Episode 12:
This will be an unpopular opinion, but I think this season went nowhere. And, no, I am not talking about the fact that it took place in one... Well, "place". I am talking about the fact that there was, practically no meaningful progression for the story.
Yes, we were shown quite a few things from the past, that described how the village came to be, and some tragedy around that. While that tragedy was sad, and maybe even brutal at times (although brutal mostly because of the environment, which is true for the whole Abyss)... Did we really learn anything new about the world or about the main characters?
Even if we assume that all this stuff was in order to "move" or somehow "change" the main characters, which would be a legitimate thing to do... Did they change in any way? Riko cut her hair, yes, Nanachi got a new hat, and Reg's metal now can turn lighter gray, but all those things are superficial. Nanachi did supposedly get a bunch of memories, but that probably will be used as a poor cop-out in some future endeavors like "oh, I remember that guy remembering that he encountered something similar". "Cheap" because it would not make sense, since he never went deeper, and it was already established, that creatures passing from lower layer to upper one is rare, because they also get affected by the curse to some extent.
Ok, maybe this just needed to be a spin-off, a side-story then? It probably could work if we treat it this way. But there was no real development for the characters of this story either. Well, besides Irumyuui for obvious reasons, but that's like the main plot-point making the story into a "tragedy". And it's still not a real "character development". Others... They stayed stagnated through-out the years and through-out the season. Or at least I did not notice any changes.
But, ok, maybe they were not supposed to change in the first place, because the story was about Faputa? But she did not change, did not develop as result of events of the "present". It's just her rage got replaced... Desire to protect? And that's why she still fulfilled her "destiny"? We are being shown that she has changed, that she "changed for the better", that she "grew", and that's even visible in her appearance (with the gold tint), but this felt weak.
Maybe this is supposed to support the sense of the fatalism that was attempted to be shown at multiple points in the story so far, but then the ending actually strips that fatalism away, so it does not make much sense. In the long run, I think all that we practically got from this is a more refined white whistle and one more member to Reg's harem. Yes, I said it, it's turning into Reg's harem.
Overall, it feels to me like the author does not really know what to do with the concept, where it really needs to go, and he is just winging it as he goes. That's not necessarily bad, but I believe that the best stories do imply taking pause and thinking things through a bit more, so that they make more common sense and be more believable. Just putting in body-horror for seeming brutality is not enough.
