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Hope is the fuel of humanity. It’s what drives us to the future, and motivates us to persevere through hardship. It inspires our creativity, and influences our faith. But above all else, it’s hope that makes us human.

And Isayama thinks hope is meaningless.

The whole point of Attack on Titan from the start was hope. It was hope that made us fall in love with Eren’s tenacity, Armin’s wisdom, and Mikasa’s strength. It’s the glimpses of hope we saw in characters that made us invested in the people of Paradis as they fought for their very lives.

And then the story slowly devolved into nihilism and ... hopelessness.

The problem with Attack on Titan’s ending is not simply that it poisons the well. It defiles and destroys the well, saying it’s utterly useless and serves not purpose. Why?

Isayama wants you to believe it’s because the well will always be broken or destroyed someday, so it’s only natural that it is destroyed sooner rather than later.

Everyone’s actions in the story serve no purpose. Why?

It is because aliens run the show in the end. Not one single character has the ability to change fate, or even their destiny. Isayama crafted the story in this way so it can inevitably devolve into this nihilistic drool that glorifies violence and tribalism. Instead of offering a profound commentary on human corruption and violence, it merely suggests that the genocide of innocents is justified so long as you do it in order to protect your friends. It preaches that the end justifies the means. I am genuinely curious what Isayama’s thoughts on Hitler and his ovens would be?

The bottom line is that this story wants you to believe in nothing but nihilism, where you are encouraged to protect your own tribe by any means necessary. It doesn’t challenge you to empathize and compromise with adversity. It encourages you to burn and destroy your enemies.

Hope, that concept that has driven human evolution and freedom for thousand of years?

It is ineffective and shallow in the end, according to Isayama.

*This review will look at both the first season and movie together, and as such will contain spoilers for both*

Made in Abyss’s story was extremely promising. It contained everything a good story has, from an interesting and complex setting to a cast of colorful characters that not only are able to provide much needed introduction and insight into the world they exist in but also have the emotional depth to effectively portray drama and terror, as the majority of the main characters are in fact children. The story starts out with a young girl named Riko who is an orphan whose job it is is ... to extract ruins from a dark, giant hole in the earth that the people call the Abyss. She takes these artifacts and gives them to the handlers at her orphanage, but usually she keeps the most rare and valuable pieces for herself, as she is passionate about the Abyss and the relics of history contained in it. Riko can be described as an adventurous young girl that adores exploring and learning as much as she can about the world around her. Despite being born inside of the great Abyss that dominates her world’s society and almost dying due to the mysterious curse it imposes on those that travel deep into it, she still desires to explore the Abyss like her absent mother, who is a White Whistle, which is a title given to only the most elite of Abyss explorers. One day, Riko comes across the body of an ancient artifact called an aubade, which is basically an ancient robot. As the story progresses, they receive a letter that supposedly is from her mother that is asking Riko to meet with her at the bottom of the Abyss, and they both decide to set off on a journey to find the author of the note. Everything has shone like a diamond, bright and full of value. The events of the story are presented naturally, and the VAs do a perfect job of depicting young children going through bouts of stress and panic, as well as moments of curiosity and wonder. The only real complaint about season one is there are moments that could have been much better. The training the two go through with Ozen was much too simple to be considered effective, and I feel this is horribly inconsistent with a character like Ozen, who manhandled both Riko and Reg shortly after their first meeting to teach them how brutal and unforgiving the Abyss truly is. It is almost like she is setting them up for failure by not giving them enough sufficient enough exposure to life and death exposures to make them wary of the true nature of the dangers that lurk in the deeper levels of the Abyss. It doesn’t help that although Riko means well, she is at times an annoyingly naive girl. Still, this doesn’t hurt the overall quality of Season One. The conclusion of the season is powerful and emotionally poignant. Despite the character named Nanachi being introduced later in the season towards the end, she solidifies her status shortly after as an extremely likable and interesting character. The only real issue I have with the season, however, directly connects with the movie, which sadly destroyed the magic and allure of the series for me. Let me explain.

