Made in Abyss

Well. First, don't be fooled by cutesy graphics. Despite featuring children, this anime contains some of the most disturbing scenes I ever seen in anywhere in any anime. There aren't a lot of those, but they're here. Bad things happen. When they do happen, the anime doesn't pull punches. So, this is not kid's friendly stuff.

This is a high quality anime that... that, unfortunately, did not click with me, and I did not enjoy it much.

I'll try to break it down below.

Story: 6/10:

There's a hole in the ground called abyss. Nobody knows how deep it goes, but there's a city built around it, full ... of people who descend into it hunting for relics. The abyss strange, and contains creatures unlike anything on earth. It is also cursed... if you go too far down, you may not be able to return. The anime tells story of two of some characters that decided to venture down.

I found the lore and creatures interesting. However, the atmosphere of the setting didn't really click with me - it is a "journey" anime, and it spends most of the time portraying dangerous and alien world of the abyss. For me the setting looked a bit nice, but if you started digging deeper you'd probably hit a ton of plot holes.

Then again... it is constructed like some sort of fairy tale/journey. Except htat's one hell of a dark fairy tale.

Art: 6/10:
Very high quality backgrounds, however, main characters are pretty much chibis and have small amount of details on their faces. Side characters are well detailed, I'm just not sure why the author decided to utilize chibi protagonists.

Sound: 6/10:
The music was nice, although It didn't "stick" with me.

Characters: 5/10:
In all honesty, there isn't much to tell about them. They play their respective roles. Some of the side stories explaining this or that character are well done... but when I watched it they resembled more of a plot devices than actual people. Not sure if it makes sense or not. Basicaly, it is the same thing as with the story - as long as you don't dig too deep, they work.

Enjoyment: 5/10:
Can't say I enjoyed it. Few of the dark moments that came out of the blue, hit home, but I can't say that I fully appreciated them. It is basically not exactly clear what the anime is trying to be - a tale about travel/journey, a story to horrify viewer, or a bit of all of that. There are well done moments, and art/visual is good ... but as I said, it didn't click with me.

Overall: 6/10:
It is worth checking out due to high production values. However, be aware that the story goes seriously dark at some location, and don't be fooled by cutesy graphics.

And that's all I can say about it.

A good story about adventure and exploration, but in the end it is just wasted potential.


The set up of the story is incredibly interesting: a whole civilization build up on the verge of a mysterious Abyss, which hides magical items and wonderful creatures. Along the story the mystery of the Abyss just intensifies, showing bones of unknown humans that were supposed to live there a long time ago, reminding you of some Dante's Inferno (aided also from the morphological similarity with the Abyss itself) as well as religious faith and the intriguing "curse of the Abyss" which affect every explorer that try to come ... back from the underworld.

Finally, the superior premise of the show is also coupled with very fine art and music: so what can possibly go wrong with Made in Abyss? Well, to put it simple: all the rest. And it is a shame.

Unfortunately, most of the important points of the anime fail to keep up with the incredible world they live in. Let's talk about them in the specific.

- Story development: the pace is really slow. It would not be a problem in general, and I am a big fan of slow stories when they're done right, but this is not the case. Most of the episodes time is wasted by Riko & Reg running away from some (not-so-real) danger, or developing characters which will not appear later on in the show, thus leaving a big chunk of nothing with which to develop the descent of the protagonists. Even the weird compass hold by Riko at the beginning of the show is lost in a river with almost no reaction from the child. Similarly, many interesting themes (where the Abyss come from? there were previous civilization who lived there? why do magic items work, and how do they propel the human civilization? why is risking life for reaching the underworld worth it?, etc.) are just barely touched and their under-development is just a big missing shot. Overall the story is flat, and after 13 episodes you're left with very little apart from what the premise already tell you.

- Characters: they are kids. It would be fine if they were treated as such, thus exploiting this characteristic for a better story development, but this is not the case in my opinion. I can even accept that finding your own mother is a good motivation for throwing your life away in a 99% failure rate travel, but it seems at least weird nobody even tried to made Riko reflect about that. Riko & Reg are obviously too inexperienced for trying a descent in the underworld, yet nobody of the adults really try to stop or to warn them. The only exception is made by Ouzen (which is by far the best character of the series), but even here, when she starts beating the hell out of Reg, the situation is solved by a simple "I was testing you" and everything is back to normal with then an entire episode wasted for the traditional survival-test of 10 days, where almost nothing happens. And this situation perpetrates the whole show: any time the kids are in danger either some other character comes in help or the difficulties are just solved by chance. As a result, characters do not grow, and their attitude at 4th stage of depth is the same they had at 1st. This is another big chance missed, since the premise made you think that the Abyss would be a great school for the adventurers.

