Retsuko and Her Friends | Carrier Man Trading Co. | Other Characters | Comics and Other Media
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CEOs
The CEO/Shachou
Voiced by: Sota Arai (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English), Eleazar Muñoz (Seasons 1 & 2) and Octavio Rojas (Seasons 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
An elephant and the CEO of Carrier Man Trading Co., Ltd for most of the series, only being out of the company for a while in Season 4 due to him being hospitalized from a heart attack.
- Behind Every Great Man: Washimi basically runs the company from being run into the ground by this guy.
- Benevolent Boss:
- In "Dirty Work", Ton reveals that during the bubble crash, rather than fire anyone due to budget cuts, the CEO kept all of the employees around due to seeing them as family. This is what motivates Ton to refuse to lay off any of his subordinates in season 4.'''Ton: He gathered us together and he said "We're a family. Nobody goes."
- When he finds Retsuko is running for a seat in the Diet, he openly supports her (and by extension, gives her Carrier Man's unofficial corporate endorsement.)
- In "Dirty Work", Ton reveals that during the bubble crash, rather than fire anyone due to budget cuts, the CEO kept all of the employees around due to seeing them as family. This is what motivates Ton to refuse to lay off any of his subordinates in season 4.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: In season 4, his plan to shore up the company's wobbly finances is a theme park called "Carrier Man Land." This idea is sent back to the drawing board by an axe kick from Washimi, and the show treats it as a gag and moves on. In Season 5 he opens a theme park called "Bubbly Land" that hearkens back to Japanese corporate culture during the 1980s economic boom. It's a big success for the company and results in some modest perks being installed at Carrier Man, like a huge big-screen TV in the break room.
- Clueless Boss: The President does want what's best for the company, but he's so detached from the regular goings-on to be of much use. For example, his idea of raising morale in the Accounting Department was to build a nagashi-somen slide through the department rather than, say, fire or kick Ton upstairs and bring in a Benevolent Boss.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's never referred to by his actual name, only his title.
- Honorable Elephant: He tries to appear like this, but he's a little too goofy and out of touch to really fit the mold.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His hospitalization kickstarts the central conflict of Season 4.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- His half-hearted attempt at disciplining Ton at the end of "Stoking Rebellion" only gets Ton angry and leads to more trouble for Retsuko in the next episode, "The Duel".
- He hand picks Himuro to be his successor after he leaves Carrier Man Trading due to illness, sparking most of the conflicts in Season 4.
Himuro
Voiced by: Yohei Azakami (Japanese), Trevor Devall (English), Manuel Campuzano (Latin American Spanish)
An Afghan Hound who was initially the company's outside director until he's promoted to CEO at the beginning of Season 4, following Shachou's temporary resignation when he's hospitalized.
- Arc Villain: Of Season 4; Himuro's actions pose an existential threat to the Accounting Department and he manipulates Haida into cooking the company's books in order to turn a profit.
- Bait the Dog: His first significant appearance is coming to the hospital when Haida saved the CEO Shachou after the latter was having a heart attack. He constantly brings it up as an example of how noble Haida was, to give up his Saturday night to get the boss proper medical care. Haida is embarrassed and keeps saying it's what any decent person would have done. Washimi also respects him and has Shachou report that he hand-picked Himuro to the board right when they're about to veto him unanimously. Then it turns out that Himuro only cares about turning the company around, no matter the physical or emotional cost to the employees.
- Behind Every Great Man: Despite his competence, it seems Washimi is barely a step ahead of him, much to his surprise and amusement.
- Big Bad: The one behind Haida's window dressing in order to keep the company's budget afloat.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Despite putting up the front of a strict yet fair leader, he's not afraid to lay people off in order to cut back on costs or have you Reassigned to Antarctica to make you quit, as Ton learned the hard way. He even admits to Washimi that he believes only obedient people fit his business philosophy. It's eventually shown he's corrupt too, manipulating Haida into committing fraud in order to make the company look better than it is.
- Blackmail:
- One of his tactics involved blackmailing Haida into doing his bidding by holding Retsuko's job on his head. Haida naturally caved in.
- He does the same with Ton: and forces him to take his demotion after showing him evidence of Retsuko complaining about his bullying.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: When he notices that Haida was able to finish his work in record time, Himuro is convinced that Haida must have recklessly entered wrong data in his apparent haste and nearly fires him, until Haida shows his tech-savvy knowledge (in what appears to be Excel spreadsheets) and shows Himuro that his work is truly orderly and correct. This makes Himuro promote Haida into the new director of accounting.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Himuro is not above committing fraud if it means making the company look better.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He believes people are either those who are obedient or those who aren't. He thinks Retsuko is the first one. She is not. The result is him getting beamed out of his office through the windows.
