If you are someone who believes in spoilers be aware that this review will explore some of the main themes of the manga and some key elements of the plot may be exposed. But in reality it has an episodic structure highly focused on delivering jokes rendering the plot secondary. Usagimoku Shachikuka Department of Corporate Slave Rabbits is a funny critique of work the culture that builds around it and how it may affect us as workers. It is neither revolutionary nor an isolated critique rather it is part of a broad social commentary on systemic struggles that continue to be raised across cultures mediums and time. Shifting in tone while remaining relevant. I think it is important to understand why media that critique work matter and where Usagimoku Shachikuka fits in all of this. And thats why I wrote this review. 1. When I look at the moon I see factory and exploitation The mythical figure of the rabbit on the moonhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrabbit appears in many East Asian cultures Japanese Chinese and Korean folklore in different tales that often represent selflessness sacrifice hope good fortune and longevity among other themes. In Japan it specifically involves a rabbit pounding mochi. Over the years this image of the rabbit on the moon has continued to be referenced appearing in many anime and manga. When I think about it the first examples that come to mind are: https://media1.tenor.com/m/5WlqIFfTIcAAAAd/konanime.gifThe Mugi cosplay sequence on kon because its Mugi. https://anilist.co/anime/5680/KON https://media1.tenor.com/m/d3Rrs7Hyv0sAAAAd/animegirlsanime.gifWhatever happens in this episode of Joshiraku. https://anilist.co/anime/12679/Joshiraku/ In Usagimoku Shachikuka author Kamiya Fujisawa not only references but reimagines this tradition borrowing from the tale a concept for a starting point of the manga which turns out to be a strikingly modern and cynical one: when they look at the moon they see factory and exploitation and honestly me too. The story starts when two rabbits Fuwami and Mofuko fall from the moon straight into the cramped apartment of an overworked office worker stuck in a toxic black company which they call Shach meaning President. On the moon the pair had been pounding mochi without rest on Earth they beg the office worker for a chance to continue working in the same rhythm going so far as to threaten to end themselves if denied. He reluctantly lets them stay employing them with a symbolic wage slavery and so they take over his housework. Structurally the manga works as short episodic chapters delivering at least one joke or funny moment relying on absurdity and dark humor to explore how the rabbits adapt to or fail earthly life. Yet beneath the jokes lies a biting critique: employees being dehumanized and expected to give themselves entirely to their jobs and the majority of this pressure comes from within themselves. Their workobsessed psychology forged on the moon collides with the bleak realities of human labor culture. This contrast creates sharp commentary exposing both the absurdity of endless productivity and the psychological effects of glorifying work. 2. Understanding the work culture The effectiveness of humour depends on understanding and empathizing with the psychological struggles a worker can face in a society where toxic work culture can be so damaging yet broadly practiced even in our day and age exploitation can be normalized. In most scenarios broadly speaking your labor generates profit for someone else and capitalism works in favor of the exploiter. That is precisely why it affects us so deeply. https://64.media.tumblr.com/4c8ddfb774d9abfc5fbc4d0c8369e464/b89bb03a69e272d07c/s1280x1920/a2005f575cba7a1bee908d9254213187dc3b5874.jpg 2.1. Work is dignifying and sht like that The work culture we live in today is the result of historical economic and cultural forces. Since the Industrial Revolution productivity and efficiency have become central values of society while capitalism has reinforced the idea that constant growth depends on extracting more labor from workers. Since the 1980s neoliberal policies and digital technologies have intensified these pressures producing a culture where long hours the expectation of being always available and job insecurity are normalized. Identity has also been closely tied to employment. Think about how one of the most natural questions to ask when meeting someone new is What do you do? meaning what is your job? Recently I had to renew my ID. One of the required fields on the form was profession as if this were an essential marker of citizenship. Its hard not to get the impression that my value as a person is determined by the job I perform. Despite this societies promote slogans like work is dignifying or hard work pays off. Hearing such things always made me nauseous and I could never get behind them. Dignity is something we all inherently possess whether we work or not. Im convinced that somewhere someone used this phrase to justify something as cruel as setting homeless people on fire for their amusement. That phrase often repeated in corporate or political contexts feels more like an excuse or a weapon used to justify exploitation and to marginalize or discriminate against