---
title: 'Made In Abyss is worse than you think: The Horror of Japan’s Work Culture'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zfevEaAstxA'
video_id: 'zfevEaAstxA'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 1173
---

# Made In Abyss is worse than you think: The Horror of Japan’s Work Culture

> Source: [Made In Abyss is worse than you think: The Horror of Japan’s Work Culture](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zfevEaAstxA)

## Summary

This video essay argues that the world of Made in Abyss is far more horrifying than it first appears, using recurring themes of aggressive mimicry, dehumanization, and complicity to draw a parallel with Japan's brutal work culture. The creator analyzes specific creatures, characters, and story beats to support this reading, framing the series as a social critique.

### Key Points

- **Content Warning** [00:02] — The creator warns that the video discusses child abuse and suggests viewers skip if uncomfortable.
- **Thesis** [00:46] — The video argues that Made in Abyss's world is horrifically dreadful in ways not initially obvious.
- **World Setup** [01:01] — The Abyss is a massive pit filled with treasures and relics of a lost civilization, drawing cave raiders deeper for greater rewards.
- **The Curse of the Abyss** [02:14] — Ascent causes a diver-like curse: mild dizziness near the top, then nausea, vertigo, hallucinations, pain, sensory deprivation, and at level six loss of humanity or death.
- **Recurring Themes** [04:14] — The three central themes are aggressive mimicry, dehumanization, and the horror of being complicit in abuse.
- **Aggressive Mimicry Defined** [04:26] — Predators pretend to be something else to lure prey, like the monster mimicking a creature in distress and parasites like pseudo water.
- **The Abyss as Mimic** [06:11] — The pit itself operates like an aggressive mimic, attracting people with psychic draws and treasures, trapping them with the Curse.
- **Cartridge System** [11:53] — Bondrewd creates curse-catching devices by transforming children into disposable, life-supporting lumps, dehumanizing them into tools.
- **Irumyuui's Tragedy** [13:37] — A wish-granting artifact grants Irumyuui fertility, but her children are born without digestive tracts and suffer; her body becomes the Irubrew village.
- **Complicity in Abuse** [15:23] — Characters are forced to eat the flesh of Irumyuui's children to survive, and Nanachi is used to calm children before they are turned into cartridges.
- **Work Culture Allegory** [17:52] — The creator interprets the Abyss as a metaphor for Japan's extreme work culture, which entraps people, neglects children, and reduces humans to economic value.
- **Irubrew as Economic Metaphor** [18:46] — The village where value is literally instantiated into currency represents the horrors of an economic system, reinforcing the work-culture reading.

### Conclusion

Ultimately, the creator reads Made in Abyss as a metaphor for the dehumanizing, entrapping nature of Japanese corporate life, where children are sacrificed and adults become complicit in the system. The abyss is not just a place—it's a mirror of the society we live in.

