YMMV / Aggretsuko

Both series

• Adorkable: Usually Fenneko is the other way around, but it's kind of hard to deny just how lovably adorable she acts whenever she gets drunk. She's also kind of a sweetheart to Retsuko; the only time Fenneko's ever mad at her is when she thinks she's turning into a social-media freak like Tsunoda, and even then it clears up quickly.
• Accidental Aesop: While the franchise as a whole encourages letting out the aggression that comes with the frustrations of everyday life, many have interpreted it as being about how women in particular shouldn't be expected to bottle up their anger.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The franchise has been steadily gaining popularity since 2016, and the Netflix series only boosted Retsuko's popularity up to a larger audience, especially in many western countries. Retsuko even showed up on Hot Topic's "Hot Minute" in October 2017 and collaborated with skateboard brand Chocolate both aimed at American and western audiences and made prior to the first teaser of the Netflix series.
  • The series even gained its own English-language comic series that's exclusive to the American and western market published by Oni Press. Making the series one of the only Sanrio creations handled by the western market^note Prior to the comics alongside Sanrio allowing Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema the film rights to Hello Kitty and other Sanrio properties. Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater was the only time Sanrio allowed a western company to handle their creations.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The first Western comic released, "Down With The Sickness", was about a mutant strain of flu passed around by employees not taking sick days and turning them into green, shuffling zombies. The flu strain was nicknamed "The C-Virus". Date of release? February 2020, one month before the COVID-19 pandemic began to pick up and long after the virus in question had started making its way around the world.
• Minion Shipping: Komiya and Tsunoda both suck up to and are seen as willing subordinates to Director Ton, and the two of them are commonly paired up as a couple, with one reason being their many character similarities.
• Popular with Furries: Retsuko has gained a lot of attention from furries since 2016 because red pandas are popular in the community. The anime series on Netflix only raised awareness and multiplied its popularity.
• Sweetness Aversion: Unlike other Sanrio character franchises/universes (especially Hello Kitty, My Melody, and others), the Aggretsuko series (mainly the Netflix series) mostly subverts this trope, due to having a very realistic setting and grounded in reality. Not only is this the first Sanrio character franchise geared towards older audiences (specifically teenagers and young adults), but notably lacks the Sugar Bowl setting^note The Aggretsuko series is designed after modern day Japan that's standard by the company^note Such as Mariland for My Melody, Jewel Land for the Jewelpets, and Merci Hills for Wish Me Mell. However, the series (such as the Netflix and original TBS shorts) does have it's own unique moments of expressing cuteness and does contain some genuinely heartfelt and sweet moments.
  • Compared to the Netflix series, Sanrio's official Japanese Twitter account for the franchise is much closer to Sanrio's traditional cute and upbeat nature^note Similar to the official Twitter pages for My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Wish Me Mell, and The Little Twin Stars (Kiki and Lala) compared to the English page, such as showing Retsuko and the other characters notably cheerful but occasionally dabbles into cynicism.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Retsuko's grandmother doesn't appear in the Netflix series, even though the TBS short in which she appeared implied that she's where Retsuko got her death metal voice from.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: It's a series about a cute red panda who's also a put-upon and deeply frustrated Office Lady. Despite the characters looking no different from any other cutesy Sanrio critter, it's squarely aimed at adult working women and has some content inappropriate for kids.
• The Woobie: Retsuko leads a pretty hard life, being constantly abused by her bosses who make her do their work, is unable to find a good romance, has a pretty lonely home life and ends up taking her frustrations out by singing Death Metal with Berserker Tears. Fenneko raises the possibility she'll be Driven to Suicide in the future.

TBS shorts

• Ensemble Dark Horse: Fenneko, despite being introduced relatively late in the TBS series, was well-liked due to her demeanor, reliability to Retsuko's situation, and her tendency to join in Retsuko's rage moments. It's no wonder why she became one of the main characters in the Netflix series.

Netflix series

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Your boss doesn't have to be your friend, and it's better generally if they aren't your besties, but they can still be your ally. Retsuko at first hesitates to befriend her superiors in yoga class because she worries that it would make things awkward at work. They reassure her it's okay and both women serve as her mentors. Later, while Ton isn't nice to Retsuko, he notices that she's being a Stepford Smiler about her relationship and gruffly advises her that All Take and No Give will hurt her, using accounting as an analogy.
  • If you have a person coming for a censored interview, make sure that the censors work properly as part of your responsibility as a TV host. As the interviewee, do not be too specific or you will give away your identity. A big reason why Retsuko's complaints in Season 1 got discovered is because her censor is an ineffective blur that couldn't even cover her face properly let alone her attire, with her face's obvious shape and colour giving her away. She herself also got too specific in her complaints, which allowed Ton to figure out that it is her complaining.