those who resist fitting into the mold. At the same time such slogans serve important ideological and political functions. Such beliefs legitimize inequality by framing success and failure as matters of individual effort rather than systemic design. By presenting work as dignifying societies make wage slavery feel noble while reinforcing dehumanizing conditions. In this way the glorification of work ensures political stability by discouraging widespread resistance to exploitative conditions. As an employer this culture makes sense for prioritizing and increasing profit while as a worker being immersed in these conditions can severely damage both physical and mental health. Such environments foster burnout anxiety depression and a deep sense of inadequacy when selfworth is tied to productivity. The instability breeds constant uncertainty feeding fear and helplessness and creating a sense of fragility in everyday life. As a result we see a deterioration of wellbeing with rising levels of stress anxiety and burnout. Even as productivity continues to rise. 2.2. Back to the manga The manga does not offer only examples of people excuse me rabbits constantly in despair over work. One pushback against this culture comes from another rabbit who came from the moon Mashiro. https://64.media.tumblr.com/f58c364e62fe49fbca51a6b714f728f5/b89bb03a69e272d07f/s1280x1920/26c32247734461af0e343aba6c964e55e0e2d099.jpg After arriving on Earth and realizing that work is not exclusively what she was doing on the moon but has many forms she tries to raise awareness to Fuwami and Mofuko and perhaps even spark a revolution. However her efforts are in vain both remain firm in their mindset of being exploited. https://64.media.tumblr.com/c7460711c1e8cb84cfbd0ca1db88a38b/b89bb03a69e272d0f8/s1280x1920/0668ed8f1a816543c007dbf8d466dda89e921114.jpg https://64.media.tumblr.com/25fbc1d091b33b648ef20f0647625981/b89bb03a69e272d070/s1280x1920/d4d88e8e2a9e8b91564b1b1b1f826b39dd8ea030.jpg https://64.media.tumblr.com/793d21a674c60aa6a2063207815b5702/b89bb03a69e272d0e9/s1280x1920/48e2b79b0bdabae10a7259f38d7d9224dee6855c.jpg The side effects are not only experienced by those that are labouring in some form. They also affect those who refuse to work but are still part of the ecosystem. An example of this is the character Rapana. https://64.media.tumblr.com/4442eadb50103e68d788eab8d12d2712/b89bb03a69e272d0e6/s2048x3072/27de2c5ffede3c38eeeb6e625cf11fac727efe51.jpg Rapana embodies a commentary on idol culture. Unlike Fuwami and Mofuko Rapana openly rejects the idea of work declaring that her job is simply to be pampered and adored. This positioning mirrors the role of idols whose labor is hidden behind the illusion of effortless cuteness. Yet despite her refusal to work Rapana suffers the same side effects of the duo who labor whenever she isnt receiving attention or affection. Highlighting how even idolized figures are still bound to the same exploitative structures only dressed up in fantasy and spectacle. Another thing the manga does well is the representation of the two modes of someone trapped in a society governed by capitalist ideas. Either you are Fuwami and Mofuko slavering your way into survival or you act as the President within the household structure being the exploiter setting morals and ethics aside and indulging in the profits of such. Which in this context means having his housework done and a tidy house by the time he gets back from work. 3. What do you do for a living? Despite knowing the harm that overwork can do to our health toxic work cultures are somehow on the rise. The idea of being overworked undervalued and pressured has become normalized. In my college years teachers used to say You should work during the day and work on side projects during the night. You can sleep when you are dead. This was said multiple times half sarcastically half seriously. At the time it felt like they were trying to sell this and the correct lifestyle. A mold for us to fit in. I thought that this mentality was exclusive to my college but soon after I entered the work force I realized I was wrong. My first job was as an intern in a toxic company where I began to develop physical symptoms of anxiety. I stayed there for two years during the first I had a supervisor during the second I was the entire department. My salary was that of an intern of course but the obligations and demands were not. I guess its easier to pay an intern than to hire a fulltime worker. When my contract came to an end I was replaced by another intern. After that I went to work for another company this time as a fulltime employee and after years Im still working there. When I started it was pretty good. We had benefits and were treated like people. But gradually they began changing their culture to conform more to market standards: demanding results over quality threatening to fire people taking away some of our benefits increasing the workload shortening deadlines and treating workers simply as a means of profit. All of this of course came without any raise only the hypothetical possibility of getting one in a future that never comes. My anxiety returned. But Im not the one suffering the most from these changes. I had a coworker who became really