Made in Abyss was an interesting ride. Despite liking the story, I couldn't fully enjoy this show for two reasons:
1) The first 6 episodes were so slow. I understand, they maybe want to build the world and the characters before starting an adventure but the long dialogues in these episodes felt mostly inconsequential. Not to mention we didn't really see many of the characters developed here in the later episodes. Now in a long series, this may not be a large issue but Made in Abyss consists of only 13 episodes so that's half the series right there. Now granted, a second season seems to be on the way so this is subject to change. Anyway, I enjoyed the following 7 episodes a lot more, though there are multiple reasons for that other than pace.
2) Riko. Now before you all despise me let me say I don't hate Riko completely. I actually like her enthusiasm, bravery and clumsiness... I like a lot of her traits but why did they make her a fan service character?
In the first episode I thought her punishment scene was just a way to show us how the orphanage is a dark place and Riko is just so used to this behavior that they are portraying it as a normal thing. Turns out I was wrong, the *strung naked* thing was just a popular discipline technique? Okay I guess. Not an episode passes and Riko starts talking about Regu's genitals? Alright, I mean she does live in a TORTURE CHAMBER so I guess she has a weird side.. whatever.
Um... now she is just leaving the shower naked for no reason. Oh now Regu is looking at her boobs. Skinny dipping, more genital jokes, great. No matter how you look at it, you can't deny that this rather dark show chose to use its 12-year old main character for fan service. This becomes especially apparent when Riko is unconscious during episodes 10-12. Honestly I thought these episodes were the strongest of the series because she was missing.
Moving on from the negatives, the show has some strong side characters and a very good 2nd main character. Regu the "Robot" is more human than anyone in the show starting from Episode 1. He's curious, passionate, dependable, sometimes clueless, sometimes flawed, sometimes a pushover. I just love him, easily the best character on MiA. Then comes two side characters who saved the series starting from episode 7: Ouzen and Nanachi. I won't go into detail, but I found them both interesting and the story did a nice job developing them. I'm hoping to see more of them in the 2nd season.
I can't say anything about the art that hasn't been said before, everything is just gorgeous. Visually it's the most impressive anime I've ever seen. The soundtrack however didn't do it for me. Especially some of the solo piano songs. These background tracks shouldn't dominate the scene and distract me from what's going on, yet it happened quite a few times. But this might just be a me-thing. My favorite song by far was the opening credits song from Episode 1.
Overall, I would have given MiA a 7 if I wasn't so bothered by the fan service and maybe even a 9 if some episodes weren't dragged out. Decent, and I'm curious to see how Season 2 will play out.
