The Best Anime You Shouldn't Watch 

Finding a dark anime, movie or show without sexual assault challenge: impossible

"10/10, Do Not Recommend" is about where I'm at with MiA.

The "loss of humanity" upon recieving the curse of level 6 reminds me of the end of the story "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream"- being turned into an amorphous blob, unable to die or help itself

I just want to read about kids going into Uncle Lovecraft's Fun Pit and not feel weird about it.

Calling the Abyss a "glory hole, perhaps" is willld, I almost spat out my drink

If you wish to venture into this amazing story you have to pay the true cost of the Abyss: weird Lolicon BS.

The thing with Bondrewd is that you don't just get to descend into the abyss and remain human, you can and will be driven mad sooner or later. While his actions can in no shape or form be described as being driven by love, he himself genuinely believes that he loves all of his children and the abyss itself accepts his feelings as such. It was explained, that in order for someone to receive 'the blessing of the abyss' two people have to actually love each other, that it doesn't work if one party doesn't reciprocate the feeling. Meaning that, whatever ruling force it is that decides whether two people care enough about each other to be blessed, recognised Bondrewds feelings towards Prushka. The whole reason people argue that Bondrewd genuinely loves his children is that he is a twisted man with a twisted wiev on emotion and the abyss is a twisted place where his feelings are validated. His feelings cannot in good conscience be called love by any sensible human being, but if you were a sensible person, you wouldn't be down in the abyss in the first place.

It frustrates me cus I’m a such sucker for world building and made in abyss has incredible world building. I mean the biology alone! I was so intrigued by the lore and the mystery, not only of the abyss, but the town above. However the “icky” scenes got harder and harder to ignore, and I eventually had to drop it. Ugh It’s unfair! This was such a good concept for a dark fantasy story…

It's actually been roughly 2000 years between the Ganja Squad and Team Riko descending into the Abyss, because the Abyss has weird time-dilation phenomenons

The one time you can say you unironically seriously watch it for the actual plot

On the topic of the letter, im a big fan of the theory that it was written by rico herself, with the time dilation of the abyss becoming so great at the bottom that it loops too moving backwards in some way. Their is some minor evidence for this, the bad handwriting being caused by ricos destroyed hand, the "paper" being a material similar too regs skin, only being able to be damage by the high energies relics we see, hence paper being seemingly burnt around the edges.

looking at the title in my notifications: "this is gonna be about made in abyss isnt it"

I'm so glad that someone brought this up. The manga's difference in uncomfortable gratuitous depictions of Riko was waaay higher. I loved the anime, and wanted to support the author, only to fear that owning the manga could put me on a watch list lmfao.

This video and the comments here are carthartic. I went into Made in Abyss blind many years ago and was really into it. Like everyone says, the world building is fascinating, and I needed to know what happened to her mom, what was down there. I got all the way to the seventh layer when they reveal ANOTHER naked child character and i wanted to scream. It made me feel like i was encouraging an active pedophile. I felt ashamed that this man was potentially using his platform to encourage other pedophiles and betrayed that no matter how good the story was, it would always come back to naked children. I would get frustrated any time someone mentioned the show at all, like how on earth is it even legal to print this stuff, and yet i really did love the parts of it that weren't that. It's such a frustrating experience, and it felt like i was the only one who felt that strongly about that. Now i finally see the people with reason here who aren't just either complete apologists or absolute haters.

Bruh I am so grateful for this video. I’m super interested in body horror, but when I tried to watch the anime, the over-sexualization of the characters triggered the shit out of me.

While I don't have a source either, apparently it was the author himself who confirmed that Bondrewd genuinely loves the children (although this doesn't make his actions better or less calculated, but I thought I might mention it). And another small addition to the Dante segment: the author also denied basing the abyss on Dante's Inferno and said that he was more inspired by the Buddhist concept of hells the soul has to travel through in the afterlife (that being said I too think that there are connections with Inferno, but this could explain the deviations from it).

There are NO antagonists, villains, bad guys I hate more than Bondrewd. That is how well he's written. I completely agree with your analysis here and with the fact that it's a sad, sad fact that the author can't or won't separate his degeneracy from his work. Like you point out, nothing is lost in the "clean" version. Honestly, I think the story has it's own "Call of the Abyss". The vast majority of people who read and watch want to also see what is past that Final Maelstrom, if Liza actually did call Riko down, and answers to all the other questions the story has posed. Nanachi mentions souls of those who die in the Abyss moving down instead of up like on the surface. With it's power to make people and beings immortal, it could be holding all those souls at the bottom. Maybe those lost souls power all the magic of the Abyss itself.