depressed when she wasnt being productive she blamed herself so heavily that she was constantly sick. Another coworker once collapsed while working due to overwork the next day he was back on the job again. My boss said We need to slow down a bit but make sure we dont miss any deadlines. Like WFT? I think about changing careers but I also need to acknowledge that things in reality are not as simple as they are presented by the end of the manga. We live under a system and circumstances have relations that dont exist in a vacuum. If the structure has an exploitive nature exploitation becomes necessary for survival in this system. Now still working there I keep doing something I dont particularly enjoy while being pressured to perform and realizing that the things I like to do dont pay me money because they dont have any value in this system. https://64.media.tumblr.com/c249d56138271ec2eb7020071a684a5d/0ce8352ffcf3974b3b/s2048x3072/523552b1663fb83f2e4813f2a81e3efae082e948.jpg Thats why I dont judge Fuwami and Mofuko a way out must exist at least theoretically. At the same time I see that depression anxiety and burnout are rising worldwide due to long hours economic uncertainty and the pressure to be constantly productive. Finding a good job feels more and more impossible. As things stand a way out of the system is not the norm but the exception. Even acknowledging that escaping it can be extremely challenging and sometimes seen as impossible by those in that position. In my opinion for instance we dont have much of a choice. As Chomsky said we are living in a totalitarian system we can either choose to participate in it or starve Bartlebyhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/114230.BartlebytheScrivener style https://youtu.be/iR1jzExZ9T0?si=ddHI2nXjiufn48Ia 4. Like indierap band Kraftklub once said: Let me be your slave Usagi moku is not the only work of art that has brought the problem of work to our attention. This struggle is not something isolated it has permeated the zeitgeist and been highlighted for a long time. However I think UsagiMoku represents a shift of attitude towards this topic. But lets start from the beginning. Since we are talking about work it is impossible not to talk about one of the most influential works ever produced in literature: The Communist Manifesto.https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communistmanifesto/ https://64.media.tumblr.com/b66973a93532d7e5c4eb93356ac427a1/3a893fe83d03e6f7ad/s1280x1920/73e8c3d9ed90dcfd49ff351efe57710265713557.jpg https://64.media.tumblr.com/6300c52f7e8d9e7a0a6296afb492f5cf/3a893fe83d03e6f77b/s1280x1920/04ed921c3a4a45226027ef68c71b41b7ed2aba7c.jpg Why automate a machine to do the job that someone can do? Why is such an effort being done to automotize things so much money is being put on technology? This can be explained by Marx and Engels: The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production and thereby the relations of production and with them the whole relations of society. ... Constant revolutionising of production uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. By this logic using a recent example of a new technology A.I.s purpose is to further destabilize relations between workers separating them even more from profit while keeping this means of production behind multiple paywalls accessible only to the wealthy. This also explains the A.I. hype which is not really intelligent. Its just a text model marketed far more magical and revolutionary even essential by many companies. But understanding this doesnt change the fact that it will take peoples jobs anyway. When new technologies were introduced in factories in the 19th century they led to shifts in labor forces major unemployment rates and the dehumanization of workers due to the harsh conditions imposed on them. I often hear the defense of A.I that this technology will not make people lose their jobs but make people more productive. Historically however we know that this is not what happens. A good illustration of how this process unfolds and what it does to those living through it can be seen in the 1936 classic Modern Timeshttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027977/?ref=extshr. A movie about exploitation and alienation of workers during the Industrial Revolution. By now everyone and their mother and grandmother knows about it so discussing it here would be redundant. Im not comparing the movie with the manga but its difficult not to see the similarities: both are satires about work structures and their effects on workers. However the mangas perspective is different. It comes from a society that already knows we are being exploited understands how the world works and gets cynical about it. After a few decades the tone of the critique began to shift. In 1999 Office Spacehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/?ref=extshr was released. https://media1.tenor.com/m/MIV7fHhZd88AAAAd/officespaceronlivingston.gif In this movie a burnedout software engineer is stuck in the soulcrushing monotony of corporate life. After a hypnotherapy session leaves him indifferent to his job he stops following office rules ignores his bosses demands and even guts his cubicle. Strangely his new attitude makes