this show really doesn’t hold back on the glorious duties of hospital treatment. Suppositories, piss soaked rags and even attaching fungi in a similar manner to leech therapy. This stuff isn’t pretty but it gets the job done and when you’re a patient, dignity stays at the door. So far I like Nanachi’s dynamic to the group as she’s the more experienced but also playful and smarmy addition to the group. She already works well with Regu’s straight laced nature and with Riko’s earnest attitude I think she could add a lot to the series. Of course it’s still a question of whether she is actually going to join the two on their quest to the bottom of the abyss but the opening and ending of the series almost makes that a certainty.

There is a small glimpse into Regu’s memories as he recalls being present at the grave marker for Riko’s mother and the words he recalls seem to suggest that Riko’s mother was the last to see Regu off when he journeyed to the surface. I sincerely doubt that RIko’s mother is alive at this point and even if she is alive i would say she’s likely no longer human. In fact I was willing to bet on Nanachi being the transformed form of her mother but considering her reactions to the whistle and her connection to the other white whistle that is looking to be unlikely. We are nearing the end of this series and while the last episode is an hour long feature I have to wonder on just what note Made in Abyss will end on.

Fate/Apocrypha – 12[The Holy Man Returns Triumphant]

If Fate/Apocrypha can keep up this level of quality till the end, I may just change my overall opinion on it. I don’t think it would match the works of Fate/Zero or Unlimited Blade Works but it could beat out the 2006 Fate/Stay Night, Prisma Illya and Fate/Grand Order. It’s a decently respectable position in that regard. But of course this is mainly because the following series of episodes have been one extended action sequence and it will be a wonder as to how the show will move forward after this. So against the wishes of Vlad, Darnic forces him to use his Noble Phantasm, Legend of Dracula. Thereby turning Vlad into a bloodsucking vampire with all the benefits and negatives that come with the change. I can’t say I am fond of the forms design as I think the ears are too big and make him look silly. He gets a fairly massive power boost and has the ability to turn those whom he sucks blood from into his vampiric underlings. An ability quite dangerous for achilles in particular as his special in invulnerability would not stop him from being turned into a vampire.

Seeing the threat that Dracula poses to not only them but the entire world, everyone agrees to take him down together. Much like the bees in Fate/Zero, just having one vampire make it out of the garden could end up creating a apocalypse so it makes sense that heroes would put the protection of the world above the Holy Grail War. A part which always confused me a bit in the novel was Dranic somehow using a command seal to take over his servant. Command seals can indeed grant special boosts, hence why Ruler ordered everyone with a command seal despite everyone agreeing to fight Dracula. However I find the particulars of this command rather questionable in regards to the rules. Command spells can’t necessarily do the impossible and this command is similar enough to Rin’s command in the fifth holy grail war for Archer to have absolute obedience. When the command is rather vague it generally weakens its effects so I find this questionable. Though to preface it I believe Darnic has kept his young appearance by taking over other bodies so he may be using his own magecraft to take over Vlads.

I at least understand why Darnic did this despite it seeming a desperate and risky gamble for when you look at it, the Black faction where practically finished. Berserker and Saber are dead, Rider is injured, Assassin is rogue and the only servants left are a relatively weak caster, Archer and Lancer. Vlad was well on his way to being defeated after losing his territory bonus and there is no way the other two could beat the five servants on board the Gardens of Babylon along with the Saber on the ground. So this desperate move makes sense but it sadly it backfired on him. All the servants turned against him and he was killed by Shirou Kotomine, now officially revealed to be Amakusa Shirou Tokisada who was the Ruler servant from the third Holy Grail War. I swear, the more I hear about the third Holy Grail War, the more I want to see it. Sounds like one hell of a party. You likely don’t know who he is and the simple answer to that is that he is a Japanese Catholic claimed to have holy powers who lead a rebellion against the Shogunate in 1638.

Considering this Dracula was up against a catholic servant trained by an organisation packing black Keys made for the specific purpose of hunting down Dead Apostles.(Aka, Magically made Vampires) This is why in the Nasuverse matchups are decided not by those with the greatest stats but rather the one with the best compatibility. You can have the best servant in the world and still be outmatched by someone with the right abilities. Hence why you can argue till the end of the earth about who would win in a fight with Nasuverse characters. This fight went a bit differently in the novel as their Shirou smashed Dracula’s head into a wall while performing an exorcism but I think this restrained manner was more suitable. Next episode will be a recap episode so there will not be a post but with the Black Faction well on their way to defeat just how will the story go?

