Made in Abyss Movie 3: Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei

I don't know what to say other than this is the best piece of media I have ever seen, and I don't think anything will ever be able to top it. I'm not even going to go into that much detail because whoever is reading this just needs to go watch this movie immediately.

This movie follows our challengers, Riko, Reg, and Nanachi as they challenge Bondrewd and the 5th layer of the abyss. Bondrewd, being the monster that he is, obviously won't make that easy on them, and as such we have this movie.
In terms of the Made in Abyss arcs, this is absolutely the ... peak of the story thus far. All of the events that happen over the course of the journey through Idofront are so perfectly executed, I can't help but wonder how Tsukushi does it.

Anyways, the main things I like to talk about here are the soundtrack, and Bondrewd himself. The soundtrack, first of all, is perfect. I genuinely can not think of a single issue with the soundtrack, every song is incredible and perfectly fits with the tone of whatever scene it is used in, Kevin Penkin is quite possibly the best composer on earth. From The Rumble of Scientific Triumph to Riko's Motherfucking Cooking, every song in this movie is perfect.

Final thing I want to talk about is Bondrewd, so spoilers if you haven't seen the movie yet.

I genuinely can not think of a better and more interesting antagonist. In all of anime. Or even all of media itself. Even when he lays dying on the ground after losing the final fight, all he wishes for is for our group to successfully continue on their journey, no ill will, no revenge swearing, just a simple wish for their journey to be filled with curses and blessings. After all the horrible things that he had done, even Nanachi, arguably the one most affected by this horrible monster, came to a sort of mutual understanding with him, because that's just the type of person he is. He doesn't do anything out of malice, he merely just wants to know all the mysteries that the abyss has to offer, and will go to disgusting lengths to do so.

Final thoughts, as for final thoughts, I really don't have anything else to say. The movie is perfect, everything about it is perfect, the staff put their heart and soul into this and what came out was the peak of all media. Thank you Kinema Citrus, thank you Kevin Penkin, thank you Akihito Tsukushi, thank you all for the incredible experience that you have given to us. From the bottom of my heart, i love you all for your work, keep putting in the groundbreaking effort to bring this story to life.

This movie and the arc it adapted is the pinnacle and the very top of all media for me. Nothing will be able to top it, to say this movie is perfection is a massive understatement.

The movie picks up right after the end of the first season and covers everything in the 5th layer expanding on what the finale of the previous season built up to and does it beautifully. I was initially worried when Kinema shifted from a traditional season to movie format but boy did it deliver while only cutting out very few things from the manga original story while adding in ... another scene for some additional context.

Getting into the main elements of this movie, animation and the soundtrack are of course an absolute masterpiece to watch and listen to. The characters really managed to capture everything I love about seeing them dive down deeper into this hellhole and the story still instills that sense of wonder and imagination while answering questions but raising even more about whats really down there at the bottom and why the curse does so much to the human mind and body. It really is a true joy how this movie makes all my theories of whats down there explode into so much more.

[Animation]
The animators really captured every moment with the highest quality possible to match or even beat most Ghibli movies, especially the fights which are some of the most beautiful parts of the movie. Absolutely flawless! (10/10)

[OST]
Kevin Penkin already had an amazing soundtrack with season 1 and came back around and delivered the greatest soundtrack I’ve ever heard beating out the likes of Nier Automata and AoT. This man really is the greatest composer and I can’t wait for the MiA OST 3! (10/10)

[Story and Characters]
Reg and Riko, its hard to believe how the Abyss has made them grow so quickly and how different they are since leaving Orth. Over the course of one season and a movie they still have that innocent child-like personality they did in the beginning but throughout this movie it shows how much they’ve matured since departing. Reg, between being apart of and witnessing horrific events and then forcing himself to do things that he absolutely hates in order to protect the two he cherishes most. Riko getting to show how intelligent she is with Prushka, figuring out secrets that even Nanachi didn’t know, and expressing what she really wants to do with her group and what she will do once at the bottom it really is emotionally touching to see. Nanachi, we finally get to know the additional backstory she hinted at the end of season one and what she did after becoming a Hollow during that time at Idofront and it is one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve ever seen and also one of few moments in any manga to make me cry. These three are truly some of the best characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing grow throughout a series and it only makes sense to have an equally rivaled antagonist. Bondrewd, where do I even begin? This is my all time favorite antagonist and what really captures the greatness of this arc. The first time all these characters meet is enough to let you know whats going to happen and the things he does after match that intensity. Bondrewd is so obsessed with attaining what is called the Blessing and will do whatever it takes to obtain it. But he never harpers any negative emotion or ill will in doing these things, if anything he really loves all of these characters especially his daughter Prushka and it is shown at the end with Prushka’s backstory and his new aspiration of hope that all of them reach the bottom as he loses what he spent years trying to obtain. Truly a character that won’t ever be topped. (10/10)

Final Thoughts and Score: This is the easiest 10/10 I could ever give, it truly is a sequel and series that has no rival and to give it a 10 feels unfair for how much this movie raised the bar across everything I could analyze, it deserves some extra credit. I may end up raising some of your expectations to high and affect how you go into watching it, but I can’t help it, this movie is absolute perfection in my eyes and I never see anime literally build this much depth to where the characters, the world, and I as a viewer are so intertwined together throughout the series that it invokes this much raw emotion and investment to where I listen to the OST everyday and refine my theories as to what will happen going forward and how it will end. As well as where Tsukushi draws his inspiration from his story to see if I can guess anything from what he references. This will be a series I will remember fondly and revisit throughout the rest of my life and I’m truly thankful that its getting the recognition it truly deserves.

