Warning! Due to how continuity is especially strong in this story, all twists from Season 1 and most twists from Dawn of the Deep Soul are Late Arrival Spoilers and will be unmarked, so proceed with caution.

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Traveling Companions

Riko

Voiced by: Miyu Tomita (Japanese), Brittany Lauda (English)

A spunky young orphan who dreams of scaling the Abyss and uncovering its mysteries. To do so, she must prove her worth in spelunking to attain a prestigious White Whistle. Her discovery of Reg during an excavation only reinforced her goals, finally coming to a head when she receives a message from her supposedly late mother and legendary White Whistle, Lyza: "I'll be waiting at the bottom of the Abyss."

Action Survivor: She doesn't have Reg's strength and speed or Nanachi's skill and supernatural abilities, but her highly resourceful nature and knowledge of wilderness survival means she's decently capable of getting through dangerous situations by way of quick wits and a little trickery. Of course, there are times where being resourceful isn't enough to survive, but her shortcomings can be nullified by the talents of Reg and Nanachi, just like how her own skills patch up their weaknesses.
Ass Shove: The antidote to the venom she was poisoned with could be either administered orally or as a suppository (seeing how Riko was unconscious and how Reg blushed, it was apparently done via the latter procedure).
Attractive Zombie: She was stillborn in the depths of The Abyss, but was revived through a Relic. She still looks like an adorable little girl despite this.
Back from the Dead: She was dead upon birth, but a certain relic (originally thought to protect those inside from the Curse) brought her back to life. Even though normally resurrected beings tend not to live long after being resurrected with said Relic, Riko seems to be healthy and shows no signs of deterioration.
Bespectacled Cutie: Her curse-warding glasses emphasize her status as a cute and vulnerable young girl.
Beware the Nice Ones: While she's never portrayed as totally powerless or harmless, and is the main figure involved in planning most of the group's fights, it's still something to behold when she finally snaps after seeing all the suffering that Bondrewd has caused, and kills the absolute hell out of his last useful body.
Boyish Short Hair: She sells her pigtails to power Majikajya's speed suit. While she is still feminine, her new look complements her growth as a delver and adventurer.
Bring My Brown Pants: She wet herself after seeing a weird monster at Ozen's place.
Butt-Monkey: She has it just as badly as Reg. She's been embarrassed and humiliated through no fault of her own, trauma follows her everywhere, and situations almost always take a turn for the worse.
Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Both to Jima and Rokka from the author's previous work Gears Maiden.
- About the same thing Riko has in common to Jima is their adventurous nature and also being children with good-natured, adventurous personalities, before they set off their own daring journey at the expense of being unable to return to their homes. The difference is that Jima was born from an egg and is a human-animal hybrid who has a horn and a tail, while Riko is a human girl who was born in the Abyss. Jima started off as a normal girl who later encountered the Saw Monster in a chance encounter after getting scolded by her teacher, leading to her casting them off away. Riko, on the other hand, voluntarily starts off her journey to the Abyss to locate Lyza in the lowest layers of the Abyss along with Reg and later Nanachi and Faputa.
- Rokka also has in common with Riko for being adventurous, while also disappearing from the public eye once they fulfilled their purpose, similarly to Jima. Unlike Rokka who is an amnesic girl with no memories of her past and her identity, Riko is the complete opposite, who has fond memroies of her mother, which is a catalyst to her main goal. Unlike Rokka who rarely smiles up to the end of the story, Riko is often energetic in her appearances, despite the harsh situations around her.
Cordon Bleugh Chef: Anything she makes is delicious and nutritious, but its presentation leaves much to be desired. But both Reg and Nanachi move past this really quickly, since she's far better than either of them.
Cunning Linguist: Due to Orth being a hub of different peoples and occasionally receiving guests and delvers from foreign countries, Riko's Orphanage also runs tours of the Abyss. Some of the orphans are thus trained to swiftly learn useful phrases and expressions of people they meet to improve their abilities as tour guides. This comes in handy for when Riko's team has to communicate with the Hollow mutants living in Iruburu, who don't all speak whatever lingua franca Orth's inhabitants and the rest of the world converse with.
Extreme Omnivore: This girl will eat anything, from other people's discarded leftovers, to the strange, flea-infested stew served to her in Iruburu. She often suffers from food poisoning.
Fearless Fool: Although fairly book-smart and educated in delving as her other friends in the orphanage, she has a tendency to stubbornly rush into adventuring even when warned multiple times about potential fatality. Death is no stranger to kids like her in Orth, but she's more than eager to travel without expert supervision just to prove herself to the test compared to most of her peers. To Riko, it's either go deeper into the Abyss or die to an obsessive degree. An example in the series is being told by not one, but three highly-experienced delvers that the group will need to obtain their own white whistle to access the elevator that descends to the sixth layer, but she thought that simply having the effort to go all the way there would be enough. This flaw often bites her ass for a reason.
Girlish Pigtails: She usually wears her hair in two long pigtails, fitting her cheerful and bright personality.
Godiva Hair: In the anime, whenever Riko goes topless (such as being suspended naked from the ceiling as a punishment), her hair will cover her chest.
Handicapped Badass: While she ends up getting to keep her arm after the incident with the Orb Piercer, she has some permanent loss of movement and sensation due to nerve damage, and spends the rest of the series wearing a large brace over her wrist and hand.
The Heart: Though she's not a fighter, Riko's relentless positivity, friendliness and drive make her the glue holding the group's morale and sanity in place. Reg is extremely grateful for her and devotes himself to protecting her life, while Nanachi finds their own passions reignited thanks to Riko.
Improbable Age: As of Dawn of the Deep Soul, Riko is the youngest known cave raider to have become a White Whistle, being still a young child whereas most became one when adults, and plenty of Black Whistle's like Habo struggle to achieve this while past their prime (unaware of the true method for attaining it). She does follow in her mother Lyza's footsteps in that regard, though, as she herself became a White Whistle much younger than the rest, at somewhere around late teens to early adulthood according to flashbacks, meaning Riko has caught up to and surpassed her in at least one regard, if not a very pleasant one to experience.
Inelegant Blubbering: Being a young girl, Riko is not one to hold back when it comes to tearing up. Watery and reddened eyes, drooling mouth, and dribbling snot are common occurrences.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Thanks to being both a child and having a scientific mindset towards biology, while she can tell Reg gets jittery when she cuddles with him and has seen him get a Raging Stiffie after seeing boobs or touching Nanachi's fluffy body, she fails to comprehend the reasoning behind those reactions. Unfortunately for Reg, this obliviousness to lust also extends to not understanding why probing Reg's body when he's unconscious could be seen as problematic.
Innocent Prodigy: She's got quite the scientific and analytical mind, memorized an entire catalogue of relics, is well-versed on cave raider techniques, and can improvise a good meal out of some of the more bizarre species in the Abyss without having seen them before. Nevertheless, she's still just a child, and the Abyss does not play well with children.
It Runs in the Family: Her mother was a wild woman with little patience for rules, and a burning desire to see the bottom of the Abyss with her own two eyes. Clearly, the apple did not fall far from the tree.
Living Emotional Crutch: It is clear that Reg relies on her cheeriness to continue soldiering through the Abyss. Her near death-experience with the Orbed Piercer sent him into a death-spin of despair until Nanachi arrived.
Living on Borrowed Time: Ozen muses that whatever magic reanimated her from stillbirth is going to burn out sooner or later, though it's unclear if she really believes that or was trying to crush her will. Riko herself asserts that she's fine with dying young, and redoubles her determination to rush to the Abyss' bottom ASAP.
The McCoy: She is effectively the emotional center of the team, and it is often up to her to keep up the morale, usually pushing the indecisive Reg into getting over his general lack of self-confidence as well as reminding the more pragmatic and cynical Nanachi of their inner emotions.
Nice Girl: Very kind, positive, friendly and cheerful, and the emotional support in the group.
Nipple and Dimed: In the manga, her chest is on full display a few times.
Nobody Poops: Averted, adding to her Butt-Monkey tendencies. It doesn't help that she's the sole human of her party, making her especially susceptible to incontinent stomachaches.
No Sense of Personal Space: She loves getting up close and glomping her friends, oblivious to their embarrassed reactions... not that they (Reg in particular) mind.
Not So Similar: Her status as a Determinator who engages in often morally questionable actions for the sake of survival and pushing forward has gotten a few characters to make comparisons about her to more monstrous characters (Nanachi comparing her to Bondrewd, Vueko comparing her to Wazukyan). But they each find appreciation in how, while she has their frightening drive to push through the Abyss and make the best out of what they're given, unlike them who are Well Intentioned Extremists that work towards a noble goal while using deplorable methods, she holds to methods that keep everybody moving forward without the need for unnecessary sacrifice.
Oblivious to Love: Everyone Can See It that Reg has a major crush on her, to the amusement of Nanachi and dismay of Faputa. Everyone, of course, except for Riko, whose mental dedication to getting through the Abyss and general status as an Innocent Prodigy result in her missing even the most obvious of signs, instead caring for him in a Like Brother and Sister way. Given how Nat displayed his own form of Tsundere crush on Riko, it appears romantic attraction in general doesn't cross her analytical radar.
Parental Abandonment: Her father died in an expedition before she was born. Her mother chose to continue pursuing the Abyss' greatest enigmas, and is as good as dead to the surface world.
Plucky Girl: The trials and tribulations she goes through would probably break the minds of many adults, much less a twelve-year-old girl. Incredibly, she always finds the strength and willpower to march on forward towards her dreams.
The Pollyanna: No matter what kind of horrors the Abyss throws at her, Riko always keeps her passion and enthusiasm. Even when she breaks down, she recovers quickly.
Protectorate: Reg sees himself in terms of "Riko's shield" and only gets really angry at or willing to use Incinterator on those that threaten her. Nanachi was moved to save her by her resemblance to Mitty, becoming her personal medic.
Purely Aesthetic Glasses: An odd example. While Riko's glasses aren't exactly "aesthetic," she can see perfectly fine without them and goes without them for occasional periods. The lenses are made from a kind of crystal that helps ward off the effects of the Abyss' curse; without the glasses, she gets headaches and becomes more susceptible to the effects of the Abyss.
Scars Are Forever: She gets a prominent and debilitating scar on her left arm after Reg botches the procedure to amputate it. She does not hold it against him though, and considers it proof of his desire to protect her. It isn’t really referenced again after the team departs the 4th layer. As she descends further she also gains a small scar on her cheek that remains throughout her journey.
Smarter Than You Look: Two characters express this sentiment (with the exact same words, even) when they compliment her intelligence in contrast to her appearance.
The Smart Guy: She has a near encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and fauna in the Abyss, and is knowledgeable in some of its the more obscure bits of lore. She often comes up with creative solutions to the problems she and Reg face.
Strange Minds Think Alike: As somebody possessing immense drive, curiosity, and general knowledge about the Abyss, there are several times where she perfectly understands the disturbing and unorthodox mindsets of certain characters that nobody with a more normal mindset can comprehend, such as piecing together the true purpose of Bondrewd's experiements or realizing Wazukyan's true plan for Iruburu, both done using only what she personally sees as reference with no direct info from them. The fact she understands Bondrewd specifically, and even before they met she had similar trains of thought as him, is something Nanachi found rather concerning.
Strong Family Resemblance: She greatly resembles her Disappeared Dad, the Black Whistle Torka, in facial features and build. She inherited Lyza's hair color, though.
Supreme Chef: She can make a delicious meal out of anything she finds in the Abyss.
Team Chef: Reg and Nanachi are both hopelessly incompetent at cooking, so it's usually Riko's job. This may be part of why Nanachi decides to join the group.
The Team Normal: Amongst every member of the main group, she's the only fully normal and powerless human, with Reg being a robot, Nanachi being a Curse-transformed Hollow, and Faputa being the Anthropomorphic Personification of a girl's desire to avenge her children born from the Abyss' magic. However, this normalness also means she's the only one at risk of feeling the effects of the Curse, meaning once they pass the sixth layer, the other members need to avoid any risky potential for ascending, since while they'll be fine, Riko is guaranteed to experience either horrific death or an And I Must Scream transformation.
The Tooth Hurts: Risking her chances to ascend up a stairwell while in Layer Five, she wakes up later having clenched her jaw so hard a couple of her molars broke off. Thankfully, they were baby teeth.
You Can't Go Home Again: She's accepted that she will never be able to see anyone in Orth again. For her, it's either reaching the bottom of the Abyss, or perishing in the attempt.

Reg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reg_9.png

Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

A mysterious robotic boy discovered while Riko was exploring the 100-meter mark of the Abyss. A walking assembly of artifact-worthy features, such as lightweight metallic limbs, a horned helmet, durable-yet-soft skin, and extension cables of unknown material, it is clear that he originated from somewhere much deeper. With no memory to recall his origins, he joins Riko in her quest to find out who he is, and why he came to the surface in the first place.

Achilles' Heel: His navel is the thinnest part of his skin and can thus be penetrated far more easily than the rest of him.
Amnesia Danger: As time goes by, he displays new powers and new applications of old powers that could have trivialized problems that happened earlier, especially all the times danger befell Riko, but thanks to getting Identity Amnesia, he frequently experiences How Do I Shot Web? over his natural abilities and forgotten skills.
Amnesiac Hero: He doesn't remember anything from before Riko forcibly woke him up by overcharging him. His origins and past are one of the series' greatest mysteries. However, the few memories he does recover confirm that he crossed paths with Lyza at some point.
An Arm and a Leg: His right arm is severed after Bondrewd and the Umbra Hands begin dissecting him. Finding his maker to get it reattached becomes another goal for him.
The Big Guy: Having both Super-Toughness and quite the combat prowess, it is often up to him to protect the physically weaker and fragile Riko.
Butt-Monkey: Very rarely does anything ever go right for his dignity. He's been placed in several humiliating scenarios, most prominently in regard to other characters observing or attempting to observe his penis. It happens so frequently that it practically becomes a Running Gag.
Cast from Lifespan: The Incinerator is directly tied to whatever makes Reg tick. If he uses up all of his remaining charges, he'll deactivate permanently. Thankfully for him and his friends, absorbing large quantities of electrical power can recharge him enough to give him extra shots.
Character Catchphrase: "Doshigatai!" (translated as "Irredeemable!"), used in a variety of situations, mostly comical but sometimes dramatic. Interestingly, chapter 16's flashback shows Lyza using this exact phrase, implying that this might be a Borrowed Catchphrase.
Declaration of Protection: Alongside his determination to uncover his lost memories, he makes it his goal to protect Riko from the dangers of the Abyss. He's not perfect at the job, but he's done admirably.
Eating Machine: He can eat and taste food just like any other kid.
Eating Optional: In the absence of food, he can also recharge himself with electricity. Given that the Abyss is short in power outlets and plentiful in tasty animals, he prefers food. But food does not replenish his Incinerator charges.
Exploited Immunity: Reg exploits his immunity to the Abyss' curse in his fight with Bondrewd by forcing the man to chase after Reg as he ascends from the Sixth Level. By the point they reach the fifth level, Bondrewd has transformed into a creature similar to Nanachi underneath his gear.
Extendable Arms: A staple of his fighting style. His arms can somehow extend and retract over long distances to ensnare opponents without worrying about where to store all that extra cable. He even uses them as grappling hooks or to even has himself be used as a bridge.
Feel No Pain: In spite of being a robot, this is averted, with his body being perfectly capable of simulating pain. Whatever attacks he receives genuinely hurts him. He can even experience phantom pains after his right arm was severed.
Fuel Meter of Power: The Incinerator has a limited number of charges, with the remaining amount shown on his helmet. The display in question doesn't exactly show a number, it dims the more it is depleted instead.
Handicapped Badass: Despite losing his right arm, he still delivers a great deal of ass kicking to Bondrewd. Though being a robot, this may not be permanent.
Ideal Illness Immunity: Since he is not an organic life-form, he is immune to most of the dangers of the Abyss. This includes the ascension curse that has sent many delvers to their early graves.
The Immune: Being an artificial human, he cannot suffer from the effects of the Curse of the Abyss.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the suffering Riko endured from the Orb Piercer. If he had told her to stay a little further behind him, or hadn't hesitated with Incinerator, or acted a little faster etc. then she wouldn't have been harmed at all.
The Kirk: Forms an indecisive and self-doubting center between the idealistic Riko and the more pragmatic Nanachi.
Lethal Chef: While Riko was incapacitated, he tried to make food after being forced to consume Nanachi's own horrid cooking, but his attempts were said to literally taste like excrement.
Lightning Bruiser: He may look like a small and fragile young boy, metal limbs notwithstanding, but whenever he needs to fight, it's shown that he's agile enough to easily maneuver around both terrain and enemies, tough enough to withstand almost anything, and powerful enough to manhandle various monstrosities, many of which are several times his own size.
Mercy Kill: At the request of Nanachi, he uses the Incinerator to vaporize Mitty and put her out of her misery.
Muscle Angst: A minor example, but he is disappointed when he realizes that none of his muscles are growing no matter how much training he puts in and how much physical stress he withstands.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Reg is extremely skinny looking, but he's far stronger than any human and can even go toe-to-toe with veteran Delvers with sheer brute force. His non-organic nature is the justification.
Nice Guy: He's kind and polite to almost everyone he meets.
The Nose Knows: He has a very keen nose. He recognizes Nat before he removes his hood, and he is able to tell that Marulk is a boy because of how he smells.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He looks no older than a boy in his early teens, but is strong enough to wrestle with most monsters in the Abyss and leap enormous heights.
Power Up Full Color Change: After Riko has her White Whistle properly formed, when she blows it near Reg, he not only gains a massive power boost, but his color scheme also changes, with his metallic parts turning white, his decently tan skin turning a darker shade, and his helmet's Fuel Meter of Power changing to an immeasurable skull-shaped design.
The Promise: He makes several promises to Nat, Jiruo, and Habolg to keep Riko safe. Unfortunately, not even a super-powered robot can counter every threat of the Abyss, so he takes his failures really hard whenever she gets hurt under his watch.
Prone to Tears: He's both emotionally vulnerable and highly empathetic, meaning whenever faced with a distressing situation, he's the main character most likely to engage in Inelegant Blubbering, while Riko, Nanachi, and Faputa usually take a lot more distress to start crying.
Puppy Love: It's painfully obvious he's enamored with Riko. He even considers her his precious treasure.
Quest for Identity: The reason he ventures into the Abyss, aside from protecting Riko, is to discover who he is, who made him, and for what purpose.
Raging Stiffie: His delving equipment is fully functional. It never happens during a moment where he wouldn't be embarrassed.
Reused Character Design: He bears a very striking resemblance to Toto of the Pickle Gang, whose hat only makes the resemblance much closer.
Ridiculously Human Robots: As far as personality and emotions go, Reg behaves exactly like a human kid. His body also looks very human-like and perfectly mimics human biological responses, such as crying when he's distressed or blushing when he gets embarrassed. The only parts of him that stand out as glaringly mechanical are his limbs. Whether he's really a robot or some sort of cyborg, and who or what made him (and why), is one of the main mysteries of the series.
Robot Kid: He looks about Riko's age, and is just as naive as her.
Rocket Punch: His main form of attack is propelling his Extendable Arms at high speeds to punch or grab enemies, since the Incinerator tends to be too powerful for constant usage.
Running Gag: There's always going to be a joke about his penis.
Story-Breaker Power: His Incinerator is explicitly referred to as such, a weapon that can outright defy the rules of the Abyss and do things that, by all accounts, should have been impossible, such as vaporizing Mitty or ripping a hole through the barrier around Iruburu Village. This is balanced by its extremely limited usage.
Super Mode: During the journey in the sixth layer, Reg is able to unlock a new power via Riko's new White Whistle. When blown by Riko, Reg becomes stronger, tougher, and faster, enough to take down some of the sixth layer's more powerful creatures and even go toe-to-toe with Faputa. This helps, since it lets him defeat his opponents without needing to use his incinerator.
Super-Toughness: His durability is something else, being able to withstand fire, resist drilling, slashing, and blunt force. Even his soft, silicon-like skin is almost impervious to damage or penetration, save for the relatively thin spot that marks his navel. However, after reaching the Sixth Layer, and thus getting closer to the bottom of the Abyss where he was assumedly made, new creatures start appearing that are capable of breaking through that toughness, such as a turbinid dragon smacking his arm chipping away a little of the metal. Fortunately he gets a boost to his toughness during his Super Mode.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Has bright, golden eyes and is anything but ordinary. The eyes themselves seem to have a built-in telescopic zoom, shown when he spots a pursuing cave raider from a great distance.
Telescoping Robot: His arms can extend for 40m, which comes in handy when spelunking, fighting, or picking jars from the upper shelf.
This Is Unforgivable!. Hurting Riko will generally make Reg angry and try to fight whatever did so, no matter how outclassed he is. Seeing Bondrewd's experiments, especially what he did to Mitty and Prushka, also elicits a sense of burning hatred within him.
Vague Age: He's actually got it worse than Nanachi. He looks like he's around Riko's age, but given that he's a robot, with it unknown whether he ages or was created the way he is now, there's no telling how old he really is. All the hints towards his past don't actually tell how long ago they happened, so from the moment he met Riko, he could've been anywhere from a few months to several thousand years old.
Walking Shirtless Scene: He was found wearing just a cape, pants and helmet (his legs and feet are metal anyway), and while he wears shirts in the orphanage, he ditches them again once the adventure starts. Though it's not that he really needs them.
Wave-Motion Gun: Each of Reg's limbs can fire an extremely powerful laser that annihilates everything in its path, nicknamed the "Incinerator".
We Named the Monkey "Jack": Since he doesn't remember his real name, Riko names him "Reg" after her old dog. Subverted when it's revealed he was known as Reg even before he came to the surface.