- Hypocrite: For all of his legitimate criticisms of the way that the company operates, he proves to be Not So Above It All in regards of expecting those working under him to be obedient and firing those who won't agree.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Despite contradicting himself during his time as CEO and committing shady acts to turn a profit, he's still not wrong of his criticisms of how the company usually operates beforehand (See Villain Has a Point below).
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed; his window dressing scheme fails, he breaks his leg landing on Hyodo's lift, and he is ousted as CEO, but there's no indication he received any further punishment for his actions in Season 4.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's very intelligent and good at getting people to do what he wants. As such he takes advantage of Haida's need for recognition to make him carry out his dirty work.
- The first sign of his manipulative nature is upon hearing Retsuko and Fenneko drunkenly mention Ton's bullying of Retsuko, he deliberately gets the two drunk so he can record evidence of it and blackmail Ton into taking the demotion.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though firing people comes across as heartless, he does so because they're not working enough to turn in a profit. Then he tells Haida to cook the books, which in the long run just endangers the company so Himuro can stay CEO.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: In several shots his eyes are obscured by light reflecting off his lenses to highlight his intimidating nature.
- Straw Hypocrite: Himuro says a company's policies need to follow the interest of the shareholders, not the employees. In fact, he's fine directly defrauding the investors to make himself look better.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: A tall man with a professional air who often works out. Even Retsuko admits he's handsome at first glance.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Next to Resasuke and Manumaru, he's the only other character who doesn't return by Season 5.
- Villain Has a Point: For all his wrongdoing, he has legitimate points when it comes to how badly and outdated the company is run due to its higher-ups refusing to adapt to modern times out of "tradition" and constantly hampering any progress the current generaton is making, which is known to be a very big problem in real-life Japan. Him being in the board of directors, where everyone else is either clueless or a worthless Yes-Man, was one of the reasons the company didn't go bust a long time ago. The Accounting Department has multiple employees that spend their day goofing off rather than actually work, which would have got any average worker fired in real life. If it wasn't for his inability to understand the emotional fallout of the older employees being laid off like Ton and Kabae, having no qualms about resorting to corruption and threatening Retsuko and company who have done nothing wrong with unemployment as blackmail, he could've easily been the Big Good instead.
- Villainous Legacy: Despite never appearing in Season 5, his actions cast a long shadow in Haida's depressive spiral and eventually the ensuing conflict with his father during Season 5, given he was the one who caused it.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: He has prominently yellow eyes, which fit with his manipulative nature.
Accounting Department
Ton
Voiced By: Sota Arai (Japanese), Josh Petersdorf (English), Osvaldo Trejo (Season 1, Christmas Special and Seasons 2 & 3) & Rubén Moya (Seasons 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
"I'm gonna call you "Calendar," because your days are numbered."
The head of the accounting department, Ton is a pig and a notorious chauvinist who terrorizes his employees and picks on Retsuko in general.
Known as Hog Honcho in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- The Ace: While he's normally quite lazy, whenever he actually does get to work, he quickly proves himself to have earned his spot as the boss, being more than capable of not only keeping up with his employees, but actually surpassing them, without using any technology. That's pretty impressive.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Sure, he was no Nice Guy in the original series, but the Netflix series makes him out to be far worse than he ever was originally.
- Subverted as Ton's actually not SO bad (just gruff and a product of a different era of corporate culture). As the series progresses, he's revealed to have a very astute judge of character, and his professional ethics are actually pretty sterling. His bad behavior markedly improves by the end of the series.
- A Father to His Men: A less obvious example than most, and the man himself would vehemently deny it, but Ton looks after his own. He refuses to fire employees just to save the company money, always allows them to take time off for family emergencies, and is willing to give money from his own pocket if they're financially struggling. Of course, the most obvious example is his Once a Season talking to with Retsuko to give her the kick in the pants she needs to confront whatever hardships she's currently going through.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He spends most of his time in the office practicing his golf swings and dumping work on his employees, but if there's a deadline coming up, he'll cancel his plans and work faster than everyone else in his division with an abacus whereas his coworkers are using computers, and even correcting said employees using a computer.
- Brutal Honesty: He prides himself on telling it "like it is". This him enables to, at times, hand out genuinely useful advice, even if he is very blunt about it.
- This disposition allows him to give Retsuko some advice on her relationship with Resasuke which is actually both pretty perceptive and helpful, namely that it clearly isn't working out.