- Themes: this is something that is missing in most of the review, even the not-so-positive ones. What are the themes Made in Abyss dealt with? I can barely find the "usual" adventure-show ones, thus mystery and ambition. Especially, it seems sometimes even explicit (terrible thing tho) that the show main theme is "Ambition". But where the ambition of explorers come from in that world? Is Riko really ambitious or is she just moved from the desire of meeting her mother?
No other themes has passed to me, or at least no one seems developed deep enough to leave a sign.



To conclude, my personal experience with this show has been definitely poor, sometimes I was even bored by the story, and only the good graphic and music were able to keep me on track.
I was then also extremely surprised by the tons of positive reviews the show had received, especially already in 2017 (so excluding the movies, which I have not seen yet). Where are they coming from? I tried to read some of them, but I fail to understand the point. Am I missing something?

It can be, but for the moment I would say Made in Abyss is a mediocre anime, which in summary lacks of depth despite having the potential to do so. I am just hoping the later movies will compensate this, but we will see.

This show had so much potential, such an interesting world to explore, so many aspects to delve into, and mysteries to uncover.

But no, it decided to ignore it. This rich and expansive world serves only as a backdrop to the main focus: the relationship dynamic between the show's two main characters Reg and Riko. Which was so forgettable, that I can't even remember what it developed into. Then a third rabbit character Nanami comes in. Don't know what she was doing really.

The side characters are far, faar more interesting. But nope, they never get explored properly.

The sound design really works sometimes, adding to the ... atmosphere. But some parts feel empty when there should've been a track playing.

Some of the worlds are introduced really nicely, the artwork adding to the feeling of curiosity.

But again, never gets explored. Just gets moved past really quickly, only serving as another backdrop for the characters to navigate.

I also did not like the fact that the abyss is talked up to be this really dangerous and arduous place for even the most experienced divers to go down. But the two main characters, both of whom are children and have little to no experience dealing with it's hardships, breeze through with so little effort that you'd be left wondering what the heck everyone else has been doing for so long. The robot Reg's mechanical arm just skips whole sections, and barely anything comes in their path.

They only get into actual danger once, and even that gets used only for shock factor points. Then a random plot convenient rabbit saves them and everything's back to normal.

Maybe I'm ragging on specifics too much. But I still did not like how nothing that is even remotely interesting gets the fleshing out it needs.

It's still a relatively pleasant show to watch though, owing it mostly to the artwork and the small sense of atmosphere it creates. I am just really disappointed with what it could've turned out to be as opposed to what it actually is.

Do you enjoy seeing kids cry and suffer? Me too!
Made in Abyss is an anime you definitely should watch right now. It's good. Go watch it now, you don't need to read the full review, it's so much better than 99% of anime. The staff that worked of it did a masterful job, everything is treated with such care that it's almost impossible to not be charmed by it.

This is my score
Story: 9
Art: 10
Sound: 10
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 6
...
You may notice something weird. Why the hell is the overall only 6 when the mean of the other scores is 9.5? The answer is simple, it's because I am a piece of shit, I like to point out everything that doesn't sit well with me about this anime, and I'm gonna do that now.
The negative sides of Made in Abyss are pretty obvious as soon as you start watching it, the kids are written in an inappropriate way, with sexual innuendos surrounding them that reflects japan's inappropriate interest in pedophilic themes. I found myself being disgusted by that so I can't ignore it. The second reason why my score is only 6 is because this anime is about a journey into the abyss, which only just started, so basically we end the season at its start point. I have to rate the season as a whole, i think they should've done 24 episodes at least to go a bit forward into the story.

Now onto the positive sides. The story was crafted with care, love and passion. The world of Made in Abyss is complex, fascinating and beautiful. The characters feel genuine, they have natural bonds and act in a coherent way with their characterization. This anime is without a doubt a superior product compared to other anime, if I had to rate it without taking in consideration the negatives it'd be a 8, and I tend to keep my scores low, so trust me when I say you will enjoy this without a doubt.

Made in Abyss grabbed my attention way back when it was first announced with it’s unique art on the teaser poster. However I didn’t get around to watch it for quite a while, I finished it about 30 minutes before writing this review actually.
So what are my thoughts on it? Let’s start the review.

- S T O R Y -
Despite the extremely thrilling premise that just yells ''GRANDIOSE ADVENTURE'', you really don't get any of that.
The characters barely go through anything yet progress so much due to the extremely fast pacing. The series is extremely telegraphed in that aspect, as you always know when Reg ... and Riko face a big danger and manage to overcome it, they're practically at the end of the layer and will dive even further only for the same ''Explore a bit, get into a hopeless situation, prevail'' cycle to repeat.
Practically the whole series' plot can be summed up to the same length of the previous paragraph.

The series does introduce a villain by the end of the season as a set up towards the announced sequel but he is nothing but a textbook bad guy, since nothing screams evil more than ''Booo gruesome experiments on children''.

Despite this, the series have a lot of emotion in them alongside an extremely well constructed world with a lot of potential for further development.