Nanachi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nanchi.png

Voiced by: Shiori Izawa (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)

A mysterious being who rescues Reg and Riko in the Cup of Giants. Nanachi is a Hollow, or somebody whose body was mutated by ascending from the Abyss's sixth layer; while Hollow are usually monstrous in appearance, Nanachi somehow gained the form of a cute bunny humanoid. Nanachi makes a home in the Cup of Giants with Mitty, a fellow Hollow who was reduced to a fleshy blob. Taking care of Mitty in the depths of the Abyss has provided extensive medical knowledge, and while initially secretive and a bit abrasive, Nanachi has a truly good heart. They are burdened with a terrible past, particularly with the infamous White Whistle Bondrewd the Novel...

Ambiguous Gender: Word of God is that Nanachi's sex is unknown. It should be noted that Nanachi uses the pronoun oira which is neutral/masculine, and is depicted as looking gender-ambiguous in flashbacks having thick but very messy hair and wearing something that could either be a dress or a tunic. The official French translation treats Nanachi as male, but the Russian one as female.
Aura Vision: One side effect of them becoming a Hollow was acquiring the ability to see the force field all Abyssal creatures can sense, which essentially lets them see the thoughts and future actions of others, alongside being able to gauge the intensity of the Curse in an area.
Beast Man: Nanachi looks like a humanoid rabbit, with paws, huge ears, and a tail. They used to look like a normal human before the Sixth Layer's curse of mutation.
Blush Sticker: Played with. Nanachi has two round patches of lighter-colored fur in their cheeks that evoke this effect, giving a mischievous and cute look.
Break the Cutie: Poor thing has gone through a lot: was manipulated, experimented on, and used by Bondrewd, had to see their best friend suffer horribly, and was forced to lure other unwitting kids into the same fate. By the time Reg and Riko find her, the only thing keeping Nanachi alive is that a way to release Mitty from her cursed form still hasn't been found.
Breakout Character: They were introduced as something of a diversion when the manga's popularity was waning. Their tragic backstory and general quirkiness not only made them a big hit with the fans, but also revived sales of the manga. When the anime adaptation came out, Nanachi got three official figurines before either of the original protagonists got one.
The Cameo: They appear in Pop Team Epic as a picture on one of Popuko and Pipimi's "Ridiculous Fortunes."
Cute Little Fangs: Complimenting their natural Playful Cat Smile but clashing a bit with their otherwise bunny-like looks is a set of elongated canines, which only really get shown off when being cute and snarky, adding to their adorably beastly appearance and enhancing their Smug Smiler look whenever they mess with the easily flustered Reg.
Cool Big Sis: Not in physical stature but in outlook. Nanachi's the member of the team who has the most experience with the Abyss and is generally suspicious of the motives of people and creatures they meet due to horrible past experiences. However once Riko and Reg have earned their friendship and trust, Nanachi is constantly on the lookout for the team's welfare in every new situation they encounter, reminding Reg of the need for him to protect the otherwise defenseless Riko, and generally acting as the Team Mom.
Daddy's Little Villain: Bondrewd’s implied view of Nanachi. He is completely aloof of the PTSD-inducing, soul-crushing horrors he’s made them witness. However, he treats them like a protégé; even after they return to Idofront after escaping. Rather than being angry at losing Mitty, it's almost as if Nanachi just finished HIS experiments.
Deadpan Snarker: Rather abrasive and sarcastic, especially early on before warming up to Rico and Reg.
Death Seeker: Averted. Reg makes Nanachi promise not to commit suicide after he puts Mitty out of her misery. Nanachi's response indicates Reg's concern was well-founded, but they keep the promise, choosing to go traveling with him and Riko and put off dying to be with Mitty for later.
Dr. Jerk: A little bit early on, bossing Reg around and acting somewhat haughty, but quickly warms to him.
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Nanachi seldom wears anything from the waist up. While the coverall does have a chest flap, it's usually worn as an apron, unless required to dress up all the way for a particularly dangerous area. They rarely wear shoes, either.
Hates Being Touched: Played for laughs. Nanachi is visibly uncomfortable whenever anyone (especially Reg) gets too close, but Nanachi's luxuriously fluffy fur and pleasant scent makes that an inevitability.
Lethal Chef: Nanachi can't cook anything tasty but eats what is made anyway since there was no one else to rely on until Riko and Reg came down. This is partially because they originally lived off of Bondrewd's tasteless diet cubes, meaning that literally anything tastes better to them — Reg manages to cook a meal that literally tastes like crap, and after declaring it even worse than their own cooking, Nanachi just keeps eating it.
The Medic: The time spent as Bondrewd's assistant, and the many, many efforts to save Mitty, have left Nanachi with a vast knowledge of the human body and the medicinal properties of the flora and fauna of the Abyss. For example, knowing how to use the Fourth Layer's parasitic/symbiotic mushrooms to heal Riko's arm and keep her health stable.
Not So Stoic: Generally very composed and detached, or snarky, even when watching Reg sobbing uncontrollably over a seemingly-dead Riko. Nanachi doesn't show much emotion at all until Reg euthanizes Mitty; this was done at Nanachi's request, but it brings out many years of pent-up emotions. The human-form Nanachi was slightly more emotive, but only cried once—immediately after Mitty was mutated from a human into a mindless blob. A more lighthearted example happens when Riko cooks Nanachi their first good meal in probably their whole life, and Nanachi ineffectively tries to downplay their obvious foodgasm.
Playful Cat Smile: Nanachi's upper-lip has a permanent cat-like dip that adds to their mischievous and snarky persona.
Shown Their Work: The authors' portrayal of Nanachi as The Medic of the team clearly shows that they know their stuff, from the set of surgical instruments that while largely Bamboo Technology-based are pretty much spot-on, to a Deadpan Snarker attitude the surgeons are notorious for.
Signature Headgear: Wears what appears to be a heavy delving helmet with the scaly neck armor that's permanently eased to the back of the head.
Smells Sexy: Apparently, their fur has a sweet and pleasant scent. Just ask Reg◊. Or Majikajya, who calls them "nice-smelling Nanachi". Ironically as a human child other children would stay away from Nanachi due to the bad smell from rooting in the garbage for food.
The Spock: Marred by their prolonged time of living within the Abyss, Nanachi has developed a cynical outlook, and a somewhat cold disposition, and is overall more focused on using pragmatic means to ensure their own survival.
Street Urchin: As a little kid, Nanachi used to live in the streets of a mercilessly cold country, rummaging for useful or edible stuff in garbage dumps by day, and sleeping in an old drainage system by night. Then Bondrewd came along, looking for volunteers to take part in a research project in the depths of the Abyss...
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Played with, or maybe inverted. As a human, Nanachi had golden eyes, similar to Reg's. The transformation into a rabbit-person changed their eye structure and made them greener. Whether this has any connection to surviving the sixth layer's curse with their humanity mostly intact, unlike all others who have attempted this, is unclear.
Sympathy for the Devil: Even after all the awful things Bondrewd has done to Nanachi and their friends, Nanachi can't help but soften up to him a bit at his congratulation for defeating him.
Tragic Keepsake: When leaving Belaf's care, several young Hollows that had taken a liking to Nanachi follow them only to disintegrate as a result of the village falling apart alongside the new Mitty with the only thing left behind being a mask belonging to one of them. Nanachi keeps it, replacing the gear they had been using up to that point.
Vague Age: Although Reg initially assumes Nanachi is about the same age as Riko, this is never confirmed, and it's not clear what gave him that impression. Flashbacks showed them looking smaller and younger, but it's unclear how long ago that was, or how old they were when they were human. Being a unique rabbit-person with some metaphysical connection to an immortal mutant, and spending much of their life in an Eldritch Location that distorts time, makes this even harder to figure out.
Verbal Tic: "Naaaa~" Nanachi tends to use it either on its own or at the end of a sentence.
Worth Living For: It's heavily implied that after they found a way to kill Mitty, they planned on offing themselves to escape it all. Meeting Reg and Riko (and especially after trying Riko's cooking) gave them the push Nanachi needed to keep going, deciding to watch over the two's descent into the Abyss.

Prushka (Unmarked Idofront Arc Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prushka2.png

^{Current state}

Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese), Avery Smithhart (English)

Bondrewd's daughter. She is very fond of her "Papa" and cheerfully helps him out however she can, blissfully unaware of the darker side of Bondrewd's experiments. She's excited to meet people from the outside, having lived in the Idofront all of her life, and quickly befriends the main characters. She comes to hold a dream of leaving her home behind and setting off with Riko, Reg, and Nanachi on their adventures...

All-Loving Hero: There isn't a single person that Prushka hasn't been kind to. Even when Bondrewd turns her into a cartridge and uses her to stave off the curse, she still wholeheartedly declares her undying love for him and promises to keep supporting him in this form.
Amplifier Artifact: Having become a White Whistle, Prushka can give Reg a boost of power via a Super Mode whenever Riko blows into the whistle itself. Turns out this is true of other White Whistles as well.
Anime Hair: Her hair is strangely curled up at certain parts. It resulted from an incident in her childhood where she tried to climb a staircase and suffered the fifth layer's burden, almost dying in the process.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She fulfills her newfound dream of going on adventures with Riko and company after being brutally transformed into a Cartridge and then being reborn as another Soul Jar as a White Whistle. That said, it's implied whatever's left of her mind in this state is at least accepting of this situation if it means helping Riko.
Children Are Innocent: Although she's a bit older than the main characters, she's even more sweetly naive than they are.
Cool Helmet: Resembles an aviator helmet, featuring a hatch where Meinya can pop in and out at her command.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Bondrewd uses her for one of his cartridges. This involves amputating and surgically removing everything but the bare minimum the Abyss will recognize as a "human", until she fits into a small container the size of a lunchbox. To make things even worse, what is left of her is somehow still conscious inside that thing, being horribly mutated by the Abyss' curse.
Floral Theme Naming: "Prushka" means "Flower of Dawn", after her father who is known as the Sovereign of Dawn.
Foil: To Riko; where Riko is the biological daughter of the White Whistle Lyza and was left in an orphanage, Prushka was born to one of Bondrewd's lackeys and adopted by him. Where Riko was stillborn in the Abyss and resurrected in the ascent, Prushka was brought to Idofront as a toddler and nearly died in the descent. Where Riko is independent and driven by discovery, cares nothing for authority figures, and feels mixed feelings about her absent mother, Prushka is utterly sheltered and unquestioningly devoted to Bondrewd even after being used by him. The two of them connect when Riko reaches a seemingly insurmountable impasse above the Sixth Layer, and the desire for adventure that Riko ignites in Prushka and the reaffirmation of purpose Prushka helps Riko find leads to Prushka providing and becoming the very instrument that Riko needs to continue her journey.
Fond Memories That Could Have Been: As it becomes obvious that she is gone for good there is a rather tragic sequence with her dreaming of going along the adventure with Riko, Reg, Nanashi and even Bondrewd to the deeper layers, something that was now way out of reach.
Happily Adopted: Prushka was the daughter of an Umbral Hand who died in a carrier crash. Prushka survived the crash, but was driven to insanity by the curse. Bondrewd adopts her shortly after, and she's loved him ever since.
Irony: In a way, her Tragic Dream of going on an adventure with Riko and company comes true after all: She lives on as Riko's White Whistle, Meinya is adopted by the heroes as their Team Pet, and Bondrewd is content to sit back and watch over their journey through Nanachi's eyes.
It Was a Gift: Her Cool Helmet was a gift from Gueira, the Umbra Hand who raised her alongside Bondrewd.
Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: She adores her Papa, and is completely oblivious to his less pleasant line of work.
Nice Girl: Shockingly, Bondrewd has raised her well; she's polite, dutiful, and generous to everyone. She even makes paper-maché Black Whistles for failed Umbra Hands during her downtime, inscribing messages to thank them for their hard work.
Not Quite Dead: It is suggested that Prushka's soul and will remain bound and aware in the Life-Reverberating Stone that what was left of her body became. Riko even at one point claims to be able to tell what Prushka is feeling while being handled by a Hollow, and Faputa claims to be able to hear Prushka crying out because her soul stone hadn't been carved yet. This is later completely confirmed when she has a conversation with Riko in a dream.
Soul Jar: Her last thoughts as she perishes from the Sixth Layer's curse is to embark on an adventure with Riko and company. This makes her a suitable sacrifice for the Abyss, converting her heart into a Life-Reverberating Stone. In effect, she becomes Riko's White Whistle, and it's implied the girl is happy in her resulting form.
Tragic Dream: She always desired to explore beyond the confinements of the Idofront. Meeting Riko was the happiest moment she's ever experienced, so she dreamed of finally heading out on an adventure with everyone: Riko, Reg, Nanachi, Meinya, and even Bondrewd. Alas, her father finally decided it was time for Prushka to be sacrificed... although it turns out her dream did come true, after a fashion.
Walking Spoiler: While her general character can be talked about easily without spoiling anything, her actual role in the plot is effectively impossible to mention without spoiling that she's turned into a curse-repelling cartridge, physically dies, and then becomes Riko's White Whistle.

Meinya

Voiced by: Natsuko Hara (Japanese), Juliet Simmons (English)

A small, cute animal called a Meinastorim that Bondrewd gave Prushka as a small child. They have been inseparable ever since.

Eye Scream: When Maaa-san first met Meinya, she squeezed her so hard, her left eye bulged out of its socket. Luckily, Meinya's one sturdy critter and Nanachi pushing it back in made it continue working just fine.
Head Pet: She likes resting atop Prushka's head inside her special helmet, and later she spends a lot of time sitting atop Riko's head.
A Lizard Named "Liz": Her name comes from a younger Prushka's stunted efforts to pronounce her species, which stuck ever since.
Pokémon Speak: Her sounds consist of the first two syllables of her species name.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: A little ball of pink fluff with long, floppy ears.
Team Pet: Following the Idofront Arc she becomes the designated non-sentient small critter for the group.

Faputa

Voiced by: Misaki Kuno (Japanese), Cat Thomas (English)

A Hollow who lives in the Capital of the Unreturned. Like Nanachi, rather than looking monstrous she has a cute, humanoid form that looks not unlike a fuzzy moth. However, unlike other Hollows she never had a human form and instead was born as such from the beginning. She's referred to as the Princess of the Hollows, and she claims to have known Reg from his original ascent from the Abyss.