The movie which acts as a direct sequel to the first season had all the tools for success, but instead of using those tools to write a story about perseverance and friendship, ends up being one of enabling corruption and abuse. The first point of contention I have is with the use of Mitty as a character. Mitty was Nanachi’s best friend who was deceived along with Nanachi and a bunch of other orphans by Bondrewd to the lower levels of the Abyss where he secretly conducted experiments on them to find a cure or remedy for the curse of the Abyss. After Bondrewd traps the duo and submerged them and springs them up back up a full level of the Abyss, Mitty succumbs to the curse and becomes a blob creature with no personality or awareness of reality, while Nanachi is spared if this fate, with only growing fur, ears and a tail as side effects. I really like Mitty as a character for what she represents: disabled individuals. The mentally and physically disabled hardly ever get any true to life representation in popular media, from books to anime, so it’s nice to see writers create meaningful characters that aren’t just for the sake of representing a certain group just because. Mitty is actually a rarer specimen of disabled representation in that she is actually a completely disabled individual, having no real conscience or personality, only possessing her physical needs and unable to form any sort of coherent thoughts, as Nanachi explains. Essentially, she is a form of her former self. After establishing how much Nanachi and Mitty have gone through and the depth of their love for each other, the show then shifts on a hard note when Nanachi begs Reg to murder Mitty towards the end of season one. Now, yes, I fully understand that not only did Nanachi see what Mitty went through when they both received their conditions from the Abyss at the hands of Bondrewd, but it is heavily implied that Mitty is actually suffering inside of her body when Riko somehow detects her suffering in a dream. First off, it is really confusing the way the anime tries to utilize the supernatural as a matter of convenience to support its themes. Riko has never has ever mentioned being able to read the minds of any living thing, let alone a hollow human like Mitty. She has in fact never depicted any capacity for any supernatural abilities at all. So the fact all of a sudden she is able to confirm that Mitty was indeed suffering in her condition the whole time after Reg annihilated Mitty only serves to justify the actions of Reg and Nanachi, which seems really shallow and makes the killing one dimensional. Second, even under the context of the supernatural themes the show utilizes to sell this message of mercy, it makes zero sense within the confines of its own logic. Riko’s dream is never addressed later on throughout the season or even in the movie. It is brushed over almost like it was an after thought by the writer. If you are going to introduce any type of supernatural elements like mind reading in a story, then you should build upon the subject sincerely, otherwise it seems like you are merely using it to cut corners. Riko should have never had any dreams of Mitty, and this portion should have been left up to ambiguity, as this would make it more like Nanachi wanted to free her friend from the torture of existence, and the question of whether the mercy killing was justified or not is left for the audience to ponder. Moving on, movie presents Mitty’s suffering as a pivotal influence on the group as they move deeper into the Abyss. Bondrewd is considered a monster solely for the fact that he knowingly deceived orphan children and lured them deep into the Abyss where he could conduct experiments on them in the name of science. So if this is the case, why do the characters treat Bondrewd as someone who they can let their guard down around? If Bondrewd is willing to mercilessly kill and cause the indefinite torture of so many innocent orphans throughout the years, why would they not be constantly weary of him or his minions when they are staying at his base? Their nonchalant demeanor is nonsensical during their stay at the base, and it leads the story to transpire even more predictably than it already had been. Shortly after they enter Bondrewd’s stronghold, they are introduced to a girl named Prushka. She was the biproduct of one of Bondrewd’s experiments. Bondrewd theorized that the reason Nanachi was spared from the curse with only fur and a tail is the fact that her love for Mitty spared her. So to rea create this love, he decided to nurse Prushka back health, caring for her and claiming her a his