Just like the first season Dawn of the Deep soul struggles from a major identity crisis as it doesn’t know what it wants to be - a realistic and mature take on fantasy adventure or a child story with bits of nudity and gore. The movie tries to be all at once, but the story and genre are at odds with each other; it strives to have a tragic flair, but also wants to beat you over the head with fanservice and cutesy staff. The result is a boatload of forced drama and conflicts which gets resolved in 10 minutes and has no effect on ... the overall story or painfully bland characters. Story supposed to be an epic journey, but not this time, the original show built a colourful fantasy world that the movie ignores completely. The worldbuilding in the movie is almost non-existent and the plot is really simple since the goal is to beat the bad guy. If main characters were dimensional enough, maybe they could carry the story, but they feel pretty underwhelming and boring to watch for the most part.

- Characters -
Riko is useless. If she would have died in the first season, no value would be lost. Riko actually plays one of the least roles that she could in her own story. Seriously, our "protagonist" has no control over anything and she always needs to be saved by others every time something bad happens. Many characters are used as mouth pieces to tell the viewer how great Riko is, how smart she is and that she is way more than seems on the surface. But no one of these qualities translates through the screen. The only notorious trait Riko has is that she basically is always super lucky.

Luck that lets her survive events of the first season and recover completely. Broken arm? What broken arm? Riko uses arbalest, her mom’s pickaxe, other weapons, she cooks and does all kinds of physical activities without any restraints. For a story which tries to be realistic the lack of consequences is insulting. Then, Bondrewd’s henchman for no reason decided to help her and later there is even more Luck from a random person “giving” her an extra valuable and rare relic just because they spend like an hour together. Finally, there is extremely good luck that Riko happens to be the owner of a super awesome robot with unlimited hidden powers.

Every single victory gets handed to Riko or just gets bullshitted for her without much effort on her part. She never puts in close to much hard work in anything, yet still gets rewarded. But you can give her screentime with Prushka (all 3 minutes of it) to Nanachi and cut her off completely. Nanachi is the one who does all the strategic planning, Nanachi gives commands to Reg, Nanachi is an emotional anchor of the story. Riko’s character adds nothing to the story, her quest for a mom doesn’t progress at all, her personality is one note happy go lucky girl.

Prushka is useless. What does she contribute in this show? Why is she even here? If her entire existence is based solely on the fact that she is a kicked puppy to feel bad for then they did a bad job with it. I have no idea how I was meant to feel anything for Prushka when she barely shows up. She doesn’t have any depth, or the depth they're given feels very forced (flashbacks right before death). The appeal of Prushka seems to be more from her design and vomit inducing sweetness; she has no flaws, and no personality except angelic innocent victim. She just acts like a Japanese ideal daughteru would, rather than like an actual child with an actual child's personality. Like a lot of manga it lets Japanese ideals regarding character archetypes get in the way of writing interesting characters. There were a few moments throughout the anime I felt were there because the author thought "this is what cute daughterus do, right? Gotta put that in there, the lonely middle aged NEETs and horny teenagers will love it".

I said that this movie can get rid of Riko, but the same trick will work with Prushka too. She exists only for three things: to add more depth and dimensions to Bondrewd’s character, become Riko’s White Whistle and die for an emotional impact. Everything that was done with Prushka, could’ve worked with Nanachi, but better. The worst thing about Prushka is that we’ve already had an uncanny similar plot line in the first season and when the same thing is done again it feels more like the author is beating a dead horse with loli torture porn because that’s what carried his story to popularity.

Nanachi is the most solid character out of the trio, though she sometimes acts in unrealistic ways when contrasted with flashbacks. This is especially bad in Idofront part and can really throw off your immersion. The best two examples of that being when she left her friends alone in Bondrewd’s base, despite her being well aware what kind of person Bondrewd is, and when she randomly softened for him in the end, seconds after she refused to take his hand. Looking at how Bondrewd is weirdly affectionate for his ex assistant and how Nanachi switches from hatred to mixed feelings for him, I suspect that their relationships are more complex than it looks at first sight, but the movie never gives any meaningful context to understand them. Sometimes it just screams that at some point the author planned to kill her off, but as a fan-favorite character she has to live and we’ve got Prushka and her half-assed story.

Reg is the one, who does all the fighting. Does it make him any better? Nope. He is a boring, self-righteous hero from every shonen/isekai ever. I liked him more in the first season, when his powers were limited and his arc was dedicated to self-exploration. In the movie he has no personality, no charm, and isn’t particularly interesting nor likable in any way. I have no reason to cheer this pervert on because he lacks any meaningful motivation, aside from simping Riko and creeping on Nanachi. Motivated solely by his desire to fuc... protect his friends, his personality is essentially a blank slate for the audience to project onto.

Bondrewd is legitimately the only character I enjoyed watching in this show. It's rare for me to find villians that are really terrifying by all means and that have strong and appealing auras such as Lord of Dawn. His voice, his design, his combat moves are pure joy to watch and listen to, ASMR Darth Vader is easily stealing every scene he is in. No matter what he did, I couldn’t bring myself to hate him, this guy just radiates charisma. He has everything: a cold and calculated mind, an urge for a good fight, inhuman, corrupted sense of love and a strange inability to hate. Bondrewd is a very interesting take on immortal character, the fact that he once broke the boundaries of life and death and how it changed him is the most intriguing theme of the movie.
But it’s just a crime that he didn’t get enough time on the screen. If there was more of him, I would rate this movie way higher, but instead of giving more space, backstory and scenes for a character who deserves it, Dawn of the Deep Souls wastes it on boring children.