One of the instances where the anime exceeds the original, purely on the instance of dialing down the weird pervert shit. I hate that this is arguably my favorite anime in recent memories cause I have to think really hard on recommending it. My go-to comparison is like if you went to a soul-changing art exhibit that left you profoundly moved... Only to have a weirdo periodically jab you in the eye with a stick while you experience it. I'm like, "Yeah, it is an amazing experience, you just get your eye jabbed periodically, and if you can contend with that, I can recommend it." Edit: Also meant to add, Kevin Penkin is an amazing composer who elevates the story. Peace be upon him.

I would say there are one or two of the lolicon dubious scenes that I consider to be justified in a narrative sense... they're not a monolithic thing, and there are better and worse ones. and I am glad that the anime toned down several of these scenes (I don't remember Prushka calling it a "papa stick" even though the conversation about Reg's genitals still happened.) I think Reg having reproductive organs is one such narratively justifiable thing to include. maybe not the frequency with which it's mentioned, or the severity of the violation that is used to convey this information to the audience, but there is strangeness to the level of human detail that Reg's robot body includes. it's another little bit of mystery, especially because the other sentry units we come across in the deeper layers don't seem nearly as humanoid. another justifiable instance would be Riko's technical sexual assault of Reg via probing him. on the one hand, you could argue that she can't be blamed because he's a robot, and she might not have viewed her behavior as a violation. on the other hand, I think it's more interesting to take this as an early indication that Riko's particular brand of innocence might not be harmless. to me, this nods more toward the function of losing innocence within the abyss, or the way that this innocence doesn't absolve certain individuals of the actions they take. Riko's very innocent desire to know more, can lead her toward behaviors such as probing Reg... but also, treating Reg more like a robot than a person in some instances in general, heading into the abyss in the first place and leaving all the people who care for her behind, and forging ahead even once she knows that Lyza's note might not actually be from Lyza at all. when they're encountering Bondrewd, Riko is able to correctly guess what he did in order to obtain his white whistle... and Bondrewd comments that Riko has some element in her, which allowed her to make this deduction, with the same cold investigative logic that Bondrewd used to arrive at his current condition in the first place. in the abyss... you lose innocence so that you can grow up. and it's that cold, callous intellectualism that the abyss selects for, by ensuring that only those people survive. the abyss eats innocent children alive, with no hesitation. it is only those who shed their innocence quickly enough, that are able to weather the nightmare. they do it by changing into creatures that are suited to their environment... by acclimating to the abyss. they are changed by it, into something that can _only_ live there anymore... there, and nowhere else. and that's why the only adults you'll run into in the abyss are deeply troubling ones. a friend of mine, while viewing the show, mentioned that it seemed like the children were always able to find comfort with one another, and were always right to distrust adults. no encounter with an adult has ever gone quite well. she actually wondered if the author might've had some sort of childhood sexual trauma (something that can only be speculated on, and something that isn't an excuse for any of the loli stuff... just a possible explanation.) because it seems like children innocently exploring sexual concepts is treated with a general sense of harmlessness, while involvement from adults is generally treated as rightfully upsetting. this is not me arguing in favor of the inclusion of these things, especially considering the more voyeuristic framing of the art in the manga... but at least in some instances, it seems like the sexual investigation done by the children is accepted as safe and secure, while sexuality from adults is treated as threatening. there can be, and probably are, ulterior motives to this split... even depictions of sexual distress can be used for whatever appeal these things have to the folks who are into that. but it muddies things a little bit, because in this series, the gradual transformation of a person, from an innocent child into an adult with full knowledge and understanding, is a definite theme with a purpose. considering Bondrewd in particular... between the time dilation, the way his physical body has changed, the way his mind has changed due to the way he's fragmented himself, and the number of crimes he's done, which he sees no problem with, but which no one in the outside world would ever accept... I don't think Bondrewd can leave. the investigation he's making into the abyss as a phenomenon, is no longer for the benefit of anyone but himself. instead of being a person anymore, the abyss is making him into one of its own appendages... assimilating him, digesting him, and it all began with that ravenously curious mind. in many ways, the abyss feels like something addictive. the hungrier a person becomes for information about it, the more they go towards it, and the more it has the opportunity to consume them back. even the innocents that delve in are starting from a baseline that isn't well adapted to life outside of the abyss. Marulk says that he can't withstand large amounts of sunlight, so his body is predisposed to thriving in the abyss. Mitty, and especially Nanachi were unwanted children living in destitution on the surface, and the orphans at the orphanage are set up to want to dive in, in the way this video outlined so well. and the adventuring party of Wazukyan, Vueko, and Belaf was all made up of people who felt that this exploration was a better prospect than anything they had in the places they were from. these people were easy marks for this entity... they're psychologically predisposed to being sucked into this place, and it makes you wonder if their entrapment is a cause of their strife or a symptom. in this way, it's also interesting to consider innocence as a bit of a bell curve, and discuss the other half. as folks delve into the abyss, and lose more and more of their ignorance along the way, their standards change. once again looking at Bondrewd... there's almost a twisted naivety to the things he does. like he genuinely can't internalize why people think his actions are wrong. you could say that he "loves children" in the same way that a cat might prefer to hunt songbirds that it doesn't intend to eat, even while it is otherwise well fed. there is an essential use for the cartridges he makes, in the sense that he must use them if he wants to traverse the layers... but he doesn't _have_ to traverse the layers. it's not a need. to him, this is a form of play. and like a child burning ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass, he doesn't seem to understand what the harm is when he uses them, or why it matters. Riko, Reg, and Nanachi know that this makes him a monster... but they can't for the life of them explain it to Bondrewd, who just seems kind of intrigued as to why they'd think that. it's as though a piece of his brain has been carved out, or altered so heavily, that he no longer resembles a human in this way. or like the Iruburu villagers, who have since lost all concept of empathy for someone's pain, in favor of measuring tit-for-tat fairness via their value based bartering system... there's a certain innocence to their lack of understanding when the children see something and feel horror. why horror? if Maa is getting ripped apart, it's not horror. their value system says that this is fair. and they've since lost sensitivity to the empathetic discomfort of watching another creature being skinned in front of them. this is no longer horror. not if they can see there's justification to it. it's not hard to see the villagers operating as part of Irumyuui's body. a disruption to the body's system, such as unfair trade, will be attacked by the immune system indiscriminately. those attempting to cheat the system will be carved out. and the harmony created by their compliance becomes the system itself. extensions of the way the body is supposed to work. and when you pull the focus out, Irumyuui was transformed into a creature of the abyss, by the abyss. the things within her body are unaffected by the curse of the abyss, in the same way that the heart, lungs, and blood, are not punished for moving inside of a body at rest. why would the curse punish that? this is the stuff that survives in the abyss. you can only thrive down there if you let the abyss enter you, and transform you into an organism that is specialized for survival there. it strips away your human standards, and fills you up with something else. something base, and primal, and less thinking than even the most innocent people who entered to begin with. eventually, there is no distinction between the individual, and the abyss... you're part of its body now.