- In Season 2, when Retsuko is torn about Tadano not wanting marriage, Ton tells her that while marriage just for the sake of marriage is a terrible choice, Retsuko shouldn't just abandon something she genuinely always wanted just to satisfy what Tadano wants.
- In Season 3, while he's overall disbelieving and unsupportive of Retsuko being an idol as it would distract from her job at the company, he makes a good point that even a dream career can have terrible and unexpected pitfalls, which is foreshadowing the stalker.
- The Chain of Harm: He laments that his bosses would treat him the way he treats his employees and that times are changing when he actually gets reprimanded for it.
- Character Development: He's far less of a pain in the ass as the seasons go by, though the Death Metal battle that he lost against Retsuko was the turning point. By the Season 5 finale, he reveals that he does remember the bout despite being drunk on his ass.
- Contrived Coincidence: After being fired in Season 4, he winds up finding work at the same convenience store as Manaka. Retsuko found him as a result when Manaka complained about his lackluster performance and inability to adapt.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Season 5 reveals he has a file labeled "Therapy" on his office computer. It's a photo of his twin daughters.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Ton is a horrible boss and hates Retsuko, but he refuses to expose her relationship with Tadano because he sees that as being too low for him. The expression on his face when he discovers the article about Retsuko and Tadano can best be described as uncomfortable, if not worried.
- He also refuses to lay off employees just to cut back on costs or cook the books just to make the company look good.
- He's horrified when Retsuko unleashes a metal scream so powerful that it knocks Himuro (and Haida) out of a multistory window, despite not liking him.
Ton: I didn't think you were gonna kill him!
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Season 2, it's revealed that Ton has a wife and twin daughters. He admits that they drive him crazy, but he loves them.
- Eyes Always Shut: His pupil is never shown and perhaps it's Black Bead Eyes stretched horizontally, giving this impression. The times he actually opens his eyes are always Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Fat and Proud: When Retsuko shout-outs to him as one of her many gripes in her final political speech, citing his chauvinism, the way he overworks her, and his growing beer belly, he proudly gestures to himself with both thumbs and says "That's me!"
- Fat Bastard: He's rather overweight due to being a pig, and is very much a Mean Boss towards his employees. Episode 10, however, implies he does have a good heart somewhere beneath the surface...
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After he's forced out of Carrier Man Trading by Himuro, Ton takes a job as a convenience store clerk as a means of keeping some money coming in.
- Freudian Excuse: His old bosses treated him terribly and unloaded their work on him while they lazed away and when he rose up the ranks, he does the same to his own workers. He warns that one day, Retsuko will do the same when she becomes the boss.
- Furry Reminder: Sometimes makes pig-like grunting/snorting sounds.
- Good Is Not Nice: Later episodes show that he does care for and support his employees... he's just very harsh and upfront about it.
- Good with Numbers: While he is lazy, the man can work numbers as if they're his first language.
- Heel–Face Turn: While he does defrost toward Retsuko towards the end of season 1 and lays off on the verbal harassment and overwork, he still is a Mean Boss for several seasons. The face finally happens when he quietly tells Himuro that he can't recommend anyone for layoffs in the accounting department in good conscience, including the "flaky" Retsuko, because he honestly believes they are indispensable and a team, and he will fight tooth and nail to ensure they prove the worth of the "expense" to the company. While this does get him put into a position where he resigns thanks to Himuro's machinations, Retsuko not only hires him for her video channel but also schemes to acquire his job back.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Just like how he is to Retsuko, he too had a boss that he loathed. But when in the end, he had to adapt to the office culture, ultimately becoming the boss himself. Ton believes that this will happen to Retsuko as well in the end.
- Hidden Depths:
- At the office party, Ton reveals he can rap, showing a preference for hip-hop music. He also gives a pretty good speech about relationships using accounting terms to Retsuko towards the end of Season 1, helping her out of her funk over her relationship.
- Mr. Ton is actually a great accountant, being able to work faster with an abacus than his colleagues can work with a computer. As with the Freudian Excuse example above, he is worried that his brand of management style will no longer be acceptable which is Truth in Television.note
- Say what you will about Ton, but he's more cunning and perceptive than he lets on. When he was (lightly) lectured by the CEO for his behavior, the first thing he did was pretend to be nice so that he could narrow down the list of people who ratted him out. Based on how Retsuko reacted while giving him tea, he correctly assumed it was her. Furthermore, even though Retsuko had never mentioned being in a relationship to him, he was quick to catch on that she was having trouble with Resasuke.
- The website mentions that he likes to take the younger employees barhopping every night, which is a pretty friendly gesture.
- While a chauvinist at work he's shown to be a decent father to his twin daughters and has a kind, supportive wife at home.
