English Dub Season Review: Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun

Overview:

Riko, Reg, Nanachi, and Meinya descend to the sixth layer. Once there, Riko’s Prushka stone is stolen and they go to the village of Ilblu to find it. They meet all of the Hollows who inhabit the village and discover that the entire village is built on the concept of value. The village has dark origins and there’s also a character who’s out for blood and aims to destroy the village.

Our Take:

The Golden City of the Scorching Sun picks up where Dawn of the Deep Soul left off. Riko’s party travels down to the sixth layer, from which there is no return. They end up in uncharted territory and find a village called Ilblu. All of the villagers are Hollows and the village runs on value. We learn how seriously the village takes value and how everything comes to be.

Made in Abyss has always been dark, but I feel like there are stories and scenes in this season that get even darker than what we’ve already seen up to this point. The treatment of certain characters is very upsetting even it’s not done with malicious intent. The formation of the village is also an incredibly messed up story, albeit an interesting one.

This season introduces a plethora of new characters. The ones that stand out to me the most are Faputa and Vueko. Faputa is known as the princess of the Hollows. That implies that she is their leader or that she at least watches over them. However, there’s much more to her than that. We also find out that she has history with Reg. Faputa is a very enjoyable character. She has a kind of innocence to her, but underneath that is a completely different side that threw me for a loop.

As for Vueko, she’s my personal favorite character. I don’t mean just for this season either. She has become my favorite character in the whole series. Vueko has to endure so much pain turmoil, and loss, but she doesn’t go insane. Sure, she breaks down on several occasions, but she still manages to maintain who she is throughout all of the events that occur. She’s kind and caring, but she’s also vulnerable. She doesn’t fight back a whole lot, but I think that’s also due to the trauma she’s had to endure. Every time I learned more about Vueko, I grew more attached to the character. This show already had a great cast, but I think it’s even stronger now.

World building has always been this show’s biggest strength. However, it feels a little more stagnate in this season. What I mean is the first season took us on a grand journey through the surface and most of the abyss. Th second season just focus on one specific area, but it goes into great detail on that area. Just because the world building is more centralized in this season doesn’t mean it’s any weaker. I enjoyed learning about the village and it seems like there were details thought of for every little thing.

There are still some unanswered questions from the first season and now there are some more from this season. However, Season Two leaves off in a place where it’s easy to pick up again. I hope i won’t take as long to get to the next season as it did to get to the one. Regardless, Made in Abyss Season Two is great. I would even say it’s a little stronger than the first season. Sure, the world building is more centralized and we don’t see what any of the other characters are up to. However, the level of story telling and character development that goes on surpasses that of the also great first season. Made in Abyss is a show that just keeps getting better and I hope it continues to do so.