Made in Abyss: Retsujitsu no Ougonkyou

I've never been this astonished and upset with a show I used to love. All the makings of a 10/10 squandered by the biggest sack of shit suffer porn I have ever seen. This is too much. I've been robbed of my empathy. I can't invest myself in the main cast without feeling like I'm participating in one big predictably fetishistic narrative. It wasn't always this way.

Made in Abyss' first season set up a story full of hope, grit and unparalleled intrigue. Its setup might just be the best in any anime and the characters were instant favourites for me. Later episodes hit like a ... ton of bricks, I couldn't take my eyes away from it. The ending, after 14 stellar episodes, was equal parts heartwrenching and beautiful. One of the most memorable pieces of media I have ever experienced and probably ever will.

Here's where we're at now:
The visuals are still great, the soundtrack is still stunning, the world building and character design work never ceases to entertain and every once in a while, there are moments of absolute brilliance. Tragically, the movie prior to this season has taken any tonal surprises out of the plot's sails. We went from shockingly poignant to edgy boarding on fanfiction territory in the span of one arc. Along with this came indefensible moments of cringey character interactions that make me feel wrong for ever having thought the uncomfortable parts of season 1 are additive to the experience. Take everything I just wrote, make the worst aspects of the movie even more unbearable and you have The Golden City of the Scorching Sun arc. Trusting the writing to handle anything with a level of subtlety is a lost cause at this point and fooling anyone a third time will take a whole lot more than another new cast of captivating characters.

Ultimately, the further down into the abyss I go, the more obvious it is that this will never be the show I wanted. Through denial, anger and disappointment, I’ve finally arrived at acceptance. No matter how many complaints warrant being thrown at the state of Made in Abyss, you can’t say it doesn’t leave a seriously strong impression. Even if it’s no longer for me, I’m glad more seasons are still being made and that true fans of the manga are getting a masterful adaptation of the adventure they love.

Made in Abyss is a great series. I just don’t think Layer 6 is all that interesting.

Season 1 and the movie, in other words Layers 1 to 5, were very interesting and I have no problem with giving them a 9 or 10. However, that is not the case with Season 2 aka Layer 6.

What layer 6’s story amounts to is “exploring a village”. It is far from the adventure that was Season 1, or the dynamic battle with a white whistler lord that was the movie.

The backstory of Ilmyuii (I don’t know her English spelling because I read the series in ... Japanese and watched it in Japanese) is not that interesting. Oh so she got cursed and had to (spoilders) so sad etc… I don’t feel the way I did when Mitty died or Prushka died because we (Rico and Reg) didn’t spend much time with her. Now they’re just going for shock value but it was underwhelming compared to season 1 and the movie.

Layer 6 itself isn’t all that interesting either. It is basically just a goddamn village. Might as well call it “the village arc”. Like I said before, there is no “adventure” here. Just meeting people. Sure, the movie didn’t have much “adventure” either, but there was a dynamic climactic battle that supplemented that. But we don’t have that either in layer 6. There’s not much adventure or dynamic action. Just talking to people like a chore quest from an RPG.

Layer 6 was the longest arc in the manga too, and the most boring arc. I’m afraid it is the same for the anime. This is not a bad anime. This is a good anime. It is a solid 7/10. It’s just not as good as season 1 or the movie, so I am giving it a “mixed feelings” rating. It definitely does not deserve a higher score than the movie or the first season. I am not hating on this anime. I’m just being honest with my disappointment for the Layer 6 Arc. I hope Layer 7 (season 3 of the anime) will be better.

As a story, Made in Abyss is made up of three core elements: alien but ultimately enchanting world-building, decently strong character writing, and… uncomfortable moments, be that through horror-writing, the downright gleeful torture of minors, or the somewhat alarming tendency to fetishize children. As our heroes go further down the abyss, the enchanting parts of the world give way to more and more uncomfortable moments, especially in this second season. And that’s not surprising: it’s an abyss, after all, so it should be dark. But as someone who didn’t bat an eye at the horrific scenes in the first season or the movie, I felt ... physically ill watching MULTIPLE parts of this second season (Even though I liked it overall).

