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Now that I think about it, this situation regarding about showing children naked and all that stuff reminds me of a similar situation that I almost had. I was watching an anime short where this robot came to stay at this woman's trailer since he needed a place to rest and it turned out that he feigned sickness to allow himself into her home and start filming her as she was stripping (not shown explicitly) and posting them onto his blog (where I think he posted similar encounters with other women). She found out, kicked him out, but he snuck in and took pictures of her while she was sleeping. At the end he is out and about hunting for more women (I think). I was disturbed with this anime and even more disturbed when I saw people laughing it off and even encouraging the robot to do even more disgusting things. The way I'm describing the anime is most likely different to how it actually is (it gives off a more comedic vibe), but it was so disturbing to me as a woman and a viewer that I couldn't laugh at her getting her privacy violated. It was almost like watching a rape scene.

Anyways, I ranted about this outside of MAL and someone replied to me and criticized me, I guess, for my narrow-minded and self righteous view on this. Person basically said that it was a film competition and that they are free to express any message they want (it was not made for mass public viewing) and that I shouldn't force my views on other cultures and violence in anime is seen as acceptable bla bla bla. Nevertheless, I was still bothered and angry. I don't think Japan as a whole would allow this kind of thinking.

x-x But anyways, I can see where you are going. Our personal beliefs can sometimes affect the way we see anime that is different from other people's perspective.

1. Mitty’s cleavage wasn’t as bothersome to me; it might have been because I was engrossed with the backstory. Shoving medicine up the butthole is another “real” and “unfiltered” aspect that I like about the anime. As I have said, and as you have repeated, it is not a cute kid’s adventure where treatment involves applying fairy dust on the skin or pouring liquid medicine in the mouth. To survive in extreme conditions like the Abyss, one has to be prepared to do the unthinkable like cutting off someone’s arm or being able to kill a beast that can read your every thought. It just showed how desperate the situation was. I don’t know if there’s any deep meaning behind showing Riko bathe at least twice, but I do like the fact that her being unafraid of who sees her naked shows her childlike personality. As we get older, we tend to become more secretive, conniving, and more conservative, keeping our thoughts to ourselves. Children, on the other hand, have no filter and they speak their mind and do whatever they want. They seem to be less fearful than older people. I’m not really describing her fearlessness of her being naked as power (though I do think her being fearless is a great attribute for being in the abyss), but as a child who feels free to do as she wishes (which seems to be a shared attribute of her mother). Maybe it doesn’t add much to the story, but I think it does add to her character a bit.

2. I don’t think we should discredit the fact that a 13-year-old climber reached the top of Mount Everest. Even experts need help and just being 13 years old and reaching the mountain is already a great feat. He could have given up or died, along with his team, but they didn’t. He probably couldn’t have survived without them, just like how Riko and Reg could not survive without each other. If you saw the characters and read the summary (and maybe read any reviews) before watching the anime and was distracted by the age, why did you watch it? What kind of expectations did you have for this anime? Tbh, I’m tired of seeing main characters as teenagers. It can be nauseating sometimes because it seems like they all do the same thing and react the same way (I’ll save humanity! I can still fight because I have my friends! Kyaa this Baka that!). I mean, >_> a freaking soul reaper entrusted a 15-year-old boy to save Soul Society and his powers don’t seem to have a limit and it’s basically himself saving the world. Plus, if Riko were 16, it would be even weirder if she was seen bathing and it would have also contradicted the story with the age requirements for whistles and whatnot. I don’t think it would have been that compelling of a story if she was a blue whistle with experience of several layers. Don’t you think it’s even more dark and disturbing that kids are the center of this dark narrative? Erased was pretty dark and scary, but the man being a kid didn’t detract from that. I think having kids as the main characters adds to the horror of the story, the horror that they are just kids who seem to be powerless and have no idea what lies next. When I watch shounen anime, I don’t get as suspense as I do when I watch them because 90% of the time I know that some nakama BS or a power up will ensure their victory. But like I said, these aren’t some noob kids who don’t know anything about the abyss. Their knowledge and their power combined is what gets them through. And don’t forget they nearly escaped death multiple times. That is something that shouldn’t be ignored.

I guess to sum it up, the things I love about this anime is the unfiltered and the uncensored aspect of this anime. It contrasts the children’s innocence with the cruel reality of the abyss. I really enjoy watching anime that is dark, intriguing and mysterious and the anime has all of those aspects. It also has those “distracting” scenes which I think are provocative yet interesting. It certainly is different from other anime, whether you view it positively or negatively. I think what makes a really good anime is that it shatters people’s expectations that they form from other anime and what they see from the surface and crafts an unique story of their own. Children are also unexpected little people; you never know what they will do next.

Even though I’m defending the reason why Riko was naked, I despise fanservice or other forms of sexual display. I don’t see it adding value to the anime in terms of quality, but I don’t think the anime was sexualizing her body to the audience or anything. I didn’t think Riko bathing was pointless (not to sound like a perv), but the fanservice in Code Geass bothered me a lot, which affected my rating. It adding nothing to the characters besides their sex appeal; the anime would have been just fine without the naked scene(s), and rabbit costumes.

And I didn't take offense to your reply, rather, I appreciate it since it has helped me reaffirm my feelings for this anime and has helped me create a deeper analysis, so thank you and sorry for the long reply. xD

This is my take on Made in Abyss and my reply to your review. Feel free to agree or disagree.

1. When I saw the anime, I was a bit shocked at first when they mentioned things like "penis" and the "hanging naked" punishment, but I think it contributed to the anime's "realness" and those things separated itself from other anime. No, I don't think they're cliche. You don't see that happen that much in anime with children, nor do you even see it that much in regular anime with older kids. What I like most about Riko is her fearlessness, determination, and her interest in studying the unknown, which includes Reg. I liked the fact that she observed Reg's physical features like a scientist would do and I liked her fearlessness of being naked in front of people(I think there was a scene like that). It's not like we saw her naked or we saw a close up shot of her skin to emphasize the curviness of her body like most anime filled with fanservice do. What they show in the anime is nothing compared to the overly sexualized elementary school characters in the Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya anime, which shows girls in skimpy outfits doing sexual things and making their skin all shiny and red. Riko's obliviousness to these things we think of as embarrassing also highlights her innocence as her child. Some kids in countries swim naked or bathe together naked. They don't blush and scream "baka!" and hitting the main protagonist all the time like female teenagers would. I appreciate that this anime doesn't sugar coat this as cute kids' adventure. You can say this goes even farther than HunterxHunter. The hanging punishment is weird, but well, it's an anime in another world with another culture. It only showed it for a few seconds, which isn't so bad.

2. The youngest person to ever climb Mount Everest is 13. They're 12. Reg may be even older. And they aren't both human. One of them is a robot who has superhuman powers. Yes, if it were just 2 normal children, it would be impossible. But we have 1 kid who is knowledgeable (though clumsy) of the Abyss and knows how to survive there most of the way while one of them is immune to the curse and is basically a human rope. What I love about this anime is that they cannot survive without the other.