Made in Abyss

Made in abyss

In any of the newer anime I’ve been consuming recently, this is probably one of, if not the best fully-comprehensive experiences I’ve had. In short, the plot, world, themes, and production all hooked me from the start and it only got better as it continued on.

Plot
I don’t want to go into the specifics of the plot that much because YOU SHOULD WATCH IT!! But-- i will say how the premise grabbed me. A living, breathing, walking relic of The Abyss comes up, and the orphan Riko finds him. They both have an urge to explore and reach the bottom of The Abyss, for different reasons. Reg has amnesia and knows nothing of his past or his creation, and Riko wants to find her long lost mother that’s allegedly at the bottom of The Abyss.

World
I think Akihito Tsukishi is an AMAZING world-builder. The community of Orth is so vibrant. The Abyss has an air of mystery and charm that can’t be replicated.
You can tell there are a ton of soft-worldbuilding decisions-- the fact that there was a past civilization here, perhaps several even. There was a structured religion towards The Abyss that’s been lost to time and warped to the point that now The Abyss itself is the source of the religion. There are a ton of artifacts and remnants that begs the question to the viewer: “Where did this all come from? How did things end up this way?” Nearly everything is unanswered, and intentionally so. The story is still going.
Next, the layers of The Abyss each have their own individuality. Some are barren, deadly, and full of lovecraftian monsters. Some are beautiful, havens, and full of nature. They are all unique to one-another - including the curse that comes along with it. The curse is unique- choosing to put the drawback to exploring the chasm at the point of return is such an interesting and frightening decision.

Production
Art: it’s all breathtaking. The studio got Osamu Masuyama, someone known for their art in Studio Ghibli films, to be the art director for this series. His team was able to bring to life the art of the manga. Each layer of the Abyss has their own charm, going from the likes of a bustling to mysterious, yet captivating atmospheres.
Animation: I really liked it! I think emotion is a key aspect, and you need to get the facial expressions and mannerisms of each character right to convey an emotion effectively. I think they nailed it. The pain some characters go through are captured just as well as the hopeful moments. The action sequences are done well too. Some of the creatures have a watercolor look to them, like they’re part of the background, which I think is really neat - it makes them blend in with the background. Reg’s incinerator looks awesome every time.
Voice Acting: Again, for something as emotional as this, the voices have to match. And I think those responsible for Riko, Reg, and Nanachi handle their roles amazingly. They have to do a lot of crying, a lot of screaming, a lot of anger.
Music: And I thought the production couldn’t get any better. This is, hands-down, one of the best anime OSTs I have EVER listened to. Kevin Penkin created banger after banger, and in such a brilliant way too. Each character has their own theme, and they have various versions as they go through the story. Hell, there are motifs in EVERYTHING. If you’re paying attention, a track for a scene with parallels to another will literally carry the motif attached to it along. The orchestral work is stunning; the string sections have really mesmerizing arpeggios that drone on, the piano and synths have very full chords that pad out the whole space, the horns and woodwind have the perfect amount of personality, and the percussion can pick up with an almost tribal-esque feeling when a scene is energetic.

Themes
The Perserverance Of Humanity / Humanity: We see characters time and time again go for their goal with no signs of stopping. Characters like Ozen and Nanachi are aware of just how idiotic some of these cave raiders are. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing people can do to stop them from realizing their aspirations into reality. It can be terrifying seeing what they do to obtain them.
Religion: The Abyss is a religion. The Abyss is the people’s concept of “God.” It gives and it takes. There are old scriptures of peoples from the past speaking of reincarnation, altars for sending wishful people down for their “last dive,” skeletons of people in prayer. With an ability to strike fear in people, theres ability to form an occult from it. This is an allegory for mostly a lot of the negative aspects of organized religion, there are also several parallels with the Abyss’ religion to the principles of Buddhism (Karma, Samsara,Nirvana. It’s all there.)
Oedipus Complex: I see a lot of it here. Riko is doing all that she can to reach her mother. The people of Orth are doing everything inside of the very thing they worship as their creator. Reg is quite literally going back inside of the thing that birthed him.
Natural Evolution: The force field of The Abyss is a unique, yet simple trap. It inflicts the curse on most things with sentience. And because of this deadly aspect, the creatures inside of it have evolved-- some have organs to sense the force field, some are docile away from the field or aggressive when close, some have dangerous tactics or weapons on them to make themselves stronger than the curse around them. This is all the emergence of complexity from simple rules. This happens in real life, you can see this in the deepest trenches of the ocean. You can even see the people in The Abyss affected by this path of influence. White Whistles have gone mad, and they acknowledge it and continue forward.
Moral Dilemma: Why are things done they way they are in The Abyss? There are several questionable decisions done by many characters in this story. Some are just brushed off. Why? What is different in this world? Why does a White Whistle get to conduct experiments the way they do? Is it because they have absolute power? Are the people here complacent or are they too blinded by their perseverance to care? There are moral and ethical dilemmas riddled throughout this story, and I think they’re meant to be an exaggeration, yet a reflection of how things are in our world. After all, the people in this story’s world are just a product of a mind built in our world.

Overall
Wrote it very hastily but hope you get the jist and don't make fun of me too hard lol. Yeah. 10/10.