  • As Haida learned the hard way, there is no excuse to use a weak and predictable password.
• Adaptation Displacement: Outside Japan, this series is more well-known than the TBS shorts it was spun off from, helped by the fact that this series got an official English dub, unlike the shorts. Many who go to watch the shorts out of curiosity are surprised by their differences from the show, such as Fenneko and Haida being minor characters with completely different personalities.
• Adorkable: Haida is much MUCH more endearing in the Netflix series than his flippant playboy attitude in the TBS shorts. His more relatable and friendly demeanor makes him adorable in the eyes of many, and then turns it up to eleven if Retsuko is around.
  • Shirota is a big guy who's a bit older than Retsuko, but he looks just as awkward and flustered as she does when they're left alone together.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Resasuke's social awkwardness, the fact that he had to be coached and nudged every step of the way while dating Retsuko, and the scene of him returning home to his plants after she breaks it off begs the question of whether he was as miserable with her as she was with him.
  • Retsuko is oblivious to Haida's interest in her for the most part, and she falls hard for Resasuke. However, Haida's the first person Retsuko goes to in her plan to marry to get out of work, making some wonder if Retsuko had feelings for Haida before but it just didn't work out for that particular plan.
  • Similarly, did Haida always secretly have feelings for Retsuko, did her asking him about marriage put the idea in his head that he might until he decided that he did (by his own admission, he was more attracted to the idea of being with her before realizing he should get to know her better first), or is he only interested because the opportunity presented itself?
  • When he threatens to beat up Tadano for dating Retsuko, does he genuinely think that Tadano is taking advantage of his friend and want to protect her, or is it the same petty jealousy he had when she was dating Reseaske?
  • Anai's behavior in Season 2 is sometimes interpreted to be a coping mechanism. Something to consider is that the company that serves as the primary setting of the show has so far been established as a corrupt one, where the employees are frequently subjected to verbal abuse and forced to do work that should be getting done by the higher-ups who heap it onto them. With this in mind, it only makes sense for Anai to have a lawsuit ready.
  • Does Tadano really have Retsuko's best interests in mind, or is he a manipulative Control Freak who buys her off with charm? While it's clear that he does care about her, his way of showing is is not unlike his entrepreneurial efforts, in that he's more comfortable telling he what she wants or what's best for her rather than listening to what she thinks is best for herself. The same applies with him and Haida, as the Season 3 finale makes it ambiguous on whether he rigged Gori's app to help encourage Haida to confessing to Retsuko.
  • It's possible that the reason why Fenneko is so invested in getting Retsuko and Haida together is because she's in love with Haida and the whole thing is a case of I Want My Beloved to Be Happy.
  • The series hints that Ton uses his Mean Boss persona to mentor Retsuko into becoming a competent boss, with Tough Love, rather than treating her as a puppy to kick. He offers her more advice after the drunken karaoke rap battle, which he claims not to remember, and covers for her when they both realize she's dating a business partner to the company in Season 2. With the Anai subplot, his laughing at Anai submitting a written complaint could be a So Proud of You that she showed she wasn't afraid of an employee hating her. Rather than accept her letter of resignation after Tadano convinces her to quit, Ton gives her a Dope Slap and tells her You Are Better Than You Think You Are, that she has to figure out what she wants, not what her boyfriend wants her to do. He would be well within his rights to fire her but gives her the pep talk she needs.
• Angst Aversion: Season 3's plot of Retsuko getting stalked and almost murdered turned off a lot of fans, for whom stalking was a genuine trigger of theirs and who didn't like that this otherwise lighthearted show was going as dark as it possibly could so suddenly, to the point that there were a few complaints about it not having a content warning.
• Animation Age Ghetto: Despite being aimed to the teen & adult demographic, this is also a show based on merchandising from the same company as Hello Kitty. One Malaysian promo poster features the character as part of the Sanrio Times Exhibition held in December 2018.
• Applicability: 2020's Season 3 isn't set during COVID but it's opening, where Retsuko has been sheltered at home away from work and others for a long time and blew her money on a video game in lieu of social interaction, is very relatable to those who wound up in similiar situations during the pandemic.
• Arc Fatigue: For some, the relationship between Haida and Retsuko turned into this. Haida pines after Retsuko for two seasons, getting shot down twice. Then, when it finally starts to look as though the two of them are getting to know one another and starting to click, Haida stalls the relationship by getting cold feet, even lying to Retsuko in order to avoid coming back to her apartment. Instead of suggesting they talk it out, Retsuko suggests going back to being friends, and then Haida in season 4 tries to make up for his lack of confidence by getting involved with a scheme to cook the books at work because the new boss was the first one to praise him. It isn't until the end of the show with a brief scene of them filling out a marriage registration form and many by that point had stopped caring.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Some viewers hate Anai for his hostile and aggressive overreactions to Retsuko and the others' comments towards him due to his inability to handle even the smallest criticism. Others who are aware of the tough conditions of Japanese colleges sympathize with Anai's self-esteem issues and insecurities, especially after Kabae gets him to chill out and he shows off his skills as a chef.
