u/Axecon

Found this lovely animation on Youtube.

All credit to MTB (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUn1H5\_NK00)

I watched the anime a while back and I'm reading the Manga for the first time to get caught up with the story, had a few thoughts I wanted to share. Riko has got to be one of the luckiest characters in fiction. She's evaded fatal wounds and near-death experiences multiple times and has some incredibly powerful friends. Seriously, if it wasn't for Reg, Riko would have never made it to Ozen's Seeker Camp, let alone where she currently is in the 6th Layer. I love her character but she hardly has the means to survive in a kill or be killed environment that is The Abyss.

As much as I really love this story, I think it would have been dramatically improved by Riko experiencing a proper training arc. This should have been done after the Seeker Camp Arc where upon barely making it to the camp, Ozen gives Riko a reality check and trains her and Reg. This would be followed by a short time-skip (about 2-3 years), where both Riko and Reg develop their skills further. During this training, Ozen would have taken Riko formally as her apprentice and Riko would work her way up to High Blue/Moon Whistle Rank. Riko would also have conducted a few dives, going as deep as the 4th Layer and even returning to the surface a couple of times.

This training arc allows for a few things:

1. Actually develop and show Riko's skill for exploration rather than her chancing her descent on her current dumb luck. Maybe she's gained a little bit more muscle and is more used to the strains of the Abyss. During this time, she'd also learn to wield Lyza's Annihilator weapon.

2. Develop and show more of Ozen's character (and by extension Lyza). She's so cool but we don't really get to see her at all after Riko leaves. Not sure where else I can mention this, but the Orphanage Director Belchero and Ozen share a lot of similarities and I suspect they may be sisters.

3. Spend some more time on Layers 2, 3, and 4. There's so much cool fauna and flora and it seems like the story rushed to Layer 5 pretty quickly.

4. Reconnected Riko with her friends on the surface. It's pretty tragic that she left them forever. Could also explore more on the politics of the world outside Orth.

5. Teasing of what's to come. Perhaps on her training dives, Riko might have encountered Nanachi's shadow or trail as a tease.

At the end of the training arc and time skip, Riko then decides to proceed with her journey. During her latest dive to Layer 3/4, she encounters her fallen Star Compass which re-inspires her to move forward on her quest to find her mother and reach the bottom of the Abyss. Being that only a 2-year gap has passed, and only made it to Blue/Moon Whistle, Riko (now about 14-15) is still relatively young and immature to undertake the journey. In a way, for Riko to proceed her quest, she has to cut her training early to escape Ozen's tutelage as she did Jiruo's.

The story would then still largely play out the same. Riko and Reg would descend to Layer 4 where they would encounter the Orb Piercer and she would be near-fatally wounded and taken care of by Nanachi. This shows that Riko is still a rookie explorer and despite her new training, the creatures and challenges of the Abyss are not to be messed around with. The story would then continue with the Ido Front Arc.

The time dilation in the 6th layer of Made in Abyss is wild! If we go by the notion that Ganja had existed for roughly 150 years in the 6th layer while about 4500 years passed on the surface, here are some other interesting timeline observations:

1. One day in the 6th layer is equivalent to about a month on the surface. Bondrewd is probably one of few people (possibly the only one) to observe this phenomenon with his trips to the 6th layer and his cartridge technology.

2. Assuming Riko is about 12 years old and Lyza left when she was 2 years old, that means Lyza has been gone for roughly 10 years. However, the amount of time Lyza probably spent in the 6th layer may only have been about 4 months. This is also heavily implied in the early chapters of the story by the analysis of Lyza's Last Dive notes.

3. If a person spends 3 years in the 6th layer or deeper, about 90 years on the surface would pass. Assuming normal human lifespans, everyone you probably knew during that time would likely be dead. Really adds to the notion that the "Last Dive" is a one-way journey.

