Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun Episode 3

Prushka’s True Form

As expected, Episode 3 of Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun was great. And, what makes it even better is that it answered a question I planned to ask in this review before I watched it.

I love the OP for this season. It doesn’t have the best visuals or song, but I enjoy them a lot. But, one thing I noticed in the OP is that Prushka looks different. She looks more like a whistle than her current form does. Currently, she looks like an alien heart.

So, I was going to ask what the deal with that was. But, now I don’t have to ask. As we saw, there’s a jeweler(?) within the Village of the Hollows who crafts Life Reverberating Stones into whistles. Great. Except, that actually leads into a follow-up question.

Each White Whistle has a unique appearance. Ignoring Prushka, we’ve seen three of the five known White Whistles. Lyza’s whistle looks like a standard whistle. But, it has some designs like a moon, flower, and keyhole on it. Ozen’s whistle looks like a horned helmet. And Bondrewd’s Whistle looks like two skeletal hands grasped together.

Now that we know there’s a Life Reverberating Stone craftsman, that changes things. We can assume someone crafted these whistles. And, we can assume it’s the same craftsman who’s currently working on Prushka. So, that implies every White Whistle has been to the Village of the Hollows.

In the past, I made fun of Bondrewd by saying he’s never been to the Sixth Layer. But, technically, he could have used capsules to return. What about Ozen, though? Are we supposed to believe she went down there too?

Value and the Balancing

Let’s talk about value. All the Hollows within the village value things. Some things have value to single Hollows, while others have value to all. And these things with value can be physical objects or even experiences. Wow, it’s just like value in the real world.

But, unlike in the real world, value is a universal law that you can’t break within the village. Even though the value of something is in the eye of the beholder, value is also universal. The universal value of something comes from the value the owner places on it.

If I own a cool sticker of DoubleSama’s mascot Suzuka and I value it at $1.29, that value is set within the laws of the world. And, this is where “the balancing” comes into play. Whoever destroys value must repay that value.

If you ripped my sticker into pieces and I claimed it lost all its value, you would owe me $1.29. But, I wouldn’t need to pester you into paying up. In the village of the Hollows, the world itself balances out. The world would take from you something of equal value, convert it into currency, and give it to me.

That’s a pretty neat system, even if it doesn’t make sense. But, the way we got to see it in action was the stuff of nightmares. A Hollow hurt Meinya and Riko claimed that Meinya was priceless. So, the world stripped that Hollow of everything it owned — even its flesh.

Now, the last thing I want to point out here is that the currency of the Hollows is intangible. It’s basically cryptocurrency. But, what’s even weirder is that you can’t throw it away. It persists. I guess it’s assigned to your soul.

Faputa, Princess of the Hollows

If the Hollows are crypto bros and the village is the blockchain, does that mean Faputa is their Elon Musk? I’ll leave that for you to decide. But, Majikaja calls Faputa the Princess of the Hollows. And, as he explains, she’s not like the other Hollows in the village.

The Hollows who live in the village can’t leave. Their souls are bound to the village. I guess it’s tied to the whole concept of value they have going on. I don’t know; I’m not an economist.

Faputa is different, though. She can venture beyond the barrier that surrounds the village. And, let’s not forget that Nanachi is the same. Majikaja claims this is true for Nanachi because she became a Hollow at the old ritual site (Ido Front). So, does that mean that’s where Faputa also became a Hollow?

I refuse to believe that Faputa is a “natural” Hollow. Even the Princess of the Hollows must have been a human at some point, right? But, the one thing that makes me question that is Faputa’s alleged lifespan. According to Majikaja, she’s immortal. So, she could be a “natural” or “true” Hollow.

What would that mean, though? It would mean that Faputa is a native of the Abyss. And I don’t mean someone who was born in the Abyss like Prushka. I mean part of some native population that lives — or lived — there.

When we finally see Faputa at the end of the episode, she’s riding atop an automaton with the same cannon arm Reg has. So, does this mean Faputa is a member of the race that created the automatons of the Abyss? And, regardless of if that’s true or not, will she be able to tell us about Reg’s origin?

Conclusion

What do you think of Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun Episode 3? Do you think Ozen’s whistle design is proof she’s been to the Sixth Layer? How do you feel about the village Hollows being crypto bros? And, do you think Faputa used to be human? Let me know in the comments.

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