This is a quality of Made in Abyss that I admire—it takes guts to create a story as viscerally uncomfortable and disturbing as this one. But, it’s also a quality that saddens me, because at this point, I can’t fully recommend the second season. If you felt uncomfortable about anything in Made in Abyss’s first season or the movie, you very well might not make it through this second season… or you might make it through but come out hating the franchise, which I definitely don’t want for you. So, only read further if you’re genuinely invested in Reg, Riko, and Nanachi’s plight, and have all the masochism and immunity to child fetishization you need to watch this second season in the first place (as I apparently do).

Now, to details. Much like the movie, the second season covers a single arc in a single location. Overall, I think the plot and pacing are impressive, especially given the fact that Riko, Reg, and Nanachi are almost never in the same location this time around. On top of that, the second season throws in a LOT of new characters, as well as a new storyline that runs in parallel thematically, but in the past chronologically. The season juggles all these elements quite well, and although I would have loved a little more time to dive into backstories and side stories, it still gets you invested and emotional when you need to be.

Unfortunately, I think the character writing suffers this season. Irumyuui, a crucial character to this season’s plot, isn’t developed much beyond “cute girl who goes through shit.” Wazukyan, while an interesting character, feels like a minor downgrade after Bondrewd. Belaf (#bestboy) holds an incredible amount of symbolic interest, but isn’t present enough for the season to explain his contradictory actions, which ultimately harms his character. Riko only rehashes character beats we already know from the first season, while Nanachi regresses, essentially reliving an arc from the first season after all the stellar development they got in the movie (At least Reg gets some interesting developments and backstory this season). But these are more nitpicks than anything; as I said before, the show still gets the job done and gets you invested and emotional when needed.

Visually, the second season is basically just as stunning as everything else the franchise has to offer. Some might be offended by the heavier use of CGI this season, but narratively, I think it works, and even emphasizes how unnatural and out-of-place certain elements of the Abyss are. The soundtrack is also excellently utilized, and builds upon the solid foundation provided by the first season. The OP is both narratively impactful and gorgeous to look at—definitely my favorite opening of the summer season. From a production standpoint, there’s nothing not to like here.

If you plan to watch the second season, I’d say binge it. It might help you get through the uncomfortable moments and gloss over the problems in character writing. It’ll also help you keep track of the (admittedly) numerous plot and character threads the season juggles. If you think you can handle extreme conceptual discomfort, binge and enjoy—I certainly did.

Made in Abyss: a series which in my heart, I really wanted to love, but in the end was tragically disappointed by.

To be clear, I think this show is quite competent. The world building and concepts were fascinating. I loved the 7 different layers, and the corresponding illnesses that came from ascending in each one. The sense of foreboding and mystery was incredible in the first season, with the praying corpses, scattered relics, etc. It made me excited to learn more about the abyss as a place, and how such a harsh environment had even come to exist. But unfortunately, beyond all of that, that’s ... all Made in Abyss turned out to be: a list of cool ideas, stunted by underwhelming execution.

Problems with S1:
To reiterate, S1’s strengths were in the world itself. The first three episodes were set up perfectly—creating an apprehensive sense of dread around what awaited Riko and Reg in the unknown of the abyss. I felt genuinely afraid, and I loved it. It wasn’t until the main characters actually began their descent when I started to notice some negative patterns in the narrative’s storytelling.