Ambiguously Evil: Seems to be unconditionally loyal to Reg. At the same time, even her benevolent actions come off as incredibly disturbing, and that's not going into her desire to eradicate the village to release her mother. When all is said and done, however, the latter issue seems to be a case of Grey-and-Grey Morality (with a healthy serving of purple).
An Arm and a Leg: Gives up one of her arms and one of her wing-ears to buy back Nanachi.
Broken Bird: She very much qualifies for this. The tragic circumstances of her mother, the reason behind her birth and the slightly evil nature of the village as well as growing up in a very hostile environment have largely made her insane.
Clingy Jealous Girl: She very much loves Reg and feels very possessive of him, so once she learns that his amnesiac self has fallen for Riko, she develops a strong jealous rivalry towards her. During her introductory arc it temporarily reaches Yandere levels, attempting to Murder the Hypotenuse, but as she calms down and understands she would only make Reg hate her, it settles into just disliking her for "stealing away" Reg.
Contralto of Strength: As she is about to begin the massacre of Iruburu, preparing herself to utilize her true strength, her voice drops to an incredibly low register. Even normally there is a hint of a rasp in her voice making it clear just from her voice that unlike the other cute characters in the series, she is incredibly dangerous.
Curbstomp Battle: Delivers this to Reg when he attempted to stop or slow down Faputa's rampage in Iruburu. Reg mind you, was able to go toe-to-toe with Bonedrewd when pissed off enough and could tank even some of the most dangerous of Abyss creatures. Faputa immediately manhandled Reg, before literally deepthroating him with one of her arms and then waving him around like a ragdoll. It took literally Riko's activation of her white whistle to supercharge Reg to temporarily restrain and push Faputa out of Iruburu.
Cute and Psycho: She’s quite unhinged and her normally cute face occasionally distorts into bestial snarls or a Slasher Smile. To determine if Reg is “still Reg,” one of the things she does is pin him down and drive a talon into his navel far enough to be a life threatening stab wound for a normal human. She then tastes the blood on the talon.
Cute Little Fangs: Her mouthful of Scary Teeth frequently gets depicted with lesser detail during her more friendly and childish moments, as a way to boost her Cute Monster Girl image.
Cute Monster Girl: Much like Nanachi, her form as a Hollow is leagues more humanoid than most, being a fluffy creature with four arms and a set of Scary Teeth that don't detract much from her nonetheless adorable appearance... so long as she's calm. When angry, she puts on a Nightmare Face and moves in an inhuman way, which temporarily nullifies her cuteness and makes it clear she's still a monster girl.
The Dreaded: The villagers quickly come to see her as a horrifying monster when she gains entry into the village and plans to slaughter them all to end her own suffering. Subverted later on when the remaining surviving villagers Face Death with Dignity by allowing her to eat them because she needs their help.
Forgotten First Meeting: She knew Reg before he had ascended to the top of the Abyss and met Riko. He promised her something.
Funny Background Event: After joining Riko’s gang, she becomes a purveyor of funny faces, with her body distorting in all sorts of absurd ways while the others are talking. It goes along with her character becoming softer.
Goggles Do Nothing: Her entire wardrobe consists of a pair of goggles, which she wears over her shoulder like a sash, though it has a minor aspect of Goggles Do Something Unusual: past-Reg asked her to put them on as a makeshift bra, because while her lower-body fur protects her modesty there, her human-like torso was completely exposed due to being an Innocent Fanservice Girl, which embarrassed Reg.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Being immortal, she also experiences some of the absolute worst abuse out of any character as she can walk away from most of it.
Grotesque Cute: Even after having torn off an arm and an ear that left huge gaping flesh wounds on her chest and head, she still goes about in her usual cute demeanor creating quite the contrast.
Head Pet: She likes to occasionally sit or even curl up atop Reg's head like a big, fluffy hat.
Heel Realization: Witnessing her mother's happy memories of being with the Ganja Corps forces her to confront the complexity of the situation behind her siblings being eaten. While it's not enough for her to forgive the villagers, it's enough to convince her to destroy the village in a less hateful and more merciful manner.
Hyperactive Metabolism: Can instantly recover from her injuries by consuming flesh, especially the villagers'.
Immortality Hurts: She is an immortal being, but only in the sense that she is The Ageless and can't be fully killed, whereas she's neither Nigh-Invulnerable nor does she have a Healing Factor, so experiencing pain and injury will make her suffer just as badly as a mortal person.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: As a beastly Wild Child who's lived her entire life in the deadly wilds of the 6th layer, Faputa has no concept of conventional modesty. For most of her life she's been prowling her home domain completely unclothed. The only garment she's ever worn were a pair of goggles, and even then it was only because they were a treasured gift from her love interest; She goes back to wearing nothing again once the goggles break. The trope is partially subverted as Faputa's nudity is very rarely played for fanservice. Only Reg finds it awkward initially, but even he seems to have gotten over it. Most of the time it's given little to no special attention.
Irony: Faputa was born specifically to kill both the villagers for eating her siblings, and her mother to end her suffering. But she was born outside the village, preventing her from fulfilling her purpose since no child can reenter their mother.
Lightning Bruiser: Faputa is both insanely fast and insanely strong. Once Faputa joins the team, she is easily the strongest and the most dangerous member of the group by far. Not even Reg came close as shown with his brief but brutal brawl when he tried to stop Faputa's rampage on Iruburu.
Living Weapon: She was created to kill everybody in the village and then the village itself.
Magic A Is Magic A: An interesting case. Faputa claims that she can't enter the village because, just like any other child after they're born, she can’t reenter her own mother.
Magical Eye: After having healed from her injuries, some kind of magic sigil appears on her right eye whenever she is fighting seriously. Similarly, the iris of her left eye will take on a slightly different shape compared to her right.
Meaningful Name: Her name is a combination of the words Fau, "Precious Daughter", and Aputa, "Immortal Being", befitting of the undying princess of the Hollows.
Mercy Kill: Faputa wishes to do this to the village itself, as it is actually her mother, Irumyuui, left in a decaying yet immortal state, constantly suffering but unable to die. She ends up doing this for not only village itself but the villagers within, as Moogie claims they came to the village specifically to die there.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: In addition to her extra-arms, she seems to possess enormous strength, very sharp claws, and an ability to move extremely swiftly without a sound.
My Blood Runs Hot: For some reason her body is so hot Reg is visibly uncomfortable when she gets close to him. She also smells like the sun.
One-Man Army: To say Faputa can single-handedly destroy an entire village, slaughter and consume nearly all its inhabitants and killed a significant amount of fauna from the 6th layer of the Abyss is an understatement.
Only a Flesh Wound: She often suffers very serious wounds only to go about her usual business as if nothing happened. That said, as the beasts of the abyss start to ravage Iruburu village, all the wounds she had accumulated finally started to catch up with her.
Please Put Some Clothes On: When she first met Reg in the past, her obliviousness to shame or modesty meant she went about without anything covering her chest. This heavily embarrassed him, to which he convinces her to put a pair of goggles over her chest to cover up under the pretense of a "gift". This did nothing to change Faputa's attitude towards her own nudity, as she goes right back to wearing nothing again the moment the goggles are destroyed.
Posthumous Sibling: Faputa is Irumyuui's last child, born after countless numbers of her siblings were birthed and eaten by the villagers to cure the Mockwater infection.
Power Dyes Your Hair: After being healed thanks to the Iruburu villagers offering up their body parts for the sake of her healing, parts of her fur and hair change to a golden color before proceeding to lay a massive smackdown upon the beasts that have now gotten into the village.
Raised by Robots: Raised by the Interferance Unit Gaburoon, who taught her how to speak, read and write at least the glyphs relating to value in the Abyss, and gave her the name Faputa.
Revenge: Yeah, she’s a bit justified in her desire. Her mom(?) was mutated from a cute human child into something closer to a biological building that mutates other people. This happened when the Ganja Corps just started straight up using her for their own purposes.
Scary Teeth: Has a whole jaw-ful of very sharp teeth that add to her unusual appearance, and when she's angry their sharpness that can rip apart bodies is especially pronounced.
Sixth Ranger: After the events at the Capital of the Unreturned, she joins Riko's group in their adventure into the Abyss.
Superior Successor: All Irumyuui's previous children were small, weak little critters who were either stillborn or died within hours of birth. Faputa, embodiment of her mother's rage, is fully sapient, humanoid (with four arms, even), incredibly strong and fast, and immortal.
Super-Strength: Her physical strength is constantly noted to be absurd. She's able to tear through just about anything in her way and even toss Reg around like a rag doll, who is established to already have superhuman physical prowess.
Strong Family Resemblance: She resembles her mother Irumyuui when she used to be human in a few ways: both are dark-skinned blonds, and Faputa's ears superficially resemble Irumyuui's pigtails. Both girls have brown eyes and have outfits that show their stomach/chests. This resemblance may be partially why Vueko mistakes her for Irumyuui as she dies.
The Tooth Hurts: As she fights Reg she bites down hard on his helmet resulting in her breaking most of her teeth, even spitting some of them out.
Tragic Dream: She wants to have children with Reg someday after their journey, but she's a Hollow and he's a robot so both might be incapable of reproduction. Very much a case of History Repeats given the tragic circumstance of her mother being unable to have human children.
Tsundere: How she behaves around Reg, whom she's obviously smitten with. What makes her tsun-tsun is the fact she hates him for forgetting their first meeting, but she can't help going dere-dere whenever he mentions wanting to be with her anyway.
Verbal Tic: Ends all of her sentences with "sosu", which she does because she was told it makes her speech more graceful.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can warp her body somewhat. She flies by wrapping her hair around her body and looks like a Bedsheet Ghost while doing so.
White and Red and Eerie All Over: Faputa has white fur, red claws, and red markings on her body that look vaguely like blood or bloody wounds. While she is adorable and has her moments of childish innocence, she's also an incredibly powerful being filled with rage toward the inhabitants of Iruburu, and wastes no time brutally slaughtering the inhabitants when she's finally able to enter.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: As the "Iruburu Arc" comes to a close and she sees her reason for existence (killing everybody in the village) get kill-stolen by the Abyss creatures, Faputa starts feeling that her immortality which let her plan out her Goal in Life has become meaningless, wondering if she was made immortal just to suffer. The end of the arc sees her come to terms with her immortal existence as being not to hold onto the past, but to continue on towards the future.
Wicked Cultured: Befitting for someone with the title of Princess. Faputa, despite her mental instability, is able to speak in both the lingua franca of hollows and humans fluently, but also in a more sophisticated manner. According to both her and Gaburoon, her verbal tic (sosu) makes her more elegant and refined compared to the rest of the residents of Iruburu. Moreover, Faputa has incredible knowledge of the Abyss' fauna and flora and is able to speak to the spirits of the white whistles with ease. She might not look the part, but Faputa is much more sophisticated than she appears.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Having been born inheriting Irumyuii's rage and anger towards Wazukyan and Iruburu, Faputa lives for nothing more than to avenge her mother by destroying the village and killing everybody living there.

The White Whistles

In General

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mia_whitewhistles.png

From top left going clockwise: Bondrewd the Novel, Srajo the Mysterious, Lyza the Annihilator, and Ozen the Immovable

The greatest delvers the world has to offer, these powerful individuals are humanity's best bet at solving the enigmas within the Abyss. The people of Orth idolize them, enemies and rival countries fear them, and the Abyss' monstrosities pale in comparison to them. Each possess a unique White Whistle that is tied solely to their respective owners, making them worthless in the hands of others. They have to be earned, and these legends have proven themselves by conquering the full-course gauntlet that is the Abyss. There are five currently recognized by the Delver's Guild of Orth: Lyza the Annihilator, Ozen the Immovable, Bondrewd the Novel, Srajo the Mysterious, and Wakuna the Chosen.

The Ace: Bearers of a White Whistle are considered Living Legends, the absolute best of all the cave raiders, and the most capable of exploring the Abyss' mysteries. With access to the Sixth Layer, they must be able to easily traverse hostile landscapes and confront the most dangerous monsters, spending months if not years at a time in the pit's lower layers. Furthermore, they must possess incredible tolerance to the harshest symptoms of the Curse. Many aspire to rise through the ranks and earn a White Whistle of their own, one of them being Riko. Lyza the Annhilator in particular was described to be a standout even among the elites. Indeed, her prowess is hinted at by stories of her feats with Blaze Reap, the Everlasting Pick, and a flashback by fellow White Whistle Ozen.
The Dreaded: All White Whistles have titles like the "Annihilator" or the "Immovable" based on their deeds and fields of Abyss exploration. Suffice to say, they've earned these titles and their white whistles for a very good reason, and all other delvers treat them with a mixture of fear and respect.
Department of Redundancy Department: For three of them, their title matches their epithet- Lyza the Annihilator, the Sovereign of Annihilation; Ozen the Immovable, the Unmovable Sovereign; and Srajo the Mysterious, the Sovereign of Mystery.
Empowered Badass Normal: They must already have proven themselves to be bona fide badasses to earn the right to use the Abyss' relics to enhance their already incredible abilities to superhuman levels.
Heroic Sacrifice: Only White Whistles can enter the Sixth Layer, but unless they possess a relic or technique that can bypass the Curse's effects, it's a one-way trip. Throughout the course of history, many White Whistles have forfeited all hope of ever returning home to advance to the Sixth Layer, sending up discoveries that would hopefully slip past beasts and obstacles, and into the hands of a cave delver above. This is called a "Last Dive", and is traditionally regarded by Orth as a hero's final act.
Human Sacrifice: What's essentially necessary to make a White Whistle — each one is made from the petrified heart of a person dying from the Curse of the Abyss. What's especially cruel is that the sacrifice has to be voluntary, with the sacrifice giving all their devotion to a whistle's future bearer, ensuring that they're the whistle-to-be's close friends or loved ones, and making the experience particularly traumatic for them.
The Magnificent: All of them have a special extra moniker of this form, based on their personality, ambitions, and/or special abilities.
Older Than They Look: It is implied that most White Whistles either stop aging or at least age very differently from normal humans. Ozen, for example, looks like she's in her thirties while she's actually in her eighties, and the very concept of age is inapplicable to Bondrewd with his Body Surf. Not helped by the fact that they prefer to live in the Abyss, where time slows more and more in the deeper layers.
Plot Coupon: The sound of a White Whistle is needed to activate special relics within the Abyss. One such relic is an elevator that descends into the Sixth Layer through the Sea of Corpses. Unless one were to use a relic that can bypass the Sea, they literally cannot proceed into the Sixth Layer without a White Whistle.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: White Whistles are made from Life-Reverberating Stones, which are the petrified hearts of people who experienced the Sixth Layer's curse. Furthermore, the person must place all their devotion to a single person as they suffer, locking their stone to that person alone. That is why stealing a White Whistle is considered a futile effort, and why they are so rare to come across.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: White Whistles tend to be responsible for leading their own teams of cave raiders, and are naturally the strongest and most likely to survive of them all.
Red Baron: The Immovable Sovereign, Sovereign of Annihilation, Sovereign of Mystery, Sovereign of Guidance, Sovereign of Dawn... it's practically tradition for White Whistles to have grandiose epithets.
Signature Headgear: Snazzy headgear seems to be a prerequisite for White Whistle bearers, and is in fact the easiest way to identify one from the other.
Soul Jar: The Life-Reverberating Stones which White Whistles are carved from retain the souls of the individuals they were born from. Normally only the user they sacrificed themselves for can still communicate with them, though Faputa's ability to perceive souls lets her do so regardless.
Weapon Specialization: Each White Whistle possesses at least one unique relic that simultaneously serves as both their specialty (in fighting or exploration) and a testament to their skills as cave raiders (for finding such relics in the first place).
The Wonka: These guys are the best of the best when it comes to cave raiding, with all of them being world-renowned Living Legends until the day they die and become regular legends. It's also shown by all of the ones met that surviving and thriving in a place like the Abyss has resulted in them acquiring a wide range of bizarre quirks and mentalities, ranging from a rough-and-rowdy weirdo to a monstrous scientist with Blue-and-Orange Morality. All of these traits are tolerated, and their often morally bankrupt actions overlooked, because they're the greatest raiders ever produced by Orth, while the more mentally acceptable people frequently end up dying.
World's Strongest Man: The White Whistles Reg and Riko fought are so immensely powerful, that even with a handicap the heroes are still fighting uphill battles. When a transformed Nishagora fights Reg and almost overwhelms him, he compares her strength with Ozen when she's serious, but she tells him that Ozen is never on that level, implying that Ozen actually went easy on Reg. They likely wouldn't have gotten past Bondrewd if he hadn't fought a group of organized delvers led by Srajo prior.

Lyza the Annihilator

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

A legendary cave raider venerated for her prowess in surveying, excavating, and combat, and secretly the mother of Riko. Ten years ago, she decided to take her Last Dive beyond the 5th level of the Abyss and disappeared, only for her White Whistle to eventually be recovered and sent back to the surface. Although she is presumed dead, a mysterious message beckons her daughter to chase her down to the bottom of the Abyss.

Her White Whistle resembles a lock, with floral patterns based on Eternal Fortunes.

The Ace: Even among other White Whistles, there is something about her that is indicated by an incredible talent and a thirst for adventure. She is highly regarded by fellow delvers as a hero, and the people of Orth proudly trumpet her accomplishments at her Resurrection Festival. As revealed in a flashback by Ozen, she easily achieved Black Whistle, then White Whistle status by the time she was a young adult. There are cave raiders who struggle for promotion well into middle age.
Admiring the Abomination: Her written observations of the Abyss' lower layers are filled with sketches of previously-undiscovered, bizarre, and often lethally dangerous beasts. The notes sometimes betray an almost childlike fascination with these creatures.
Anime Hair: It's easy to assume her hair is simply blowing in the wind, but a closer examination reveals that it's actually fanning out and curling without any outside influence, which is later revealed to be one of the safer side effects of the Curse of the Abyss. Most of the people who spend a lot of time on the lower levels and frequently have to rise against the Curse have their hair curl into various unnatural shapes.
Cuteness Overload: Her sketches of the hermit rats (friendly rodents native to the sixth layer that nest inside empty shells) are surrounded by little hearts, and she describes them as "absolutely adorable". She also says she has adopted one and is using it as her pillow.
Famed In-Story: Tales of her exploits reach all over the world. During her Resurrection Festival, the Belchero Orphanage sold copies of her biography as part of their merchandise.
Friend-or-Idol Decision: She had to choose between the Unheard Bell, a special class relic, or her newborn daughter when her team was nearly wiped by enemies and could no longer carry both. She abandoned the relic and delivered her daughter to the surface. True, she went back for the relic, but she made sure Riko was in good hands first.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Jiruo notes that she loves guzzling down large quantities of alcohol. It's one of several traits making up the troublemaker that she is.
The Herald: While Riko was already set on exploring the Abyss, it is Lyza's letter that kickstarts the story and leads her deeper than the 100 meter mark.
Improbable Age: Managed to ascend the ranks all the way to White Whistle before she married and gave birth to Riko, and even afterwards in the most recent memories of her she remains looking incredibly youthful.
It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Her given reason for not playing a bigger role in Riko's life. Indeed, revenge by enemies made over the years is a genuine concern, and she instead entrusts her daughter's care to her apprentice Jiruo and the Belchero Orphanage.
Light Is Good: Out of all the White Whistles, she's the one with the brightest color palette, and many of her dramatic moments in flashbacks have her bathed in brilliant sunlight. Meanwhile, those who've known her have shown nothing but fondness upon reminiscing.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Ozen the Immovable was her mentor, and Lyza would go on to make Jiruo her apprentice. Furthermore, Jiruo becomes the authority figure responsible for Riko's and Reg's growth.
Missing Mom: She went on her Last Dive ten years ago, pretty much abandoning her daughter. Riko doesn't resent her for this; quite the contrary, she looks up to Lyza and wishes to become a White Whistle like her.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: She's called the Sovereign of Annihilation, making it very clear she's nobody to take lightly.
Never Found the Body: Although she completed her Last Dive, there is a grave site in the Fourth Layer that inexplicably contains her documents of the lower layers, her Everlasting Pick, and her White Whistle. Otherwise, it is completely empty.
One-Man Army: Known for single-handedly destroying hordes of giant beasts and teams of foreign cave raiders alike. In the past, she was forced to cancel the search for the Unheard Bell after a rival group reduced her survey team down to just one other member and the baby she gave birth to. She later returned downwards, retrieved the Bell, and "settled the score", so to speak.
Only Friend: To her White Whistle colleague, Ozen. She knew Ozen since she was a child, and begged to be her apprentice until the latter finally relented. Ozen doesn't show it, but she is in fact grateful for Lyza's friendship as the years went by.
Pitbull Dates Puppy: She's a beautiful, confident, ferocious woman who was infamous for getting into fights and coming out victorious. Her husband Torka, although notably a Black Whistle and therefore no slouch in delving, couldn't have looked more like their daughter Riko if he were to grow pigtails and put on glasses.
Powerful Pick: Blaze Reap. Ozen notes that, while powerful, the relic was always meant for excavations. It just also happens to double as a very effective Improvised Weapon. She loads it with Peace Phobia, the Everlasting Gunpowder, to give her swings a destructive kick. After her disappearance, Ozen finds it abandoned, mysteriously marking an empty grave. She passes it on to Riko and says that Lyza has probably already found a new signature weapon.
Pregnant Badass: She famously led a delving mission to retrieve an important artifact while pregnant with Riko.
Present Absence: She took her Last Dive to the bottom of the Abyss long before the story began, but the after-effects of her actions past and present heavily affect the story, driving Riko to journey down and meet her, being relevant to Reg's past, influencing how Ozen interacted with the cast while they stayed with her, and many more, all despite having a heavy case of Uncertain Doom and mostly being seen through flashbacks.
Quirky Curls: Lyza has the prominent Abyss curls spiraling at the ends of her long wavy hair and she is quite fascinated with the oddities that happen in such a place and is quite quirky herself.
Signature Headgear: In contrast to her White Whistle contemporaries though, it's a relatively traditional miner's helmet. However, she adorns it with the biggest, fanciest feather she can find, a habit dating back to before she became an apprentice. The plume she was last seen with was half the length of her entire body.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Brash, confrontational, always eager to fight, has her delving gear as her default outfit, and drinks a lot, but also likes cute animals, flowers, and wore a long dress in one flashback.
Weapons of Their Trade: Riko's mother Lyza's weapon is Blaze Reap, a pickaxe designed for excavation and digging. While it's useful for helping her dig her way down into the Abyss, it's an equally powerful weapon when loaded with the Everlasting Gunpowder, making her a One-Woman Army revered and feared as Lyza the Annihilator.

