Disclaimer:
I don't read a lot of Manga. I haven't read or heard of MiA Manga. This is my
fresh perspective on the Anime.
I am pleasantly surprised on how good this show has been. Having said that, I still have a minute amount of gripe. Not many characters but a decent amount to give my curiosity a cardio.
CHARACTERS:
Rico is just another (normal?) protagonist with a strong will to achieve something, which is reuniting with her Mother Lyza. Up until now, the show doesn’t imply any other motives from this character.
Reg is a humanoid from the Abyss. He is categorised as an Aubade. Reg is suspiciously attached to Rico. I smell a hidden motive (not so hidden).
Ozen is fascinating. She has layers. She sounds menacing but she is alright. She is definitely not like the humans in Orth. She stands at around 2 meters tall with a battle tested armour. Her battle suit is a sight to behold.
SETTING:
The Abyss as the people call it is a gaping hole on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. The settlement on the outer ring of the said Abyss is called “Orth” (Earth?).
People of Orth are subject to specific conditions. They harness electricity using windmills as portrayed in some scenes and ED visuals. Life would be hard in such a setting.
Fortunately, these are the descendants of explorers.
The Abyss itself is kind of fascinating and honestly, it’s all the show needed to keep me interested for more 😛.
They talk about 7 layers of the Abyss. The first couple of layers get a fraction of Sunlight. The explorers have established a mechanism to get to different layers including a system to enforce authorization for people to go exploring different layers. Each explorer is given a whistle ranging from Red to White.
They say that the Abyss ends in a place called the Netherworld. They don’t specifically talk about what lies in this Netherworld. Aubades like Reg, have been hinted to be the Netherworld dwellers.
That’s all there is to this show for now.
Let’s talk about the interesting parts.
SCALE:
In the ED visuals, there is this nice pictorial depiction of structural composition of the Abyss. There is a clear visualisation depicting the place where the Seafloor lies and the Abyss keeps going down below the depths of 3000 meters. The atmostpheric pressure is still close to 1 ATM in Layer 2.
The first half of Season 1 depicts only till Layer 2 containing the inverted forest and the lair of Ozen, the Immovable.
The concept of Inverted Trees is 🤯 . I am excited for the logical explanation and for what lies beheath.
The creatures of the Abyss seem to be neglected in the narrative up until now. The only creature that got a name and considerable hype was the ‘Crimson Splitjaw’ in the pilot.
Other creatures like Dragon-Birds, Glow-worms & Territorial-Rhinos were Candidly depicted.
SPECULATION:
I am very much excited to see what lies beyond the second layer.
I remember hearing… um..reading(subtitles) about something related to Goblet of Giants and I very much would like to get my mind blown by what lies down there.
Netherworld is the destination. I would like to think that Abyss just leads to the other side of the world and the Netherworld is another Orth-Like settlement on the otherside?
I am still curious on what an Aubade is and how they have access to Robot-like instruments including high octane incenerators.
I am also curious about the countless Overpowered-Relics that are scattered around the Abyss including the Resurrection stone and the praying skeletons.
All these points seem to be orchestrated by a bigger picture to keep the viewer interested and curious.