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This Week in Anime - Does Made in Abyss Have to Be So Disturbing?


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:24 am Reply with quote
I think the episode was really important as a vindication of everything that's been said about the Abyss until now, especially the things Ozen told them. If the idea is that the deeper you go, the more you become just another prey species for the abyss-adapted monsters to feed themselves with, there needs to be some evidence of that other than Riko witnessing the deaths of other cave raiders or running half-comically from monsters that we implicitly know aren't going to catch her, otherwise the journey becomes more of a tour or safari that Riko and Reg are guiding us through.

It's especially important I think because Ozen's behaviour might have led some viewers to question whether she was being truthful in her warnings, or whether she was exaggerating to test their resolve, and this episode makes it very clear what the resolution to that ambiguity is. I think James talked about this in his review of it, but it's also important as a way of highlighting that there's more to all the talk about white whistles losing their humanity than a haircut and some cool boots - there's necessarily trauma involved. Which makes me wonder how Lyza ended up as irrepressible and clear-headed as she seemed to be.
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James_Beckett
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:47 am Reply with quote
鏡 wrote:
I think James talked about this in his review of it, but it's also important as a way of highlighting that there's more to all the talk about white whistles losing their humanity than a haircut and some cool boots - there's necessarily trauma involved. Which makes me wonder how Lyza ended up as irrepressible and clear-headed as she seemed to be.


This is actually something I really hope the series expands on, in the manga at least, if not in the series. I think there's something in the works for Lyza regarding how she is presented in the memories of Ozen and the like, and who she actually has become after so many years of White Whistling. It's mostly conjecture based on the themes that MiA has presented so far, but I still suspect that if Riko does ever make contact with her mother again, who (or what) she finds will be a far cry from the Lyza she's spent her life chasing after.
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AsuraTheDestructor



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 11:52 am Reply with quote
What's hilarious is that the Orbed Piercer is an Herbivore.
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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:02 pm Reply with quote
James_Beckett wrote:
鏡 wrote:
I think James talked about this in his review of it, but it's also important as a way of highlighting that there's more to all the talk about white whistles losing their humanity than a haircut and some cool boots - there's necessarily trauma involved. Which makes me wonder how Lyza ended up as irrepressible and clear-headed as she seemed to be.


This is actually something I really hope the series expands on, in the manga at least, if not in the series. I think there's something in the works for Lyza regarding how she is presented in the memories of Ozen and the like, and who she actually has become after so many years of White Whistling. It's mostly conjecture based on the themes that MiA has presented so far, but I still suspect that if Riko does ever make contact with her mother again, who (or what) she finds will be a far cry from the Lyza she's spent her life chasing after.


I feel the same way - so far she hasn't been presented as much of an "annihilator" in flashbacks / memories. I'd love to see her in action and to see what she's really like at this point.
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Dalek-baka



Joined: 03 Jan 2013
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:23 pm Reply with quote
鏡 wrote:
Which makes me wonder how Lyza ended up as irrepressible and clear-headed as she seemed to be.
One thing might be that we see her via Ozen's point of view and she might not be objective.

On the other side it might be that all who had motivation to go very deep might just be "weird" to begin with - Ozen might have never been good with people and than there is also poor Maruruk (I wonder if other members of her squad went through same things).
Having one person among them, who was just passionate about adventure isn't beyond realms of possibility (also she didn't seem to be White Whistle so long, so she might have not been warped as much as Ozen).
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Angel M Cazares



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:53 pm Reply with quote
Ever since this anime started the manga readers reveled on saying how gruesome and f-ed up things were going to get. But up until episode 10 things had been pretty tame to me. Episode 10 finally brought the truly gruesome and f-ed up stuff to the table, but I cannot imagine the show going significantly away from the smart writing formula in favor of shock value.
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ChibiKangaroo



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:54 pm Reply with quote
I loved the episode overall. They nailed almost everything from an emotional standpoint. However, I did have a single negative. The whole thing where an enemy attacks and appears to miss and everyone looks ok, but then suddenly cut to one of our dear friends and we see that he/she actually received a mortal wound, is WAY over used. I couldn't help rolling my eyes a little, even with how much I love this show.
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Tenebrae



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:55 pm Reply with quote
With all the talk about how the Abyss changes people, for me at least it's been pretty clear whatever they find at the bottom won't quite be human. I think the show's even been actively trying to get this across short of spelling it out.What I'm curious about is why she called Riko to the bottom, and how much invovement she had in Reg's journey to the top.
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yuna49



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 1:57 pm Reply with quote
ChibiKangaroo wrote:
However, I did have a single negative. The whole thing where an enemy attacks and appears to miss and everyone looks ok, but then suddenly cut to one of our dear friends and we see that he/she actually received a mortal wound, is WAY over used. I couldn't help rolling my eyes a little, even with how much I love this show.