- C H A R A C T E R S -
Made in Abyss is full of visually distinct and memorable characters but a lot of them are extremely simple as personalities.
They have no depth or any inner conflicts, what you see is what you get. What the characters say, that's what they think, what they say, they feel, there's never a moment of subtlety or expressiveness without mentioning what they're expressing with words outside of a major moment in the final episode.
All of them have valid motives for what they're doing, be it sense of exploration accompanied with wanting to meet your mother who's waiting at the bottom of the Abyss or wanting to find out who you are. The motives don't feel weak but sometimes the conviction of the characters' does and unintentionally so.

- A R T & A N I M A T I O N -
The art is absolutely gorgeous, no other way around it. It's extremely detailed and atmospheric. The world couldn't have been portrayed better. The animation is good enough, although the quality jumps a lot.
It's usually above average with plenty of double framing and that works, but out of nowhere it can get real smooth and dynamic when an action scene comes. Which wouldn't have been so haphazard... if... the smooth animation didn't occasionally show up out of nowhere on some completely arbitrary moments. It's kind of evident whenever a better key animator's turn comes around to animate a portion of the episode.

That's a minor nitpick though. The smooth animation is welcome.
It compliments the show's world as a whole and could be really expressive given it's quality if the characters just let it do it's own work instead of yelling out their emotions constantly.

- S O U N D T R A C K -
The OST is fantastic, it's extremely memorable and almost always played at the right moment to play with your feelings. The whole track list has that sense of mystery, beauty, sadness and adventure at the same time so almost every piece of the score can be used at any given moment and it'd fit perfectly.
The compositions are mostly made of orchestral arrangements and medleys with touching vocals.
I do feel like the track ''Hanazeve Caradhina'' was played a bit too much (4 times in total) for what it was.
It's the most special track in the whole OST so it should've been handled with a bit more care as it's amazing.

- O V E R A L L -
I think Made in Abyss is a really good show overall with plenty of positives but is stopped from being the grandiose adventure it's supposed to be due to it's extremely quick pacing and lack of exploration. The characters sometimes feel like they literally fly past the Abyss' layers.
It's definitely worth a watch though. When Season 2 comes around I'll definitely watch it.

I'm writing this right after finishing the show and really I only finished the show because of it's high rating and the MyAnimeList and r/anime groups thinking that this anime is the saviour of this season. But if not for these two communities upping the anime, I definetely wouldn't have finished it and after watching it through now, I don't think I would've missed out on much.

First off, lets start out with the parts of the show that I thought were good. The final episodes, though not perfect were better than the excurciatingly slow beginning/middle of the anime. The final episodes, starting realistically from somewhere ... around episode 10 is where the real shocking part of this show surfaces. It starts to become incredibly disturbing. Now while, yes, the things shown were disturbing, I ultimately felt there wasn't much point to them by the conclusion of the story or atleast the conclusion of this season. But, nonetheless these moments were exciting in a sort of horror movie jump scare type of way. But, the show could've focused more on stuff like this than what they were showing in the beggining of the show.

Now, the bad parts of this for me can be summed up in it's bad/mediocre animation, boring/muddy artstyle, and the character dynamics between RIko and Reg (the main characters). The animation for one thing is incredibly inexpressive. Shows that I would consider expressive would be shows like Death Note, Hyouka, Zetsubo-sensei, Konsuba, and many many more. The things that these shows have is differing animation for different moments. Sometimes the characters might become chibi or they might get more detail for some effect or maybe there would be a close-up with increased animation for a movement or some stretch in the body for comedic effects or whatever. But Made In Abyss, this isn't the case. It felt the same whether they were fighting, hugging or whatever for a majority of the show. One example would be when they have this big haggard looking guy that comes looking for them and when he hugs them goodbye, I didn't really feel any emotional impact because I don't think it was expressed through animation in any meaninful way. Anime like Wolf Children, Garden of Sinners, and even World God Only Knows has better emotional hugging from the animation.

Now, the artstyle too is just boring. It's pretty much just this dirt color with character designs that are extremely simple, even all the adult characters. When I first saw Riko's mother, I was frankly dissapointed. The simply artstyle is used well in other places like Madoka Magicka where there are scenes where it becomes much more abstract and the character designs then are in comparison fine (still not a huge fan though of the character art in Madoka)

The characters are also a big problem. Riko is just unlikeable to me and her personality and her drive to go to the abyss seems artifical, like the writers needed her as a conduit to move the story forward and thus any scene with her felt kind of weird, cause I don't really see any chemistry between the heroine and the other characters. Now, disliking Riko is something that might just be personal to me. I don't know why but I don't like her positive attitude and the weird ass motif of her wetting her pants (I get it, this show is realistic and abrasive and all that but you don't have to keep showing it if there's no real point to it) and her obsession with the abyss. I found one character, Nanacci to be pretty decent (though not her design) and probably would've been better for the story if more of the focus was on her, atleast for more episodes. Another character that felt like bait to the viewers to sympathize/like was Ozen. I bet some people liked her and all that but like every other minor character, she just felt like filler to try to move the characters/story smoothly to lower levels of the abyss.

