History Anime / Aggretsuko

** And only Retsuko could turn trying to peel off a label from a flower vase into an epic battle. [[spoiler: She loses.]]

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Haida is attracted to Retsuko in this adaptation, becoming more obvious about it in later episodes. In the final episode of the first season, [[spoiler: he confesses his feelings to her]]. The show also changes the relationship between Washimi and Gori. In the Netflix series, Washimi and Gori have already been friends for a long time before meeting Retsuko at yoga, while in original shorts, Washimi, Gori, and Retsuko all become friends at the same time after meeting each other at yoga

* AstralProjection: Yes, really! The yoga instructor is capable of doing this, and he uses it to [[spoiler: implant the number of the karaoke song into Gori's head, which causes Retsuko to open up to Gori.]] He got the ability as a result of "special training in India".

* BloodierAndGorier: By Sanrio standards, the second and third seasons of the Netflix series could be considered one of the company's bloodiest works. While the company [[BloodlessCarnage rarely shows any depictions of blood in any of their works]],[[note]] Besides being shown briefly in one episode of ''Onegai My Melody''[[/note]]. blood is shown twice in the second season. [[spoiler: The first is when Retsuko gets a bloody nose when she falls on her face while searching for Anai. The second is at a driving school, where Retsuko is taking a class so she can get her driver's license. One class lecture has her being taught about driver safety, and one of the slides in the slideshow features a possibly deceased bird complete with a bloody smashed windshield. Retsuko leaves the class in shock and feels nauseated.]] As for Season 3, [[spoiler: Retsuko almost gets killed by a stalker, we see blood splattered on her scarf and Haida's hand.]]
* BirdsOfAFeather: Both Retsuko and Haida are mild-mannered workers who have trouble in expressing their pent up frustration to other people. [[spoiler: Haida also seems to have an interest in punk rock music, which mirrors Retsuko's death metal hobby.]]

** Season 4 ends with Haida out of the job after a huge window dressing scheme, leaving him unemployed. However, Kabae and Ton regain their jobs, and in a parallel to Season 3 ending, his relationship with Retsuko grows even further.
** Season 5 wraps up with [[spoiler:Haida in an ambiguous situation with his family - both he and his brother have repudiated their father but are on speaking terms with each other again - and Retsuko's political ambitions have ended in defeat, but they are now together, with the distinct impression that Retsuko's career as a political figure has only just begun.]]

** Season 4 ends with [[spoiler:Haida out of the job after a huge window dressing scheme, leaving him unemployed. However, Kabae and Ton regain their jobs, and in a parallel to Season 3 ending, his relationship with Retsuko grows even further.]]

[[folder: Both Series]]

[[folder: Original TBS shorts]]

[[folder: Netflix series]]

** The election plot towards the end of season 5 sees a lot of logistical concerns become headaches, such as finding exactly the right location to run where perfect timing - a borderline-untouchable candidate retiring - is the only way Retsuko can put up a fight, the prohibitive expensiveness of putting down a deposit to run, and that funding from a down on its luck political party is often lacking, resulting in the generosity of others being vital for Retsuko’s name to even get on the ballot. [[spoiler:When the election day actually comes, Jiro crushes Retsuko by a landslide; even with her voter base coming out in massive droves and doing better than anyone ever expected, a better-connected legacy candidate in a regionally dominant political party who has plenty of charisma of his own is going to get more votes than an utter political rookie and late entrant, especially on a level as important as the National Diet. Still, this trope applies for Jiro’s victory as well; new blood igniting the passions of a voterbase means that a majority party **can’t** just rest on its laurels and hope to win. It’s implied heavily that it was ultimately his last-minute willingness to defy his father’s stay-the-course attitude and demand a policy change as bold as a maximum age limit for representatives that swung things back in his favor. In short, even ‘bulletproof’ politicians need to take opposition candidates’ chances seriously and campaign accordingly.]]

