Aggressive Retsuko (ONA) 4th Season

I’m not gonna lie, when I saw Aggretsuko get a 4th season, the cynic in me thought this was too much of a good thing. Season 3 was already a satisfying conclusion to Retsuko’s arc, and anything more would just be Western producers--in this case Netflix--milking a show into oblivion. I especially dreaded the idea of Retuko taking a step backward in her life just so they can prolong her story (as many other shows have done). After completing the 4th season, I guess I was kind of right? Retsuko doesn’t change that much throughout the 4th season because the show is no longer about ... her growth as a person. It seems strange, but even though her name’s still in the title, Retsuko isn’t really the main character anymore: Haida is.

Now I thought the beginning of the season was downright silly. At the end of the 3rd season, I thought the Retsuko x Haida couple was a forgone conclusion, so watching a dumb romcom couched in high-school misunderstandings was beyond insipid. Haida was literally--and I mean LITERALLY--one step away from her doorstep, but he was too much of a pussy to take it. Yes, the show acknowledges how stupid this is, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. Seriously, it was hard for me to tolerate an indecisive soyboy Haida with a self-esteem as thin as paper not being able to ask out his crush he’s been pining over for half a decade. I realized later on that this was a necessary setup to fully examine Haida as a character, so the second half improved a lot for me.

This season comes with a new antagonist: the company's new president (I forgot his name). While the first season explored the abuse of power rampant in a corporation, this season explores the more underground corruption plaguing it. Not only is he quick to criticize the outdated tradition of his seniors, but he’s also so obsessed with efficiency to the point of treating employees more like machines than actual humans. Haida, being the most efficient member of the department, becomes the new head of accounting. Haida is highly impressionable and is unsure of himself, so he desperately seeks outward validation. And now that he finally does get validation, it corrupts him. He’s now willing to do ethically questionable things just to protect that meager validation, and in the process, becomes more closed-off than ever before. Ultimately, confidence should come from within, not from someone else, and this season kinda delivers on that message--though the ending did feel a bit rushed.

Aggretsuko remains as thoughtful as ever, but as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t need a 4th season. The fact that Retsuko was sidelined for most of it makes me feel like the writers were grasping at straws, figuring out how to prolong the story without ruining what they’ve built up. If you’re watching just to revisit this eccentric cast, you’ll have a good time. For me, Haida isn’t nearly as likable as Retsuko, so I had a hard time getting invested. Anywho, it says "Retsuko will return" after the credits of episode 10, so what do I know? I'm probably gonna watch it anyway since it's so short and digestible.

Thanks for reading!

The Term "Character Assassinations'" was recently introduced to me as a friend of mine relayed his feelings towards a movie he has seen. He explained to me that it was difficult to enjoy the content when the main character kept making bad decisions. After watching Season 4 of Aggretsuko, those words popped into my head.

While Not Outright Attempting to ruin the experience I must Mention that

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

The Ending of Season 3 of Aggretsuko put a lot of the shows best cards on the table, which made me and i'm sure many others really be excited for the potential of another season. ... Retsukos secret is known to the world, she's made some level of peace with her mundane job, and the chances for love seem to be implied to be right around the corner. Seeing how Season 4 plays with the past as a result can vary from, acceptable to indifferent to frustrating.

Season 4 has two main plot threads, the chance of a relationship for Haida and Retsuko, and the bold business decisions of new acting company President Himuro.

On the one hand, the first thread is something the show has played with from the very beginning and its potential was always one that I'm sure many people who were active Haida X Retsuko shippers were waiting for. On the other hand... this is a very hard relationship to root for after a certain point. How much time we must spend playing will they or won't is certainly a problem but ultimately...

The problem is Haida. No longer just a guy pining after his co-worker he's essentially this seasons lead character. Unfortunately this is where those two little words I opened this review with rear their head.

To put it simply, Haida makes bad decision after bad decision this season. From spending half the season with cold feet in love making it impossible to progress the relationship at all, to his new found place in the company, and the choices he's ready to make for approval. It lasts all the way up to the point that you think the show is ready to abandon any chance of liking the character anymore all the way up to the shows final few minutes. This wouldn't be nearly as big of a deal if he wasn't so much of the focus this season, and as a result the core stories being offered here feel less then stellar to say the least of seasons past. It's great that the show gave us a chance to let us understand him better as a person, something Retsuko says in regards to him several times this season. It's just that what's here feels rather weak and less like something you'd expect from the character but more of a way to create a 10 episode season that may very well could have been resolved in...I don't know 3? 4? It's definitely possible

Director Ton also gets more time in the spotlight then usual, and I'm mixed about this. On the one hand, it's nice to see a more human side to him, seeing a side of him that values his job and his employees...but on the other hand this chance for empathy feels like it was missed a long time ago with the amount of times he's harassed employees and made sexist comments. It feels like the show wants to say he should get a clean pass, there are greater evils, and I'm not sure I agree...still he brings some of the more humorous scenes you'll find this season...for as many as you can find anyways.

