‘Aggretsuko‘ first emerged as a small series of shorts starring different little animals from Sanrio, to whom more than one will know for being the house of Hello Kitty. It already had a fairly loyal audience, but obviously the phenomenon of the red panda that sings death metal with the voice of a forty-year-old man exploded in a big way when the series of Netflix.
The life of an ordinary office worker
The first season of the anime introduced us to Retsuko, a rather unfortunate office worker and with a very gray life who everyone fights. Her boss is rude, her coworkers are nosy, and she doesn’t have a very bright future in sight. In order to get even, at night he releases his frustrations by singing karaoke.
Throughout the series, Retsuko has experienced everything from joining an idol group to thwarting a tax fraud scheme. Along the way we have been getting to know a very, very extensive cast, and this last season has served to finish putting all the pieces in place and give Retsuko a very sweet ending which shows how much she has grown since the first time we met her.
This fifth season of ‘Aggretsuko’ starts with the direct consequences of the end of the fourth. He has cost and been a slowburn manual, but Retsuko and Haida are already together, although he has left the company and is trying to find a life.
If the previous season had given more and more importance to Haida, During the first chapters we have him practically as the protagonist carrying a large part of the plot. Until now we had had some glimpses of his life, but this season gets fully into his problems with his family and his frustrations to find a job that fills him.
So if we’re expecting to see a lot of Retsuko, we’re still a bit disappointed that she’s relegated to a bit of a supporting role in the early stages of the season. Even so, ‘Aggretsuko’ does not forget her protagonist and directs the plot towards her again, although with very different paths to what we might expect.
Closing the circle
Although it is a series that apparently presents itself as a slice of life funny, ‘Aggretsuko’ continues to stomp with unexpected criticism to the few opportunities of the younger generations, depression and class differences. Of course, he does it in his own style and without losing that “feel good” tone with which he leaves you hooked.
Maybe the second half of the season feels a little rushed, but ‘Aggretsuko’ manages to give us a very tender and satisfying ending. Especially if we compare to where all the characters start, not just Retsuko and Haida but also others like Tadano or Director Ton, we see how much they have evolved throughout these seasons and it’s been a really nice journey.
Not only that, but the fifth season is in charge of collecting many crumbs and plots that it had been planting until now and put it all together to show that nothing was happening haphazardly.
Although Retsuko is still Retsuko, he has managed to come out of his little shell and share his frustrations and worries with the world to the rhythm of death metal. And of course, he has given it a perfect ending that comes full circle to pass the baton to a new generation of frustrated young people.
‘Aggretsuko’ has managed to go further in each season, with a mixture of completely surreal situations and many others with which it is too easy to identify. Saying goodbye to anime is a bit difficult, but at least we do it knowing that we do it with a happy ending.