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The ANN Aftershow - Eating What? Did Made in Abyss Go Too Far?


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Ishida_Akira(fake)



Joined: 23 Apr 2022
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:07 pm Reply with quote
It definitely didn't go too far. Honestly, the baby eating wasn't as morally corrupt as turning children into cartridges. I'm not defending eating babies, but those creatures would not have survived much anyway, as they had no organs to keep them alive. The Cradle of Desire is not intelligent enough to grant wishes correctly, it just grants them on a superficial level, and exactly as worded.
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Ishida_Akira(fake) wrote:
I'm not defending eating babies, but those creatures would not have survived much anyway, as they had no organs to keep them alive.


And what about if?


spoiler[Those "creatures" are taken from their mother and butchered while still alive?
Those "creatures" are sentient and have souls?
He knew beforehand- in a hunch sorta way- the end results of giving her the cradles?]


There are five episodes left...what if things get worse?
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Ishida_Akira(fake)



Joined: 23 Apr 2022
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:35 pm Reply with quote
Nordhmmer wrote:
There are five episodes left...what if things get worse?


What do you mean "if" things get worse? This is Made In Abyss. It always gets worse.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:35 pm Reply with quote
It didn't go too far for me; if they had looked human like tiny Irumyuuis, THAT would have been way too far. Anime cry

But they just looked like rabbits so....I was able to handle it okay. Still horrified...but not scarred beyond healing. xD
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23631
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:37 pm Reply with quote
I think MiA did go too far and it has nothing to do with eating organic matter that wouldn't survive. For me the question is, "given that MiA is (ostensibly) a work of entertainment, when you factor in Mitty, Prushka and now Irumyuui's absolutely harrowing ordeals (not to mention stuff that has happened to Riko, Reg and Nanachi) are you starting to get the sense that MiA's creator is a little *too* invested in depicting cruelty and misery inflicted on cute child characters?"

I think James missed the mark too... I don't believe we as viewers are supposed to take joy in watching this stuff - quite the opposite. But constantly mining that "oh lord this is so horrible" vein is starting to feel exploitative to me and anything that starts to feel exploitative necessarily cheapens the content itself.

I also understand that the creator is painting himself into a corner. After all, Mitty happens in Season 1. Structurally speaking, the inexorable logic is that stuff HAS to suck more the lower in the Abyss you go. It wouldn't make much sense if things got easier and less ghastly. But I'm left to wonder if putting cute child characters through the most awful scenarios imaginable is how the creator gets his ya-yas.
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NeverConvex
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Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2257
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:59 pm Reply with quote
I don't think MiA exploits gore in the same way I assume something like Hostel does, and I don't think MiA went too far, but I do think it has long since forgotten to give some sense of purpose or meaning to suffering, or to even to use the constant suffering to help develop its main cast. In the absence of some kind of separate narrative purpose like that, I think it does start to eventually feel like the suffering is also very much the point. Maybe it's still more meaningful than spectacle gore, insofar as MiA invites us to suffer alongside our abyssal kids, but that distinction feels increasingly slight.

I also am much less confident that the more-and-more aggressive / frequent scatological/pedophilic stuff is framed in a responsible way.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:08 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
are you starting to get the sense that MiA's creator is a little *too* invested in depicting cruelty and misery inflicted on cute child characters?"


I mean, what's "too invested"? I support freedom of expression and they are his characters so he is free to do whatever he wants with them. I don't want things to be policed or restricted. I want people to be true to their vision...yes, no matter how horrible the next person finds it to be. That's the beauty of art.

Quote:
But I'm left to wonder if putting cute child characters through the most awful scenarios imaginable is how the creator gets his ya-yas.


