Anime: Aggressive Retsuko (2018) 305i6r

Review
The japanese society may look like a wet dream for the young otaku, but those who have faced adult life and put some effort into learning about the eastern culture knows the truth: that is a society that feeds on the lives of responsible grown people. The messages are all around the anime industry too. You need only to how many high-school shows constantly refer as students in their third year as "the last year, period". Take some parodies about jobs such as New Game! and Servant x Service. Yeah, it is an adult life that is not exactly a life for most people.

Aggretsuko is yet another parody around that. Young adult Retsuko seems like a fine working citizen on the surface. She is diligent, educated, and tries her best to achieve the demands of the ing office where she works. Of course, that is only on the surface. Underneath the appearances her life is a mess: a repulsive chauvinist boss, she has to endure an artificially cute and obedient co-worker, gossips, and a lonely life with no light in the end of the tunnel. She has a secret to steam off her stress though: death metal karaoke.

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1. Contrasting aspects
   Retsuko is a cute red panda with a sweet voice, yet she sings death metal in screams and devilish expressions to take out everything that is bothering her. That's her secret, her single daily moment to walk into a karaoke room by herself and curse her boss, her annoying co-workers, and everything that is pissing her.
   
   This contrasting cuteness with her unconventional secret hobby and ion is where most of the comical focus of the show lies. Each episode is as if you had to endure all that fucking bullshit along with Retsuko just to yell the hell out of it by the end of the day. It's something easily relatable not only for officer workers, but by anyone else too.
   
   And it is simple too
   Retsuko has a lot of things to annoy her. Her boss is a pig, a sexist guy from old times who thinks he can harass employees just because he is the boss. He represents an structure of work which is still quite common in Japan and many other countries, where being a leader means being rude, repulsive, and do nothing besides giving orders around. It gets worse when Aggretsuko is all about the point of view of many female workers, giving us glimpses of a behavior with a lot of sexism carried alongside. Being an obedient girl is Retsuko's mission in that society...
   
   And of course she doesn't want that
   Although this is a simple comical parody, there is a lot of depth in Retsuko's tale and personality. Not only she has a secret hobby, but she puts on a mask to endure her everyday stress and is tricked by the masks others wear too. She labels some of her co-workers as annoying only to later find out they have plenty of reasons, she is seduced by the easy way out when trying to find a solution to her problems, she has trouble to understand others, even her own repulsive boss, and along these short episodes she learns quite a lot to grow as a woman.
   
   And it's modern
   Aggretsuko is a typical Sanrio cartoon-like show with animals and simple background more akin to old-fashioned flash comics of the past decade. It is sharp though, brimming with color, and with its own style. What makes it really shine, however, is an interesting combination of soundtrack and voice-acting, making each character stand out and giving a lot of impact to every situation around Retsuko's life. At many points it reminded me of some games such as Castle Crashers, where the music style worked greatly with the graphics to create a modern and dynamic atmosphere.
   

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Comments
I was impressed, really. I wasn't expecting much for the show, but it proved to be an smart comedy that most of the japanese industry fails to create. The reason it succeeds is perhaps the very aspect that was keeping me away from it at first: the cartoon style. It can look shiny and cute like Hello Kitty, but that is only an interesting contrast with a critique of work policies in Japan and a tale of funny events that many can easily relate to. If it had the cute girls and the basic otaku templates, this would certainly fall into some annoying trappings, so it is a blessing that it chose cartoon animal-like characters instead.

If you are pissed with your school, your job, and do something ridiculous to relief the stress (such as watching anime), then this is for you.

It is also important to point out there is an older Aggresive Retsuko animation, composed of shorter 1-minute episodes. This here is a remake, compiling previous content with upgraded quality while also adding something new to the mixture. If you are in doubt of which to watch, keep to the new one.