I would like as many people that love this anime to read this review as possible, because this is not a favourable review, at all. Crazily enough, this review has nothing to do with the sexualisation of children, considering that seems to be the main gripe I find when trying to find other reviews that share my views on the show. Personally, I think it is ignorant to dismiss a show just because it might show a naked kid or something along those lines.
The following review will be based on my initial reactions that I typed to my friend on Discord who rated it very highly (10/10, like most). Despite that, I tried my hardest not to let my friend's recommendation or the fact that this show (at the time) was nominated for so many awards affect my opinion or get my hopes up. I'll try to keep some sort of structure but I'm not gonna separate this into "Story", "Art", etc.
Before episode 12-13, I'd describe Made in Abyss (Abyss) as 'interesting, yet boring'. I watched all of Clannad, for example, because I just couldn't tear my eyes away from it, despite the incredibly cheesy beginning. Same goes for literally any other drama/slice-of-life/whatever-isn't-shonen anime that I've watched. I sat through the boring ordeal that was Made in Abyss because I heard good things from my friend and it was nominated for loads of awards. If I just stumbled across it and decided to watch it, I wouldn't have gotten past the trial period (3 episodes). As I was watching, and the main duo were doing their thing, I was wondering what the fuck the adventuring had to do with the plot. I didn't know if the adventure was meant to be a bit of fun that doesn't directly tie in to the main plot but when you've got very pressing issues, and you know how long the trek is, watching the anime take its time down the abyss is excruciatingly painful. My friend said that episodes 1-3 could have been done better, and I agree, but that doesn't matter because I don't think it really got better until the very end, anyway. It's not like a slow build-up of character development, it's just boring. By the time they got into the abyss, and during the time in which they were actually in the abyss, I couldn't give two fucking shits what was it in. I was more interested in the characters that they'd, potentially, meet in there. There were so many 'Whistles' that could have crossed their path but they just didn't. So episodes 1-3 didn't even work for me, in the hype regard, because they hyped the wrong thing (dangerous White Whistles) that didn't appear as often as the other things (monsters).
Now, to preface the following qualm, I have literally no clue about how objectively good the art/animation is in this anime (or any anime). I usually just assume that art and animation choice is a case of design over budget, most the time, so I don't pay attention. With that in-mind, it could have definitely been way worse, but I hate the character design. Their faces look like humans fused with a bit of of the Dango family. I don't doubt the quality but the actual design really isn't for me and I don't understand how others can stand this kind of character design, either. Very popular anime that I have watched before like Bleach is not noted for its amazing animation but I think the characters and art of Bleach is better Abyss's, only because Bleach's character and animation design looks cool and sharp. Looking at the Dango blobs which are the faces of our protagonists isn't very appealing to me, nor does it suck me in to the world it's trying to create. That's just the subjective opinion of one guy, tho. The art isn't my main gripe.
The worst part about it was how tacked on the Mitty storyline was/felt. Such a dramatic story that I'm sure I would have cried about if they spent an entire episode making us connect more with Mitty and the one I can't remember the name of and all their motivation, rather than spending 1 entire episode (I think it was episode 9), which is completely skippable considering it's just the main duo fucking around with monsters, doing stuff with no real affect on the plot. I do understand that the Mitty moment was actually only there to introduce us to two main characters, rabbit girl and the mad scientist. I just feel like the transition could have been dealt with much better, especially considering that this storyline was another thing which distracted from the main goal/aim of the protagonists, saving the girl's mother. In the first arc of Bleach, Ichigo is constantly reminding himself and the viewer that he is trying to save Rukia and literally everything he does is to that end. In Abyss, I can't help but think the "trying to save mom" storyline is just a reason to go in the Abyss.
I did think to myself, halfway through, how good the Abyss idea would have been in the hands of the original Dragon Ball, considering that was a show based on exploration, making stuff you met on the way seem interesting. In Dragon Ball, the journey is, clearly, the main aspect, so trawling through the different levels of the Abyss could seem exciting, with excitement and trepidation galore for every level you went down. With Made in Abyss, it felt like the destination and mystery behind the destination was way more important than the journey, so I just found myself saying "get the fuck down there, already". As I said, watching the anime take its time with that was painful.
Another big issue I have with this anime was the symbolism, or lack thereof. There seemed to be seeds being planted everywhere that implied things going on in the bigger picture. For example, you had that artifact the MC had which was pointing to the bottom of the abyss. You had the whole strict orphanage set-up, even going so far as to show you what happens to the MC when she gets in trouble. However, none of these things come to a front. I imagine they will be addressed in future series and may already be explained in the manga but, for now, in a 13-episode series, the symbolism was another thing which just made this show drag on and made me think I was wasting my time.
The emotional parts felt too forced or cookie cutter for me to care. The characters are not interesting at all, with the only exceptions being the Immovable White Whistle that the MCs first meet (the one that saved the MC as a baby, you know who I mean) and the mad scientist White Whistle. However, speaking of the Immovable White Whistle, I absolutely hate either her script/direction or her voice actress. When she was talking for extending periods of time (monologuing), I noticed that every other sentence/word ended with the syllables "eeehhhhh" or "neeeehhhh". I get that, especially with some of the random and unexpected jumpcuts to her face being all scary, she is meant to be a representation of how one can lose their sanity going down the Abyss, but that infliction in her speech patterns made me want to just stop reading her subtitles because her voice kept distracting me, making it a chore, and just wait until she stopped talking before tuning back into the show.
What I'm trying to get across is, this anime, all too often, made me say "why?" and "what's the point?" way too often. It felt like this anime was having an identity crisis. Did it want to be an adventure anime? If so, then why the fuck was the main plot something so urgent? You can't take your time with that. There's probably so much more I'm omitting from this review but these were the points that came to my mind and I thought were prominent. If someone could just put my mind to rest on this issue and tell me exactly why people love this anime so much, I'd be deeply appreciative. I'm not going to lie and say I desperately want to enjoy this anime, because I don't, but it would be nice to be proven wrong because I cannot find a proper substantial reason as to why this anime should be the best anime of 2017.
With all of that being said, I do not hate this anime (I gave it 5/10, after all) nor do I hate anyone that loves this anime. I do not want to get anyone riled up with this review/novel. Thanks a lot for reading this entire review and hopefully other like-minded people will find this helpful, knowing that they aren't the only ones with these qualms.
