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Feb 23, 2023
This is the direct continuation of the 1st season of the anime (the prior 2 movies were just that same first season cut up and merged together). It matches roughly volumes 4 and 5 of the manga (more specifically, from chapter 26th to chapter 38th), and it's extremely loyal to it, in the sense that nothing at all has been tweaked this time. The story, without spoilers, is about the main characters managing to get to the 6th layer, and the obstacles they find while at it. The japanese version with subtitles has the most accurate translation, and the voice acting was slightly better than
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the english one, in my opinion. Although, for me, the problem in MiA about the japanese voice acting is that it's just too childish and innocent at times (Prushka and Mitty are too much sometimes -and Menya sounds like a pokemon-, but I understand that exploiting cuteness/wholesomeness is something relatively typical in anime), but to be honest, the english dub imitates that anyway, so I'd take the japanese instead.
I don't have much else to say. This part was way better adapted than the first season of Made in Abyss, in fact, I think it was an improvement over the manga. The manga at this point started going downhill, and the chapters related to this movie felt very rushed. Here they were fleshed out; they were given a better pacing, and some care was taken to make it all more understandable. The manga sucks at fights, and here they were very well done.
My only complaint, if it can be considered as such, is that this would have been better in a chapter format instead of movie format, in my opinion. There are several key fights, one after the other... the overall flow of the story is not very adaptable to a movie format. It swings too much for that. Other than that, trying to condense things they missed 2 important bits from the manga; the zombie-like beings that Prushka made whistles for, and the dog named Reg. Those were relatively important, and I hope that at least the last one is added in the 2nd season.
All in all, I can't give it a higher score because the plot itself in this part of the story is nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a fitting continuation of the main story, with good moments of tension and a couple of interesting new characters. There's not much of an advance; a lot of it is action. But it's good, I definitely enjoyed it and I recommend it to anyone who saw the first season or read the volumes 1 to 3 of the manga. You won't be disappointed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 20, 2023
I'd recommend you to read the manga first. Warning; it is more challenging than the anime, though, but it's better overall. This season corresponds its chapters 1 to 26, which are the best part of the manga by miles.
SUMMARIZED (NO SPOILERS):
This story is about some kids that are not very right in the head getting [bold]really[/bold] fucked up while they pursue their mindless goals in a bizarre hell-like environment, being prey to all kinds of nightmarish beings and individuals, which doesn't deter them from pushing forwards anyway. The "for all audiences" feeling that the creators of the anime pursued feels improper to me. They made
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it look like an anime for children, while it's the opposite in several regards.
I have to say I'd probably rate this one point higher if I hadn't read the manga, basically because most of the changes introduced were done in the wrong direction, so I missed how things were in my first experience with the story. They also wasted a lot of potential of what could have been done by putting it into animation, while in some other regards it really came to life (I understood why people love Nanachi so much after I saw the anime; they really did a good job giving live to the character, both in the japanese version and in the english dub). There are noticeable contrasts in quality within several aspects of the anime, be it the voices, character/creature designs, and animations. Some are really well done, others are unjustifiably terrible.
Other than that, the story is what it is, and the characters are what they are, so the result is still not bad at all, in sum. I eventually enjoyed it, especially the second half.
DETAILED REVIEW (NO SPOILERS):
So, I started watching the original voice version with subtitles, but it became quite unbearable pretty soon. They made Made in Abyss sound and look just like any stereotypical anime for kids, and if you read it, you know that's absolutely not what it is. They flooded it with cute/wholesome anime stereotypes of action and reaction, mostly through the voice acting, but also in the animation itself to some degree, and in the addition of some script lines. If you didn't read the manga, let me tell you that it doesn't feel so childlike, innocent, wholesome and kawaii, even if it has its innocent moments (that the author loves to crush under a disturbing reality). That vibe is overfed into the anime unnecessarily. The characters are barely teenagers, but did they have to sound and act so childlike, to such an extent?
