Made in Abyss

The Abyss—a gaping chasm stretching down into the depths of the earth, filled with mysterious creatures and relics from a time long past. How did it come to be? What lies at the bottom? Countless brave individuals, known as Divers, have sought to solve these mysteries of the Abyss, fearlessly descending into its darkest realms. The best and bravest of the Divers, the White Whistles, are hailed as legends by those who remain on the surface.

Riko, daughter of the missing White Whistle Lyza the Annihilator, aspires to become like her mother and explore the furthest reaches of the Abyss. However, just a novice Red Whistle herself, she is only permitted to roam its most upper layer. Even so, Riko has a chance encounter with a mysterious robot with the appearance of an ordinary young boy. She comes to name him Reg, and he has no recollection of the events preceding his discovery. Certain that the technology to create Reg must come from deep within the Abyss, the two decide to venture forth into the chasm to recover his memories and see the bottom of the great pit with their own eyes. However, they know not of the harsh reality that is the true existence of the Abyss.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Reg Main

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Riko Main

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Nanachi Supporting

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Bondrewd Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Ouzen Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Mitty Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Lyza Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Marulk Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Jiruo Supporting

Murata, Taishi Japanese

Kiyui Supporting

Hanawa, Manami Japanese

Yamashita, Shinpei Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Ogasawara, Muneki Producer, Planning

Reviews

Nov 4, 2025

drageus_

Recommended

Criminally underrated. This should get more attention than it already does and I wonder why it doesn't.

If I had to guess it's the fanbase scaring away potential new viewers by making them think Made in Abyss is disturbing. Yes, the story is less cute than the characters may portray, but in my opinion it's not ''disturbingly'' gruesome. It's brutal and raw. It's like the writer's fantasy has no limits, and the storyline knows no boundaries. This makes you don't have a clue what's coming, and that's exactly what makes this show so bloody addictive. Nowhere in the show I felt like what was happening ... was off-putting, or unnecessary to the development to the story. But that may be a subjective matter.


Conclusion: Watching these adorable characters go through such a heartbreaking, yet wholesome adventure, is something you should definitely give a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 30, 2025

AntonyAV

Mixed Feelings

Made in abyss is a very creative anime where a civilization exists around a giant chasm that beckons people in, but is increasingly harder to climb out of as people descend. Our very young protagonist, Riko, wants to go down because she receives what are likely the last writings of her mother, a famous explorer of the abyss that descended beyond a point of no return.

The animation and sound design are good, nothing to note.

The story is filled with compelling, intense, shocking, moving and action-packed moments, it kept me intrigued from beginning to end and wanting to know more. I must warn you, though, not ... only is this anime kind of gory and hard to digest, our protagonists are children. But what bothers me the most is the frequent sexualization they get, it's small things like how they're punished by being strung up naked to humiliate them (even if we don't see them naked), or how Reg, the other main character who is mostly a boy (with the plausible deniability of "well, technically he's probably not even human and very old...") gets horny very easily and clearly desires Riko.

There were a lot of moments that got a "hmmm" out of me, but didn't take much enjoyment away as they can be easily brushed off as the young kids being innocent or the culture of the abyss being totally different. However after watching the movie and 2nd season I can confirm that the author has a strong and clear pedophilic bias. Also, a story so filled with mysteries requires a great writer to keep it engaging as more and more is unveiled, I don't think very highly of the writer after seeing how the quality increasingly suffers as the story goes on.

This first part is very good but don't expect it to continue that way. If you don't mind the weird pedo vibes that sometimes come up, and a abysmal downgrade in quality in the continuations then go ahead and watch, this anime is very famous so maybe it's worth the watch just to see what the hype is all about, as I said the premise is great and the execution is initially very well done, I'm giving it an 8 judging only these first 13 episodes as a standalone work, without taking into consideration what comes next, but just FYI, I gave the 2nd season a 3.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 7, 2025

Merra_

Not Recommended

An unfinished rant/review from my Notes app:
Made in Abyss bites off more than it can chew. Its opening montage promises a huge mystery, with its explanation of the Abyss and how no one knows how it came to be.
But the show in and of itself, lacks any subatance, exposition, or worldbuilding.
To start with the good things, however few they may be, there's only the voice acting and soundtrack.

Its soundtrack, though nice and fitting to the show, isn't exactly memorable but isn't bad either. Most of the songs sound similar, and are made more so due to the show's inability to create any emotional connection ... to its characters. If I were to go through the songs from made in abyss, I wouldn't be able to pick any one and state with utmost sincerity any of the scenes it plays in, or any moments it's associated with. Like how "Low of Solipsism" is associated with Light's monologues and using the Death Note, or how "XL-TT" plays during Titan invasions in AOT, none of the songs in Made in Abyss have any defining moments.
I was also really hyped because it's by Kevin Penkin, and I hadn't watched any shows scored by him up to this point. I'm a fan of his music, especially "Old Stories". Hearing Kevin Penkin's music and wishing I could watch the scene "Old Stories" plays in (it doesn't) are the only reasons I watched all 13 episodes.