daughter. Prushka seemded to genuinely adore Bondrewd, which was a very confusing aspect to wonder about. Did Prushka knowingly love a man she new dismembered and tortured children for his own personal gain? This vital question is never explicitly stated, but it’s hard to believe she would not be aware of Bondrewd’s actions, as he was not one to have shame in the slightest. As the story moves along, Nanachi talks with Bondrewd about letting the others go into the deeper layers of the Abyss in exchange for her servitude. This moment seemed absolutely ridiculous. Why would she ever believe in her wildest dreams that Bondrewd would ever agree to her set of conditions? A man who tortured her best friend to death? Of course, Bondrewd was completely blind sided by this request, as he had already gone and started conducting experiments on Reg. Although this series sells itself on body horror and violence to children, the torture scene came off cliche and boring. Bondrewd’s men just keep repeating “amazing, amazing” every time they cut up a portion of Reg or inflict some pain on him. It seemed extremely cliche and plays on the crazy, mad scientist trope that has been depicted in media a zillion times. Ozen, in contrast, is a far superior antagonist to the group as she was not needlessly insane, but rather had justification for her cold actions towards Riko and Reg, having graduated from the school of hard knocks, where if you don’t knock harder, you die. But all that we understand about Bondrewd and his crew is that they are crazy and really want to uncover new knowledge as it pertains to the curse of the Abyss. The antagonists feel very uninspired, but this is not the worst aspect of Bondrewd, or the movie for that matter. The biggest issue is the movie’s lack of reflection on the abuse that occurs in the story and perversion of the relationship between the abused and the ones who are abusing. Bondrewd is a ruthless, heartless and selfish creature of a person, who is not afraid to literally turn children into blobs of flesh to sustain his life. After they finally manage to subdue Bondrewd, Nanachi claims that they will be able to destroy Bondrewd’s facility, preventing him from harming anyone else ever again. But shortly after this scene, it is shown that Bondrewd is up and functioning again. Why does Nanachi, who not only was a victim of Bondrewd’s treachery but also an accomplice to Bondrewd’s terrible experiments, end up doing nothing to sabotage the facility and prevent Bondrewd from continuing his experiments after she explicitly said she would destroy his base? The movie ends with one of the most contradictory endings that seems to undermine all the good themes the series MIA has to offer, with Bondrewd seemingly getting away with literal murder with no repercussions whatsoever. The children merely resign themselves to Bondshrewd’s madness and press on. It is a very harrowing experience for the audience to know that Bondrewd will most likely continue experimenting on innocent children, despite the events of the movie, only making the conflict seem less important overall. It is almost as if Bondrewd’s abuse of children is being normalized and brushed under the rug. Even Prushka, who became another victim of Bondrewd’s experiments and was cut up and shoved into a box just to keep Bondrewd functioning, begs the children to “get along” with Bondrewd, even after she knows
the extent of his crimes. This resolution seems so jarring that it almost makes the movie seem like a nightmare one of the children are having. Somehow, the movie tried to tie Bondrewd’s ambition to uncover the truth of the Abyss through child torture to Riko’s desire to uncover the truth of who wrote the letter to her. The message the writers are trying to communicate to the audience becomes outright nonsensical towards the end. MIA sells itself to audiences on the sense of wonder and adventure it’s setting inspires, but these themes are corrupted when a villain like Bondrewd is treated so casually, and his actions are almost brushed over at the end, as if to say it is not what he does that is important, but rather the contents of his words that hold meaning. It destroys the pain and anguish of characters like Nanachi, Mitty, and Prushka who all suffered first hand to Bondrewd. It’s not the fact that he did not face any consequences for his actions, but rather there was in fact nothing done in response to all the pain and suffering the children occurred. The end events almost make it seem like the pain and suffering meant nothing at all in the first place. All that matters is the exploration of the Abyss.