Ozen the Immovable

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

Out of all the White Whistles, the Immovable Sovereign is one who shatters human limitations for sheer physical strength. A hot subject of rumors dating back as far as fifty years, she currently operates the Seeker Camp located in the Second Layer, where she awaits the arrival of a certain bespectacled girl...

Her White Whistle is adorned with a pair of horns, resembling the visage of an ox.

Ambiguously Gay: While it's never outright stated, it's easy to read her attachment to Lyza as a little more than mere friendship. But, it can also be easily read as familial or platonic. Her dismay towards Torka can be either read as romantic envy or Ozen losing one of the only friends she has. There's no official word to this, at least not yet.
Animal Motifs: The ox, based on her unique hairstyle and whistle design. Strong, stalwart, stoic, and definitely belligerent if given the opportunity.
Anime Hair: Her black and white hair is styled in a way that makes her look like she has horns. According to her, she keeps it that way to hide her scars.
Art Shift: Her very character design fluctuates between panels. Sometimes she's drawn like a relatively normal woman, other times she's depicted with her cloak enveloping her entire body like a mass of darkness. She spontaneously develops a hunchback as frequently as she loses it. With all these aspects combined with her Nightmare Face, Ozen would visually have more in common with a monstrous ghost than an actual human being. This is Played With in the anime, where in one scene she switches from hunchbacked to straight posture with a sickening snap.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Due to the nature of her abilities, she doesn't use any weapons outside of her own arms and feet. She doesn't need to.
Big Eater: Subtle, but it's there. When she, Reg, and Riko all sit down to eat, Ozen slices her large cut of meat in half and eats one of the halves in one go. In the anime for the same scene, there are also quite a few large empty plates on the table, which implies she ate the food on those too. It's not directly shown to the camera like most examples, but it's clear that she has a big appetite.
Black Eyes of Evil: Her eyes are usually half-lidded but when she puts on her Nightmare Face her eyes take on this form to emphasize how unsettling she is. In keeping with her character this trope is sometimes Played for Laughs.
Blood Knight: She enjoys fighting and gets carried away easily when she gets in the zone, like when she was trying to test Riko and Reg.
Body Horror: We get to see what's underneath her sleeves when Reg gets a good hit in. Many, many button pins dig into her flesh, making her arms resemble honeycombs. What parts that aren't covered clearly defines her sinew and tendons, and her skin is a sickly gray color. Her horn-like hairstyle also covers scars caused by extensive time spent in the Abyss's forcefield.
Boyish Short Hair: Ozen is one of the most masculine female characters in the series with her calm assertive attitude and manlike silhouette while wearing her delving gear with a preference for gender-neutral/masculine clothing. She also keeps her hair at a short length.
Break Them by Talking: There are easier and gentler ways to tell young girls they are walking corpses, Ozen.
Brutal Honesty: Ozen is not hesitant to tell someone an Awful Truth. In fact, she would twist words to make the Awful Truth even more painful to accept for kicks.
Combat Sadomasochist: An extreme example - she's addicted to sticking great big barbed, multi-pronged magical pins into herself so that she can get better at hurting people, and she occasionally forgets that she's supposed to be training or testing someone because hurting them is so much fun. While she's not anywhere near as evil as most examples of this trope, it's easy to see why she isn't exactly fondly regarded by most of the rest of the Cave Raiders.
Contralto of Strength: As the premiere representation of strength and power among all the characters, even other White Whistles, her natural register is deep and booming, but whenever she feels like emphasizing her power in an effort to scare people out of her sadistic interests, she makes it even deeper and nearly guttural to invoke an Evil Sounds Deep effect.
Curbstomp Battle: Reg is a robot with incredible strength, extendable arms, the ability to fire lasers, and supreme durability. If it weren't for said durability, Ozen would have ground the boy into fine paste.
Creepy Good: With her immense stature, her monstrous postures, her eyes that seem as empty as the Abyss, her arms gruesomely mutilated by hundreds of Amplifier Artifacts and her cruel and sadistic personality, she comes off as more of a monster of the Abyss than a human being. Despite that, she is mostly heroic, if incredibly unscrupulous, and said to be a really good mentor.
Creepy Monotone: Speaks with an unsettlingly low voice that does little to endear her to others. Put to terrifying effect when she lectures/monologues to Reg about "God"'s placement in a town like Orth.
Cyclops: Not her actual appearance, but a sliver of light is the only visible part of her head when she dons her heavy delving outfit, giving this effect. It's the pearly-white gleam from a hell of a Slasher Smile.
Dark Is Not Evil: Her color palette is virtually greyscale, she's frequently draped in dark shadows, and her personality is nasty to boot. Regardless, she's a cave raider at heart who does her job for the benefit of Orth, ultimately cares for Riko and Reg's well-being, and is implied by Marulk and the other inhabitants of the Seeker Camp to occasionally take in people who don't have anywhere else to go.
Department of Redundancy Department: Sometimes her full title is given as "The Unmovable Sovereign, Ozen the Immovable" or something similar. This is partly a translation issue, but the original Japanese phrase does describe her as both "fudou" (immovable/steadfast) and "ugokazaru" (a Sun Tzu reference meaning "immobile like a mountain").
Devilish Hair Horns: Her odd hairstyle is intentionally styled that way by Ozen to cover the scars on her scalp. It resembles horns that frame her face. It goes with her ox theme.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: There's no life in those eyes of hers, so even a regular smile makes her look humorless and off-putting.
Early-Bird Cameo: She appears briefly during Jiruo's story, as a member of the expedition sent to retrieve the Unheard Bell. She's also the one helping Lyza carry the Curse-Repelling Vessel to the surface.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She's an unusually tall and sadistic woman with very pale skin that contrasts her dark hair (well, the parts that are her head, neck, and collar bone area, at least). Even her hairstyle has streaks of white that complement the black.
Everyone Has Standards: Ozen may be an abrasive loner with a sadistic streak a mile wide who's okay with beating up children to teach them a lesson, but she'll always do the right thing in the end, and has nothing nice to say about Bondrewd.
Evil Sounds Deep: In the anime, she deliberately invokes this to hide a Hidden Heart of Gold; she slows and lowers her voice in a way that's supposed to come across as menacing, but instead sounds a little forced and silly. It's the audience's first hint that she's not quite as evil as she seems.
Fingerpoke Of Doom: Is so strong that a single flick to the forehead is enough to send Riko rolling into the other side of the room.
Good Is Not Nice: She genuinely cares about Riko and Reg and she does want them to succeed. She's just not afraid to literally beat the lesson of just how dangerous the deeper levels of the Abyss are into what she sees as two naive children in way over their heads.
Grave Robbing: Justified because of the types of people Ozen and Lyza are. Upon seeing the Everlasting Pick marking Lyza's grave in the Garden of the Flowers of Resilience, Ozen immediately dug it out for Lyza's body to make sure. There was none to be found.
Heavy Sleeper: The "Marulk's Everyday" shorts show that when she falls asleep, it's basically impossible to wake her up early, and she really exemplifies the "heavy" part and her "immovable" epithet by not budging one bit when Marulk tries to move her to her bed, no matter what he tries.
Hidden Depths: A side chapter reveals that she is an aficionado for alcohol. One of the ways to gain an audience with her is to gift her with exotic foods that would pair well with booze. She also has a sentimental side that's most prominent whenever she's reminiscing alone.
Hidden Heart of Gold: While she's a genuine sadist, it soon becomes clear that much of Ozen's unpleasantness is for show - she'll grumble and lash out, but she'll always do the right thing, regardless of its difficulty. This is particularly emphasised in the anime, where she's obviously trying to make herself seem scarier, from hunching her back to artificially lowering her voice.
Immortal Immaturity: As Reg points out, she acts rather like a schoolyard bully. Whether she's immortal is open to interpretation, but she is explicitly in her 80's, and in flashbacks to when she met Lyza 20-30 years ago, she looks exactly the same. Some combination of lack of aging and the psychological effects of the Abyss have apparently made her somewhat childish.
Implacable Man: In every way, she lives up to her title as the "Immovable Sovereign". She completely No Sells any attempt to move her with anything less than bonafide Super-Strength, as shown by how Marulk's attempts to wake her up when she passsed out at the dining table never budge her even an inch. Even when faced with another person possessing super strength like Reg, restraining attempts will just get broken through, and getting hit with enough power to be Punched Across the Room doesn't even make her lose posure, instead making her decide to stop playing around, which results in a Curb-Stomp Battle where she beats him to a pulp without even the chance to fight back. And it's implied that even then she had it easy — Nishagora fought her and told Reg that she could go way beyond that level.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: Out of her armor she has a euro-goth look, with solid black eyes, and hair stylized like horns. In her armor, she switches to what amounts to a wandering samurai hat, and brass knuckles. The first time she’s shown in her armor, it definitely distracts from the characters around as a combination of “What is that!?” and “Scariest character in the lineup.”
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ozen is not a pleasant person by any stretch of the imagination. She's callous and completely lacks a sense of tact, and Lyza outright states that her personality is irredeemable. However, she takes her job as a mentor seriously, even accepting lowlifes who wouldn't have a future anywhere else under her wing so they can become delvers. Her past accomplishments are pretty much all about saving people. She’s the closest the story has to a true legendary hero.
Human Pincushion: The secret to her inhuman strength is the Thousand Human Pins, thorn-shaped relics that bestow their user with the power of a thousand men. She has 120 collected over the years embedded into herself.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Former teacher of Lyza the Annhililator, and is now currently responsible for Marulk and a team of scouts. Amusingly, Lyza's apprentice Jiruo could have been Ozen's instead, but the young boy at the time flatly refused the offer and opted for the Annhiliator.
Mentor Archetype: An older woman with an extensive teaching career, she later takes up the role of giving Riko and Reg some quick training to better prepare against the Abyss.
Nightmare Face: She never seems to maintain a conversation without slipping into one every minute or so, especially whenever she's feeling particularly heated. She can easily shift expressions between her normal complexure, an ear-to-ear Slasher Smile, and a face fit for a wraithlike entity within heartbeats. Granted, she was just trying to intimidate Reg and Riko at the time, but even in other situations this trope makes an unexpected appearance.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Her fight against Reg has her mauling him at maximum strength. Not because she needed to though, but because his body wouldn't break no matter how hard she tried, so she ended up having too much fun.
Not Hyperbole: She warns Reg and Riko to be careful of the other White Whistles outside of Lyza, especially Bondrewd. She notes that he is nowhere near as gentle as she is. Reg wonders if Ozen was cracking a joke. She really isn't.
Odd Friendship: With the energetic and outgoing Lyza the Annhililator, who also doubles as her Only Friend. Their personalities may differ completely, but years of adventuring together within the depths of the Abyss has formed the basis for a strong bond of trust and loyalty.
Older Than She Looks: She has been a White Whistle for 50 years, but she looks like she's in her thirties, at most. She already looked like that when a young Lyza asked her to be her teacher, and Lyza is currently old enough to have a 12-year-old daughter. It's unknown whether this is due to the power of an artifact in her possession or simply from spending so much time in the Abyss.
One Degree of Separation: As the head of the Seeker Camp, she is acquainted with many expert cave raiders of Orth, including Habolg and Jiruo. She shares a personal history with Lyza, and was even her midwife when the latter was carrying Riko.
Parental Substitute: She took in Marulk after his father died. While she's not exactly warm or nurturing, she's a million times better at being a mother than Bondrewd is at being a father.
Pet the Dog: In the fourth episode of the Marulk's Daily Life shorts, despite being allergic to several gestures of affection and keeping at least most people at arm's length, Ozen gives Marulk a small, non-painful poke on the cheek after he wakes up with a tear in his eye, teasing him if he had a scary nightmare with her usual wide smile, only for her expression to falter in either surprise or concern when Marulk affirms it in seriousness. This is aside from taking in people that have nothing going on for them on the surface, including Marulk.
The Resenter: Lyza's late husband Torka is referred to as "dumb face" in her memories, which unfortunately bled a little into her view of Riko when they first meet.
Sadist: Non-malicious example. She's not nearly as monstrous as she makes herself seem, but she does genuinely enjoy hurting people, both physically and emotionally, just to make them feel what the Abyss is like.
Sadist Teacher: Ozen is a very competent one, but she's a little too fond of muttering how much she looks forward to seeing her students suffer.
Samus Is a Girl: First time readers would be forgiven for mistaking the bulky, broad-shouldered, 2-meter-tall delver carrying the Curse-Repelling Vessel for a male character. She is rather svelte without her armor.
Secret Test of Character: Her hostile and aggressive behavior towards Reg and Riko was really to meter their aptitude against the dangers of the Abyss. To make a long story short, their evaluation was insufficient.
Sink or Swim Mentor: Ozen isn't one to intentionally kill her pupils, as she says to Reg after waking him up, but she's perfectly willing to let people get in over their heads as a way of gaining a realistic understanding of their own capabilities and what they're up against. Dying outside of her intentions is free game, though. She forces Reg's hand blast at an unconscious Riko without knowing whether it's fatal or not. You either succeed and live through the 10-day survival training using everything you've learned and just the tools on your person, or you die and fail to prove you can manage against the harsh environment.
- After beating Reg, it's revealed that she was just testing them and to put into their heads that she intends to teach them, but not sparing them from the risks outside of her.
  Ozen: If you continue pushing on at your current level, you'll just end up as poor meals or little seedbeds. Other than that, you'll just be bloodstain on the ground or some wall. That said, there's no guarantee you'll end up like that as I'm trying to beat you into shape...
- Ozen also says this while viewing Riko & Reg's progress through a telescope:
  Ozen: If they die now, it just means they didn't have what it takes to go any further.
Signature Headgear: The headgear for her armor is a disc with a large brim, wide enough to obscure almost all her face from any direction. It appears to be based on some version of Japanese kasa hat, either on the jingasa infantry helmets, or the face-obscuring straw takuhatsugasa that some Buddhist monks wore.
Statuesque Stunner: Her looks are easy to appreciate, and she stands a whopping height of 230cm (7'5"-7'7").
Stealth Mentor: While normally prickly with her dark humor and name-calling, she's even more antagonistic to the protagonists initially to test Riko's resolve and Reg's effectiveness in protecting the former. They failed this first lesson. Afterall, The Power of Friendship can only go so far in a realm where practicality, strategy, tactics, and keeping a level head matter to your survival.
Super-Strength: Her claim to fame as a White Whistle is her incredible physical strength courtesy of her collection of Thousand-Man Pin artifacts. She seems to be unable to do any real damage to Reg or snap his arm cables, but it's implied that wasn't even using her full strength there despite her claims, and she went way worse on another opponent prior. However, there seems to still have a limit, as she states that she can't tear the mysterious piece of paper that the message supposedly from Lyza was written on.
Troll: Alongside her being a Sadist when fighting, Ozen in general gets major kicks out of toying with peoples' emotions and/or making them squirm, including deliberately wording the Awful Truth about Riko to be as soul-crushing as she can manage, treating Marulk accidentally tying himself up as entertainment, and setting up Marulk to run into other young boys who get flustered thinking he's a cute girl. These trollish moments are also when she puts on her heaviest Slasher Smiles, making her amusement over these uncomfortable situations especially clear.
The Unsmile: She frequently breaks out an open-mouthed grin that is too wide and doesn't reach her eyes. It's one of her more normal facial expressions, honestly.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Ozen's "fight" with Reg proves just how far the heroes are out of their depths, and it takes a crash course from her before the two could even stand a chance against the rest of the Abyss.
Willfully Weak: She held back on purpose when she fought Reg. Nishagora tells him that she could actually go worse, the implication being Nishagora fought her at full power.
World's Strongest Woman: Even among the White Whistles, she is known as the one possessing the most raw strength. Among her feats, there's lifting a gondola carrying 30 people by herself, or supporting a 10 meter large rock above her head. Habolg insists these are only "rumors," but she did carry the ridiculously heavy Curse-Repelling Vessel out of the abyss with only a little help from Lyza. With over a hundred Amplifier Artifacts stuck in her body, there is little doubt that she could do these feats with little effort - moreso, these rumors about her have been circulating for dozens of years, and her collection of Thousand Man Pins has likely grown since then, making her even stronger. Furthermore, in her Curb-Stomp Battle against Reg, she actually had it easy — Nishagora fought her full-force and describes to Reg that it's nothing like the brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against him (that he compared to be on Ozen's level).
Would Hurt a Child: Oh yes, she would. It's something to note that she does hold back when it comes to normal kids, resorting to just painful flicks to the forehead and the like, but against Reg (who for all intents and purposes is a child too), she's merciless.

Bondrewd the Novel (Unmarked Idofront Arc Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bondrewd_the_novel.png

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), David Harbold (English)

Ten years ago, a single delver did the unprecendented by establishing a base deep within the Fifth Layer called the Idofront. A wanted criminal, a black market dealer, and a proponent for human experimentation, every bounty hunter who came for his head inexplicably vanished. Those who have met him suspect him to be a thing masquerading as human. Unfortunately for Riko's party, the only way through to the Sixth Layer is through the Idofront and a fateful encounter with him...

His White Whistle is sculpted into the shape of two hands clasped together in prayer.