- Story -
Like I said it’s simple and rather predictable. We know that Reg and Riko are main characters and therefore they can’t die. Nanachi is too popular for any risky decision on the author’s side. Prushka’s fate is yawn-worthy. The only surprise is Bondrewd’s survival and this was actually the only thing that I liked about the ending. There wasn’t enough foreshadowing and connection to the characters and I was underwhelmed by the conclusion for the most part. Riko got her White Whistle so easily that I'm shocked there is less than dozen of them. But does she get it for no reason...

Nothing annoys me more than dumb characters who are loved by their author too much. Maybe if Made in Abyss was an actual child show, I could ignore it, but it wants to be mature and realistic. Still, no clever decision-making or believable reaction from MC to their surroundings and enemies. Instead, they blindly attack the villain, hoping they'll somehow manage. And they are doing it with the power of… Deus Ex Machina.
Everytime when a challenge needs to be overcome, something appears out of nowhere that makes it effortless. Reg’s overcharged mode, Reg’s knowledge of how to use his body properly, Reg’s ability to remote control his body parts, seems like Reg conventionally can do everything for the plot progress. This greatly reduces the impact of overcoming any obstacles by a whole lot and also the satisfaction of overcoming them.

Let’s talk about another serious issue. The pacing of this movie was all over the place, at the beginning it was so slow to the point where it felt like it was still a full season, the first thirty minutes do very little to set up the story, and serve only to waste time on. Once the main characters enter Idofront, they rapidly progress through this allegedly dangerous place, meeting little resistance. The second problem with them going so quickly is the fact that you don't ever get a sense for the unique aspects of the fifth layer. With a setting filled with such diverse places, you'd expect to get to experience those places with the characters. You don't.

- OST and Visuals -

Soundtrack is as good as it was in the first season. There is nothing to say about, no matter how low my opinion on Made in Abyss, the music is spectacular.

The combat animation may be fine but I didn’t enjoy the fight that much. Reg’s design is anything, but aesthetically appealing, and no matter how smoothly he is animated, he is still a screaming dwarf who looks ridiculous in a serious battle. Aside from the fight scenes animation is sometimes lacking and I actually liked the look of the first season way more. Dawn of the Deep Soul for the most part is grey or too dark and it is nowhere as pretty as the first season with its Ghibli-esque backgrounds. Bondrewd’s base looks dope and the intro scene is eye-candy, but there wasn’t anything on the level of the sunset scene from the very first episode of the original show.

- Overall -

Made in Abyss truly wanted to be something, it tries new things and throws the characters through so much pain and misery that the Abyss they are crossing resembles more a torture dungeon for loli fetishists, it reaches for something more complex and story-driven, but falls short on delivering any engaging drama. But in the end Made in Abyss is wholly unremarkable shounen fare interested more in shocking the viewer with gore and child nudity than in telling a genuinely meaningful story. What Made in Abyss does to compensate for this is killing off side characters or harming the main ones in increasingly brutal ways (and ignore it two scenes later). It is violence without meaning, as manufactured as can be, extreme and over-the-top to the point that it can almost at times resemble a comedy. Too bad there is no message behind any of this.

Made in Abyss definitely has strong sides, but for some reason it is weirdly ignorant of its positive points. It has one of the best world building concepts in recent years, but doesn’t develop it further, it has interesting and compelling adult characters, but we are cursed to follow the dumb, the dumber and a fuel for furry porn. In the end it leaves you more disappointed and frustrated than any other bad show because there is definitely a lot of potency for a great story, but it was wasted on manufactured and effortless tragedy porn.

If you liked the first season for episodes 10 and 13 you will like it because Dawn of the Deep Souls essentially rehashes the same shock content. If you want more of an adventure you will be deeply disappointed. You can give it a chance for the villain, if you are a fan of charismatic bad guys.

Anyways just like everyone else it's just my opinion, the movie is anticlimactic, it breaks all its proposed ideas, the protagonist never learns anything and it could be so, so very much more, both in entertainment and in actual substance.

TL;DR: A sequel film that severely damages the legacy of its predecessor by introducing cheap plot contrivances and exacerbating previous issues with uncomfortable "fanservice".

Let me give you a quick insight into my background coming into this review. I have not read the source material of this anime. Like many, I was enchanted by the original TV adaptation of Made in Abyss and eagerly anticipated the release of the sequel film Dawn of the Deep Soul. My expectations were set quite high, as many fans familiar with the manga had already proclaimed the Bondrewd chapters the most brilliant arc the series has to offer. Additionally, many ... reviews on this site gave the film glowing reviews and high scores across the board.

And yet, I came out of the experience severely disappointed and, frankly, a little disgusted. In fact, the impression this film left on me was so strong that it has compelled me to write my first review on this site.

Let me explain why in two points.

First, Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul commits the cardinal sin of destroying a universe that has been introduced to the viewer as a largely consistent world with consequences. While the previous chapter confronted our protagonists with a cruel, unfeeling environment that consistently drove them to their limits and towards despair, these elements are largely absent from this entry. On a technical level, the insurmountable difference in power between our leads and the antagonist is ultimately evened by Reg gaining tremendous new abilities at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, the emotional tension established between Bondrewd and Nanachi and, by extension, Reg and Riku ultimately goes nowhere. It is not resolved, it is deleted. In the end, everyone goes their separate ways in quiet acknowledgement of the other without having resolved the conflict that was originally proposed. Most crucially, Prushka’s narrative, clearly designed to be the film’s emotional focal point, falls flat because her relationship to our leads feels unearned. Instead, she is discarded for shock value and becomes a cheap tool for our protagonists going forward. It is in this regard that the film fails most miserably to provide the audience with emotional authenticity.

Second, this film is uncomfortable to watch. And not in the way intended. Even during the initial 2017 run of Made in Abyss I was aware of Tsukishi Akihito’s troubling sexuality. Back then, I was able to overlook the blatant pedophilia-ridden "fanservice" that had apparently been toned down compared to the original manga. Dawn of the Deep Soul, however, left me no room for that willful ignorance. Fanservice scenes appear at a more frequent pace than they did in the TV adaptation. With them comes a tonal shift into comedic territory that feels starkly out of place during an otherwise bleak and tense experience. Furthermore, they also increase in intensity: Thus far, fanservice had mostly consisted of “funny” allusions to sexual attraction between children. The film, however, confronts the viewer with a shot of one of the main characters being strapped to an operating chair, a tube stuck to their genital area while their "fluids" are being drained from them. Now, in the context of another franchise, this would have been a pretty uncomfortable moment to begin with. But keeping in mind that this is Made in Abyss, there is less room for interpretation. Dawn of the Deep Soul highlights the unhealthy relationship Japan still has with the subject of pedophilia. Keep in mind that this is not just the work of a lone-wolf pervert. Kinema Citrus as well as everyone else involved in the production and publication of this film looked away or actively supported his behaviour. The systemic problems that are on uncomfortable display here forced me to re-evaluate my relationship with Made in Abyss. I guess I could give the film props for finally pushing me over the line. The fact that only a minority of reviewers on this site have come to a similar conclusion in their reviews is baffling to me.

There is a brilliant sequel hidden amongst all this. The art direction is once again stunning, the world building is compelling, the animation fires on all cylinders during the large action set pieces and the music once again manages to lure the viewer into the deepest chasms of the abyss. Bondrewd is a fascinating villain and his relationship with Prushka has massive potential to become one of the most memorable dives into the human condition the medium of anime has to offer. The pieces of the puzzle are all there. I am certain that, with a few competent rewrites regarding plot convenience and narrative cohesion, the plot and themes could have been salvaged. References to the author’s worst tendencies could have been excluded. This sequel could have been a masterpiece.

The fact that it is not breaks my heart a little.

[This review is spoiler free, and does not discuss any specific plot beats!]
Going into this film, I was hoping that this adaptation would fix the problems of the arc that it was based on: the pacing issues, and the rampant sexualisation of child characters.
It became apparent that this would not be the case at around the 30 minute mark. In the original manga, this arc was not told in a chronological order - flashbacks regarding the character Prushka would happen at opportune moments to ramp up emotions, almost as if the author had forgotten to make us care about her earlier, and was using ... Chekhov's Time Machine to slip in plot points and exposition right before it became relevant. At 30 minutes in, when one scene struck me as a little short, I realised that this film would be an incredibly faithful adaptation - to its own detriment.

It was also at this point that a very specific grim event made me take a break from the film and return later. The sexualisation of minors across this film is equal parts grim and unnecessary - young characters (at multiple different points) talk about genetalia, and it begs the question of... "Why"? It doesn't add to the overall plot, nor is it an opportune way to convey the characters' age and immaturity to an adult audience. In comparison to the original manga, I believe the only thing cut was one count of explicit nudity. This aspect of Made in Abyss is disgusting, upsetting, and disappointing - there are so many interesting bits of lore and story accross the manga, anime, and now this film that are soured by this. My contempt for this is enough that I hope with all my heart that this review will discourage anime-only Made in Abyss fans from watching this film, and continuing to follow this story at all.

This film could have been a second chance to take things slow, cutting more uncomfortable (and ultimately irrelevant) aspects, and ramp up tensions to strengthen a couple climatic moments - instead, all that Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul brings to the table is Kevin Penkin's incredible soundtrack - in all honesty, I think I'd have a better time just listening to that, and imagining that I was watching a better movie.

It's pretty rare that I write a review but this was so appallingly bad that I felt the need to. This is a very serious drama series and the protagonists are children. Pause and think about this for a moment. Why would someone make young children the lead characters in a serious drama that involves pain, death and torture on a level that would make The Human Centipede blush?

The answer is because humans naturally care for children and it's far more excruciating watching cute things suffer.

Made in Abyss starts out well, with an interesting story based on Dante's Inferno, and then slowly begins turning into ... torture porn, similar to the Saw film series. In this film right here there's almost no plot apart from an evil Nazi-like character horrendously mutilating and torturing children and one of his past experiments coming back to fight him.

This film is the cinematic equivalent of getting kicked in the balls and has no grace or tact to it. Children are tortured horrendously, viscerally, and then we're given very long sequences of tender flashbacks of happy days and soft moments that make us feel emotionally connected to the children, directly before it returns to the present moment where we behold their blood, guts and gore spilling all over the concrete.