So I switched to the english dub, and it was quite a relief. Most of the voice acting is quite good, except for the children of the orphanage; they didn't mask well that they're adult women interpreting little boys. And... Riko's voice is almost unbearable. Although I'm not sure it was a bad decision to portray her like that; she is supposed to be weird and have a screw loose anyway. Other than that, the voice acting for some of them (Ozen and Nanachi come to mind) was surprisingly good in my opinion.
[EDIT: I watched it again, but this time in the japanese version with subtitles from start to finish. I gotta say that the voice acting really gets better in the second half, better than the english dub even, I'd say. The voice actors of the new characters are better overall, and the scenes themselves get way more serious, and that's where you really see voice acting shine.]
Still, both the opening and ending themes are somewhat ear shattering. You can tell that I don't like the japanese loli voice style. But again, I feel it's a little unfitting for Made in Abyss, especially the ending. There was also another song that was actually very good, but sadly, they put it as an opening for the first chapter alone. Regarding the rest of the music, it's not original nor repeated enough to stick; it's basically a background thing that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. But I have to say that the sound effects are really well done, making some key scenes really immersive.
Regarding the character design and animations, my main complaint is that half of the creatures are so poorly worked on that they're almost ridiculous. Even the difference in quality of the drawing itself stands out visibly in some of them, like it's too obvious that different people worked on them and put in quite a different amount of effort, so a few of them are quite atrocious (the primate-like beings in the Inverted Forest, the rhino-like thing they had to hunt during the test that Ozen put them through... also the animation for the crimson splitjaw made it look like a harmless floating worm with big jaws). But the human(oid) characters themselves are very well adapted; they look totally like in the manga. That was very well done.
And in regards to the script, all the decisions to change the original, be it in content or order (scenes that are changed of order or melded together), are just terrible. There was no reason for it, and they made the first chapters boring, while in the manga they were quite exciting because they were smartly arranged. For the most part, though, they literally carbon copied almost everything, from the images to the angles of view to the dialogs; I wonder, why not go all the way with it, then? [EDIT: The japanese version with subtitles is way more loyal to the original script.]
The only positive change they made is that they slightly toned down the nudity and erotic elements. So now all that feels a little more natural and less out of place... in comparison to the manga. But I bet that if you didn't read it, you will find it confusing anyway. Considering how child-like they made it all feel, they could have toned it down further.
I don't think absolutely all the ADDITIONS they made were bad; some really are, some others are... not. They were perceptive about how fast paced Volume 2 was in the manga, yet, if they filled it up nicely or not is another story. But regarding the ALTERATIONS they did to the original content, aside from reducing the nudity scenes, they made every single decision wrong in my opinion, with no exception. They watered down the impact and seriousness in everything they changed, even if it's not by much.
OTHER DETAILS ABOUT SCRIPT CHANGES (SLIGHT SPOILERS!!):
In the manga, when the time comes, Nanachi still looks conflicted about dealing with Mitty till the very last moment, when she gives Reg the order; also, you don't know what Mitty was doing with Riko until afterwards, when Riko talks about it.
In the manga it's not really clear wether Reg is completely a robot or not, and it's only very late, past the content of this whole season, when it can be really suspected that he is (and still, there are some things off about that supposition, so it's not 100% clear). And the mystery of that made things more interesting; like, what is really him and how did he come to be like that?
In the manga, Nanachi didn't smell bad before the experiment; I mention this because there is speculation that this is an example of the abyss changing people for the better, just because later Nanachi smells good (to Reg anyway). And Nanachi's gender is never clear either, while in the anime is mentioned as "she" by Reg once. The voice was very well chosen to give a neutral feeling, though.
And no, no letter from them reaches the orphanage. I don't understand why they want to make it all look so hopeful and optimistic, it seems half-adapted to a child audience indeed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 13, 2023
I'll rate first each volume independently (without any spoilers at all about the story or characters) and in the end I'll write some conclusion. NO SPOILERS REVIEW.