him appear like leadership material to upper management. The message here in my opinion is that freedom and happiness can be found only by not conforming or caring about the job. By finding a new way of life. As much as I like this movie the solution presented feels a bit out of touch with reality so I cant see it as a viable answer to the problem. In the 2000s movements began to take shape. An example of this is the song Away from Here by the English rock band The Enemy. https://youtu.be/9j9USzSqNr4?si=cOyFU7SYtYQSxDkA Expressing an increasing frustration with the conforming corporate culture of the time the song voices a desire to avoid work completely especially that kind of corporate grind. It captures the anxieties frustrations and desires many people in the 2000s had toward work culture. Resisting the grindset rejecting routine ambition and seeking autonomy meaning and a better quality of life. But it doesnt end there. The German band Kraftklub from Chemnitz formerly KarlMarxStadt has over the years become an important cultural voice with songs that deliver social critique resonating with people trapped in systems demanding conformity productivity and things of sort. Their music Sklave is a satirical critique of work that carries the same vibe as the manga while also drawing on some of Marxs and Engels ideas. Coming from a city formerly called KarlMarxStadt that feels almost inevitable. https://youtu.be/XQlQvgTFTE?si=G9x6ODcfG06ji95d Here are the lyrics in Englishhttps://lyricstranslate.com/en/sklaveslave.html1. Marx was eyeopening and straight to the point yet we still face many of the same issues presented in The Communist Manifesto. Modern Times critiqued a lifestyle that took different shapes over time and its still happening. Office Space introduced a new philosophy with good intentions but in reality that attitude may not have had the effects its creators envisioned. Our inability to act outside these modes is precisely that realization: there is nowhere to run except to become cynical reflecting on the shape culture has taken in the later examples. Sklave and Usagimoku abandon the idea of revolution and accept the system as it is delivering their critique with a funny and melancholic tone. This cynicism represents that we have reached a point of disillusionment similar to what happened in the Soviet Union in the 1990s what anthropologist Alexei Yurchak called hypernormalizationhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlexeiYurchakHypernormalization. I might be paranoid but by this logic I think Usagimoku Shachikuka could be signaling that capitalism as we know it is marching toward its end. Like that wasnt obvious by this point. 5. Conclusion Twisting a Japanese tale while expressing the absurd reality of work conditions Usagimoku Shachikuka understands that there is nothing to be done because it is a problem that goes beyond simple conscientization. It gets cynical about the whole thing. Its funny bleak and uncomfortably relatable precisely because it hits so close to home for me and probably for many others. https://64.media.tumblr.com/135142d93cd3fe90b1ee4ac1a7a62371/b89bb03a69e272d091/s2048x3072/701db39f6a25e5dd7a903a6177b04a0c5471f6ca.jpg Although the critique of work and more broadly our culture around it is sharp it doesnt go beyond that. The resolutions to the problems presented in work culture are simplistic and lack connection to the societal structures that have long been core pillars of our society and that more often than not end up affecting workers health in some way. Because of the lack of plot or progression I would recommend reading only a few chapters at a time to avoid repetition and to get the most out of the episodic structure. As far as solutions to the work problem go Im not going to be patronizing by offering something vague and idealistic. As I see it societal structural reform is needed. As much as I like to dream about revolutions and big changes for the time being Im just focused on staying alive and trying to enjoy what I have. As the saying goes things have to get worse before they get better and I think we are still in the process of getting worsehttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/jobmarkethell/684133/. As bleak as this might sound I believe that understanding and acknowledging our problems and the structures behind them gives us a measure of control over our lives and prepares us to act when or if the opportunity arises. For now I try to live my working days like Severancehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/?ref=extshr season one keeping work and life separate. Personality mind and everything. I keep in mind what a math teacher once told me in middle school: The only thing you have to do while alive is die meaning that the only logical and natural obligation is to die eventually. These words have stayed with me ever since and strangely enough help reduce my anxiety and pressure around many things outside my control. Now whenever I face a close deadline and my boss says We have to deliver this by today I remember her words and feel a sort of relief. 300https://64.media.tumblr.com/1463b8692b91eb62e70c4157e48255b9/15656fba1db2630527/s640x960/908c4db33230fdb32b72c36cc49d42304d82b080.jpg