Made in Abyss is an excellent anime that I would strongly recommend to anyone who like to torture small animals

Rarely does a show or movie fully capture its given arc without compromise; various cuts and streamlining measures have become generally what to expect. However, in this particular instance, Kinema Citrus have evidently gone the extra mile to make sure as little as possible is left out. Only a very negligible amount of minor content was cut or changed from the source material, and the overall experience doesn’t suffer for it in the slightest. If you’re already a fan of the series, particularly the anime, then you will know roughly what bar of quality to expect. Rich visuals, stirring soundtrack, atmospheric sound design, great attention ... to detail, gripping story, irresistibly fascinating setting, amazing characters… To name a few. Dawn of the Deep Soul, thankfully, spares no expense. Largely speaking, it is an almost shot-for-shot, panel-by-panel recreation of the manga. It’s clear to see that the studio, and those working on the show, are themselves extremely passionate for the source material, and wanted to do the best job possible. And they’ve completely nailed it.

Overall the movie was decent, but it left me pretty disappointed with a few things.

First off the world built in Made in Abyss is easily one the most incredible stories in my mind, and the character development for every character outside of the children group is PHENOMINAL. The dark twists in how delvers take on the challenges of the Abyss are clever and continue to blow my mind.

But then we turn our attention towards Riko, Reg, and Prushka and we have these weird pedophiliac driven interactions. Prushka making uncomfortable comments like, "I'm getting to that age" - I'm not sure how old she ... is, but she's surely younger than Riko, and Riko is 12..

Also throw in a scene where Prushka is written in to ask what a penis is, and to have Riko describe, and even go as far as draw it out for her. It's absurd.

To mix things like this into such a beautiful and well crafted story just blows my mind and reduces the work.

So, in short. The underlying plot - Incredible, the delivery - a little slow and focus wasted on things like sexualizing children, rather than building more of an emotional connection to the characters. The worst part is, this has been done within the show already! Look at Mitty - there wasn't any of this weird stuff (not that I can remember at least). It was heart rending and a story telling masterpiece.

Sexualizing children is not okay. This movie could have only been better without it. I know that these scenes only take up in total a few minutes of the film, but it just shows where the production priorities stand - with this there are also other areas where the film could have been paced better, or shared more world information or had legitimate character development.

When I first watched Made in Abyss TV series, I was truly mesmerized by its storytelling and worldbuilding. It was a step above of any fantasy genre anime I have ever watched. Therefore, I was excited to watch Made in Abyss Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei in the theater. After I watched the movie, I can say for sure that it is a masterpiece.

Story: The story deals with the Ido Front Arc, which focuses on Bondrewd and his daughter Prushka. It is quite a gruesome story, even more so than that of the TV series. The atmosphere is generally quite heavy, although there are some ... lighthearted moments here and there. Overall, it is a masterful story that further elaborates on the world of Made in Abyss.

Art: The art design is stunning. Every part of the scenery is meticulously designed to make the audience feel as if they were participating in the adventure themselves. Also, I appreciate the fact that the art design team does not shy away from depicting gore and violence in full detail. It helps me understand the cruelty of the Abyss and the twisted nature of Bondrewd. Also, the action sequence is done so well that it gave me a shiver when I was watching it.

Sound: Made in Abyss Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard. The soundtrack perfectly matches the atmosphere of the movie and makes every scene as beautiful as it can be. Sound effects are also spot on, which enhances the mood further. Overall, the sound design is flawless.

Character: Characters are well-developed, especially Bondrewd and Prushka. I was amazed by how well Bondrewd is developed, probably one of the best character designs I have seen in years. Prushka is also masterfully depicted, which augments the already amazing story even further.

Overall Enjoyment: I have enjoyed the movie greatly and will re-watch it several times when the Blu-ray is released.

In conclusion, Made in Abyss Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei is a masterpiece and one of the best anime movies I have ever watched. Its story and worldbuilding will satisfy anyone interested in taking a leap of faith into the cruel yet beautiful world of Made in Abyss.

A quick no spoiler review:

This movie covers the fifth layer of the abyss, where the first season of the anime covered the first four layers. It's adapted beautifully, has its own great sound track, excellent animation, and is generally the same Made in Abyss as people who have watched the first season of the show know - although with this layer, there is definitely more emphasis on heavy action and less on the adventurous spirit. Even if you like the adventurous spirit - this isn't a bad thing, it's just a bit different which all stories need to stay fresh and interesting.

There's no way people can really think this is as good as the first 13 episodes... all of the creativity of the series has been tossed away.

The characters are no longer interesting, the drama has abandoned all reason for the sake of just establishing the most dark, perverse, evil characterization of Bondrewd possible. But toward what end? We just end up with a more power shonen condensed into a film, about a robot boy and a guy who has abandoned ethics in the pursuit of knowledge and power. The lack of rules concerning "the curse" and Reg's abilities mean basically anything can happen in the ... arms race between them. OMG... he sacrifices children to become a mutant... how cruel. And even though the effects seem like they would be somewhat random and incalculable, it always just works out making him stronger and scarier.

On top of that, Riko is barely a character anymore. She's been relegated to the role of crybaby. She has one somewhat moving conversation with Prushka, stumbles ass backwards into Reg's dissection using the fortuitous *Meinya Hack,* and then just cries about everything for the rest of the film while letting her companions do all of the planning and fighting. This is what it means to become a white whistle? It seemed like she lucked out: it doesn't take much to earn the love and admiration of a girl who only has known her psychopath father and his clones for her entire existence.

