This show is like a pretty looking mystery box, booby-trapped with a dozen poisoned needles. It’s beautiful to watch, painful to approach, and disappointing once you open it. What I mean by that, the only incentive it’s giving you is the scenery porn, the torture porn, and the constant unknown of what lies ahead. All three of which have been proven to be disasters for any title.

The setting of the show is Kaiba gone terribly wrong. In both series, we initially know nothing about the world and the amnesiac main character. By the time the show is over a dozen episodes later, we know everything about Kaiba, and absolutely nothing about the Abyss. It’s a perpetually ongoing mystery, existing for the sole purpose of teasing the viewer, before it overstays its welcome and becomes nonsensical in the likes of Lost.

There is no sense of meaningful adventure. Rico wants to explore the abyss, find her mother, and does neither. Gon in Hunter X Hunter for example, was also looking for his father, finds him at the end, while informing you about every area he was going to. Rico on the other hand didn’t find her mother and didn’t discover anything, since the only thing she knows about the Abyss is scattered information other explorers have already recorded in books.