Mike Reitemeier
Mike ReitemeierWarning: The following review contains mild spoilers for Season 3 of Aggretsuko.
Aggretsuko has been one of the most welcome surprises to Netflix in recent years. The makers of Hello Kitty have brought a hyper-relatable 9-5 workplace dramedy to our screens. The series gives Western watchers like me a taste of what life is like in Japan, while introducing a lot of relatable, complex characters to the mix. Both season one and two were a joy to watch, only taking a few hours to power through with concise, focused episodes.
Season three takes things in a bit of a different direction, though. Retsuko is thrust into a double-life as she has to repay a surmountable debt after a traffic accident. The season sees her start to be less passive with her newfound responsibilities, and sees her grow into a more dominant character. A character that is not afraid to take charge and express her feelings outside of the karaoke booth she frequented in seasons one and two.
Unfortunately, the meat of a lot of episodes no longer feature the workplace drama. Instead they give precedence to Retsuko’s night-life with the idol group she accounts, co-manages, and later joins. While exciting and fresh, no longer do the viewer get a chance to relate to the struggles and turmoil Retsuko experienced in her day job. In fact, there’s only three or so karaoke sessions from our red panda.
Retsuko’s co-worker Haida gets the spotlight in season three, with his new love interest, Inui, offering him a chance to no longer pine over Retsuko. This was a clear-cut opportunity for growth for Haida, but he flubbed this obvious chance at happiness as he still had feelings for Retsuko. This is immensely frustrating to watch, but had to happen to cement the climax in the final episode of the season.
Here’s where things start to derail and culminate into my biggest gripe with the show so far. Retsuko is physically attacked outside of her work, with Haida stopping the attacker before he can do any damage. Inui casually walks by and patches him up, in front of an unconscious Retsuko. It is there that they cement their incompatibility, all in the midst of an armed assailant. This traumatic event is taken ever-so-lightly, diminishing its severity.
Retsuko then shuts in with her parents, until Haida gets a 100% compatibility match with her and decides to remove her from her safe space and go to karaoke. He then berates Retsuko for coping with her trauma and pleads his case to be with her. Thankfully, Retsuko shuts him down. She returns to work and the season ends with Haida and Retsuko walking down a hallway deliberating what to eat for lunch. What?
This was an immensely disappointing season of what was previously a marvelous commentary on workplace drama. Its handling of trauma is frankly dangerous and deplorable. There were plenty of enjoyable moments, but it was an inconsequential season, and didn’t further much along in terms of character development other than revealing that Haida is an awful person. There will need to be a lot of progression and fixing done in season four to renew my love for the show, but for now, season three left a bad taste in my mouth.
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Aggretsuko Season 3
Pros
- Great art
- Retsuko finally gets confident
Cons
- Deviates from the show's focus
- Atrocius handling of trauma
- Awkward moments of silence
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