Fate/Apocrypha – 11[Eternal Radiance]

We have a hat-trick as Apocrypha pulls out it’s third good episode but admittedly the reason for that is because we are still in the middle of a pretty massive action scene. Perhaps this is why earlier fights were so lacking as they needed to save the effort for an action set piece as big as this. Animation has most certainly improved as the fights are more dynamic than ever. But for the love of god can someone fire the sound director. I watched this episode with headphones and while the music is great, the sound effects are an abomination. I don’t know why but fight scenes are bombarded with reverb, compressed sound effects and far too loud explosions. These are servant battles so it’s natural that the clashes would be loud but here whenever a fight starts up it’s just a constant barrage of unpleasant noise. It’s just never lets up as when explosions stop you have uncomfortable reverb in between the sword clangs and thuds. It really goes to show how one small element can really ruin a scene.

This episode we had fight after fight after fight but I will admit to being disappointing when the Karna and Vlad fight was interrupted over some silly reason that Karna was ordered to retreat. I thought this was rather idiotic as literally a few minutes later Karna and Vlad resume the fight in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. However upon seeing what was happening to Vlad I have to admit that it was a very smart move. Out of the black faction it is clear that Vlad is their strongest servant and that is mainly due to the stat boost he gets because Romania is his home ground. The Hanging Gardens however are not Romania so that means that within them Vlad’s power decreases immensely. By attempting to abduct the grail they gave reason for the black servants to infiltrate the Hanging Gardens and now their strongest servant has been put at a disadvantage. We also have another berserker taken out of the lineup as Spartacus explodes in a beam of energy after taking too much damage. Seeing Joan use her Noble Phantasm put a big smile on my face as I have been playing Grand Order quite a bit and during the hundred years war chapter I used that Noble Phantasm more than once.

The episode ends with Darnic about to force Vlad to use a Noble Phantasm that he despised with all his heart. I really dislike that A-1 decided to cover this information now with a flashback instead of bringing it up near the beginning of the series like it was supposed to be. Having it be mentioned mere seconds before it’s relevant just makes it feel like lazy writing. The episode keeps quiet about what exactly it is however with the clues in this episode I think people could figure it out considering the context given here. If not, let me ask you this. What fictional figure is constantly associated with Vlad the Impaler? Yes, you likely caught on now and honestly I think this is genius. Vlad Tepes joined the holy grail war in order to use his wish to erase the story of Dracula from existence. Marvelous, I adore that motivation because of course Vlad would be furious that his legacy is forever intwined with a bloodsucking monster. Even if his methods were questionable, he still defended his country from foreign invasion. He was a hero to his countrymen. Yet in the modern day people only tend to know his name because Dracula was based on him. Thus because of that association he has even gained a Noble Phantasm directly linked to Dracula. It really is a pity that Fran died as we could have very well have a Dracula vs Frankenstein’s monster matchup. Well regardless of reasoning I doubt Vlad will be very happy with being pushed to use that Noble Phantasm.

Made in Abyss – 10[Poison and the Curse]

I was well on my way to saying that Made in Abyss may have dark elements but is isn’t an inherently dark show. Then this episode came along and hit like a jackhammer. For as cheery as the episode started, it most certainly took a dark turn. The darkest turn this series has taken to date. Riko and Regu encounter a porcupine like creature that seems above what they can handle and Riko is injured and poisoned by the creature. Regu manages to escape barely by ascending to another platform which of course means that Riko is hit with the Abysses curse. At first it looks like the curse actually worked in her favor as the bleeding looks to push the poison out of her system. That is of course until she starts bleeding from her eyes and ears and basically everywhere. The abysses curse has never been pretty but this is it at it’s most gruesome as seeing Regu panicking as Riko slowly bleeds out is an unnerving sight.

So with Riko gravely injured and poisoned, it’s up to Regu to do whatever he can to save her life. With happens to be some extreme measures as Riko instructs him to perform a makeshift amputation to remove her poisoned arm. What follows may be the hardest anime episode of the season to watch as Regu desperately attempts to cut off Riko’s arm while keeping his emotions in check. I winced as I saw Regu pick up the rock in order to break her arm in order to make it easier to cut and when it came to the cutting itself…christ…how did we get from whimsical adventure to this? Despite it being well over half the series we finally see the rabbit girl featured in the opening and ending.

I expected her to be more of a comedic addition to the group but from the looks of things she’s likely going to act as the experience mentor to the two. She already knows quite a good bit more about the abyss than they do and seems to be experienced in medical treatment. With this we can say the kid gloves are off. Riko almost died and these abyss creatures are not playing around. There are no Hazu’s, no Ozen’s, no Dorm leaders and even their books aren’t going to help them now. Funtime is over and the real game starts now. Though speaking of which, Made in Abyss could make for a fantastic game if handled correctly.

