Relatable Red Panda: Aggretsuko (Netflix) Review

Who doesn’t occasionally wish they could scream at their horrible boss or want to tell that annoying co-worker to piss off? If this is you then we have the show for you!

Netflix recently worked with Sanrio to release an original anime of their character, Aggretsuko. Retsuko (25 years old, single, scorpio, blood type A) is a red panda who works as an office worker in a world of anthropomorphic animals. Her position as an accountant brings her lots of unneeded stress and she vents out her annoyances by way of her guilty pleasure, screaming to death metal every night.

The newly premiered Aggretsuko anime has one season with 10 episodes. Prior to the Netflix show, we have seen several Aggretsuko shorts that were released back when the character was first introduced. While the shorts from before were only small clips that showed Retsuko’s interests and daily life, this new anime gave us a coherent storyline that the audience can follow.

The amazing thing about Aggretsuko, and probably what launched it to popularity in the short time since it has be released, is how relatable the character is. I mean, who hasn’t developed a crush on the guy that helped you when you were incoherently drunk? The audience is able to identify with Retsuko and her emotions. She encounters struggles like: trying to save money, eating bread crust and mayo to save said money, having to endure exploitive superiors, annoying coworkers, sexist bosses, yearning to work in an environment that she actually likes, and so on. But the most relatable aspect of Aggretsuko is the portrayal of disappointments; life doesn’t end with fairytale happy endings.

Other than Retsuko you also have an assortment of different characters that interact with her in the show: Fenneko (fennec fox co-worker), Haida (hyena co-worker that has a crush on Retsuko), Kabae (hippo co-worker that loves to gossip), Ton (rude pig accounting director), Miss Gori (gorilla marketing director), Miss Washimi (bird secretary to the president), and more. Every character has amazing depth and development and they all do the things they do for a specific character-related reason. No one is stagnant or two dimensional. We are able to relate to the other characters as well, such as Miss Washimi and Miss Gori. When you first encounter them in the anime they seem perfect and without flaws. However, not two seconds into their introduction they immediately break that illusion and we are able to see that they are just like anybody else, a normal person.

This anime was so good that I binge watched the whole season in one sitting, something that I haven’t done since high school. What I love is that each episode is only about 15 minutes long which means  you don’t have to sit there forever waiting for the plot to show up. Everything is direct and to the point without extraneous details. Toward the last few episodes they also inserted a cheesy Disney-esque princess song that was just simply amazing to watch. It was super corny, but funny and cute as well. It was the perfect foil to Retsuko’s normal death metal pieces.

Aggretsuko is an amazing anime that I would totally recommend. Every episode is not only relatable, but also super cute as well. Although this isn’t a thriller anime, every episode still kept me on the edge of my seat; it really has amazing audience engagement. If you're given the chance, I would definitely advise you to check this anime out as soon as you can!

- Eunice

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OVERALL: A+

Pros:
+ Easy to follow storyline
+ Relatable characters and conflicts
+ Realistic characterization and development
+ Cute character designs
+ Great animation

​Cons:
- The realization that your life may be like Retsuko’s and you have to power through to stay positive in constant disappointments...

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