In half a decade, Aggretsuko has quietly become one of NetflixThe most amazing program of. Any anime fan knows this—the show is based on a extremely famous character equal famous brand Sanrio; it’s grown muscle cartoon behind it. But it’s time for the general audience to also notice its unique excellence.
With the fifth and final installment fully out last Thursday, there was no better chance to capture this stunning mix of anthropomorphic cuteness, city mundane market, romantic challenges, and oversized circumstances.
Aggretsuko follows the twenties red panda Retsuko, a nervous, shy accountant who struggles to come out of his shell. With the help of her friends who have become colleagues, she is able to find her inner confidence and become someone else than just a boring office worker.
This personal maturity comes from antics that are both believable and quirky: Retsuko dates a man she thinks isn’t right for her, as a challenge to relationship anxiety her relationship and stood up to a colleague who despised women. But she also joined a girl group that performed hard rock in the background of Japanese pop idol aesthetic and was even nearly murdered by a malicious fan after one of the group’s concerts.
The ping pong game between narrative modes is always fun to watch, as the show easily moves between emotion and fun. Watch Retsuko and co. experiencing hashtags—adults in and out of the office feeling as excited as their twenties friends, who herself feels as stuck as Retsuko. It’s a special twist on what would otherwise be a great comedy.
In Season 5, there are two parallel scenes that best demonstrate this combination, comic effects and motion.
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Much of Retsuko’s journey involves her love life. After many seasons of looking forward to our red panda heroine, her coworker Haida can now call her his girlfriend. It’s a satisfying, long-awaited victory for the hyenas, who we met in Season 1 as a sentimental accountant for her soft-spoken colleague. so much so that he could barely say a word to her.
But Retsuko is the perfect shield for Haida: Although she’s almost always tongue-tied, she’s actually a ticking time bomb of rage. When annoyed enough, Retsuko rushes to the nearest karaoke bar to express his feelings… in the form of death metal songs. (Hence “Aggretsuko”—or “Aggressive Retsuko.”) That she couldn’t speak her true feelings about most things without turning into a completely different person and screaming with all her might. all: Retsuko is the one who self-consciously brings to its peak.
Season 5 takes those personal insecurities to the next level but traditionally quirky, it’s awesome. Episode 7 finds Haida in a dazed state after a harrowing visit to his family, whom Retsuko meets for the first time. It turns out that the Haida clan is one of the most powerful political dynasties in Japan, with Juzo’s father being a longtime member of the government. Haida’s younger brother, Jiro, is poised to take over his father’s district seat in the next election—something Jiro and Juzo mock Haida as never being able to do.
This happens after a few episodes Haida tried and failed to get back on track after leaving the accounting firm, to deal with the scam. Instead of applying for a job, he became obsessed with an online role-playing game—to the point that he spent thousands of dollars on in-game items, leaving himself bankrupt. His father, who was paying for his apartment, kicked him out, and Haida moved to a local internet cafe so he could continue playing games without having to find an apartment. real household or job.
It’s a shame, something that even the sweet Retsuko has problems with. Just a threat to keep him at a distance until he gets back to work prompts Haida to take up a number of jobs, even if it’s part-time. That’s enough for Retsuko, who also lets Haida move in after finding out he’s actually homeless, but not to Haida’s family. They told him he was a failure and always has been; he was pathetic, aimless and hopeless. When Jiro entices Haida to take money from his family to stand on his own again — a final sign of weakness, one that Haida painfully submits to — Jiro laughs wickedly.
That’s where we find Haida in Episode 7: mentally broken, haunted by the memory of his younger brother snickering in his face. “I’m the loser! I am a hopeless loser!” He shouted. It’s the kind of heartbreaking human moment Aggretsuko Such insight, even if the suffering party is a hyena. And seeing Haida’s rise and fall into this pathetic depression makes viewers commit to watching this show for so long.
But then Retsuko stuffed a whole banana into his mouth. “I know it,” she told him, in response to his “loser” mayhem, before instructing him to stop worrying about what happened and move on. She went to work… only to find him sitting at the same place with the same banana in his mouth when she got home.
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It is extremely funny and becomes even more amusing when the joke is repeated under completely different circumstances in a later episode. Episode 8 begins with Retsuko in the same position, feeling resigned too — because she unwittingly agreed to go against Jiro for that very vacant district seat. With Retsuko being thrown even more directly into Haida’s household chores, it’s one thing for her to feel overwhelmed to the point of drooling; it’s another thing when it means this shy accountant has to start campaigning publicly all the time.
To help her escape the darkness, Haida stuffed a banana into her mouth. He gave her a reality check and allowed her to vent in his heavy metal karaoke way.
I laughed out loud to find Aggretsuko reflects this fast-paced joke, both visually and in plot, in just one 15-minute episode. (Each episode is thankfully short compared to every other episode on Netflix.) And it’s funny considering how polarizing Retsuko and Haida’s situations are: Haida is calculating with her loved ones. thinking he’s useless trash. Retsuko is contemplating unwittingly signing up to use her death metal style to promote political policies that she knows nothing about the entire population.
If Aggretsuko seriously fix Haida’s family trauma for so long than it happened, it won’t Aggretsuko. The unusual comedy comes from how quickly it shifts from these intimate moments to completely ridiculous ones without diminishing the impact of both.
Retsuko tells Haida that she knows he’s a loser but that he needs to step up not being mean or belittling; it fits the show’s weird, wildly humorous tone. We know that Haida’s wretched family will continue to feature for the rest of the season as villains—and the one he loves most will be his protector. How lovely and real is that?
The way Retsuko ultimately proves both her and Haida’s confidence and will to Hiro and Juzo is by Haida encouraging Retsuko to shout out her tiniest annoyances in front of a crowd of thousands of passionate people. ; In this way, she encourages an unempowered audience. (Sadly, she lost, but it’s the effort that counts.) No matter how silly, it’s a powerful message about never giving up — and if you wallow in sadness, body too long, you will get a banana stuffed into your cake hole.
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