As several K-Pop idols face backlash over watching “Made in Abyss”, anime fans have entered the debate
Recently, a post on the Korean forum Pann Nate drew attention to the Japanese work “Made in Abyss”, claiming that the anime (animated series) and its original manga (comic) contains various controversial elements, including the exploitation and sexualization of children.
In particular, the original manga contains images n*dity, t*rture, s*xu*l expl*itation, s*xual organs, and peeing during t*rture. The anime adaptation has omitted several elements, and is heavily censored in South Korea.
The same post also mentioned SEVENTEEN’s Woozi, TXT’s Soobin, ATEEZ’s Mingi, and NCT’s Taeyong as idols who watched/recommended “Made in Abyss”, causing these idols to come under fire.
In particular, many accused the idols of having a problematic mindset in order to enjoy a work with so many dark elements, while some condemn them for promoting such a work, especially when they have many children and adolescent fans.
However, fans of “Made in Abyss” who don’t even like K-Pop have caught wind of the situation and began to express disbelief.
In particular, a X user quoted Woozi’s video where the male idol mentioned the aforementioned anime as something he watched and said, “I’m sorry but let me get this straight. People are mad at this guy… because he watched Made In Abyss. That’s it. One of the most popular and widely regarded anime of 2017. He didn’t even mention his opinion on it, it was just part of a list of anime he watched recently.”
The post has since garnered over 19,000 likes and over 1 million views, with most anime fans also showing how baffled they are at the reactions of K-Pop fans and defending “Made in Abyss”.
Other fans also explained the controversial elements in “Made in Abyss”, claiming that the explicit scenes in the anime were mostly painted in a bad light, meant to depict a “dark fantasy” genre where no one is spared from the world’s atrocities.
“Kpop idols are being cancelled rn for watching/reading ‘Made In Abyss’. And non-anime fans think it’s some child t*rture p*rn. It’s a dark adventure story about two kids exploring a deep abyss full of creatures and treasures”, a fan said, adding, “I would also like to clarify that the idols have been watching the anime which is already censored, AND on top of that the Korean version is even more censored.”
“The controversy is ridiculous. These are grown ass men and yall gotta stop treating them like kids that you can parent”, they concluded.
In fact, “Made in Abyss” even won multiple awards, and was chosen as one of the best anime of the decade by Forbes, who called it “a tribute to humanity’s thirst for adventure” and “a captivating take of adventure that delivers one emotional gut punch after another.”
At the same time, some K-pop fans have also spoken up in defense for their idols, saying that season one of “Made in Abyss” includes “no pedo shit”, and most anime watchers have no clue about the problematic author.
Meanwhile, some pointed out that Woozi didn’t even finish “Made in Abyss”, only mentioning it as something he started watching but no longer had time for, and that Soobin explicitly said he doesn’t recommend the work.
As of the moment, opinions are still greatly divided regarding this matter.
