Aggressive Retsuko (ONA) 2nd Season

Red panda Retsuko continues to work at her cyclic office job, with the occasional stress-venting via death metal karaoke on the side. With the company of her newfound friends Gori and Washimi, life is more enjoyable than ever before. But some new shake-ups to her status quo threaten to add more stress to her life. At the office, new employee Anai seems like a fine addition to the company. Yet when Retsuko is placed in charge of his training, she finds that beneath his steadfast dedication, he may pose a threat to the stability of the workplace. Meanwhile, at home, Retsuko's mother pays an abrupt visit, fully intent on having her daughter finally settle down and find a man. With this in mind, she sets Retsuko up for various marriage appointments, much to her chagrin.

Now, Retsuko finds all the more reasons to head to the karaoke bar and unleash her furious diatribes. However, knowing that this will not truly solve her problems, she decides to make a more spontaneous choice to avoid her issues. And so, Retsuko finds herself set upon another self-reflecting journey, coming to learn more about herself and love, with the ever cathartic support of death metal karaoke.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Retsuko Main

Rareko Japanese

Haida Supporting

Katou, Shingo Japanese

Fenneko Supporting

Inoue, Rina Japanese

Tadano Supporting

Sasa, Chiharu Japanese

Washimi Supporting

Koiwasaki, Komegumi Japanese

Buchou, Gori Supporting

Tsuruta, Maki Japanese

Buchou, Ton Supporting

Arai, Souta Japanese

Tsunoda Supporting

Inoue, Rina Japanese

Kaba, Megumi Supporting

Takahashi, Yuki Japanese

Anai Supporting

Arai, Souta Japanese

Rareko Director

Leroy, Julie Script

Núñez, Hugo ADR Director

Marques, Jussara ADR Director

Reviews

Jun 14, 2019

CodeBlazeFate

Recommended

“What am I doing, really?”

The second season of Aggretsuko seeks to delve into this question. It’s a question I ask myself a lot, as I know many here do. After all, it’s a question even more relatable than the struggles of the workplace and having to work with people who make your job harder. While I’m not sure this second season succeeds at tackling either quite as well as the first did with the former, it’s still a charming and relatable season of one of 2018’s greatest shows.

One of the best things about both characters is how fleshed-out the characters feel, as it’s easier to ... connect with almost every character in this season, just like last time. The arc that Retsuko goes through is still great, and even easier to connect with than ever, with issues of learning to drive, dealing with overly meddling parents and peers who can’t take criticism, and having to deal with the prospect of marriage crammed down her throat. As good as it is, I think it comes at the cost of some of the other characters. The series has always been about Retsuko, but at times I feel some of the side characters got underrepresented. Retsuko’s older friends, Washimi and Gori, have about as much screen time as before, and are about as fun to hang out with as before. Her boss Ton’s presence still looms over both arcs of the season, but he’s no longer an antagonist to deal with, so his decreased presence makes perfect sense. Her best friends, Fenneko and Haida, do take a hit in terms of screen time, especially Fenneko who never has much relevance in any given episode outside of a few funny jokes. Other returning characters also have varying amounts of screen time, and one of the most pivotal characters of the first season’s second half is absent entirely. That said, it’s impressive how much we get to learn about most of these characters, even now, later into the franchise and with most of the side characters having less screen time.

There are a few new characters, most of which are entertaining, but there are only two I’ll bring up here: Anai and Tadano. Without spoiling, neither character is who they seem to be at first glance, with Anai serving as a somewhat disturbing antagonist of the first arc and the latter proving to be more interesting and layered over time in spite of how nonchalant he is. Both characters’ relationships with Retsuko feel a bit rushed, with Anai’s bad blood with Retsuko essentially dissipating after one big moment in the climax of episode 5, and Tadano’s conclusion with Retsuko feeling like it could have used more time, on top of feeling a bit rehashed from the first season. That said, the arcs starring these two characters are mostly solid, even though the former drops one tension-inducing plot point halfway into the arc, and the latter feels a bit rushed and almost a tad too high in scope. It also gets a bit more topical than the first season towards the end, adding to the heightened sense of scope.

Visually, this second season is about on par with the first, with a few new crazy facial expressions, some visually interesting sequences, and a fair amount of fun new character designs for Fanworks to play with. It’s about as simple and effective as before. Musically, there are barely any new tracks mixed in with the fun earworms of the previous season, as expected. One problem I have with the soundtrack is that while it doesn’t feel the need to kick off every episode with Retsuko screaming her head off, it decides it needs a few cheesy musical numbers, like in the penultimate episode. There’s also no new OP or ED, but those were the last thing on either season’s priorities anyway, so it seems we have to settle for new opening visuals and nothing else. At least the dub is still wonderful.

Ultimately, while I do have some misgivings with this second season, it’s still charming, funny, and relatable, like a good friend that knows how to level with everyone. I’m not entirely sure how much longer they can keep this series going without losing freshness, but I’m glad this second season was still a fun ride we could all use. Aggretsuko knows exactly what it’s doing, but what about us?

Written and edited by: CodeBlazeFate
Proofread by: Peregrine

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 14, 2019

CatSoul

Recommended

Aggretsuko stans, come get y'all juice.

After a year that began to seem like an eternity, Sanrio has blessed us with a new season of Aggretsuko (certainly blessing their own wallets in the process with the revived merchandise sales it'll result in). There was plenty at stake, as well as plenty to resolve that was left over from the first season.

I'm very happy to report that Sanrio has more than delivered. Much like the first season, Aggretsuko not only anthropomorphizes its animal characters - it humanizes them into characters the viewer comes to really care about, including a few characters they have been on the fence ... about in the first season. Not only are the old favorites back, but there are a few new faces in the picture to keep things interesting.

A lot more is placed this season on Retsuko's love life, mostly due to the involvement of her mother. But unlike the first season, Retsuko's love life doesn't seem like a brief derailment towards the end - it's a natural part of her life, being a 25-year-old woman. A few curious men enter her life and serve to overall progress her character.

Overall, Aggretsuko season 2 is almost everything I could've asked for, with a few twists involving new cast members and even new music styles. Anyone who watched the first season should be more then satisfied with its progression, and will hopefully join the rest of the community in supporting the series via official streaming and merchandise so we get a season 3.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 13, 2024

Karkov_05

Mixed Feelings

Seeing that it had a second season, a slight hope was born in me that maybe it could improve significantly, just like Breaking Bad and well...

There is potential to take the plot somewhere, and you feel a message and moral in the matter and it ends with a message so extremely toxic that it would only make sense in Japan and the solution would have been to literally do what they do in the next season here and not undoing everything in a reset in each season and that's how a series feels that is going towards something. It remains meh with wasted potential.

Once again ... a complete disappointment of a series, I only hope that the third season improves.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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