Made in Abyss
- Thread starter MangaDex
- Start date
- Joined
- May 9, 2019
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- 11
@tigerstar186
Right i bet if u cut out all that ... Stuff it would still be a comprehensible story
Right i bet if u cut out all that ... Stuff it would still be a comprehensible story
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2018
- Messages
- 194
I think this is hugely overrated. The author abuses shock value instead of conveying a good plot. He's lazily overdoing it again and again with gore and abuse and convenient tragedy to cover up his inability to wrap up the lofty concepts he has set up. Be assured that any interesting or pleasant thing or event will be mixed with "but it's made of people!" Or somesuch, while the main characters are made to act like they're on a cute kids' adventure no matter what they see.
The author is also obviously making stuff at he goes, so the abyss has little left in terms of coherence. The good part in all this is that the art is good and the story is always in time to improve.
The author is also obviously making stuff at he goes, so the abyss has little left in terms of coherence. The good part in all this is that the art is good and the story is always in time to improve.
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2018
- Messages
- 44
@tindelljk
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
- Messages
- 673
It would be more fun if Kojima Production next game has "Journey to Center of Earth". This manga noticed by him and addicted by the concept of the deeper the journey, the darker the story gets
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2018
- Messages
- 11
I've completely lost track of what is going on in this story
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2018
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- 194
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2020
- Messages
- 3,014
Hmmm...
Worldbuilding: Detailed.
Art: Too stylised. Overly cutesy characters paired with ridiculous amounts of shading and oddly detailed alien environments.
Plot: All of the disturbing. All of the horrifying. This is the sort of thing H.P. Lovecraft's stories make oblique references to as inducing utter insanity. Imagine one of those wildlife documentaries on insects, parasites and the like... then just splurge it together with the Clive Barker flesh-horror aesthetic. And then throw in some arbitrary paedophilia for good measure.
My overall opinion: It is utterly horrible and depressing.
Not "badly written" ... but as though a whole lot of effort has been put into making it as unpleasant an experience as possible.
This isn't the sort of story where you hope characters get a happy ending. There are no happy endings. It is the sort of story where everything in the entire story should be purged because it is too horrific to allow to exist... and euthanasia is literally the best possible outcome.
Worldbuilding: Detailed.
Art: Too stylised. Overly cutesy characters paired with ridiculous amounts of shading and oddly detailed alien environments.
Plot: All of the disturbing. All of the horrifying. This is the sort of thing H.P. Lovecraft's stories make oblique references to as inducing utter insanity. Imagine one of those wildlife documentaries on insects, parasites and the like... then just splurge it together with the Clive Barker flesh-horror aesthetic. And then throw in some arbitrary paedophilia for good measure.
My overall opinion: It is utterly horrible and depressing.
Not "badly written" ... but as though a whole lot of effort has been put into making it as unpleasant an experience as possible.
This isn't the sort of story where you hope characters get a happy ending. There are no happy endings. It is the sort of story where everything in the entire story should be purged because it is too horrific to allow to exist... and euthanasia is literally the best possible outcome.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2018
- Messages
- 35
I don't know, @SotiCoto - it's built an entire setting around the Abyss. And the use of shock and gore contrasted with cute kid characters works, probably because it's used quite sparingly as a theme (I'd have agreed if every story involved kids and gore).
I do worry that this is going to go on for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long and should probably get 15 volumes, max.
I do worry that this is going to go on for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long and should probably get 15 volumes, max.
This has almost everything that most low-effort manga is missing:
[ul]Beautiful, detailed art
A coherent theme and setting
A vibrant world built around a coherent theme and setting
Dynamic characters
Drama and tension. [/ul]
The theme is great: A child's loss of innocence on her way to adulthood. The plot isn't very intricate or dynamic: A little girl enters a bottomless pit to try and find her mother while also trying to figure out where her robot companion came from. But, the story is more about the journey than the destination. The narrative is character-driven rather than plot-driven. A simple plot provides a blank canvass for the author to develop the characters and setting.
