Whether it be an abyss or a dungeon, the dark holes which lead into the underbelly of the world are forever enticing us to explore them. These holes sit there, waiting to be mapped, to have the light of a lantern shone upon them and the riches brought out into the sunlight. Two such stories, Made in Abyss and Danmachi revolve around their central hole, albeit in subtly different ways. In Made in Abyss, Riko, a young girl, was born in the abyss and now has the impelling urge to return to discover her lost mother. The abyss itself is littered with treasures of a lost society but also infested with demonic flora and fauna waiting at every corner to devour you. Like Riko, we all come from the abyss trying to return to its depths. None of us can remember a time when we were nothingness and an unconscious mass in our mother's womb without life nor knowledge. But as we grew up we clambered our way into the world of consciousness, to the surface, only to peer back at the abyss every now and then trying to remember what we were. We were our perfect self - authentic and fully true to ourselves in our youth. But as we age and we adapt to society, we lose aspects of who we are uniquely designed to be. And so we look ever longingly back into the abyss to rediscover ourselves and bring back those valuable treasures. The best example of this is the transition from childhood to adolescence, when we suddenly become ever so much more self-conscious and conforming to society. We become one of the fathers of society and in consequence our individual identity is lost. The hero's journey is very much then rediscovering who we are whilst integrating our true self with what society wants and needs us to be. And this hero's journey is fundamentally a deeply spiritual journey in nature. Whether you do it consciously or not everyone takes upon their spiritual journey, using whatever methods work for them. The spiritual journey is just fluffy language to say growing up or discovering yourself - sure some take it a step further through whatever practices like meditation or ritual, but at its root they are trying to find themselves. Perhaps those who undertake these practices are the ones struggling the most to find themselves. So now we've established that the descent into the great holes of these worlds is a kind of spiritual journey, let's return to Made in Abyss. Riko is an orphan without roots. She's also fractious, fidgeting around the orphanage since she so desperately wants to undertake her spiritual journey down into the abyss to discover herself, to discover her mother, to discover where she has come from and where she will go. But only once she's lucky enough to meet a god - a mechanical human in the form of Reg - can she undertake her path. In Made in Abyss' world, most take their spiritual journey alone or with a party - usually without the guidance and help of a divine power. The traditions of spirituality are paved by great heroes - the idols of their world - the brave few who with superhuman strength, who descend into the depths of the abyss to discover great treasure. In this sense, the spirituality of this world is guided by the successes of others in a kind of scientific empiricism. They are the map-makers who pave the way, laying down the paths for the next generation of explorers. But unlike Riko, they do not have the guidance of any gods. Danmachi has a similar view of the spiritual journey. Bell (or 'Daniel') is a young orphan who has no greater desire than to grow and become stronger. Aided by his special ability 'Liaris Freese' which powers his growth at incredible rates so long as his current feelings last, Bell possesses immense Spiral Energy, derived primarily from the love for his waifu (as every man is). Bell's spiritual journey to find himself is, like Riko's, to descend into the dungeon. Like Whisper of the Heart shows us, the most powerful way to discover yourself is to challenge yourself to a task which takes you to the edge of what you can do. And for Bell, the arena of his spiritual path is the descent into the deepest part of the dungeon, to place his name on a long list of heroes who've discovered themselves and made something of themselves. Yet the dungeon of Danmachi is plugged by the Tower of Babel, and not left to stand open like a festering sore of the Abyss. In the world of Danmachi, the gods have descended in physical form, giving their heroes a helping hand as they descend into the belly of the dungeon. Riko was lucky enough to have her own God Warrior guide in the form of Reg, but few who go down into the abyss had partner to aid them. The world of Danmachi, on the other hand, is formed into 'familias' which are guilds headed by gods who advise and aid the heroes' on their travails - a kind of institutionalisation of spiritual guides. And this very institutionalisation we see in Danmachi, is what sets the two shows' representation of spirituality apart. Made in Abyss shows us a solitary spirituality where the keys to success can only be found in the wisdom of those around you. Trial and error is key - falling on your ass over and over again is inevitable, as we see Riko do. Without any spiritual guidance from an institution, Made in Abyss mirrors our own world in many respects wherein we're moving away from the organised spirituality of Christianity towards the idea of a personal spiritual path that only we can discover for ourselves. Without any spiritual guidance from the society, even the spiritual guide, Reg, has amnesia. In contrast, Danmachi plugs up the chaos and nihilism of a spiritual journey without an organisational structure with a big fat Tower of Babel, from where gods can come and aid humans on their spiritual path. And Bell too is being led faithfully on his path by his head-waifu Hestia to become the greatest hero.