Kakegurui – 10[Selective Woman]

It seems to be a common theme in Shounen series that as the series goes on, less and less happens in each episode. Which makes my job all the harder. In this week’s episode of Kakegurui Yumeko faces off against the student council treasurer and loses. Now that would be something rather refreshing for Yumeko to lose a high stakes bet but it appears that losing was part of the plan. As Yumeko pushes former antagonist Itsuki to put all her money down for a once in a lifetime chance to get back on a council. With the flashback sequence it tries to spur sympathy for Itsuki was recruited into the council by the treasurer as a pawn and tossed aside when she lost her usefulness.

It is indeed nice to see her back up Yumeko in order to put the smug self satisfied student council president in his place. However unlike Mary, Itsuki’s redemption is harder to get behind. After all while Mary did act as antagonist before, when she did she was just trying to put Yumeko down a bit. Itsuki on the other hand carries around a case full of human fingernails and threatened to rip off Yumeko’s nails if she lost. No matter how you try to justify her actions that still comes across as rather unhinged. Villain turnarounds in a shounen series are nothing new but the turn should be a little more gradual than this if the characters actions at the start where rather horrific.

Then we have the Treasurer and boy do I dislike these types of characters. The genius planner type that somehow makes out every situation as if it is some grand master plan calculated to the most minor of details. I don’t mind characters like the cast of Death Note as at least their reasoning is within a realistic context but this guy throws around probability like it’s ironclad law. No matter how smart you are and no matter how much you may calculate the odds, there is no certainty in it. It’s just guesswork and while you can be successful in gambling by being able to calculate probability, it is far from being foolproof. Having a character be so ridiculously self assured in actions which have plenty of room for failure just has me rather aggravated as all it really takes to knock them off their high horse is one small thing not going to plan. So yes, right now the Treasurer is self assured in his victory but knowing Yumeko it’s likely she wishes to put him in a position of real risk. Losing this match wouldn’t really cost the Treasurer that much and Yumeko’s usual code of play is to get her opponent into a position where they really have a lot to lose.

Fate/Apocrypha – 10 [Scattered Flower]

This was an action focused episode as Mordred takes on pretty much everyone. It is rather nice to see a Saber than actually lives up to the claim of Sabers are the best class. Upon examining the main Fate series poster girls record as a servant I find her to be disappointing due to her low win record and a Noble Phantasm that just is too risky to make use of. Though she isn’t overpowering as it makes sense as to why she can put up a good fight in this scenario. Her opponents in the beginning are Astolfo who is weak from taking on the hanging Gardens and Fran who is just a bad matchup to begin with. In Fate combat the combat is usually a matter of suitability as what may be an unbeatable foe for one servant is a easy win for another. Berserker is sort of a wild card of the system as while you get an advantage by boosting their parameters with madness enchantment there is a disadvantage in that you cannot control them. All you can really do is set them on an enemy and hope they can overpower them with mindless attacks. So against an enemy that cannot be overpowered and can fight tactically, a Berserker is dead on arrival.

Thus it isn’t a surprise that Fran couldn’t defeat Mordred but she certainly went out with style putting everything into taking her down. Backed up by a master properly using their command seals for once. Those things are more than a single use unbreakable order, with them you can give your servant a significant power boost when the need calls for it. Be it to power up an attack or boost your servants defense. I have to say I adored the scene of Berserker powering up her noble Phantasm, this show nailed that scene perfectly. Mordred did indeed almost die and if it wasn’t for Sisgou using a command spell she would have clocked out then and there. Sadly the second drop out of this holy Grail war is Fran. As for Rider, he’s at a disadvantage already seeing as he doesn’t have his mount. Thus enters Sieg with the powers of main character plot Armour to turn into Siegfried and put up a fight with Mordred. It’s a pity the kid couldn’t stay dead when Mordred stabbed him but on the other hand it’s nice to see Siegfried in more fights, even if he’s a possess homunculus or whatever nonsense they used to justify this. Well to be fair there is some logic behind it as this isn’t the first time a body transplant from a servant managed to grant someone power in the Fate mythos. However there are certain circumstances needs for that to be remotely feasible, ones that i am sure are getting hand waved away with the Homunculus argument.

We have pretty much reached the point foretold in the opening scene of the first episode with the exception of Joan of Arc fighting what is most likely Spartacus. Fight scenes went down rather well this episode and this makes it the second time this show has managed to pull off another genuinely good episode. That might be because we are getting what we signed up for, a battle to death between heroes of legend. Though I dislike that we had a recap on Siegfried’s past when it was already covered. We have plenty of underdeveloped servants and masters in the roster that could due with some fleshing out so devoting time to go over what we already know is a rather wasteful decision. One last thing I would like to note is that this series soundtrack remains fantastic. It was scored by a Masaru Yokoyama which is a name I need to look out for in the future as he did the music for Scums wish and Gundam Orphans. This man has some real talent. It is such a pity it’s covered up by the rather lacking sound effects, which sometimes can work but other times be far too overbearing, repeated and loud.

