The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 1 of Made in Abyss, "The Compass Pointed to the Darkness", now streaming on HiDive.

After years of fans waiting for the continuation of the first season of Made in Abyss, the further adventures of orphaned girl Riko, her humanoid friend Reg, and their new traveling companion Nanachi continue with the premiere episode of the second season Made in Abyss: The Compass Pointed to the Darkness. Though you would be forgiven for thinking you accidentally clicked on another series, for when the episode opens, we don’t see our main heroes until more than halfway through the episode (and we don’t even see the series title until eight minutes in).

The Compass Pointed to the Darkness opens in what appears to be the distant past, following a kid who is discussing how he found himself on a long journey across the ocean. The kid is part of a group of traveling pilgrims called the Ganja, who are being led by Wazukyan and Belafu. They are looking for the mythical Golden City at the bottom of the Abyss. Their most valuable member is a girl named Vueko, who joined the group to escape her abusive guardian. She has a special compass that is being used to find the Golden City, which makes her involvement in the pilgrimage especially important. All’s going well until the pilgrims hit a storm on their journey which manages to sink their ship, leaving them stranded on an island that they are entirely unfamiliar with.

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An Unlikely Ally

Made in Abyss: Season 2 Episode 2

Their luck turns around a bit when they meet a native man in a cave who is willing to help them. Well, I should say he’s willing to help them provided they give him the compass as payment. With a stranded crew and not many options, Vueko gives the man the compass and our time with them comes to end for the episode. It’s at this point that we finally join Riko, Reg, and Nanachi, who we last saw disappearing into a portal of their own. They get to the other side safely and find themselves in a round mechanical pod of some sort. Once they are safely on the other side of the portal, they find themselves inside a mechanical pod that starts submerging into the water shortly after they enter it, leaving the kids with little more to do than settle down and go over their current predicament.

Viewers may find this part of the episode to be especially disappointing to watch. Not only was more than half of the episode spent establishing a new storyline with characters we are mostly unfamiliar with, but when we do get to the people we most want to follow it amounts to little more than then entering a door and then sitting down as they wait for the pod to reach its destination. This means there’s very little progress to the journey viewers have invested so much time into, and it may seem like a strange way to open the season. On the other hand, the opening sequence is intriguing, with some interesting concepts thrown in. We don’t know the whole story behind the mystical compass Vueko has, but we can surmise it’s going to be an important object going forward.

The New Season May Literally be Two Shows

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During the first season of Made in Abyss, the series primarily revolved around the journey to find Riko’s mother, who disappeared years ago but may actually be alive. The first season was imaginative and focused, yet there were hints from other characters that Riko and Reg were not the only ones who traveled inside the Abyss, and that there were other layers, lands, and journeys to be told. When Vueko sets off for the Golden City and Riko, Ren, and Nanachi take their first steps into the sixth layer, the Capital of the Underground, it is obvious that the journeys of these people will overlap in one way or another during this season. How they will be is a mystery at the moment though, as not only are the characters going to different places they are also in completely different time periods.

We’ll likely have to wait for future episodes to explain exactly what the connection between these two events are, which means the writers of the show must figure out how to tell two different stories in a compelling way to justify not only the time skipping but taking the viewers away from the protagonists they want to see more of. Those viewers are likely to be disappointed with this episode because the time spent with the lead protagonists is short and uneventful (though I doubt bad enough to make those viewers abandon the series). The Compass Pointed to the Darkness is all set up and has no payoff, but I’m perfectly fine with that since the season has just begun. Let’s see where the two journeys take us from here.

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