Affably Evil: To ridiculous degrees. He never gets mad at the heroes for anything they do against him, up to destroying his research and base. He is ceaselessly cheerful and polite to them, no matter what atrocities he commits, or how violently he fights.
Anthropomorphic Personification: In many ways, he is the Abyss. Welcoming if slightly ominous at first, then cold, murderous, predatory, and worst of all, almost inescapable once he has you in his clutches.
Archnemesis Dad: He was a father-figure to Nanachi, but while he genuinely viewed them as a perfect protege, Nanachi hates his guts and wanted nothing less than to crush his ambitions for all the children he mutilated through his experiments.
Arc Villain: He's the designated antagonistic force during the Fifth Layer/Idofront Arc.
Badass Bookworm: He excels in the camp of science, having made lots of discoveries and experiments that have helped other delvers during their travels through the Abyss. However, just being smart and good at science isn't enough to survive in the dangerous environment of the Abyss, let alone being a White Whistle. For that, Bondrewd knows to put the many artifacts and relics he owns to good use and is one hell of a fighter, especially while using particularly strong bodies.
Badass Longcoat: His usual attire includes a black trenchcoat-labcoat fusion, which invokes Labcoat of Science and Medicine for his Mad Scientist status and encapsulates his dramatic Evil Is Hammy nature for how it often billows in a Dramatic Wind to emphasize his grandiose image.
Baddie Flattery: The guy just never stops complimenting the heroes for coming up with plans to fight and beat him, even as his body's horrifically mutating from the Curse of the Abyss.
Beneath the Mask: Played with. It's hinted during the story that Bondrewd is a remorseless individual who just tries to fake having emotions with uncanny results. By the end of his arc, however, it's made pretty clear that he does care about the people he hurts and he sincerely believes the sacrifices he is pulling are worth it. His love for Prushka, Nanachi and all of the children he tortured and experimented on in order to further his goals seems to be entirely genuine.
Big Bad: As the Arc Villain for the Fifth Layer Arc, since said arc gets adapted in its entirety through the Dawn of the Deep Soul movie, that means he also acts as the overall antagonist of the film.
Blade Below the Shoulder: "Sparagmos", an unknown grade relic that he equips to his elbows. It emits a blade of light that cuts and burns, disintegrating anything in its path.
Blood Knight: Surprisingly so, even if it's rather Downplayed, but when Reg accidentally activates a Superpowered Evil Side, Bondrewd's reaction is to get pumped up and express regret for cutting off one of Reg's arms and limiting his fighting ability. It's an extension of his scientific curiosity - he likes learning new things even in combat.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: For all his atrocities, Bondrewd genuinely loves and cares for everyone who came into his sights. He's just completely different in the way he sees and expresses this love, much like Grandfather Nurgle or Desty Nova. In short, he has developed a mentality so fixated on exploring the Abyss that he sees any kind of contribution to such exploration as a beautiful achievement and the greatest thing one can accomplish in life, no matter how horrific they may seem to an average person. Considering that his first instinct upon discovering a machine that let him make Body Backup Drives was to use himself as Human Resources, it seems he was already like this even before he splintered his soul in the Zoaholic, and doing that probably didn't help whatever sanity he may have had.
Body Backup Drive: Every Umbra Hand under his employment contains a piece of his mind and soul. Kill one, and he'll just possess another.
Body Surf: Thanks to the relic Zoaholic, Soul-Slave Machine, he is able to share his conciousness through different individuals, making him pretty much completely immortal.
Calling Your Attacks: As somebody who embraces the spectacle of the Abyss, whether because of voice-activation or just stylishness, every time he uses a relic he shouts its name.
Climax Boss: He is the last obstacle the heroes and Srajo's fleet must overcome before entering the Sixth Layer, marking the beginning of a new adventure into completely alien territory.
Combat Tentacles: One of his relics, "Touching The Moon", functions like this. It's actually a native creature of the Abyss, just packed into a portable casing and weaponized.
Cool Helmet: Look at it and say that it isn't. It can even shoot lasers.
Disposable Vagrant: Children are not the only things that can end up on Bondrewd's experiment table. At one point, Srajo's fleet ran into him and Bondrewd proposes to experiment on her crewmen because he noticed that they are "Juusou", people who should be tossed outside upon birth. Srajo obviously doesn't let him get his way and tells her crewmen to prepare to fight.
Due to the Dead: When the heroes enter the elevator that will take them to the sixth layer, they discover Bondrewd has burnt funerary incense on the altar. Who he is mourning for exactly is left up to the audience's interpretation.
Energy Weapon: He has two of them:
- Sparagmos, Origin-Guiding Light, allows him to fire pinpoint lasers by aiming with his elbow, and its destructive capacity is on par with Reg's Incinerator.
- Gangway, Ascension To The Morning Star, is a relic built into his helmet. He can emit beams of light from the visor that shoot at erratic angles and bounce harmlessly off obstacles until they hit the intended target.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played for Horror. If Prushka's memories are correct, his comments on his cartridges, and his parting words to Nanachi are anything to go by, he can and does feel love, and honestly treats the kids as his own children. He just doesn't see why "love" and "his own children" would have anything to do with NOT putting them under horrendous experimentation and processing. How he genuinely cared for these children and still used them like coal or fuel anyways is not considered an admirable trait nor to emphasize his evil, it's one of the reasons why he's so disturbing and alien.
Even Evil Has Standards: Played with. The purpose of his research is to minimise the human suffering necessary to explore the Abyss by refining and industrialising the necessary sacrifices. Problem is that this still means that he's responsible for vast amounts of nightmarish cruelty in pursuit of a highly questionable goal.
Evil Is Hammy: As a prominent example of a Mad Scientist, he naturally has a strong flair for the dramatic, mostly through him being a Cold Ham by calmly espousing flowery and bombastic speeches, but he also likes giving elaborate and bizarre names to his personally-excavated relics, and when fighting he starts edging into being a Large Ham by getting louder and engaging in Milking the Giant Cow through his posing.
Evil Sounds Deep: His Japanese voice is deep and booming yet constrained, demonstrating his methodical yet ruthless pursuit of science and skilled badassery.
Family of Choice: Lectures Nanachi about this trope when the latter dismisses his claim of Prushka being his daughter.
"Is what they call 'family' restricted only to those related by blood? I do not believe that to be so. Families are built by strangers who cross paths and come together. Having souls that love each other is what makes people family. Blood just helps in that regard."
Foil: To Ozen the Immovable, another White Whistle. Ozen is a intensely eerie and disquieting, unscrupulous and terse woman who loves hurting people physically and emotionally and sticking barbed pins into her body. Despite all this, she is one of the closest things to a Big Good in the Abyss, and she does her best to prepare the heroes for what's ahead of them. Bondrewd is an affable, charismatic and loving man... who is probably one of the most nightmarish denizens of the abyss to date.
For Science!: His entire motivation is furthering scientific progress, especially in regard to learning about and conquering the dangers of the Abyss, and unfortunately for everybody around him, he's The Unfettered in regard to how far he's willing to go for his "work".
Gadgeteer Genius: Most of his personal relics had been modified from their original iterations to be better suited for portability and combat.
Graceful Loser: Once defeated and with his plans pretty much entirely crushed, he still takes time to congratulate the heroes since that means their drive was simply better than his. He states his new drive is to watch them succeed.
Hellish Pupils: A single eye is all that is revealed underneath the outfit of his strongest incarnation. It's a wide-open Mad Eye already, but then the damn thing blinks open to reveal an inner layer of multiple pupils. Later on, those pupils sprout individual tendrils.
Heroic Sacrifice: After discovering an artifact that let him become a Hive Mind, the first thing he did was try using himself as fuel for the Human Resources needed for Abyss exploration. Unfortunately, once he sacrificed his original body to make his White Whistle, he discovered that the Abyss no longer recognized him as sufficiently human enough to create more, and he had to resort to vastly less ethical measures.
Hive Mind: Those who come in physical contact with the Soul-Slave Machine have a piece of Bondrewd's consciousness implanted into their minds. He can focus onto a single body to fully possess it and call it his own, relay and receive information, and give out commands. Some people like Gueira retain more of their individuality, while others like the failed Umbra Hands have their minds destroyed, leaving behind lumbering husks. However, he can only control one person at a time, and a Zoaholic-affected individual can choose to refrain from sending Bondrewd learned information.
Humanoid Abomination: Fellow delvers can easily tell there's something wrong with this guy. He isn't even confined to a human form anymore, being a mass of consciousness flitting between his Umbra Hands. Meanwhile, his strongest body's status as a human is... questionable, at best. We only ever see one of its eyes, but that alone is enough to qualify as an eldritch nightmare.
Invincible Villain: Bondrewd is virtually unkillable due to his Body Surf abilities and there's no way to stop him from committing more depraved experiments at all. The only way out from him is for him to let you go, and even then, it's only as much as a brief pushback for him.
Ironic Juxtaposition: Subverted. The only way to obtain a genuine White Whistle is through Human Sacrifice, but he decided to sacrifice his own body for his whistle, turning his consciousness into a Hive Mind. Such an act of self-sacrifice means that he is the most virtuous and selfless of the White Whistles, but the inhuman experiments he conducted on the children he clearly cared for makes him seem like the contrary. Turns out he just played "selflessness" to its most logical extremes and renounced his humanity entirely for a greater good, with all that entails.
Karma Houdini: The second time he's defeated, Riko's party think he's done for good and dive into the Sixth Layer as he watches, leaving him free to continue his awful experiments as he pleases.
Knight of Cerebus: The story was already becoming more overt with its dark undertones, but it's Bondrewd's horrific human experiments that define how grim this series can really be. On top of taking Body Horror and Human Resources to an absolutely insane level, Bondrewd is also a significantly worse threat than Ozen to Riko's party, especially when he has no intention to hold back and it's implied that they only stood a chance against him because he was heavily battered by Srajo's delver fleet before they ran into him.
Kick the Morality Pet: He seems to legitimately love Prushka, his daughter but later on turns her into a cartridge. It gets even worse once you realise that he genuinely doesn't understand why what he's doing is wrong.
Lack of Empathy: Oddly subverted. He certainly behaves to all of his victims like he's unable to comprehend the feelings of others. He does and can, but he doesn't see why his awful experiments are wrong.
Light Is Not Good: The Sovereign of Dawn sports a helmet emitting bright light (all incarnations of him), waxes poetic about the future and supposed beginning of an event occurring every 2,000 years, and possesses many artifacts and light-themed attacks that he names after lights in the sky. Yet, he's a Humanoid Abomination totally incomprehensible to the human morality, and consequentially he has no qualms experimenting with children because he just can't see why it's totally wrong.
Loophole Abuse: Normally, to create the life-reverberating stone needed to craft a White Whistle, someone utterly devoted to a delver has to die, devoting all their thoughts to them as they pass. Bondrewd got around this by using the Soul-Slave Machine, sacrificing his original body to create a stone, and then living on through the bodies of the Umbra Hands.
Mad Scientist: With more focus on "Scientist" and less on "Mad". More like "completely alien".
Malevolent Masked Man: Always wears his signature mask to identify himself.
Manipulative Bastard: Regardless of opinions on the subject, including Bondrewd's himself, Prushka's love for him had been planned from the very start. Reg, Riko, and Nanachi's first fight against him and his special magic trick was a golden opportunity to solidify Prushka's loyalty and desire to protect him.
Meaningful Name: "Sparagmos" is the Ancient Greek rite of cutting apart and dismembering a sacrifice to be offered to the gods. A fitting name for what the weapon does, and for Bondrewd's purpose in life.
Metaphorically True: When Nanachi expresses disbelief at the idea that he is Prushka's father, he initially attempts to brush the question off by stating they are "distantly related by blood." It's later shown in a flashback that Prushka was born the daughter of one of the Umbra Hands.
Necessarily Evil: Played with. His entire goal is to make sure that the Abyss's curse and its lethal flora and fauna kill as few explorers as possible, and to minimise the suffering caused to those who are sacrificed, and the story presents a reasonable argument that what he does is more humane than how people used to protect themselves from the Abyss. The problem is that this still amounts to wasting thousands of innocent lives in horrific ways so that people can poke around a big nasty hole in the ground.
Never Bareheaded: You'll never catch him without his Cool Helmet on, because he wears it to hide that he's been Body Surfing.
One-Eyed Shot: The only opportunity to see what is under the helmet, which is more than enough to express Bondrewd's insanity. The final eye shot has him possessing another body to watch over the heroes as they head for their Last Dive. It's an astoundingly gentle and tender expression.
The One Guy: He's the only confirmed male White Whistle.
Obviously Evil: Played With. His Badass Longcoat and the armor he wears make it very clear this guy is bad news the moment you see him on a page. His cruel experiments, especially on masses of children, don't help his case, either. However, the person beneath essentially runs on Blue-and-Orange Morality and is too alien to be considered even evil.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: His solution to avoiding the Curse of the Abyss is to take orphan children with no history or family to call their own, cut and strip away all the "unnecessary parts" like the skin, limbs, skeletal system, eyes, etc. while leaving behind the nervous system and certain other organs (because the Curse needs something to affect), and pack the still-living results into cartridges filled with drugs to manipulate feelings of pain, fear, and ecstasy.
Prehensile Tail: One of the many notable physical features on his body is a lizard-like tail. It's ambiguous as to whether it is a part of his armor, "Canopy Unto Dawn", or a part of his actual body. His transformation into a Hollow implies the latter case, as it notably gained similar features as the rest of him from the process.
Reminiscing About Your Victims: When his first cartridge runs out, he tells Reg that box used to be Reshma, a kind-hearted girl who wanted to become a princess. Turns out he remembers the names and quirks of every single one of the kids he has used.
Seeing Through Another's Eyes: He can view through Nanachi's line of sight somehow, but it requires him to focus his attention, and he can't hear whatever Nanachi hears or says.
So Proud of You: Bondrewd is overjoyed that Nanachi's companions managed to best him, wholeheartedly believing their collective abilities and solution of descending down the Abyss are superior to his own. In addition, he tells Nanachi how happy he is to have met them and gives his blessing. Nanachi is put off, but their regard for the man has markedly softened ever since.
The Unfettered: Everything he's done and sacrificed was all for the discovery of the mechanisms behind the Curse of the Abyss, and hopefully an easily-reproducible and efficient method to avert it. If it means giving up a daughter he's loved for years to further his goals, then so be it.
The Unreveal: We never get to see what's under the helmet. Fitting, since the Bondrewd we know is not even the real body of his. By the point the main characters meet him, Bondrewd is just a soul that can travel to other Zoaholic-infected bodies freely if killed, so he uses the mask as a way to identify himself.
Voices Are Mental: He retains the same voice no matter which Umbra Hand he is possessing at the moment. Given that he is only seen possessing Umbra Hands while they are wearing his signature helmet, it is possible that the helmet is warping their voices to give them the sound we hear in the anime.
Was Once a Man: A mixture of abusing relics, experimentation, and simply living in the lowest Layer permittable for a White Whistle for years has transformed him into something that can't exactly be called a human.
Walking Armory: The sheer number of relics this guy has on his strongest body is mind-boggling. There's "Sparagmos", "Canopy Unto Dawn", "Touching The Moon", "Shaker", and "Ascending to the Morning Star".
Well-Intentioned Extremist: From his perspective, everything he does and works toward is to stem the horrors of the Abyss spreading through the upper layers unchecked, and for human explorers to prevent or at the very least mitigate the curse of the Abyss into a blessing instead, no matter the cost.
What the Hell Are You?: Reg asks him this when he, Riko and Nanachi witness the true extent of Bondrewd's powers after apparently killing him just a moment ago.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Zoaholic tears his mind apart just as much as it grants him the ability to Body Surf and maintain a Body Backup Drive. It's a testament to his willpower that he still remains... driven, but that makes him no less terrifying. It's implied the piece of his soul sealed in his White Whistle helps him maintain his sense of self.
Worf Had the Flu: It's implied that before Riko and Reg ran into him, he was recovering from a full-scale confrontation against Srajo's entire fleet that he lost to. Had that fight not happened prior, the two wouldn't have won.
Would Hurt a Child: Human experimentation is his specialty and he's not limited to experimenting on children, but orphan children just happen to have the least red tape attached to them. His cartridges are built on this, containing just enough of a child's biological functions to keep them alive and conscious while removing all of their pesky organs and limbs and cramming the kid into a case the size of a textbook so they'll take the curse of the Abyss in his place. His servants also attempt to dissect Reg, cutting off his arm and collecting his urine in a tube. Then there's his experiments to create Hollows...
You Shall Not Pass!: He told Srajo that her fleet cannot go to the 6th layer until she signs an application to the surface world Delver's Guild and waits a week. Then he decides to experiment on some of her crewmates, so she ordered her entire crew to beat him.

Srajo the Mysterious

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/srajo.PNG

Leader of the Hail Hex corp, currently stationned near the bottom of the Sixth Layer. She plans to dive into the Seventh Layer when she meets Riko and her gang.

Animal Motifs: With her delver outfit having a plague doctor's crow-like mask and her whistle having the shape of a feathery winged creature, she has an association with birds going on.
Creepy Souvenir: Dozens of whistles of various designs and ranks hang around her neck. It is not yet clear if these once belonged to compatriots, rivals, victims, or some combination of the three.
Devilish Hair Horns: She has several prominent strands of pointy hair that look both like horns and a high collar. While she doesn’t show any wicked traits in her introduction, the first shot of her in front of a boiling pot makes her look like some kind of demon overlord or a witch brewing something in her cauldron.
Friend to All Living Things: She has a shoulder pet and Meinia instantly takes a liking to her, impling she’s pretty good at taming small Abyss creatures.
The Lad-ette: In Japanese, she uses the personal pronoun "Ore", which is very masculine and informal personal pronoun that is almost never used by women. She's also a hothead who trash-talks Bondrewd and his minions on first sight, and rallies the Hail Hex for combat after he announces plans to experiment on her fleet.
A Mother to Her Men: Her entire fleet is consisted of people Bondrewd called "Juusou", outcasts that should be thrown away upon birth. When Bondrewd expresses a desire to experiment with them, she does not let him get his way and instantly tells her fleet to prepare for a fight.
Samus Is a Girl: Up to Chapter 63.5 of the manga, the only depictions of Srajo had her covered head-to-toe in flowing black robes, with a three-eyed plague doctor's mask covering her face. That, along with a somewhat masculine-sounding name, gives the first impression that she is male.
Status Buff: Her White Whistle can transform her crewmates, which she uses to grant Nishagora a power that Reg describes as equal to Ozen when she got serious.
Supreme Chef: The first thing the protagonists notice when approaching the Hail Hex outpost is how delicious the cooking smells. Srajo was known to be the dedicated cook of Idofront too.
You Monster!: After Bondrewd expresses a desire to experiment on some Hail Hex members, she calls Bondrewd "a monster with an insatiable curiosity" prior to engaging combat with him alongside her fleet.

Orth

Belchero Orphanage

An orphanage in Orth operating under a dour Director and enforced by Moon Whistle Jiruo. Functioning more like a boarding school than an actual orphanage, children who've lost their parents to the Abyss are raised, educated, and disciplined as Bells and Red Whistles. The kids are assigned regular expeditions into the First Layer to hunt for relics, good experience for when they grow up and tackle deeper and more dangerous regions of the pit.

Anger Born of Worry: Nat comes to blows with Riko and engages in a shouting match when she declares that she'll be heading down to the Abyss to chase after her mother. He even blurts out that Lyza is likely dead, having been gone for ten whole years inside the pit. Understandably, he just doesn't want to see Riko go and disappear forever from the surface world, as the Curse of the Abyss will forever separate her from home.
Bad Liar: When Riko accuses Nat of peeking at her while she was strung up naked for punishment, he vehemently denies it, only to immediately protest that she has nothing to worry about since he's not interested in girls who haven't even started growing body hair yet.
Cannot Spit It Out: Nat's crush on Riko is as obvious as Reg's, but he can't bring himself to confess his feelings.
Covert Pervert: Nat is not above sneaking peeks at Riko during the several times she's been hung naked as punishment.
Dean Bitterman: The Director's monochrome color scheme and sour expression certainly leads to this conclusion, and she's the one who oversaw Riko's punishment when the poor girl was hanging naked (apparently a traditional form of discipline in Orth).
Heartwarming Orphan: Every child introduced in the story is pursuing a goal and/or cute enough to hug; Shiggy, Kiyui, Riko, and especially Nat.
The Lancer: Nat was this to Riko before her departure. He's a talented delver himself, and is usually the one contrasting Riko's opinions and fantasies with his choice of snark.
Mr. Exposition: Shiggy is the one who doles out the general need-to-know information on the Abyss, as well as pulling out charts detailing the Abyss landscape.
Orphanage of Fear: Downplayed. The kids are terrified of both Director and Jiruo, they have to work to keep the orphanage funded, and it's hinted that the whole place was once a building with an unsavory background (Riko's room/former execution chamber being a prime example). However, the children aren't left wanting, they get an education and a career path to follow, and even their fear of the orphanage's leaders stem out of their strict enforcement of rules rather than sadism.
The Smart Guy: Shiggy is the most obviously intelligent of Riko's band of friends, and thinks up several strategies when it comes to avoiding the watchful eyes of the Director and Jiruo. It is also suggested by Jiruo that he's the one who jury-rigged Riko's electric chair back into working order.
Street Urchin: Nat was revealed to be a former street rat, having spent most of his life in the slums until his sister died and he was taken in by the Belchero Orphanage. Reg's fabricated backstory he tells to Jiruo was essentially Nat's own.
Token Mini-Moe: Kiyui is the youngest out of all the shown orphans, practically a toddler. As a Bell, he still has a couple years left to go before he can join the rest of the kids on their spelunking trips.