The other minor problems with the series, even though it is pretty small, is it’s use of sexual jokes and nudity. It is really unnecessary, and actually makes one feel extremely uncomfortable when watching. Riko and the rest of the group are depicted to be literal children. It is completely random for Riko to joke about Reg’s penis, or the constant gag that Reg only wants to stroke Nanachi’s fur just because he gets turned on. However, this is something that doesn’t completely destroy the enjoyment of the series. The main problem with the series has already been stated.

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul is a very unsettling movie. The production is amazing, however. The visuals never leave the audience unexcited (except for the last battle between Reg and Bondshrewd where the animation seemed very simplistic and silly compared to everything else) and the VA performances are beyond phenomenal. However, the main themes the movie tried to communicate to the audience is nothing short of toxic. As people who consume stories, it is our duty to judge them based off the themes and messages they portray, and not only for the quality of their execution. Despite the first season being a truly groundbreaking series in its own right, Dawn of the Deep Soul disappoints and leaves the audience questioning what types of things the writers are trying to say about love and torture.

(This review will have spoilers.)

Rumbling Hearts is a very old anime by now, and when comparing it to a lot of anime that have come out since then, it seems a bit dated. That is not to say the anime is boring, but rather, a lot of the pacing and developments in the story can be seen coming a mile away. Sadly, therein lies the problem: while the conflict that arises is indeed predictable, the responses from the characters can only be considered obnoxious and pathetic. This leaves the viewer quite bored towards the end of the series, after the same characters behave the same ... selfish way episode after episode. The main issue of the story is the way in which the cast of characters responds to the love triangle between the three main characters. During high school, best friends Mitsuki and Haruka both have developed a crush on a boy called Takayuki. However, Mitsuki only developed this love after she deliberately became friends with Takayuki in order to help Haruka break the ice between the two so she could confess to him. Although this is a major source of conflict in the story, Mitsuki seemingly announces her feelings to Takayuki out of nowhere. This is foreshadowing of Haruka’s selfish nature that will cause the implosion of the love between Haruka and Takayuki. Soon after this secret confession the love between Haruka and Takayuki blossoms beautifully. It can be argued that if this story became focused on Mitsuki's development as a person experiencing the pain of jealousy and loss, then this story might've been much more adored than what it resorts to being: a story about betrayal. While waiting for Takayuki near some telephones, Haruka is hit by a bus while she was attempting to contact Takayuki, who was running late. This accident leaves her in a coma where it is uncertain if she will ever wake up again. Meanwhile, Takayuki begins to feel guilty, as he was late to the rendezvous because Mitsuki was holding him up. Mitsuki gained wind that he was on a date with Haruka, and begins pressuring him to buy her a present due to her birthday, when in actuality she was jealous of the date he was going on with Haruka. Right away, the poison in the story is administered and has a displeasing effect on the viewing experience. While Takayuki is in distress over his failure, Mitsuki seizes this oppurtunity to seduce Takayuki, only seeing Haruka's accident as her key to victory for her love. Instead of questioning the validity of Mitsuki's feelings, or whether or not it is the right decision to make in such a situation, he gives into Mitsuki when she throws her body in his arms. This is only the beginning of the toxic events that begin to unravel. The story continues until it reaches the main center of conflict which is Haruka's awakening. The couple attempt to hide their relationship from Haruka, but it begins to devolve into mistrust and uncertainty. Instead of addressing the situation head on, the characters constantly brush off the weight of the circumstance, only leading the emotions to boil over until brash decisions are made, like Mitsuki sleeping with her best friend or Takayuki going for days ignoring Mitsuki. The characters almost refuse to act like adults and share accountability for the relationship. Conflict after conflict only leads to recurrences of anger and self-hatred. While it is understandable the show has a duty to be entertaining by way of creating interesting conflicts, the story tries to convince the audience subconsciously that the illegitimate love between Mitsuki and Takayuki is valid, if only because they got together when Haruka was in a coma. While the writers have no responsibility to preach morals, the lack of dialogue on the topic of betrayal causes a feeling of bewilderment to arise in the viewer while the series concludes. The question of whether it is truly acceptable to betray a promise and trust between best friends is completely ignored for the themes of acceptance and self-improvement. This leaves a sense of dissatisfaction, as the ending while beautiful only contradicts this message to reaffirm what it has been trying to communicate the entire show: a love gained through opportunity is not wrong, and worthwhile if you need it to survive. While this message is not terrible, the story contradicts this sentiment towards the end of the series. While Takayuki sees Haruka and the feelings he possessed so long ago begin to reignite, Mitsuki finds the strength to let go of their toxic relationship and pursues growing as an adult. Haruka, being feeble and timid her whole life, finds a burning desire to grow stronger for Takayuki's sake and works hard to heal after for him. But as the final episodes come, Haruka's feelings are betrayed by Takayuki for a final time, and all the progress that the characters have made is undone. And by the end of the anime, it only seems that Haruka grew as a person throughout the whole series, while Takayuki and Mitsuki resign themselves to their relationship, as they admit that they could not persevere alone, and not only love but need one another. While this is a very romantic idea, it completely diminishes the improvement of the characters, as they worked so hard for the sake of progression but ended up staying with each other to protect themselves from suffering alone. Ultimately, Rumbling Hearts is a product of it's source material, and by design it is meant to possess various endings. However, the ending the writers choice to use when adopting this concept can only be described as hopelessly romantic.