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was announced in July 2018 and was released on June 14, 2019. A third season was confirmed in August 2019 and released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] teased a fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season in September 2022 and aired on February 16th, 2023.

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was announced in July 2018 and was released on June 14, 2019. A third season was confirmed in August 2019 and released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] teased a fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season in September 2022 and will air on February 16th, 2023.

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was announced in July 2018 and was
released on June 14, 2019. A third season was confirmed in August 2019 and released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] teased a fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season in September 2022 and will air on February 16th, 2023.

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was released on June 14, 2019. A third season was released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] teased a fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season and will air on February 16th, 2023.

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was released on June 14, 2019. A third season was released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] teased a fifth season, which was later confirmed to be the final season and will air in February of 2023.

The collaborative TBS x Netflix series, which began with a ten-episode season that was released in 2018, is different from the shorts as it focuses more on Retsuko pushing through bigger societal problems, such as dealing with horrible bosses, and the problems of falling straight into love. The episodes are also longer (around 15 minutes) and follow a new continuity compared to the original series. Adaptation tropes do apply to this series.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The English dub has the characters say Retsuko's name as ''"Rets-ko"'', instead of ''"Ret-sue-ko"'' that many may expect. This is actually more accurate to the original Japanese, the 'U' sound in Japanese is much shorter than their other sounds, and is often used to bridge consonants in English words, ''" Aguresshibu"'' for 'Aggressive' for example.

* SurpriseCreepy: Some episodes of the second season have some surprisingly creepy and ominous moments compared to Season 1 and the TBS shorts, such as Retsuko beginning to panic when she hears about a robber breaking into her house and [[spoiler: Anai aggressively texting Retsuko and Haida and upsetting Tsunoda and Ton]]. However, one moment that sticks out the most [[spoiler: is the slideshow where Retsuko is shown a picture of a cracked windshield with blood and a deceased driver.]] Season three is even worse, [[spoiler: [[LoonyFan since a stalker]] of the girl group [=OTMGirls=] attempted to murder Retsuko.]]

** Resasuke has a rather blank and unemotional face and a mole just under his nose, but after Retsuko falls for him she sees him with a more attractive, stereotypically {{Bishonen}} face with a mole under his left eye.

In September 2022, it was announced that Aggretsuko will end after five seasons.

A ChristmasSpecial titled ''"We Wish You a Metal Christmas"'' was released on December 20, 2018, [[ImmediateSequel and takes place right after season 1.]] A second season of the Netflix series was released on June 14, 2019. A third season was released on August 27th, 2020. On December 23rd, 2020, a fourth season was announced and premiered on December 16th, 2021. [[TheStinger A short message at the very end of the fourth season]] all but confirms a fifth season.

* SadistShow: The original shorts were like this. Good things almost never happen to Retsuko and most of the other characters are either jerks or just annoying to Retsuko and never face any consequences for their behavior. The Netflix series is less sadistic, as although good things still rarely happen to her, the series shows her learning and maturing from her experiences. Although the first season ends with her continuing to take abuse from her coworkers and bosses, she is a lot more positive about it than in the beginning of the series.* ShoutOut:

* SadistShow: The original shorts were like this. Good things almost never happen to Retsuko and most of the other characters are either jerks or just annoying to Retsuko and never face any consequences for their behavior. The Netflix series is less sadistic, as although good things still rarely happen to her, the series shows her learning and maturing from her experiences. Although the first season ends with her continuing to take abuse from her coworkers and bosses, she is a lot more positive about it than in the beginning of the series.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: The show has quite a lot of animals that are obscure or uncommonly seen in animation. These animals include red panda, fennec fox, spotted hyena, maned wolf, Komodo dragon, secretary bird, caracal, Pallas's cat, capybara, axolotl, mandrill, and Japanese badger.
* ShoutOut:

* RantInducingSlight: The abuse Retsuko takes from her boss and coworkers inspires her angry Death Metal songs.

