The following contains spoilers for Season 1 to Season 4 of “Aggretsuko,” streaming onNetflix.Aggretsuko, a widely-popular comedy anime series, tackles real-world office stereotypesusing adorable anthropomorphic creatures as its charactersand death metal as its anthem. Retsuko, the main character of the series, works as an accountant in a Japanese trading firm called Carrier Man Trading Co., Ltd. to let off steam when she has a bad day with her boss or her coworkers, she secretly goes to a karaoke bar and screams death metal.
In collaboration with the studio behindHello Kitty, Sanrio, and the popular streaming platform, Netflix,Aggretsuko, to date, has four seasons, one mobile game, and one Christmas special. Season five of the serieshas been set to release on June 19, 2025, as the final season of the franchise. As a quick recap, season four leaves off withHaida, one of Retsuko’s boyfriends, leaving the trading firm due to committing fraud by altering the company’s accounting ledgers.
RELATED:Aggretsuko Voice Actors & Where You’ve Heard Them Before
What is the Problem?
While Retsuko has her fair share of personal problems (e.g. dating relationships), the overarching issue stems from her workplace. At its base level,Aggretsukoserves as a social commentary aboutmodern-day Japan’s treatment and injustice towards its workers, specifically the women in the workforce.
To provide some context, modern-day Japanese women are in a precarious situation. While the Japanese government pushes for increased labor participation by women, it has not changed the major issues plaguing the workforce: stereotypical gender roles and harassment. Additionally, due to the low birth rate within the country, women also are pressured to have more children while they work which is impossible with insufficient access to childcare support.
ThroughoutAggretsuko,Retsuko plays the part of the “good, hardworking girl” in order to live up to the expectations put on her by society, friends, family, and herself. In many ways, the main character is representative of how women must act in Japan in order to be seen as culturally acceptable. Later on in the series, she experiences excellent character growth and moves away from this perfect persona.
Is Director Ton the Problem?
Set up as the main antagonist of the series, Retsuko’s boss, Director Ton, an anthropomorphic pig, is the primary cause of her accumulated stress and frustration. In her mind, he is the big, bad, evil boss who likes to torment her and make her life miserable. The show often presents him doing just that, as he assigns her more work than her other coworkers forcing her to work overtime and belittling her by shouting derogatory names at her.
Pawahara is a type of harassment that may happen at work, where a boss or senior employee causes mental, emotional, or physical suffering to a subordinate. Their position of power in the workplace is used as justification to belittle, control, or lash out at their employee. Legally, however, this form of harassment is prohibited.
As the audience sees throughout the series, Director Tonappears to be abusing his authority against Retsukoundergoing a textbook case of power harassment and alcohol harassment. In one of the later seasons, while intoxicated, Retsuko opens up to the temporary chairman of the company, Himuro, and takes action against Director Ton. The irony is that Himuro also commits workplace harassment called yamehara, or quitting harassment, by putting Director Ton in a fake department with no funding and making him so miserable that he is forced to resign.
Eventually, Director Ton does quit his job at the trading firm. In a twist of fate, Retsuko, out of a deep sense of guilt, hires him to be the editor for her band’s videos. During this time, she realizes that Director Ton, while frustrating to work with, is not as bad as he seems and that he has a willingness to learn and grow as an individual. At some point, they even come to terms with their problems with each other and learn from their experiences.
Is Kabae the Problem?
What is a workplace without the office gossiper? Kabae, an anthropomorphic hippopotamus, is a secret spiller. Not only is she presented to be a constant talker, but she also can’t keep a secret to save her life. Anything that she perceives to be out of order with Retsuko or her other coworkers, she’ll spread in the form of a rumor. While she doesn’t have evil intentions when spreading gossip, the results are horrific to Retsuko, who just wants her private life to stay private without anyone knowing about them, especially her boss.
RELATED:Urusei Yatsura Episode 1 Review
Later on in the series,Kabae is asked to quit by HRdue to Himuro wanting to slim down on the accounting department’s budget and spending costs. While Retsuko initially sees this as a positive sign, as she will no longer have to deal with her personal problems being spread, she comes to realize just how much positivity Kabae brings to the department. In Retsuko’s mind, she transforms from an annoying gossiping coworker to a lovable, mother-like figure.
Is Anai the Problem?
Appearing at the start of season two, Anai, an anthropomorphic squirrel, is assigned to Retsuko for mentorship. While Retsuko is to be blamed for her first interaction with Anai out of impatience with his phone-answering skill, he tends to blow things out of proportionsending her countless threatening emails. What makes matters worse is that every time she tries to tell someone about his actions, no one believes her due to his dual-sided nature. Only when Haida becomes in charge of Anai, he realizes the trauma from interacting with him.
Later in the season, Retsuko realizes through watching and talking to Kabae that Anai’s behavior is simply because he’s scared. As someone who came straight out of school as a graduate accountant, he doesn’t know how to properly deal with disappointment and failure unlike Retsuko, who’s been in the workforce for several years. All he wants is to do well in his work, be taught patiently, and be given praise when he does a good job. That’s why Kabae is successful in forming a good mentor-student relationship with him unlike Retsuko, who just wants to finish her work and go home.
Is Retsuko the Problem?
Whether it’s her personal or workplace problems, Retsuko, an anthropomorphic red panda,tends to throw the blame on someone or something else. While she can’t control everything that happens to her, she can control how she chooses to deal with the issues. Throughout the series, she mainly struggles with moving away from her perfect persona and allowing herself to deal with stress and situations more healthily.
One of her biggest problems is that she can’t find enough courage to express her true feelings and her true self openly with her closest coworkers, Haida, Fenneko, Gori, Washimi, or her own mother. She does, however, see major improvements in the later seasons, as she brings each of her boyfriends to karaoke with her and expresses how she really feels when she’s with them. The turning point in her character growth is in the fourth season with Haida, as he fires back his own singing style turning a one-sided rant into a two-sided argument.
Is There A Solution?
In terms of the core conflicts within the series, the solutions turned out to be a lot simpler than they originally appeared to be. In the case of Director Ton, Kabae, Anai, and Retsuko herself, the most important factor leading to reconciliation and closure between the characters was a better understanding of the fundamental motivations behind their actions.
TheAggretsukoanime series set up the characters to be perceived in a stereotypical manner which caused Retsuko and the audience to make snap judgments about them. However, the series didn’t just stop there. Instead, it went on to create a cast of complex characters who ultimatelystrayed away from their stereotypesand solved their issues as a group. Perhaps this was the true theme that the creators of the show were trying to convey.
