Aggretsuko‘s Second Season Adds Nuance to Its Relatable Rage

The over the top fury with which antsy power worker Retsuko screeches her true tactual sensation is what make Aggretsuko so much sport to ascertain — her struggles are one we all know , unity we too wish well we could air through some cathartickaraoke . But just like its protagonist , the show ’s sophomore time of year grows up a footling by not casting all its fury in black and white terms .

release on Netflix this preceding hebdomad , Aggretsukoseason two amplify the populace of Retsuko and her friend a little past the office dramas . While still mostly focus on her social Mexican valium around work as an situation lady for an accounting troupe , Retsuko ’s tribulations in time of year two are of a more existential proclivity than they are but dish out with infuriating co - worker or a comically mean boss .

There ’s sight of that with the gain of the hyperaggressive young graduate Anai to Retsuko ’s situation , of path , but the show ’s other major introduction early on on — Restuko ’s momma , literally breaking into her life when she shows up unannounced at the end of the first installment — also get to the windowpane to Retsuko ’s personal biography outdoors of oeuvre … specifically , her love life .

Another stressful day at the office for Retsuko.

Another stressful day at the office for Retsuko.Image: (Netflix)

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The first one-half of the second time of year balances the arrival of Anai and Retsuko ’s mom to create a hellish new scenario for her to rightfully be ferocious about . At work , she ’s force to deal with a young man who seemingly resist to grow up — but also , insanely , flies off the handle at everything said to him , menace complaints of workplace molestation and power abuse at every suggestion . At home , she has to deal with a mommy pushing arranged marriage engagement with man whose mental picture she ’s haplessly airbrushed to seem more handsome than they really are . Throw in some common frustrations — like the talkative office gossip Kabae , cheerfully incompetent of not chatting up a violent storm in Retsuko ’s cosmopolitan neck of the woods or even a brewing bickering between Washimi and Gori — and it ’s a whole lot for our short red cat bear grinder to deal with .

And address she does in her usual way , screaming her way through metal racetrack after alloy track .

Retsuko’s overbearing mom becomes a major factor this season.Image: (Netflix)

The latter thread is what mostly count to the electric arc of the season , as Retsuko finally begin meditate if married couple is something she truly wants for herself or is just another expectation society forces upon her as a woman . It ’s an idea that fly high upon converge a young man named Tadano while she attempts to focus on the brusque - term goal of attaining her drivers licence , in the hopes of get away on a road trip with her Quaker . But Aggretsuko ’s second season finds a much more interesting nuance beyond that in making the targets of Retsuko ’s rage a little more fleshed out , to the point that her death metal screaming over the situation she finds herself in are n’t as clearly - cut as she first thinks they are .

Take Anai and Kabae , for freshman . Anai is ab initio almost comically hostile to Retsuko and her friends , for certain , but Retsuko ’s exasperated room of dealing with his former failings ( like answer the telephone as himself rather than on behalf of the company ) gives him the grounds to make ill to Retsuko ’s boss in the first place . Restuko ’s lowbred brush off of Kabae attempting to engage with her at first does n’t treasure that Kabae , as the office mom of the group , is just trying to calculate out for the great unwashed she cares about , just as she does her own children . Her frustrations with her own mom ’s deeply trespassing prying into her societal life are slack by the reveal that her mummy just really wish about Retsuko ’s livelihood and hereafter , peculiarly in lightness of her husband ’s apparent devolve wellness .

When Retusko hear Kabae ’s matronly mental attitude routine towards Anai and actually encourage him in his work , where her friends ’ standoffish attitudes to him repeatedly failed over and over , she finally realizes that peradventure neither of them are all that big . And when the company hosts a limited event for worker ’s syndicate and Retsuko urgently needs assist go a Yakisoba stand without , uh , poisoning one-half of the people in attending , she ultimately bucks up and require Anai for aid — knowing that he ’s a mean value James Cook thanks to Kabae ’s earlier mesh with him . The day is lay aside , the Yakisoba stand sells through all its stock , and Retsuko get a line a worthful deterrent example : The people she ab initio paw off as the causes of her lordly rage spiral are n’t always drop dead to be just annoyances . regretful people , or frustrating hoi polloi , are going to have their good bit , and it ’s important to remember that .

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Retsuko’s overbearing mom becomes a major factor this season.Image: (Netflix)

And in bout , the people Retsuko look as good — including herself — aren’t always going to be complete . We see it in Gori and Washimi the most in the latter one-half of the season , when Washimi ’s “ refined ” taste and undiplomatic manner of conveying her judgment makes her derive off as rude and uncaring of her estimable protagonist ’ want and needs . Gori ’s jokey attempts to hide her years as she navigates the go steady pool as an old woman are played for jape , but her nonchalant neglect for lead men on ( while lamenting that she might never find “ the one ” because they too are trying to cover up what they see as minus look of themselves ) speaks to a horizontal surface of hypocrisy that sends glint flying between her and Washimi , smack - kick in the middle of Retsuko ’s plan road misstep .

Because it ’s Aggretsuko , of trend , state literary argument plays out over a rap battle , but still , the detail is the same : People are n’t just good or spoilt because they ’re you ’re Friend or because they get at you , they ’re both , and being mature enough to sympathize that is as important to growing up as an adult as thinking about settling down and having child is ( at least , as far as Retsuko ’s mom is refer ) .

That admonisher is , in bend , thrust upon Retsuko , who also is shown that even as our relatably furious protagonist , she too has her own share of fault . Her offish posture with Anai , born out of the prejudged opinion that as some parvenue youthful grad he ’s just not quick to be out in the “ real world ” of office life yet , is what help escalate the situation between them in the first place , alongside her refusal to accept help from him until it ’s almost too tardy . And when she first encounters Tadano and begins have to know him as a supporter and eventual amatory interest , she encounter herself repeatedly displace him because she thinks he ’s a lazy shirker without a chore . It turns out that he ’s actually a mega - rich startup owner researching A.I. , but crucially , Retsuko only find that out after she really lets her barrier down and gets to know him well in the wake of her initial prejudice . She ’s eventually rewarded with the potential difference for a romance that shit her happy and is with someone that she understand — someone she might have never had the opportunity with if she puzzle to her angry , fatal - and - white view of the world around her .

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Anai and Kabae might be annoying, sure, but they’re not always bad people.Image: (Netflix)

By examining its cast of quality in this deeper , more nuanced agency , Aggretsuko designate that it can be a series with a lot more going on than just hilarious heavy metal interludes or aimless , comically incandescent ( if not relatable ) passion . If anything , it constitute the moments Retsuko steal into her death - metal - persona all the peculiar — because beyond that over the top angriness there beats a true emotional heart to the show that ’s about so much more than merely anger .

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