This will be a spoiler free review. In other words, I have not included any information that might compromise one’s enjoyment of the story. I’ll only be speaking in generalities.
Seeing that Made in Abyss, the fantasy and adventure seinen manga by Akihito Tukushi is going to be getting an adaption in the upcoming summer anime season of 2017 by Kinema Citrus, I felt it was an appropriate time to write an article to explain just what has got me so excited for this anime and why you should be too.
To say that my expectations are high for this series would be a drastic understatement. Very few things have been able to come close in capturing the same level of magic and sense of adventure as Made in Abyss. The Abyss itself is a seemingly bottomless ravine, a place shrouded in a deep, alluring mystery that just beckons the inner spelunker within all of us. It’s a cavern that extends far into the earth’s crust that have been divided into layers, each with their own spellbinding terrain. From the lush green verdure of the higher levels to the frozen tundras and icy stalactites of the ones below; each is a brand new world with its own rules and monsters and of course, plenty of treasure. It’s a premise whose horizons are virtually limitless and if that doesn’t excite you as much as the Dark Continent from Hunter x Hunter or even the world of One Piece, then you have no emotions.
It is in this setting that we are introduced to the heroine of the story, Rico, a young cave raider who dreams of exploring the mysterious Abyss in hopes of following her mother’s footsteps-an illustrious white whistle, an exalted member of the upper echelons of the raider’s ranking system. She is a part of a group of orphans whose job it is to delve into the cavern and retrieve magical trinkets and artifacts which is a rather questionable use of child labour. But it is her fascination bordering on obsession for unraveling the mysteries of the Abyss that ultimately drives her character, leading to the fateful encounter between her and Regu, a reserved humanoid robot- who of course has to have amnesia- and ends up joining Rico and her ragtag group of raiders. From here on, a friendship blossoms and Rico and Regu embark on a journey into the murky depths of the Abyss, Rico motivated by her desire to find her missing mother,and Regu, who just wants his memories back.
It’s hard to describe the gamut of emotions the manga has been to able elicit from me. It’s a confluence of feelings that I’ve long forgotten, mainly it succeeds in reawakening a childish giddiness that I never thought I would experience with the same fervor that marked my youth, the frenetic and uncontrollable excitement that once held me hostage whenever I stumbled upon a great story. The feeling of being addicted and entranced by a mysterious realm, a mental state devoid of all unnecessary thoughts and focused on only doing one thing: to read and live the contents of that story. A thirst that grew the more I read. A good story has that kind of vicious effect. When you find yourself absorbed in a good book, the more you read, then more you want to read. It’s an endless cycle. Made in Abyss reminded me of how starved I was for an adventure done right and is one that I have high hopes of becoming nothing short of epic.
To me, it embodies a same kind of spirit as works like One Piece with the seductive promise of an infinite horizon and possibilities as endless as the stars in the night sky. It hints at the same immersive and hypnotising quality inherent in many open-world RPG’s like Skryim and to reference a more recent example, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with its sweeping vistas and beautiful landscapes galvanizing a kind of wanderlust, a powerful itch to explore the uncharted. Even as a reader, you can sense the dizzying magnitude of epic tales that this story is capable of. This is a creative freedom that can only be accorded by premises such as this one.
It portrays perfectly that childhood sense of wonder and awe, that nostalgic feeling of being mesmerized by the sheer grandeur and novelty of everything around you. If there’s one thing that this manga excels at, it is making you return to that nascent frame of mind; to re-experience that childhood innocence once more, to breathe it, to feel it, to live it and then finally, have it brutally ripped from you as if it’s for the first time. It’s a deadly beauty, insidious but charming, unfailingly cute but also gut-wrenchingly gory and it skillfully dances with these odd extremities with a slick proficiency. In the end, it delivers something that will suck you in and before you know it, you’re already deep in the abyss and it’s already far too late to escape.
The artwork is gorgeous, the setting vibrant and fantastical and the character design all share a similar misleading moe aesthetic. It lulls you into this false sense of security making you think that a world populated with characters this cute, with their large pure eyes and minimalist and clean detail couldn’t possibly allow for any potentially dark story line. But beyond its captivating and hypnotic scenery is a gritty and twisted beauty that is completely incongruous with everything we know about seinen.
You can’t help but notice, even if you’re quite slow in picking these details up, a strange, eerie tenor that lurks behind the cute and light-hearted facade. It isn’t too overwhelming. In fact it’s quite subtle but there’s definitely a creepy tension that exists and yet for me, as with I’m sure many other readers, promptly ignored all the tell-tale signs that were picked up and instead chose to carry on allowing ourselves to be swept up by mere appearances. Little did we know, what a poor mistake that would be and so when things suddenly take a turn for the worse, even if we were subconsciously expecting it, it ends up becoming far more visceral and piercing than expected.
Made in Abyss also spoils us with a rich and meticulously crafted world with its own lore and customs and at times, hyper-detailed explanations of its various wonders and intricacies. There’s a palpable sense of history, a hallmark of a well-fleshed out setting, one that just reflects Tsukushi’s, no doubt boundless vision for the kind of complicated and interconnected story-telling that he wishes to tell. Trivial details like the weird and wondrous native fauna and flora associated with each floor, raiders recalling their fond but usually terrifying memories of exploring the abyss and the whistle ranking system used by the cave raiders are all aspects of the world’s careful construction that feeds into the tangibility of the story’s fabric. It is this painstaking attention to minute details that makes the setting feel so alive and real.
Made in Abyss is a beautiful adventure cocktail whose deceptively adorable art-style conceals a much darker and sinister concoction within. It brandishes a visionary scope that just pulls you in, tempered with lovable characters and the promise of adventure. And I just hope, really really hope that this anime will be able to capture the same level of grace and mesmerizing craftsmanship that made me fall in love with the manga in the first place. I’m already way too deep in the Abyss to leave now so come and join me because this is going to be-if all things go well-one hell of a ride.
Author’s Note/Real Talk/TLDR;
An espresso shot of pure thoughts: This shit is going to be hype. Do yourself a favour and jump on this bandwagon.
PineAppleBoy
Signing Out
Pineapple Valley 