I find there's so much just small things about the show that I had issue with while watching it and after finishing it, i'm incredibly compelled to write my opinion, regardless of how unpolished or unpopular it is simply because I don't think this is a special anime by any means. There are shows that are more philosophical (Kino no Tabi, Serial Experiments Lain, paranoia agent), there are shows that are more disturbing (Kaiji, Madoka Magica, Kakegurui,berserk) and there are many many more shows with better pacing and plot.

If you like dark animes that have the pretense of being lighthearted, this definitely fits that category. It not super in-your-face gory but it does present some gory themes and actions that can be hard to watch. One thing I liked a lot about this anime is that it is fast-paced and you're surprised how far they've gotten by the end of the first season. One thing I don't like about this anime is the weird sexual overtones. I've seen people justify it as "artistic choice" and "natural examination of children being curious about sex" but it feels very uncomfortable at times. Others have said ... the mangaka's social media makes it fairly obvious that this is more about fetishization than artistic exploration.

overrated in abyss

tone is inconsistent, it has great fantasy/worldbuidling that isn't investigated as much as it should, instead with focus on torture porn (we get it, there's suspense) with additional questionable scenes

otherwise its a fine anime, not complete enough for a solid judgement, i think everyone saying AOTS or AOTY is jumping a gun though, its a tad too superficial and the characters really ask for everything they get (although thematically i think it treads to far into the darker/edgier when it could easily have gone for a lighter tone while maintaining suspenseful atmosphere)

its got nice twists but for gods sakes it gets far ... to much praise for at best a memorable shounen

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents to what I found to be an over-hyped show.

Personally, I gave this show a shot because of the high ratings and the convincingly positive reviews and maybe because I had such high expectations for it, I wasn't too fulfilled by the end of it. So lemme just give a brief review just to deter future watchers from starting the show with unrealistic expectations.


Story: 6/10
The first couple of episodes builds upon this unique idea of a city located around a mysterious abyss and the dire repercussions people face to explore it. The idea presents so much ... potential but this season was so poorly executed. Essentially, the pacing is slow at first and then switches to extremely fast making the bulk of the show super vague, unnecessary, or just plain random.

-----
More detailed analysis (with minor? spoilers):

The story starts off really slow by ruminating on insignificant nothings before finally entering the abyss. Then the pace picks up drastically where they basically skip from one level to the next an episode a level even though they are the most amateur cave raiders. Like they make it look so easy and if you're not going to elaborate on each level (at least represent the difficulties of the level more clearly), then why bother making the abyss a 7 level system? Might as well make it a 3 level system. Don't get me started on the last couple of episodes that felt way too out of place to be part of the show. I felt like the author just thought the show was going nowhere so they inserted an idea from Shinsekai Yori to make it more heart wrenching (I mean, they successfully tugged my heart strings, but still felt like a cheap shot).
-----

At the end of the season, basically none of my questions from the beginning of the show were answered and a completely new (and irrelevant) element was added and thus, the story was headed a different direction which just felt like poor planning from the creator. Who knows, maybe the second season will tie everything together well.


Art/Sound: 8/10

Won't spend much effort on these two sections. I love the art especially, beautiful scenery that totally satisfied my thirst for a fantasy-based anime. Music was also good, soft and gentle OST to invoke the appropriate emotions.


Character: 5/10
Character development I would say was quite poor. After all, many of the characters were completely wiped out (not literally!) and made insignificant from the show after the first 2 episodes LOL. So there weren't many characters to begin with, and the few characters there were weren't too well formed. They don't grow over the course of the anime either. Because of their poor development, I couldn't get too attached to them so I wasn't too moved during more tragic scenes. A part of it was also because I just didn't like the characters all that much and couldn't really relate (and not just because they were little kids).... but then again, I don't like 90% of anime girls, so maybe you, my dear reader, would feel differently.


Enjoyment: 6/10
I have to admit, what kept me going through the first few episodes were the positive reviews I've read. So I kept holding out for the dark turn of events which ultimately had me disappointed. But anyway, I would say I enjoyed it to some extent still. Each episode would leave on a really good cliffhanger (despite the rest of the mediocre episode) so I ended up watching a bunch in one go. And don't get me wrong, it had its fair share of good, captivating moments too.


Overall, I'd say it's around a 6/10 for me. Just don't go with especially high expectations. I think that way, you'll feel more content at the end of it. ;)

#gaveyoufairwarning

Honestly, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed by this. I think knowing it would take a darker twist before heading into this probably ruined a lot of the watching experience for me - this starts off like a typical sort of adventure anime with cutesy art, and slowly things continue getting darker the deeper they progress into the abyss, with human experimentation and brutal injuries. The characters didn't particularly stand out to me though, and knowing that this would get darker kind of took me out of the story and made this more of a waiting game than anything else. I am still ... intrigued about where the story will progress from here, but I'm not as invested as I would have liked to have been at this stage.