When I say I actually started tearing up when I saw you uploaded as I was cooking dinner, looking for something lengthy to watch and doze off/put on repeat to sleep to (because what a day it’s been) but ESPECIALLY when I saw you have actual, edited captions? 🥲 Thank you for considering us Hard Of Hearing/Deaf/ADHD/Autistic/Auditory Processing/etc folks, because I always get so anxious clicking the CC button on videos these days, knowing 95% of creators don’t include actual edited captions. It means so much ❤

it's ironic that a writer who can excellently portray a system of exploitation that especially targets children can then turn around and do exactly that for his own titillation. another banger of a video. I loved the in-depth analysis, and appreciated it more as I'm unsure I'll ever bother going to the trouble of reading/watching it all. but this essay serves nicely in its stead.

Love this anime expect the overly sexual parts. There was no reason for it, it didnt add anything, and i felt the creator was trying to push his creepy agenda.

I remember a good friend recommended the anime to me and we watched the first season together, but he also prefaced it with: it'll get gorey and there's some stuff that is entirely too weirdly focused on the protagonist being naked in some way. And you're right, there's so much good story and so many good themes, the worldbuilding is fascinating. But I couldn't continue watching after the first season because, as much as part of me wanted to know how the story continued, I wasn't willing to do so if it meant having to deal with the author's weird fetishes. I've checked in on plot summaries occasionally to see how far along the story went, but that's about it. Great video and a perfect summary of so many aspects of Made in Abyss

I love how you went over all the great stuff in the story at first. It goes to show how unneeded the loli is at the end. Honestly, I’ve only seen the anime cause I can’t stomach the manga. Even the anime is too iffy for me sometimes 😭 Great essay by the way! This was fantastically written and spoken out, loved listening to it.

This is one of my favorite stories that I can never, ever actually truly enjoy. I haven't read the latest chapters, but holy crap, I hope that cleaned-up version is able to process that, cuz I won't be able to. Thank you for this video though. You've added a ton of new perspectives and lore information that I hadn't really connected. The story captures the drive and desire into madness and the unknown so beautifully.