Probably? But again...so what? They are *his*. I understand Berserk's author put his own characters through some pretty bad stuff too....but it's still hailed as a masterpiece work. Maybe people didn't mind as much because the art was not cute. Confused On the contrary, his art is a lot more realistic to real human people....so I think that'd be a lot more unsettling to see.
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HoshizoranoUtage



Joined: 20 Jul 2020
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:21 pm Reply with quote
It does feel like MiA is relying more and more on shock value. Like the author has a fetish for it or something. I don't mind dark stories or straight-up horror stories but for me to want to keep watching something the plot has to have more substance to it than just devolving into increasingly gruesome horror.
Honestly if there ends up being a third season I'm not watching it.
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:32 pm Reply with quote
Ishida_Akira(fake) wrote:
Nordhmmer wrote:
There are five episodes left...what if things get worse?


What do you mean "if" things get worse? This is Made In Abyss. It always gets worse.


Yeah,those aren't my speculations under those spoilers tags,but actual spoilers for the next episode.
And I sill left out the really sad parts that are still to come.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23631
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:46 pm Reply with quote
My problem is that I'm trapped. I'm simply too invested in what ultimately will happen to Riko, Reg and Nanachi to bail. At the very end of the day, I really hope I can say that the journey was worthwhile, but I'm starting to have my doubts. And I'm an MiA superfan.
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Ishida_Akira(fake)



Joined: 23 Apr 2022
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:09 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, I think the horror is this show is some of the best I've seen. Its exactly because Riko, Reg and Nanachi are so damn adorable that I'm so invested in them being alright, despite the horrors around them. The mangaka is doing a fantastic job of having me on the endge of my seat. Also... I can't decide who's cuter, Nanachi or Faputa.

spoiler[We don't have to choose, we get to keep both]
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:15 pm Reply with quote
I think Faputa's cuter than Nanachi lol
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:34 pm Reply with quote
NeverConvex wrote:
I don't think MiA exploits gore in the same way I assume something like Hostel does, and I don't think MiA went too far, but I do think it has long since forgotten to give some sense of purpose or meaning to suffering, or to even to use the constant suffering to help develop its main cast. In the absence of some kind of separate narrative purpose like that, I think it does start to eventually feel like the suffering is also very much the point. Maybe it's still more meaningful than spectacle gore, insofar as MiA invites us to suffer alongside our abyssal kids, but that distinction feels increasingly slight.

I also am much less confident that the more-and-more aggressive / frequent scatological/pedophilic stuff is framed in a responsible way.


Irumyuui's transformation is central to the "Ilblu Arc" for a reason that will become very apparent by the end of episode 8. Episodes 9 thru 12 will deal with consequences & repercussions of her wishspoiler[es.]


(Ilblu is the shortened name for Iruburu Village)


(II'm finding it odd that the anime tones down the more truly fetish crap,but cut the actual sexual material of this story arc.In the manga Vueko is portrayed as being sexually active,a bit aggressively so.
One scene in particular: Irumyuui's watching Vueko having sex with female partner.
(That scene is why Irumyuui states Vueko smells like sex.))
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 1987
Location: australia
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:37 pm Reply with quote
Ishida_Akira(fake) wrote:
I'm not defending eating babies, but,


Not many chances in life to get to say that, huh. What an opportunity.
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Huffdaddy



Joined: 04 Aug 2017
Posts: 23
Location: Philadelphia, PA
PostPosted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 9:58 pm Reply with quote
While the events of the most recent episode was certainly very disturbing, so was all the stuff from Season 1 and the movie. I think the difference has been there hasn’t been enough lighthearted material to offset the misery. I also feel that as horrific as these events have been, they are consistent with the world that has been built and has provided context to some of the previous horrors we have witnessed giving it all greater thematic depth and emotional weight. I still feel similarly to what James said is that we aren’t supposed to be enjoying this. It is meant to shock, it is meant to hurt, it is meant for us to empathize with these characters we have come to care about for them to ultimately succeed in some way. Like James, I certainly completely understand if any body finds the content to be too much, but I am also too invested in these characters and this world not to follow. If it ever becomes essentially torture porn, that is when the series will lose me but for me at least to this point I don’t feel that is true. MiA is still some of the best and most compelling anime I have watched in some time and I’ve been watching regularly since the mid 90s (and some of the 80s)
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