My main qualms lied with Riko and Reg. Aside from behaving in ways that felt out of place for 12-year-olds, Riko’s consistent disregard for her own safety and lack of self-preservation got tiring very quickly. She experienced little in terms of character development, and seemed to be used primarily for “cute bait”—existing only for the purpose of being viciously mutilated when the plot wanted higher stakes.
(Also this is a side note, but I noticed an alarming amount of scenes where these *twelve-year-olds* had sexually questionable interactions, moments of nudity, or expulsion of bodily fluids. I can understand the desire to raise the story’s tension, but the ways these elements were used only ever felt uncomfortable and fetishy, and had very little relevance to the plot.)

Despite these factors though, what made S1 special was Nanachi’s arc. Her arc was the first time Made in Abyss presented conflict in a way that was not only dark, but grounded. She had lasting psychological repercussions that made her hesitant to trust others, and behaved in ways that logically aligned with her character motivations. She was flawed, and her complex desires and maturity of knowing when to back down from a fight made her much more compelling than Reg and Riko; who struggled to learn these basic survival principles up until the end of the season.
Season 1 would’ve had so much more gravity to it if the characters actually responded in an appropriate way to the abominations they witnessed. I was expecting to watch as the MCs slowly lose their grasp on their sanity—to witness them struggling to maintain their vigor with each layer they descended. I wanted to see them second-guess themselves and question their desires, only to eventually resign themselves to their choice; crossing the point of no return. Of course, I recognize a lot of this is my own opinion, but I still stand by the fact that keeping the tone cheerful despite the horrors Riko and Reg experienced was the very thing that undermined Made in Abyss as a story.

Problems with S2:
Basically, add up everything in season 1, plus a myriad of questionably written story beats, and you have season 2. The story introduces the Golden City: a location in layer six where hollows have been dwelling in peace for centuries. It was an interesting idea at first, but in order to make way for all of these new characters’ tragic backstories, Riko, Reg, and Nanachi are unfortunately forced to take a distant backseat.
The characters Faputa and Vueko were alright in terms of development, but were introduced in a way that felt way too abrupt. We hadn’t received any prior implications or foreshadowing about the Golden City in S1, so rather than watching satisfying lore elements click into place in S2, we were overwhelmed by a loosely related side-quest which the main characters merely stood by and witnessed. Everything felt jarringly out of place as a result, and the conclusion was unsatisfying because of how little anything changed afterward. (Which, I can’t help but observe that Faputa basically committed immense war crimes to accomplish her goals by the end, yet was painted as a hero despite that due to her self-proclaimed “noble cause”. That’s not really an ideal message to be sending…)
In the end, season 2 wasn’t terrible, but it just didn’t mesh well with the original plot. It would’ve made more sense as a movie rather than an entire arc of the story.

6/10: excessive suffering, and inconsistent, convoluted plot elements. I miss the sense of foreboding from season 1.

(Also Nanachi had a severe lack of screen time. She got done so dirty, and no one talks about it enough.)

Made in Abyss Season 2 is a continuation of the story from the first season and third movie. The pacing slows down quite a bit in season 2, so be aware of that. The largest detracting point for this anime is the nearly constant and completely unnecessary sexualization of the very young main cast. It is so predictable that I could predict that any new main characters would likewise look like children and likewise be overly sexualized, which rang true in this season. It is a real shame because the world of Made in Abyss is very compelling and the willingness to show how violentand ... brutal it can be has promise. Riko, Nanachi, and Reg are an alright main cast, but do not stand out in any way.

Since the first season, the story has been picking up pace and is a pleasant adventure with a touch of drama and dark atmosphere. The mixture of fairy tale and haunting setting as the characters descend into the abyss does its job perfectly until you smoothly enter this story arc.
The second season for me personally felt like marking time. The history of the settlement could have been revealed much more succinctly and gracefully, but the author stretched the screenplay, creating a heavy chewing gum that you want to spit out and forget by the middle of the season. The only bright spot in the story ... is Faputa, only on her charisma and battle scenes can you endure the second half.
I look forward to continuing, and I hope that this will not happen again.