WHY did they have to start including stupid fucking Reg/Nanachi gags? I really don't give a shit about the fact that the kids showed up semi or fully nude, bathed, made fun of Reg's ochinchin, whatever, throughout the series. Nanachi calling Reg's hugging inappropriate was kind of funny as a one off thing in the series, because it didn't really make sense that Reg would be aroused in these extremely emotional moments where he was hugging Nanachi and it seemed more like a random excuse on her part. But now it feels like they are undercutting every emotional moment between them for the sake of a tired ass gag.. they really let loose once they had an ambiguously aged robot and bunny girl who both look like they could be children sharing regular screen time I guess. They even cut to Reg's boner in one instance! SO FUNNY XD! From delicately handling nudity and sexual curiosity between kids to just crossing the line into braindead gag territory... going off of some comments I've seen about the manga author, maybe this film is just more in line with the manga than the first 13 episode series.

I was really looking forward to more from this series, and thinking about checking out the manga after watching the first 13 episodes. Not so sure now.

I don't understand why this series is hailed as such a masterpiece by some people. It has an intriguing setting and mystery set up, but this movie does almost nothing to further any of it. All of our time is spent getting past Bondrewd, who is a great antagonist and probably the best developed character in the series so far besides Nanachi. But even then there's hardly any time spent on why he is the way he is or why he is willing to use such extreme methods to achieve his goals (which are... just to be more powerful I guess?). That would be fine ... if it wasn't confirmed we'll never see him again after this. Reg just gets powerups for no reason when the plot needs it. No time is spent developing Prushka until literally the last 10 minutes of the movie, and I had no attachment to what seems meant to be the emotional center of this movie. Neither did our main characters either apparently, as they immediately forget about her after the climax.

Cheap torture porn and shock value, which the series built its wider reputation on, is here in spades, in the stead of any story or world building. I found the nudity and "comedic relief" or "fanservice" or whatever the fuck you call this author's obsession with making children get naked or piss themselves completely unnecessary, just as I did in the original anime series.

Art and animation is well done.

The setting of the Idofront (when we are not in boring concrete corridors) is beautiful and well illustrated. The fights flow smoothly and are very well animated. The monsters are cool looking. Bondrewd and his lackeys have great designs. These are the best aspects of the movie. I had hoped to see more of the ritual site and buildings around the central tower and other things in the setting.

Sound is fine.

The music doesn't stand out in the same way as it did in the original series, but it's still good enough. If the emotional moments weren't executed with the subtlety of a hammer the music might have tugged on my heartstrings more.

Characters. Oh boy the characters are (mostly) bad.

Riko is pointless. She is a walking lore dump. She does 2 useful things in this movie, and the rest of the time is spent crying, screaming, or getting victories and rare artifacts handed to her. The author would get more use out of killing her off for his precious shock value at this point. This was a problem in the original series and remains a problem.

Reg is just boring. His only appeal lies in his mysterious backstory that is eternally unrevealed. Otherwise he's such a blank slate shonen protagonist that I would almost think it's on purpose. His design is dumb and even when he gets his big powerups he's dumb looking.

Prushka is also a complete blank slate. She is the ideal Japanese daughteru. That's it. She is the emotional punching bag of the story. You are supposed to feel bad for her and that is it.

Nanachi is great. She has an actual personality, emotional stakes in the plot, and an interesting complicated relationship with Bondrewd. She has tactical smarts and a practicality to the way she does things that is appealing. She even develops as a character some instead of remaining an infallibly optimistic brain damaged Simpsons child like the rest of our main characters. I am confused why she refused to warn her friends about hanging out with a known child abusing scientist, but whatever.

Bondrewd is pretty interesting. He would be a standard "insane scientist that will do anything to learn the truth", but the strange, alien like way he goes about his horrible methods adds a lot of intrigue. He holds no hate for his test subjects and even has a twisted love for them, including Nanachi. He is a total psychopath yet holds no actual malicious intent. This, combined with complete composure in any situation, no matter what is done or said to him makes him a really great antagonist. Even when our main characters wreck his house or dungeon or whatever he doesn't seem to give a shit. I just wish we got some idea of what made him the way he is, but the author of the series is only good at setting up mysteries, not actually revealing them.

Enjoyment? I didn't enjoy it a whole lot. The movie leaves me with a sick feeling in my stomach, and not in the right way that say, Berserk does.

Overall, this movie felt like an excuse to show off the author's cool Mary Sue scientist OC.

SPOILER WARNING


Today I watched the Made in Abyss movie and was kind of disappointed by it; there were a lot of plot conveniences and I was confused by a lot of what was happening. In addition, I couldn't empathize with the death of Prushka because I didn't understand why she had to be killed in the first place. It was established that Bondrewd seemed to care more for Prushka than the other children, but when it came time for Bondrewd to face off against the main crew, he turned her into a "cartridge" just like all the other children. What I'm confused by is the ... story's attempt to show that Prushka was special or was at least treated specially by Bondrewd, only for her to receive exactly the same treatment as any regular child in his lab. Why not just have Prushka be a regular kid in Bondrewd's "flock" that happened to make friends with the main crew during their stay there? Her death would have had the exact same weight. I was anticipating Bondrewd to either show some humanity by sparing Prushka or at least hesitating before killing her, OR for Prushka to have some trait that made her an especially potent cartridge donor. But unfortunately neither of those situations occurred.

