Regarding the previous review: I have decided to delete and rewrite my previous review. I have realised I was deeply wrong about my viewpoint after reading a lot of the comments and watching some videos about the topics I touched up on, and I do apologise for what I now realise was a very awful opinion.

I love Made in Abyss.

That's it. That's the summary of my review. Stop reading here if you want. Alternatively, continue reading so you can also marvel at some of this show's stunning feats.

Made in Abyss is a masterpiece of a show and is one of the few that actually has made me cry at some point. The story, music, and artstyle are some of my favourite. The world is beautiful and is something I wish I could live in, despite the horrible nature of the Abyss. It's a sight to behold filled with some of the most beautiful and interesting landscapes I've seen in any anime to date. I mean, just take a look at this:

Oooooo...

Aaaahhh.....

Wow, this is stunning. I could frame that... (I did.)

These scenes to me are genuinely beautiful. I love them so much and I can tell that a lot of time and effort was put into making these some of the most beautiful backdrops and worlds (I consider each layer of the Abyss a separate world in a way) in any show, ever. Even outside anime, I feel that some of these scenes just cannot be beaten. I have now gotten a few of these frames hung on my wall just so I can look at them again and again. The worldcrafting and how it's been presented here is so well done, and I literally cannot express enough how much this makes me feel warm and fuzzy just looking at it. The godrays are like something I could feel on my skin, and that is something I don't feel a lot just staring at artwork. This really is something special.

In terms of plot, the show is one of the greatest stories I've seen. Watching a bunch of kids descend down into a death pit is definitely not a concept I thought I would've enjoyed on paper, but watching the show it really demonstrates how such a concept can be written into a beautifully horrific yet somehow oddly heartwarming story. The Abyss' curses and the gore that comes along with them clearly shows how much is at stake when people descend, and makes Made in Abyss one of the most realistic fantasies I've seen. There's no sunshine or rainbows, you have pure gore when you screw up, and my god is it nasty when it happens (to the point where I almost threw up just imagining some of the scenes happening to me). Everything is done for a reason, from the injuries to the creatures. No friendship is going to help you here. Yet, they keep going and descending, knowing the risks. They go through the various trials and deal with it all, no matter what hits them. They're strong-willed, and they will not give up on their adventure. A show like this is very rare and I'm so glad that I found one. This is the type of story I would write if I had the skill just because throwing people into a fantasy with horrific consequences is the type of thing I think I would enjoy writing.