The arrival of Nanachi just in the nick of time was my eye-roll moment. Maybe that's how it was depicted in the manga, but there was too much of the "deus ex machina" about that moment for me.

@Dalek-baka
Marulk is a cross-dressing boy. Reg recognizes that pretty much right away. Riko does not know this, I believe, because of the scene where she appears naked before the two of them. To her Reg is a robot and not a human boy, and Marulk is a girl, so she isn't shy about her nudity. Her view of Reg as not human also helps to rationalize the high degree of physical closeness between them. I can't think of another anime in recent years where opposite-sex characters are as physically intimate as Riko and Reg.
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Blanchimont



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:09 pm Reply with quote
AsuraTheDestructor wrote:
What's hilarious is that the Orbed Piercer is an Herbivore.

Quite an apt observation. Algae living in those basins to be precise. It is also very territorial. This and other info is found on the info page for it at chapter 23.

The show/manga is remarkable in the way it depicts the fauna in the abyss, instead of what you'd expect of monsters in a typical show, it has(often, at least) a very realistic approach to them behavior-wise(the anime-original content in episode 9 being something of a questionmark in that sense...).
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TasteyCookie



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Man as visceral as that episode was, I really hope they release an art book that contains the scenery/backgrounds for the show. Would buy it in a heart beat.

Also after seeing that episode, there's no way Riko's mom is still human. I think she's still alive but morphed into something horrible. Really hope we eventually get the whole story animated eventually.
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ChibiKangaroo



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 2:47 pm Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:

@Dalek-baka
Marulk is a cross-dressing boy. Reg recognizes that pretty much right away. Riko does not know this, I believe, because of the scene where she appears naked before the two of them. To her Reg is a robot and not a human boy, and Marulk is a girl, so she isn't shy about her nudity. Her view of Reg as not human also helps to rationalize the high degree of physical closeness between them. I can't think of another anime in recent years where opposite-sex characters are as physically intimate as Riko and Reg.


I had been wondering about Marulk since he/she seemed to reveal something to Reg but it never went further than teasing the audience that something was revealed. Knowing what I know about anime, her being a boy was one of the first things that came to mind.
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Łukasz Kawosz



Joined: 11 Jul 2017
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 3:27 pm Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
I can't think of another anime in recent years where opposite-sex characters are as physically intimate as Riko and Reg.


Because you can't have that without 1/4 of western anime community hysterically shrieking about sexualization or pedophilia or whatever.

Made in Abyss doesn't shy away from questionable content or shock value, and it will only just get worse if there's a next season. Anyone who wanted a comfy adventure anime will be in for a rude awakening (or judging by the article they already are).
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Terrible90sDub



Joined: 14 Jul 2017
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 3:29 pm Reply with quote
Dalek-baka wrote:
鏡 wrote:
Which makes me wonder how Lyza ended up as irrepressible and clear-headed as she seemed to be.
One thing might be that we see her via Ozen's point of view and she might not be objective.

On the other side it might be that all who had motivation to go very deep might just be "weird" to begin with - Ozen might have never been good with people and than there is also poor Maruruk (I wonder if other members of her squad went through same things).
Having one person among them, who was just passionate about adventure isn't beyond realms of possibility (also she didn't seem to be White Whistle so long, so she might have not been warped as much as Ozen).


This is what I was wondering about as well, particularly that both of these could be true only mixed together. Ozen may have viewed anything eccentric about Lyza as a non-issue, especially coming from her own background, and could also be influenced by general bias towards her.

I imagine it's possible that the curse (or just the general stress and hardship of the journey) could take existing traits and only make them more extreme, and when Lyza has been gone for so long now... Plus, I keep on wondering how exactly she got the title "the Annihilator." That doesn't sound like something you'd normally give to someone full of goodness and sunshine.
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Dalek-baka



Joined: 03 Jan 2013
Posts: 42
PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 3:59 pm Reply with quote
Terrible90sDub wrote:
I imagine it's possible that the curse (or just the general stress and hardship of the journey) could take existing traits and only make them more extreme, and when Lyza has been gone for so long now... Plus, I keep on wondering how exactly she got the title "the Annihilator." That doesn't sound like something you'd normally give to someone full of goodness and sunshine.
When Lyza was described there was a lot about her prone to getting into fights - so I could imagine that this, fact she had exploding weapon plus layers of rumors that could lead to Annihilator thing.
But I agree that going down and staying there for long time might lead to some changes. Still she does seem to be most human of those White Whistles we've seen so far.
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