One level of the Abyss down and so far things are looking good for our two explorers. Though the only thing they really had to worry about was the search crew coming to take them back to the orphanage. The adventuring spirit is in the air and if their is a dump truck full of misery and death ready to drop on our protagonists then I haven’t seen signs of it yet. Not to say there is not foreshadowing as they certainly are making it clear that whatever is waiting down there isn’t going to be pretty. From the start of the episode we can see that Regu is doing the main heavy lifting and while Riko is helping out a little with food and does have useful knowledge but it’s certain that she needs to really start carrying her own weight.
Without Regu, Riko would be dead several times over so it makes me shocked that she actually intended to head down on her own at the start. Riko does provide something though as we can only insinuate to other people’s intentions though her theories. She believes that the message from the letter was her mother’s message to her, that the artifact(That she lost moments later) pointed to the depths of the abyss and that the leader purposefully let them journey off as some sort of test. But as we know, Riko is far from infallible and many of these assertions are being made on a personal whim. We don’t really know what’s really happening here and I have a feeling there is more to it than Riko’s simplistic conclusions.
Though it passed me over while watching, I seen someone put together a series of shots which really show off the cinematography of this series. There are plenty of background and visual motives which present this as these two descending into the belly of the beast. Throughout the episode there was a serious sense of foreboding and this does feel like the last safe haven for the two. After this the training wheels are off and they need to deal with the full wrath of the Abyss and everything that comes with it. So right before the second level our two get a visit from a Black whistle diver Habo who surprisingly doesn’t stop them from continuing their journey but instead brings supplies and news. It is a wonder as to why he doesn’t try to prevent them from doing this but he seems to have a degree of resignation that this would happen eventually. Perhaps it is like Riko said earlier, all things that come from the abyss eventually return to the abyss and as we know, both of these two originally came from the abyss.
At least he did originally offered to guide them down to the third layer but after Riko’s refusal and seeing the letter from Leader decided against it. Habo does mention about a active white whistle in the third level who happened to be the person who helped carry baby Riko out of the abyss when she was born. In a way she may be considered Riko’s godmother and Riko is certainly excited to met her despite Habo’s warnings that she may not be the most trustworthy. Next episode we have the second level of the abyss, the forest of temptation and already I feel sad that this series is only a single cour when we only just get started four episodes in. However the anime has currently covered about ¼ of the source material(This covers up to halfway through chapter ten and there are 42 chapters currently.) so we could very well be up to date with the manga by the time the series ends.
