Aggressive Retsuko 5th Season, episode 10

Alternative names: Aggretsuko (ONA)

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Aggressive Retsuko 5th Season, episode 1

Alternative names: Aggretsuko (ONA)

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Alternative names: Aggretsuko (ONA)

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Aggressive Retsuko 4th Season, episode 1

Alternative names: Aggretsuko

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Aggressive Retsuko 3rd Season, episode 10

Alternative names: Aggretsuko 3rd Season

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Aggressive Retsuko 4th Season

Alternative names: Aggretsuko

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Aggressive Retsuko 3rd Season, episode 1

Alternative names: Aggretsuko 3rd Season

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Sanrio is a kind of peculiar company. They are purely a merchandising company. They have produced some art featuring their characters themselves, but largely it is about selling various items, articles of clothing etc. featuring these characters. The best known of them is of course Hello Kitty, an absolute titan of this industry, but Sanrio has a cavalcade of other characters, such as the frog Keroppi or the bunny My Melody. Most of these characters are rather simple and their personality is pretty easily defined, usually with a rather simplistic environment that reinforce a positive attitude. However in recent years Sanrio has branched out and introduced some other characters that exhibit a wider array of the human emotion, though definitely retaining a cute appearance overall.

One such character is Aggressive Retsuko. An anthropomorphic red panda living in an animal society, Retsuko is a put-upon female office worker who releases her stress and anger that builds up from her dayjob by going to Karaoke and singing death metal.

Aggressive Retsuko's first foray into the anime space was with a series of minute-long shorts that ran for 100 episodes between 2016 and 2018. These shorts are basically each telling a joke, with Retsuko encountering a situation with inconsiderate co-workers or her horrible boss that inevitably results in Retsuko wanting to scream her lungs out at them. While these shorts are funny and there is some variety in them with different characters appearing to drive Retsuko up the wall, they are also kind of repetitive. Of course, this short format isn't very well suited for any sort of plot progression.

In 2018, Netflix started releasing a full TV series, with three seasons so far for Aggressive Retsuko. Each season consists of ten 15-minute episodes, which bring back the characters from the shorts and build out from there. There is also a christmas special in between the first and second season. The conceit is largely the same. Retsuko is a young office worker in the accounting department of a trade company. She has a horrible boss who hates her and her coworkers include an indelicate hippopotamus and a kiss-ass of a gazelle. In addition to a work-life with few prospects, her private life is also rather rudderless with no real hobbies and no romantic relationship. Her only solaces are hanging out with friends from the office and her karaoke sessions in which she airs her grievances through improvised Death Metal songs.

Throughout the course of the series, we see Retsuko try and change some things to escape her dead-end job and repetitive situation, ranging from looking if she can join her former classmate's startup company to finding love, getting married and quitting her job to become a housewife. Nothing seems to ever work or truly change for her. While that can be expected because, after all, she is still an ever-unchanging Sanrio mascot character, it is also a rather poignant comment on existence as an office worker in general and as a millennial in particular. That isn't to say that the events in the show are not interesting or entirely meaningless, as Retsuko does find some truths about herself and hidden depths in the other people that surround her, but in the end she doesn't seem to move forward.

The biggest roadblock is Retsuko herself. Though she is obviously frustrated, she is also very reluctant to actively make changes on account of her timidity and uncertainty of what the future brings. You really have to wonder what would happen if she took a leap of faith or two, if she actually went into business with her friend or if she finally noticed the crush a coworker has on her (or if he finally grew a spine and just told her outright). This is also evidenced in the main gimmick of the show. Retsuko never actually screams at anyone, regardless of how much they would deserve it. Her release of anger is held back for the soundproof karaoke booth where it can't escape, but perhaps she would do better if it did.

For me Retsuko's story hits particularly close to home. The only differences are that I am ten years older and male. We also share a penchant for aggressive music, but in my case I am more of a punk rock guy than death metal. Thankfully the office culture in my department is a bit better, and my work is slightly more meaningful, but only just. Aggressive Retsuko as a series has definitely prompted some reevaluation here, and through that it is probably one of the more impactful works of fiction on a personal level, and I can't imagine I am the only one.

