MADE IN ABYSS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MOVIE AdventureMade in Abyss: Tabidachi no Yoake
MOVIE AdventureMade in Abyss: Hourou Suru Tasogare
MOVIE ActionMade in Abyss: Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei
ANIME AdventureMade in Abyss
MANGA AdventureMade in Abyss: Koushiki Anthology
ANIME AdventureMade in Abyss: Retsujitsu no Ougonkyou
Not Available AdventureMade in Abyss (Zoku-hen)

REVIEWS

• 

  LittleBig

  40/100
  The MiA manga invites us to a brave new world, but fails to capture the sense of adventure that made the anime great.

  The anime adaptation of Made in Abyss last year took everyone by surprise, coming from nowhere with a surprisingly original and dark story, amidst the usual myriad of cute girls and isekai anime you get every season, including a, uh…horse girl. Judging from the anime, it's easy to be misled that the manga will be just as good, but Made in Abyss is one of those few examples where the adaptation improves on the source material.

  Of course, the story itself isn't the problem, since the anime is almost a panel by panel adaptation of the manga (and for me, the small changes were for the best). However, each medium has its own sets of rules and demands for storytelling: when adapting, you can never tell the same story twice. That's why so many adaptations suffer from constant comparisons to their source material: because they are way too concerned with just telling the story without first adapting it to a whole new medium. That's why The Tatami Galaxy would never have worked as your usual school college anime with a Groundhog Day twist: not even Morimi's delightfully fast-paced prose could have saved another Endless Eight. That's why Houseki no Kuni worked: because they didn't just mimic the manga's minimalist art, they added their own touches and cinematographic techniques.

  And finally, that's why Kinema Citrus' anime succeeds: because it takes a manga that is not so sure of what it wants to do, and turns it into an immersive and interesting adventure fantasy story. The manga is already pretty cinematic, so that moving pictures and a great, unique soundtrack managed to create a completely different feel to it, is quite the feat.
  That's a bold statement, so if you are here already, before picking up your rakes and rifles, bear with me.

  First off, the arcs covered by the anime are not too bad. They are pretty much the same, with some short scenes added for a more fluid storytelling and a mostly filler episode that didn't add much to it except for dramatic tension, but wasn't bad. The problem with this is that the anime does a much better job at telling the story than the manga — granted, most credits going to the fantastic soundtrack — and so, until chapter 26, I was stuck with the same story that I thoroughly enjoyed in the anime, but that fell completely flat when I read it.
  Tsukushi's art is impressive, both in its details and creativity, but it's not enough to carry the story alone like Blame!'s or Akira's art, and reading it didn't really add much to the experience of immersing myself in the adventure. Without the soundtrack, I realized, there wasn't much to drag me into that fantastic world which, suddenly, seemed not so fantastic anymore, and emptier. The abyss is constantly labeled by the characters to be extremely dangerous and threatening, yet, if you stop to put things on a balance for a sec, the most threatening stuff until now came less from what crawls in the abyss and more from psychotic humans living in its depths. The incident with the Tamaugachi does weigh for the abyss side, but just barely. Now, while complex worldbuilding in detriment of story is not ideal, it begs the question: what's the point of creating a whole new world, sectioned in several literal layers, to the extent of defining its fauna and flora, if you are gonna linger but briefly in each of them, and for the two layers that they remained longer, spend most of the time indoors? It's almost as if the author created the world first, but didn't think about the plot very thoroughly. It's the kind of masturbatory worldbuilding that does nothing in the matter of weaving a good story. Both the manga and the anime commit the sin of being rushed, but in the latter, it is at least less apparent.
  For the characters…well, they weren't cardboards, but they weren't very fleshed out either. Riko and Regu aren't terrible, but they feel more like reasons for the plot to move along than the reason why the plot moves. I might burn myself for saying this, but, while the relationship between Nanachi and Mitty was decently played out, I feel like it manipulates us a little to feel moved. Don't get me wrong, the anime did wonders of distilling the most brutal and sentimental aspects of those more gritty scenes...but, in the end, why did I care about those characters? It wasn't because they were well written, interesting characters, but because they were kids suddenly ripped from safety and thrown into a inhospitable, ruthless world. It's an old formula, and no matter how many times it is played out, it still works. No matter the hard times they face, those characters stay essentially the same, never seeming to be significantly changed in any way, which kinda nullifies their hardships; after a while, I stopped caring altogether: which is why what I'll deal with in the next paragraph does not work (I will talk a bit later about the other characters).

  Now, I know this horse has been more than beaten to death already, and maybe nothing I say will add much to the topic, but still, this is a review and I have to say it.
  Yes, it's about those scenes. The controversial stuff. Anyway, I will keep it short (I failed).
  Some have argued that they add depth and realism to the story, since, you know, they are in that age. As you might have guessed, I fundamentally disagree with that, not because it was creepy or anything (which it was — but I'm not delving into it), but because of the way the author chose to present those themes.
  If an author actually wanted to work with the early awakening of sexuality in a relevant and serious way, there's a handful of ways they could deal with that, but none of them involve turning it into a joke everytime the subject matter is brought up, without ever making any significant impact on the story or characters. It would take one hell of a good writer to fool the whole audience and make that work. Which, by the way, didn't.
  Because, honestly, I can't even begin to conjecture how anyone could rationally convince someone else that a 12yo girl being tied up in a bondage style as punishment added anything worthwhile to the story, and wasn't just a gag or GOD FORBID fanservice. If anything, it just works to show that the adults of that world are profoundly troubled and arguably insane, but not in a credible, interesting way, but just as a means to vent the author's own probable fetishs. And honestly, denying so is just being extremely naive, as the manga is filled with borderline fetishist scenes.
  It's the old dilemma that comic books solved two decades ago after the dark decade that was the 90s, but still sneaks and finds its way into pop culture: that adding grittiness, blood, and sex makes something mature, or even deep. It doesn't. And while it didn't ruin the story, it certainly left a sour taste in my mouth, and made me not so thrilled anymore with it.

