By mistake or not I watched the whole first season in one sitting without even realizing it, I was just getting eaten by something I never truly explored because I am not a fantasy guy anymore and I do rarely like fantasy anime anymore, as well I am not the biggest fan of gore but for sure I love the mystery and the Abyss is the definition of mystery and also of surprise.
After seeing some status of a friend spamming the second season I decided to watch it all and after catching up I was left speechless because this is something truly special, in all of my life I have never seen something such as Made in Abyss and I even struggle to put the right words because I am really speechless.
#The same but different Abyss
The second season caught me off guard because I was expecting the crew to explore the new layer and advance to the next one pretty quickly, but instead this time I got something I actually wished for : exploring to the smallest detail the layer. I loved the first season for exploring the Abyss but I was quite sad that I never truly got to "experience" every layer, but it all changes with this one because saying that I experienced it is not truly enough. What did I get to watch? Hard to explain. I witnessed the course of 3 different lives : past, present and future.
Starting from the Ganja crew, I was interested in having a second story to follow because it would've given me a lot of more informations and story about not only the Abyss but eventually about the creatures all over the place. I found interesting that they are similarly maybe a reference to the explorers that discovered the American continent because I quite saw the similar story : looking for something but actually end up finding something completely different and eventually falling in it. The idea of putting some adventurers looking for the Golden City was an absolutely good idea to make the story even more rich and as well all the characters that were shown were truly interesting, I didn't really feel that our original team of young children was missing that much and that is a good thing.
On the counterpart I felt happy whenever Riko's team was on the screen, for sure because I'm used to seeing them and I like seeing their adventures, but what's more interesting was actually seeing them divided in this story because everyone has an own story here : Riko discovering a new city, Reg discovering his actual past and Nanachi trying to leave her past behind; it was interesting to see how each character behaved differently to the creatures of the layer.
But why saying creatures of the level? In this layer we actually experience a new form of humanity that we can't truly comprehend because we can't understand each other, yet we can live together. This place has the its own soul. I really liked the life of the Golden City because it was perfectly divided between the hostile and the peaceful.
#Yet the same amazing Abyss
However with a different story formula there is still that amazing "wow" factor that makes Made in Abyss what it is : its mystery and suspence, the amazing cliffhangers and the terror of knowing what awaits you.
The terrific backstory of the Ganja team left me with a sense of terror for how they "survived" the Abyss.
The sad story of Faputa left me sad for her knowing what she had to endure and all of her hatred for the creatures, as well her sweet past with all the others creatures she's met was wonderful and it was truly beautiful to see her sweet and cute side that perfectly opposes to her dark and terrific nature of killer and immortal one; truly a princess.
And then the incredible events that await us in this layer that are one more insane than the other, twists behind the corners and decisions that will either hurt or make everyone happy but there is no room to make mistakes because you can't allow yourself to die here, not like you can actually come back. Entering this layer means losing your humanity.
#And once again, amazing technical side
We already know who Kevin Penkin is so I won't waste time and say that his music was as usual perfect, we already know that.
Talking about arts and animations I was very pleased with a great direction that always managed to go toe to toe with the amazing story, I was really happy of how the Abyss was drawn because it really gave me the feeling of being in a closed wide space where you couldn't breath and conceding a great balance of width and claustrophobia.
The way all the creatures were created was also really good and the use of the CGI was minimal yet effective and I can't really complain about it.
Reg's blast is always fun to watch and the little details left by the shot are always appreciated.
#Made in Abyss is really the greatest fantasy of the modern era of animationI was left with no words after completing the final episodes because I felt so many emotions while watching that all go from pure terror to absolute happiness, it truly delivered in a way few anime can.
Technically and substantially this work is absolutely immense and it is able to teach to many anime how to execute, it was such a pleasure to watch a perfect mix of stories that never overshadowed each others. It is also admirable how every feeling is well shown here by creating the perfect mixture of EVERYTHING you can ever ask of.
Truly amazing.
Personal scores
Story : 9/10
Characters : 9/10
Arts : 9/10
Music : 10/10
Personal Enjoyment : 9/10
I will never get tired of the Abyss, it's amazing