  • Depending on who you ask, Haida is either a loveable dorky Nice Guy, or an idiotic simp who continues to crush on a girl who clearly isn't interested in him and throws a whiny fit whenever she dates another guy. This is exacerbated in Season 3, where he tries to move on but can't let Retsuko go and in Season 4 where the first half of the season revolves around Haida's hesitation to ask Retsuko out despite Retsuko clearly willing to give their relationship a chance. Haida's inability, and sometimes refusal, to do anything about his situation but still moping about it either makes him entirely unsympathetic or realistic depending on the person.
• Broken Base: The Season 3 finale caused a great rift in the fanbase about how Haida approached Retsuko's problems. One half of the fanbase feels that Haida went about it entirely the wrong way, and that he and the others were being insanely inconsiderate of Retsuko's feelings by forcing her out of the house while she was still recovering from the attempt on her life. This half also believes that his "tough love" went way too far, and that mocking and screaming at Retsuko—who, again, was recently traumatized from someone trying to kill her—was just cruel. On top of this, Haida proclaiming himself to be Retsuko's "perfect match" changed him from sympathetic to pushy in many fans' eyes, and they agree with Retsuko calling him out for forcing his feelings onto her. The other half of the fanbase, however, feels that he and the others were justified for their intervention—the episode is vague about exactly how much time has passed since Retsuko was attacked, but it was long enough that she was in danger of losing her job, and regardless Retsuko was doing herself more harm to her mental health than good by hiding in her parents' house and refusing to go outside. This half also believes that even though Haida did take a "tough love" approach, it did work, as Retsuko snapped out of it to lay into him. As for him being "pushy" about his feelings, this half of the fanbase defends Haida by saying he wasn't trying to force his feelings onto Retsuko so much as he was trying to tell her that she could trust him and confide in him, even if it was only as a friend.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The absolutely gripping fear of Retsuko coming home to her apartment to find it's been broken into deflating the second she hears her would-be burglar... vacuuming? Then you find out that her mom broke in just so she could be a mom to her and it becomes hysterical. The borderline abusive way she takes over Retsuko's personal life is also mitigated by the hilarious ways Retsuko fights with her over it.
  • Anai's habit of responding to every single perceived slight with a Strongly Worded Letter. While the abuse he dishes out onto Retsuko is particularly brutal, the eventual reveal this this is just something he does makes it hilariously petty, especially after Haida goes out of his way to talk to Anai in the gentlest, lest aggressive way possible... and still gets an angry email. Not to mention the Catharsis Factor when Ton gets one too.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Fans theorize that Resasuke is autistic, as he doesn't show very much emotion through his facial expressions or his voice, is Oblivious to Hints, and is described as a loner by other characters.
  • Many fans have speculated that Anai suffers from an ambiguous disorder, as many of his traits could be the result of autism or ADHD (which are often comorbid). This includes his intense social awkwardness (in particular difficulty with phone calls), and trouble focusing, as well as his extreme reaction to criticism (which could be interpreted as rejection sensitive dysphoria^note A lesser known but common symptom of ADHD where the individual feels completely rejected at the slightest perception of being shunned, which is cited as the hardest symptom to deal with, and can cause behaviour similar severe social anxiety to avoid rejection) and almost 180 degree turn in response to positive reinforcement and tendency to say insensitive and tactless things even when he's not trying to be insulting. He also excels in in a singular talent despite struggling with other tasks which is indicative of savant disorder. Another possibility is that Anai is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; YouTube user Brotakuza Anime & Gaming has a video that discusses this more.
• Die for Our Ship: Retsuko/Haida fans usually criticize Inui for being too flawless, while Inui/Haida fans usually say Retsuko just drags Haida down and that he deserves to be with someone who likes him back, or that Haida should just move on from Retsuko.
• Draco in Leather Pants: There are a minority of Anai apologists who claim that his bad attitude and tendency towards lashing out are merely the result of a frightened kid failing to adapt to a vicious corporate culture. Keep in mind that this lashing out includes blackmail, which can't exactly be done involuntarily and which he only does because people tell him to do his job in a way that he doesn't like. Plus, while his abuse never becomes physical, he still corners Retsuko while threatening her, which is at best psychological abuse.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Ookami, the main character's maned wolf coworker, got his own set of fans due to his cool looks and attitude, despite only briefly interacting with the characters during one episode and only appearing in the background afterwards.
