As a brief disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Made In Abyss chapter 67, which as of this posting has just released in Japan.

Made In Abyss chapter 67 has just released, and as is often the case for this series, the chapter ends with a cliffhanger.

But this time, the cliffhanger has caused quite a stir, as it contains a heavy implication that the party of protagonists has just lost a major character.

While the manga has been released in Japanese, the language barrier is not an issue in understanding the last scene, which conveyed much of the drama visually. Thus, one doesn’t need to understand Japanese to know what happened in that scene.

In the chapter, Riko’s squad, along with Hail Hex, continue their journey into the Seventh (and possibly final) Layer. As they do so, they converse.

In the last scene, the party comes to a halt, as they sense that something doesn’t seem right. Just then, Nanachi senses something (possibly a piece of organic debris) hurtling towards the twins, Menae and Sherumi. Acting quickly, Nanachi pushed the twins out of harm’s way. But in doing so, Nanachi put herself in danger.

While it remains unclear what became of Nanachi, we see that the helmet she was wearing was removed from her head, and the helmet was crushed. Not only that, we see Reg reaching with his extendible arm in a possibly vain effort to rescue his friend.

While it may be too soon to write a eulogy for Nanachi, at this point, the outlook doesn’t seem good for her. Nonetheless, fans of Made In Abyss are concerned that they may have to say goodbye to this beloved character.

As has been pointed out before (possibly here), the character Nanachi has been on borrowed time. Nanachi was originally intended by author Akihito Tsukushi to meet her end in the Ido Front arc, where her character arc would have been complete, and she and Bondrewd the Novel would have both perished while fighting each other. Interestingly, this averted outcome was referenced by Nanachi herself at the conclusion of the Ido Front arc.

Interestingly, while writing the manga, Tsukushi hurried through the Third Layer part of the story, leaving out much of what was originally intended, because he was afraid that his manga would be cancelled. He was in a hurry to introduce the character Nanachi, reasoning that she would be popular enough to save the series. The portion that was left out of the manga made it into the anime.

However, Tsukushi underestimated how popular Nanachi would be, so he made the choice for Nanachi to continue on with Riko’s party.

When the story advanced to the Sixth Layer and the Village of the Hollows, it seemed as though Nanachi would be written out, as Nanachi found a copy of her friend Mitty, so she sold herself to Belaf so that Belaf would stop continually eating the regenerating immortal, and therefore Nanachi could live peacefully with Mitty.

However, there was an apparent change of plans, considering that Faputa was destroying the village. So Belaf placed his memories in Nanachi, and set her free with a new outfit.

Nanachi has picked up a sort of plot armor, by virtue of the fact that she’s so popular. But with the series nearing its conclusion, there’s no guarantee that much of the cast will live to see the end. What’s more, Made In Abyss was written to be emotionally impactful, and events in the series so far have proven that there’s little that’s off the table.

When it comes down to it, in spite of her appearance, Nanachi has been a sad character. She was taken in by a mad scientist who experimented on her and a few dozen other children, and she saw her best friend get mutated in front of her eyes. She didn’t value her own life much, as evidenced by the fact that she sold herself to Belaf to save Mitty, and she was suicidal when Reg first met her, though she didn’t want to act on that while Mitty was alive, and she remained alive after the first Mitty was slain to honor her promise to Reg. Then, she had to say goodbye to Mitty again, after she found a copy of her in the Sixth Layer. What’s more, other characters conducted themselves with Nanachi in a way that didn’t consider her wishes. For example, even though she’s fluffy and other characters liked to pet her, she didn’t want it, and she preferred for the other characters to respect her personal space.

Considering this, for Nanachi to sacrifice herself to save a couple other people, even though they just met, is well within her character.

It’s a type of virtue that doesn’t tend to last long in a world like this.

Whether it’s truly over for Nanachi is still up in the air, and we may find out in the next chapter, which we’re likely to see in a few months. But one Redditor has expressed skepticism that things have ended for Nanachi:

Tsukushi has already warned that, by the time the story concluded, the members of Riko’s party would be unrecognizable. He has also pointed out that people on adventures do die. That being the case, it’s no surprise that a story he has written would come with the occasional figurative gut punch. And a person who has read Made In Abyss up to this point would reasonably expect it.

But at the moment, for those who keep up with it and have a particular attachment to the character of Nanachi, it might not be a bad idea to find someone to talk to. And maybe come to the understanding that a parasocial relationship that involves overly strong emotions might not be healthy.