Hideo Kojima is very active on Twitter and, recently, he’s been tweeting about the anime Made in Abyss. Kojima reviewed the show in a tweet, “Watched Made In Abyss up to Episode 3 as I was recommended by my staff. Took a while to get use to the drawing but setting of the abyss (big hole) and the world were very interesting. Still it was ‘relic’ to me and not quite ‘trainee’ yet. I may dig a bit more in deep.” He then tweeted that he bought the whole manga series (likely in response to his staff member who said he should check out the source material.)
So what exactly is Made in Abyss? It was originally a manga written by Akihito Tsukushi and later adapted into a 13-episode TV series in 2017. Three films, Made in Abyss: Journey’s Dawn, Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight, and Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul, were also produced. The last one was recently released in January 2020.
The protagonist of Made in Abyss is an orphaned girl, Riko, who lives in a town surrounded by a big giant hole called the Abyss. In the Abyss are remnants of a strange civilization and so-called cave raiders descend into the hole to bring back artifacts. Only there’s one caveat (other than possible death by monsters in the hole): the deeper you descend, the more you’ll be affected by a strange curse when you ascend to the surface again.
Riko’s mother, Lyza, is a cave raider that’s obtained the legendary title of a White Whistle, and it is her message from the bottom of the Abyss (transported by a balloon) to Riko that kickstarts the young girl’s determination to enter the pit and meet her mom. Riko’s one companion is an amnesiac human-like robot she finds in the Abyss called Reg.
From the art to the beginning of the story, Made in Abyss seems like a lighthearted children’s adventure. But as Riko and Reg descend further into the pit, it becomes something straight out of Dante’s Inferno. They deal with corpses, life-threatening situations, and the possibility of death and pain at every level. The contrast between the beautiful scenery in the Abyss and the utter darkness creates an interesting tension in Riko and Reg’s journey, completely upping the stakes from the peaceful first few episodes.
Kojima’s final review of Made in Abyss is poetic and sums up the series’ appeal perfectly:
Down to E13. All times & places the story goes either fall into a hole & die or comes back from a hole. As Kobo Abe’s The Woman In The Dunes, it stays in a hole, no, it keeps falling the bottomless hole. MIA as mission in action. Roaming forever. We’re in mid of adventure still. pic.twitter.com/qFEfGE5du6
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 4, 2020
So where can you watch it? If you have Amazon Prime, Made in Abyss is included in your membership and is free to watch.