My biggest complaint is all the gratuitous child nudity. It can be juxtaposed against how adults perceive nudity to fit the theme, but the author goes overboard. The manga is good enough to stand on its own without the need for fanservice to drive the plot or drive sales. It turns a manga that could have broad appeal outside of Japan to one that serves a niche market of fanservice.
[ul]Beautiful, detailed art
A coherent theme and setting
A vibrant world built around a coherent theme and setting
Dynamic characters
Drama and tension. [/ul]
The theme is great: A child's loss of innocence on her way to adulthood. The plot isn't very intricate or dynamic: A little girl enters a bottomless pit to try and find her mother while also trying to figure out where her robot companion came from. But, the story is more about the journey than the destination. The narrative is character-driven rather than plot-driven. A simple plot provides a blank canvass for the author to develop the characters and setting.
My biggest complaint is all the gratuitous child nudity. It can be juxtaposed against how adults perceive nudity to fit the theme, but the author goes overboard. The manga is good enough to stand on its own without the need for fanservice to drive the plot or drive sales. It turns a manga that could have broad appeal outside of Japan to one that serves a niche market of fanservice.
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2020
- Messages
- 3,014
@SomeDuder : Work for what? Trauma? Making the reader as depressed as possible? Whatever it is working at isn't a good thing.
@Lepper : The "beautiful detailed art" seems to mostly skip over the character design though, given that the characters kinda mostly look like Animal Crossing characters.
And don't even pretend it is just the loss of innocence on the way to "adulthood". Adulthood was somewhere between the 1st and 2nd levels where things were just tough but manageable. She went right through "adulthood", through "war veteran", through "survivor of an H.P. Lovecraft story" and straight into the realm of "Harlan Ellison's imagination on a bad day".
In most other stories, they're considered dark if everything is trying to kill the protagonist and has a good chance of succeeding.
In this story, everything is trying to cause the protagonist a fate worse than death in the most twisted and horrifying manners possible... and she is just a 12-year-old girl with a semi-crippled arm.
The author of this story is fucked in the head in so many ways. Why else would they write a story about a vast, inescapable Kafka-esque kiddy-rape-dungeon?
@Lepper : The "beautiful detailed art" seems to mostly skip over the character design though, given that the characters kinda mostly look like Animal Crossing characters.
And don't even pretend it is just the loss of innocence on the way to "adulthood". Adulthood was somewhere between the 1st and 2nd levels where things were just tough but manageable. She went right through "adulthood", through "war veteran", through "survivor of an H.P. Lovecraft story" and straight into the realm of "Harlan Ellison's imagination on a bad day".
In most other stories, they're considered dark if everything is trying to kill the protagonist and has a good chance of succeeding.
In this story, everything is trying to cause the protagonist a fate worse than death in the most twisted and horrifying manners possible... and she is just a 12-year-old girl with a semi-crippled arm.
The author of this story is fucked in the head in so many ways. Why else would they write a story about a vast, inescapable Kafka-esque kiddy-rape-dungeon?
@SotiCoto I disagree that the author's intent is to depress us all the time. Just as in real life, there's a sense of awe and wonder woven into the darkness that provides levity and reprieve from the soul-crushing darkness that accompanies the loss of innocence.
The journey and character development continue well after the first couple levels.
The clashing of art styles between the innocence that exists outside of the abyss (the human characters) and the taint that exists inside is one way the author draws the contrast.
I don't recall any actual child rape, but the child nudity is overboard. At least we can agree on that.
You've made it plenty clear that this manga isn't for you. This will be my only reply to you since I don't see the need to beat a dead horse. Is arguing with everyone who enjoys this really a constructive use of your time?
The journey and character development continue well after the first couple levels.
When she gets her whistle, she experiences loss for the first time, for instance.
The clashing of art styles between the innocence that exists outside of the abyss (the human characters) and the taint that exists inside is one way the author draws the contrast.
I don't recall any actual child rape, but the child nudity is overboard. At least we can agree on that.
You've made it plenty clear that this manga isn't for you. This will be my only reply to you since I don't see the need to beat a dead horse. Is arguing with everyone who enjoys this really a constructive use of your time?