Spoilers below!

Also fair warning, I will be commenting on the pedophilic undertones in the anime so if you’re already against that discussion, feel free to avoid my review..

A lot of people, although maybe minority have already addressed their observations regarding this issue in Made in Abyss.

So over to the anime, It was just decent. I’d rate it anywhere between 6.5/7. I would have rated it higher if it wasn’t for the subtle disturbing sexual innuendos forced on 12 year old kids.

The animation visuals were undeniably breathtaking. The aesthetics of world building of the mysterious city of Orth, circumventing around a bewildering, mysterious pit, the Abyss ... is indeed fascinating. The concept itself is enough to spark intense intrigue from the beginning. However, I found the series loosing momentum at various points throughout the watch. We’ve been kept told about how dangerous the Abyss is, and how only a handful of people called whistles make it back, but that dangers so profoundly articulated by the narrative is reduced by one third of it’s level when the protagonists, two 12 years old's embark on descending the abyss.

Maybe it’s the leads. I couldn’t be any less interested in what Riko and Reg will do because they somehow overcome the dangers via plot armor and Riko, just has no character development, other than being the oblivious kid who is the least concerned about anything around her. That’s aside from the constant “Reg, please protect Riko” insinuated by secondary characters every now and then and rather than a power duo effort, it’s Reg who always saves the day, it gets annoying. The leads and their chemistry are not the most interesting, in a way I couldn’t care what happened to them. There’s something missing in their motivations to make me root for them. The only few characters that's really worth of admiration despite a short screen time are Ouzen, Nanachi and Bondrewd.

The series makes you think that with every descension of one layer below the other, the more compelling it would be for the protagonists, that I thought they’d take few episodes to make it to the next. But that intensity is rarely felt. I couldn’t feel the pounding danger at all. There were loopholes in the technicality of the abyss ascension nd descension which were not explained well.

Last but not the least. Maybe because I don’t know, It creeps me out. I really don’t find anything appealing in the of fan-servicing of 12 year prepubescent children. It’s not anything new in Anime, but it also strips the seriousness of the plot and characters by shoving the fan-servicing attributes into it. I also, found the last bit of conversation between Nanachi, Reg and Riko very unpalatable. I don’t find such subtle insinuations of sexual talk between children to be tasteful unless if it’s teenagers or adults. I am more graveled by the mindset of the author in trying to incorporate those insinuations when the plot could’ve done very well without constantly reminding about Reg’s penis, and showing Riko naked. The way to enforce the fact that they’re innocent kids by putting them in the hyperbolic scenarios that children shouldn’t be while catering it to adults, is like pot calling the kettle back. I mean what was the necessity of Reg and Riko completely going naked in the pool, and Reg getting a boner and Nanachi also another 12 years old subtly insinuating the atmosphere as romantic. This whole scene gave me the creeps. These are fucking children. But enthusiasts will always find reasons to defend them as cinematic art, or plot necessity to prove their innocence. No Sherlock, it’s only in anime, and anime the lolicon/shoticon fetishes' are normalized under the veil of story telling or plot requirement. As though there hasn’t been masterpieces of fantasy/adventure genres made involving children without the need to make them naked or make a skinny dipping scene of 12 year old children talking about boners. It a latitude existing only in anime to make it dark and believable. To top it off it’s aimed for adults which makes it all the more sense why it’s just for fanservice and fetish and not for plot. It’s morally convoluted if for an adult to drill these gimmicks between children. We all know what happened when cuties came out on Netflix.

So, I’m not the most excited to see the second season. I’m definitely turned off especially after hearing how the author is apparently a pedophile who satiates his fetish for prepubescent children through his work.

But, would love to see more of the other characters though than focusing on a budding romance between children through precarious ways. Welp, I guess this is not like TPN.

I was really looking forward to this anime because it's so praised. A total of 13 episodes and the first 8 episodes are annoying introductions and a borefest.

Of the 13 episodes, what is expected to happen from the begining you have to wait for it to only happen in the 9th episode. That's just too much waiting if you ask me. Only the last 5 episodes are good. Seriously, it feels like the anime starts at episode 9! There was no need of wasting so much time,they could have made that introduction part in 2-3 episodes but they've dragged it into 8!
Go-stop, hugging, ... crying, the main character's irritating voice just causes the viewer to not even care what happens to her. The characters are made to look ugly and not interesting, so only the last 5 episodes have something going on.
That is, if you enjoy watching children cry and be in pain. Horrible. Why would any adult let children go into such a dangerous place in the first place?

What's done right is the music, the background scenery and design of the monsters. The rabbit girl and her friend's story, I liked. It was sad and emotional. That villain plot line has potential for Season 2.
 

