Anime Series: Aggressive Retsuko
Creators: Sanrio
Genre: Comedy, musical, episodic short-form
First Aired: Spring 2016
What’s it about?
From the same company that brought Hello Kitty into the world comes the wonderful, short, episodic anime, Aggressive Retsuko. This series features a 25-year-old, anthropomorphic, red panda named Retsuko going through daily trials and tribulations as a new working adult.
As Retsuko progresses through her days at work, she encounters the familiar stresses of dealing with an office job (superiors, co-workers, etc.), friends, and general life. Because of her polite demeanor, good-natured spirit, and the need to keep one’s self level-headed in public, she hides her annoyance at various things until she can release these pent-up frustrations through death metal karaoke after work. Her songs bash the hypocrisy of her co-workers’ actions, work, and life.
Her after-work karaoke sometimes seeps into her internal monologues, depicting her frustrated thoughts in death metal style. Each episode ends with the frustrations drained after the musical release and follows with a pick-me-up message of looking forward to a better tomorrow by taking it on with a can-do attitude.
It’s a fun series, meant as a pick-me-up for the long days. The animation is cute and simplistic. The episodes have a predictable format and the death metal is not heavy. I am not a fan of death metal but found the music to be comedic. The series is charming and each episode is only a minute long, so if you want to watch something cute and funny after a long day at work or school, you might want to give this show a try.
An official trailer is available on YouTube and Netflix is a licensed distributor.
Edits: (29 May 2018) Added: “going through daily trials and tribulations as a new working adult” & “Netflix is a licensed distributor.”