Sometimes, being a fan of Akihito Tsukushi's popular Made in Abyss series means having to adapt to suffering. Like many Western devotees, I was introduced to this bizarre, frail, and disturbing world through the 2017 first season of Kinema's wonderful anime adaptation Citrus. That first season covers the first three volumes of the manga, while the 2020 Dawn of the Deep Soul film adapts volumes 4 and 5, then the 2022 second season concludes at the end of volume 10.
A sequel to the existing anime has been announced, but considering the slow pace at which Tsukushi has been churning out new chapters over the past few years, we're in for a long wait. Sometimes, six months pass between (admittedly long and beautifully drawn) chapters. With the publication of volume 12 in English, we only have a single chapter left after the current Japanese web manga release. When the wait for new volumes of this intriguing and mysterious manga lasts years rather than months, it's understandable to feel impatient.
Then there's the content to consider — Tsukushi's art is almost pathologically detailed; it's no wonder he worked hard on each chapter for months. This is not a manga one can skim through—each panel is wonderfully detailed with densely inked wonders—from huge, eerie landscapes enveloping relatively small characters baby to the cute but scary designs of the characters themselves. Tsukushi's startling sets are as if Hayao Miyazaki had used brush and ink to create a lighter, darker atmosphere instead of his clearly delineated brush strokes for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's Sea of Corruption. His characters are like a strange combination of the cuddly and cuddly moe blobs of Tsukumizu's Girls'Last Tour and the hyper-detailed sci-fi warriors of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita, drawn demonstrated by the costumes of the attendees of the S&M furry convention. There's nothing else quite like Tsukushi's dark, dirty, slimy, organic and disturbingly wet artwork.
The downside to this incredible visual assault is that parsing what's happening from panel to panel can be difficult. While this was a big problem for the Golden City arc, I'm grateful for the anime's second season for wonderfully interpreting and clarifying what was a dense and complex manga story that I found it almost impossible to follow. Thankfully, this problem is less frequent in these two latest volumes, perhaps because the story Tsukushi intends to tell is simpler, with fewer characters. Instead of spending the best part of five episodes in a single place, we're back with more of a travelogue. Made in Abyss would benefit greatly from being published in a larger volume size, though, as I found myself having difficulty making small drawings and text in certain panels, especially in artificial light. Maybe I'm old or need reading glasses, but I had to read these volumes in bright, direct sunlight to follow the story without straining my eyes.
It was great to bring the focus back to the central group of characters afterwards. they were separated from each other for a long stretch of the previous episode. One of Made in the Abyss' signature storytelling features is that actions have lasting consequences. Riko still needs a hand splint to help her grip, after the injury from the Orb-piercer in the early episodes. Reg still only has one functional extendable arm after the terrifying Sovereign of Dawn Bondrewd severed one out of curiosity. Nanachi still loves Mitty after losing her twice and hopes that one day she can reunite with her soul. Cute Waffle Prushka's soul is still bound to Riko's white whistle, and Faputa can hear her disembodied yet sentient voice. (Prushka's fate is one of the saddest in all of manga and anime.) Everyone on this journey has suffered loss and, in some way, is searching for something can make them whole again.
So the ever-curious Riko leads her friends deeper into the treacherous Abyss, naming every new geological feature or landscape she finds. She's like a fantasy version of Dr. David Livingstone, except instead of the Source of the Nile, she's searching for her mother at the Bottom of the Abyss. Did anyone notice in the way Tsukushi mapped the Abyss that the seventh and final layer looks disturbingly like a cross-section of the anal sphincter? Maybe I don't want Riko to reach her destination after all…
Speaking of things with cloaca, in the opening chapter of volume eleven, Riko notices that the unclothed, animalistic Faputa only has an opening in her perineal area, “like a bird's.” ” Of course, Faputa invites Riko to smell it. Of course, Riko obliged, burying her small face in it to smell the fragrance of her new friend's irregular genital opening. To Faputa's pride, Riko reveals the furry man's undeniable smell of “sun and steaming potatoes.” I don't know about you, but I'm sure it's essential knowledge that I can't live without. According to conventional narrative text, the Abyss, its surroundings and contents, seems like a pretty foul place.
Made in Abyss has always had content that straddles the line between “a bit weird” and “am I actually going to get arrested for reading this?”. While anime — for the most part — has a lighter tone in this regard, there is a good reason manga is sold in clear plastic packaging with the banner “Warning: Parental Advisory: Sexual Content ” on the back cover. As much as I loved the story and art, this is not a manga I would share with strangers, family, or even most of my friends. While I'm now really uninterested in this manga's sometimes fetishistic depictions of minors selling clothes or even being naked, it's hard to give a more general recommendation for Made in Abyss which I feel is worth it.
Take the new characters we first met at the end of episode eleven, who we'll get to know in more detail in episode twelve. This is a group of six cave raiders whose backstories add tons of interesting (and disturbing) things to the mythology of the Abyss. Three of the (adult) characters are women with odd dressing styles that almost comically attract attention thanks to their extremely prominent breasts. That's nothing to criticize, just a bit perverted. However, there are two child characters who are horribly mutilated, each losing all four limbs and only stumps remaining. Reg helps them shower in a scene that essentially sexualizes these two broken, vulnerable bodies, and it's implied that Reg himself becomes somewhat sexually aroused—even though that's contrary to his will.
My eldest son looked over my shoulder. what I was reading and said, “Well, that's it. I don't care how good you tell me this manga is. Now I have never read it because I can see the author has a fetish for quadriplegic children.” This succinctly demonstrates my apparent discomfort with the way Tsukushi sometimes portrays his characters. I feel very uncomfortable about the apparent fetishization of disabled children. Thankfully, this scene only lasts a few pages, but I must warn readers about this potentially very provocative scene.
Barring the extremely disturbing nude scenes, these two volumes maintain the compelling storytelling of Made in Abyss, with some new mysteries such as a giant secret cave on the second level, stories about a mythical “Priestess” and a new curse involving twins. Some old mysteries are gradually resolved as the true nature of the Abyss is revealed and long-standing questions begin to be answered. With our main quartet on the verge of discovering the final, seventh layer, it seems Tsukushi is maneuvering his pieces towards a complex and hopeful endgame. Who knows how long the journey will last, but I know that despite my doubts about some of its content, I will stick with Made in Abyss until Riko reaches her deepest depths, darkest, dankest (and probably foulest).