- Hopeless with Tech: Despite working at a company where computers are used by practically everybody, he states himself that he's bad with technology. He doesn't even know basic computer terminology, like how he says "clink" instead of "click". He uses an abacus to calculate figures instead, and he's surprisingly good with it. He even struggles with a barcode reader when working at a convenience store. Averted later when he's trained by Retsuko.
- In Season 5, he's much more comfortable using his computer to do accounting work in the office, though he does still have to call Haida for some after-hours tech support, presumably because Haida designed the app everyone in Carrier Man's accounting office uses.
- Ignored Epiphany: At the office party, he genuinely seems to catch onto the fact that he can't treat his underlings the way that he was once treated in their shoes... Only to fly off the handle when he realizes Retsuko had something to do with his being reprimanded in the first place. Even beyond that, he was so hung over that the following morning he didn't remember anything about that night anyway. Possibly subverted, as in the final episode he says "Sorry, I know you don't like long lectures by your shitty boss.", implying that he remembered Retsuko's outburst calling him out as a shitty boss, but he's willing to bury the hatchet.
- I'm Having Soul Pains: When he's following the CEO's instructions to throw his golf game in order to butter up Tadano. He deliberately whiffs one shot particularly badly, complete with tearing up a huge dirt clod.CEO: Well done!Ton: That hurt my soul.
- In Vino Veritas: Getting drunk causes him to spill out his more fatherly side, especially during the karaoke duel against Retsuko.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- He may be a Mean Boss in general, but his orders could still be understandable when he's actually the most competent and experienced worker around with only an abacus, while his employees are, in a way, somehow lazier than he is when they've been using modern technology.
- Retsuko finds out to her dismay that Ton is right that being a member of OTM Girls isn't going to work out in the long run. He knows that she enjoys singing, and she's good at it, but Ton reminds her that based on what she told him, she basically got coerced into becoming an idol and a face since she owes the manager fender-bender costs. There's a difference between when you choose to share your passion and when you're forced to indulge in it for a paycheck. While it turns out the girls and manager become protective of Retsuko, to the point that they're crying when she retires, Ton is proven right when a stalker goes after Retsuko and nearly murders her if not for Haida.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- The season one finale had him stop being mean-spirited for once and give Retsuko the truthfully sad advice that she should have balance with her love life with Resasuke, or else it would break her. He then tries to deny he has a good heart after saying that.
- In Season 2, when he finds out Retsuko is dating Tadano, an important company client, he has the good graces to pretend he doesn't know her during the golf game, agrees not to rat out her relationship as he "doesn't play that dirty," and seems genuinely worried about her (and, in his own roundabout way, tries to warn her) when he sees the paparazzi stalking and taking pictures of her and Tadano.
- In general, he's still an asshole in season 2, but is no longer actively making Retsuko's life miserable (though he still does so unknowingly). It's implied part of the reason is that he assigned Retsuko, Haida, and Fenneko to train Anai, the newest member of the team, and they're finally getting a taste of what it feels like to be in his position. In particular, he congratulates (and laughs at) Retsuko for her receiving her first formal complaint, seeing it as a rite of passage.
- In season 3, when he finds out Retsuko is in debt, he scolds her for not telling him and offers her a loan, saying she can pay him back once she's financially stable again.
- In Season 4, he makes it clear that he'll never fire anyone from accounting as a cost-cutting measure, as the previous CEO never did that during the Economic Collapse in the 80s.
- Also in Season 4, Retsuko and Fenneko point out that Ton never took issue with an employee taking off early or calling out to handle personal affairs.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Ton initially gets away with his bullying of Retsuko and others because the CEO is too spineless to properly rein Ton in. When Himuro takes over and learns of the complaints, he quickly uses them to force Ton out and leave the pig with nothing to stand on.
- Kicked Upstairs: Himuro literally does this to him in season 4, "promoting" him to the highest position in the building (namely, the roof) and given an empty office and meaningless title where he does nothing all day and can boss no one around.
- Large Ham: No pun intended. In the 10th episode when it comes to crunch time, he freaks out because they are down 3 workers with Retsuko acting really spacey due to being love struck (so technically down four people). This freaks Komiya in turn who asks if they are still on for golf the next day. Ton slams down the phone he's holding and proclaims that "golf is canceled... FOREVER!"
- Leitmotif: Some of his more jerk-ish moments are punctuated by an ominous-sounding hip-hop beat, which comes full-circle in his rap battle against Retsuko and again in Season 4 when new CEO Himuro orders him to start laying off people to save costs.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: While he is pretty bad towards Retsuko, apparently his boss was just as bad, if not possibly even worse than he ever is.