And then there's Retsuko herself. She's here...she's certainly here, but other than playing her part in just a constant lack of communication between herself and Haida which slows the show down a lot, it often feels like she's just a side character, doing what i'm sure was plenty but still not much in comparison to the larger portions of this season.

Even the namesake of the show, her death metal Karaoke feels incredibly underutilized as Retsuko spends far more time drinking Coffee/Tea with her friends at a restaurant instead of belting out lyrics at the Karaoke. It's especially frustrating since now that all of her friends and Co-Workers know her secret, you'd think that more time would be spent here. But nobody has any questions, rarely does anyone have any desire to sing (not to say that there aren't moments) and the death voice seems more utilized as a platform to aid Ton during the Business part of this story. (Still nice to see how popular she is)

There are good things about this season. Characters like Fenneko and Tsunoda as the love police are constantly entertaining. Anais frustration from trying to be better about NOT yelling at company heads is pretty funny, and Kaba's personal struggles in the company and her passion for her children are all entertaining moments...it's just a shame that these moments feel like savory treats in what is otherwise a bit of a messy story. If there were more of these i'm sure my overall enjoyment rating would've been higher.

It sucks to say all this because i'm actively a big fan of this anime. I rewatch old seasons every time a new one drops and I enjoy them just as much on rewatch...the problem is Season 4 of Aggretsuko feels far more disconnected from anything that the show has done before than rather than feel like it's the natural stepping point going forward, it's a completely different, somewhat entertaining but just not as good story. I did see that Retsuko will return though, so given the way this season ended, there's still a lot of potential for season 5 to differentiate itself from this season and perhaps focus a little more on Retsuko.

If you love this Anime, you'll have a fair amount of fun with season 4 but you may also finish the season questioning whether or not they made their first less than exceptional season. I'm still glad I watched it though, I still had fun, and if you feel like giving it a watch, I hope you will too!

Overall I rate mostly on enjoyment and the story brought that down for me so...

Final Score 6.5 (ish)/ 10

You know how you sometimes have to pull the cord on a gas lawnmower a bunch of times to get it going, but after it starts it continues generally fine? Season 4 of "Aggretsuko" is kind of like that.

The first HALF of the season is a will-they-or-won't-they over Retsuko and Haida, after Season 3 spent so long bringing that to a head. Pretty much everything other aspect of the season gets *set up* while that's going on, but is firmly in the background. At that point in the middle, I found that I just could not care anymore about whether or not they became a ... couple, because so much of the problem between them this season is simply that they don't communicate like adults. Now, part of that is Haida's lack of confidence, which is a major factor of the season, but I feel like it wasn't too much to ask for them to resolve that in, say, three episodes? Maybe? Not 5. Not, really, the entire season. We only see them on happy dates a handful of times, even.

Anyway, overall season story is about a new and unscrupulous (and younger) CEO coming in to the company where Retsuko and the gang work. And, yes, the fact that he's younger is important because he's set up in contrast to the lackadaisical old guard bosses... who care about people's jobs. Cripes. Yes. In this season of the workplace comedy about how work sucks, the management gets humanized because they're people, too. And they're actually protecting you. Give me a fucking break. I recognize that this aspect of the season is even more steeped in Japanese business culture than usual, but it's an odious reversal. Ton is not a fucking good guy. He can be nice to his family, but he is not the only thing standing between the accounting department and the door. You don't get to go "well, he was young once, too," in Season 4. Especially since, yes, he should be stepping down soon. He's retirement age. Young leadership is good, and the only reason we don't acknowledge that is because of old guard mythmaking. Bah.

You may notice that not a lot of this has to do with Retsuko. Well. The season doesn't have much to do with Retsuko. That's not necessarily a bad thing. However, in this case, I thought it was unsatisfying because it comes down to her doing stuff online mostly offscreen and one climactic confrontation with Haida. And that's it. No matter how good it was to have some direct conflict between Haida and Retsuko, it couldn't carry things for me.

I'll say this, though: finally, the curse of the soft reset has been broken. Slightly. Almost everything is still the same for no reason, as of the last two minutes. But the Season 4 soft reset DOES allows one thing to change, and it's a good change. So here's to Season 5 and maybe having more luck next time.