History Heartwarming / Aggretsuko

* Himuro gives Ton an order to cut costs in his department, i.e. start firing people. Ton takes Komiya to karaoke and gives the rundown on everyone in the department, all their negatives, and drawbacks. Komiya actually is honest when defending Kabae and Haida, while admitting that Anai, Retsuko and himself would be the most logical choices for layoffs. He ''could'' defend his ProfessionalButtkisser attitude but decides not to do that.

* A meta example, while Katelyn Gault (English voice of Fenneko) was working on the dub of the Netflix series. She volunteered at Animal Tracks Inc in Agua Dulce, California, where she took care of a fennec fox. A few days after news of the show's success in the west. [[https://twitter.com/Katelyn_Gault/status/991858186440200192 She shared a short 10-second video of her petting and whispering to a tired fennec fox]].

* Once he's finished, he goes to Himuro and... hands him a blank sheet of paper, refusing to cut staff to cut costs. Yes his employees are flawed and some are flakier than others, like Retsuko. They're also part of a whole team, and he compares them to pit crews. Ton knows exactly the person that Himuro is. That night when he goes home, Ton reminds his wife about how in the 80s the company managed to avoid laying off anyone after the Bubble Economy burst, declaring [[AFatherToHisMen no one will lose their job in the department while he's around]].

* Manaka can be flippant but she shows genuine concern for Retsuko's safety when she has a stalker, even prepared to defend her with a baseball bat.
** The rest of [=OTMGirls=] all show great concern when this happens, Hyodo escorting Retsuko to her apartment with Manaka and agreeing to pick her up from work.

* Despite their initial encounter being so hostile, Hyodo eventually becomes a genuine friend to Retsuko and legitimately becomes simultaneously sad and proud of her final performance with the group. It's hard to imagine that he's the same character who terrified Retsuko for days on end because of a fender bender, especially when he and Manaka went out of their way to protect her during the stalker incident.

* While getting drinks with Fenneko, Haida explains the reason that he first fell in love with Retsuko: his first impressions of Retsuko described her as cute, but vanilla, until he saw her after work hours and decided to tail her. He caught her in the act of filling her water bottles with water from the water machine to take home later, and he found it charming and a display of proof that outside of her nice girl attitude, Retsuko could be just as stingy, dishonest, and overall flawed as him and the next person and that resonated with him. What makes this especially heartwarming is the fact that, despite his earlier claims and worries of only LovingAShadow with Retsuko, this proved that the feelings he had for her were, at least on some small part, based off of her real, true self instead of just her "nice girl" from work attitude- especially since he lovingly describes the incident as Retsuko living a “secret double life” as a water thief.

* Retsuko's visit to Haida's place for guitar lessons is made of this trope. Showed how comfortable they were with each other's company despite how Haida was so awkward before with her. Not to mention Haida's reaction montage whenever Retsuko hit the dreaded F chord perfectly.
** And then right after the visit, she ''genuinely'' called him a "friend," just as when he thought he could move on from her because he thought that he and Fenneko were nothing more than coworkers to her. It hit him so hard he couldn't even control himself from {{fist pump}}ing.

* Komiya writes the [=OTMGirls=] blog. He finds out that Retsuko is the new lead singer. After his {{Squee}} reaction, he tells Retsuko that her secret is safe with him. Friendly reminder that this is the guy who, until now, was not known to have ''any'' personality traits that weren't kissing Ton's ass; that he has any life outside of work is a genuine surprise, but a welcome one!

* Despite their initial encounter being so hostile, Hyodo eventually becomes a genuine friend to Retsuko and legitimately becomes simultaneously sad and proud of her final performance with the group. It's hard to imagine that he's the same character who terrified Retsuko for days on end because of a fender bender, especially when he and Manaka went out of their way to protect her during the stalker incident.

* Haida saves Retsuko's life when her stalker attempts to murder her with a boxcutter. He yells at the other bystanders to help and call the cops. Inui comes and calms a panicking Haida down; she dials an ambulance and points out the blood on Retsuko belongs to Haida. Then she admits that it hurts knowing who he chose, but she understands why.

** The rest of [=OTM=] Girls all show great concern when this happens, Hyodo escorting Retsuko to her apartment with Manaka and agreeing to pick her up from work.

* Manaka telling Retsuko that even though she’s mad that Retsuko was given lead vocals instead of her, she encourages Retskuko to do what makes her happy, even if that means that others won’t get what they want.

* Komiya writes the OTM Girls blog. He finds out that Retsuko is the new lead singer. After his {{Squee}} reaction, he tells Retsuko that her secret is safe with him. Friendly reminder that this is the guy who, until now, was not known to have ''any'' personality traits that weren't kissing Ton's ass; that he has any life outside of work is a genuine surprise, but a welcome one!
* Ton's daughters are shown to be ''huge'' fans of Retsuko and her death voice talents both on her channel and with the OTM Girls. Even trying to be like her and learning how to do her death voice by having a little contest in their room and then cheerfully fangirling about her to their father.

