Aggressive Retsuko (ONA)

Some offices have stereotypical dynamics: the chauvinistic pig of a boss who never does any real work; the employees whose goal is to suck up to the boss; the ones whose lives seem perfect; and the individuals who have all the actual work pushed onto them. Retsuko the red panda is in the last group, as she stays late most nights to make up the work her coworkers are too lazy to do themselves.

Her relief from the stress of her everyday life comes in the form of singing death metal at a local karaoke club. Night after night, Retsuko channels her grief into a microphone and considers the place to be her own personal sanctuary. But as she moves further away from her comfort zone and the ideas people have of her, she discovers that letting others into her world of death metal may not be such a bad thing.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Retsuko Main

Rareko Japanese

Haida Supporting

Katou, Shingo Japanese

Fenneko Supporting

Inoue, Rina Japanese

Washimi Supporting

Koiwasaki, Komegumi Japanese

Buchou, Gori Supporting

Tsuruta, Maki Japanese

Resasuke Supporting

Katou, Shingo Japanese

Buchou, Ton Supporting

Arai, Souta Japanese

Tsunoda Supporting

Inoue, Rina Japanese

Kaba, Megumi Supporting

Takahashi, Yuki Japanese

Yoga Instructor Supporting

Arai, Souta Japanese

Rareko Director, Script

Leroy, Julie Script

Seitz, Patrick ADR Director

Sakurai, Miki Music

Reviews

Apr 20, 2018

DYED

Recommended

Meeting deadlines and expectations, facing stress and anxiety, enduring unlikable coworkers and tedious tasks ... It's all part of being an adult and a member of society. But when too much has been piling up and you reach your boiling point, you got to know how to let some steam off.

This is the story of Retsuko. 25 years old, single, Scorpio, blood type A, just your average positive, kind and uncertain young female employee, who bears a forbidden passion alongside her heart-attack-inducing stressful daily routine.

What comes immediately to attention while watching Aggressive Retsuko (or Aggretsuko for the western audience) are the peculiar pacing and overall ... atmosphere of the show: it almost feels like we're watching the daily struggles of a dear friend we cheer for. The events of the story follow smoothly while the humor, extremely "grounded" (you laugh because you can relate to the situations, which are far from being unusual) but never lazy nor trivial hits the mark almost every time.

It's surely an odd experience (but a welcome one, too) to watch something so rooted in reality yet funny and wholesome, where there are no power-ups, plot twists or deus ex machinas to save the situation, instead we can only count on the strength and the determination of a cast of extremely (and ironically, since they're anthropomorphized animals) human characters.

As expected, it's really hard to review this show without comparing it to its previous incarnation.
We've come a long way since the original Aggressive Retsuko shorts of roughly one minute each. What the franchise gained the most from this change in format to a more commonly used 20 minutes run time is surely the character development: again, it sounds ironic and cheesy, but it is surprising to see a cast of 2D, Flash animated characters with minimal design being so well characterised; it's almost like they're people from your same office department. Sure, just like in the previous version of AR they all fall into their respective archetypes (the doormat-to-his-superiors, the old creepy superiors, the unlikable rookies, the distracted/incompetent guys, the "senpais" you perceive as gods etc.), but they're also full of little quirks that define who they are and what part they have in Retsuko's story, giving them much more layer.

To add a note about the art, it's undebatable that it has improved. It's Flash, so you can't expect much, but it sure was in capable hands, and apart from a couple of little tweaks and animation errors here and there the show goes really smoothly with its adorable, iconic art style and concept designs, really simple and polygon-based but also really pleasant, almost comfy.

As of any other show, however, Aggressive Retsuko is not exempt from mistakes or poor direction choices. If you come for the original death metal songs the show won't match your expectations: it's really a pity that despite the longer run time and much more valuable sponsor (the big Netflixeroni maccheroni guys) they weren't able to fully develop the "death metal chants" parts of the episodes in something more unique or "advanced", remaining just really loud rants accompanied by generic death metal stock music. Even the original songs that appear in the second half of the show are really "meh", and I won't hide that I skipped over them with immeasurable violence.

In conclusion, Aggressive Retsuko is a cozy, relaxing and light-hearted ONA about a red panda dealing with daily struggles such as love, stress, social awkwardness, uncomfortable work settings and the pursuit of her own dreams. Not a masterpiece, but surely a recommended on my list.