The voice acting on the other hand, is impressive. Whatever personality/trope had been decided on for the characters was performed really well: Ozen's emotionless, supposedly hateful, and stuffy nature, Reg being the voice of reason, and Riko, the main character's energetic nature.
It also shines through in the 'emotional' scenes, but however, this is pretty much where it ends.

There is zero character and plot development to be seen wherever you look in this show. The characters' abilities and dispositions are still the same at the very end, as they were in the beginning. Plus, they all simply do what's written in the synopsis, with no further action, there's no opportunity to feel connected to them or sympathize with them.
Which is why any 'emotional' scene is completely lost on me, and has no effect. It's completely downplayed by the fact that we don't even know the characters to begin with. Why should we feel bad for them?
The final episode, where the 'darkness' promised by this show actually takes place, is actually a backstory for two characters we only just met. I can assure you you'd be okay just skipping to that episode, the synopsis and character info is exactly what happens and will even be more than enough to help you grasp what you're watching.

(what takes place from here onwards are spoilers, and personal rants on the boundless number of plot holes to be found in this series)

('initial thoughts' interlude - begin)

- Characters: every single character is built to fit into a trope you haven't already seen a gazillion times in anime.
Ozen is the dark character with dark eyes, an unemotional demeanor and...I actually don't know. She's meant to be one of the most important characters in the story, yet there's no backstory to her, except for some reason, her relevance to Riko. Which bugged me for reasons I'll explain in a bit.
Roboto-kun is the fix-it-dude with a long robot arms, a super destructive superpower he can use on a whim, a cloudy backstory (guess what, it's never explained), and a human penis, who's only there to undo Riko's already unavoidable (but because she's the main character they happen anyway) mistakes.
Asides the main character, Riko, these are the only characters that matter. Every other character is only plot fodder that either assists the main character... because they're the main character, does something weird and unexplainable, or both.
Oh wait, there's Nanachi (she does both). This person's introduced towards the final episode. And at this point I couldn't bring myself to care about their existence. She's literally on the fucking cover image for the show, and I looked at that image and expected her to be a very important character (I was genuinely waiting for her to show up), only for her to show up in the final episodes, do the bare minimum, and then have her presence 'justified' by a legit backstory in the final episode. This random girl gets a backstory??? But the people who we've been watching over the past 9 or 10 episodes are still equivalent to cardboard???? Yeah right. Of course I'd remember she exists.
And finally, there's Riko, the mc. The stuff of nightmares if I'm being honest. She's your classic over-the-top energetic, doesn't think at all, always-getting-into-trouble, reckless and selfish character. I'm personally always against reckless and irresponsible characters who give no thought to anything but themselves, and have no reason to. And that's exactly what Riko is, and her personality is so magnified it's less endearing and simply a nuisance.
Her personality is continually oscillating between tsugoi-ing at something she should already know, and running to hug a character for literally any reason imaginable

I mentioned how it bugged me that the only important things here are what's relevant to Riko, and that brings me to my next point:
- Main character syndrome: This is a term I came up with after watching Made in Abyss, to describe something I'd only seen happen in Made in Abyss. It refers to a situation where the main characters have NO reason to succeed, absolutely NO special abilities that should put them above others, and NO reason for anyone to trust them. Yet somehow, they always succeed, everything is easy for them and everybody trusts them.
This is a humongous problem in the show and encompasses so many issues, like the plot itself:
- The introductory monologue literally tells us the Abyss is this really deeeeep and mysterious place and so many people risk their lives and blah blah blah looking for relics (minor digression but we spend 60% of the show in the literal Abyss and the mcs don't come across any relics at all, only when they stop to meet Ozen and that's in a camp constructed within the Abyss, not the Abyss itself). And how you need a whole lotta certification to be allowed to go deeper and deeper. It also seems to show us that age is just a number, seeing as kids are also cave raiding in the very beginning, and would be allowed to go deeper the more relics they obtain.

But all of this is kicked out the window once Riko decides to go.

- WHY was the Abyss hyped up to be so dangerous if it's going to be so easy for literal children? You would think the show would introduce some plotline relating to how people get into the abyss, and people who have gone there illegally. But it doesn't, it's only hinted at. And Riko only finds out about following a different route because her friends thought she wouldn't be able to follow the normal one, which Riko tsugois at and doesn't seem to know. And the only reason they know this alternate route is because of one's literal backstory, which she also doesn't know and goes 'wow' over. It's obvious at this point that Riko didn't seem to have any plans for how they'd go 7 km into the Earth.