  And presently, the manga is already two arcs after what the anime covered. I overextended myself way too much already, so I will just make a quick comment on what was probably my biggest disappointment in the manga: Bondrewd. Yes, the bad guy who did bad things in a short cameo in the anime, but was enough for everyone to hate the guy's guts.
  When Ozen appeared on the anime, she immediately became my favorite thing from it. She has the same problem of not being a well fleshed character, but still, when everyone's unremarkable, someone with such a strong presence and odd demeanour catches my eye, and she is at least given some reasoning for acting the way she did.
  Bondrewd, however, isn't given anything. He's the epitome of evil for the sake of being evil; someone so twisted by the so called madness those who linger for too long on the abyss acquire, in the guise of a mad doctor (and I swear I can almost picture him screaming I AM A VISIONARY MWAHAHAHA in an english or german accent), that instead of being terrifying and remarkable like Ozen, it turns him into just someone that just tries too hard to be unsettling and imposing, but in the end feels like a terrible James Bond villain. The author even tries to pull another mitty, with a character that gets introduced and butchered into a car battery way too fast for me to care to make us hate Bondrewd even more, but it's just not effective.

  But who knows, maybe all of that will be, again, improved on the second season. There certainly is potential there, specially with the awesome battle scenes this section of the manga has, but well, let's wait and see. I don't have much to say about the present arc, but it's been mildly interesting, so I'll until the conclusion to formulate any opinion on it.

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• 

  lunarminna

  100/100
  The abyss keeps drawing me in.

  Story 10/10

  It's subarashii. It's simple on the surface, but it's open to a ton of possibilities. Riko wants to travel into the abyss to find her mother, and when she finds a robot-like creature that came from the abyss, that was her opportunity to venture into the abyss. Each layer, apart from one and three, have their own story to tell. They're all very unique in their own way, but pulling my emotions around like it's a game of tug-o-war is a common occurrence.

  Sometimes I don't feel like the story is about Riko. I feel as if it's about the abyss itself, and Riko is just the outlet to tell the story of the abyss. The further the story goes along, the more and more you learn about the epicness and cruelty of the abyss. It always has something new to give, and it is almost always enjoyable, even if it's very depressing at times. I end up caring less and less about Riko, and start caring more and more about everything that's going on around her. There is so much to tell in this large hole, and the manga tells it all greatly.

  Character 10/10

  The characters are perfect for what Made in Abyss is. The main protagonist is Riko. She is a soft and innocent child diving into the abyss with a robot-like kid named Reg. Riko is an extremely curious individual and ignores risks to satisfy her curiosity about the abyss and what happened to her mother. This, paired with the monstrosity of the abyss, is not a good combination at all, but it's half of what makes her character shine. She also has some odd charisma, which just makes me wish for her success. She is a good protagonist, even though she isn't even close to being the best character. She also has great survival skills despite being weak, which is what makes her a great pair with Reg.

  The second main character is Reg. He came from the abyss, but he lost his memories about it. His drive, like Riko's, is also curiosity. but instead of being curious about the abyss, it's all about himself and his past. His relationship with Riko is one of the best parts of the manga, and it distracts me from the abyss which is needed.

  Then, there is Nanachi. She has a troubled past along with another character named Mitty. I won't go into detail, but seeing how this troubled past follows her around is one of the most interesting parts of the entire manga. Also, seeing how she in particular was affected by the abyss makes me wish to flood the abyss.

  Next, I shall introduce you to a very subarashii character. Bondrewd. In terms of morality, he's completely lacking. He does awful things but is the perfect example of what a monstrosity the abyss is. He lacks in morality heavily, but he's not really wrong in what he does. One of the things that make the abyss so cruel is the curse of the abyss. Bondrewd does research on the curse, and he made so much progress on the research using awful means. He is also an extremely loving and caring guy, and he loves and sees everyone he experiments on as human, That doesn't make it any better, but he's still interesting and extremely loveable.

  I don't want to go into detail about the other characters, but the entire cast is all unique and loveable.

  Art 8/10

  The character designs are either adorable or terrifying or both. The art style is cute; it especially shows with Reg and Nanachi. I saw a panel of the two, and they were adorable in that picture, so it enticed me to start reading it. The clarity isn't the best, but it doesn't really need to be too clear. Some of the landscape looks great, and I love it.

  Conclusion 10/10

  Welp, I finished the review of my favorite manga. It isn't something I would say is for everyone, seeing how it's very violent and disturbing at times, but the abyss just makes me want to keep reading. The cast of these great characters is just a bonus. I love it.

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