The thing I believe the series is missing though is a bit of a general worldview. With rampant capitalism causing ever increasing exploitation and wealth gap, as well as environmental catastrophe on the horizon, you wonder how much change really is possible to make in your own life. Of course that could also rather easily break the scope of a series like Aggressive Retsuko, and Retsuko's rather myopic view of her own life doesn't make things easier.

Aggressive Retsuko is a good and important show, some animation quirks not withstanding. Escapist it is however not in the slightest.

Aggressive Retsuko 3rd Season

Alternative names: Aggretsuko 3rd Season

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Current Rating: 7.46

My Personal Rating: 9/10

Genres: Music, Comedy

Status : Still Airing! April 2016 - Present

Episode Length: 1 min

Introduction

Aggressive Retusko, in my very personal opinion, is the best anime short out there. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly- including works like Sushi Police and Bananya. Whereas other anime shorts feel very superficial, very unnecessary, and usually a waste of time: Aggressive Retsuko delivers a rather unique concept and maintains a high quality even within its 1 min per episode timeframe.

The thing with Aggressive Retsuko is that its just pure... good. There is no filler, there is no boring 20 episode character development, its just all good. From start to finish you will be entertained, you will laugh, you will relate, and you will be addicted to watch more episodes.

The Premise

Retsuko is an adorable little red panda (is that not reason enough to watch the show?) who is in her mid 20's and works at a typical run of the mill office job. The show is about her daily inconveniences and frustrations working in the office and throughout her life in general. On the surface this seems like the stupidest concept ever. Who would watch an anime of the daily life of an accountant? But the show takes a humorous take on life's everyday misfortunes. Whenever Retsuko gets ticked off past her limit- she breaks out into death metal in order to relieve her stress and take out her frustrations. That's right. This show is about a middle aged female red panda that breaks out into death metal.

The Execution

Aggressive Retsuko manages to follow a basic formula without getting stale. The general formula is: Show Retsuko, Retsuko gets pissed off about something, Death Metal, Conclusion. There are some episode variations to this formula (I won't spoil which) but in general you can expect every episode to be the same. But the subject matter of each episode varies and with its cute style and entertaining main lead- you never get bored of it and even with its now 59 aired episodes its easy to relate to every episode and appreciate it for what it is. Just to give an example, one episode Retsuko gets irritated at a coworker who complains about themselves looking for praise from Retsuko. I'm sure most of us have encountered people like this and its just fun to watch Retsuko break out into death metal over something that many of us get frustrated about too.

The Verdict

I often find myself watching Aggressive Retsuko when I feel stressed out. Either about general life issues (finances, worrying about the future, whatever) or about school and work specifically. I think this show is easy to appreciate, even if you aren't working a boring desk job like Retsuko is (though ever since I started my internship I feel myself slowing becoming more and more like Retsuko).

At the very least you should give this show a try, episodes are just a minute long. You don't have much to lose by giving it a shot. I don't believe this show is available on any legal streaming services- but its not that hard to find if are willing to search for it. I also believe some episodes are on youtube- not sure if they are "official" or not. I am stunned to see this show be as unpopular as it is. It has a great charm to it- and I hope this thread at least convinces one person to watch an episode of this show.

for reading!

Aggressive Retsuko 3rd Season, episode 9

Alternative names: Aggretsuko 3rd Season

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen in the show. Encourage others to read the source material rather than confirming or denying theories. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

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Currently sitting at ~#3500 in popularity with 11,000 members, this is currently my AOTY, and I hope it is others' as well.

Even as not much of a slice-of-life fan who isn't in an office workplace, this show is both a relatable heart-warmer and a massive eye-opener as to how we present ourselves and deal with life's pressures.

There are people far better than I who will likely talk about the greatest qualities of this show, but just know that the Flash-animated, almost Pop Team Epic-esque animation style should deter you from the show as much as Land of the Lustrous' 3D animation should; it really shouldn't.

Also to note: the English dub is borderline 10/10, mixing big names like Erica Mendez and Ben Diskin (Ryuko Matoi and Joseph Joestar) with actors without a voice credit to their name. It also makes a fantastic choice of having a literal pig character voiced by the VA for Overwatch's Roadhog, and fantastically at that. Dare I say the weakest performer in the cast would be Todd Haberkorn (Natsu Dragneel; Ling Yao).

Go watch it, give it the love it deserves and let it give the same back.