Our main characters are Riko and Regu. Riko is a 12 year old ‘Cave Raider,’ someone who ventures down into the deep chasm that the world is centered around. Regu is a robot (or maybe cyborg?) boy who saves Riko from being attacked in the first episode, and his origin is one of the central intrigues of Made in Abyss. The two primary characters play off of each other very well, often to either comedic or adorable effect. A series of events leads Riko to believe that her mom is deep in the Abyss, so she and Regu start an adventure to the bottom of the Netherworld. The greatest thing about these characters is that, even though they have simple personalities that are easily summed up, they behave flexibly and are believable in the context of the world. For example, Riko, although being naïve and childish, is also rather brave and knowledgeable about the Abyss, likely because of her aspirations of becoming one of the highest ranking cave raiders.
The art is also phenomenal, and one of the show’s biggest draws. Made in Abyss has 3 distinct art styles. There’s the beautiful, painterly background that helps convey the World of Made in Abyss, and does a mesmerizingly wonderful job of it, too. Then there is the chibi character art, used to display the characters as cute (and that’s pretty much it). Finally, there’s also the fact that may of the creatures found in the Abyss are drawn in a completely different style than characters. You’d imagine that this would lead to chaos amongst the clashing art styles, but you’d be sorely mistaken. In fact, it does a wonderful job of making the creatures fit in with the world, while making the characters appear unnatural in comparison, which works really well with this world.
There is also the phenomonal sound design. Made in Abyss features a magnificent soundtrack, courtesy of Kevin Penkin. Also, the general sound effects vary from either very realistic to very cartoonish, which helps to convey the current tone of the events taking place. Additionally, the sound design can also be horrific (in a good way). This applies especially to the horrendous, gut-wrenching scenes, which were disturbing on their own, but made significantly more so by the incredible sound design. This also applies to the phenomenal voice acting, which also helped convey said scenes in the most fittingly disturbing way possible.
In general, I consider Made in Abyss to be my number 1 anime of all time. However, there are a few serious gripes, as with any other show. My only real gripe, personally, is the sexualisation of a twelve year old girl, which I do not find O.K. However, I do my best to ignore it, as it isn’t ever presented in an overtly sexual manner, thankfully. A major gripe I have seen, however, is that those who read the webcomic say that the pacing is too slow. I would have to say that I disagree with that, however, and I would have honestly preferred if the anime were a few episodes longer so they could have slowed down the pace even more, specifically in the First Layer.
Final Comments
Made in Abyss is my personal favorite Anime, and I would highly recommend it if you think you are prepared for the (surprisingly intense) horror scenes that comes later on in the series.