In regards to your Dante’s Inferno comparison I believe in an interview Satoshi said he was actually inspired by Buddhist interpretations of hell which I find really interesting! It leads me to believe that the story will have a sort of “karmic rebirth” type ending which is already beautifully in line with the themes of mother and daughterhood

"Trying to remove those scenes would be censorship, but if I see a gay character I will leave a pipe bomb in an amusement park" ...god, that should not have made me laugh as hard as it did. Genuine question - how much of the loli stuff makes it into the actual anime itself? Because the way you've described this makes it sound genuinely interesting, and despite the fact that you're saying you shouldn't recommend it I find it compelling all the same. The way you describe the Abyss reminds me a lot of the dungeon from Fear and Hunger - another dark fantasy thing with a lot of violence and sexual themes, this one an RPGMaker game made by a single Finnish indie developer - specifically how people who do manage to leave the Abyss are never the same person who went in. It's an interesting parallel I noticed, from my limited frames of reference. Awesome video as usual! Keep being awesome!

So happy to hear someone talk about this, especially a woman. “Bang on” as they say

I just recently realized the MiA was what primed me to love Rain World. If I had a nickel for every time I enjoyed a piece of media about a character on a suicidal trip to explore a giant hole in the ground, I’d have 3 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened thrice.

One of the things i find scary is that in nanachi explaining about the curse of the abyss is that all the creatures living their can see it and because of it they can technically see or predict their preys movement

Thought the anime was beautiful and really atmospheric. Then I had kids, and the horror that I already felt in parts is now beyond what I can take. I mean, it was already riding the edge, but woof.

Made in Abyss is one of my favourite stories that I can never relax and enjoy because I never know when I'll get a creepy scene shoved at me 🤕 I'm glad you made this video, I've been looking forward to it ever since you mentioned it was in the works

TYSM FOR THE CLEANED UP REDDIT VERSION thank god, I wanna rec this manga/anime for so many ppl bc it can be genuinely beautiful but equally disturbing in a good way, but the borderline cheese pizza always makes it impossible, like we don't need to see naked kids tf (wouldn't mind a pin-up image of Ozen or something though (just kidding...or am I))

Man, this was like a kick in the teeth, but like an oddly bittersweet one? Made in Abyss was my hyperfixation between 2019-2023, and it’s the reason my RU-vid name here and my main OC I use on other sites was created. It’s my favorite anime and manga, and it’s inspired me to delve so much deeper into worldbuilding and immersing myself in the art of worldbuilding. I hate to say that it’s a main inspiration for me, but it‘s nice to see such a deeply analytical video on the series when it’s sadly understandable why that’s uncommon on here. I never considered the idea of Riko being Lyza’s Haku and that idea’s fascinating, though the comments on Ozen are a bit more confusing? If anything I’ve always associated her title of the Immovable with ox symbolism. Oxen sounds like Ozen, her whistle is shaped like a bull’s head, she’s a raw physical force like how an ox is, not that complicated, but then again the whole series is up for deep analyzation, and it’s fun to take in any new ideas that are posed. Definitely something for me to chew on

After learning more about Made in Abyss i felt too uncomfortable to continue. Certain sections of season 1 made me feel disturbed but not because they were well written, but because I was asking myself "am I going to catch a case?"

So after watching this video, I went ahead and took the dive and binged the anime. I honestly can’t say how much I absolutely adored the 95% of this show that wasn’t pedo-bait. I also can’t express just how fucking jarring the Lolicon is whenever it comes up. Yesterday, my friend and I were talking about anime so, having just watched the whole show over the span of the past two or three days, I couldn’t help but bring up MiA. I explained the premise and also warned him about the authors penchant for making non-lolicons extremely uncomfortable at a moments notice. He was interested. So while I couldn’t quite endorse the anime, I DID recommend watching this video essay on it first, so we ended up watching this video in its entirety. I felt like it was the best way to explain just how engaging the story is while also giving him an idea of how downright creepy it can be. But yeah, he was even more interested by the end of it and said he wanted to give the show a watch at some point. He laughed at all your jokes btw, we both love the bits of dry humor you throw in.

Wow this video came out just as I was considering rewatching the anime lol. It's really refreshing to see a video about Made in Abyss that meaningfully analyses the show and *also* rightfully lambasts Tsukushi for being a massive hypocrite for how he portrays loss of innocence compared to the l*licon junk. It's crazy how easy it'd be to just... not include that vile stuff and have the series be way better for it. Either way, great video!

Oof. I felt your opening preamble really hard. Like Made in Abyss, my favourite manga of all time has similarly problematic aesthetics but the story is more than worth reading deeper.

Honestly was in complete awe this entire first hour of the video then complete dread and shock near the ending. Thank you for talking about this series, this was an amazing video!

The fact that we never got a second Dante's Inferno game is an endless source of disappointment for me. The gameplay was so-so, they were absolutely phoning it in in the last third of the game, with all the endless 'kill X waves of enemies to progress' rooms they referred to as 'challenges', but visually? One of the best games on the system. FWIW, I imagine the big reveal will be that the Abyss requires someone to actually kickstart the extinction event - it requires someone 'pure' - most likely a young girl, possibly based on the artist's, shall we say 'preferences' - to get down to the final level and trigger it, causing the Abyss to grow. We'll find out that it's the latest link in the chain, revealing that the title was actually 'Maiden Abyss' the whole time and people will describe it as the absolute worst finale since Bleach and Naruto combined.