Final vote: 8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 20, 2018

CatSoul

Recommended

On the surface, the Aggressive Retsuko/Aggretsuko franchise might seem like nothing more than a humorous extension of a marketing ploy. Sanrio's official website sells T-shirts, plushies, water bottles, notebooks, sticky notes, blankets, pen cases, coasters, tote bags, phone cases, and coin pouches of the adorable character and her friends. However, with the help of a solid production team, Netflix's Aggretsuko goes above and beyond, becoming my favorite anime that I've seen so far this year.

Let me start out by saying that I've never even worked in an office before, yet much like kids who somehow enjoy the American/UK live-action series "The Office", I understood the ... strong dynamics and relationships between these characters and the stereotypes some of them were meant to represent. There were a few characters I was a little put off by in the first episode, but I grew to warm up to every single one of them. Even if I didn't necessarily like all of them, they all played strong roles in the comedy and had established, "hey I know someone like that" personalities and traits.

Of course, it helps that the animation is so cute. Sanrio knows how to draw cute characters, to the point where I'm not really sure if they know how to draw anything else. Even a character whose a literal misogynistic pig has a much more appealing design than any other studio/company/character designer would have given him.

The dialogue itself has a lot of one-liners and quick gags that made me say "Oh, shit" and/or laugh out loud. Netflix has also produced a solid English dub for the series, with plenty of recognizable voice talent as well as a few faces who haven't gotten their chance in the limelight yet.

Retsuko's death metal scenes are great, even if they are quick. The death metal aspect of her character is elaborated on and really made apart of her. Without spoiling anything, at one point we see Retsuko in a completely different state of mind in which she isn't interested in doing death metal at all, and it just simply...isn't her.

I'm not traditionally a binge watcher (which is why my number of watched days on here is so subpar), but this show got me hook. line, and sinker. I'd probably be watching even more episodes right now instead of writing this review if we'd gotten more than ten. (I really hope we get a season 2.) And I've gotta admit, I want some of that overpriced merchandise now as well.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 20, 2018

Karhu

Mixed Feelings

Aggressive Retsuko is an anime about this chibi-styled red panda, whom I will refer to as raccoon because she is not nearly as cute as red pandas are. She lives the typical work-lady lifestyle, working from 9 to 5 like any other young-adult raccoon. From her personality, she seems to be the kind-hearted-friends-with-everyone type of girl. At night, however, she goes to karaoke and lets out the most grotesque and vulgar death metal beats known to raccoonkind, giving no mercy for her coworkers, work-life-slavery nor anything else for that matter.


The series is rather similar to Detroit Metal City. There a personality-lacking weakling who prefers tea ... ceremonies and Swedish slow-paced pop songs has a role in the world's most grotesque metal band. He is referred as the true King of Hell as he traveled to Hell and took it from Satan, making him his bitch, and hence appearing as the icon of badassery. Retsuko differs from Kraiser (DMC main character) mainly because she never thought of hiding her identity when she goes to sing a song about raping her coworkers, instead the series is about her, slowly, accepting herself and learning to show the other side of her to others. The actual humor heavily relies on side characters. For example, there is a gym-monster in the series who seems to be only capable of speaking one word and that's "protein". Similarly over the top characters are ever-present in her life.


The songs presented usually last for something around 10 seconds until they end, and present her thoughts with few one-liners. These are not very funny nor witty, rather remind casually written yet angry-toned shitposting. So basically, normal shitposting. The series does good job on capturing the atmosphere of Retsuko's "normal" daily-life in pretty much every aspect. The voice acting and BGM capture the inner (weeb word incoming) nichijou. The actual badassery and the whole other side of her life, unfortunately, pretty much fail to deliver. Simply because the songs are so short, and the most rewarding and hilarious parts of the series end way too quickly when they should be pushed further instead.


Retsuko is comparable to Detroit Metal City, Cromartie or Metalocalypse for the manly and bro badassery, and to Shirokuma Cafe as a comedy series starred by animal-characters. I will especially recommend Ritsuko for the fans of these mentioned series and vice versa. And also to those who are browsing Netflix in hopes of finding something light for casual viewing as that's where Retsuko shines.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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