This show was a major disappointment for me.

After all the high praise and it's excellent 8.8 rating (at the time of writing this), I decided to check out why this show is so beloved by all those who watch it. I went in blind without knowledge of plot or characters and here is what I found.

The good:

-The show's presentation is brilliant and incites mystery in all of it's aspects
-Visually it is well conceived, The main characters are all unique looking, drawn with a cute chibi style.
The environment is incredibly detailed and varied at each layer.The is also a vast diversity of creatures that ... dwell within the abyss and the ones our protagonists
encounter are unique and interesting.
-Music was pretty decent but it is heavily subjective and I can see many people loving.The audio design however flip flopped between repetitive,obnoxious or
brilliant and imaginative.I still think it was good overall.
-Story keeps you entertained and curious throughout. After the premise is set the audience gets a taste of the world in the first layer and it sets a precedent for the
rest of the show.

The bad:
-Characters, most characters here are mediocre at best.
-Exploration of the world outside the abyss is poor
-Plot conveniences and inconsistencies

The ugly
-The existence of Riko
-Constant exposition of obvious things

(DISCLAIMER: mild spoilers from here on)

To explain further,
(bad)
The cast of protagonists are bland and uninteresting.Reg doesn't do anything to make me hate him but at the same time I really don't think his character exists beyond "Who am I" and "I want to save Riko". Nanchi,Ouzen and Bondrewd are the only decent characters.

The world of this show extends beyond the abyss (we see that characters are taken outside the area of the abyss and people trade with others outside the city of Orth) but it isn't explored or even explained, the show only cares about the abyss, which is understandable if it want for the fact that the world outside Orth is unaffected and hence may provide clues about the curse.

The show spends an awful amount of time convincing us that the abyss is a dangerous place and that Black and Blue whistles are borderline superhuman.How then does a bumbling 12 year old girl who is incapable of doing anything but cook descend 4 layers without much trouble at all? (trouble starts at layer 5)
The answer is a plot device robo boy who is immune to the 80% of the affects of the abyss and whose sole purpose in S1 was to rescue said bumbling 12 year old.
It undermines all the black and white whistles out there, Riko and Reg luck out too many times.

Now the worst parts,
The existence of Riko hindered most of my enjoyment of the show, she is a useless, irrational brat who wants to push well beyond her ability. Surprisingly however, she gets punished for it but it still seems like they went in with no real plan or preparation, they just decided that they are going fully aware that they will probably die.To be fair, that how children are.They behave irrationally and it's totally understandable that a child would behave like that and make those decisions but unfortunately that leads to a very frustrating watch.It's like watching a toddler try to drive. For the entirety of the show Riko was a burden to Reg(even though he didn't feel that way) and made me want to punch a 2D drawing through my screen.

When it's not Riko's turn to be annoying, Reg takes over (Reg only borrows this role from time to time) in his brilliant observations of obvious things and then repeating those observations verbally. "Show don't tell" doesn't exist in the abyss I guess.

Lastly,
The random pedophilia. A lot of people said that it was gratuitous but for the most part it wasn't. It acts as a way to explore the weird nature of Reg's human/robot tendencies sometimes but it never felt sexualized except for the scene in the finale(even that can be argued as a way to explore Regs human and robot nature).It may make some people uncomfortable and so I mention it but for me it wan't too much of an issue.Nudity doesn't immediately mean sexualization but in the case of minors that can be a very sensitive topic.

I initially tried reading the reviews before watching this as I did not trust the sky high rating. The reviews, as usual, attracted all sorts of lunatics and morons who are either giving it a perfect 10 because they were overcome by a manufactured sad scene with sad music or gave it a 1 because they had no patience, any basic plot comprehension ability, or freaked out over shirtless pre-teens and that one animal character, sanctimoniously denouncing pedophilia, furries, lolicons, etc. when the show has none of these. In the end I would still have to make my own judgment and not rely on the ... idiocy of the internet.

Let's get some things straight here. This is a CHILDRENS anime, meant for JAPANESE children. It's designed for children, paced for children, and comes with jokes about penises, poop, and nudity that Japanese children find funny. It's not some weird fetish show unless you want to twist it into one. Just because it happens to be anime and on the same list as the next ecchi giant knocker robot maid outfit cat ear girl superpower show on MAL doesn't mean it's targeted at the same audience.

And because it's a CHILDRENS show, the pacing will be slow. No matter how much you want this to be faster paced and to have more plot threads hanging in the air to add to the complexity, it is ultimately designed for the developing and often superficial and limited mind of a ten year old.

But wait! How can such a dark anime that regales in death, despair, tragedy, and deep foreboding still be considered a children's anime? The obvious answer is to stop comparing everything to wimpy and silly saturday morning cartoons from the west. Just because it is meant for children, doesn't mean it can't have elements that adults find appealing, like Harry Potter. As an adult viewer, there are some good anime out there shackled by their need to appease a younger audience, such as Dennou Coil, Yakusoku no Neverland, Souja Erin, etc., creating pacing issues, but ultimately it's something you have to live with as otherwise the chances of it even being animated is significantly reduced.

