Made in Abyss

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Made in Abyss is a tale of a journey to the land of no return.
It's a dark fantasy featuring obsessed little girls, shy robots and sarcastic bunny critters. Also giant mind-reading porcupines, don't forget those.
It's bizarre, beautiful, inventive, painfully emotional and bizarre (did I mention carnivorous porcupines? Pretty bizarre).
It's one of my all-time favorites, so let me tell you why.

So, what does make Made in Abyss so special? Just about everything.
For one thing, it's the Abyss itself. It's a weird and fascinating place with its very own laws of physics, mythology and ecosystem.
Mesmerizing scenery, lethal monsters, priceless treasures - the Abyss has it all, ... has it everywhere, has it in any combination.
Beautiful flower meadow, eager to kill you dead (or worse)? Coming right up!
Toothy monster of shocking visage that wouldn't hurt a fly? Got one right here!
Legendary weapon that misfires regularly and gets lost all the time? Not even a problem!
You might've seen many a dungeon before but rest assured you've never seen the like of the Abyss.

For another, it's the art. It is amazing. Precise drawing, outstanding design and composition, exquisite shadows and lighting - this manga has it all and then some. It's a visual feast putting to shame at least 95% of all the other manga out there.

Also, the characters. Some of them are extremely likable, some are instantly hateful, some are totally incomprehensible but every one of them (including minor parts making appearance in a couple of panels) is distinctly and beautifully drawn and feels as real and alive as anything ever committed to paper.

All that being said, if I had to single out one element that contributes most prominently to the greatness of Made in Abyss that would have to be the story.
It's exciting, dreadful, weird, breathtaking and totally unpredictable. I mean, you get the general idea and know where it's supposed to take you eventually (although I strongly suspect it's going to be more of a way-point than the finish line) but have you the foggiest what's going to jump in your face when you turn the next page? Not a chance.
Anything can happen to anyone, all bets are off, no happy endings are guaranteed (neither are bad ones, for that matter). Have you ever been too afraid to turn a page but unable not to? You will have this pleasure.
That is something you should be aware of before entering the Abyss - this is not a lighthearted story. I've seen this manga being described as a cross between Ichigo Mashimaro and Berserk and this analogy might just have grasped the gist of it. As the story progresses it grows darker, more disturbing and ominous. It is the main reason I only give it 9 points - sometimes reading Made in Abyss is frustrating and pretty painful. Still, if that is something you can stomach you're in for an experience well worth your while.

Conclusion;
Made in Abyss is an outstanding work of art by any standard. Cute and gritty, vivid and gloomy, delicate and overwhelming, heart-warming and spine-chilling - it'll sweep you off your feet and drag you down into the world of sinister beauty you'll never forget.

NOTE: I wrote the original version of this review when I was 16, I come back 5 years later (2022) and it was still at the top, so I thought I had a responsibility to, at least, update it completely.

Made in Abyss sure is a series that exists, somehow. After watching the second season I knew I had to come back and rewrite this, because I now have even more conflicted feelings on it than I used to. Originally, my feelings on this manga were very positive, I even called it a "masterpiece" (I do not think such a thing exists nowadays), but, as the ... years passed and I got older and gayer, this manga started making both more sense and less sense.

The world itself has largely been about the same so far, still really interesting, but not much else has been shown in these 5 years between one arc starting and ending, another one beginning a few months ago, and a second season that was an aid in me actually understanding what happened in the arc it adapts (this happened probably due to the gaps between chapter releases). So, most of the time, it feels like a world that is stuck in the same place where it was five years ago. Sure, there are more hints towards the actual nature of the Abyss, but nothing very concrete (one recent scene even "censored" something that seemed fairly relevant).

However, the themes of the story have, I believe, gotten a lot clearer (or I have gotten older and now Get It a little better). "One who dares the abyss still goes deeper despite all the horrors and terrors that it guarantees you because it's a struggle that comes with inherent value and beauty" is a pretty sweet Theme that I now understand much better as the whole point of the series (apply this to our current reality in real life and it becomes a lot more hopeful and humanitarian, and I think that's nice).