## Transcript

horrible things happen to children who have no ability to to defend or protect themselves often these acts are carried out by those who have been entrusted to care and protect for those children because of this I can understand why
such content might not be to your liking and that you may wish to sit this one out I'm going to stick strictly to what is shown in the anime the manga might have some details that contradict what I'm saying here but I'm purely going by
what is in the anime since I'm going to have to go deep into the anime this is going to be a spoiler heavy analysis I'll try and make this video understandable for somebody who hasn't watched the anime but I strongly
recommend that you watch the anime because it's very good when I say made in Abyss is worse than you think I'm not saying that it fails as entertainment or is somehow morally deficient what I am saying is the world of made in Abyss is
horrifically Dreadful in ways you might not realize when you watch it initially to support this view I am going to introduce the world of Maiden abyss and go over the recurring themes and then try and extract some meaning from these
themes let's start with the world of made in Abyss there is a massive pit in the middle of an island and all through this pit there are treasures and Relics
this pit there are treasures and Relics remains of perhaps Lost Civilization and useful resources strange valuable objects whose Origins are not quite clear people are drawn to the pit to recover these items the deeper these
recover these items the deeper these cave Raiders journey into the abyss the more valuable the artifact they recover it is also suggested that you bestest calls to people creating or amplifying those desires to
explore and their Greed for the treasures within however this Abyss is extremely dangerous because living within it are all sorts because living within it are all sorts of monsters and natural obstacles
however these might not be the most deadly aspects of the Abyss the abyss has an effect similar to divers bands called The Curse of the Abyss
if you ascend from within the pit too quickly it causes damage to you near the upper level of the Abyss the curse is mild light dizziness but as you descend
deeper the effects become more serious at the second level you get intense nausea headaches and your limbs become numb at the third level severe vertigo the nausea is more even
more intense and is combined with Visual and auditory hallucinations at the fourth level intense pain throughout the entire body and bleeding from every orifice at the fifth level extreme sensory deprivation
then when you get to the sixth level loss of humanity or death our main loss of humanity or death our main protagonist exploring this world is Rico protagonist exploring this world is Rico a joyful optimistic orphan who receives
a package from her mother giving documentation of the nature of the abyss and a note that she'll be waiting for her at the bottom of the Nether world the high Rising terminals I'm using here the way my voice goes up at the end like
it's a question isn't just because of my accent but because I'm not sure what I'm saying there is true she is joined by the robotic boy reg and later on a buddy-like creature conanichi as they explore deeper and deeper into their
best they have Adventures discover new things about their abyss and themselves typical anime Fair the recurring themes in made in Abyss there are a number of themes that keep coming up over and over again these themes I'm going to label
agree aggressive mimicry dehumanization and the horror of being complicit aggressive mimicry is a tactic used by predatory creatures pretending to be
something else in order to prey on their target it is the classic wolves in the sheep's clothing situation I'll give you some examples there are the monsters in within the pit near the beginning we are introduced to a monster that mimics a
creature in distress even impersonating humans the monster attempts to draw out scavengers or people seeking to rescue their compatriots it then attacks The would-be Rescuers the emethyne deceiver is another example of this these are
is another example of this these are insects that pretend to look like leaves but they reproduce like parasoid wasps they inject eggs into their posts paralyzing them and then the grubs of the insect eat the paralyzed victims
the insect eat the paralyzed victims from the inside out another parasite of this type is pseudo water this is a substance that looks like water but it's in fact a parasite that when consumed lives inside the body of their
victim slowly turning the victim into a stone like substance that allows the fluid-ish animal to be contained within it this aggressive mimicry is not even
it this aggressive mimicry is not even restricted to animals within the pet one of the plants that we see are giant pitcher plants giant versions of the real live plant these produce a sweet scent that attracts insects but as
scent that attracts insects but as insects enters the flower spines prevent the insects from escaping forcing them down deeper and deeper until they fall into digestive juices and are absorbed by the plant in fact I think the pit
by the plant in fact I think the pit itself is a form of aggressive mimic when you heard of the pitcher plant and it spines preventing bugs from climbing out of it that operates very similar to The Curse that prevents people from
The Curse that prevents people from easily climbing out of the pit the pit also generates its scent its psychic draw and the artifacts within it that attract people to come in I keep getting the impression that the abyss itself has
a sort of intelligence to it not a human intelligence but more a more a Eldritch Horror intelligence or something like an AI algorithm that can produce things
that it finds will attract people in while strictly not creatures of the pit while strictly not creatures of the pit themselves there is a occurring theme of men who act just like aggressive mimics and other forms of predators Bond regard
is a pit Rider who lives at the bottom of the fifth level of the fifth level and controls accesses to the level below him in the abyss in the made in the abyss movie which happens between the
first and second Seasons it appears that bonderguard is a friendly and loving father to his adopted daughter purushka even though at this point in the
narrative we know that he has been conducting horrific experiments on children and his experiments were responsible for nanichi being transfer formed from a girl into the thing that they are today however these are shown
in flashbacks so there is a narrative distance to those events but the guy acting knife is something that we see immediately so we put more emphasis on
that it is only in the latter half of the movie do he witness his evil nature first hand these Horrors I'll go over when we get to the section on DC immunization gerardimo in the second season we are introduced to a secondary
plot line with varico she is a member of a group organized by a man called the a group organized by a man called the zucchian to find the abyss this is set a zucchian to find the abyss this is set a long time for Rico Journey Down long
before the settlement at the mouth of the Abyss was founded dirimo is a slave owner of Rico when we first see verico she is a very young girl enslaved to
geromo who mistreats her horrifically to be honest this stack of [ __ ] is never presented as being nice at all however I felt I couldn't talk about predatory men in Maid of the abyss and leave this guy out the trauma that was inflicted on
Farruko was so intense that inside the village of Ira Brew which exists on the sixth level that trauma is trans transformed and becomes physically
transformed and becomes physically manifest as a monster suzukian as I said before he's the leader of the first group to go into the abyss after saving for Yukio durimo he voyages across the ocean and through most of the second
season it seemed that he was a good caring man who wanted the best for the people under his care and Direction actually listens to the people when they have good ideas and gives them proper credit there are numerous occasions in