  • Tadano, in terms of being a legit Nice Guy similar to Haida and being a tech genius who plans to change the world.
  • Season Two introduces "The Receptionist", a female papillon who checks on various people at the driving school (mainly Tadano). While she has a small amount of screen time, she started gaining her own set of fans due to her snarky and monotone attitude.
  • Manumaru, despite not being shown outside of one episode, has garnered a lot of fan art, both for being a Pallas cat and some traces of "big handsome man"... or cat.
  • Inui, Haida's new love interest introduced in Season 3. Fans instantly took a liking to her for her kind and calm personality, and her adorable chemistry with Haida. After the trailer, fans were wary that she was going to cause problems between Haida and Retsuko, a la the "new love interest jealous of the original one" trope. However, Inui handles Haida's obvious feelings for Retsuko very maturely, which won her a lot of admiration from the fanbase. Inui even returns midway through Season 4, where she's on good terms with Haida but bitter at him for failing to notice her and preferring his old outfit.
  • Season 4 introduces an unnamed sheep daycare owner who calls Kabae to notify that her son has caught a fever. While she's only on screen for 22 seconds and a total of two lines of dialogue. She's slowly gained her own set of fans due to her motherly design and very soft-speaking due to working with toddlers.
  • Speaking of sheep, the finale episode of Season 4 features an unnamed female sheep who works at guest services at Chararyman Trading.
• Fanon: Komiya being gay and secretly hating having to kiss up to Ton to keep himself out of his blacklist is a popular idea that fits with the Beneath the Mask themes of the series.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A good number of fans like to pretend that season 4, and to a lesser extent season 5, never happened.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The One-Scene Wonder with Haida dressed like a punk and owning a bass guitar has led to many people thinking that he is just like Retsuko in regards to lashing out after a cruel day of work. As a result, fanart tends to pair them both as a band of Death Metal.
  • Similarly, one of Resasuke's scenes reveals he's actually a Caring Gardener, to the point where he says hello to his many plants when he comes home. Many believe this is a sign that he's actually happier being with plants than he is with people, and that he'll be okay after such a messy breakup with Retsuko. Fan artists love to draw him with the various plants seen in that scene, even more so than his canned coffee.
  • Haida's brief interactions with Tadano made Ho Yay fans Squee, so much so that it spawned so many art and fanfic where the two were more than intimate with each other.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Many people recognize the show as one of the big three Netflix furry anime alongside Beastars and BNA: Brand New Animal. It's not uncommon to see fan art of characters from all three shows interacting with one another or see people recommending Aggretsuko to fans of the two and vice versa.
  • With Turning Red due to both works involving red pandas, karaoke-loving characters and strong emotions.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The scene of Retsuko boarding the private jet of a wealthy man she just met (Tadano) aged poorly immediately, as the release of Season 2 happened not long after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Ton gruffly warns Retsuko that the deal with the OTM Girls in season 3 isn't going to go well because from what she told him, she was blackmailed into it because of her debt to their manager. He tells her that her singing needs to be a choice, not an obligation, because he knows how much she enjoys it. This moment becomes sweeter when Retsuko, at the request of Ton's daughters, hires a Heroic BSoD Ton to run accounting for her death metal YouTube channel when it starts generating ad revenue, because she sincerely tells him that she can't think of a better person to manage the finances. What's more, she hires his daughters as fellow gaffers and they all work together to oust Himuro when they find out he's blackmailing a promoted Haida.
• Ho Yay:
  • Season 3 caused a massive influx of Haida and Tadano shippers when the two became friends and hang out together often. It didn't help that in their scenes Tadano tends to look at Haida with those eyes.
  • Tsunoda and Fenneko, almost every time they interact, reassure their soul-consuming hatred for each other, with both displaying strangely obsessive behavior, including Fenneko stalking Tsunoda's social media (down to figuring out a pattern for her posts) and Tsunoda inviting a blushing Fenneko to her single's meeting. It's also implied that Tsunoda is aware that Fenneko stalks her social media.
• I Am Not Shazam: Some people have mistakenly called Retsuko "Aggretsuko"; a portmanteau of "Aggressive" and "Retsuko" which is the name of the series but not the character.
  • Becomes an Ascended Meme / Title Drop in Season 5 during Retsuko's political campaign where she introduces herself as "Aggretsuko", playing to her death metal persona's popularity.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Haida has quite a lot of ships under him and this continued to increase after Season 3. Besides his obvious and popular crush on Retsuko, fans also adored him with his Romantic False Lead Inui, with other factions finding Ho Yay in his friendship with Tadano or believing that Fenneko's obsession with his love life means that they should be more than Like Brother and Sister. Some fans even began shipping him with Retsuko's Mom (even though she's married), and these are the more well-known ones.
