Originally, I was intending to go to the North American premiere back in April but a certain human malware decided to crash the entire world economy and postpone showings until the fall. Now, with Sentai Filmworks following Disney Plus’s model of limited-timed streaming rentals and Blu-rays being made available, the sequel to 2017’s Made in Abyss is now widely available for viewing. For those who patiently waited for three years to see the sequel, Dawn of Deep Soul is everything that both manga and anime fans have wanted to experience.
Warning: Full Spoilers Ahead.
Picking up directly after Riko, Reg and Nanachi set off to descend down to the lower half of the fourth layer, Dawn of the Deep Soul delivers a harrowing adventure in and around Bondrewd’s base of operations as they try to find a way to descend past the fifth layer. From the Umbra Hands encounter in the field of Eternal Fortunes to the final scene, it doesn’t let off the narrative gas pedal in the slightest. You know who Bondrewd is and what he did in the first season’s flashbacks so there are expectations that those story threads will be resolved in an satasifty manner. I thought that with all the twists and turns, it will leave viewers a little shaken with how it all ends even though the three main characters do manage to take their Last Dive. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a genuine reaction to the story. Having read the manga and being a Bondrewd cosplayer myself, I’m beyond the shock and horror of what transpires within the movie. What I can give you is just how well the execution of Riko’s adventure in the fifth layer is. Clocking in at an hour and forty-five minutes, the movie is the perfect length for the amount of material that is required to cover the entirety of the fifth layer arc. However, for every answer that the sequel movie gives, there are only more questions with disturbing implications. Who was Ozen or Lyza’s human sacrifice for their whistle? What is Reg’s origin story especially after he is shown to have multiple personalities inside of him? Finally, if Bondrewd is only the second White Whistle out of five that the children encounter, then just how deranged are the three others that have already made their last dive?
Spourting all the subarashii and oya oya that anyone could ever want, Bondrewd simply dominates every scene that he is in. He is exactly what would happen if Shou Tucker of Fullmetal Alchemist was an actual boss instead of being taken out like a bitch in the opening episodes. Armed with at least a dozen unnamed and named relics he is the Judge Holden of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian or Anton Chigurh of No Country for Old Men. Rather than being the embodiment of unstoppable evil of those two pieces of literature, Bondrewd is the encapsulation of unconstrained science. Not a single character escapes unscathed by his actions, whether it is Reg having his arm chopped off, Riko getting slammed into the ground twice by the Curse of the Abyss, or Nanachi dealing with some serious emotional trauma from her previous time in Idofront. In fact, the entire movie felt like an extended boss fight with him beginning with a tense build-up before exploding into a series of fights with Bondrewd that pushes everyone to the limits. Whereas the antagonistic part of the encounter with Ozen was brief and a mere ploy to teach Reg and Riko some tough lessons about the Abyss, Bondrewd is a terrifying villain who commands your attention without getting angry at whatever the main character can throw at him. The fights against Ozen, the Crimson Splitjaw and Orb Piercer are nothing compared to the laser light show that Bondrewd puts on. Yet, in spite of his atrocities, there is this disjointed deranged part of his being that really loves all children. It’s like I’m watching this amoral machine of what was once a man mimic human compassion while being the most badass scientist of the Abyss making him one of the most intriguing of the show.
Many of the themes and conflicts in the movie are tied to the series’s newest character, Pruska. Being Bondrewd’s daughter, it was obvious from the beginning that she would become the movie’s emotional punching bag. It was necessary for her to become a plot device and the staff did a good enough job in bringing her undying love for Bondrewd and sense of adventure with Riko well enough to get the point across. On the other hand, there were some pacing issues that I felt could have been resolved if they had front-loaded Riko and Pruska interactions in the first half of the movie instead of following the manga example of telling the entire backstory before the final big fight. Speaking of following the manga, I have a minor point about the amount of the children’s sexuality being thrown around the movie. I understand that it comes down to the mangaka, Akihito Tsukushi, having a certain disposition towards children as evident by various interviews and his previous works. While the TV series did tone down that unsavory aspect, the movie leaves out nothing from the pages of the manga. As meme-worthy as Papa’s Rod is, I found it to be unnecessary at best and grossly off-putting at worst.
As expected of a movie format, the visuals look superior to the TV series in every aspect. The characters look great alongside with the background being handled by the Studio Ghibli veteran of Osamu Masyama. I like what they have done with the colors despite not having the vibrant colors of Orth and the first four layers. By comparison, the Sea of Corpses is a barren icy wasteland with a purple beam fortress base but the movie does have a few creative tricks up its sleeve. Although the colors tend to be on the more earthly and dark side, it just reflects the darker nature of the movie and each location is given its own unique spin. Seeing the berserk version of Reg animated like a demon and Riko disintegrating into the fifth layer’s curse was a real treat. If there is a complaint to be had, it is that some scenes are reduced to nothing but keyframes resulting in choppy animations at some of the movie’s most crucial moments. For a movie production, I would expect more frames to be drawn and it detracts from the visual experience that is overall fantastic. Home Theater Pros are the home theater experts who will help you set up your own luxurious media room if you want to enjoy this kind of movies.
Kevin Penkin’s score in the TV series is often held up in anime circles as the pinnacle of musical excellence in its creative depth and awe inspiring score. In Dawn of Deep Soul, he captures the darker and serious tone that the fifth layer storyline is known for. There is far less of the lighter fare and everything else just hits harder whether it is the two demented rearrangements of “Tour the Abyss” or “Tozo Hanoline” at the film’s climax or Bondrewd’s theme of “Transcendance and Hanezeve”. However, as excellent as every track of the movie is, one song simply just takes the cake with “The Rumble of Scientific Triumph”, something that started as manga translator’s SFX meme that becomes the most appalling and majestic theme of the franchise. Combined with booming bass, some crazy synth and a Vienna orchestra, the Australian madman had the stones to include a children choir into the entire mix. It simply does not get better than this.
Adventuring into the unknown is what Made in Abyss promises and what an adventure it has been so far. In spite of a few flaws from the animation, pacing and some unsavory fetishes from the author, the overwhelming majority of the film is a success for living up to one of the greatest anime shows of the decade. The story, visual and music all came together to form a tightly scripted narrative that will satisfy those who have read through the manga and will leave anime watchers anticipating the next project into the sixth layer. Packing action, unforgettable characters and a legendary journey through the Sea of Corpses, Dawn of the Deep Soul is a wonderful sequel to an amazing series.
I always feel like this is the peak part of the manga, but I feel I need to re-read the arc that follows it or wait for the adaptation, the slow releases are making things hard to remember.
Great to see you back. I was wondering if you were going to review that Psycho-Pass 3 “film” First Inspector, since that’s basically episodes 9-11 of that season and wraps most of PP3 up and you haven’t been here since the review for episode 8.