Jiruo

Voiced by: Taishi Murata (Japanese), Daniel Regojo (English)

The young instructor and overseer of the Belchero Orphanage. He holds the title of "Moon Whistle", which is one step beneath the elite Black Whistles and grants him responsibility for training apprentice delvers. He also happens to be the apprentice to Lyza the Annhililator, who assigned him the task of keeping an eye on her daughter Riko.

Dope Slap: Has a variant where he slaps someone on the head with a palm and gives it a good grip. Riko is the most frequent victim of this.
Hyper-Awareness: He often allows Riko and friends to think they've duped him, but he's always two steps ahead of them. Aside from knowing Reg and Riko were making a break for the Abyss the whole time, it is heavily implied he connected the dots between Reg's appearance, his mysterious mechanical limbs, and Riko's rescue from the giant monster right from the very moment the boy showed up at the orphanage's doorstep.
Metaphorically True: He cheers Riko up with a story about her mother's expedition to find the Unheard Bell, telling how Lyza chose to exhaust herself and risk losing her reputation, her decimated survey team, and her own life just to ensure Riko's survival and future. He's being honest for the most part, only omitting the fact that Lyza quickly returned to the Abyss afterwards and wiped out the opposition before retrieving the Bell, which would have undermined the message. He also doesn't mention the true nature of the Curse-Warding Box Riko was carried in, but it's unclear if he was actually aware of it.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Was the former apprentice to White Whistle Lyza, and is now instructing orphans to become fine cave raiders themselves, including Lyza's daughter Riko.
Only Known By His Nickname: No one calls him by his name in the anime adaptation, except Lyza and Ozen in flashbacks; the kids all call him "Leader." The only time he's referred to by name is when Reg asks a cave raider they meet to give him a message.
Parental Substitute: Although Jiruo is only older than the rest of the orphans by a few years, the kids regard him as a father figure. He's this to Riko especially, since her mother Lyza entrusted him with Riko's care.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Jiruo did not immediately shut down Riko's requests to be assigned to deeper layers, instead offering to consider them if she achieved the highest evaluation in a single excavation. He also gives her a much-needed pep talk when she was ruminating during her mother's Resurrection Festival.
Secret Test of Character: He lets Riko and Reg escape the orphanage on purpose, slipping in a note with Lyza's documents warning the two he will chase them down and punish them thoroughly before they make it to the Second Layer. He's fully aware they will only try again if he successfully captures them, but at least they will stay safe in Orth for a little longer, maybe even improve their spelunking skills in the meantime. If he fails, then he has no choice but to concede to Riko's (and Lyza's) wishes.
Stern Teacher: He's quick to track down and reprimand troublemakers, especially considering the usual suspect of shenanigans within the orphanage is Riko.
The Stoic: Hardly ever smiles. His expressions never fluctuates much from his light scowl, mirroring his controlled tone whenever he speaks.

Habolg

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada (Japanese), John Swasey (English)

A stocky man who carries the title of "Black Whistle", he is an elite Abyss delver and seasoned veteran whom the children of Belchero Orphanage look up to. Even being somewhat advanced in age, he strives towards being promoted and joining the ranks of White Whistles, and has met many of them personally thanks to his position.

The Ace: Though not a White Whistle, he is apparently considered the next best thing, even among the Black Whistles. When all of the White Whistles were unavailable, he was selected to be the leader of a massive delve operation, involving nearly all the delvers in Orth. This is apparently due to his talents in leadership and people-management, as well as experience and skill in delving.
Acrofatic: He is surprisingly agile for his size, catching up to Riko and Reg in no time even though they had hours of progress to their advantage.
Admiring the Abomination: Always having fun whenever he's discussing a White Whistle's exploits. Considering that many White Whistles carry well-deserved reputations as The Dreaded, his delighted gushing comes off as this trope.
Affectionate Nickname: The kids from the orphanage call him "Habo".
Always Second Best: Downplayed. Habo is the first Black Whistle introduced and he helps fill the audience in on the White Whistles and their accomplishments. He wants to become one and keeps throwing himself into Cave Raiding so he can one day rise to their level.
Cool Old Guy: A jovial middle-aged man who is a competent cave raider, looks after the kids in Belchero Orphanage, and is utterly respectful of their choices.
Happily Married: To Laffi, although she's exasperated with his efforts for a promotion.
Honorary Uncle: Him and his wife Laffi are seen as the adoptive Cool Uncle and Cool Aunt to every child in the orphanage, in contrast to Jiruo's aloof and stern yet fair adoptive father/big brother role.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: His wife Laffi is of average height, but he is so tall and stocky he makes her look like a young girl by comparison.
The Knights Who Say "Squee!": A Black Whistle himself, Habolg is a big fan of the White Whistles. He also practically leaps out of bed at the opportunity to meet Reg the moment Nat and Shiggy tells him the boy is a Treasure of the Abyss.
Mr. Exposition: He reveals some of the customs held by Orth's cave raiders. Additionally, he is a White Whistle enthusiast who memorized the details and rumors surrounding them. Whenever a White Whistle needs an introduction, the story would cut to him in his house as he describes that White Whistle's background and accomplishments to children.
Parental Substitute: Serves as this alongside with Jiruo to Riko and the rest of the orphans, treating them like his own children. A flashback suggests many of the teachings and beliefs held by Riko had been passed down directly from him. When Riko denies his offer to help them down the Second Layer so she and Reg can pass Leader's "final test" by escaping on their own, he behaves throughout the whole affair like a father giving his son and daughter a last farewell.
Real Men Wear Pink: A robust man who wears a cute set of pajamas and matching hat to bed.
The Storyteller: Nat and Shiggy often go to his place to hear his stories about the Abyss and the White Whistles.
Stout Strength: He looks portly and has a gut, but one doesn't become a Black Whistle by being out of shape.

Seeker Camp

Marulk

Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (Japanese), Kelley Peters (English)

Ozen's assistant at the Seeker Camp. He (yes, he) essentially lives there because the Abyss has made his skin extremely sensitive to sunlight. Marulk is demure and extremely polite, a sharp contrast to his callous master and teacher.

All There in the Manual: The Volume 9 extras strongly imply he is part of the royal lineage of Jisweku, a foreign land in the far west. The "Children of the Shadows" are occasionally born to said royal family, and are susceptible to the sun, much like Marulk. This would mean his condition is genetic rather then a result of exposure to the Abyss.
Curtains Match the Windows: His innocence-denoting blue eyes are complemented with hair that is also blue in color.
The Cutie: Practically everything about him is designed to exude an adorably innocent and lovable aura, including his frilly maid outfit, his friendly personality, and his gentle voice in the anime.
A Day in the Limelight: The "Marulk's Everyday" OVA shorts that prefaced the third movie are all about him going throughout his days dealing with Ozen and the Seeker Camp.
Disappeared Dad: Before he was found by Ozen, he was part of an expedition team with his father. After running into various monsters of the Abyss, his father was killed and eaten by them.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Whenever he meets characters that don't already know him, their first impression is to think he's a girl. The only reason Reg figured it out without being told was because of his keen sense of smell, while people like Nat get flustered interacting with who they believe is a cute girl.
Dragged into Drag: It's implied that the reason for his crossdressing is because Ozen gets some amusement out of making him wear feminine clothing, since his natural Dude Looks Like a Lady appearance compliments them and Ozen views people mistaking him for a girl as hilarious.
Improbable Age: Normally, someone as young as Marulk wouldn't be allowed to become a Blue Whistle and stay at the Seeker Camp. They made an exception for him because he fell into the second layer in a spelunking accident, and then Ozen took him under her wing.
Innocent Blue Eyes: He has clear blue eyes, and he's a kind and polite kid who's completely oblivious when it comes to things like love and lust.
Meaningful Name: It may or may not be accidental but "Marulk" is Swedish for "angler fish", which would be a fitting name for someone serving as a guiding light in the dark depths.
Meido: He usually dresses like one, with a frilly headband and a puffy skirt with an apron. His duties also include keeping the Seeker Camp clean and tidy, welcoming Ozen's guests, lowering the elevator for them, and guiding them through the Seeker Camp.
Nice Guy: Marulk is one of the manga's kindest characters and tries to be as helpful as possible when Reg and Riko visit the Camp.
Oblivious to Love: He is completely clueless about the effect his girly crossdressing appearance can have on boys going through puberty such as Nat, especially when he gets closer to them or acts his normal cheerfully cute self, expressing confusion at why Nat was acting weirdly about talking to him, or why Nat got jumpy after falling on top of him.
Oh, Crap!: Has one that’s heart wrenching to watch when Ozen proceeds to curb stomp Reg, after implying it's a fight to the death.
Parasol of Prettiness: When he goes up to the surface and needs a way to avoid the sun, he carries a big and frilly parasol that combines with his usual Meido outfit to give him an especially prominent case of an adorably girly, daintily innocent image.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Marulk is a tiny dude in a dress, and Ozen is a female power house with a “I will break you” attitude.
Weakened by the Light: He normally doesn't come up from the 2nd layer to the surface due to being very sensitive to light. Whenever he does come up while going along for Ozen's errands, he carries a large parasol to block out the sun.
Wholesome Crossdresser: He dresses like a girl, and he is one of the sweetest people you'll meet in the Abyss.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's apparently utterly horrified by bugs, as seeing an entire swarm of them come out while trying to clean his fellow Seeker Camp raider Simred's room caused him to scream in terror, followed by taking a cold shower while wearing a look of sheer trauma.

Idofront

The Umbra Hands

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bondrewd_and_his_umbra_hands.jpg

Bondrewd's servants. They perform various tasks for him, from collecting samples in the field to menial labor and even combat.

All There in the Manual: Since they show little personality in the manga, additional data about the Umbra Hands has come from facts revealed by Tsukushi in outside sources, like Twitter or interviews. Some of them include:
- The old Black Whistle Reg saved from the Orb Piercer in the 4th layer is one of the Hands, and he was taking his day off (hence why he didn’t have the Umbra Hand outfit). He later appears with Gallice and another two Hands in Cravagli’s side story in the manga.
- Some of the names of the many unnamed Hands have been revealed by Tsukushi on Twitter. The one with the tail relic who Bondrewd possesses in the Idofront arc is named Bido, while the one with four arms who handles the Zoaholic is named Suumama. Other names Tsukushi gave are Rabbiak, Joho, Eika, Jenien, Tomanna and Bora.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Umbra Hands specifically designated for fighting are identified by the white coats they wear, as seen with Gallice and Bido.
Cool Helmet: Face-obscuring helmets that are unique to each individual, and equipped with varying amounts of optical gear and/or Tron Lines.
Elite Mooks: Each one holds the rank of Black Whistle, but a few Umbra Hands take it further by being armed to the teeth with relics and toting special backpacks around. They are the ones Bondrewd possesses when he's rearing for a fight.
Faceless Goons: Though each Hand has a distinctive mask, they still act most of the time as a force acting according to Bondrewd’s desires (especially when Bondrewd takes over their bodies) and show little individuality except with some exceptions like Gueira. Only a few of them have been shown without the mask.
Malevolent Masked Men: All of them wear sinister-looking masks that conceal their entire faces, and they help their master with his inhumane experiments.
Possession Burnout: Umbra Hands subjected to the Zoaholic's effects with inadequate aptitude cannot take the strain and become little more than mindless zombies. Whenever this happens, Bondrewd sends them to the lower levels of Idofront to perform repetitive, menial tasks.

Gueira

Voiced by: Shinji Kawada (Japanese)

An Umbra Hand who acts as Prushka’s caretaker when Bondrewd isn’t around, also being one of the assistants of the White Whistle.

Affably Evil: While evil may be a stretch, he’s a subordinate from Bondrewd, thus an antagonist for Riko and his friends. He nonetheless is shown as polite and caring with Prushka.
Cruel and Unusual Death: He’s skewered to death by the stingerheads after being lured into a trap by Riko’s group.
Honorary Uncle: Is this for Prushka, as, having been her caretaker for most of her life, he’s like an uncle figure to her.
Mercy Kill: Suggested to do this with a very young Prushka when she got hit by the curse of the Abyss and got insane due to the mental and physical damage she suffered, arguing it would be more merciful to end her suffering quickly. Bondrewd’s decision to adopt Prushka put an end to that idea, however.
Mook Promotion: He plays a prominent role in Prushka's flashback chapter, playing with her and looking after her whenever Bondrewd is busy. Attentive readers might have noticed that he was among the ones that got gored to death by the stingerheads.

Gallice

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gyarike_the_first_encountered_umbra_hand.png

^{Without delver attire}

Voiced by: Yoshimitsu Shimoyama (Japanese)

The first of the Umbra Hands that Riko, Reg and Nanachi officially meet in their journey to the 5th layer. Especially trained for combat, he’s a professional and stoic individual whom Bondrewd usually task for important missions.

The Ace: He may be the one for the Umbra Hands. Other delvers recognize him above the other men working for Bondrewd, he’s charged with important missions, is one of the Hands wearing a white coat and Word of God says he’s a formidable opponent.
Affably Evil: Again, not really evil as much as a subordinate from Bondrewd, but he nonetheless treats Reg politely during their conversation about the Amaranthine-Deceptors, and obediently obeys Habolg during the 2nd layer investigation.
Deus Exit Machina: An antagonistic example. Because he was occupied with his task of eliminating the Amaranthine-Deceptors that made their nest in the 4th layer, he was absent from the events pitting Riko’s group against Bondrewd’s forces. Word of God confirmed that our heroes were lucky that Gallice wasn’t present in Idofront, implying he’s a very dangerous opponent.
The Dragon: Implied to be Bondrewd’s second in command, as well as one of his strongest men, being employed for important missions such as the elimination of the Amaranthine-Deceptors that invaded the 4th layer or the discovery of a new section of the 2nd layer.
Elite Mook: As an Umbra hand wearing a white coat, he’s trained to fight and is armed with powerful relics. In his case, commentary made by Akihito Tsukushi about the 3rd movie implies he may be one one of the strongest, if not the strongest, of the Umbra Hands.
Kill It with Fire: He carries with him a flamethrower relic that has garnered him the nickname “Ashen”. He uses it to burn the nest the Amaranthine-Deceptors made in the 4th layer, but from what Cravagli and Tepaste comment about him in the Tumble Tavern, he’s infamous for his usage of the relic.
Mercy Kill: Does this to the poor delvers who fell prey to the Amaranthine-Deceptors and were being kept alive as a storeroom for their larvae, burning their bodies with his flamethrower to put an end to their misery, as it was too late for them.
Mook Promotion: Initially introduced as a random Umbra Hand, he turns out to be a famous figure among other delvers and a trusted man of Bondrewd, playing a role in the investigation of the sudden reveal of a new zone in the lowest point of the Inverted Forest in the 2nd layer as the lead strategist.
Pyromaniac: Not outright stated, but Cravagli derisively calls him an arsonist, implying he may enjoy the carnage he inflicts with his fire. Gallice’s stoic nature makes this hard to confirm.
Red Baron: He’s known by other Delvers as “Gallice of Ashes” due to his signature flamethrower.
Sinister Schnoz: Outside of his cave raider attire, he’s shown to have a curved, aquiline nose, which helps to make him more intimidating.
The Stoic: He speaks in a monotone and barely raises his voice while talking, which makes him come across as a professional, emotionless man.
The Strategist: Is appointed as the lead strategist of the delver team tasked to investigate the sudden appearance of a huge hole in the 2nd layer which revealed lots of rare artifacts.

Rimeyo

Another of Bondrewd's combat specialists. Bondrewd sent her down into the lower layers with Neyozel in hopes of apprehending Srajo and potentially even finding the mysterious Priestess in the seventh layer. Rimeyo eagerly accepted the mission as it allowed her to take her last dive.

Straight Man and Wise Guy: The straight man to Neyozel's wise guy. The two haven't even made it through the sixth layer yet and she's already fed up with his constant pestering.
Sudden Lack of Signal: She tries to contact Idofront, only to find that the signal between the fifth and sixth layers has cut out, as it apparently does intermittently.
Suicide Mission: She's taking her last dive. Despite there being no way for her to return from the lower layers, she has been looking forward to this for some time as taking the last dive is the highest honor among delvers.

Iruburu Village

A village created by former humans who became Hollows in the Sixth Layer. It operates on its own alien laws of "value" and is apparently sentient.

In General

The Capital of the Unreturned, as it turns out, is densely populated by those who have lost their humanity, seemingly to magic outside the reaches of the Abyss. Coming in literally all shapes, sizes, intelligence, and shades of morality, these warped and misshapen folk take shelter within the village, away from the dangers of the Sixth Layer.

Ambiguously Evil: The friendlier inhabitants seem nice enough, but they all possess a warped view of what constitutes as civilized conduct. As for the other villagers, it'd be easier to write them off as malevolent if it weren't for the language barrier and lack of discernable visual cues. The fact that many don't even appear to be sapient hardly helps.
Ambiguous Situation: Why did the villagers care for Faputa and help her recover from near-death even after she killed a good number of them? Even the villagers themselves don't know. All we have is Moogie's implication that they wanted to release themselves of their torment as Hollows and came to the village to die there.
Blue-and-Orange Morality:
- The village certainly possesses a system with defined rules and laws. That being said, the list of concepts that are considered acceptable value is as varied as it is bizarre (ranging from smells to the touch of furry creatures to ripping your flesh apart), and the town metes out very exact, very grotesque punishment for damages rendered.
- The villagers are well aware of how Faputa wants to murder them all for eating her siblings and taking advantage of her mother but they absolutely adore her regardless and even they themselves don’t know why. This is because they actually wanted to die by Faputa hands, according to Moogie.
Can't Live Without You: Once a Hollow enters the village, they become bonded to it; unable to leave and unable live outside it. Destroying the village kills all of the Hollows residing within it.
Death Seeker: The villagers found themselves caring for Faputa's well-being and even healed her despite the fact that she was slaughtering them not too long ago. It's never explained why, but Moogie suggests that it's because they all wanted to die and knew the village would be their final resting place.
Genius Loci: The village is alive, very tentacled, and will make sure all damages are repaid in full.
Merchant City: Literally. Everything is traded and bartered around by insiders and outsiders who come in.
Starfish Aliens: Where to even begin? For every villager with a recognizable body shape and form, there are seven more designs that defy biology as we know it.
Was Once a Man: All the inhabitants in the village are Hollows, humans who were mutated by the Curse of the Abyss. This also applies to the village itself.
We Buy Anything: If someone wants it, the village can take it from you to give to them. It can also take things offered to it and exchange them for anything of equal value. Anything.
Weird Currency: Everything and everyone in the village is assigned a value based on their subjective wants and how much they are wanted. The village hands out bartering coins when incompatible values are transferred. The money can materialize out of thin air, divide itself into smaller units, and can't actually be thrown away or stolen. Faputa uses this to extract all of the value out of the village itself, destroying it once and for all.
Womb Level: The whole village structure is a living organism.

Majikajya

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/majikaja_full_body.png

Voiced by: Hiroki Goto (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

A Hollow that Riko meets in the Hollow Village in the Sixth Layer. He has the appearance of a metallic humanoid with a giraffe-like neck, but this is actually a shell which contains his true form.