• Les Yay:
  • Gori cares a lot about Retsuko liking her, acts flustered when she tries to talk to her, cries when she thinks Retsuko is mad at her and spends the night at her house after drinking too much, and asks whether any guys are interested in her.
  • One of the few things that causes Fenneko to flip out is the idea of Retsuko becoming as social-media obsessed as her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Tsunoda, going so far as to say Retsuko was one of the few "sane ones" in "Metal Christmas".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "this is a[n] [X] stan account now"^Explanation From the Netflix Twitter account changing its bio to "this is an Aggretsuko stan account now". "Stan" is a term coming from a song by Eminem used to refer to people that follow something down to an obsessive degree. People change "Aggretsuko" for a work or a person (real or fictional) of their preference.
  • "hahahahahahahahaha...." ^Explanation Fenneko's Signature Laugh isn't really a laugh at all, it's more like she's saying "Ha" very quickly and without a pause to even breathe, and it's like this in every dub. As such, most fanart of her depicts her laughing. Then there's whatever this is.
  • Retsuko's habit of screaming her mundane frustrations in her death metal voice.
  • MATRIMONIAL FREEDOM!!!!!! ^Explanation Retsuko's Metal Scream when she believes marrying a wealthy man will get her out of her deadend job.
  • Furry awakening. ^Explanation Ben Diskin's twitter has an interesting journey, from discovering the fandom to discovering what vore is.
  • "Haida is a good boy" ^Explanation Haida's hidden crush on Retsuko, his being respectful when she's dating Resasuke, and generally being one of the show's more moral characters has caused the phrase to show up in pictures, videos, and descriptions of him.
  • Calling Tadano "sexy Eeyore"
  • "I'M COMING, SENPAI!!!" ^Explanation Fans have joked and said that due to how his mood changes, some see Anai as a Tsundere, especially with Episode 6 of Season 2 where he goes from eccentric happy thanks to Kabae and then borderline aloof to Retsuko when she thanks him for his hard work. The phrase has even become his fandom catchphrase!
  • Selfie, dessert, latte art. Selfie, dessert, latte art. Selfie, dessert, selfie, dessert, selfie, selfie, a thigh pic. ^Explanation Fenneko stalking Tsunoda's social media account and deducing her posting pattern. The thing that sells it is how it rhymes into a limerick.
  • INSIDE VOICE IS DEAD! ^Explanation Fenneko's response to Haida when he tells her to pipe down while he's talking about Inui (they were in a bar)..
  • YEAHHHHHHHHHH!! ^Explanation Haida's reaction whenever Retsuko hit the F Chord spot on was just too cute.
  • SOUNDS CHICKEN TO ME! ^Explanation Haida's turn on the microphone had him ripping into Retsuko's choice at becoming a recluse. While this split the fandom in half (no thanks to the localization team taking liberties in translating the song) this became Haida's Signature Line, and is often depicted saying this in fanarts about his karaoke session.
• Misblamed: One of the deciding factors in Puko's unpopularity is the perception among viewers that she doesn't work at all, and therefore every yen she spends comes out of her parents' pockets. While she doesn't deny that she has a lot of financial help from her parents, she also briefly mentions in his first episode that she does work, she just doesn't have a full time job, allowing her to take long breaks and big risks like her startup company.
• Moe:
  • Retsuko is a cute red panda that is dealing with a Soul-Crushing Desk Job due to her boss's harassment and abusive behavior, and it can't be helped to want to protect her, which is actually Haida's reaction.
  • Haida is a surprisingly cute guy due to his constant Luminescent Blushing around Retsuko and cute behavior towards her.
  • With her big sparkling eyes, childish proportions, and high-pitched voice, Tsunoda is an example of a character who deliberately exploits this trope for her own worth.
  • Tadano, simply for being a slacker-like donkey who's actually a genius tech millionaire.
• Moral Event Horizon: Himuro in Season 4 seems to be a ruthless boss considering what he does to Ton and Kabae, but also fair if an employee proves himself as efficient and hardworking. He praises Haida for saving the CEO, as well as his use of a computer program to get accounting work done in a shorter amount of time with zero errors. Promoting Haida to director of accounting actually makes sense since when Haida is the boss briefly, he's a Reasonable Authority Figure that doesn't bully his coworkers the way that Ton did, delegating when he sees that Retsuko is overworked. Then when his coworkers confront him, Haida is forced to admit that Himuro blackmailed him into fixing the ledger to make the company look more profitable than it is. How did Himuro do it? By threatening to force out people like Retsuko, knowing that Haida has been dating her.
