This anime was a challenge contract from Aperost in the Anicord discord server—huge thanks to Aperost for contracting this anime.
Made in Abyss (which I will be abbreviating to MiA from now onwards) is a confusingly great anime with enough to separate itself from most of everything I have seen. However, I don't think it's for me. I have watched both seasons and the movie (in order), and thus, this review will cover all of that. I have not read the manga, so I will refrain from making comments on it and the mangaka behind it. Despite saying it isn't for me, I will still be looking forward to the continuation of the anime adaptation and will be following the series until it concludes.
So what do I think makes this anime great? A lot of that boils down to the world building, sense of scale, and overall atmosphere of the series. I don't think there is anything quite like MiA in terms of its world. Every creature feels right at home and you can envision how such creatures interact with their surroundings and other creatures. The curse of the abyss is a great concept and adds to the stakes of the show. The colors and attention to detail are the best I have seen in a long time and I want to commend the animators involved for working so hard to make this anime a reality. The stories behind certain characters such as Nanachi and Faputa not only add to the world, but also make these characters feel grounded and attached to what has been set up. The show is paced well, despite what others say about season 1, and kept me engaged for its entirety. And of course, the soundtrack. THE BEST PART ABOUT MIA IS THE SOUNDTRACK. Kevin did such an amazing job on this. It can and does carry scenes on its back. When you think MiA, you will think about the soundtrack. Most definitely you will.
With all that said I'm sure you might be wondering why it isn't for me. Well, let's return to the characters. Riko is an absolute garbage character I could not care less about. I get the appeal, trust me I do, but some of the decisions the author has taken with her character have left me hating her more and more as every episode passes. At first, I actually liked Riko. She was competent and showed a sense of passion for adventure and finding her mother. Her dynamic with Reg was endearing and I wanted the best for her. But as the anime went on, she just kept getting worse and worse. I'll save you the talk about her having to use the bathroom every other episode (don't get me started on the decision to actually show her doing this each and every time) and skip to the actual handling of her character. By a certain point, the show just forgets about her mother. You know it's a bad thing when for an entire season Lyza is mentioned once because it's Riko's entire motivation for going down the abyss. She becomes a blank character who is made more annoying by not being able to fight like Reg, or have an interesting story to tell like every other side character there is. Reg also suffers from this blank slate problem, but it's a bit more understandable in his case since he has amnesia. The best characters in this series are the side characters, and the most interesting parts of the story are all backstories and not the current one that is taking place. I care more about Lyza, Ouzen, Vueko, and Bondrewd than I ever could about the main cast. I hope season 3 will help build Riko's and Reg's characters but for now, they are boring at best and distasteful at worst.
Overall, I still think MiA has a lot of merit and it's beloved by a lot of people for good reason. Yet, the major issues I have with the characters and main narrative getting stale, heavily bring down my appreciation for this series. The show can play with your emotions really well with great supporting characters and an outstanding soundtrack, but can just as easily take you out of it with something really unnecessary or downright criminal with these child characters to show in the midst of it all. While it isn't for me, I wholly get the appeal and can respect those who have this as one of their favorites. Once again, thank you to Aperost for contracting this anime. I had a good time with it!