APADFTMOM Day 17: High Priority Reading: Made in Abyss

I’m going to level with you: The idea behind High Priority Reading was to give me a reason to write about today’s series. There are some series that I love which are well-respected and do a lot of things, if not everything, right, but writing about them is a little difficult since it’s hard to focus on just one of those things. Each individual part can be executed almost flawlessly, but sometimes those parts all compliment each other so well that the work as a whole is exponentially better than each aspect of it. Today we’ll be looking at Made in Abyss, which is one such series.






Made in Abyss by Akihito Tsukushi is the story of a girl named Riko as she and her amnesiac robot friend, Reg, traverse the hellishly whimsical terrains of the Abyss in search of Riko’s mother. Riko wishes to find her mother after receiving a letter from her telling her to come to the bottom of the Abyss, while Reg accompanies Riko in hopes of recovering his memories about himself and discovering who and what he is. The two of them set out for the furthest depth of the Abyss where death is guaranteed should they try to turn back.




It would not be a stretch to say that the Abyss itself is the focal point of the series over either of the two main characters. The Abyss is a massive hole in the ground that extends deep into the planet and is a thinly veiled interpretation of Hell. There are multiple sections of the Abyss, referred to as layers, which are radically different from each other and become more dangerous as one progresses through them. Each layer of the Abyss not only carries its natural danger in the forms of its flora, fauna, and atmosphere, but also compounds on a phenomenon known as the Curse of the Abyss where attempting to ascend can cause a scope of harm ranging from nausea to physical mutation to death. The Curse is not just limited to traversing between the layers and can impact an explorer ascending even so much as a hill.




While also full of danger, the Abyss houses a number of rare and exotic artifacts from civilizations past that sell for large sums of money in the outside world. Artifacts consist of both simple items with no obvious purpose that are valuable purely based on coming from the Abyss and magical pieces of technology that perform seemingly impossible acts or house immeasurable power. The demand for these artifacts birthed the city of Orth around the ring of the Abyss. Orth is themed after a typical labor town where it may be popular due to its association with wealth, but it does not profit off of the majority of that wealth firsthand.




Explorers of the Abyss are known as cave raiders and are enrolled in a color-coded whistle-based ranking system to establish a hierarchy. At the bottom are the whistleless Bells who consist of young children studying to enter the Abyss, followed by the Red Whistles who are budding cave raiders with very limited access to the surface of the Abyss. Riko and Reg are both Red Whistles. At the far opposite end of the spectrum are the White Whistles, who are the best of the best. There are a few ranks in between Red and White but they do not play much into the story and are mainly just stepping stones.




White Whistles are people of legend who are viewed similarly to folk heroes. Civilians view the extremely limited group of White Whistles as heroes who vanquish the evils of the Abyss and support the world with their discoveries. While each rank of Whistle has some form of limitation in terms of how deep into the Abyss they can travel, White Whistles have free reign over the Abyss as a whole and are not strictly limited to artifact collection. That being said, they often choose to stay above the 6th layer as the damage caused by ascending from the 6th layer is too much for even them. Riko’s mother, Lyza, is a White Whistle known as Lyza the Annihilator and had a public reputation for being extremely easygoing.




Riko’s character is a highlight of the culture surrounding the Abyss. Riko is very knowledgeable about the ecology of most of the Abyss and jumps at the opportunity to learn more about it from any source, especially tales of veteran cave raiders. She idolizes cave raiders like her fellow citizens of Orth, albeit her view of the Abyss is a bit different from that of common folk; While the average person views the Abyss as a potential source of advancement in terms of wealth and technology, Riko sees it more as a mystery to be solved. Riko is also very confident to the point of recklessness at times, and she is not willing to let any sort of conflict impede her journey.




Reg is the rational balance to Riko’s recklessness and is much more reserved than Riko, almost to the point of timidness at times. Reg’s robotic body is extremely durable and has a number of features that rival those of the highest-grade, most valuable artifacts ever found. He is willing to accompany Riko to the depths of the Abyss not just to try to learn more about his origins but also because Riko is his friend and he cares for her. As a robot, Reg is immune to the Curse of the Abyss.




Made in Abyss has a very simple arc-based story where each story arc feeds into the other story arcs and the overall plot. There are little to no larger storylines that are threaded through multiple arcs. If a storyline touches on material that is not immediately relevant, that material is either fuel for the overall story or is made relevant in the next story arc. It is worth noting that Made in Abyss has a very untraditional release schedule where new chapters are released whenever they’re finished, which can be anywhere from every four to ten weeks, so this type of immediate gratification when it comes to making plot points relevant helps to compliment that schedule.




The overall structure of Made in Abyss uses Riko’s journey as a backdrop to showcase the spectacle of the Abyss. The Abyss is illustrated as an awe-inspiring natural masterpiece at all times with each area being a vastly different ecosystem from the last. There is almost no coherency between sections of a layer of the Abyss, let alone between the layers themselves, and therein lies the whimsical mystery that allures Riko. This lack of consistency between creatures, plants, landscape, and even the laws of nature themselves establishes the Abyss as not just a dungeon but a supernatural entity. Each venture into the Abyss requires immense preparation and can still result in failure at a moment’s notice due to sheer bad luck.




There is a special balance to maintain between establishing and exploring such a complex setting, and Made in Abyss perfected that balance with ease. While the main characters are on a mission and have a goal, there is no real time limit set for that goal so the narrative can afford to stop and reap the benefits sowed in the details. Made in Abyss has very concise pacing in the overall scope of the series, but each chapter is written at a much more relaxed yet efficient pace where it takes its time to get from point A to point B but still gets there with minimal waste.




There are so many more topics that can be discussed about Made in Abyss such as characters, themes, tone shifts, and storylines, but all of those topics would be riddled with spoilers. I heavily recommend checking out Made in Abyss and finding out firsthand how such a complex setting can help shape a seemingly simple story. Made in Abyss has a western release through Seven Seas Entertainment.