The worst aspect of this anime is not that it reached for the stars, but that it did so at the expense of what it could have done best. The concept is so tantalizing, from the "romance" between Fine and Izetta to the prospect of witches entering World War 2 to join in the greatest conflict in human history. Immediately one cannot help but feel the fire of desire build for such a prospective story. But whereas it could've honed in on the action, the relationship between the two main characters, the aesthetic of magical girls fighting during World War 2...it instead tries so hard ... to make magical girls make sense in the backdrop of 1939 Europe. While this may sound like the obvious route to take in theory, in practice it is the sole reason the anime fails entirely. The story tries its hardest to make the audience believe in the virtues of the characters, while also showing them the blood and death of war. And in the beginning, this actually worked fine when Fine was the main focus of the story. The dialogue and pacing was interesting, and made the audience curious and invested in how the story would play out, and when and how magic would be introduced and used in combat. But shortly after the first episode, the story gradually begins to fall apart by each passing minute. When Izetta was introduced in the story, the first few scenes of her fighting were certainly captivating. But after it had ended, there was very little inspiration to be gained from her. The episodes usually followed a singular mundane format: Izetta pledges her allegiance to Fine, Fine reaffirms her allegiance to her people, and everyone worships Fine and Izetta. Magic was never explored outside of the initial few parts that were introduced during the beginning of the anime, and even up until the final episode, there is nothing to suggest why it exists or how exactly it works in practice. The method in which Izetta is able to use magic makes sense, but virtually regarding the origin or science behind it is ever addressed. Magic then becomes more of a way to progress the story, rather than an interesting element that is constantly being explored throughout the series. Because there was so little information regarding one of the show's selling points, the audience are forced to acknowledge the illogical plot points that happen, where characters make the most ridiculous choices that serve only to further the plot out of convenience. In later episodes, macguffins are even used without any hint or warning, making the audience feel as if the writers were creating such things merely to wrap up the episodes. And even after the final conflict, the resolution was so predictable and uninspired that a person cannot help but think they wasted all their time on this pointless show with how uninteresting everything turned out to be. The seemingly only redeeming quality is the close relationship between the two characters Fine and Izetta, but even that aspect is overshadowed by how bad the show tries to tell a World War 2 story where magic's only purpose is to be a catalyst for driving the story. To top it all off, the final episode completely fails on leaving the audience with a satisfying farewell from the couple, with not even a hint that the two actually were romantically involved with each other on a sexually intimate level. The yuri bait is so strong in this anime that at times the question occurs whether the writers only used yuri to spite and humiliate those that were initially drawn in because of it exclusively. Overall, there is virtually no real justification to invest in watching this anime, when other anime have paired similar genres to a much greater effect. Overall, the anime is an example of being given a sparkling canvas but using cheap, worn watercolors to paint a dull, forgettable picture.