If you want to makea great fantasy story, be it novel, films, or anime, there are several things that you have to get right. The first one is obviously an interesting story, the second one is believable characters, and the third one is world building. Yes, the world in which you set your story is incredibly important. After all, every great fantasy story has an equally iconic world, such as the wizarding world of Harry Potter, or the bleak world of The Lord of The Ring.
When it comes to anime, however, Made in Abyss has one of the mostfascinating and yet terrifying worldsout of the majority of fantasy anime in recent years. And the one thing that makes this anime so great, and also the main talking point for this series as a whole is none other than The Abyss and its mysterious curse.
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What is The Abyss?
Before we go any further, let’s start with The Abyss itself. The Abyss is a massive pit with around 1000 meters in diameter with a depth of at least 20,000 meters. There are six known layers within The Abyss and each one has its own distinct ecosystem with unique flora and fauna, all of which are bothfascinating and dangerous at the same time.
The Abyss is the home of a fallen ancient civilization that has bizarre and magical artifacts scattered around every level of the Abyss. The deeper the level is, the more valuable the artifacts will be. That is why more and more people decided to delve deeper into the Abyss.
As a matter of fact, one of the main driving economic forces of Orth, the town sitting at the edges of the abyss, is trading valuable artifacts to the outside world. The people who risk their lives to descend into the abyss are called Delvers, and the level of the Abyss that they are allowed to dive into isdecided based on the color of the whistle around their neck.
What Is The Curse of The Abyss?
As mentioned above, the main reason why most delvers dive into deeper layers of the abyss is to find valuable artifacts. And as long as they follow the proper guideline, descending is not really a hard thing to do. It is the ascend that will kill you.
The Abyss is surrounded byan invisible force fieldthat can bring sunlight and essential nutrients even to the deepest part of the abyss. However, this force field is also the one that is responsible for the curse of the abyss. Because whenever people try to ascend the abyss, this force field will inevitably envelop their body like a thin sheet of fabric and cause the curse of the abyss to manifest on the body. These are the kinds of curse that a delver can expect from every layer of the abyss:
Is It Possible To Safely Ascend The Abyss?
The short answer is yes, it is possible to do. The long answer isit depends on which levelsyou start with. If all a delver wants is to ascend from the second layer and onto the surface of the abyss, then they will simply feel the curse of the first and second layers, which is basically just headache and nausea. Even ascending from the third layer should not pose that big of a problem to their body.
However, if the delver wishes to ascend from the depth of the fifth layer, then “safety” is not really the right word for it. Sure, they won’t likely die by ascending from this level, but as mentioned above, they will experience the full brunt of the deadly curses of these deeper levels. They will likely still be alive when they arrive at the top, but they will need an extensive medical treatment immediately.
As for the sixth layer, well, there’s no going back up after you entered the sixth layer. As a matter of fact, the place where you transition between the fifth and the sixth layer is known as “the point of no return”, andevery delver who decided to enter the sixth layer is said to be having their last “dive”.
There is no “absolutely safe” way to ascend The Abyss, especially for level four and beyond. That is why every delver who dares to enter The Abyss and collect the valuable artifacts knows and accept the fact that the deeper they go, the more unlikely it is for them to go back to the surface.
