This is the same energy as the Robocop toy I got as a four year old
You know, Robocop. That movie for kids.
Cutesy = for babies.
Cute characters can't possibly be involved in stories that are horrific and emotionally devastating.
Made In Abyss was the last anime I tried to watch, and I liked a lot of stuff about it but then I saw some of the creator's other artwork from the manga and noped out of it for reasons of iffyness with the children.
It is the absolutely worst show I've seen, hands down. I keep meaning to write up a review dissecting exactly everything that's wrong with it, because nonce stuff aside it's also just absolute dogshit, but I never actually finished watching it and slogging through the episodes about the ancap village and its literally-nonce-based-economy is too much to stomach.
slogging through the episodes about the ancap village and its literally-nonce-based-economy is too much to stomach
God damn, it sounds like it took an especially huge dump. I think I only ever watched the first season off of a mother's basement or supereyepatchwolf video suggesting it.
What did you hate about it beyond the creepy stuff though? Personally I liked the basic premise of a mining town centered around a giant hole that basically leads into hell, the different biomes and monsters they encounter as they go in searching for treasure, the video-game-esque mechanics of how they get stuck in deeper and deeper levels because of the sickness thing they get, etc. I would have kept watching it if it didn't do the pedo-stuff.
Basically, I'd say it has one strong suit: the sort of soft-around-edges surreal fantasy aesthetic was, while not particularly original, quite stylish and well executed. The problems - ignoring the nonce stuff for the moment - were the pacing and progression. The story had basically two modes for pacing: breakneck glossing over all the weird, surreal fantasy environment, and bogging down while tons of nothing happened. The problem with the progression was that there wasn't any: the main characters remain static through the whole thing, neither growing nor being diminished as they go through their requisite training montage and suffer horrible things - there's no leveling up and becoming more actualized from their experiences nor is their catharsis in their suffering, Riko and Reg are fundamentally the same people when they leave Orth as when they reach the golden city, being neither more competent nor just barely hanging on, the scars they get along the way just being decorations added to their character design.
The movie is vile and can be summed up as "the author-insert serial killing mad scientist responsible for Nanachi and Mitty's conditions (and much worse), has plot armor, the story revels in the heinous shit he was doing, and then even after he's beaten he still wins because the main characters don't even think to stop him after they have the upper hand and instead they just keep going, happy and completely oblivious to all the horror, maiming, and trauma they just went through." I got maybe halfway through the second season before deciding that continuing to watch it constituted self harm, but it gets worse from there with the story bogging down completely to just wallow in the village of horrible nonce ancap blob/tentacle monsters and all the gross vile shit they do as a whole bunch of literally no story happens.
Ultimately it's all just gross empty spectacle: the suffering isn't for anything and it's not making a point anywhere. It's just gratuitous, in the true meaning of the word. Even if the characters were all adults it would still be gross and horrible and pointless.
i didn't suffer through as much as you did but i ended up feeling about the same way. ended up poking through the wiki and it's vile
just seems like it exists to make the viewer miserable tbh
Basically, I'd say it has one strong suit: the sort of soft-around-edges surreal fantasy aesthetic was, while not particularly original, quite stylish and well executed.
You forgot the soundtrack, voice casting, character / creature design, surreal and dark humor, peak villain, intriguing world and lore