VOLUME 1 (Chapters 1-8) Score: 7
Wow. Okay, that's some unexpected imaginative stuff. I don't know if it's just me, but I'm used to anything I read being a salad of damn clichés, and this is definitely an exception, and strong at that. It's a kick in the balls of your imagination, to damn wake up and work. It reminds me of the kind of weird fucked up imagination that the Sunless Sea video game builds on, per example; that's
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pretty much the vibe, but way, way less gray and more colorful. Like an LSD trip, in a good way, full of plant and alien nature motives, but with its darker undertones. This first volume doesn't show very much yet, it's clearly a teaser of what's to come, but it's definitely very promising, capital letters. I hope they exploit later what they leave hanging here.
VOLUME 2 (Ch 9-16) Score: 7+
This one was more fast paced. I really enjoyed the slow build up in the first volume, but this one doesn't disappoint anyway. Interesting and extremely imaginative. I wish it was even more fleshed out, I'd eat hundreds of chapters of this. It leaves you hungry for more. Some fighting clichés show up for the first time.
VOLUME 3 (Ch 17-24) Score: 8
Speechless. I really hope the rest of the story stands up to this.
But I wish it would have slowed down. This one has been a rollercoaster, and that's not all good. This part of the story could have been stretched into a couple of volumes.
VOLUME 4 (Ch 25-32) Score: 6
Just like with volumes 2 & 3, I wish this one was less fast paced. This time though, the fast-pacedness is applied to more important parts of the story than just mere exploration. In some pages it's not clear enough what is presently happening vs memories or imaginations, and some times things seem to appear out of nowhere in the very present, and when that happens several times in a row, it dulls down the excitement of important scenes by overdosing you with deus machina that are just too impossible to expect, and that feels a little too artificial. There's a couple of small things that would benefit from some explanation. If the artist put more attention and care in the pacing and avoided rushing things, Made in Abyss would be a masterpiece; there's so much that can be fleshed out from a story and setting that has this much potential.
VOLUME 5 (Ch 33-38) Score: 5+
This author has a problem with pacing and with abusing deus ex machinas. Same problems as in the prior volume; sometimes I don't really understand what's happening, like things were drawn in a rush. They would benefit from coloring for sure (MiA is perfectly built to be turned into anime, but the anime verson has a lot of hits and misses in my opinion). The drawings in genereal are less elaborated overall now, like the backgrounds being skipped too much and the fighting movements just look like a fast moving haze. Some things also just happen too unexpectedly, without any kind of prior hint, so it feels artificial. And the same type of emotional peak is being overexploited, like Made in Abyss only has one emotional trick in its sleeve; the psychopathic abuse of emotional and good intentioned minds that get scarred by a cold demented world, cause they are subject to horrible deeds and decisions that are just too much. Okay, we get it, we wept already the first time, please try different tricks. This is getting lower in quality, although some ideas and the end are still quite masterful, I admit. I just wish the author took the same care as he did in the beginning, and everything was as slow and explained and well drawn as in Volume 1. It seriously feels like the pages where some explanations were given were tore off in this volume.
VOLUME 6 (Ch 38.1-42.2) Score: 6+
My only criticism this time is how fast the characters seemed to just cheer up after all the traumatic experiences and losses from the last chapter in just a few hours as if nothing had happened. That hurts the immersion. Bad, bad. Otherwise, we're back to a good slow pace; time for strengthening the story and deepening the lore. Back to more detailed drawing. I'm loving it again. I hope the author finally quits all the caffeine and stops making it all so rushed. Doesn't he put out one of these per year anyway?
VOLUME 7 (Ch 43-47) Score: 5+
Weird, unexpected; the display of originality comes full force again, with its disturbing quirks bordering the obscene. Downsides; convenient plot twists that feel odd and deus ex machinas are again all over the place, but some parts were quite enjoyable anyway, and in the end it leaves you intrigued. The author seems focused on letting you know his vast array of fetishes, though. He could have made it less evident, it feels a little awkward. Also, the mixture of "cuteness" and disturbing cruelty and obscenity is sometimes just too extreme, it feels forced and ridiculous, hard to take seriously past a certainn point; what is the author trying exactly, constantly forcing this kind of mix? It gets old. Apart from all that, some new characters seem way more shallow and less developed than others. They can just open up and get attached in just a couple of hours of chatting. Although I'm still enjoying this, it's not getting back to the quality of the first volumes.