As many point out, season one was fresh and exciting. It felt original, each episode opened us and the characters up to a new portion of the world and the mysterious curse of the abyss, and I was there for it. The films began to shift my view a little; the writing got obvious and the characters became more 2D. My engagement in the world diminished, but with season one showing so much potential, I started season two in the hope that the serial writing would return us to that original wonder.

However, what I found with season two was nausea. The abuse of the human ... form and of child characters is nothing new in this series (and nor is it new in anime full stop), but in this, it seems to reach new highs. I found myself almost gagging at one episode, and my stomach isn't usually that weak when watching things. I put off watching the final two episodes for a little while, not because I didn't want it to end, but because I wasn't convinced I wanted to watch it anymore. I felt the sexualisation of the main characters to be unnecessary whereas in the past it had served a light purpose. The writing was messy, and while the overall plot wasn't dreadful, trying to piece it all together while watching it weekly was a challenge at times. I think if it is binged, it would be fine.

This might all sound like I hated the show; that I should have dropped it long before the end; and that I wouldn't recommend it, but that isn't what I am wanting to say. I still think the majority of fans of the series will like the show. The animation is still beautiful. They still have this way of introducing new characters in a way that makes you care about them very quickly and want to learn about them. The voice acting highlights all those emotions twists and turns in excruciating detail.

I would still encourage viewers to follow these characters on the next stage of their journey as there are so many unanswered questions and so much more of the abyss to explore, but in a way, I feel I am entering my own abyss in watching this show. How much of my humanity could I lose in the process? Will I be able to come back from the torture this anime will predictably bring in the future?

Hello, I do not enjoy writing lengthy descriptions of anime. It is a brief read.
Tale: the strongest aspect of the entire anime is the story, namely how two stories from the past and present intertwined in a lovely manner.

Art: Retaining the first season's style, which is fantastic.

How can I write it down? masterpiece


CHARACTERS: The worst aspect of this season was the malicious princess and how the group behaved with her. I was expecting a twist or an open ending.
Even the trio (Reg, Nana, and Girl) looked oblivious to the fact that they were in the Golden City.
...

Overall:
Nice, but not as good as the prior ones. not even somewhat comparable

I did not like the last two episodes, as they were full of empty philosophy, which is the weakness of the anime as a whole. The writer also continued to express his psychological and mental illnesses with exaggerated violence, justified and unjustified, and disgusting scenes that should not be shown directly, but he was too lazy to find a way to present them appropriately. But the damned knows how to build a world and knows how to bring you into it with the magic of adventure and discovery and always shocks you in different ways with a boldness that I loved in some things but ... hated in what I mentioned before. Once again empty philosophy and useless affectation to make it sound like something profound and such. With suspicion of pedophilia.

I did not like MIA the golden city as much as I hoped I would.

The main issue is the fact that the entirety of the season takes place within the aforementioned golden city. A denizen of alien creatures stranded in the 6th layer who succumbed to the curse of the abyss

The city is very alien in design and atmosphere with strange creatures, tribal buildings and horrifying dimensional creations like a toilet made of tongues.

I didn't like how the sense of adventure was lost and instead our trio spend 12 episodes just chilling in the city instead of exploring the abyss.

We are ... introduced to new characters who play a big role and there's new lewd moments (that make you wonder if the author is a pedo of course..)

But compared to the 1st season this is just a letdown in overall writing.

Along with the trio, the season also follows explorers of the past and talks about how the city came to be and how the curse started and spread.

Half of the show is devoted to Reg and his past being explored, another half is Riko+ Nanichi learning about the city and the last half is about the explorers of the past who first ventured into the 6th layer long ago.

Floating phantasmal currency, shadows that tear people apart..it's all too weird for my taste.

If you're a MIA fan, i recommend you give it a try but see it's more about the city itself then the abyss.

The main focus of the plot revolves around the trio bumbling around the city and learning more about the mysteries surrounding it. But there isn't a grand scale of adventure like before. They don't leave the city.