- Mean Boss: Picks on Retsuko and is a general menace to everyone under him.
- Meaningful Name: An obese pig named "Ton", which is one possible reading of the kanji for "pig".
- Mission Control: He and his family work the computers and direction for Retsuko's mission to break into Haida's office and steal evidence that he's cooking the books.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He's mentioned several times that when he was in Retsuko's position his superiors treated him like crap too, in fact to a much worse degree than he does to his subordinates because it was easier to get away with it back in 1987. At the office party he also reveals that he's a pretty competent rapper, implying that his coping strategy back then was to go to karaoke bars and vent his spleen, just like Retsuko does now. She later shows a liking to golf when she tries it.
- Office Golf: Often seen practicing his golf swings during work.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When the CEO (forced by Washimi) hesitantly warns him about his behavior to female workers, he puts up a cheerful attitude meant to horrify everyone. It works so well even his most trusted coworkers don't want to be around him. Sadly for Retsuko, Status Quo Is God and he manages to avoid being fired (though she did get back at him while they were drunk).
- In season 2, he looks genuinely concerned for Retsuko when he sees the paparazzi and the resulting article. Sure enough, it eventually leads to Retsuko disappearing for 3 days and coming in to resign. And unlike in Season 1, he specifically drags Retsuko aside to give her a real heart to heart, even refusing her resignation even though he still calls her Short-timer.
- Pet the Dog:
- In the first and second season finales, he gives Retsuko genuinely good relationship advice.
- When Retsuko apologized to him after the office party incident, he said that he didn't remember what happened last night. It's left ambiguous whether he really doesn't remember or if he's letting it drop, but considering he no longer looks for the one who ratted him out, it might be the latter.
- In Season 5, he confirms it was the latter. Retsuko even calls him out on his previous claim that he didn't remember.
- He offers to buy Retsuko out of her 200,000 yen debt when she brings up her money troubles to him, even mentioning that she could pay him back whenever she can. She declines the offer, however, since she wants to work for the idol group.
- In season 5, he gives Haida a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He makes a lot of sexist remarks."Incompetent women are such a pain in the ass. But better than competent women, am I right?"
- Professional Buttkisser: If the CEO asks him to kiss up to a prospective client in a game of golf, he'll lay it on real thick.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Ton's eyes give off a menacing red glow, it's a sign that Retsuko's life is gonna start sucking a little bit more.
- Real Men Take It Black: Brews his coffee very strong when he's working late. When Haida scrunches up his nose at it, Ton sarcastically asks him if he'd like a sippy cup.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: During a drinking party, after getting drunk, he launches into a brutal diss track counting all the ways that Retsuko sucks. She fights back and is able to knock him out, but the next day, everyone forgets what she did on account of having a nasty hangover.
- Resignations Not Accepted: When Retsuko tries to quit her job near the end of Season 2 after a long unexplained absence from work, something Ton supposedly always wanted, he refuses to let her quit, since he knows her absence and resignation were both Tadano's idea and he's not going to let her lose herself in another relationship.
- Sinister Swine: Ton is a literal chauvinist pig as well as a Mean Boss towards Retsuko. This is later downplayed when he is shown to have a nicer side.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite Retsuko not telling anyone about her relationship with Resasuke except for Gori and Washimi, he correctly figures out that her deteriorating work quality and strange behavior is due to her unhappiness with her situation. And he also realizes this despite not being a social media sleuth like Fenneko or even being in her inner circle of friends.
- Stout Strength: Able to lift Komiya off the ground with one hand by grabbing the top of his head.
- Strong Family Resemblance: His daughters look like shorter versions of him with braids and wearing Sailor Fuku. They even sound exactly like him!
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ton abused his power and discriminated against a female worker and when news reached the top (and was pushed to confront by said female worker’s friend who was the CEO’s secretary), Ton had to have a private meeting with the CEO about his management. While he wasn’t fired, he was given a warning and told to try and be nicer to his staff.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Ton has this reaction when he finds out via his daughters that Retsuko has somehow become the lead singer for an undercover idol group, and that she's so catchy that his own assistant is dancing along to the soundtracks. He asks her about the situation, and becomes worried when Retsuko reveals that she's 200,000 yen in debt to the manager, hence why she was working as an underpaid gaffer. Ton can't force Retsuko to quit the group, but he warns her that this isn't an equal power dynamic, and that she's essentially being blackmailed into becoming famous. While it turns out the OTM Girls consider Retsuko as one of the family and are sad to see her go when she decides to retire, Ton ends up being right that Retsuko got in over her head when a stalker tries to murder her.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In Season 2. He still runs the accounting department like a tyrant but is overall much nicer to Retsuko than he was in the first season. He shows concern for her when he notices paparazzi taking pictures of her with Tadano, and even offers some genuine advice to her about marriage and family and tries to talk her out of quitting her job because of Tadano because he knows that won't really make her happy, showing that he not only really values her as a worker.
