Deep down, Retsuko the red panda accountant is a death growler. But based on its themes, the new season of Netflix and Sanrio’s animated comedy Aggretsuko’s theme song should probably be Joe Jackson’s “You Can’t Get What You Want (Til You Know What You Want).” She’s still venting her daily struggles and anxieties through heavy metal karaoke, except now there’s a stronger focus on her love life, with a new batch of characters to play off of and inspire new angry headbangers.
It’s unofficially divided into two halves, the first focusing on a young badger college graduate named Anai who’s landed his first job at Retsuko’s department, and the second on her friendship with a cute donkey named Tadano she meets while taking driving lessons. Throughout the ten new episodes, Retsuko’s mother is constantly calling and stopping by her apartment unannounced to clean, cook and suggest potential husbands for her daughter to settle down with.
The piggish Director Ton is still pushy and overbearing, as he demands Retsuko train the inexperienced Anai into a great employee. Of course, he can’t wait for Retsuko to finally know how it feels to be the elder boss who’s despised by their workers. (Though much like the first season, he still has some unexpected good insight on rare occasions).
Unfortunately, Anai’s incredibly high strung and takes every criticism as an unacceptable personal attack, frequently complaining to Retsuko in e-mails and reporting to the higher-ups. (When she gets fed up with it, her metal takedown is notably angrier than usual.) Here’s where her co-worker Kabae the hippo gets some entertaining spotlight, showing a sweeter side to her personality besides being the office’s gossip.
Later, it’s revealed Tadano is a tech mogul who’s loaded with more money than he’s initially implied to Retsuko, and he attempts to woo her with the potential of ENI-O, his new artificial intelligence that could help Retsuko’s company. This has her co-worker hyena friend Haida at first starstruck with the blue mule, but he begins to see Tadano as a jackass once he becomes jealous of his and Retsuko’s relationship. All the while, Fenneko the fennec flips through her phone and provides dry but generally unmalicious color commentary on the events unfolding.
Her angry hard rock persona is pretty rebellious and badass, but these new stories interestingly paint Retsuko as more on the conservative end of many things- not in the political sense, but as far as social conventions. Despite being a young adult herself, her conflict with Anai is framed as a more experienced worker who needs to help their juniors get their heads on straight- and later in the season her worldview forces her to make a critical decision.
Still, the increased emphasis on character drama doesn’t entirely take away from the musical aspects. Retsuko’s still got plenty of heavy numbers to belt out, and other characters get in on the act- most notably Gori and Washimi performing a pop-rap argument over the benefits of marriage during Retsuko’s vacation, and Anai unleashing his hidden yakisoba-cooking skills to a techno-house beat.
Performance wise, Erica Mendez’s dubbing as Retsuko still has a great amount of range mixed with an adorable tone, while Kaolip is suitably childlike but still full of spirit, and Rarecho and Jamison Boaz’s roars on the metal tracks remain convincing. Ben Diskin’s Haida is still hyperactive but charmingly, and Sota Arai gets a hilarious moment when Anai makes his first office phone calls.
Y’know after thinking about it, this season resembles the vibe of a Weeknd album more than anything, with its focus on love and searching for one’s identity. But I mean that in a positive sense, because these new episodes of Aggretsuko are not just poignant, but also smart and wryly funny. The show still maintains its cute but brutally honest vibe, and Retsuko continues to develop as a person and protagonist, without neglecting what people like about the character or show.
The new additions and expansion of other character’s roles are very interesting and help Retsuko develop, and I hope they aren’t pushed totally aside for a third season. I don’t know exactly where Anai’s headspace is at the end of his first season, so I’m curious as to how he would further evolve, and Tadano’s status and ambition could make for some interesting future plot ideas. Also, can we get some screentime to that guitar Haida has at his house? What’s his degree of musical talent?
Either way, the second Aggretsuko season still has plenty of furious fun for its fandom, while also upping the heart aspect and not being afraid to try some different things. If you’ve been headbanging to this series on Netflix and have an opinion to share on it, as always come down to @Official_FAN on Twitter and shout it out loud!