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.
I also really got some game vibes reading this. I really hope someone will do this someday, the author probably has still a lot of ideas that had to be cut for the manga which could be explored in a game.
I am really eager to see where they’re ending this anime now. Guess the pacing of the next episode will tell. It’s really a shame they couldn’t give this two cours because this certainly isn’t the type of series otaku will buy so getting a second season is highly unlikely and wouldn’t happen the next years anyway unless they’re going to add some extra content like in episode 9 – which could actually work btw. The next volumes (after the first Nanachi arc) have a lot of action and I always felt like they could need some more in-between chapters. Oh and the manga also has special chapters that show what’s currently going on on the surface or with Ozen, I wish they animate these as well since they have a lot of interesting plot-content despite being short.