4. It's wild to think how many civilizations may have risen, fallen, and disappeared during the time Ganja spent in the Abyss. There was the primitive society of Irumyuui's people, probably the prayer people of the 1st layer, the windmill society of the 2nd layer, and possibly more. Perhaps there was one or more societies that created some of the many relics of the Abyss.

(I just got into the series BTW and I'm just starting to read the manga, please don't spoil anything beyond the end of the anime/Iruburu Arc. I'm sure more of this is discussed in latter chapters)

Love him or hate him, Bondrewd is straight up an Aura Farmer from his first appearance (non-flashback)

There seems to be a serious divide between the 5th and 6ths layers of the Abyss (the layers are practically separated by an entire waterway). So much so that really feels like a point of no return. Have some questions if people would kindly share their opinions (BTW, just finished the anime through the end of Season 2, and I'm about to read the manga so perhaps a lot of these questions may be answered in the chapters I have yet to read):

1. How do messages/whistles/artifacts return from the 6th layer? It really seems impractical that the messenger balloons could withstand the water divide (not to mention the countless creatures that would target the balloons). I know it's mentioned briefly, but perhaps only a small number of messages get through and many others just fail to return. It really adds to the curiosity of how Lyza's message returned to the upper layers. Perhaps messages are sent through the Altar of Absolute Boundary?

2. Are there alternate paths to the Altar of Absolute Boundary? It seems that Bondrewd has more or less monopolized that route as he's established Ido Front as his base. It also seems that most White Whistles have to deal with him before descending to the 6th layer. Curious what Lyza probably thought of him?

3. The time dilation is very wild, as displayed by the events of the Iruburu Arc and how only 150 years have passed in the 6th layer since the descent of Ganja, yet over several thousand years have passed on the surface. In theory, it's probably Riko's best chance to have caught up with her mother, and I wonder how far behind she could be. My guess is only a few months but I'm curious how long others think it might have been since Lyza made it to the 6th layer?

3b. I wonder if the curse of the 6th layer & the abyss in whole is tied to the time-dilation?

4. This question is less about the divide and more about the abyss in general. Are there other entrances to the abyss besides the massive gaping pit in Orth? Curious if there are oceanic faults or tunnels that could be gateways. Perhaps an oceanic spillway is what fills the water divide of the 5th and 6th layers? The Manga implies early-industrial revolutionary technology/steampunk era, so deep-diving submarines and mechanical ships probably would be too advanced as technology for exploration and probably could not be used to explore the waters around Orth.

5. The flora & fauna of the 6th layer is completely different than that of the upper layers. Is the divide so great that the ecosystems are completely isolated? If there are no cross-paths between the layers (other than the seemly artificial Altar of Absolute Boundary), then theoretically the creatures of 6th layer and deeper must have completely different evolutionary histories from those of the upper layers?

6. The Altar of Absolute Boundary might just be the most mysterious thing of all discerning the 5th-6th layer divide. Who built it? How was it built and what type of technology did the creator(s) possess? Did they know about the curses/hollows? What happened to the random Hollow that Ganja used to initially descend and was it part of the group/civilization that created the Altar?

The Xenoblade games might have some of the coolest settings in all of fiction. Living sky continents are such an amazing and creative design for a world setting. The worlds of 1 & 2 especially are so uniquely designed and are so fun to explore.

I really hope XC4 or whatever future Xeno game continues the trend of awesome world design and sky continents, to me that's one of the marquee elements of Xenoblade. If I had specific requests, I'd love to see abilities that would allow for climbing of all surfaces (like Zelda Breath of the Wild) and underwater swimming/combat. I seriously can't wait to see what Monolith Soft is cooking up with next-gen Switch 2 hardware.

My personal favorite regions in each game:

XC1/FC - Fallen Arm

XC2 - Tantal (my personal favorite place in the entire Xeno series)

XC2 Torna - Dannaugh Desert

XC3 - Maktha Wildwoods

XC3 FR - Black Mountains

XCX - Sylvalum