Mod Edit: this review may contain spoilers.

This manga has gained a fair amount of attention for its artwork, it's absolutely stunning. It has a lovely aesthetic, and there was clearly a lot of effort put into the detail. The settings are unique, and are very telling about the story's world. The whole narrative revolves around descending and ascending "the Abyss", and the surrounding town of Ōsu seems to be almost sliding into the Abyss, pulling you in. The landscapes are very vertical, even the classroom in the orphanage has desks attached to the walls, requiring the children to climb to them. Everything looks large and imposing in contrast with the main characters.
I've seen a lot of people compare the artwork and atmosphere to that of Ghibli films, but if I'm honest it reminds me of ecchi works. Right from the beginning, there was *something* about how the children were drawn (especially Riko's cheeks?) that made me question whether or not the mangaka was a loli/shotacon. Reading on, I found that several of these children are shown topless or naked, and the soft way in which they are rendered made me uneasy. There are at least 6 specific instances that I can think of where Reg's genitals are discussed. Many of the children have loosely fit clothing over their chests, even when they are supposed to be portrayed sympathetically. Additionally, the mangaka seems to have some odd interests - I currently don't have the ability to phrase this the way I want to, but there's something about the way that pee and vomit is discussed and drawn that made me suspicious.

The story is decent - the beginning few chapters set the location well, and create a sense of intrigue. As Riko and Reg descend the Abyss, there's a real sense of progression. They are introduced to various sets of characters, learn new things, move on and repeat the process. None of these arcs felt pointless to me. However, in some sections, especially the Bondrewd arc, I felt that the pacing got a little slow, and the story could've been more streamlined.

The characters are fairly interesting, Riko and Reg both have good motivations for reaching the bottom of the Abyss - the former wants to find her mother, and the latter wants to find out why he was made. Riko has been raised in a town where many people aspire to explore the Abyss, and are prepared for the strains of ascending it - being unable to return from the lower levels is just matter of fact to them. Riko has an almost-encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of the known areas, treasures and creatures of the Abyss. Reg, being an amnesiac blank state is an audience surrogate for Riko's explanations. There's a lot mystery surrounding Reg's creation and history, although more questions have been created then answered so far. Nanachi is very sympathetic, though I worry that she doesn't have as much of a reason for being there as the other two - she achieves her goal quite soon after she is introduced.

I stopped reading after the Bondrewd arc. The situations these children were put into made me too uncomfortable to continue. I'm not talking about the body horror or anything, that's fine for an adult work like this. However, adult doesn't always have to mean sexual, *especially* if the main character is a 12 year old girl. It's a real shame, I think that Made in Abyss could've been really good if the mangaka didn't have such worrying tastes.