After the first several episodes, (some of which are flashbacks to the founding of the city) it just gets old fast.

There's some shocking moments. There's the usual MIA type twists and sad moments

Tons of gore.

But there's just too much character focus and backstory writing. There's little to push the party forward into the future.

I don't hate this season but it's just disappointing in terms of excitement and plot development

Maybe you'll like it as a MIA fan. Maybe you won't.

Watch it and find out i suppose.

I was not bored, but emotionally exhausted by this season. I foolishly hope all the suffering is worth it for... something. Not sure what. Maybe it's just an endurance test of how much pain the audience can handle or put up with.

I nearly gave up on this series because of how senselessly gruesome Dawn of the Deep Soul was. This season was more tolerable than the movie because the horror had more of a purpose, but it's still tragic. The high quality of the animation and music remain unchanged.

There are many feel-good shows. This is a feel-bad show.

I thought this show was incredibly cool 1st season and I struggled to not give it 10/10 despite some odd undertones that should have been red flags. Progressively though the show got way more extreme. I only started recognizing these signs and truly feeling disturbed during the third film. Having gone into the second season now, I’m kinda convinced that Akihito Tsukushi is a pedo. Hot take admittedly, the show is creepy as shit now and all of that overshadows any unique intrigue it once had. At this point in S2 I’m so stressed just watching it that my stomach turns. The show has gotten ... more and more twisted, and I don’t know for how long people can continue making excuses for it and for the character of the creator.
I think this show, the creator, and everyone who watches the show ( those who like it AND those who don’t) should be made into a case study. I think the discussion around this show is almost worth getting through it, but overall I can’t recommend it. This is especially true if you have kids and are to any extent sensitive about the depiction and wellbeing of children. Saying all this, I think this show is a complicated issue, so if you’re still intrigued by the premise…watch at your own risk.

TLDR While I think the music, animation, and plot is interesting, the gratuitous writing decisions made as it continued are too extreme to find enjoyment in or to even finish.

This season did not move the plot forward as much as I had hoped it would. We got 12 episodes but barely touched on any of the numerous mysteries that make this show interesting. Most of this season felt like the writers were stalling and not giving the audience any answers. The tragedy in this season felt utterly ridiculous. It was so obvious that the writers wanted to make the audience cry when they reintroduced a certain character from the first season. I didn’t get even get emotional when that happened. I also felt like everything about Faputa’s mom was just so unnecessarily tragic and ... I also did not have an emotional reaction to that. In fact, I felt that entire storyline was absolutely absurd. Tbh, I’ve always felt like this show is very very hit or miss. The first season was boring until the last 3 episodes and this show peaked in movie 3. That movie was absolutely perfect and I am so sad to get such a disappointing follow up. At this point, I just want all the questions answered without any more forced tragedies. Although I’m still excited to watch more Made in Abyss, I’m starting to feel like this show is overhyped and I hope the final reveals at the very end are not as disappointing as the entirety of this season.

I truly believe this show pushed the medium of animation as a narrative vehicle to its fullest extent. The world-building, the creature and character design, the emotional beats, the music, the voice acting, the character development—each element has been stretched to its greatest potential and squeezed even more. Made in Abyss is visceral, timeless, immersive, beautiful and grotesque. I genuinely think it is an adventure story for the ages, up there with the likes of Tolkien.

BUT. But...

There is just enough indulgence of the author's pedophilic tastes without earned narrative significance to make one reaally, reaaaaaally uncomfortable while watching it. They're jokes, sure; they could be ... reasonable, even, given the world-building, but these nods are just so transparently off the tracks of the story that it's hard to move past them. And while it might be easy for some viewers to shrug it off, this aspect is very important to me, in the landscape of a medium that toys often with the innocence of children under the veil of lighthearted comedy; and especially, in a story that writes an otherwise extremely important narrative that I think the world needs.

It's a 10, a 20, even, but depending on where you draw your line, it'll be a hard watch—not necessarily in a good way, either.