As for the actual review of the anime. It has both highs and lows, but ultimately feels like an incomplete prologue. Nothing too exciting really happens for the first half of the series other than a mild stream of exposition of the world as the two protagonists prepare for and reach the beginning of the abyss. Halfway in, there is a dramatic reveal that turns the somewhat cheery demeanor of the show into much darker territory, followed by a loss of innocence by the very end.

In between the handful of dramatic moments, however, it's the frequent inane drivel and bumbling clumsiness of the main female character that ends up pushing the plot forward, breaking much of the previously established credibility. She runs her mouth constantly and is the literal embodiment of a blonde bimbo. Her face is just so punchable. She gets into a predicament one after another after another because she keeps blindly walking into monster dens, alerting predators with her yammering, or falling into obvious traps, lacking any caution or prudence. This is even after all the training, lecturing, and harrowing encounters. She is completely useless with no ability to defend herself still and can't even navigate the terrain. Considering the plot is supposed to revolve around her becoming a great explorer following in her mother's footsteps, you can see how there's a major problem here, one that doesn't resolve itself at the end of the 13 episodes. The robot boy also can't do much outside of extending his arms and using a last resort style weapon that leaves him incapacitated. He is mostly a form of transport. They eventually meet up with a third party member by the end, but the sheer incompetence displayed and the reliance on luck or being saved by other people makes you wonder how the hell they plan to actually go even further down into the abyss.

As far as art and animation. I had skipped over this anime originally because I thought the way they drew the children was HIDEOUS. They look like deformed asian buns. It really undermines any serious moment when all I can think of is punching them in the face. The animation otherwise is above average and the music really pushes those dramatic moments, except for the extremely out of place and irritating male falsetto vocals.

Most of the engagement in the story comes from the intrigue and suspense over the fascination of the unknown that is the abyss. The characters seem almost inconsequential. A byproduct of the many mysteries within its depth. So little is unearthed or revealed that it's a shame only the surface has been scratched after the credits on the last episode rolls by.

So I came into this anime excited because it was branded as a “gruesome disguised as cute” type of show. My expectation was clearly too high, and I was majorly disappointed.

The first 9 episodes were boring as hell. It’s just these two kids descending the abyss, without anything disturbing that I wanted to see. Sure that there were a good amount of creatures, but they weren’t really that intriguing. The girl was borderline annoying. I didn’t find much thrill in the adventure.

Then episode 10 hit and that was the first of the two major disturbing scenes that I yearned to see. I knew it ... was gonna be gruesome, but damn it was worse than I imagined, mainly because it happened to a kid. The disturbing scene in episode 13 was just as messed up.

Despite this, it took way too long to get to these gruesome moments. The Promised Neverland and Wonder Egg Priority were also unexpectedly disturbing anime, but they introduced the gruesomeness very early on. This instantly hooked me into the story. By the time I got to the first gruesome scene in Made in Abyss, I was almost checked out of the story. Also, I would love to see 2 or 3 more messed up moments.

Overall, I was bored for most of it until the disturbing scenes came up. 5.5-6/10

By instinct, I am wary of series whose lead character is a teenage orphan that wishes to go on an adventure to “explore the unknown”. Especially so when our lead character has not met their parents in 10 years, one of them being a legendary explorer that the mere mention of their name conjures up awe and stupefaction. We have seen this a thousand times before – Hunter x Hunter, One Piece to just name two series that have effectively used this Bildungsroman trope in the past. But while those two series are over 100 episodes long and Made in Abyss is just 13 episodes. ... Furthermore, this is advertised as seinen and reviews mention how hard hitting and visceral this series is – so surely, Made in Abyss can’t be standard shonen trope-fest, right?

Wrong.

Made in Abyss is as standard as garlic bread in an Italian restaurant. To be sure, it’s decent garlic bread. But it is not so great that you would want to rush to Yelp or your favorite restaurant review site to proclaim how you have had “TEH BEST GARLIC BREAD EVAR!!!!”. It’s just about as good as any other garlic bread you would get in the Italian restaurant down the road.

Let me take one concrete example. In Episode 5, our two leads (Riko and Reg) arrive at a resting place where they meet an ominous character named Ouzen. Ouzen offers our leads a place to rest and is the perfect host. Then, the following day, Ouzen beats the living daylights out of them only to reveal that she was testing them. Then she becomes their mentor and is later revealed to have been Riko’s mother’s mentor as well! Over some flashbacks, Ouzen reminisces to herself how similar Riko is to her mother. Again – there is nothing original here. I could have replaced Ouzen and Riko with Jiraya and Naruto respectively and ended up with exactly the same result. This is either flattery at its best, or plagiarism at its worst.