- Training from Hell: From his comments about how he went through the same things Retsuko has and commenting how she will be the same when she is the boss, suggests he is actually training her to take over his position one day.
- Unconfessed Unemployment: He does not tell his family that he gets "transferred" to a non-existent department, his eventual resignation, and his new job as a convenience store clerk. His daughters only find out by tailing him.
- Understatement: The CEO asks if he likes golf. He replies "I dabble" as he is cleaning his golf club in front of him.
- The Unsmile:
- When he tries to act nicer and happier in the office. The whole staff is creeped out by it.
- After a round of golf where he was butt kissing the new client, Retsuko asked him to never smile at her again.
- Visible Odor: According to the website, he keeps a case of antiperspirant and deodorant in his desk. It doesn't seem to help much.
- Visual Pun: He's a literal chauvinistic pig.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: When Ton tries to be nicer and happier around the office, it comes off as creepy and the staff abhor him more than ever.
Kabae
Voiced by: Yuki Takahashi (Japanese), Misty Lee (English), Doris Vargas (Season 1, Christmas Special and Season 2) & María Romo (Seasons 3, 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
Best. Office. Gossip. Everrrrrrrrrrr~
A Hippopotamus lady who is very much into gossip. She is a working mother with three children.
Known as Hippatricia in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- Ascended Extra: Gets a lot more characterization in Season 2 and plays a major role in Retsuko confronting Haida over his window dressing in Season 4.
- Her part in Season 5 is smaller, but still important - and very funny. She's part of the Haida Rescue Squad and she stern moms the hell out of him when they find out he was homeless and didn't tell anyone. She also gleefully spreads the news that Retsuko is running for a seat in the Diet.
- Character Catchphrase: She will often state "You know what to do", though sometimes she will state "You don't know what to do".
- Character Tics: Kabae has a habit of wiggling her ears, particularly when she's excited. This seems to be based on the behavior of real hippos.
- Cheery Pink: She's colored pink and is a very cheerful and friendly woman.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While she comes off as a ditzy blabbermouth, she's actually one of the best workers in the accounting department and she uses sophisticated infiltration tactics to get her juiciest gossip.
- Disappointed in You: Silently convinces Anai to help out at the Family Festival by looking at him with sad admonishment.
- Everyone Has Standards: As much as Kabae loves gossip, she says she would never intentionally spread rumors that would hurt other people.
- Genki Girl: She zooms about whenever she's on the screen.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Played for Laughs; whenever she thinks she's come across a particularly juicy bit of gossip, her eyes turn green and start glowing.
- Good Parents: When she's seen with her family in United Front, you can tell she has the perfect balance of a fair but nurturing mother.
- Gossip Evolution:
- The one time she tried to guess why Retsuko was so happy about (thinking of quitting her job) in "Short-timer", the lie she got - Retsuko finally being able to poop - was so heavily altered by the time it reached Haida's ears, he heard she gave birth.
- In Season 4, she takes the fact that the CEO is in the hospital and ends up twisting it to the point she claims Washimi murdered him during a board meeting.
- Gossipy Hens: Or hippopotamuses. She loves to gossip and is always eager to learn the latest rumors, though she would never spread rumors that hurt people.
- Happily Married: She and her husband have a very stable, loving marriage.
- Hidden Depths:
- She may seem like an annoying blabbermouth at first glance, but it turns out she's actually a very wise, insightful, nurturing wife and mother-of-three. Also, while she chats around the office a lot, she always gets her work done on time (something many single accountants struggle with at times), and is able to juggle having a full-time job and take caring of her husband and three children without a complaint in the world. It's due to all of these traits that she's the only one who's able to befriend Anai and mentor him on how to actually do his job without provoking his wrath.
- She also isn't just some normal gossip- she has high tech spy equipment and is an expert at navigating air vents, and leads the infiltration team when Retsuko tries to break into Haida's office in Season 4.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: A cheerful and friendly hippopotamus who loves her children.
- Innocently Insensitive: She's very chatty and can cause problems for others due to her gossip. However, she doesn't spread rumors to hurt people and actively does try to be as friendly as she possibly can be towards her friends.
