Sanrio is a Japanese company that
is known for creating cute characters – the most popular of which is Hello
Kitty – that aren’t essentially intended to be used in storytelling
media, but to serve as marketing brands applicable for various kinds of merchandises. Even when it ventures into
creating anime content featuring its characters now and then, the purpose and
the endgame have always been strengthening them as brands.
Thus, Aggretsuko a.k.a. Aggressive
Retsuko, its recent anime web series that has been released through Netflix,
has been surprisingly unique. It doesn’t
feel like a promotional ad masked as an anime series. It feels like a legit anime. Moreover, it’s not necessarily crafted to be
attractive to kids, whom the company usually targets its products for. Though kids may still find it adorable at a
superficial level, its deeper appeal is mostly for adults to enjoy.
Aggretsuko centers on the Sanrio character Retsuko, a 25-year-old
anthropomorphic red panda (I initially thought she was a cat) who works in the
accounting department of a trading firm.
She serves as the doormat of her workplace, as superiors – especially Ton,
the director of her department, a chauvinist pig who is an actual pig (a detail
that amused me to no end) – are fond of putting her down, dumping all their work
on her, and even making her perform degrading labors not covered by her job
description such as making tea or opening jars.
On top of that, irritating co-workers and the fact that she’s single are
constant frustrations of hers. Due to all these, she maintains a secret hobby which serves as means of catharsis: going
to her favorite karaoke bar every night to bellow death metal songs.
Tapping into the premise of having
a horrible job to generate comedy, while critiquing the absurdities of
workplace culture, is not a new concept.
It has been done countless of times before (one of my favorites is the comic strip Dilbert). However, Aggretsuko
actually manages to be more relatable, profound, and even tender than many
such office comedies. Add that to the fact
that it’s being conveyed through the context of a quirky Sanrio-inspired world,
and it succeeds in being enormously entertaining.
To sum it up, Aggretsuko is a clever, funny, and distinctive
anime comedy show. I’m not sure if there’s
going to be another season, but so far, it has ten 15-minute episodes. That’s basically equivalent to one movie, so
it’s very easy to watch in one sitting.
Moreover, it’s so breezy that binging should come effortlessly.
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