• Older Than They Think: Some find it odd that the company behind Hello Kitty could produce such a mature series, especially when it took such a dark turn in the Season 3 finale. While this is the first Sanrio franchise to not be aimed at children, many of their early films from the late seventies and early eighties, such as The Mouse and His Child, Ringing Bell, and both Unico films ^note  To a lesser-extent 1979 pilot Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather were surprisingly dark and depressing enough to outright traumatize many of the children who watched them ^note The Unico movies were the most infamous since they managed to traumatize a generation of children in both Japan and the West., meaning it's not unheard of for a Sanrio franchise to be less cute and wholesome than it seems.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Despite only appearing for one scene and one flashback, Shirota is generally very well-liked by the fans due to being a charming and nice Big Beautiful Man that finally gets Retsuko thinking about what to do with her life.
  • The unnamed stalker fan only has a couple scenes in the last few episodes of Season 3, but they're so full of Realism-Induced Horror that he left a huge impact on fans.
  • Retsuko’s virtual unicorn boyfriend Seiya, who left quite an impression on the Furry Fandom despite how brief his appearance was.
  • Episode 6 of Season 4 features an unnamed sheep daycare owner◊ who's seen notifying Kabasuke that his mother has arrived to pick him up after catching a fever (alongside calling Kabae about her son's fever at work). While she's only in the episode for 22 seconds with a total of two lines of dialogue. She's slowly gained her own set of fans due to her sweet and gentle behavior.
  • The finale episode of Season 4 also introduces another unnamed female sheep who works at guest services at Chararyman Trading◊. While she has more dialogue compared to the daycare worker, she's notably peppy and kinder compared to the other workers and members of Chararyman Trading Co similar to the daycare owner.
• One True Pairing: Fans really want to see Retsuko/Haida happen. It helps that the show never officially rules out the possibility, merely that the two would have to get to know one another better first before they can consider it a realistic option. Season 3 also ends with a significant amount of Ship Tease, with Haida saving Retsuko from her stalker and Gori's app suggesting they're a perfect match, though that may have been the result of Tadano's tampering That said however, Season 4 does show the two finally establishing a slow but growing relationship, with the two willing to begin working on knowing each other around Episode 5.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • The absolutely sadistic level of control Retsuko's mother takes over her life, starting with making a copy of her daughter's house key without her consent so she can literally barge in whenever she wants, including (nay, especially) when Retsuko isn't home. All just so she can continue treating Retsuko like a child, and she does not take no for an answer.
  • In-Universe where Haida gets freaked out by Fenneko and her constant use of her interpretations and stories behind pictures she's seen. Fenneko even tells him to stay off of social media if that was bad.
  • Season 3 shows us the downsides to becoming famous. Some fans do not like changes to their favorite media, and will sometimes stalk or even physically harm people they feel "ruined" the thing they're a fan of.
• Periphery Demographic: The series has gained a following in the Death Metal and Heavy Metal communities in many countries where the genre is popular.
• Realism-Induced Horror: Season 3's subplot where Retsuko is stalked, harassed, and nearly murdered by a Loony Fan is not portrayed as comedic or exaggerated at all in contrast to the rest of the show, and disturbed many viewers due to being quite an accurate portrayal of many real life stalkers and toxic fans.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Kabae was seen as just an annoying nuisance and blabbermouth in season 1. Season 2 amended this by depicting her kind, nurturing motherly side and having her acknowledge that her talkativeness has always been a problem for her.
• Ron the Death Eater: Haida in canon, while he does obsess over Retsuko and gets jealous whenever she dates someone else, does his best to respect her wants and needs, and acts supportive for her whenever she goes through problems, to the point of even saving her life in the Season 3 finale. Many fans, on the other hand, interpret him as a toxic incel with no positive qualities who stalks and harasses Retsuko for not accepting his demands for love, refusing to respect her personal boundaries and only liking her for selfish and shallow reasons.
• Rooting for the Empire: Himuro ends up being on no one's side but the shareholders' in Season 4, but he is the first person to actually do something about Ton harassing Retsuko. Rather than let Ton off with a warning, as the previous CEO did, he reveals that he recorded proof of the allegations, keeps the whistleblowers' name confidential and gives him a What the Hell, Hero? that for someone concerned about his employees, he doesn't treat them well. Ton himself doesn't have much of a defense.
• The Scrappy: Puko is a difficult character to like, as the same speech where she tries lifting up Retsuko's lifestyle is the same where she contrasts her easygoing lifestyle as being one reliant on other people rubs people the wrong way. Even when her slacking eventually caught up with her in season two, she still finds ways to burden her friend, such as forcing her to move the contents of her headquarters up four flights of stairs because she was too cheap to hire movers.