the narrative where he could have taken the uncaring route but instead he does the right thing again I'll have to wait until we talk about dehumanization until we talk about dehumanization before we talk about his truly predatory
nature the anime if we're talking about aggressive mimicry though perhaps the most notable example is the anime itself made in the abyss looks spectacular
made in the abyss looks spectacular every shot of the Abyss is Lush and a wonderful treat to the eye there are cute shots beautiful shots all drawing us in until we see the traumatic horror
underneath dehumanization the horror that is most common in made in the abyss is body Horror in a way all horror can be said to be about disempowerment and body horror operates by reminding us that in reality our
by reminding us that in reality our bodies are physical and vulnerable to disease and injury it is so easy for our bodies to fail and take all of that power away for vulnerable groups especially people with disability
there's also the knowledge that is rightfully easy for people to treat us as less than human because of the status of our bodies in the abyss this deviation is a recurring theme if you
ascend within the sixth level your body and often your mind will be get transformed into an inhuman lumpy thing most of the time your intelligence is removed and you become something
primitive and animalistic in a few rare circumstances people are able to retain their full self-awareness however most of the time you're reduced to a few
of the time you're reduced to a few simple desires this process is agonizing simple desires this process is agonizing and disempowering however it is just one form of dehumanization that we see in made in their best another is the
cartridge system bondograd wish to explore the sixth level without succumbing to its curse when he returned up to the levels above to get around this he created cartridges these are a type of curse catcher a device to
receive the curse of the Abyss rather than himself protecting himself from the damage of the curse cause the way these cartridges are created is to take a child removed from the child any parts of their body that is not needed to
absorb the curse and then put them into a box with life support turning that child into a squishy lump inside a metal Casey squishy lump inside a metal Casey basically taking a child and turning
them into nothing more than a tool to be used we are introduced directly to this with purushka Bond guards adopted daughter his apparent love for her and parental bond between them is one of the things in the
narrative that tries to sell the ideas that bundle guard is not completely evil he acts like he cares for her like a father should but this does not stop him from turning her into a capsule indeed we learn that he deliberately fostered
this love so she would be a more effective recipient for the curse when she was used up as a capsule Bond regard discards her in at the end of the made
in their best movie dehumanization continue as she is transformed into the life reverberating Stone becoming more and more object-like Stone becoming more and more object-like another example of this theme of
dehumanization comes with irumu in the second season the wazukican and ryuko team meet a tribe of hunter-gatherer people who live at the edge of the Abyss
people who live at the edge of the Abyss the little girl irumu was born with a deformity that results in infertility which makes her an outcast within her tribe she joins up with the team of the best explorers and heads down to level
six with them when the team get infected with pseudo water in a hope of surviving with pseudo water in a hope of surviving this infection she is given a dangerous wish-granting artifact by wizukiyan the danger of the Divide is that it listens
to your thoughts and desires and Grand against them so along with the whole monkey poor thing that all wish granting devices have it might also pick up on any stray idea in your head and fire off from that she was given the device
because it was thought it would work more safely with a younger person whose thought patterns were not as complex the wish granting device granted her the wish to be fertile and the girls started to give birth over and over again
producing children however her children were born without digestive tracts so their lives were short and full of suffering in addition two more wish Stones were inserted into irumu eventually transforming her into
something less human over time she was then transformed into the era view then transformed into the era view Village reduced from a person into an object for other people's use the horror of becoming complicit in the abuse of
others in order to survive this leads into the third recurring theme in made in the abyss the horror of being complicit in another person's abuse we see this with virico because other than being fated to die iramu's children had
another property that if their flesh was eaten they can act as a cure for the pseudo-water infection in order for veroco to survive she has to eat and help others eat the Flesh of irimo's children adding to the suffering that
children adding to the suffering that the poor girl has we also see this with the Nichi as I said before nanichi was a child who was experimented on by beer guard and through the exposure of the dehumanizing effect of level six she was
turned into a sort of cute fluffy bunny thing because she's so cute and fluffy she was used by Beauregard to calm children that he was going to process into capsules unable to resist against Burger bad for our own Survival forced
Burger bad for our own Survival forced to participate and assist in the abuse of other children now that we've gone over these themes let's talk about over these themes let's talk about possible ways we can read made in the
event one way to interpret these themes is in a psychological or biographical way there is an aspect of traumatic abuse that makes you feel dehumanized
and if you are a child in an abusive environment you often have to become environment you often have to become complicit in the abuse because you are powerless in the face of those who are abusing you and perhaps the siblings
abusing you and perhaps the siblings however I don't like these type of interpretations of media because I find it's very reductionist and I often feel that it undermines people's imagination however thinking about making their best
more I came up with another the way to read made in the abyss we have ambitious people sacrificing themselves to achieve their ends in their in the process abusing and neglecting the children that they have been meant
to care for we have systems that force people to become implicit in the abuse of others and we have a system that is attractive on the surface but entraps you and forces you to become less than human the
more and more I look at it the more and more I am convinced that made in the abyss is talking about the Japanese work culture the extreme work life imbalance
culture the extreme work life imbalance means that families end up neglecting their children the oppressive limitations of the work culture end up limitations of the work culture end up taking multifaceted complex humans and
reducing them into something that only exists based on the economic worth they provide to their company like other aggressive mimics the work culture
offers something that is on the surface tempting or even needed for life but then entraps you within it in time even though children suffer from the abuse that this system perpetuates they become complicit in promoting and
continuing it as they become adults if you think this is a bit of a stretch then I would like to give you one more example the village of irrebook the village literally created from the suffering of a child in that Village the
abstract concept of value is supernaturally supernaturally instantiated into currency if that is not meant to be a metaphor for the horrors of an
a metaphor for the horrors of an economic system then nothing is and economic system then nothing is and since we do live in such a horror channel so that I can get monetized
thank you very much and I hope to see you later goodbye