The newest and third entry of Netflix’s workplace animated comedy Aggretsuko has a number of shifts, both in the storyline themes and the setting. For starters, there’s not much of the actual office work this season due to the situation Retsuko’s found herself in, and there’s much more emphasis on the show’s musical aspects.
The satirical aspects of Japanese culture, romantic angles, and criticism of the corporate rat race (no pun intended) from previous seasons are still there, but now there’s examinations of the trappings of fame and personal privacy at play, sometimes even taking a darker turn by the show’s typical standard.
Following the end of last season when she passed on settling down with Tadano, Retsuko (dubbed with amicable appeal by Erica Mendez) been feeling down and is using a virtual reality unicorn boyfriend to cope with her heartbrokenness. The writers take some shots at how microtransactions can suck your funds dry if not careful- as her friend Fenneko (Katelyn Gault, as dry as ever) discovers- and Rets has spent so much of her food money on buying digital clothes for her bishonen horse that she’s having bread crusts for lunch. After getting a loan from her mom, she clips a van parking into a steakhouse that locks her into a pop rollercoaster, against her will.
YouTube personality SungWon “ProZD” Cho is extremely entertaining as the music manager leopard Hyodo, who’s behind a struggling indie idol trio called OTMGirls. Though they do have a couple of intensely devoted horse and owl fanboys, they’re on a tough grind, and Hyodo hires Retsuko as the band’s new account to help pay off her insurance debt. On the side Retsuko decides to post death vocal lessons online to help raise more money, but when Hyodo finds one of the videos, her role with the group quickly evolves.
This story has some nice examination of Retsuko’s evolving maturity level, her willingness to say “no” when she should, and balancing pursuing one’s dreams and also maintaining a distance from the public. We’ve seen Retsuko and the rest of the cast confront potential lifestyle changes and relationship issues, but this is the first true time the characters have had to deal with a genuinely dangerous, life-threatening situation. And while this has always been a fairly mature minded series, it’s still a cartoon from Sanrio, and it might take you by surprise by how intense the writers are willing to get with these plot elements.
Luckily the panda accountant/metalhead still has friends looking out for her even when she doesn’t realize it. Ben Diskin delivers some of his best work as the awkward hyena Haida up to this point, and his crush on Retsuko is as adorable as ever- but complicating matters is his recent friendship with the new office girl Inui (Abby Trott). He strikes up some camaraderie with the tech prodigy Tadano (Griffith Burns) from last season, who is a bit more understanding of Retsuko’s run in OTMGirls than one would expect.
Gori (G.K. Bowes) also has some fun moments trying to justify her own overspending, and it turns out she may have eyes for the donkey entrepreneur. And the lead OTMGirl Manaka (dubbed by Deva Marie Gregory) seems snarky and standoffish at first, but she’ll eventually subvert the audience’s expectations.
Regarding the finale, I’m gonna try my best not to spoil when commenting on this, but I noticed how some fans were dissatisfied and felt it wasn’t conclusive enough. Personally, I can understand where both characters involved are coming from. But I’ll just say that when you’re dealing with trauma, it takes small but gradual steps to work one’s way back to a sense of normalcy- and in some cases, the individual might be permanently impacted. That doesn’t make the victim cowardly, it’s just that scars are part of the healing process, if that makes sense.
Still, if you were a fan of the first two Aggretsuko seasons, there’s plenty to love here and you’ll definitely keep rooting for much of the cast. It feels in some respects like they want to keep a bit of the status quo structure, but I do see where the show can also branch out into new directions based on the developments here. If you’ve checked it out, as usual swing by FAN on Facebook and Twitter to let us know your feelings on it!