Anime Like Made in Abyss
If you loved Made in Abyss's Animation and Drama storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks

Tengoku Daimakyo
In the year 2024, the world has collapsed. Grotesque monsters lurk amongst the ruins of Japan, while remaining people scrape together what they can to survive. Kiruko, an odd-job girl in Nakano, accepts a mysterious woman's dying wish to take a boy named Maru to a place called Heaven. Maru is convinced that there will be a boy there who looks exactly like him.

Ergo Proxy
Thousands of years after Earth’s atmosphere was destroyed, adventure blooms in the strangest of places. The domed city of Romdo is supposed to be perfect, but Re-l Mayer, a young female inspector from the Civilian Intelligence Office, knows better. In this place where humans and robots coexist, she receives a strange message: something is awakening!

Deca-Dence
Many years have passed since humanity was driven to the brink of extinction by the sudden emergence of the unknown life forms Gadoll. Those humans that survived now dwell in a 3000m-high mobile fortress Deca-dence built to protect themselves from the Gadoll threat. Denizens of Deca-dence fall into two categories: Gears, warriors who fight the Gadoll daily, and Tankers, those without the skills to fight. One day, Natsume, a Tanker girl who dreams of becoming a Gear meets surly Kaburagi, an armor repairman of Deca-dence. This chance meeting between the seemingly two opposites, the girl with a positive attitude who never gives up on her dreams and the realist who has given up on his, will eventually shake the future course of this world.

Gachiakuta
Accused of murder and thrown into the Pit, a young orphan joins a group of monster fighters with special powers to uncover the truth and seek vengeance.

Dimension W
Humanity has found a way to achieve infinite energy by using coils to draw it from the fourth plane: dimension "W". With the production of coils having been monopolized by the New Tesla energy company, freelance collectors are hired to find and remove any illegal, unofficial coils. This is the story of collector Kyōma, who also happens to have a huge hatred towards coils. During one of his missions he stumbles upon a female android that perceives herself as being human, leading the two to enter an unlikely partnership.

Claymore
When a shapeshifting demon with a thirst for human flesh, known as "youma," arrives in Raki's village, a lone woman with silver eyes walks into town with only a sword upon her back. She is a "Claymore," a being manufactured as half-human and half-youma, for the express purpose of exterminating these monsters. After Raki's family is killed, the Claymore saves his life, but he is subsequently banished from his home. With nowhere else to go, Raki finds the Claymore, known as Clare, and decides to follow her on her journeys. As the pair travel from town to town, defeating youma along the way, more about Clare's organization and her fellow warriors comes to light. With every town cleansed and every demon destroyed, they come closer to the youma on which Clare has sought vengeance ever since she chose to become a Claymore.

NieR:Automata Ver1.1a
The distant future, 5012. The sudden aerial invasion of Earth by <Aliens> and their creations <Machine Lifeforms> led mankind to the brink of extinction. The surviving number of humans who took refuge on the moon to organize a counterattack using <android> soldiers to recapture Earth. However, the war reaches a stalemate as the <Machine Lifeforms> continue to multiply infinitely. In turn, humanity deploys anew unit of android soldiers as an ultimate weapon: <YoRHa> Newly dispatched to Earth <2B> joins <9S>, the analyst currently stationed there, where amid their mission, they encounter a myriad of mysterious phenomena... This is the story of these lifeless <androids> and their endless fight for the sake of mankind.

Plastic Memories
After failing his college entrance exams, 18 year-old Tsukasa Mizugaki is offered a position at the renowned SAI Corporation, known for its production and management of Giftia, androids that possess human emotions. Tsukasa’s position is in the terminal service department where the main job is to recover Giftias that are close to their expiration, a graveyard department in every sense. To make matters worse, Tsukasa is ordered to work with Isla, a female Giftia who is never given any responsibility other than serving tea to co-workers.
More Anime Like Made in Abyss

Elfen Lied
The Diclonius, a mutated homo sapien that is said to be selected by God and will eventually become the destruction of mankind, possesses two horns in their heads, and has a "sixth sense" which gives it telekinetic abilities. Due to this dangerous power, they have been captured and isolated in laboratories by the government. Lucy, a young and psychotic Diclonius, manages to break free of her confines and brutally murder most of the guards in the laboratory, only to get shot in the head as she makes her escape. She survives and manages to drift along to a beach, where two teenagers named Kouta and Yuka discovers her. Having lost her memories, she was named after the only thing that she can now say, "Nyuu," and the two allow her to stay at Kouta's home. However, it appears that the evil "Lucy" is not dead just yet...

Dusk Beyond the End of the World
When tensions around AI spark civil unrest, Akira is caught in the crossfire when he protects his girlfriend from an assassin. Hundreds of years later, he awakens from cryogenic sleep to an unfamiliar world and bonds with the android Yuugure.

Land of the Lustrous
In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations. Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Can Phos's seemingly mundane assignment lead both Phos and Cinnabar to the fulfillment they desire?

Pandora Hearts
Oz Vessalius, heir to one of the duke houses, has just turned fifteen. His life is rich and carefree, darkened only by the constant absence of his father. At his coming-of-age ceremony, however, everything changes. For no reason that he can discern, he's cast into the prison known as the "Abyss", only to be saved by a "chain" known as Alice, the bloodstained black rabbit. It is unknown why was he cast into Abyss, how does Alice factor into it all, and what does the organization known as "Pandora" want with him.

DARLING in the FRANXX
The distant future: Humanity established the mobile fort city, Plantation, upon the ruined wasteland. Within the city were pilot quarters, Mistilteinn, otherwise known as the “Birdcage.” That is where the children live... Their only mission in life was the fight. Their enemies are the mysterious giant organisms known as Kyoryu. The children operate robots known as FRANXX in order to face these still unseen enemies. Among them was a boy who was once called a child prodigy: Code number 016, Hiro. One day, a mysterious girl called Zero Two appears in front of Hiro. “I’ve found you, my Darling.”

Chobits
Tokyo is abuzz with persocoms – humanoid computers that are virtually perfect. The socially and technologically inept Hideki is dying to get his hands on one. When he finds Chii abandoned in the trash, she’s cuter than any current model he’s ever seen before. But when he gets her home and turns her on, she has no data and only a single learning program installed. While Hideki puts his whole heart into teaching Chii the ins and outs of humanity, a mystery unfolds as a dark secret within her awakens.

The Big O
Forty years ago, the minds of Paradigm City's inhabitants were wiped clean of all recollections of the past. Now, ruled by a powerful corporation and cut off from the rest of the world by desolate wastelands, Paradigm has become a virtual police state where Negotiators like Roger Smith keep the wheels of progress, commerce, and society turning.

To Your Eternity
An immortal being takes on the form of a human boy, wandering the earth and experiencing the pains and joys of life throughout his story without end.

EDENS ZERO
Aboard the Edens Zero, a lonely boy with the ability to control gravity embarks on an adventure to meet the fabled space goddess known as Mother.

The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World
Kenichi Hamada is just a regular, middle-aged man working as an illustrator in Japan. One day, he is transported to another world and wakes to find himself in the middle of a dangerous forest filled with ravenous monsters. He quickly discovers a massive online shopping site that can deliver him exactly what he needs. Join Kenichi on his search for relaxation in a new world!

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
In a dystopia riddled with corruption and cybernetic implants, a talented but reckless street kid strives to become a mercenary outlaw — an edgerunner.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Made in Abyss (2017): Animation and Drama themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of Made in Abyss.
See full details for Made in Abyss (2017)