- An example from the TBS shorts: While Retsuko is trying to recover from a heavy cold at home, Kabae shows up uninvited and proceeds to help Retsuko with her chores. Loudly, while (unintentionally) dragging Retsuko out of bed multiple times and insisting that she rest. At the end of the short, we see that Kabae has cooked a decent dinner for Retsuko, which she morosely enjoys.
- In Season Two of the Netflix series, Kabae turns out to be a really supportive coworker to those who can stomach her blabber mouthing, to the point where she's the only one able to mentor Anai without incurring his wrath.
- Karma Houdini: She's back at the office just fine after that whole espionage thing blows over.
- Morality Pet: She brings out the best in Anai.
- Nice Girl: Retsuko notes that she's not a bad person, just annoying, and from what we see she cares a lot about her friends, and their—*ahem*—health.
- No Indoor Voice: When she has gossip to share, everyone knows.
- Noodle Incident: Exactly what was she even spying on to be incarcerated?
- Punny Name: Her name is a pormanteau of "kaba" (Japanese for "hippo") and the Japanese name "Kanae".
- Opposites Attract: She's a very gossipy Genki Girl while her husband is a quiet, genial Nice Guy. They're very Happily Married.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The reason she fell in love with her future husband? She was able to be her talkative self around him.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: She insists to Retsuko when she returns to work that she was definitely away on vacation and not due to the espionage thing.
- Stealth Pun: She has a Big Mouth.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She's always meant well, but her gossiping naturally did more harm than good. In Season 2 she's given more positive characterization, and it's thanks to her motherly nature that she's the only one in the office who can speak to Anai without him twisting her words into something malicious. She ultimately succeeds in getting him to shape up and learn how to do his job.
Tsubone
Voiced by: Maki Tsuruta (Japanese), Debra Cardona (English), Karla Vega (Season 1, Christmas Special and Season 2) & Isabel Martiñon (Seasons 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
A komodo dragon who is a senior member of the accounting staff and a menace to those under her. She takes great joy in picking on Retsuko and dumping her work on her while trying to get one of her jars open.
Known as Scatherine in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- Can't Take Criticism: She takes Retsuko simply telling her to do her job as if she had just called her an extremely foul name.
- The Dragon: A somewhat literal example to Ton.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Tsubone is rotten to the core, but the Christmas Special shows she has a niece/nephew that she gets along well with, and Season 4 shows she and Ton have been close friends for decades and his reassignment sends Tsubone into a Villainous BSoD. Shachou even mentions an old rumor that she and Ton once had an Office Romance, which Ton laughs off and blames on Kabae but doesn't actually refute.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: She makes her coworkers try to open her preserves jars and gets some sick joy out of watching them fail. One day when she decides to do it herself, she fractures her own wrist.
- Hopeless with Tech: Tsubone's not as bad as Ton, but she does freak out whenever something goes wrong with her computer and thinks the Millennium Bug and cryptocurrencies are viruses.
- Impossible Pickle Jar: She makes coworkers try to open her preserves for what seems like nothing but naked sadism. Retsuko surprises everyone by opening a jar effortlessly, after a few yoga classes with the protein guy admittedly.
- Jerkass: She's a pretty nasty piece of work.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. She's still a sadist who gets her kicks at watching people fail and break their wrists on her preserves jars. On the other hand, she's the first of Retsuko's bosses to realize something is wrong with her and ask her if she is actually alright. It's implied she stopped dumping as much work on Retsuko until after she broke up with her boyfriend. In the Christmas Special, it's shown that she does care for her family too and has a Christmas gift that she wants to give to her nephew/niece in person when she sees them on New Years. She's still a complete tool but there's some kindness in her black little heart of jerk.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After saddling Retsuko with some extra work, she seems to realize that Retsuko is overworked and tells her that she's recently taken up jogging; at first she felt like it was impossible, but the more she did it, the easier it became. Though this seems like she's actually opening up to and sympathizing with Retsuko, she immediately undermines it by telling Retsuko that the more work she does, the stronger she'll get, making it clear that this is just an excuse to dump more work on her.
- Malicious Monitor Lizard: She's a komodo dragon who's also a mean, sometimes downright sadistic senior accountant.
- Oblivious to Their Own Description: When she hears Retsuko is assigned to mentor the new college graduate in Season 2, she warns her not to be too hard on him, as you hear so often about cruel older office women taking their frustrations out on younger workers. Retsuko snarks that she can't imagine what that must look like.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When the sadistic, bitchy Tsubone actually shows genuine concern for Retsuko, you know her situation with Resasuke is taking a serious toll on her.
- Of all the staff in Accounting, Tsubone takes Ton's reassignment the worst, becoming morose and lethargic even when approached by those she used to torment in the past.
