Made in Abyss - Final Impressions

Wow, what an incredible experience it was watching Made in Abyss. The story’s emotional journey and everything about it hits me in the heart. Leaving me in a sense of gratifying satisfaction that I haven’t felt in a very long time. In short, I loved the series and oh man! It was so good.

The show does a really good job in creating an emotional-roller-coaster drama from being light-hearted to showing the raw horrific and traumatic events that these characters go through. When it comes to the horrific events, it does not shy away from it. It showed everything, raw emotional traumatic stuff. I knew that this will happen, but I was not prepared for something like what they showed. During those events, I had to pause the video and take deep breaths because it was too much for me. What I learned from it was that taking a journey into the Abyss is no joke, it’s really is the point of no return.  

The story take its own time to slowly develop over time and it felt like we were going along on journey with Riko and Reg. It was interesting to see the backstories of other Cave Raiders who lives in the deep Abyss and learn about their stories on how they’ve survived. But Riko and Reg knew that they are risking their lives, but they have never faced the horrific things that live down there in the Abyss. Reg has the biggest responsibility in protecting Riko because he’s a robot, he’s not affected by the Abyss’s curse, but Riko is vulnerable to it. Even while ascending a simple hill, it takes a huge toll on her health. They’ve faced many hardships, and I was praying each week that they won’t die.

In the final episode, Reg and Riko makes a pit stop at the center of the Abyss and they are aided by Nanachi and Mitty, who are orphans. They were both part of a science experiment that has gone wrong. It physically changed them, but Mitty has gotten the worse effects, she’s a blob. Watching her the way she moves around and moans/cries was kind of disturbing and sad. But Nanachi wants to let her go because there’s nothing that can be done about her. She asks Reg to set Mitty free from her pain. I don’t blame Nanachi’s decisions. It’s her best friend and she doesn’t want to see her suffer like this anymore. Their backstory was very heartbreaking, sad, and it kind of ended in a hopeful way. This will help Nanachi put a closure to her traumatic past and move on. In the end, she decides to join Reg and Riko on their journey. Just like the ending credits sequence. 

Even though this is the final episode, the story is not finished yet (the manga series is still ongoing). I really do hope that there will be a season 2. I really enjoyed the animation format. It’s gorgeous and the amount of details that the animators put into is amazing. 

By the way, I really do love the soundtrack for Made in Abyss and the music is created by Kevin Pekin. I hope that soon the soundtrack will be available for purchase in US dollars. But of course you can also listen to it for free on YouTube.