Aggressive Retsuko (ONA) 5th Season

This was a much-needed part for the series. As a finale, however? I would disagree with the basic idea. The series has tackled many topics across its different seasons: work-place ethics and environments, social relationships, complacency and ambition, peer pressure and fitting in, adulting and depression, and so many more. Ending a series with politics? It will certainly be a point of concern and debate. However, Aggretsuko had always been about its mix of mundanity and absurdism, hilariously jarring segments and wild chaotic additions to scenes and characters, which get to be rounded up fairly well and under their own spotlights. That was mostly what ... the seasonal arcs were more, after all. This season, however, chose an interesting way to juxtapose another of its strange conflict. People and politics.

The season started off rather slowly. While it was clearly an integral part to Haida's own character arc, it was also a setup for the final encircling plot for the series. In hindsight, there was a charm to that absurd change of pace, however. And is it really that absurd compared to what is actually happening in real-life, even outside the sphere of Japan? Is it merely laughable as a concept at this point? Maybe. Perhaps the execution could have been more compelling, especially for the grand scheme of "politics". But Aggretsuko has presented itself very well as somehwat of a reality show that had always been about the common person. Politics to conclude the series? Definitely sounded horrible as a premise. But in the worldbuilding of Aggretsuko and everything absurd and realistic it has mixed for its runtime, the idea bore fruit to an interesting product that is laughably imperfect, but has always retained its charisma.

Great show. For all the side-eyes it could have gotten for its cutesy aesthetic, let it be known that this is another book where you don't instantly judge its cover. Give it a shot. Have your own take-away.

I think this anime is an absolute must watch. This season of Aggretsuko went away from discussing situations at work to discussing situations out of work. It discusses unemployment, homelessness, no motivation to work or get a job, the whole situation where you need to ask your parents for money when you are almost broke... It just preached about new adults and how their financial situations work. I loved 3 scenes in this anime... they each discussed something related to work as a concept or shoving society on its butt and doing what you want. The show is like, "What is work? Why do we ... do it? What's the point?" or "Why do I need a full time job? Getting hired is such a hassle. Can't I just work part time forever?" The answers to these questions were so profound that I paused the tv, walked around the house for 10 minutes thinking about it, then went back to the tv and to quote the entire scene on my notes app.

Fanworks has a very unique anime style. I am personally a fan of the style, but besides that you can see some really good upgrades from season 1 to season 5 in animation. There were quite a few panorama scenes or scenes with big zoom outs that were animated well. The music is awesome, as it has been in the previous seasons.

The characters in this season are really fun. They each have their unique quirks or personalities that make for fun character interaction and plot points. I love all the characters in this anime, and it's fun to realize how many of them have really deep and intense character arcs/backstories. Yes, this office place comedy show has characters with deep and intense character arcs. Aggretsuko is just built different.

This show discusses so many societal issues... and even society its self... and has the most amazing dilouge for when it does. God tier script. The overall plot of the story was very good as well. There are like 12 different plot points in a 10 episode anime. It was amazing. I would recommend this show to anyone. Please consider watching it. It's a must watch for the information it gives and the enjoyment I experienced when watching it.

Aggretsuko was an anime that I really loved when it first premiered. I thought the first season was really great and seasons 2 and 3 are in my opinion, the strongest seasons of the bunch. Then season 4 happened and it kind of disappointed me even though I liked it. For my thoughts on season 5: I liked it better than season 4 but as a whole, it was just fine. Which sucks because as far as series finales go, this one didn't end with a bang.

What carried Aggretsuko was it's commentary on social issues that affect not only the people in Japan but everyone ... as a whole who are struggling with their work and persona lives. Season 5 is no exception and it painfully showed just how difficult it is to get jobs after quitting or getting fired, the predatory aspects of gacha, and not knowing what to do with your life when you feel like nothing is going your way. It was great, near perfect even.

But then the political campaign stuff came out of nowhere and that's where the show lost me. It came out of left field that I wasn't sure what to think of it. In hindsight, it kind of makes sense given what this season deals with but the execution of it was so weird. Why in any way shape or form would it be a good idea for Retsuko to be a politician? I know with anime you kind of have to throw your sense of disbelief out the window 80% of the time but in this case it didn't mesh well with the story. It was there to add something to the plot but it wasn't done in the best way. Even though it didn't end on a high not, I still think that it was a good decent story and the ending really made me feel hopeful and happy for Retsuko and Haida.

Aside from the strange turn of events, the characters thankfully were the saving grace. Haida was a character I felt mixed about because the previous season didn't do him much justice but here he really went above and beyond with his approach to life and I was cheering him on through everything. Retsuko herself is still my favorite and I got to give props to her for being a well rounded character through and through. And of course the supporting cast is still funny as every.

Season 5 of Aggretsuko was fairly decent. Had I wish it was better? Definitely. Toss away the political campaign stuff and done something different, I would've rated it higher. But I still enjoyed my time with it.