• Seasonal Rot: After the first season, which is universally agreed to be at least good on its own by most fans and viewers, and to an extent Season 2, though it has been criticized for rehashing S1's story structure. Season 3 in specific is when many tuned out of the show due to its controversial ending and reverting back to Status Quo Is God, despite having a more serialized story that many thought was refreshing after Season 2, and Season 4 is agreed unfortunately enforced further upon it while perhaps being the weakest out of the whole show. The character writing, especially of both Retsuko and Haida, is also subject to this, with many believing it suffered because of the constant status quo. With Season 5 (the final season), most will agree that it's an improvement off the previous season, but is still a letdown compared to the first half of the show, especially in terms of being the overall series finale, with it lacking a sense of finality to its last episode.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: While some fans ship Haida with Retsuko (and indeed, this seems to be the pairing most supported in-universe), others think Haida would be better off with Fenneko or Inui due to him being a simp who can't handle rejection, while Retsuko would be better off with Resasuko, Tadano, or Shirota. There are also fans who simply think that Retsuko/Haida is an unhealthy pairing for them, and would accept them to not end up together at all, regardless of who they end up with.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The OTMGirls' Loony Fan attacking Retsuko in a crowded street at the finale of Season 3.
  • The finale of Season 4 has Retsuko's Metal Scream blast both Himuro and Haida along with the office's furniture out the window, only being saved by Hyodo's lift. Unlike the previous metal scenes where any destruction shown is just for aesthetics, this was what really happened.
• Stoic Woobie: Some people do feel sorry for Resasuke after Retsuko breaks up with him.
• Superlative Dubbing: The various localizations of the series are incredibly well done, liberally rewriting jokes where appropriate to make jokes funnier for native speakers and in some cases even improving on the original. Numerous videos on YouTube can be seen comparing the different translations to showcase the quality.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Washimi and Gori's Leitmotif is very similar to a spiced up, remixed version of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Fenneko is one of the core characters of the series and gets some of the funniest lines, yet we see very little of her life outside work, she's never present during any of the more heavy and dramatic scenes, and is one of the few characters who hasn't shown any kind of Hidden Depths beneath her dry exterior.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Season 2 starts with Retsuko's mother nagging her about marriage and pushing her into an omiai, shown to be worried about the fact her daughter is not even thinking about marriage or her future. By the time Retsuko is seriously thinking about marriage and dating a rich tech mogul, her mother no longer factors into the picture and we never even see her learning about Retsuko deciding she wants to get married and how she reacts to Retsuko's relationship.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • While Puko does try to help her high-school friend through a tough time, her carefree, easy-going lifestyle depends entirely on her having rich parents to mooch off of and responsible people like Retsuko doing all of the work for her. Her best advice to Retsuko's financial struggles amounts to "move back in with your parents." To the show's target demographic of millennials, the first generation in recent history to earn less than their parents and as a result, generally struggle with the most basic living necessities, Puko ends up coming off as a Spoiled Brat.
  • Anai, at least to American viewers (see Values Dissonance). The show (and some fans) tries to pass off his borderline criminal levels of abuse and blackmail over any imagined slight (including cornering Retsuko in the archives room and recording their conversation), as well as his outright refusal to do any work once the whole office becomes too scared to approach him, as a cry for positive reinforcement from a nervous, paranoid young man, and that putting it all in the past once he shows off his better side is perfectly reasonable. The fact that he only responds positively to Kabae's motherly approach comes across as him only responding to superiors who hold his hand.
  • Many feel this way about Haida in the Season 3 finale. His response to Retsuko nearly being stabbed to death and understandably refusing to leave her mother's house? Drag her to the karaoke club against her will and sing a punk song calling her chicken. While it's meant to be seen as an awesome moment that finally gets Retsuko working again, many viewers have criticized his behavior as being insensitive to someone suffering a severe trauma. Considering that both the Japanese original dialogue and the Latin American dub both never had Haida go to the extent of berating Retsuko, and since the original line was meant to be both a question to Retsuko about what she thought about it and a plea to tell him what she wants than a declaration of what Haida thought about it, the case can be made that Haida never intended to be that harsh in the first place, merely telling her that "This is your life now, what are you going to do about it?"
  • Retsuko herself can fall into this in the Season 3 finale. While it's understandable that she would be afraid to resume her normal life after such an ordeal and Haida's approach was incredibly Innocently Insensitive, the problem is she chooses to take all her frustration out on Haida, barking that he doesn't know anything about her - which is entirely Retsuko's fault because she always shoots him down whenever he offers to hang out and even lies to him about her personal life when she goes to him for guitar lessons for no particular reason. Not to mention that Haida saved her life and we never even hear Retsuko thank him or acknowledge that without him, she could have been hurt or even killed, making her come off like an Ungrateful Bitch.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The series shows that sexual discrimination in the workplace is much different in Korea and Japan than in many western countries, as pointed out in this article.