VOLUME 8 (Ch 48-51.1) Score: 6
Once you accept its quirks, you also gotta admit that this manga is really something else. The author has a problem with pacing and arranging things and keeping them believable and immersive 100%, but his great strength is the crazy imagination that he spills over the whole work. This one was really unexpected. I could go again with the same old complaints (here we have, again, the cruel and demented exploitation of innocence... it does get old), but the fact that you never know where things can go to -or come from- is really out of the ordinary.
VOLUME 9 (Ch 52-55) Score: 5+
A totally new and different emotional element is introduced, and it works really well. But others are repeated yet again. I'm in love with some of the characters, while others still feel very poorly made to me. Some have zero emotional reaction when finding themselves face to face with their nemesis after years of torment; others have an epic and heartbreaking reaction. Serious hits and misses in character depth. I really loved this new bunch of answers and scenes of the past, though.
VOLUME 10 (Ch 56-60) Score: 5+
Instant solutions that come out of nowhere, random plot twists... Things are forced to even out to make sense in ways that are actually quite hollow (no pun intended) and arbitrary, "shallow deep" moral meanings behind the mechanics of things... which sometimes manage to click anyway. Things just happen too fast, before they can really leave much of an impact. I've been getting for a while already the impression that this is like a work for a young audience... while being very obviously for adults. It feels amateurish and self indulgent sometimes, basically. There doesn't seem to be much care invested the final result as a whole; about how things are put together. The author seems only focused on the impact of each scene in itself. I can't deny I'm hooked on the story, the intrigue of what's to come, on how awesome some of the characters are, and the crazy weird beauty of it all. I'll surely keep on until it's finished.
VOLUME 11 (Ch 61-63) Score: 5
Uhm... okay. No answers at all, just new questions about things you don't even know anything about, so it's not even intriguing. I'm also disappointed by instant happy solutions, again, that really have no reason to be; the build up for drama is just laid to waste. A new chunk of bland characters are introduced, that look like you already seen them before, either here or anywhere else. This volume has its charming bits, but in sum it goes absolutely nowhere. It didn't bore me, but in the end I barely even liked it overall. If MiA doesn't make a big comback from this steady delve into medriocrity, I guess the final balance of its pros and cons will depend heavily on how good the ending will be, and to which degree it will make up for the increasinly bland writing.
CONCLUSION:
Waiting for more chapters until I make up my mind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 25, 2022
I'm confused as to how to rate this. I've never rated a manga. It is not even finished, it is already almost at chapter 90 and going.
VOLUME 1
First 7 (+ 0.5) chapters. I love the idea. Volumes are incredibly short, though. I'll check how to organize this review as I keep reading more volumes. The art is a little amateurish, but I guess most mangas are like that. Not the characters nor the story are developed to a substantial extent, but it's so blatant that the whole point of all of it is simply the roles and the easeing of modern age's existential dread and
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alienation.
VOLUME 2
Chapters 8-15.5. I enjoyed this one better. There's more variety of scenes and it helps building the feeling that they're a real family. The scenarios were very well chosen, in my opinion. They really make you feel the closeness between them. Their relationship grows very charmingly.
I agree with the author; this world needs a Senko-san. You'll struggle to find a story that accomplishes its goal so easily. It is as simple as a stone but oh so effective. I can't help but agree with Senko-san ideals also. She's right about everything. Human beings wouldn't be so shitty if they were pampered more often. In my own more-than-eight-centuries dealing with them, I can tell that they need some serious pampering more than they need bread. They get all stupid with politics and all kinds of twisted fuckery because they can't just shut up and let Senko-san pamper them.
The existence of such a character heals your soul... if you let it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 22, 2022
I've just finished watching, and I'm quite conflicted. If you don't want my mixed opinion to influence negatively your decision to watch the anime, skip the next two paragraphs. (Also let me note that the whole review carefuly avoids spoilers!)
