This following installment in the Made in Abyss series was pretty good in consideration. A film that feels like a series of episodes, an arc, yet, not a film in its narrative.
This story only shows the next obstacle in the group's trip into this hellish landscape, it presents who we know, some new characters, but I just don't know what to say precisely. It's like watching episode 4 to 8 in a series and expect a complete narrative in it. I like the animation a lot and some of the presentation elements, but this isn't a movie.
Although, I did enjoy how this is actually what people tell you about. A disturbing exploration into the madness that holds people inside it, just as mad. Some moments do make you cringe and feel more pain due to how much we know the characters; these children are going through it. Torture scenes that actually let the viewer have some imagination about them, the distressing nature of emotional connections and how they are exploited. I felt for the new and old characters a fair amount.
I'm invested in this world, and this batch of episodes was pretty good. However, this isn't a movie, this should not be a movie and to call it that is to call arcs in a story, movies. Apart from that, more time and a separation in episodes could've helped the pacing and how emotionally manipulative some scenes tried to be. Constant "oh, but this is her origin" right as a character was basically dead. It felt dumb, shoehorned in to make you feel something when information could've been conveyed way before this in, again, slower pacing.
The animation was impeccable here, better than ever, but those "tearjerker" moments pulled me out hard, there had to be a better way to show that. Solid 7/10, pretty good all in all, even with many flaws.
