REVIEW: ‘Aggretsuko’ Season 3 Takes on Capitalism

Aggretsuko, a portmanteau of the main character’s name Retsuko and the word “aggressive,” has been one of the most cathartic television watches since it debuted in 2018. A Netflix Original from Sanrio, the series follows office worker Retsuko as she lives her life as a mild-mannered woman who has to deal with the pressures of a toxic workplace, romance, a domineering mom, and pretty much any other existential problem women in their late mid-20’s to early 30’s face daily. To deal with the anxiety and pressure, Restuku finds refuge in a karaoke room and screams sings her heart out to death metal. While last season was relatable to a scary degree, directly tackling interpersonal toxicity in the workplace and what to do when the person you love isn’t looking for the same future, Aggretsuko Season 3 manages to offer up a more whimsical narrative that still hits home in representing the everyday problems.

Aggretsuko Season 3 shows audiences a Restuko who is dealing with the emotional fallout of the last season. Having broken up with Tadano, she’s done what any normal adult in the situation would and loses herself in a virtual world with a dream boyfriend. But also like what happens to any reasonable adult, the world of microtransactions throws her finances into chaos and soon the long nights in a video game and bread ends as her only source of nourishment begins to take their toll on Retsuko’s work-life. That is until her focus shifts to a new focus: OTMGirls.

The bulk of Aggretsuko Season 3  focuses on Resuko as her life becomes intertwined with the OTMGirls; an idol band comprised of Hidarin, Manaka, Migi, and their manager, Hyoudou. After a car accident with Hyoundou, Retsuko’s debt skyrockets and leads her to settle on a deal with the manager. Retsuko joins the idol group he’s managing as the accounting director. But to her surprise, the group isn’t as out of the red as she thought and she takes on the task of digging them out of debt and towards success and by doing that helping herself in the process. Ultimately, this leads to the largest relatable theme in this season: down with capitalism.

By detailing the cycle of debt the OTMGirls are in, her own, and even that of her seemingly well-to-do co-workers, Aggretsuko Season 3 manages to showcase how debt hits all levels of society. While it does this differently to each character in the season, we get to see the capitalist system push, people, to keep up appearances, spend more money than they have to succeed, and produce predatory marketing practices that take advantage of consumers.

While Retsuko is having her own story, Haida and Fenneko do what they can to find out what the red panda is hiding from them. But that’s not all, Haida’s pining over Retsuko for the last seasons come to a head as well. While we get to spend more time with Haida, we also get more time with Gori, who is expanding her side-hustle by building out a new dating app set to revolutionize marriages. Aggretsuko Season 3 does a good job of not only showcasing new facets of Retsuko’s personality but also adding more depth to the other characters in the story.

Aggretsuko Season 3 is just phenomenal animation. The anthropomorphic animal character designs fit the personalities of the characters or cleverly subvert them. Additionally, there are many stills that are sure to become memes. Not just because they’re fun to look at because they’re entire moods. While Retsuko’s problems in Aggretsuko Season 3 has changed slightly, the series remains the most cathartic and relatable animations on Netflix.

Aggretsuko Season 3 premieres exclusively on Netflix, August 27, 2020.

Kate Sánchez

Kate is co-founder, EIC, and CCO of BWT. She’s also a Certified Rotten Tomatoes Critic, host, and creator of our flagship podcast, But Why Tho?. She also manages all PR relationships for comics, manga, film, TV, and anime.