It's hard to evaluate this season. Made in Abyss season 1 and its movie are among my all time favorite anime series. Season 2 is still good. The art and music are as great as ever. The new characters are interesting and endearing. The trauma hits hard as always. However the plot is not as tight. There are a few plot holes or at least a few instances in which the plot (especially regarding stuff that happens in the past) is not well explained. Some characters are inconsistent and they go from helping the heroes, to hindering them or vice versa without a clear motive. ... I sometimes feel the author wanted to push the plot in a certain direction at the beginning but than changed his mind and pushed it toward something better, but disjointed. It i still a good series and it leaves me with high hopes for what is next. But I can't call it a masterpiece.

An insurmountable amount of potential squandered in an irredeemable execution.

I loved the first season of Made in Abyss, although it had its hitches it was still an excellent show with some of the best art, characters and tone-setting I've seen in anime.

The Golden City, however, fails to live up to the investment I had in the first season. The art is great and the characters are fine, but the tone feels like it's all over the place whenever the plot deems it convenient. There'll be a scene of Riko having fun through an episode of almost slice-of-life proportions, followed by a massive depressive lore-dump ... that shatters the mood. I understand that MiA is supposed to be hard hitting but it loses too much of its impact from these misjudged lapses in tone. I had hoped this questionable pacing and tone to be a result of the beginning of an unorthodox story, but it struggles to make up for it in the end.

The end of the second season leaves more questions unanswered than the first, and while I believe it's worth watching if you enjoy the characters, it contributes very little to the journey into the Abyss that the series is centered on.

The only only reason, I couldn't quite connect with the show was my sole expectation to see something more gruesome or more emotionally traumatic than season one and movie 3 and another reason being I am too big fan of action scenes unless there is a lot more in action to make it look appealing or at-least interesting. Till the last episode I waited but I couldn't even reach level 2 emotional state (if emotions were on scale of intensity from 1 to 10). It was a disappointment after what I got to see in movie 3 perhaps, this is my own problem with action ... stuff and too attachment to emotional and gruesome shit but then It didn't even qualify on the action part too. In movie 3 action was there with emotional shit overpowering the fight scene but in season 2 they just tried everything to be put into one season to cover manga like COTE does.

What an excellent arc. While still giving us more to work with we're also given more backstory. The weights of 'give and take' are balanced perfectly this season. However let me address an enigma-
Take me back to 2017 when Made in Abyss showcased as a carefree adventure comedy... until it wasn't. Back in 2017 when I said that Made in Abyss is like "watching your dog get hit by a truck, the emotional strain is gripping" to get my review deleted as I was harassed seemingly for saying that it was akin to horror, gore and offensive. I bet you all feel stupid now. With ... that irony out of the way-

When I was originally reading the manga I found myself wondering how dark the story could get. If this arc would ever, if ever, get an adaptation. After season 1 and the movie(s) it was inevitable that Made in Abyss would adapt this far and if it wasn't for the Corona Virus Pandemic we certainly would have got it sooner. The world-building is linking itself and the characters into one solid narrative instead of two divides of each. What I by this is that everything is interesting. There's not one thing about Abyss that would push a non-anime fan away. It's openly accepting, unrelenting and aggressively unforgiving. This story is obviously fiction but these narratives are inherently human and relatable beyond the tropes of what 'anime' is. That's not to say it isn't flawed in any way. New characters are introduced that leave more questions than answers. For instance, why were the travelers forsaken by their homelands? If we would've known something like 'this', wouldn't it make it obviously apparent who the 'bad guy' is(?). There's excuses in the writing like this but it's all overshadowed by revisiting the Abyss' adventure through the eyes of different characters and ultimately the natives of the Island itself. I have a very sharp inclination to think this will all be explained, they're already doing it with this arc. This is what the kids call 'KINO'.
I think season 2 is fantastic, I think you should watch it.