I was also disappointed in Bondrewd's complete lack of any sympathetic qualities, convincing villains often are fighting for something they believe is right (even if it is wrong) or they are dealing with complex emotions that lead them to do evil things. But Bondrewd was just straight up evil and his only intentions seemed to be to raise up a *totally not* Third Reich. He was also one of those villains that was never phased by anything that happened to them. Even as he has just been blown in half by Reg, he was still spouting off about how he "enjoyed" the fight and had no fear or remorse. He didn't even get angry, he was just a robot. The genius of Made in Abyss is that 90% of the time, it doesn't need a villain, the villain is nature. The Abyss is the Abyss and everyone knows descending into it is dangerous, but the Abyss does not aggressively affect anyone outside of it. So is it very important that when you do introduce a human villain in this kind of show, they need to exhibit some kind of relatable goal or at least demonstrate human characteristics. With Bondrewd we go from facing the horrible, but neutral Abyss, to the horrible and 100% evil Bondrewd. It just feels like misery for misery's sake.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Riko, whose emotion was unnecessarily turned up to 11 in this movie. There were plenty of tragic moments in season 1 that were worthy of tears, and on many of those occasions the main characters do cry. But there are several emotionally neutral scenes in the movie where Riko breaks into tears for seemingly no reason. It was jarring to see a character who was so resilient and optimistic in the anime turn into a blubbering crybaby for almost the entirety of this film. In the anime, Reg was often the one who could not deal with emotional trauma and Riko was there to be his anchor, even when she was mortally wounded. But now that Riko can't fulfill that role, she doesn't have any use in the trio, she is 100% a liability in this film, which doesn't make her any fun to watch as a character.
As a final note there were several plot conveniences that occurred, mostly through the use of previously unmentioned or unexplained relics or abilities. Here is a short list
- Nanachi has relic light bombs

- Riko has a crossbow with special bolts that can be filled with a substance

- Bondrewd can see through Nanachi's eyes like a CCTV camera...

- Riko can fire one of Reg's arms despite it not being attached to him

- Bondrewd can transfer his consciousness and genetic makeup through his helmet, even though the relic that supposedly allows him to do this is an enormous tree

- An Umbra Hand magically finds the Blaze Reap and returns it to Riko

I will admit I have not read the manga so maybe some of these are explained therein, but I don't consider that an excuse for the movie, you need to explain or set this stuff up if you're going to have it pay off later.

Overall, I didn't hate this movie, but I was disappointed by it, especially since season 1 was of such high quality. The animation, voice acting and music in this film are still great, I just found the plot and characters to be lacking.

Without exaggeration, one of the most shocking, emotional, mysterious (Mysterious-philosophical-psychological), violent, exhilarating, fascinating, disturbing, darkest and insane anime movie of my life. Beautifully, your brain collapses as you watch it. It has an extremely coherent story and a masterpiece. Flashbacks and coherent storytelling make this anime movie more enjoyable. It had a lot of shocking sequences and surprising dialogues. It was actually one of the best anime movie in history. Its violence was too much and its atmosphere was too heavy! I was stopping the anime somewhere and telling myself: "is this really an anime movie ?!" Philosophical story!!! And the psychology of the cinematic ... anime (full of symbolism and meaning) was narrated in a very astonishing finesse. It is really hard to see this anime again because of its heavy atmosphere but I have to! It was such that I needed to think even after seeing it. The dialogues were extremely mysterious. The presence of a gray character named Bondrewd (its nature is gradually revealed) in the anime greatly contributed to the mysterious atmosphere of the anime (in the first season of the anime we also had a gray character named Ozen). The battles were very fierce. This anime is based on violence and cold atmosphere that is absolutely suitable for above 18 years old. I said the cold atmosphere... that means it froze you! The rating is 10/10. It had almost no fault except play a lot with the psyche and some of the terms in the dialogues were confusing. I didn't expect anything higher than that. Everything is at its best...

I hate long reviews so i ll make this quick and spoiler free.


The movie is an absolute masterpiece that will make you dying for the second season to air. Made in Abyss the only anime that can make this kind of mixture of cuteness and and darkness and wrap it all up in the most outstanding art and music creating a dream-like atmosphere that will make you live every second of it and end it with the bitterness of waking up from a beautiful engaging dream.

This is my first review btw and i was to submit it but the website asked me to make it ... longer for some reason.

if your a fan of made in abyss or you want a good action movie (even tho i recommend you watch season 1 before this movie) this movie is outstanding in every way. fans will be happy to know that the arc adapted (idofront arc) was handled extremely well and they made it beautiful. the same gorgeous art style is present and the animation is crisp and smooth. the music is also just as if not better than season 1's music. kevin penkin did a amazing job on the ost and every song fits the scene perfectly. the battles are represent perfectly as ... well, with them only skipping a few things here and there, but overall covering everything the arc had. the characters are all amazing like is season 2 with the added prushka and umbra hands, bonedrewd was handled incredibly and is flesh out a ton from is initial introduction. prushka was also handled extremely well and is fully fleshed out like in the manga, not skipping anything about her if you haven't seen this movie ans its out by you i highly recommend watching it.

Beautiful on the outside, half full on the inside.

