Made in Abyss, on the surface, is a cute anime about exploration and discovery. Hidden underneath these cute characters and beautiful art however, is a very dark world. The series follows Riku and Reg, a young girl and a boy robot who journey into a massive abyss to find Riku's mother and discover the secrets of the abyss. The abyss is cursed, in that the deeper you go, the harder it is to ascend without severe consequences. The 6th layer in particular, known as the Capital of the Unreturned, can cause the loss of one's humanity or death. After siuffering a critical injury on the 4th layer, the two are eventually saved and taken into the care of a strange creature, Nanachi. She tells Reg that she is a hollow, a special exception to the curse of the 6th layer, and she eventually introduces him to Mitty, a small grotesque slug-like creature, and explains that she is also a hollow, who retained none of her personality or humanity. After Reg helps Nanachi a bit, she eventually asks him an unthinkable favor. Feeling as if Mitty's soul is still trapped within the shell of a body, she asks him to kill Mitty. She explains that Mitty is impervious to everything, but still feels the pain of injury. She believes a special weapon Reg wields is the only hope she has, as a similar weapon was the only thing to ever permanently injure Mitty. After a tragic and twisted backstory, Reg finally agrees. They share a tearful goodbye, and Mitty is finally laid to rest. Nanachi and Reg both break down in tears as Nanachi screams for "her treasure." For a character only present for a few episodes, who was nothing more than a grotesque pile of flesh, and who only had a small amount of backstory, this was easily one of the saddest and darkest moments of any anime I've ever seen.
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