Made in Abyss – 09[The Great Fault]

Surprising as it is, this episode appears to be mostly anime original content. Though not quite filler as it appears this content was supposed to be in the original manga but the author was pushed to cut it out due to the series not doing particularly well at the time. Seems that with the anime the author got it added back in with this episode and I am quite glad he did as it really shows Riko growing to appreciate just how much Regu does for her. As well as the dangers of Regu’s incinerator weapon which may pack a powerful punch but it’s cooldown time puts Riko in serious danger. On top of that we have an example of just how devastating the curse of the abyss can be on someone in the lower levels even when ascending a small slope.

I was originally put off by Riko sacrificing the little creatures in order to distract the bigger monsters from noticing them though it certainly isn’t out of character for her. After all she is the survivalist type who believes in the natural order of things. The thing is that I believe this action had great ramifications for her throughout this episode. These things have been watching them since they entered the great fault and after that action it honestly looks like they were trying to kill Riko. Riko comments the little guys were leading them to food and water however they end up leading her straight into the lair of a Madokajack. Then when being chased by the Crimson Splitjaw the Neritantans blocked the exit so she couldn’t get out before chickening out at the sight of the massive predator. Then it appears they lead her to a monster who would eat her up only for her to cut her way out of it. Finally they all gathered and attacked her at once which Riko blamed on her smelling like the fruit they eat. Taking all these little things into account I think these creatures were holding a grudge.

As pointed out by a commenter in the last post, the last episode of this series will be a one hour special. Taking that into account this series has about six episodes of content left. At the moment the anime has covered up to chapter 18 of the manga with about 42 chapters out currently. From what I hear there is a good ending point at chapter 38. Possibly with some faster pacing the anime could reach that point but I feel reluctant to say it should speed up. From what I seen, Manga readers appear rather flustrated over the anime’s pacing. Not due to it being inaccurate but rather at the speed it’s currently at they won’t be able to see the moments they want to see animated. However I find the pace of the anime to be perfect as we spend just enough time in each level of the abyss to stop it feeling like a tick on a checklist. My general problem isn’t so much how this series is presented as i actually considering it superior to it’s manga counterpart. My problem is more that this series doesn’t have the runtime it truly needs. The extended last episode certainly helps in this regard but having a two cour series could have done wonders for this show.

Kakegurui – 09[Dreaming Woman]

It’s an episode like this that really shows that the appeal of this series isn’t so much on the gambling games themselves but rather on the individuals playing them. In this case the gamble was barely present in the episode at all as it was a varity of 9 games in which the winner is decided by the audience. We don’t actually see the games being played, instead the show decides to skip over and montage the games. The cuts to the first game were rather jarring but understandable. They didn’t want to waste time animating three song and dance routines. But really the only game that mattered was the final one as it was revealed that Yumemi purposefully gave Yumeko a lead in the game so she could stage a miraculous comeback to make the show more entertaining. However she was taken completely off guard when the game she engineered to work in her favor was turned on her. The last game being for the two to guess the birthday of an audience member and because Mary was chosen instead of one of her fan club members, her plan was decimated.

I have to say that for all the confidence Yumemi and the treasurer had this has to be a massive oversight. Then again Yumeko’s level of predictive skill so far exceeds any logical level that she more or less has access to this show’s script at this point. This may be why I lost interest in reading the manga as there is only so long a game can remain interesting with a protagonist so overpowered as this. I enjoy seeing smug self confident horrible people get their just deserts as much as anyone but there is only so many times before I get bored of the situation. I want to see Yumeko actually work for a victory, not just smile and recite deductions likely only gained through precognition. As Yumeko puts it herself, there isn’t any fun unless both participants have an even level of risk. While Yumeko does stop her opponents cheating, everything tends to go exactly as she planned. Even if she leaves part of it up to luck. It’s much like the power creep of Isekai’s wherein the main character becomes so strong that only an act of god could defeat him. Otherwise it’s just a long line of the main character showing people how amazing they are.

Despite her true feelings being revealed to public, Yumemi manages to get away with her career intact as her fans decide to love her even if she finds them disgusting. I still think that she would be better off starting in acting rather than idol work for her end goal but well all’s well that ends well I guess. So Yumiko has managed to use this gamble to set up another gamble with the treasurer by accusing him of sabotaging Yumemi’s gamble. Despite the fact that it was actually the girl in the orange hood who send that letter to Yumeko. Already Yumeko has moved to challenge the next rung on her road to challenge the president to a gamble.