Animated Armor: He's not actually a weird-looking giraffe robot, it's a shell. He claims to have no physical form and desires to have an actual body.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: His town has very strict rules regarding trading and ownership, and if someone tries to take something that doesn't belong to them, they will be forced to give up in the equal value of what they took, even when that involves having their skin stripped off and limbs removed. When Riko tries to tell Majikajya not to have the creature that tried to take Meinya tortured in this way, after saying that Meinya was priceless to the group, he doesn't seem to understand that Riko simply is horrified by the physical tortures being applied to the creature, asking menacingly if she had overstated the value of Meinya to her (though right after, he states that she couldn’t lie to the village itself).
Bizarre Alien Biology: In a different way than most Hollows. Although his robotic appearance is unique by itself, he is actually a gaseous lifeform with no tangible elements, hence the need for the suit.
Comically Missing the Point: He refers to Nanachi as "the nice smelling fluffy one". After telling him their name's Nanachi, Majikajya politelly corrects himself:
Majikajya: Nice smelling Nanachi.
Cunning Linguist: He is multilingual, being the main interpreter for Riko's party during their stay in Iruburu. He is also capable of speaking various languages outside of Orth's.
Demonic Possession: He normally inhabits mechanical bodies, but being mechanical is not a requirement. When his shell is destroyed as Iruburu crumbles, he enters the body of an unconscious Faputa and uses her to defend the crew until he finally disappears too.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: He talks to Riko's team in a mix of Orth's language and whatever tongue they speak at the village. Sometimes he can't come up with translations for the words he is thinking of, and needs the main characters to fill in the gaps for him.
Everyone Has Standards: He's a strong upholder of the Blue-and-Orange Morality for Iruburu, and makes clear he's just as interested in "owning" a human child as anybody else, but an outsider taking up an offer to "sell themself" is something he's apparently rather against, expressing genuine regret and remorse for how bringing Nanachi to Belafu about the cloned Mitty resulted in them willingly selling their whole being for it, while when Riko contemplates selling her body parts to buy back Nanachi, Majikajya adamantly implores her to find a different way and drags her out of Belaf's home.
Heroic Sacrifice: After his vessel breaks down he decides to possess the unconscious Faputa to defend everyone else despite knowing full well that Faputa's body would destroy him.
Mr. Exposition: Gives the explanations about how value works in the village of the Hollows, as well as how they came to be.
Some Call Me "Tim": Majikajya is a bit hard to consistently pronounce, so in casual conversation he goes by "Kaja".
Super-Speed: He owns a specialized robot suit that is capable of dodging and weaving by apex predators. However, it runs into Awesome, but Impractical territory due to being expensive to make, and requiring a valuable fuel source to function.
Verbal Tic: "Hadi..."
Was Once a Man: He used to be a Cave Raider, but he lost his humanity to the Abyss.

Maaa

Voiced by: Kana Ichinose (Japanese), Annie Wild (English)

A resident of Iruburu Villaage. Unlike other Hollows Riko regularly interacts with, she is childish and ineloquent, only capable of uttering the sound "Maaaaa~" as her only form of communication. Although she initially got off the wrong foot with the group, she is more than willing to make up for it by accompanying Riko throughout the village.

And Call Him "George": Does this to Meinya, squeezing her a bit too hard while handling her. Fortunately, Meinya recovers.
Bedsheet Ghost: Visually, she resembles a tall, round-topped object with a sheet draped over it.
Cheerful Child: While her actual age is unclear and unknown, she certainly looks and acts like one of these. Her obvious cheery innocence goes a long way toward endearing her to Riko and her friends after their unpleasant first encounter.
Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Fascinated by the traveling pet of the tritagonists, she proceeds to squash poor Meinya. Doing so incurs the wrath of the Village when Riko puts an 'irreplaceable value' on the little animal.
Fan Disservice: Clashing against her otherwise simple character design, she has a very pronounced butt. One with notably large pores on both cheeks.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Her most treasured possession was a stuffed toy. As a result of hurting Meinya, someone Riko had placed an irreplaceable value on, she had to tearfully watch it being destroyed in front of her eyes. Riko makes her a replacement as they are escaping the village as an apology. Even though it was not the same one, Maaa was happy regardless before disappearing..
My God, What Have I Done?: She's deeply remorseful for hurting Meinya, when she regenerates and meets up with Riko again, rescuing them from other villagers who were curious about the pet animal's intrinsic value to the protagonist.
Not Quite Back to Normal: She regenerates after being torn apart by the balancing, but has a darker patch of fur over her left eye.
Perpetual Smiler: Her default expression is a peaceful (if somewhat vacant) smile. While some of this is due to the shape of her mouth, she can vary her expressions enough to make it clear that her Cheerful Child personality also plays an important part.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Maaa is a big, cuddly, pink and fluffy...something.
Verbal Tic Name: The only word she ever says is "Maaa~", so Maaa-san it is. Judging by how Faputa initially refers to her in chapter 60, she didn't have a name before Riko gave her one, and has fully accepted "Maaa" to the point of correcting Faputa.
Was Once a Man: Subverted—one would assume that Maaa was once a person and transformed into a Hollow by Iruburu Village, but she is actually a creation of the village itself.

Vueroeruko

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vueko_in_disgusie_anime.png

^{During the expedition}

Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki (Japanese), Kristen McGuire (English)

A human woman who hasn't completely become a Hollow and opposed the creation of Iruburu. She was locked at the bottom of a deep hole because of that until Riko freed her.

Abusive Parents: Her parent, or the person who originally took care of her, often beat and branded her with a hot iron while she was a child.
Adoptive Peer Parent: She was this to Irumyuui, Faputa's mother.
Ambiguously Bi: Her backstory in Chapter 49 reveals that she was in a lesbian relationship with Pakkoyan, one of her crew-mates. On the other hand, she displayed a particular fascination with Reg upon meeting him for the first time.
Ambiguously Human: She's pretty sure she's still human, but she has clearly non-human abilities such as detecting "signals" from the village and should obviously have died of starvation long ago. Not to mention she doesn't get what the terms "white whistles" or "sixth layer" mean, which means she went into the Abyss before those terms were even a thing. Which chapter 48 and 49 confirm. Her ambiguity is due to her failed attempt to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. She was saved and pulled back up. She discovers she's still human in the hardest way possible: when the forcefield seeps into Iruburu, instead of disappearing into thin air like the other Hollows, she gets hit hard by the Sixth Layer's curse.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She initially wanted to be something more than a human. When she saw what the Curse actually did to humans, her enthusiasm rapidly faded and she became an outcast.
Body Horror: She eventually experiences a horrific Forced Transformation thanks to getting hit by the Sixth Layer's curse as Iruburu crumbles down, disfiguring her into a Mitty-like shape before she slowly dies.
Cosmic Plaything: Oh god, Vueko. Literally every possible thing that could go wrong in her life typically did, with Pakkoyan and Irumyuui being the only things that seemingly made her happy at all until she meets Riko. And then that is followed up by Faputa destroying the village, everyone Vueko came to care for dying, including Pakkoyan, and being submitted to so much Body Horror via the Sixth Layer's curse that her body loses most of its vitals and almost completely comes apart to die slowly afterwards. The worst part is that because of her Dark and Troubled Past and what she did to survive in Iruburu, she fully believes she deserves all of it.
Dark and Troubled Past: She spent her childhood at the hands of an abusive old man who routinely tortured her to the point she could no longer bear children, and she went to an expedition in the Abyss mostly to get away from him. It visibly did not end well for her or her crewmates.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: She loses her human form after accidentally being hit by the 6th Layer’s curse (since Faputa’s rampage destroyed the village’s protective walls) and ends up expiring in Faputa’s arms, reminiscing about Irumyuui and knowing that Faputa at least doesn’t hate her like she hates the rest of the villagers.
Exhausted Eyebags: After spending years stuck in a hole with failed Hollows as her only companions, her exhaustion is understandable. Especially when it's not clear whether she can even sleep.
Godiva Hair: Her long hair ended up deformed by the Curse much like Prushka's, conveniently hiding her naked body.
Heroic Sacrifice: Becomes the subject of one when Pakkoyan rescues her from the collapsing boundary of the village, with the other woman disintegrating.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: For starters, there's the fact that she doesn't consider herself to be human due to her sad life prior joining the Ganja Corps and still considered herself that. She's also a nervous wreck and incapable of taking initiative when the topic is not about Irumyuui, who started to give Vueko purpose.
Morality Pet: Her relentless kindness ends up making her this for two major characters in the Golden City arc:
- Irumyuui still remembers her as her beloved mother-figure, letting her temper her rage at the injustices heaped upon her with some measure of wisdom, compassion, and proportionality.
- She's also a downplayed example to Wazukyan - while she can't actually prevent him from committing atrocities, and even his attempted acts of kindness tend to be marred by his severe Lack of Empathy, he tends to show her more common and pronounced care and concern than he does for anyone else.
Really 700 Years Old: She looks like a young woman, but she was present when Iruburu was created. Given the kind of ancient trinkets up for sale at the bazaar, the village wasn't exactly built yesterday. Wazukyan later confirms that the village has existed for around 150 years, and that's before taking the time warping effects of the abyss into consideration.
Rummage Sale Reject: Justified. She can't run around the village butt-naked, so Riko quickly fetches an outfit for her from what she can find at the marketplace. However, given the anatomical diversity of Iruburu's citizens, it's a bit hard to find fitting clothes for a human woman, so they have to make do with stuff like curtains or pants for 4-legged critters.
Some Call Me "Tim": Since her full name is quite a mouthful, she tells Riko to simply call her "Vueko".
Verbal Tic: Has a habit of saying "whuh…" when startled.
Wearing It All Wrong: Wazukyan points out that the piece of clothing Vueko has been wearing on her head for the past few chapters is underwear for Hollows with many legs. Vueko takes it off, muttering that the merchant who sold it to her claimed it could be used as a hood.

Wazukyan

^{Back when he was human}

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (Japanese), Brandon Hearnsberger (English)

One of the Three Sages, founders and rulers of Iruburu. Wazukyan is usually friendly and in good spirits, but his relentless optimism can come off as a bit unsettling.

Ambiguously Evil: There has never been a moment that firmly establishes him as a truly malevolent person. Whenever he does skirt the line, there's usually a reasonable justification attached his actions. Even imprisoning Veko within the center of Iruburu was done partly to ensure she and Irumyuui can remain together forever.
Affably Evil: If one subscribes to him being truly morally reprehensible. He's still very welcoming to visitors, and compliments Riko for her successes while giving her a high-five.
Arc Villain: Just about all of the conflict in the Iruburu Village Arc, with the only exception being the finale where the Abyssal Beasts break in, came about both directly and indirectly from his efforts, including the unwilling creation of the village, the birth of the revenge-filled Faputa, and the main trio getting trapped. Since he perpetuates these issues out of a desire for his continued survival, in order for the main cast to continue further they must subvert his plans.
The Captain: He was the captain of the Ganja Corps, and is currently one of the village leaders.
Didn't See That Coming: He could never have guessed that Irumyuui would retain enough autonomy to birth a final and perfected child after transforming into the village, one that has inherited her mother's rage and desire to eradicate them all.
Dirty Coward: It's not obvious behind his chipper demeanour and blasé attitude to the perils of the Abyss, but this is his Fatal Flaw, and the main dividing line between him and the otherwise extremely similar Bondrewd. When push comes to shove, he's always more willing to sacrifice other people than he is to sacrifice himself, which is an extremely dangerous attitude to have in a realm which operates according to a bizarre and unpredictable form of Equivalent Exchange. The Abyss gives as much as it takes, meaning that the more you ask someone else to give up for you, the more power you end up giving them over you.
Dissonant Serenity: He’s laid back and calm about everything, even in situations that absolutely do not call for it. He's an effective pillar for morale as a result, but at times it comes off as borderline sociopathic. Barely surviving a trip overseas? Eagerness for a new adventure. Traveling into a scary unexplored area? Like visiting a new neighborhood. People dying left and right? Takes it in stride. Forcefully mutating a child? Goes through without a second thought. Cooking her dead children and serving them to others for breakfast? Just a matter of course. Killing her still-living children and serving them as breakfast? Might as well. Imprisoning the child’s surrogate mother inside the child’s now horribly mutated body? Chipper as always.
Eats Babies: He's one who came up with the idea to butcher Irumyuui's children to bolster food supplies. He certainly had the least reservations out of the rest of the exploration team, but unlike most examples of this trope, it's not to show how evil he is. It's about how desperate the situation his exploration team is in.
Extreme Omnivore: Back when he was a human, he regularly crunched on bugs along the Ganja Corps' expedition so as not to contribute to the strain on their limited food supply. Goes a step further when he applies this to Irumyuui's spawn.
The Fatalist: Subscribes to fate, no doubt thanks to his precognitive abilities. Even when facing certain death, he remains unflappable due to an near-unshakeable faith in his group's survival. However, he also believes it imperative that he seizes his destiny with his own hands, hence the birth of Iruburu Village.
Foil: Like Riko, Wazukyan was a completely mundane human who possesses near-infinite optimism and a deep yearning for the Abyss that he himself cannot properly explain. During a pivotal moment of the Ganja Corps flashback, he even takes up the role as the team's cook. Also, though they aren't fighters, the two are nevertheless the unquestionable leaders of their respective groups for their decisiveness and fortitude. Where Riko and Wazukyan differ however is their willingness to use others for their own gain; Riko would never sacrifice anyone regardless of circumstances, and was horrified upon seeing a victim being reduced to a tool, treating the matter with all the grave respects it deserves. Wazukyan on the other hand instigated such a scenario multiple times, and was quite happy with the results despite how everyone else felt about it. Furthermore, while Riko is still human in the present day, Wazukyan has long relinquished his humanity to become a Hollow himself, although he did his worst way before that happened.
Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: He doesn't help in the fight against the Fuzosheppu, and claims it's because he thinks the villagers will have more fun defeating the monster by themselves. Later revelations suggest that it may in fact have been a manifestation of his well-disguised but dangerous Dirty Coward tendencies.
I Did What I Had to Do: His whole rationale for everything he's done was to ensure the troupe's survival by any means necessary.
Indy Ploy: There was never an actual plan laid out for delving into the Abyss, something he was quite transparent about since the beginning. Most of his leadership consisted of improvising with whatever had fallen into the hands of the Corps, be it their encounter with natives, adoption of Irumyuui, partnership with robots, or relics of power.
Lack of Empathy: The best way to explain why this man can be so profoundly disturbing. His friendliness is genuine - not once had he ever spoken ill of anyone, refused to lend a helping hand, or behaved in a cold manner. But yet, when the Ganja Corps expedition went foul, he only cares about the troupe's continued survival, the anguish of everyone within be damned. Examples include Belaf's mental breakdown, Vueroeruko's conflicted emotions, and Irumyuui's grief over her dead children. It's made worse when, unlike Bondrewd, who was barely even human to begin with, most of his more questionable acts occur when he's a mere human and way before he became a Hollow.
Large and in Charge: He was pretty tall as a human. In the present as a Hollow, he towers over everyone else in the village.
No Party Like a Donner Party: With everyone wasting away from starvation, dehydration, and petrification, he finally took it upon himself to make use of the cadavers of Irumyuui's children. When that wasn't enough, he proceeded to snatch the babies right out of Irumyuui's arms for more meat.
The Pollyanna: His defining character trait, with an attitude that can best be described as "airy". Even during a crisis where the entire exploration team is infected by a horrible disease and slowly dying off one by one, he treats the ordeal as if it was an inconvenient rainy day.
Morphic Resonance: When he was a human, Wazukyan had three vertical marks on his left cheek. This pattern carried over to his facial coloration when he turned into a Hollow.
Not So Stoic: Not a textbook example because his mood level is perpetually upbeat instead, but there has only been two instances where his sunny demeanor cracks, both within the span of minutes:
- His confident smile falters into nervous sweat after Veko begs to know what he has done. Even he was unsettled by Irumyuui's drastic mutations after planting the second wish-granting relic egg inside of her.
- When Vueko makes the decision to rebel against him and jumps off a cliff to kill herself, thus letting Irumyuui wither away and denying his dreams for a home at the heart of the Abyss, Wazukyan completely loses it.
Reduced to Dust: As a result of overexerting himself during the attack on the village, he eventually passes away with his body falling apart into dust with his parting words.
Seers: He has some kind of predictive power. He foretold Vueko's arrival the day before it happened.
Skull for a Head: In his Hollow form, the white part of his head very vaguely resembles a skull, especially the "eye" and "teeth."
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Much like Bondrewd, he's a test case in how far you can push this trope before the means make the ends themselves abhorrent. Even at his most morally questionable moments, his overriding objective was and is to ensure the survival of the Ganja Corps. It works, but at a cost so terrible that the entire Golden City arc is based around the question of whether it would have been better if it hadn't worked.

Belaf

^{Back when he was human}

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese), Ry McKeand (English)

One of the Three Sages, founders and rulers of Iruburu. When Bondrewd paid a visit to the village and brought Mitty with him, Belaf saw her and wanted her for himself. He paid a great toll to have a perfect copy created for him, and isn't giving her up easily.

An Arm and a Leg: He sold his arms and legs (all 724 of them), half his body length, and part of his sensory organs in exchange for a clone of Mitty.
Blemished Beauty: When he was human, Belaf had a large scar that covered half of his face and made his hair grow uneven, but he was still considered very beautiful due to his confidence and intense eyes.
Cunning Linguist: He served as a translator and interpreter in the Ganja Corps, quickly learning the language of the natives.
Empty Eyes: After his Heroic BSoD, Belaf's eyes became dull and lifeless.
Face Death with Dignity: When Faputa breaches the village's barrier, Belaf understands his time has come and calmly heads out to meet her.
Heroic BSoD: Had an awful one after eating Irumyuui's children to cure the mockwater illness he and everybody else was suffering from. He completely fell apart over it, to the point of becoming catatonic and even harming himself. It all culminated in him sacrificing himself to Irumyuui as what he saw as punishment, resulting in his current form.
Morphic Resonance: The crown-like horns on his head resemble the thick, spiky hair he had when he was human.
My God, What Have I Done?: The only expedition member besides Vueroeruko to outwardly feel regret about eating Irumyuui's children to cure the larvae that they were infected with. His current form is atonement.
Parental Substitute: As Vueko took on the role of Irumyuui’s mother, Belaf was the child’s father-figure who played with and took care of her. Irumyuui actually loved and trusted him enough to allow him to keep the memories of the happier days she spent with the Ganja, so one day her “father” could give them to Faputa.
Redemption Equals Death: He has always regretted his role in turning Irumyuui into the village. Once Faputa breaches the village's barrier, Belaf gladly welcomes death at her hands, with his last act being transferring Irumyuui's positive memories as a human to Faputa.
Too Many Mouths: Those horizontal slits he has right below his forehead? Not his eyes. They are two tiny mouths. His speech bubbles imply he alternates between the two of them when he speaks.
Took a Level in Cynic: As the Flashback Arc reveals, Belaf wasn't always a cold-hearted person who barters with human body parts and buys himself an immortal girl just so he can devour her fluids over and over again. He was once a righteous young man, but the horrors he faced in the Abyss and the things he was forced to do to survive broke him hard.
Transferable Memory: Belaf can turn his memories into smoke, whoever inhales it will experience them in very vivid detail, down to the physical sensations. He uses this ability to tell Nanachi about the village's origins, and later to share with Faputa his happy memories of Vueko and Irumyuui.
What Beautiful Eyes!: As a human, Belaf had striking, clear blue eyes.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Back when they were traveling together, Belaf used to encourage Vueko whenever she doubted herself, reassuring her that she was more beautiful and capable than she gave herself credit for.

Juroimoh

^{After transforming}

Voiced by: Yusuke Sasaki (Japanese), Gabriel Regojo (English)

One of the Three Sages that rule Iruburu. Juroimoh is an avid fighter, and rushes to defend the village from outside threats.