('initial thoughts' interlude - end)

The aforementioned darkness is actually just one of them (the two characters introduced towards the end) getting tortured. Of course that's dark. In the great scheme of things and the group of people who can handle gore, there's an even lesser minority comprising those who can handle it when it involves children. It seemed like the show itself was aware of its own lack of substance, and throws in the torture scene, just so people can emotionally react towards the show.
- There is literally NO explanation as to why the children have to be tortured. It's shown in that episode that the 'bad guy' kidnaps children and uses them in experiments in the second to last known layer of the Abyss. But...WHY does he use children? WHY couldn't it be adults involved? Even the motivations and personality of the 'bad guy', because he isn't even established as an antagonist, are left for us to figure out.

Riko getting injured is the same, it could have been totally avoided. She bumps into an animal nest and forces Reg to use his power, they run and run and are still being chased but are able to take a break, just enough for Reg to fall unconscious. And then she just gets up and goes 'I'm hungry' and starts exploring the same supposedly deadly Abyss. If the Abyss is as big and spans as much as the show makes it seem, then there were probably a gazillion other routes Riko and Reg could have followed to keep going deeper. But Riko recklessly goes off track and pays no attention to their surroundings. She's spent her whole life learning about the Abyss in school, yet they still wander into animal lairs and territory. And before you know it, she and Reg are in front of a humongous monster and she gets injured. She doesn't even get any of the food she was looking for. I couldn't grab why Riko was so brainless. She even stands beside Reg, the only character who's been established as strong enough to defend the two, instead of behind him. What did she expect????

- it isn't even condemned. There is nothing and nobody in the show that opposes ANY negative acts that take place. And the show utilizes the greatest examples of plot convenience and plot holes known to humanity.
In the torture episode, the two characters Nanachi and Mitty are held on to because the 'bad guy' Bondrewd had never seen the results of using two children in his experiment. But he only ended up using two out of Nanachi coincidentally walking in to the lab, and then he sporadically decides to use two of them and show how the 'full force of the Abyss' will pour down on only one of them.
This episode in particular has a glaring plot hole. Throughout his past experiments, he'd only been using one child. Yet he has two tubes available. None of the other children were ever tortured in a pair, and he was doing everything one by one, so what's the point of having two tubes?? Unless of course, you're the writer of this show and you're aware Nanachi will walk in and that would create the perfect opportunity for not just an emotional✔️ but also torture✔️ scene, there is ZERO necessity for the second tube.
Would the 'full force of the Abyss' not affect the experiment if it was only one tube? There's no explanation for that.

When Riko gets injured, Reg blames himself for not making Riko stand behind him. She could have literally done that HERSELF????

In other episodes, an example would be Ozen beating up Riko and Reg. WHY does this woman who is supposedly many many many years old beat up two 12 year olds?? Apparently it was 'just' a test. Riko herself seemed to have been unaware of Ozen's existence until her uncle happens to mention it to her, but that aside, Ozen beating up kids is just brushed aside for the next weird thing.

In that same episode, Reg also contemplates literal murder. While watching Ozen 'test' Riko, he thinks about shooting her with his superpower, but is worried because it makes him faint soon after, and doesn't know what'll happen in the period he's unconscious.
Well the woman whose stomach you shot a HUGE fireball through would probably BLEED THE FUCK OUT AND DIE!!!

The most important example of this is actually in the show's entire premise itself. Riko's mother has been missing in the Abyss since Riko was 2. While cave raiding, Riko's uncle (I was also concerned about why Riko had to be raised in an orphanage when she had family around and in the exact same town) recovers what are believed to be her mother, Lyza's belongings, which were basically findings on the Abyss, and her Whistle (the certification needed to explore the Abyss). Because Riko is more or less her next of kin, she's allowed to view it first and in secret. Which Riko takes advantage of by stealing a 'letter' that says something like "I'll be waiting for you at the bottom".
- first point is how inappropriate it is that Riko steals a vital element of a confidential document
- next is that immediately after, she decides it's time to go to the bottom of the Abyss, because of a letter that she 1) isn't even sure is in her mother's handwriting 2) doesn't even know if it is addressed to her. And after that, nobody tries to stop her because she'll 'go anyway'. Like the Abyss is the street you shouldn't go to late at night and not a 7km hole filled with unspeakable monsters, curses and horrors.
This show is so one-dimensional and doesn't even attempt to utilize anything asides cliches and unbelievable plot conveniences. Like no mention of a possibility of the group of cave raiders creating a team to aid her(for example). Her own uncle, who has witnessed whatever unspeakable horrors lie within the Abyss with his Black Whistle (the second highest level of adventurer) gives a thumbs up and comments on Reg's penis. Plus,

Fin.

To summarize, Made in Abyss is a cheaply written and incoherent show. It promises the revelation of certain plot points and mysteries, only to drag itself all the way to the end with happenings that are, alll in all, irrelevant to the main pLoT (if there was one).
If you possess any media literacy even in the slightest, do NOT watch this. You would be better off, as I've said before, skipping to any parts you'd like to see (for example if you're here for the gore).
However if you're looking to waste a few hours well be my guest and watch this terrible show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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