When you hear the name Sanrio, their charming, cutesy cast of characters continually comes to mind.
Hello Kitty, My Melody, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi, Gudetama – the list goes on and on! However, in 2016, the company introduced a brand new character to their decades-old lineup who was much different than their usual fare: Aggressive Retsuko, better known as Aggretsuko or simply Retsuko, a female red panda working a dead-end office job and singing death metal at a karaoke bar. She turned what it meant to be a Sanrio character on its head and connected with audiences who had become bitter with their current workplace and wanted to let their anger out.
Then, in April of 2018, Netflix released the first season of Aggretsuko, an anime adaptation of the death metal singing red panda accountant.
The show follows Retsuko through her daily life and all the ups and downs it brings along with it. It’s a very different show compared to Netflix’s other animated series as it explores what it means to be a member of society and how the real world can break through our personal interpretation of how life ought to be.
One of the most outstanding features of Aggretsuko is its voice cast who puts plenty of emotion and passion into each of their lines. Erica Mendez, best known to anime fans as Ryuko Matoi from Kill la Kill and Akko Kagari from Little Witch Academia, voices Retsuko in her normal appearance and absolutely kills it by evoking a feisty but at times subdued personality which shines through both in her daily life and in her karaoke sessions.
Haida and Fenneko, Retsuko’s co-workers and the show’s deuteragonists, are also played exceptionally and play off of each other quite well thanks to the brilliant talents of veteran voice actor Benjamin Diskin – who JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans will recognize as the voice of Joseph in Battle Tendency – and relative newcomer Katelyn Gault – who also provided the voice of Ladislava in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
The remaining recurring cast consists of familiar faces like Josh Petersdorf, the voice of Roadhog in Overwatch and Retsuko’s piggish boss Ton; Todd Haberkorn, known for multiple anime roles including Natsu from Fairy Tail and Keroro from Sgt. Frog, who plays Ton’s right-hand man Komiya; G.K. Bowes, the voice of Laura from Street Fighter V, who plays Director Gori and the tech-savvy Tsunoda; and Tara Platt, known to Fire Emblem fans as the voice of Edelgard in Three Houses, who plays Washimi, Gori’s friend and secretary to the CEO. Each of them conveys their lines in fitting tones for each scene they’re on screen and grow and change as the series progresses, some more than others.
Each of the three seasons thus far focuses on a different aspect of Retsuko’s life with an overarching theme of growing up and finding a relationship. The first season focuses on Retsuko’s working life and introduces the viewer to the world Retsuko and crew inhabit and establishes early on that Haida is interested in Retsuko but isn’t quite sure if she sees him the same way.
It does what any good introductory season does and does it well enough to provide a strong foundation for the rest of the series. We get to know each of the characters on a basic level which can be, and thankfully is, expanded upon later in the series. Plus, there are some iconic scenes such as Retsuko going off on Ton while drunk at a mixer and Haida’s fall in the rain.
Both the Christmas special We Wish You A Metal Christmas and the second season focus on Retsuko and her relationships with others, even more so in season 2 as Retsuko’s overprotective mother, played by the current voice of Minnie Mouse Kaitlyn Robrock, joins the cast and tries to get her daughter hooked up with others.
To me, the Christmas special is excellent and ties up the loose ends of the first season quite well with Haida being on good terms with Retsuko and more people knowing about Retsuko’s little secret. However, the second season turns a lot of the show on its head and in one of the worst ways possible. I’m not too keen on romance and Aggretsuko’s second season doesn’t sway my opinion further. It feels drawn out and barely goes anywhere in these ten episodes as every relationship Retsuko enters is broken after a few episodes and they all feel very similar.
Finally, we reach season three, released only a few weeks ago. This season, which focuses on Retsuko’s future and her personal desires, features the red panda getting involved with an idol group and having to work her way out of debt with its producer Hyodo, voiced by SungWon Cho, better known as ProZD on YouTube and the now-shuttered Vine.
It takes a lot of Season 2’s worst elements and gives them proper closure and depth while also standing out with its drastically darker tone, especially toward the latter half. There’s a strong message in there about being yourself and accepting that life won’t always be as easy as you believe. Personally, I believe it’s the best of the three and is definitely worth a watch.
In conclusion, Aggretsuko stands out from the crowd of Netflix’s original animated content and Sanrio’s library as a whole with its unrelentingly realistic outlook on life, its charming cast of characters and its strong but subtle messages about life itself. However, it’s held back slightly by a few plot points which barely go anywhere and of course season 2. Therefore, I happily give it four and a half stars out of five.