In terms of the characters, I don't really like the Newer Main Character introduced, but I do still like Reg, Prushka and Riko, while Nanachi is still the best one. They're just a little bit more interesting than the other four, to be honest, since they have stayed largely stagnant (or have just been introduced) and Nanachi feels like the only one that has gotten any kind of concrete development. Reg and Riko have grown, for sure, but it's not like a part of who they are has been shaken to its core like Nanachi's has. Meanwhile, a lot of the antagonists and some of the side characters are very good; some are horrifying realities of science while others are characters I would like to be my friend irl please (this is Vueko).
All of this is ignoring how the show usually treats its main and side cast of characters, usually the kid ones, as almost meat to be consumed. I understand that it may be an attempt at portraying a "raw reality", but it usually comes off as very unnecessary and weird, especially when it comes to showing nudity or the ways the characters interact with one another. Like, I do not need to see scenes of characters molesting eachother in such immense detail. If it keeps going like this it will never beat the "if any normal human being looks at the author's hardrive(s) he will (hopefully) go to jail and this manga will be cancelled" accusations.
Meanwhile, the whole point of the main theme I previously mentioned sometimes feels more like a justification for these kids suffering under a system/place that wants them dead. Which, while a very real issue, isn't really something that can be treated and portrayed the way it is in this manga. It's like we're meant to gawk at it all, rather than make you feel frustrated and angry at the conditions of the abyss. The Newer Character Introduced is probably the worst offender of this, since, besides Her Whole Design, she acts very much like a small kid (because she basically is) and it very much doesn't help that she's so touchy with the other characters, especially Reg (it sometimes even feels like a harem manga, which, uhhhh why?). She also is one that gets to look very beaten up and, basically, with her guts out. Why?

In conclusion, this manga doesn't feel like it's evolved much in the past five years. It's mostly doubled down on all of What It Is and it doesn't help that a lof of What It Is isn't always coherent. The world-building and art (when it's not showing borderline criminal/actually pedophillic drawings) are very good, but the characters that inhabit that world and are drawn by the art aren't always particularily interesting or drawin with respect. Even if Nanachi, Vueko, and a lot of the antagonists exist as fairly good counterexamples to this (it just means that the author has the capacity for Actually Writing & Designing Characters). The themes are so good but they don't really feel coherent with how the show treats its characters and it, a lot of the time, feels like a justification for this very treatment, which just sucks ass and it's probably the worst way to go about such a liberatory thematic core. Basically, go read something else, you'll probably have more fun, and you won't be waiting months for a new chapter which may just have another kid suffering awfully for your supposedly gawking eyes. Unless you're interested in reading it anyway, which, to be honest, is quite in tone with the main theme. So, go ahead if that's what you wish! And good luck!

I don't hate Made in Abyss, but it wasn't done as good as it could've been.
Everything about the Abyss itself is great and makes you crave for more. The mystery of what lies at the bottom, the atmosphere of the unknown, dangerous monsters, cute fluffy animals, rich fantasy flora, rare treasures and unique relics, each detail of this amazing fantasy world was crafted with love and dedication. Let's not forget the beautiful art, not only it's impressive from technical standpoint, but even less detailed panels are full of life and emotions. The setting is definitely intriguing and raises a lot of questions by the ... readers, which may be enough for some people to keep following this manga, despite sporadic release shedule.

The problem is that the plot doesn't quite deliever on the level of premise and the hype surrounding this series.
While the concept leaves a lot of space for an interesting worldbuilding and seems like a perfect set up for an adventure, the story mainly focuses on character drama, which isn't a bad thing, when it's done right, but that's not the case. Simply put, Made in Abyss characters are lackluster and even uncompelling, you have basic tropes like a naive girl with a dream to become as great as her legendary parent, an amnesiac nice guy, who wants to protect his friends and does it by magically remembering how to use his powers in the right time, a strict, but secretly caring mentor figure, possessive yandere and bunch of talking plot-devices, some of them died or leave the series when we barely spent time with them. I couldn't even feel anything for them, which was completely jarring. Interactions between characters don't seem to have been enough to generate the feelings they show to each other, a good example is a girl from the fifth layer, who developed a deep connection to Riko in a matter of few pages. If you build a drama on a weak foundation such as cardboard cutouts instead of characters and forced, tropey relationships between them, it is bound to collapse.