  • The fact that the entire office puts up with Anai's hostile and uncooperative behavior rather than firing him on the spot might confuse Western viewers. For Japanese businesses, recent college grads like Anai are considered a valuable part of the labor force and management would likely side with him in a dispute to avoid him badmouthing them online and potentially give the company a bad reputation. This is why Retsuko is so hesitant about standing up to him and no one suggests reporting Anai's actions and texts: the most likely outcome is that they'd get fired rather than Anai.
  • Similarly, to American viewers, Puko is a Spoiled Brat coasting on her parents' money and other, more responsible people's effort. But in Japanese culture where honor is paramount, failure and losing face can drive someone to suicide, and that getting paid to do nothing is considered shameful and insulting, Puko's seemingly flippant attitude about her situation comes across more like she's half-jokingly shaming herself for it.
  • Jiro and Retsuko's plans for to pass laws that will make Jiro's father and other politicians at age 65 or older step down would likely never work in Real Life, much less in Japan: Not only does such a law would raise concerns about discrimination against the elderly, but it also clashes with the deep respect that Japanese culture holds for older individuals, irrespective of their flaws. Any politician in Japan who dared to propose or support such a law would essentially commiting political suicide, potentially ending their career for good. Given the predominantly conservative nature of the Japanese electorate, this outcome would be expected, particularly considering the country's aging population and the limited opposition from the younger generation, who are fewer in number and lack equal influence.

• Viewer Species Confusion:
  • Several fans thought that Haida was an African Wild Dog before Word of God confirmed him to be a hyena.
  • Similarly, Ookami was thought by many to be a fox before it was confirmed he was a maned wolf (though if you already know that his name literally means "wolf" in Japanese, it's kind of obvious).
  • There was some initial confusion regarding Tadano's species, with some viewers thinking he was a rabbit due to his long ears. The fact that he's one of the few, if not the only animal who's appeared in the show so far with an abnormal fur color (he has light purple fur with a blue mane, possibly dyed) only added to the confusion. Once you see his tail it becomes a lot more apparent that he's a donkey.
  • Like Tadano, Manaka is sometimes thought to be a rabbit due to her long ears, though her long tail makes it clear that she's supposed to be a chinchilla.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Sure, it's made by Sanrio, the creators responsible for Hello Kitty and other similar characters, and it retains the cutesy art style. However, it's one of their few properties that's primarily aimed at adults, and it also depicts characters regularly drinking alcohol, swearing and enduring workplace abuse. The topics of office life, overworking, late-stage capitalism, and adjusting to the responsibilities of adulthood in your twenties probably wouldn't appeal to kids either. In terms of vulgarity, however, it's no worse than The Simpsons and only slightly worse than Rocko's Modern Life (it's certainly nowhere near as vulgar as Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), so responsible parents not concerned with the more child-unfriendly aspects of the show may not mind older children (ie, upwards of 8) watching it. Even some of the scarier scenes, such as Retsuko's metal singing or her mother breaking into her house, aren't that much more terrifying than your typical age-appropriate anime (the only exception may be Retsuko's attempted murder in season 3).
• The Woobie:
  • Retsuko. She's an Extreme Doormat whose only skill of note is following orders, which allows her tyrant of a boss at her dead-end job to walk all over her and call her a degrading name. Season 2 introduces her intrusive mother, who takes an iron grip to her personal life, and a downright abusive intern and in season 3, just as things are looking up for her, she's almost murdered, which understandably traumatizes as much as it would any real person. It it any wonder that her main source of catharsis is screaming death metal?
  • Haida is a sweet guy who can't manage to land the girl he likes, despite her being right around him all the time. He seems to have his self-confidence particularly mined after Retsuko ignores him in favor of Resasuke. And then again in season 2 with Tadano. And then again in season 3 when this time he saw someone attempt to murder Retsuko and have his relationship with Inui end at the same time. It's impressive how he manages to push through all of this and still gather enough resolve to pull Retsuko out of her slump, promoting him to Iron Woobie status.
• Woolseyism:
  • The English dub contains a few, including Fenneko referring to Resasuke as a "space cadet" instead of an "out of pocket prince." Ironically, this makes the episode's title (Out-of-Pocket Prince) sound nonsensical unless you're familiar with the translation's changes (or have JP subs on).
  • Another similar case with when Ton starts calling Retsuko "Calendar"^note Because her days are numbered! in the English dub. The English subs use the nickname "Short-Timer" instead, which is the name of the episode where the nickname is first used.
  • Haida's song in season 3 was subject to this, more specifically the memetic "SOUNDS CHICKEN TO ME!" line. This was never present in the Japanese original and the Spanish dub and only made Haida look unsympathetic to the plight of Retsuko. The original (and the Japanese subtitles for the song) instead had a question in this part of the song, which roughly translated to "Are you content with this?" which tied to what he was really going after, make Retsuko look at her current condition and admit to him that she needed help.

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