I wish I could rate this higher, but the last 2 episodes threw the whole anime off the window for me. Like, it was building up something interesting at a nice slow pace that was quite enjoyable, developing the dynamics between the characters meanwhile, with comprehensible and entertaining situations. Then the 10th episode comes in and pushes the whole plot forward faster than the circumstances themselves
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can make room for. Then the final episode comes in like a real 'fast forward' to the 'end' of the story, which leaves you confused about what you just saw, and why and how is it all connected. After viewing the episode again and making sure you didn't miss any detail, you can confirm that things are simply not very well connected, and it leaves you with the feeling that the true plot of the series was not well developed, like a 10 year old that has an exciting wild idea for a movie and wants to give suspense to it and make good scenes, but doesn't care about connecting things very well and make it all make real sense.
On top of that, everything is (or more correctly, most things are) explained in those last two episodes, and it all happens just too fast and several things are not clear at all. Matching with the analogy of the 10 year old, a lot of the final explanations about the plot come across as implausible deus ex machina that would be logically prevented in real life as simply the easiest route of action. There are a some unrealistic, thoughtless and unexplained behaviors there, coming from all sides just to justify the plot and the ending.
That being said, the first episodes are a f****** delight. I think that the creators of this anime were talented, but they themselves didn't know what they excelled at while doing The Eden of the East. It is the main plot (or the justifications and details about it) which can be considered unsatisfying, while the best moments of this anime are within the parts that can usually be considered filler in other animes; the situations that simply develop the relationships between the characters, or the situations that show a little more of what they are about. That is done with craftful simplicity here, not trying to make it seem more complicated than it is, letting you immerse in the beauty and excitement of the situations themselves, and feel the charm of the characters. The relationship between the main two characters builds up in such a cool but somehow natural manner (even with all the strange elements involved) that it came across as almost magical to me, and at some points very relatable.
The two main characters are a treat indeed, each in their own way. I'm trying not to make spoilers here, so I'll just say that one of them is an awesome nutcase (in a way that I personally loved). The creators showed ability in giving such vibrant and believable personalities to those characters, but they neglected the rest in comparison; they are content in fulfilling their roles, although most do their play just fine. There are a couple of exceptions though, and here, again, I have to point to the last two episodes. Everything there is a mess, including the characters. It has to be mentioned that the anime is only 11 episodes long, and it feels like half of its potential was cut down right there. There are some characters that are presented earlier in an interesting way and showed a great potential to impact on the story, then they leave the screen for an episode or two -nothing wrong with that itself-, but suddenly the anime ends and nothing about them is developed further, nor they reach any kind of closure that the viewer can see or infer. It really feels like the pace at which the story was being presented up until the 9th episode was not actually the pace for a 11 episode anime. I don't know the story behind the development, so I have no clue if they just planned it like this or if they had to cut it down in the end, but to me it feels like it's the second case.
So, in conclusion, I think that they would have made a great, great anime out of this if they focused mainly on the love story. And I'm not a fan of love stories, I'm usually bored by them, but this one -with all the interpersonal details around, and the character personalities, and the intriguing or relatable scenes...- was getting really great and tasty in my opinion. They should have stripped down the main plot to something less grandiose (or maybe just the finale... [METAPHORICALLY-COVERED HALF-SPOILERS HERE] suddenly there's hordes of Johnnies in natural state, the sky booms, some sort of 21th century cyber-Napoleon-move happens in a second... like... WTF? [END OF HALF-SPOILERS]), instead of stripping down the number of episodes. Both things didn't combine well at all. So, I guess the movies will have a saying on all of this.
I still recommend watching The Eden of the East, because those who are not as critical with plot development will most probably find things to love here. I think that half the time it actually kicks ass in some way or another, and you just can't say it's boring or not entertaining. To me, it is saldy flawed in a very specific area, but one that is crucial for any kind of art dependent on story. That aside, the music is cool, the voice actors are very competent, and the art and animation, despite being a little simple to stand out as great, are very cute and effective.
Damn, it was an interesting anime (even with its quirks) until the 10th episode came in. The whole ending seems like an accident, honestly. It feels like another different anime (or a different crew behind it) intruded it and finished it without much care. I hope the movies didn't inherit the same weakness!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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