* ScrewDestiny: On New Years Day Retsuko gets a fortune predicting great misfortune. Her response is "Bring it on!"

** Tsunoda’s interactions with Retsuko and others are laden with passive-aggressiveness disguised as politeness, and she has a habit of blatantly sucking up to Director Ton to avoid the mistreatment he directs to other employees. As a consequence, much of the staff badmouths her behind her back. [[spoiler:She’s completely aware of what everyone thinks of her and doesn’t care one bit, reasoning that her sycophantic actions are worth it if they make Ton and the work environment in general less abusive. In addition, she’s fully aware of Fenneko’s social media sleuthing, and exploits it by loading her accounts with things she know will anger Fenneko.]]
** Director Ton shifts his own work onto employees who already have their hands full and pushes menial tasks onto the women in his workforce, all the while berating them for not getting their doubled or tripled workload finished on time. To top it all off, he’s a literal sexist pig. [[spoiler:Much of his bitterness toward his employees comes from mistreatment he endured from his own boss, [[FairForItsDay which was acceptable when he was an underling but isn’t seen as lightly now that he’s a boss himself.]] Shortly after, he's shown to be a surprisingly talented rapper, hinting that back in the day he too used musical diss tracks to vent his anger against his bosses]]. And despite his constant slacking off, the final episode shows that [[BrilliantButLazy he’s more than qualified for his position]] by crunching down on a week’s worth of work in day using only an abacus. And in the final episode of both Season 1 and 2 he gives Retusko some surprisingly useful relationship advice.

** Resasuke could be interpreted as a deconstruction of this trope. Out of the main cast, he’s the character who (unwittingly) presents his inner self the most outwardly …and is regarded as an eccentric BlackSheep by the office for it. But despite being good-natured, he’s self-centered to a fault, [[spoiler:which is part of what ultimately ends his relationship with Retsuko.]] On the other side of the coin, he also [[spoiler: appreciates and enjoys Retsuko’s death metal singing when she finally reveals her penchant for it to him, rather than regarding it as unusual.]]
** The penultimate scene of the first season discusses this trope: [[spoiler:Haida admits that he’s probably not attracted to Retsuko herself, so much as who he perceives Retsuko to be, and in dating her wants to learn who she really is.]]

* MeetingTheParentsSequel: Season 2 gives us the debut of Retsuko’s overbearing mother.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The English dub has the characters say Retsuko's name as ''"Rets-ko"'', instead of ''"Ret-sue-ko"'' that many may expect. This is actually more accurate to the original Japanese, the ‘U’ sound in Japanese is much shorter than their other sounds, and is often used to bridge consonants in English words, ''" Aguresshibu"'' for ‘Aggressive’ for example.

* PointyHairedBoss: The elephant CEO wastes the company’s money on ridiculous projects and get pushed around by the much more competent Washimi.

* MatureAnimalStory: While not as dark as other examples, the series is one of Sanrio's only properties specifically aimed at adults, even though it takes place in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals with [[ArtStyleDissonance adorable designs]]. The series mostly avoids the well-known [[TastesLikeDiabetes sugary sweetness]] seen in the company's [[Anime/OnegaiMyMelody other]] [[Toys/{{Jewelpet}} anime series]], as it tackles issues such as {{Mean Boss}}es, sexism in the workplace, disagreeable coworkers, and other challenges of adulthood.

* ArtStyleDissonance: The show is full of {{Ridiculously Cute Critter}}s, and yet the show mainly explores surprisingly mature and dark themes, thus the art style goes completely at odds with the content. This includes topics such as work life issues, female workplace sexism, bullying co-workers (or being on the receiving end of it), and general life expectations. Retsuko often screams her inner frustrations out either in her head or at the Karaoke booth, and isn't above getting wasted on alcohol too. There is also copious amounts of swearing in the Netflix series, which ''really'' doesn't fit the age rating.