Art 10/10
The art design from Akihito Tsukushi is just breathtaking. From the ocean of white flowers laced in deadly insects to the icy barren surrounding a concrete city devoid of life. The world building is one of the strongest parts of made in abyss. It's what makes you keep wanting to know whats next. What's the next life form they discover? What does the next layer look like? What will our protagonists look like after surviving the next obstacle? The art feeds into these mysteries, and if it didn't deliver than would you really care about ... whats next.

Sound 10/10
The sound of happiness sharing a meal with friends to the sounds of agony are exceptionally done. Really nothing to complain about here.

Story 6/10
The story is very simple. Riko, Reg, and Nanachi just want to progress to the next layer of the abyss and the challenges getting there. Which if it was all about would be a 10/10 for me since the world building adds to the story and the mysteries pull the show forward in interesting new ways. The issue is the way this story unfolds. Without going into spoilers, repeating the same thing twice and expecting the same emotional payoff of the viewer feels cheap. Especially when it's a large portion of the movie.

Characters 7/10
Riko just wants to meet her mother again and explore the deepest parts of the abyss. She has a lot of knowledge of the abyss memorized and that's her biggest selling point.

Regs only real interesting trait is the mystery surrounding his background.

Nanachi on the other hand if you watched the series before this film is pretty self explanatory on why she is a good written character with flaws and regrets explained further in this film.

Bondrewd is really the star of this film. His design is very striking giving a sense of dread of the things to come. He is driven by the desire of unknown so much so that he has forsaken his humanity to further his goal. As the old saying goes if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

Prushka is my biggest complaint of this movie. Her character is just a plot device. That's all I'll say to avoid spoiling anything.

Enjoyment 7/10
I love the world building. The mystery of what's next. You share the same desire of the characters to go further and further at any cost to see all the abyss has to offer. Unfortunately this layer (5th layer) of the abyss is the least interesting part as it serves only as a gateway into the stranger and more twisted layers. The fan service stuff is really off putting and I wish they just didn't include it. Also Prushka really hurts my enjoyment of the film as a whole.

Overall
If you liked the main series definitely watch this as it's the next part in the story.

Oh man. First of all, I’d like to say that like season one, Dawn of the Deep Soul is not for the faint of heart. It’s dark, and one scene is particular struck me as particularly horrific. I won’t go into spoilers, but it’s not what you might think. (It truly was subarashii) I would also like to get something else out of the way. You probably expected this, but this movie does contain some uncomfortable fan service. It’s not nearly as blunt as season one, but it’s still present, so keep that in mind.

The art and animation in this movie was certainly something to ... behold. The animation is slick, and the art is polished and detailed. The background art is stunning studio ghibli tier stuff, and the monsters move with the same frightening intensity as they did in the first season. One fight scene struck me as being rather similar to Mob Psycho, and uh... if you’ve seen Mob Psycho, you’d know that that is very high praise.

The music in this movie was also beautiful. While I prefer the soundtrack to season one, it is still absolutely amazing. The song from Myth and Roid at the end credits is absolutely phenomenal, and I fell in love with it the moment I heard it in the trailer. Nothing from the ost really caught my attention other than that, but there were no problems with the music whatsoever.

This movie covers the Ido Front arc, which is widely considered the best. Believe me, it is for good reason. The movie was good in the beginning, but the build up to the final tragic moment made me feel like I was going to start crying at any moment. I don’t want to say anything more, because it best to simply experience it for yourself.

In conclusion, this movie is good. It’s really good. If you love Made in Abyss, then I assure you, you will love this movie. It was a wonderful watch, and I’m sure I will be rewatching I soon.

In contrast to the rating and my expectations based on the anime, this movie touches the limit of utter disappointment. With classic elements of a tearjerker drama that tries too hard so sell a sad story and with shounen based, insta op type of development to assist the plot, this movie deviates too far from the beauty of the anime.

Plot: The plot can be easily guessed given the information one had from the anime, and it literally requires no imagination to guess how the event will play out 20 minutes in to the film. The comedic relief for such a try hard tearjerker story ... is none existent at best, given that the scenes where Regu has a boner approach the realm of pedophilia instead (considering all the protagonists have the appearance of 10 year old's). This direction is further strengthened by the very clear depiction of the operating chair scenes and it is something that the production should reflect upon. When it comes to the ending, in my opinion, it actually voids the whole purpose of the movie. Not only does it not provide any closure, but also fails to cultivate the feeling of justice, eluding a proper catharsis to the story.

In conclusion, you can easily skip the movie, and just read a 5 min summary to keep up with future content.

Characters: Literally the only character that has any development is Bondrewd. Bondrewd fits perfectly the role of the antagonist, and his screen time carries the whole movie. There is very little to say about the rest of the characters.

Animation: The animation is very nice and the quality is on par with sutdios like MAPPA.

I literally made my account here to write this review and warn people to avoid this anime. This movie in particular. If you finished the original series and were feeling a bit skeeved out by a few things it doesn't get better here.

My heart breaks because this whole series is ruined by the fact that the main protagonists are children. The more you think about it the less reason there is for this to be the case. The way children's bodies are portrayed and mutilated in this movie especially is fetishistic, and honestly disgusting. I'm not offended by much but you honestly have to ... draw the line somewhere.

Instead of developing real characters the writer seeks to create depth by creating scenes of drawn out physical suffering. Probably hoping to heighten that feeling of shock by making them children. The effect however is something truly disgusting that could have been a 10/10 easily for the world building alone. Bondrewd is a good villain but nothing revolutionary. Trust me there are better things to watch don't waste your time on this one. The hype is completely undeserved.