If you told me that one day I'd be watching an anime by Sanrio and enjoying it, I'd laugh in your face. Although if I'm being honest, there were exactly two times in my life when I came into deep contact with a Hello Kitty product. The first time was when Sanrio tried to sell me a Hello Kitty themed Mazinger. The other time was when I was bored enough to try the Hello Kitty MMORPG, but I digress.
In 2016, Sanrio created a new character called Retsuko. Retsuko is a 25 years old anthropomorphic female red panda. She's single, her horoscope is Scorpio, and her blood type is A. She also works in the accounting department of a Japanese firm for a living. Her hobby? Death Metal. To be precise, she channels her inner rage by singing death metal about every little thing that pisses her off, whether it's her workplace or her acquaintances and friends.
The TV series she stars in is called Aggretsuko, short for Aggressive Retsuko. This is a bit of a misnomer though because Retsuko doesn't actually get aggressive, neither with her fists or her words. Instead, she'd rather internalise her rage or let it all out at the karaoke. This is great because it shows that Retsuko is an adult, not a brat. She's a responsible red panda who just have had enough of her daily chores, but perseveres in the face of reality to keep the lights on.
You know that friend who can't decide anything on his own or that shitty boss at work who keeps pestering you over nothing? This series encapsulates all of the daily ruts that just wears every one of us down, regardless of gender, ethnicity or age. Aggretsuko is the kind of universal comedy that hits close to heart to every working man and woman. It doesn't make up some impossible situation to deliver a joke. No. In its place, the comedic moments are wholly inspired by the lives of ordinary working people.
Every episode clocks exactly at one minute, making it a quick and digestible comedic skit. There's exactly a hundred of them, and I burned through them all in a matter of hours. It's a testament to how entertaining I found Aggretsuko to be.
Additionally, there's another version of the show served by Netflix. This one has ten episodes consisting of fifteen minutes each, and a Christmas special which continues the story. The difference here that instead of shorts, the Netflix version takes the story right back to the beginning and tells it all over again. The resulting series is just a more complete version of the shorts, with an actual story, character development, romance, drama and comedy. The death metal moments are still all there, but they obviously don't happen as often. In case you're wondering, this version is just as good as the TV shorts.
I can't just leave you without at least talking about some of the goofballs both from the TV shorts, and the Netflix version.
For a support character who barely appears in the show, she sure did make a huge impression. Yet, the only word she said during the whole series is "PROTEIN". Notice how I'm using the female pronoun. Yep! According to episode 6 of the shorts, Mrs "Protein" is a woman, not a man. In the Netflix version, his/her gender is never mentioned, so your guess is as good as mine.
Her attitude reminds me of a lot of older women desperate for young blood. If that's what Sanrio went for, they completely nailed it. Above all, she's just a really hilarious character that adds much charm to the series. She also stands in huge contrast to Washimi, her good friend who's a lot calmer and reasonable on the onset.
This character didn't appear in the Netflix version, but he made an impression of how real his quirks were. I'm sure they must have based him off some real dude working at Sanrio. Yagyu Kachou is the lame and gentle manager who would friend his subordinates on Facebook. He also secretly thinks he's hot shit considering the kind of Facebook posts he writes.
Anthropomorphic pigs are rarely ever portrayed in a positive light, and Director Ton is no exception. However, beyond his lazy ways lie something much more real. Director Ton is a terrible boss, but he's knows how embedded these things are into society. Instead of fighting the urge, he just succumbed to tradition. You too will become a lazy boss one day, he tells Retsuko.
Lastly, Retsuko herself is by far the best character of the show. Her struggles, her thoughts, her death metal moments are all central to both series. Sanrio won the lottery here. They did a fantastic job on both her design and personality traits and they better not let her fade away into obscurity. I want to see little girls wear backpacks of Retsuko as their first choice instead of Hello Kitty. It's what our cute red panda deserves.
There are plenty more interesting characters such as Retsuko's annoying subordinate, Ana, Komiya the bootlicker, her friends such as Puko, Fenneko, Kabae, Masashiro, her romantic interests such as Haida and Rerasuke, Tsubone who makes her life a living hell, Tsunoda, the Instagram slut etc but my intention was just to offer a glimpse of Aggretsuko’s colourful cast. If there's one common thread among all of them, it's that they all share a trait or characteristic that probably applies to a real person you actually know from either your work or personal life. It's why the comedy hits so close to home.
Overall, both the TV shorts and the Netflix version of Aggretsuko have my full recommendation. It's not so often that I get to witness good Japanese comedy, and whenever I do, it's always a delight. Netflix has announced a second season, which I will definitely be watching. On the flip-side, I don't think the TV shorts will be returning any time soon, although I do think they offer short bursts of comedy that the Netflix version cannot provide. What I see happening instead is that many of the exclusive characters from the TV shorts will appear in the second season and that's probably for the best.