Criticism : Despite how weird it sounds, bondrewd, as far as we can tell, DOES love children, and every single children he has exprerimented on. Its very twisted, yes and any sane person would not see it as "love", but in that very twisten sense, bondrewd does "love" the children. Thats literally the only way his experiments in harnessing what he calls the "blessing of the abyss" could have worked. The first example of this "blessing" we see is nanachi, she got turned into a narehate but still retains her personality, and this is explained to us as a result of the love between nanachi and mitty. Similiarly, when bondrewd gains the blessing in his bossfight, it is only possible due to the love between prushka and bondrewd. Ofc, i said "as far as we can tell" because this explanation of how the blessing works might be wrong. But if the explanation is indeed correct, it must mean that bondrewd does "love" the children he works on, albeit its a very twisted form of love.

One of the best in-depth analysis of Made in Abyss I’ve seen, I loved your talk on the symbolisms of Dante’s Inferno and the themes of motherhood. A small detail in regards to the “loss of innocence” theme is that Riko is constantly under going physical changes the deeper she goes. Her arm injury, the scar on her face and now her short hair. It’s a series with such wonderful nuance despite me hoping once Tsukushi finishes the series, his house is raided. Love Made in Abyss. Will never watch it with my partner in the house

My god, I'd forgotten how much I love your reviews! An hour is positively a blessing. I've never found another youtuber who blends comedy and thoughtful analysis so well. Your ability to delve into the portrayal of loss of innocence and visual/thematic metaphor interspersed with "No one dressed like a gothic victorian panini press has any place on the good guys list" and "I'll be at the burger king up the block" absolutely floors me. Thank you for providing a way to interact with this manga without having to suffer through loli-hell

I think in terms of the abyss being an allegory for Dante's Inferno, I wouldn't exactly compare it to a covers album. It's more of a mix tape. Filled with samples, snippets and echoes of other parts. When you remix an album you often change the pitch to alter and change the meaning. Layer Six is Greed but it uses the beat from Lust And Wrath. Layer 5 is Treason with it's frozen waste but it plays same tune as Heresy.

Great vid! I've found online that a lot of people seem to think that Bondrewd operates on some alien set of morality and that while he commits horrifying acts, his remembering his victims names and dreams is some indication that he cared for and respected them and saw his experimentation on them as noble stepping stones towards a glorious future. However, as you astutely pointed out, in the world of MiA, bonds and ambitions are commodities, they're currency. Bondrewd isn't some complicated byronic Ubermensch with an alien moral code; he's pathetically human, a selfish exploitative capitalist pigman who grooms his workers with charm and superficial kindness, all the while extracting everything in them he sees as value for his own gain. Also, weeaboo's will try to bust over literally anything.

I agree with the title with every cell in my body

Love the analysis, which you had gone even more in depth for some areas. I agree with you how it is really weird and sucks how the auther wanna draw kids in a sexual way. I just love the other parts of the story, how it feels like a descend down depression, how the deeper you go the more hopeless it becomes. How reality get more and more distorted, how it shows off trauma, and all the horrible things that the characters go through. How each and every characters develop. How Nanachi and Faputa was created and shaped by the abyss. How Faputa inherited Irumius wish to be a mother. I know you already had a very long script but in a way i do feel like you went a bit light on the world of this show and the characters.

HOLY SHIT MERT!! I'm waiting a bit to watch the video in it's entirety while I'm working on stuff later today, but I just checked out the description and noticed all the PMD music you used!!!! The OSTs of PMD Explorers and Rescue team were what originally inspired me to play and write music when I was a kid. Lately, I've been going back and listening to those OSTs at least once a week while I'm at work to get a better understanding of music theory as I try to write a PMD inspired soundtrack of my own. I'm so delusional about those games and soundtracks that, after seeing some of those songs in the description of this vid, I honestly thought it might've been a weird glitch and that, somehow, one of the PMD music compilations I had been listening to this past week had managed to fuse with your video. I even combed through some of those compilations to see if any of them matched the order of songs you used just to make sure I wasn't having a complete mental break from reality before I left this comment. Anyway, sorry to leave this long ass comment that has nothing to do with the video itself but like, this is the crossover of the century for me lmao. Super stoked to actually watch this video but I just needed to express how unreasonably excited I am about your choice in background music for this one

