Made in Abyss season 2

 The lovely animated, highly dramatic series is back, and Noshi and me sat down to watch it of course.

And the arc, The Golden City of the Scorched Sun, takes place immediatly after the end of the third movie.

It starts with the tale of a girl named Vueko and her group of adventurers, who discover the island the Abyss is located on, searching for a mysterious golden city of where no-one can return.  They descent the layers, only to take the submarine seen at the end of the 3rd movie and arrive in the city itself.  It then cuts to Riko, Reg and Nanachi who also arrive there now.

But during the night, Prushka, who is now a crystallized being, is stolen from them.  A strange message leads them to a village full of Hollows, where they find Prushka again, being worked on by a jeweller.  After they learn the protective power of the village, they encounter Faputa, Princess of the Hollows and who seems to know Reg.  Her robot companion, which seems to be similar yet less advanced then Reg, returns him to the village after a meeting between him and Faputo, where he learns only a little about his origins.

Riko, in search of Reg and Nanachi, finds and frees Vueko, one of the Three Seers of the initial party of adventurers.  She is brought before Belaf, another survivor warped into a Hollow, and finds nanachi who has sold herself to slumber with a reincarnated Mitty.  The village power of granting one's deepest wish should one sell themselves to it having taken her into her hold.  Riko must find a way to free her, but the village comes under attack and with the help of a now turned White Whistle Prushka, able to unlock Reg's full potential, they ward of the danger.

Vueko tells them the dark tale of what befell her own party, and the girl Irumyuui, a young girl they took along on their journey as they found her cast-out by the villagers living on the edge of the Abyss back in those days.  But when they fall sick, their leader takes the children of Irumyuui, who is transforming in a Hollow due to a wish granting egg relic, to feed and save the party.  It is revealed the village IS actually the young girl, and the population being parasites living of her.  Faputa is her last born child, and the one that lived, who is there to grant her Mother the wish of death and destroy the Hollows.

When the defences are breached, she must choose her fate, as does Vueko who regrets all those days she stood by back then, which turns out to be almost 150 years, witgout doing anything to save Irumyuui and free her of her pain...

This was once again a mighty dark season, and Noshi asked the question that might have some thinking to it.  Who comes up with the concept of a happy, cute drawn anime that has one of the cruellest, darkest stories around these days...