Also fair warning, I will be commenting on the pedophilic undertones in the anime so if you’re already against that discussion, feel free to avoid my review..
A lot of people, although maybe minority have already addressed their observations regarding this issue in Made in Abyss.
So over to the anime, It was just decent. I’d rate it anywhere between 6.5/7. I would have rated it higher if it wasn’t for the subtle disturbing sexual innuendos forced on 12 year old kids.
The animation visuals were undeniably breathtaking. The aesthetics of world building of the mysterious city of Orth, circumventing around a bewildering, mysterious pit, the Abyss is indeed fascinating. The concept itself is enough to spark intense intrigue from the beginning. However, I found the series loosing momentum at various points throughout the watch. We’ve been kept told about how dangerous the Abyss is, and how only a handful of people called whistles make it back, but that dangers so profoundly articulated by the narrative is reduced by one third of it’s level when the protagonists, two 12 years old's embark on descending the abyss.
Maybe it’s the leads. I couldn’t be any less interested in what Riko and Reg will do because they somehow overcome the dangers via plot armor and Riko, just has no character development, other than being the oblivious kid who is the least concerned about anything around her. That’s aside from the constant “Reg, please protect Riko” insinuated by secondary characters every now and then and rather than a power duo effort, it’s Reg who always saves the day, it gets annoying. The leads and their chemistry are not the most interesting, in a way I couldn’t care what happened to them. There’s something missing in their motivations to make me root for them. The only few characters that's really worth of admiration despite a short screen time are Ouzen, Nanachi and Bondrewd.
The series makes you think that with every descension of one layer below the other, the more compelling it would be for the protagonists, that I thought they’d take few episodes to make it to the next. But that intensity is rarely felt. I couldn’t feel the pounding danger at all. There were loopholes in the technicality of the abyss ascension nd descension which were not explained well.
Last but not the least. Maybe because I don’t know, It creeps me out. I really don’t find anything appealing in the of fan-servicing of 12 year prepubescent children. It’s not anything new in Anime, but it also strips the seriousness of the plot and characters by shoving the fan-servicing attributes into it. I also, found the last bit of conversation between Nanachi, Reg and Riko very unpalatable. I don’t find such subtle insinuations of sexual talk between children to be tasteful unless if it’s teenagers or adults. I am more graveled by the mindset of the author in trying to incorporate those insinuations when the plot could’ve done very well without constantly reminding about Reg’s penis, and showing Riko naked. The way to enforce the fact that they’re innocent kids by putting them in the hyperbolic scenarios that children shouldn’t be while catering it to adults, is like pot calling the kettle back. I mean what was the necessity of Reg and Riko completely going naked in the pool, and Reg getting a boner and Nanachi also another 12 years old subtly insinuating the atmosphere as romantic. This whole scene gave me the creeps. These are fucking children. But enthusiasts will always find reasons to defend them as cinematic art, or plot necessity to prove their innocence. No Sherlock, it’s only in anime, and anime the lolicon/shoticon fetishes' are normalized under the veil of story telling or plot requirement. As though there hasn’t been masterpieces of fantasy/adventure genres made involving children without the need to make them naked or make a skinny dipping scene of 12 year old children talking about boners. It a latitude existing only in anime to make it dark and believable. To top it off it’s aimed for adults which makes it all the more sense why it’s just for fanservice and fetish and not for plot. It’s morally convoluted if for an adult to drill these gimmicks between children. We all know what happened when cuties came out on Netflix.
So, I’m not the most excited to see the second season. I’m definitely turned off especially after hearing how the author is apparently a pedophile who satiates his fetish for prepubescent children through his work.
But, would love to see more of the other characters though than focusing on a budding romance between children through precarious ways. Welp, I guess this is not like TPN.