I'd only heard of Made in Abyss before watching, and this video made me curious enough to check it out. After binging the manga and the first season of the anime, I have a couple thoughts. First and foremost, thank you for identifying Bondrewd as the walking atrocity he is; how so many people find him in any way redeemable is baffling. His warped, exploitative understanding of love makes him MORE evil, not less. Second, the underage nudity is somewhat paradoxical. IMO it's definitely unnecessary, yet removing it does virtually nothing to make the series feel less gross. I personally found the scenes depicting abuse, injury, mutilation, and mutation every bit as disturbing, and many of them are fundamentally integral to the plot. Lastly, I propose an alternative interpretation of the series main theme. Rather than simply losing innocence, it's about the struggle for innocence to survive in the face of defilement. Though Riko gains experience in dealing with human and Abyssal horrors alike, her personality is unchanged. She never loses faith in her simple goal and her childish optimism is only ever temporarily diminished. Grief and vengeance drive Nanashi and Faputa respectively, and as the story progresses they relinquish these more "mature" emotions to reclaim some measure of the innocence that was stripped from them. There is powerful narrative tension in juxtaposing the pure and the profane. Despite making it unfortunately obvious that he enjoys eroticizing this tension, the author has absolutely mastered how to utilize it for horror and pathos as well. Anyway, that's just my take on things. Though I agree this isn't a series I'll be recommending to anyone I know, I'm glad your video introduced me to it. Thanks

I was actually hesitant to start made in abyss because I thought based on the art style, it was meant for kids. About a year ago a friend recommended it to me so I gave it a shot and loved it.

Yay! Welcome back Mert, hope the holiday was relaxing! I have final exams tomorrow, so I'll save this for after as a little treat.^^ Thanks!

I think you've summed up a similar issue I ran into with the Higurashi series. It's very aggravating to find a series with some genuinely fantastic ideas, only to realize that you can't engage with a good portion of it or recommend it to anyone else because of some frankly jarring authorial decisions.

In reference to the Wiki comment that said Bondrewd truly loves the children he experiments on, while I get your reaction to that completely and would agree with you outside of the context of MiB, within this story that comment was absolutely correct. Consider your own words for evidence. For a person to become "blessed" the way Nanachi was, and the way Bondrewd was during his fight with Reg, a person must sacrifice their Haku. It's not themselves being the Haku that is important, it is their love for their Haku and the sacrificing of that which bestows the blessing. With that being the case, Bondrewd couldn't have been Blessed in his fight with Reg if he was not sacrificing his own Haku. Therfore, he MUST genuinely love the children and consider each of them part of his Haku, even if his idea of Love is twisted and sadistic. Thats the only logical way to explain him being Blessed.

Ahh Made In Abyss. The anime my homie was so excited to watch with me for the first time. It was rough, but I look forward to exacting my revenge on the next unsuspecting soul I make my friend.

the places akihito takes inspiration from, i feel, have really aided in the creation of something that's really special. but in spite of that, it's GENUINELY awful how MIA is entirely un-recommendable to most people because of how glaring akihito's pedophilia is, and how much of it he feels like he has to inject into this otherwise compelling, emotional, and visually stunning piece of media. i have trouble really connecting with media a lot of the time, so it's very rare that i come across something that really grabs my emotions like MIA does. nanachi's loneliness and seemingly endless grieving of mitty, a city full of people whose only purpose is to die, and the fleeting but meaningful connections that the main cast makes are handled fantastically. that's not even getting started on how heavy of an emphasis there is on motherhood, and (i feel) on thinking about what it means to have a sense of self, and to be "autonomous". it really feels like the abyss is lived in and compels itself outside of the things we see with the cast. and it's something that i cannot feel comfortable sharing with anyone. i still have some sort of guilt still engaging in MIA, knowing all that i've made excuses for and done my best to ignore just so i can keep reading for my own enjoyment, even though i know i'd think poorly of a stranger for doing the same thing. i love MIA and its themes so deeply while having to deal with that i also want akihito to be locked in the prison's basement. (also i appreciate the gates to infinity recognition the music in that game is super good and i wish people would stop saying gti is the worst pmd game)

btw, having just watched the golden city arc i think it also showed how faputa was able to lose her innocense by learning to decide her value for herself rather than be dependent on her mother's wish, that's basically what vueko tells her with how irumyuui was so clingy but faputa wasn''t, basically faputa learned to become independent by overcoming the trauma passed on to her by the adults in her life, i think that's very nice.