However, I wouldn't rank Made in Abyss so low if it wasn't for blatant emotional manipulation. Instead of building up the characters and making me care about them so that when something bad happens to them I get an emotional reaction, author is simply shoving sad tropes down your mouth without realizing what actually makes those tropes sad in the first place. It just throws in a tragic backstory out of the blue, just to make you feel sad, without having the reader connected to the character beforehand. The characters aren't so much characters as they are just sob stories with pretty designs (since lolis are cute and innocent - and will clearly elicit sympathy from readers) and the plot isn't so much a plot as it is a mechanism that allows to read these sob stories, before it throws us contrivances to get some weak emotional pay-off. At which point I didn’t understand why I should give a damn about characters suffering. Normally, empathizing with a character requires first understanding that character as a valid human being, an individual with a perspective the reader can relate and believe in, but Made in Abyss bypass that part by making all participants of Suffering Olympics adorable and pure little girls, often fetishized and reduced to moe fanservice. I started to lose faith with an author once I sensed that he is making bad things happen to a character just as a cheap plot formula and WOW SO EDGY HURTING A LOLI MY GOD ARE YOUR HEARTSTRINGS TUGGED YET?!

That's being said, after certain point the genre of the story shifts from grand adventure to a loli tear-jerker, abandoning all previously estabilished positives and delving deeper in the territory of meaningless mysery porn. The criticism is not that the manga is too bleak and dark. Lots of manga are bleak and gory. The criticism is that Made in Abyss seems to revel in that bleakness like an exploitation movie. Sure, edgy stories can be fun when athours are self-aware and creative enough to entertain reader with their twisted imagination, but when all you can offer is 50 shades of suffering lolis reading it becomes a complete chore, especially when no one of those bloody and disgusting scenes has any impact on the story. Riko's nerve damage and lack of agility in her arm is never used as plot point and Riko herself learned nothing from this failure. Reg lost his arm, but got Dragonball boost and never experienced any troubles while fighting. Faputa lost her arm and ear, but regenerated, two volumes later entire chapter was dedicated to her almost being eaten alive, but she regenerated AGAIN. What makes it worse, 50 shades of loli guro tries to aim to be something more and deeper than is actually is, but the lack of character development is a clear indication that violence and sexual innuendos were written for the sadistic joy of author and some readers. Character progression is basically nonexistant, blink and you miss it all. We are talking about small children here, small children adventuring in the hell pit, where thousands of adults died or lost their minds, children, who went through the loss of limbs, death of their friends and near-death experience, but not a single trait changed in them. By the end of current volume Riko is still a starry-eyed child, who wants to make friends with everyone and totally delusional about her ideals, Reg is no different from any shounen lead and Nanachi is going through the same character arc for the third time. A good author will use a cruelty of the setting to make characters grow from their hardships, but Made in Abyss author uses dark fantasy as an excuse to torture cute kids and show them naked.

Between the rushed pacing of the upper layers, the snail pace of the village arc, disjointed story full of cheap deus ex machinas, shallow characters and their forced drama, the sexualization of kids was just a last straw to the cocktail of disappointment. I've seen some people who are justifying the tittylation of 12 years olds by bringing a good ol' "for the plot and development" argument. Oh, if only Reg's or Riko's quality of writing was equal to the amount of pages where they are displaying private parts. Dostoevsky himself would be in awe of their depth. Ironically, the manga itself is the best proof that you don't need to show off character's erection every 5 pages to make them compelling. The less mangaka sexualizes the character, the better they are written, for some reason a fully dressed villain is the only character who left me in a positive impression, unlike all those poor children that are drawn mainly as a kink fuel.

The simplest way to describe Made in Abyss is unrealized potential: the manga. There are definitely some good parts, a lot of great ideas are burried under the layers of poor writing like a rough brilliants in the mud. I still think that it's one of the most visually impressive manga out of there, the setting itself is really interesting, and does an amazing job making you wonder what's further down and building up a sense of mystery. The antagonist of Idofront arc is also great, he is the closest the characters get to... actually having a character, charismatic personality and plot relevance for more than one arc. An absolute monster, but charismatic one, with his own warped sense of love and care. But as much as I want to love this manga because many of its pieces speak to me, it just doesn’t hold together with the polish it needs. The engaging introduction to this beautiful fantasy world is wasted on a story that makes it difficult to enjoy it. For every great world building element, there is a horny moment which makes you scratch your head. As interesting as the setting is, the disconnect between fascinating dark chasm and the one-dimensional main characters never truly goes away. The greatest tragedy of Made in Abyss is that it tells us the least interesting story possible in this world.