Nah it was pretty mediocre and watching a high school girl who is madly in love with a elementary school girl was something that never stopped feeling gross and uncomfortable on every level
That being said, the directing of episode 8 was so good it pretty much earned a point all on its own
@Jazz let me be another voice in favor of Made in Abyss here
The show is fucking gorgeous. Osamu Masuyama, background artist of some of the best Ghibli films, was so enthralled with the project that he came out of retirement specifically to work on the show, so pretty much every single landscape shot is just about the most beautiful I’ve seen. They also brought on Kou Yoshinari for creature design, and he gave them this really kinetic animation that makes them really pop from the background so they look amazing too.
Secondarily, the music is absolutely insane. I don’t know how Kevin Penkin managed to fly under the radar for this long, but my God did he work wonders with the soundtrack here. Each piece is wonderful on its own and even better at lending emotion to a scene. But the three insert songs he composed were used in the best way out of anything on the soundtrack - it’s really indescribable how great they are.
The most pressing focus of Made in Abyss lies less in building plot or characters (although those are certainly present as well) and more in building its world. Every detail of how the environment would work and how the humans interact with said environment has been considered and is presented in a way that really brings life to the world around it. Hell, the entire first episode is completely devoid of plot to focus almost entirely on worldbuilding.
The characters in Made in Abyss are also pretty darn good. First off, they almost treat the Abyss as its own character, allowing for complex interactions between it and our explorers. Secondly, for being a mere 13 episodes and focused mostly on a single duo, there is a surprising amount of time put into fleshing out a diverse range of side characters, including some of the best characters I’ve ever seen. And our main duo is pretty great too - the way Reg and Riko come to learn to rely on each other’s strengths and cover for their weaknesses is consistently endearing, and their journey is given proper weight.
If you wish to ignore all of that for the very basic plot description, fine, I can’t stop you. But I’d argue the plot isn’t quite as basic as one sentence describing it would lead you to believe. First of all, we are explicitly told that Riko’s mother has died, so her choosing to venture out for her isn’t to find a lost family member, it’s to discover the truth of the matter. Secondly, the reason for their journey is way less important than the journey itself, which brings in new characters and plot points that are much more exciting than Wikipedia’s opening paragraph would lead you to believe.
Anyways, as far as I see it, you should at least watch the very first episode. It’s one of the best and will do a great job introducing you to how this show operates. If you pass on the remaining 12 episodes, fine; but trust us, the first one, merely 23 minutes, is more than worth a chance.
maybe i’ll try out episode 1 at least
it seems like the right thing to do now that you’ve written me an essay about it
but i have some stuff to catch up on first
Also the show is anything, but dull. Every single concept is fulfilled with creativity. The various ways Reg uses his arm, how he and Riko have both a strong and weak side covered by each other that is important to the adventure and they don’t even notice; the ways this is shown (basically “strength” and “brains” but really really more interesting than one being smartass and the other being saiyajin). The FUCKING WORLDBUILDING is GENIOUS and everything is so alive you could easily tell a story without any of the main cast even being mentioned. The creatures are creative, the biomes are creative, the interaction is creative. Every episode presents you with a new, different way to explore a concept. Even in minor details.
> not watching it as a absurdist comedy
But nah that’s fair, it’s definitely on the weirder side of anime lol
watch them all layered transparently on top of each other for maximum immersion :^)
Every show has at least one cliché and there s no problem in that because clichés can be good if used right
Tvtropes.Com btw