I’m so happy I stumbled onto your channel today. This is the content I’ve been missing

I am so glad my sister put down watching this with me else I had no one to talk about this. Made in Abyss is AMAZING but I never hated to recommend something like this ever before, and if only woth the biggest trigger warnings (And the Lollicon parts could really be cut out, they hinder the cruel and interesting story with weird pedo horniness)

YEASSSSS MADE IN ABYSS VID!!!! VERY HAPPY TO SEE YOU TAKE THIS ON!!! I love this series from a plot and lore perspective but god damn so much of it just rub me the wrong way

This is so interesting already. Thank you for reading us bedtime goreys 💛💤 I never would have read this on my own (cause I'm a wussy but) but like damn I'm thankful you made this essay about this. You always find the neatest shit and you always go through stuff so thoroughly . Like, I feel smarter by osmosis . And also I wouldn't laugh near as much if I was reading it by myself . That alone makes taking in the artistic and story aspects of potentially triggering content so much easier to still get to appreciate . I hope you had a good mertvaycay 🎉

I absolutely LOVE made in abyss! it's such a damn good story, and I'm just so drawn to the lore and worldbuilding of the abyss. I saw the thumbnail and IMMEDIATELY knew it was gonna be about made in abyss, haha. it has its flaws and problems (you know which ones), but I still love this series. it's horrifying at times, yes, but it can also be beautiful.

Omfg one of my fav content creators making a video of one of my fav anime 😭😭😭 I love your content

Honestly this analysis is spot on and like the show amazed me, filled me with guilt and small rages. It attacked me in a cathartic way. Unlike the show I can recommend it though- I haven’t felt so in tune with a video in forever. My thanks for your joy and suffering and for your time taken in expressing it. Edit: both the use of ‘glory hole’ and ‘meaty hole’ got an out loud “Excuse me madam?” From me. Well played.

"gothic victorian panini press" is a great sentence lol.

I just feel like the Abyss itself is a symbol of obsession, each layer forcing more sacrifice. Sacrifice that, of course, get exploited by those who use others that they keep naive.

I had a theory that the Abyss was, rather than being a god itself, was the "absence of a god in the form of something Eldritch." Basically, the Abyss itself was the corpse of a long dead god, that had festered into something else, equally as powerful, but much more, let's say, malicious. By going down into the abyss, you are subjecting yourself to a presence that borders on Devine, and that presence is like a pressure. Leaving that presence subjects you to more or less the same consequences as the bends, just on a much more severe scale. As for the "blessing", I guessed that it was a result of pure, distilled faith. Assuming that the Abyss was the festering corpse of a dying god, it would theoretically be able to grant prayers and perform miracles.and we see those miracles manifest in the form of the relics. So then, when two consciousness, two "worshipers" are subjected to the withdrawal symptoms of the abyss, one of them is able to pray for the other's safety, and the abyss answers those prayers by giving the blessed a form that can endure the temporary withdrawal. This is an old theory, and there are some holes in the logic, but it's one I still tend to stick to when trying to theorize about the abyss and it's inhabitants.

Super excited for the next video, MertKayKay. This one was well delved into per usual

Finally. Fresh Made in Abyss content to let play in the background

you discussing aristotle and aquinas is so wild because i am literally sitting an Alevel paper on their theology next month… watching this video is my revision yup yup

Great video. While I don’t agree with the everything, I think your thematic analysis was really awesome. I will repeat what some others have said though: Bondrewd did love the children in his own way. That’s the only way he could have become the hollow he did. He’s supposed to be a contradiction. He’s insane because he sacrificed his humanity. He’s morally questionable as all hell. But he’s not doing anything out of malice. Just for pure, scientific progress. That’s what makes him so fascinating. If he was just evil as you describe, that really would make a lot of his scenes make little sense. Such as his wish for the protagonists to make it to the bottom of the abyss after his defeat

Yeah, my partner and I really enjoy this show 97% of the time and then random cuts to a tied up naked kid getting bdsm whipped by their teacher or characters pissing themselves in a "this is clearly meant to be a fetish" way really make us deeply uncomfortable and not in a good "we are uncomfortable because this is challenging us as art" way.

It’s a good day when mert drops another banger !!

Wow. This is a great video, and I enjoyed it a lot, but wow I don't think I have the stomach for the anime itself.

My familiarity with "tourist" used negatively in a fandom stems most from Warhammer 40,000, where chuds are currently declaring decades long fans and current/former Games Workshop employees to be "tourists" because GW had the audacity to kinda messily introduce womz to a faction.

Fascinating! Cool video

I have stumbled across music from this show/game and recently discovered a copy of the manga to be discouraged by the art style, I clearly understood what the authors intentions are and I despite your reccomendation wont be reading this, but great video mert

Have I ever told you how good your videos are? Absolutely smashed it again Mert!

Bondrewd not loving children ? The military getting relics ? What are you talking about ?

AAAAAAH! I've been putting this show off for years, but now I need to finally start watching it so I can watch the new Mert video without getting spoiled.