** Something that's never been brought up about this scene, [[CallBack back in Season 1]] when Retsuko asked Haida what his plans are should they ever get married, his answer was she would keep on working, not only for financial reasons, ''but also for them to be able to support each other when work gets too tough for them.'' Retsuko has went through hell and back, had her dream finale as an [=OTMGirl=] and fully paid her debt to Hyodo, and now is back to her boring desk job, but it doesn't look that she's dragging herself anymore. The reason? Judging by her last [[ArcWords "When I count to 10..."]] monologue, it is implied to be Haida.

* With the stalker incident that drove Retsuko away still fresh in their minds, both the OTM Girls and their superfans are quick to resort to physical violence threats towards an old man looking for Retsuko wherever he starts acting just a little too creepy about her. To top it off, the very next thing we see them doing is Manaka and the superfans-turned-bouncers going to Retsuko's apartment to make sure she's okay and to give her a heads-up in case there really ''is'' another stalker after her.

* Washimi offering Retsuko a loan without her even asking.

* Retsuko and Tadano's relationship. ''All of it''. In comparison to Resasuke, who was oblivious to love, Tadano ''genuinely'' loves Retsuko, and she also falls in love with him too. The implication that they remain on good terms after breaking up shows how much they genuinely care for one another.

* Gori and Washimi get into a big fight over their views of marriage, even if this is an issue of BothSidesHaveAPoint[[note]]Washimi was married for three months and decides that marriage is not for her, and she immediately assumes that Gori isn't made for marriage either. On the other hand, Gori thinks Washimi is being biased by her own bad experience, and she has no right to rule out marriage for everyone[[/note]], to the point Retsuko can't hang out with them anymore. They decide to call a truce so both can be there for Retsuko when the news about her relationship with Tadano are made public. They both were capable of putting aside their own stubbornness for the sake of their friend.

** He somehow agreed to be the nuclear option in dealing with Anai. He unfortunately failed and Anai somehow hurt him even worse than Retsuko did, but it's the thought that counts.

* Retsuko's Mother approves of her daughter getting her driver's license and even offers to pay for half of the cost.

* Kabae being the one who is able to get Anai to relax and calm his ways. Anai has the whole team cowed and working instead of him, but all Kabae needs to do is a gentle glance and word of encouragement for Anai to step in, and she further reinforces the good behavior with praise of his (EXTREMELY good) yakisoba. It makes it better than by episode six, he's all on good terms with everyone!

* Kabae interacting with her husband and children during the festival, especially when comforting one of her kids who accidentally hurt their head. They're genuinely a close and loving family, showing Retsuko a prime example of what she hopes to one day have as well.
* Retsuko and Tadano's relationship. ''All of it''. In comparison to Resasuke, who was oblivious to love, Tadano ''genuinely'' loves Retsuko, and she also falls in love with him too. The implication that they remain on good terms after breaking up shows how much they genuinely care for one another.
* Ton’s overall behavior in Season 2. He’s still a jerk to Retsuko, but there’re more moments from him.
** During the family weekend, he proudly presents his twin daughters and his wife, who all look (and sound) exactly like him.
** He somehow agreed to be the nuclear option in dealing with Anai. He unfortunately failed and Anai somehow hurt him even worse than Retsuko did, but it's the thought that counts.
** His whole attitude regarding Retsuko and Tadano’s relationship. Not only is he agreeing to keep it a secret, but looks genuinely worried when paparazzi catch them. He later rejects Retsuko’s resignation letter, because he knows that she is only doing it to please Tadano, once again giving her a heartfelt advice about how to run her own life. Ton has made his family the main reason for him to continue working, and if Retsuko can’t decide what makes HER happy, then she isn’t ready to mature.

* Kabae being the one who is able to get Anai to relax and calm his ways. Anai has the whole team cowed and working instead of him, but all Kabae needs to do is a gentle glance and word of encouragement for Anai to step in, and she further reinforces the good behavior with praise of his (EXTREMELY good) yakisoba. It makes it better than by episode six, he's all on good terms with everyone!

* Komiya writes the OTM Girls blog. He finds out that Retsuko is the new lead singer. After his {{Squee}} reaction, he tells Retsuko that her secret is safe with him.

** This is also unfortunate as Retsuko is asking this question expressly because she has come to the conclusion at this point that the only way she can escape the job is by marriage, so rather than appreciating this response, she instead concludes that she needs to aim for a man with more money.

* With the stalker incident that drove Retsuko away still fresh in their minds, both the OTM Girls and their superfans are quick to resort to physical violence threats towards an old man looking for Retsuko wherever he starts acting just a little too creepy about her.

* When the announcement the Retsuko is running for the Diet made it to her workplace, all of her fellow employees and even the CEO ''(who is from the same generation as Juzo)'' gave their support.
* After five seasons of back-and-forth, seeing Retsuko and Haida sign their ''marriage certificate'' finally puts the matter of their relationship to rest in the best possible way.