Riko

About Riko

Riko is the main character of Made in Abyss, a twelve-year-old orphan in the town of Orth who trains as a cave raider and dreams of the bottom of the Abyss. When a message from her legendary mother Lyza appears to arrive from the depths, Riko does what the whole town would call madness: she goes down to find her, with the robot boy Reg at her side. Her cheerfulness and her obsession are the same thing.

Appearance

Riko is a young girl with long blonde hair tied back, green eyes and the glasses she needs because of how she was born. She wears the Bell Orphanage uniform, then raider gear: helmet, backpack and tools nearly as big as she is, and her whistle changes from red to white as the journey's honours catch up with her. Her design is soft and doll-like, big eyes and a child's proportions, which is the visual contrast that makes what the Abyss does to her so hard to watch. Her design never toughens as she descends. Whatever layer she is on, she still looks like what she is: a kid.

Personality

Riko is bright, stubborn and monomaniacal about the Abyss. She has memorised its creatures, relics and layers like songs, and talks about descending the way others talk about going home. Her optimism is not ignorance: she knows the curse, knows the odds, knows delvers never return, and goes anyway, because the unknown is not a warning to her, it is an invitation. She is kind and a leader in a crisis, keeping her head through poisonings and worse, and she bonds with the beings the depths produce. Her most unsettling trait is her acceptance. Things that horrify the audience, Riko meets with curiosity, and that gap between her delight and the viewer's dread is where the series lives.

Background & Story

Riko was born in the fourth layer to Lyza the Annihilator, one of the most famous White Whistles in history, during a raid that cost Lyza's husband Torka his life. Riko was stillborn, and was carried up in a relic vessel called the Curse-Warding Box that brought her back to life, at the price of her eyesight, which glasses now correct, and perhaps more that nobody understands. Raised at the Bell Orphanage in Orth, she became a Red Whistle apprentice, digging the first layer for relics and dreaming at the pit's edge. Finding Reg, the amnesiac robot boy, and then receiving what appears to be Lyza's notes and white whistle from the depths, Riko makes her decision: she will make the Last Dive, the descent nobody returns from, to reach her mother. Season 1 follows her through Ozen's training, the poison and curse injuries of the fourth layer, and the meeting with Nanachi, and the film Dawn of the Deep Soul takes her past Bondrewd into the fifth layer, carrying Prushka's whistle and grief with her. Whatever Lyza is at the bottom, Riko is going, and the series never pretends the price will be small.

Powers & Abilities

• Abyss knowledge: Riko's expertise is real: she has studied the layers, creatures and relics for years and can identify dangers, edible plants and escape routes that keep the team alive.
• Relic sense and cooking: She has a delver's eye for relics and, less glamorously, is an excellent camp cook, turning Abyss creatures into meals that keep morale and strength up.
• Endurance and will: Riko endures the curse, poisoning and surgery that would kill most adults and keeps planning. Her body is fragile; her resolve is the party's engine.

Key Relationships

• Reg: Her protector, her weapon and her closest friend. Riko found Reg, named him after a dog she once had, and treats the mystery of what he is as just another Abyss wonder to explore together.
• Lyza the Annihilator: Her mother, the legendary White Whistle whose shadow covers Riko's whole life. Riko has never met her that she can remember, and the entire journey is towards her.
• Nanachi: The Narehate who saves Riko's life and joins the party as its medic and Abyss expert. Nanachi's knowledge keeps Riko alive, and Riko's warmth gives Nanachi a reason to descend again.
• Ozen the Immovable: Lyza's old mentor, who tests Riko brutally before letting her pass, and tells her the truth about her birth. Ozen's cruelty is the Abyss's version of love.

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