Ive met a few people who know of made in abyss. Its already hard to find people who watch anime out in the wild but every single one ive met who knew of the anime liked it. Ive even watched it with a guy and a girl friend, the guyfrined sorta new to anime himself and likes my suggesitons and the lady probably just watched it with me because we were dating. Niether of them made mention of the sus shit. The guy was super open and upfront about everything , hed often call riko a dumbass, reiterating that he didn't like her. However no mention of sus shit like getting strung up naked, and My girlfriend at the time really enjoyed the aesthetic and cute characters. Whenever wed get to the sus parts shed be more upset with in story elements( bondrewd or the weird alleyway narahate in the village). Nothing like 'Man this author is a lil weird' from neither of them.. As for people not IRL I use made in abyss character names a lot for games I play so every now and then ill get recognized and every time people say its one of their favorite Manga. Generally Akihito himself doesn't seem to even be a thought, people are so immersed in the story and honestly. i get it, it is what it is.

gonna be dead honest, just the images and descriptions you provided for the body horror and gore in this manga were more than enough to put me off even without the added context of excessive sexualised depictions of naked children. and im not necessarily passing moral judgement for those parts of the story - i just have my limits - but with that in mind i think based on your description this series has QUITE sufficient depictions of loss of innocence, and that it will not in fact fail its message for lack of weird loli shit

I love your videos. it just so happens that I love this anime as well, but i watch your vids regardless. thanks for posting

ok but can we talk about the wealth of oneshota material possible from marurukxozen? my oedipal instinct will just not let that one go.... ozen mommy... god i wish that were me. anyway, really good video btw

Great episode. Super job! ❤ I love the topic and of course your thoughts. Made in Abyss is one on the best anime ever. True classic. First time I watched it I didn't knew anything about it so it was great surprise. And it soooo dark. And yes... Junji Ito rules!

Riko: oh god I'm gonna shit my pants! Reg: 🙄

Something I've noticed every time I've watched this (I think I'm on 5,) the cartridges got even more horrifying for me. He cuts away every part of the child that he doesn't need and shoves it in there, but when they take the Curse of the Abyss, the thing that rolls out is the immortal body what's left of that child has become. So, they become furry, little rat looking things that just suffer for eternity.

I never in a million years thought you'd cover Made in Abyss, but I'm not complaining.

perfect take, enthralling script, thanks for this

My favorite worktime radio program has uploaded.

Me, 70 minutes ago, having never heard of Made In Abyss: Oh hey a new Mert vid, this will be an excellent way to take a break from the Space Ghost Coast to Coast 30th Anniversary marathon loop! Me now: .....oh..... (Me at 1:03:26 Oh hey Tsukushi remembers Lexx just like I do)

The big bang could be seen as the unmoved mover. Also, Inertial reference frames tie into the concept in an interesting way.

Mert I'd literally listen to you if you recorded in a dark echoy tunnel on an old flip phone, don't worry :')

Maybe not a loss of innocence but the abuse of it would be a much more concise description of the story around the abyss itself, depravity and abuse running rampant and no one would really bat an eye about it, the maturation being the thing that makes you colder to the world and what the abyss itself represents

I really appreciate the nuance and grace this video handled the topics with. Normally I'd stay far clear of a manga artist with these proclivities, but I'm at least convinced there's something compelling here. For those in the know: does the anime include the same uncomfortable art and gratuitous moments? Anime involves a lot more collaboration between multiple artists, directors, voice actors etc than manga usually does, so is the anime at all an alternative in experiencing this world without engaging *directly* with the manga artist? Or does it tend to be about the same?

Man I'd love for her take on Control cause it's such a deep story when you think about it

Excellent video, im still watching but so far your analysis is wonderful to hear. I think this franchise is absolutely incredible, but unfortunately i reached a point where it started to feel so blatantly pedophilic that i had to drop it. It was around the bit where the one little girl started molesting the other in the dark, and when they kept emphasizing that the rabbit girls fur smelled really good notably emphasizing her crotch smelling the best or something along those lines. I just couldn’t continue, but the art in terms of environment and monsters is so fantastic and the plot is refreshingly original and engaging. Its really a shame.

one of my fave youtubers talking about one of my fave animes? heck yeah heck yeah 🎉

Absolutely agree. Marvelous story, fantastic art, phenomenal world building that I can only aspire to approach.... but yeah.... loli BS is loli BS and Shota BS doesn't make it better. I can hold my nose and carry on reading, but.... so much unnecessary nudity and butt sniffing. Even if reg's crush on nanachi is adorable, BUTT sniffing?!?! Not gonna kink shame, but... they're kids FFS! So going to bookmark the "cleaned up version"!

Omg it's here!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉 Edit: aaaand I can't watch it until I'm caught up😭 I'm so out of the loop, I didn't even know season 2 had realized jfc

In the description Love this video, very accurately sums up a lot of my own feelings towards this complicatedly good show