Okay after the scenes in these three episodes and even the movie I’m seriously starting to think the mangaka may have some sort of fetish and us poor saps have to be subjected to it. There’s probably other moments in the first season that I may not be remembering, but the amount of butt stuff and pooping jokes has happened so much in so little time and I’M REALLY TIRED OF IT. PLEASE STOP. Also some of those Hollows were phallic shaped and now I feel like I’m losing my mind. @_@
So here we are in the village of Hollows. This was another sort of exploring type of episode as we mainly got to know more about the village and how things worked. Majikaja immediately takes them to where Prushka is and it seems like she’s in good shape at the moment. It looks like she’s not in her essential form and the Hollow is tinkering away at her to enhance her and her sound. Still not really sure what this means but the group leaves Prushka as Riko is able to sort of communicate with her, and she was confident everything was okay.
And so the group enter the marketplace of the village and it was really interesting. We learned so much in how their society worked and how efficient but also horrifying it could be. We learn that everything in the village has a certain value when it comes to their currency. In order to purchase things, they would need to trade items or even themselves. Things got very creepy when Majikaja mentioned that human children are one of the most valuable items you can get, even some of their body parts would be a fortune. Majikaja showed interest but once Riko showed defiance, he backed off pretty quickly without fight. We don’t find out until later why he did, and while it’s a good thing it can also be a bad thing. Not being able to purchase her mother’s diary page that somehow landed there, the group continue to follow Majikaja around to learn even more. To them, value doesn’t always necessarily mean purchasable items either. Each Hollow finds value that relates to them and their functions as well, such as the Hollows we saw where one uses the value of tinier creatures to surrounds its body, or another Hollow’s value is shredding the flesh off of things. It’s so strange but pretty fascinating. And each Hollow’s appearance is based on their desires, and while they went through the process of becoming one with a vessel, their deepest desires shaped them to what they look like now more or less. Which is why some Hollows’ values are very specific to them. Really interesting stuff.
The Balancing is an amazing security force but also so terrifying. That Maa Hollow kinda had it coming but seeing what happened to it made me sort of feel bad for it. Once Riko and the others reach a certain part of the village they’re surrounded by a huge group of Hollows, some of them being interested in Meinya. The sort of cute slightly creepy pink Hollow grabbed Meinya and roughly squeezed her so hard she popped and I genuinely thought she died. I…don’t understand how she lived but all Nanachi had to do was pop her eyes and…butt guts (ugh) back in and she was sort of okay. Riko appropriately freaked out and shouted, Majikaja asking if it was because Meinya held some sort of high value to which she agreed. And because of that, The Balancing happened in front of them.
Going back to their idea of value and theft, The Balancing appears whenever someone of lower value damages an item of higher value than them. With Riko stating that Meinya had such a high value, the pink Hollow was attacked by The Balancing, a group of black floating Hollows that proceeded to take away the Hollow’s personal items. The Balancing makes it so to make things, well, balanced, they take things from the culprit that equals the value of the damaged item. This included its personal items, but because Riko gave Meinya a large value, this included the Hollow getting its body ripped apart. After that was over, Riko was given said value back to her in the form of their currency. In a way it’s a good system because it SORT OF guarantees their safety but only if their stuff has a high value. If it’s cheap, then oh well. This also does guarantee their safety. But the bad being what happened to that Hollow can happen to our characters well, especially if they’re not careful since they still don’t know everything about the village. So it’s still a threat to them in a way. Just like Made in Abyss to make things so fascinating and creative while also making them horrifying.
With Riko out of commission because of food poisoning and Meinya still resting, Reg and Nanachi seek out answers for the earthquakes and commotion happening outside the inn. We learn that everyone is going out to meet Faputa, who Majikaja describes as sort of like a princess. She has high status and comes and goes everywhere and is hardly seen, making Nanachi and Reg think that she’s the one that was after them. Reg heads out to find her while Nanachi and Majikaja head another way to find water and fruit for Riko. I feel like my theory about the Ganja may be true as I feel like Faputa is most likely the young tribal girl from Vueko’s group. Interesting that they zoomed in on her before transitioning to the girl, so this is pretty exciting. While there are some things from this episode that I don’t like, and I find Riko’s mood swings to be a little too drastic, I still continue to love the world of Made in Abyss and I’m just soooo excited to meet with Faputa.