In its defense, Made in Abyss does have some merits that set it apart from most other anime. For starters, the introduction of Nanachi in Episode 11 marks a turning point for the series. The plot gets more serious, emotional stakes are raised and by the 13th episode it appears that the plot is finally starting to become more original and worthy of the viewer’s attention. Sadly, the 13th episode is the final episode. I guess this is how modern capitalism works – make a 13 episode series only to lure in viewers to their local cinema for the sequel. In return for a $15 charge.

Furthermore, both the animation and the sound department are exceptional. Either this series had a high budget or was especially well loved by the animators. The music is by Kevin Penkin – a British-Australian – and his Western musical style stands in stark contrast to most other anime that tend to use simple piano chords or taiko drums in their musical score. The songs are also remarkable in that they are not the standard “moe-kun-nyaa-nyaa” auto-tuned vocaloid garbage that is the scourge of most anime music these days but actually well sung duets. Good stuff.

Should you watch Made in Abyss? Sure – it’s not bad and there are far much worse anime out there. Furthermore, the last four episodes, tend to make up for a lackluster beginning and middle. Just don’t expect it to rock your world. Made in Abyss is an average series. This is not a 10 – it’s a 6.

Trigger warning for mental and physical abuse & sexualization of children for this series

Definitely do not recommend this for abuse survivors, as this has multiple episodes romatizing child abuse that were very hard to watch. The choice to make the focus of the series CHILDREN does not work with the plot & dialogue and just seems like some of the creators wanted to satisfy their pedophilia. There is a disturbing obsession with the "robot boy" Reg's genitals and boners and the girl main character peeing herself. It could be excused if it was only mentioned once, but both of these are brought up multiple times ... during the series.

Yeah, I guess the world building is cool and interesting, but all of this should've been done with teen characters. Right now it is a perfect series for pedophiles, even if it wasn't intended to be.

Made in Abyss

I am sure you are aware it is a pretty dark show hidden behind a lighthearted facade. It is decently done and the characters are likeable? enough?

But I'm writing this review to point out how uncomfortably blatant the writer is with his pedophilia fetishes. Yes. That is what I wrote. I just finished this show moments ago and it just baffles me how this show was rated so high with the amount of disgusting fetishes animated here with no backlash.

let's see:
- pee fetish, check. I get it they are children but please stop making them urinate at any given moment.
- obsession ... with Reg's genitalia. I do not care and it was funny the first time because he's a robot and its unexpected, but enough is enough.
- a literal child with boobs in a skimpy crop top. Mitty.
- multiple mentions of sticking things up the children's butt.

Listen, having little kids with a crush on one another is really cute but it.. should be wholesome. They are children.

If you are uncomfortable with seeing this, please don't watch. It's a real real shame because there are some really great things about this anime. The characters are developed well and the world building is just great and leaves you wondering.

TLDR; please stop rating this 10/10 and giving it such a high rating. It has a good story but not good enough for me or anyone to overlook pedophilia. Thanks.

Not sure why this is rated so highly, is elf yodeling and art all these heathens care about?

Nothing is memorable about this anime except Nanachi, a character you get introduced to in the last 3/4ths. Mediocre story, mediocre characters, the abyss is complete joke for the most part, overrated show only artistic weebs would call a masterpiece, skip it unless you're 12 and only care for aestetic.

Main character sucks balls, the story is half assed, they spend 3 episodes in a village doing jack shit, everything about this anime is sub par except for Nanachi, good day everyone.


Also how is 4 out of 10 decent, ... MAL's rating system needs an upgrade last time I checked 4 out of 10 is below average.

5.5/10 at best.

Story

The premise for the show is fairly intriguing as the mysteries of the Abyss are slowly uncovered. Sure wish the pacing was better. The vast majority of the show is very slowly paced with little of note happening. It felt more like filler despite only being a short 13 episode series. The excitment is very fragmented, the last episode is by far the best one of the whole series. The earlier episodes did little to hold my attention, I was doozing out for the most part. I did not like the light hearted moments and definitely preferred when the series was more dark.

Art

Reminds me ... of Madoka Magica in terms of art style. It is a good juxtaposition to all the macrabre horror that happens later on in the series. Well animated as well. Animation and art is not a weakpoint.

Sound

I did not find the music to be anything super noteworthy.


Character

Not a strong point of the series. I am very indifferent to the two leads. Nothing about them really stood out for me. My favorite character, Nanachi did not show up until the tail end of the series. Her and Mitty's backstory was easily the best part of the series. Other than those two, I was very indifferent to the supporting cast.

Enjoyment

I heard great things about this series. I went in with a lot of expectations. I found the pacing to be a serious problem and the characters with a few excpetions were not doing it for me. Ultimately I am glad, I stuck around till the ending, but overall this was an average experience at best.

Overall

There were many moments when I lost interest in the show. I would go out of my way to recommend this anime.