Anthropomorphic Personification: He's actually not one of the Three Sages (the third one being Vueko). Instead, he is the will of the village, a more literal personification than Faputa of Irumyuui's rage and hatred towards the people in the village.
Blood Knight: He values an honest fight, and is the only Sage to battle the Fuzosheppu.
Eldritch Abomination: When the secret of what he really is comes out, he drops all pretenses of being a Hollow, shifting into a formless mass of dark goo that intends to slaughter anything in his path.
One-Winged Angel: Near the climax of the Iruburu Arc, when the truth of his existence is revealed, he becomes one with the Balancing and transforms into a stronger and more bestial form.
Phallic Weapon: His sword, a dripping, meaty-looking rod that he usually keeps sheated inside his body.
Significant Name Overlap: He shares the same name as Vueko's former adoptive Abusive Dad, something Vueko herself eventually questions Wazukyan about. It later turns out the reason is because he's formed from Vueko's memories shared with Irumyuui about her "father".

Irumyuui (Unmarked Golden City Arc Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/irumyuui.png

Voiced by: Misaki Kuno (Japanese), Savanna Menzel (English)

An abandoned child Vueroeruko found on her journey, whom the woman adopted as her surrogate daughter.

Absurdly Youthful Mother: Played for Horror and deconstructed. Irumyuui was in the single-digit age range when she was given the first wish-granting Cradle of Desire relic, which she used to wish for it to cure her infertility. It granted her wish in the most horrifying way imaginable, turning Irumyuui into an Explosive Breeder and making her spawn hundred of "babies", and the story makes it clear that her youth means she is not ready at all for motherhood or childbirth, let alone the horrific fate she eventually gets dealt. Her wish itself also seems to stem from her childish view of what bearing children even entails: the offspring she bears resemble her old pet more than human infants, and they come out of her chest cavity, presumably because she doesn't know what they actually come out of.
And I Must Scream: According to Faputa, Irumyuui is still alive even after being transformed into the village. However, she is in a constant state of decomposition and regeneration, always in pain but unable to die. Faputa was born to destroy the village, avenging her mother and her siblings while also finally putting her mother out of her misery.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She learned this lesson the hard way. When she was given a Cradle of Desire and told it granted wishes, the first thing she wished for was to be able to bear children, due to her emotional trauma of being cast out of her village for being infertile. Unfortunately, while the Cradle of Desire granted her the ability to create life, all of the babies she had ended up being deformed and mutated abominations that died shortly after birth, and continuously losing one after the next broke her emotionally.
Body Horror: Between the tainted water and the wish-granting egg(s), her body was warped into a horrific blob-like fleshy structure in Chapter 50. It got even worse in Chapter 51 when it revealed that Irumyuui is the village itself.
The Exile: She was exiled by her original human tribe as a sacrifice to the Abyss, with a back tattoo that roughly translates to “As she cannot bear children, she is exiled to the giant pit."
Explosive Breeder: Her wish granted by the Cradle of Desire turned her into a horribly malformed one that can spawn enough babies to sustain an entire delving troupe. Unfortunately, the babies she birthed were of the trial-and-error variety, meaning none of them could last for more than a day before expiring, and she stopped after turning into Iruburu and produced Faputa, her final child.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted, as Vueko explicitly says that the one thing she wants the most is not to forget Irumyuui.
Happily Adopted: Vueko became Irumyuui's surrogate mother upon finding the girl, even if they don't call each other that, and was the sole person who still cared for her after hundreds of years.
Hidden Depths:
- Despite using the second Cradle of Desire to create Faputa and avenge her fallen children, she also left her happy memories of being with the Ganja Corps with Belaf to pass onto Faputa, implying Irumyuui understood that the Ganja Corps were just trying to survive and all felt crushing guilt over it and she wanted Faputa to understand that as well.
- Faputa reveals that even though she was supposed to receive all of Irumyuui’s wills and memories, all the details about Vueko’s existence weren’t included in those until Belaf gives them to Faputa. Turns out, Irumyuui loved Vueko so much that she wanted to keep her “mother” for herself and refused to let even her own daughter inherit those memories.
I Have No Son!: Her biological mother did this to her. As a girl, she was expected to be able to have children once she was old enough to, but since she couldn't, her tribe cast her out and marked her as a sacrifice for the abyss.
Improbable Antidote: Her offspring's meat, for whatever reason (Wazukyan theorized it was the freshness and vitality within), turned out to be the key to curing the petrification disease ravaging the Ganja Corps. It put a strain on the mentality of almost everyone involved, obviously.
It Was a Gift: The necklace she wears was a gift from Vueko, made from the remains of a pet she had that got eaten by a creature of the abyss.
Mark of Shame: He original village put a tattoo on her back that marked her as a sacrifice to the Abyss because of her infertility.
Mama Bear: She loved all of her children even if they didn't have a chance to live in the first place, nor did they show any signs of being sentient. Then there's Faputa, her final child, who's the manifestation of her rage toward what had been done to all of her other children.
Mood Whiplash: When she tells Vueko the reason she feels comfortable with her. "You smell like my mother. ...Someone who has slept with a lot of people."
Outliving One's Offspring: None of Irumyuui's offspring were able to survive for more than a day after being born. She mourned for each and every one of them. Faputa, her final and perfected child, averts this by not just being alive but immortal, and in fact, exists to invert it by performing a Mercy Kill that will make her a Self-Made Orphan.
Please, Don't Leave Me: She begs Vueko never to leave or abandon her. Vueko made sure she kept that promise even after everything.
Synchronization: Her immense love for Vueko meant that when she became a Hollow, her strength to keep living became tied to Vueko as well. This means that as Vueko kept losing the will to live, Irumyuui got weaker, forcing Wazukyan to take many drastic measures to ensure Irumyui survived for the sake of everybody, first by forcing two more Cradles of Desire into Irumyuui to strengthen her "wish", then when Vueko was Driven to Suicide, which could potentially cause Irumyuui to experience Death by Despair, Wazukyan "saved" Vueko and imprisoned her inside Irumyuui's Hollow-transformed "head" so they would always be together, and thus keep her alive as the newly formed Iruburu.
Trauma Conga Line: Abandoned by her people for being infertile (at what appears to be a single digit age), exiled to a giant hole in the ground which is populated by monsters, suffers severe diarrhea that calcifies the limbs, gives birth to babies that are cursed to live no more than a day, has them repeatedly cannibalized by the Ganja Corps for survival, all while mutating into a gigantic amorphous blob that the Narehate live in. Irumyuui is conscious the entire time.
Truly Single Parent: After being given a Cradle of Desire, the relic merges into Irumyuui's body and she starts expelling strange little critters from a hole in her chest, which she referred to as her "babies". Though initially small and unable to survive for very long, the creatures get larger and more complex as the egg keeps mutating Irumyuui's body, with her youngest child Faputa being sapient and seemingly immortal.
Walking Spoiler: Everything about her character is utterly integral to understanding how Irubruru Village became what it is, alongside her existence as Faputa's "mother" being strongly tied to how the arc eventually goes.
Worse with Context: “I was loved by all my brothers.” Sounds like a nice family? Wrong! Her mom was effectively a breeding machine. Iruymuui herself has a tattoo that pretty much labels her “unfit to bear children.” Then they all shunned her.

Hail Hex

In general

An experienced Delver Fleet led by the White Whistle Srajo. They're mostly consisted of Juusou, Disposable Vagrants with bestial features.

Badass Crew: A fleet of experienced delvers led by a White Whistle. At one point, they also defeat Bondrewd offscreen.
Beast Man: All of them bar possibly Srajo herself are Hollows who still managed to hold onto their humanity (similar to a person who has obtained the Blessing of the Abyss). Some of them only have beast-like features like horns, while others resemble large, anthromorphic animals.
Disposable Vagrant: Most of them are people who would otherwise be thrown away and killed upon birth.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: They apparently won against Bondrewd offscreen and made it all the way to the 6th Layer unharmed, unlike the uphill encounter Riko and Reg had with him. This means that Srajo was fighting him at full strength and Riko and Reg came in when he was recovering from the encounter prior, hence explaining why they stood more than a chance against him despite being way more under-equipped and understaffed.
Spanner in the Works: Had they not defeated Bondrewd prior to Riko and Reg's descent to Idofront, there's no chance they'll even be able to defeat him and end up being anything other than a few more kids to put on his experimental table.

Nishagora, the Charger

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nishagora.PNG

An enormous cat-like Hollow who works for the white whistle Srajo. She captures Tepaste, suspecting her of being part of a group called the "Priestess’ clan", before leading Riko’s group to Srajo’s hideout.

Blood Knight: Definitely seems to enjoy her battle with Reg a good deal during his trial. She gets even more into it after Riko activates his White Whistle transformation, especially after Sjrao activates her own. During the fight, she even seems quite happy that she can keep hitting Reg as hard as possible without breaking bones or spilling out any of his innards.
Duality Motif: Her right eye has a normal white sclerae with a colored iris and a small pupil while the left eye has a colored sclerae (possibly red) with a white iris and a much bigger pupil. This highlights both her Mind Hive trait and her cat-like appearance^noteheterochromia is common among cats.
Dumb Muscle: She’s monstruously strong and big, but she admits she’s not good at explaining, has to write down her instructions on her wrist to not forget them and her brain just plain shuts down when the conversation becomes too complex. Tepaste takes advantage of this to dupe her into taking her "prisoner" and stay in one piece.
Fan Disservice: Walks around completely naked before (forcibly) getting in the bath with Reg, who ends up uncomfortably squeezed into the bath tub in between her breasts. He is not overjoyed.
Mind Hive: Faputa notices that she has several "souls" inside her, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line in the Japanese version has Tepaste refer to her in the plural form. Her personality also noticeably changes after she briefly stops moving when Riko and her group are explaining their circumstances to her.
No Indoor Voice: At first, she seems utterly incapable of communicating at a low volume, which gives her an intimidating but also somewhat dorky vibe.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gives a rather brutal one to Reg that he describes as being "just like when Ozen became serious" in their sparring session. Despite how brutal her attacks are, she tells him that Ozen can actually go way worse than that.
No-Sell: She seems to be immune to the Curse of the Abyss. In her duel with Reg, she jumps upwards to pounce on him, something that would otherwise inflict a person with the curse but doesn't affect her at all.
Super Mode: Much like with Reg, she can activate a White Whistle transformation with Sjraos help. It makes her stronger, more durable, and sharpens her senses. Reg compares her toughness to Ozen in this state, though she tells Reg that Ozen was likely holding back and is much stronger than her.

Yataramaru, the Combatant

One of Srajo's underlings, a tall man somewhat similar to Wazukyan in appearance. He is often seen doing menial tasks around the camp.

Horned Humanoid: Yaratamaru's most striking features are the small uneven horn-like growths all over his disfigured head.

Menae and Sherumi, the Snipers

A pair of twins who first shown up in the Extras and are now a part of Srajo's crew.

An Arm and a Leg: All four of their limbs are missing, replaced with prosthetics.
Half-Identical Twins: Menae is male while Sherumi is female; they look exactly the same otherwise.
One-Steve Limit: Averted in a very bizarre way. Every single pair of twins in Orth, including them, has the same names given to them: Sherumi and Menae.

Neyozel, the Cook

Hail Hex's cook, a lanky hollow who stayed behind to keep the Umbra Hands from reaching the rest of the crew during their final descent... only to be immediately captured himself. Later, Bondrewd sends him with Rimeyo to intercept Srajo and hopefully find the priestess in the seventh layer.

Chef of Iron: When powered up by Srajo's whistle, anyway. Averted during the escape from Idofront, however, as the whistle's power couldn't extend past the Altar's membrane.
Leeroy Jenkins: He stayed behind while the rest of their crew started their final descent, hoping to buy time against the Umbra Hands with a power-up from Srajo's whistle. Since the whistle's powers didn't extend beyond the membrane at the elevator's entrance, he never got the power-up and was captured almost immediately.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: The wise guy to Rimeyo's straight man. He is incredibly chatty and impulsive, pestering her constantly during their final descent.
Strapped to an Operating Table: He gets dragged away and experimented on by the Umbra Hands, allowing them to find out about the "beast stone" in his body, which apparently allows Srajo to sense his presence.

Others

Mitty (Unmarked Spoilers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mitty_transparent.png

^{Back when she was human}

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

A Hollow who lives with Nanachi in the Cup of Giants. Unlike Nanachi, her transformation reduced her to a grotesque blob of immortal flesh, and she doesn't show any indication of having a human mind. Despite her monstrous appearance she has a sweet temperament and is clearly attached to Nanachi.

And I Must Scream: Thanks to Bondrewd's experiments, she was reduced to an immortal blob of flesh that regenerates every time she is injured. While she's lost all of her intelligence and seems only barely sentient anymore, it's heavily implied that some part of her consciousness remains trapped inside.
Birds of a Feather: During her time unconscious due to the Orbed Piercer's poison Riko says that she sees the same longing in her eyes as are in her own and that of other cave dwellers.
Blob Monster: A blob of fluffy pink flesh with one eye and two claws, to be precise.
Body Horror: Her transformation into a Hollow, which involves the poor girl basically melting and imploding into her current form, all while she screams and begs for someone to kill her and make the pain stop. As if that isn't enough, Bondrewd later tests her durability by repeatedly hurting and mutilating her.
Eye Scream: Her left eye was permanently damaged by Bondrewd using the Sparagmos. This is the first sign that she can be killed using something similar to the Sparagmos. For instance, Reg's Incinerator.
First Friend: Nanachi had no friends until this cheerful girl decided Nanachi was her partner.
Genki Girl: She was a cheerful, bubbly, and energetic girl who was excited to go on an adventure into the Abyss with her friend Nanachi.
Healing Factor: Suffering from the Curse in double causes her to regenerate from all injuries, leaving her completely helpless yet nearly unkillable. However, every time she regenerates, her form becomes more and more twisted. Being hit by a weapon capable of disintegrating her cells utterly hampers this regeneration.
Mercy Kill: Is given one by Reg at Nanachi's request, incinerating her so thoroughly that she couldn't regenerate, thus liberating her soul.
Only Friend: Mitty was the first person to befriend Nanachi and remained the only other soul Nanachi interacted with on a regular basis until Riko and Reg come along.
Walking Spoiler: She manages to be a living spoiler twice, with her original self heavily contextualizing the relationship between Nanachi and Bondrewd, while her clone existing and becoming something Nanachi chooses to sell themself for is what begins the Wham Episode of the Iruburu Arc, providing the stakes for continuing the journey.
Was Once a Man: She used to be a human girl. She was then horribly experimented on by being forced to ascend from the Sixth Layer, and the Abyss' curse mutated her into what she is today.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Nanachi fears the worst possible case of this happening for Mitty, who'll inevitably outlive Nanachi and would continue to helplessly suffer in silence and agony, hence why Nanachi wants to Mercy Kill her before it's too late.

Gaburoon

Voiced by: Ryota Takeuchi (Japanese), Matthew David Rudd (English)

An Intereference Unit, large robots designed with the goal of observing and interacting to gather knowledge, who accompanies and serves Faputa.

Arm Cannon: Has a cannon built into his right arm that's capable of shooting balls of energy that can send opponents flying.
Bodyguarding a Badass: In the volume 8 extras he says that he isn't all that powerful compared to Faputa, but she still designates him as her guard.
Heroic Sacrifice: He dies near the end of the Iruburu Arc when he purposefully draws the attention of a Turbinid Dragon away from Faputa, after which the monster promptly kills him, all for the sake of making sure Faputa can keep going on towards the future.
Meaningful Name: After he names his charge Faputa, meaning "Immortal Princess", in her mother's tongue, she names him, her designated protector, Gaburoon: "Queen's Guardian".
Parental Substitute: Given how Faputa was "born" in the wild without parents to raise her, Gaburoon took up that role, teaching her manners, etiquette, and speech befitting of a princess, and Faputa cherishes him as her "haku (precious treasure)" for always being there for her.
Undying Loyalty: Following him and Faputa meeting shortly after her "birth" and her helping repair his damaged body, he proceeded to dedicate his life to raising her, caring for her, teaching her how to speak and read, and much more. He overall acts as her guardian and confidant in life, and will do anything to protect her happiness and future, even if he has to put himself in harms way to do so.

Cravagli

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cravali.PNG

An expert delver whose corpse is found by Riko and her party on the sixth level of the abyss. Chapters 62.5 and 63 of the manga describe how he wound up there.

The Ace: Known by reputation as a "solo descent genius". The fact that he's able to make it to the sixth layer - something that only White Whistles are technically supposed to do - before dying speaks to his skill.
Determinator: After getting in a fight of some kind on his way to the sixth layer, he takes a deep cut to his hand, snaps his leg clean in two, and breaks several ribs. Despite these injuries, he manages to scale a sheer cliff face until he reaches the alcove where he ultimately succumbs to his injuries.
Dies Wide Open: His eyes are still half-open when the heroes run into his corpse.
Ignore the Fanservice: He turns down Tepaste's flirtations without a second of hesitation, claiming that having sex before an expedition is bad luck.
Posthumous Character: Riko's team find his dried-out corpse deep into the Sixth Layer. The following chapters explain who he was and how he got there.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hamorage Bowl, a rice-and-meat dish that he eats numerous bowls of whenever he is preparing for a delve.
Verbal Tic: "Dyaho-de". He seems to use it as a greeting and acknowledgement.

Tepaste

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tepast.PNG

A bright, energetic, and mysterious girl who is introduced, along with Cravagli, at the Tumble Tavern, a tavern for delvers. Despite seemingly not having a whistle, she is an extremely competent delver.

The Ace: Despite seemingly having no whistle, she is comfortable enough delving to reach the sixth layer with Cravagli and even survives whatever calamity winds up killing him. On top of this, she is a talented fighter, extremely observant, and is able to deduce the actions of those around her with lightning speed.
Character Tics: Has a habit of sticking out her tongue to the left side of her mouth while looking away, like a child thinking of their next mischief. It adds to her impish vibe.
Establishing Character Moment: Within a few pages of her being introduced, she propositions Cravagli for some quick sex, then immediately points out that they're being watched by a group of Umbra Hands without their tell-tale masks, before knocking out a Subterranean Bandit who was being rude to them; thus showing off her flirty nature, her keen eye for detail and her ability for combat all at once.
Genki Girl: Whether fighting off spies, squaring off against a Hollow of the Abyss, or propositioning Cravagli, she never loses her upbeat attitude.
Hypocritical Humor: One of the first thing she remarks about Nishagora is that "her cleavage is popping out like nothing." She’s not exactly one to talk.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her outfit is unzipped from her navel to her neckline, save for a pair of straps just below the top, leaving very little to the imagination.
Play-Along Prisoner: She lets herself be "captured" by Nishagora to avoid a more painful outcome, but she doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it and even calls out Nishagora when she’s being silly. An outsider would think they’re partners rather than prisoner and captor.
Power Dyes Your Hair: Her hair has a swirl of colours in it that is a byproduct of exposure to the deeper layers of the abyss.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Between her Stripperiffic outfit, flirty nature, and casual references to sex, she doesn't have much in the way of modesty.
Stepford Smiler: She’s visibly devastated by Cravagli’s likely death after losing contact with him, but keeps an optimistic mindset on his advice.
Stripperiffic: Her outfit consists of a skintight bodysuit that is unzipped to below her navel and a mini-jacket fastened at the top that barely sits on her breasts.
Underboobs: Probably the most notable feature of her outfit. She either uses a lot of tape or is one strong breeze away from giving everyone around her quite a show.

Characters / Made in Abyss

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