- Out of Focus: She doesn't have much focus in Season 2, and never shows up at all in Season 3. Season 4 finally brings her back and even gives her a bit of Character Development.
- Pet the Dog: Even she has loved ones as shown by her getting a gift for her niece/nephew in the Christmas special.
- Punny Name: Her name (坪=tsubo, 根=ne) is a homophone for 局 (tsubone), a slang for bitchy senior female employees.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: She's the only reptile in the department and is very mean and creepy. She often sticks her forked tongue out menacingly.
- Sadist: She seems to take deliberate pleasure in punishing people and watching them struggle to achieve the goals she sets for them, reacting with both shock and apparent disappointment with Retsuko easily opens a stubborn jar for her. Lampshaded by Fenneko and Haida:Fenneko: I think she gets off on failure.Haida: Honestly, I wouldn't put it past her...
Komiya
Voiced by: Sota Arai (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English), Hugo Núñez (Season 1, Christmas Special and Seasons 2 & 3) and Arturo Casteñeda (Seasons 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
A meerkat who's one of the Accounting Department's managers (alongside Yagyu) and Ton's self-proclaimed underling. A doormat to the extreme, Komiya follows Ton's every whim.
Known as Amir in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Retsuko after she joins and brings OTMGirls to success in Season 3, though he's not creepy, just annoying. He was the one who raved about Retsuko on his idol blog, which happens to be the biggest in Japan. He can't help but follow her around at work, starstruck, for some time afterward.
- Adaptational Jerkass: While he certainly wasn't that nice in the original series, here he's Ton's right hand man and is constantly kissing up to him, usually avoiding work in the process while insulting everyone else on Ton's behalf.
- All There in the Manual: According to his official bio
, he always gives powerpoint presentations in Edit Mode. - Animals Not to Scale: He's a meerkat who's about the same height as Haida, a hyena.
- Co-Dragons: With Tsubone for Ton.
- Demoted to Extra: Since Ton is less of a bully in seasons 2 and 3 his chief yes man doesn't have much of a role. He gets a little back in Season 3 between trying to get Anai to end his passive aggressive behavior and going nuts over Retsuko's death metal voice, and in Season 4 he has a number of scenes lending his aid during Ton's subplot.
- Evil Is Hammy: One of the more recurring antagonists of the series, and is always hamming things up to a ludicrous extent.
- Extreme Doormat: Even worse at it than Retsuko.
- Hidden Depths: In Season 3, Komiya runs a website about up-and-coming musical idol acts. When Retsuko ends up joining OTMGirls as their lead singer he becomes a huge fan of her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When it came time for Ton to decide who had to be cut from the department, he stood up for his fellow employees and their quirks. As he puts it, he's a bastard, but not when people's jobs are on the line.
- Large Ham: He spends a fair bit of his time crying in angrish with his mouth wide open and his head shaking back and forth uncontrollably. He is somehow able to do work like this.
- No Indoor Voice: Just try to find a scene in the series that he isn't screaming in.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Wears this expression when Ton catches him watching the OTMGirls on his phone.
- Otaku: Of underground idol groups, even running the most popular Review Blog about them. It was thanks to him OTM Girls started to massively grow in popularity. He also can't help but be starstruck around Retsuko.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Even more eagerly than Tsunoda, because of his desire to climb the corporate ladder.
- Punny Name:
- Komiya is a real name, but the "miya" part sounds similar to "mīakyatto" (meerkat).
- Likewise, fansubs had given him the name "Amir", as in "a meerkat".
- Secret-Keeper: In Season 3, towards Retsuko, regarding her job as a lead singer. He actually does keep his word, but he blatantly can't hide his extreme fascination for her at work. Ton busts him for dancing in the breakroom.
- Sleeps with Both Eyes Open: At a workplace party, when people are drunk and seemingly passed out, he can be seen to the left sleeping with his eyes partially open. Though it isn't mentioned why he does this, Komiya could possibly have "nocturnal lagophthalamos," which is a sleep disorder that causes one to sleep with their eyes open.
- Wicked Weasel: Well, actually a mongoose, but he fits the stereotype both physically and in his behavior, being a deceitful guy with a knack for underhanded tactics and mainly only being able to pose threat in the fact that he has Ton's ear.
- Yes-Man: Whatever Ton says, Komiya is quick to agree with.
Tsunoda
Voiced by: Rina Inoue (Japanese), Gina Bowes (English), Gabriela Ortiz (Season 1), Fernanda Martínez (Christmas Special and Seasons 2 & 3) & Erika Langarica (Seasons 4 & 5) (Latin American Spanish)
"You don't have to lie, because I don't really care either way."
A soft-spoken gazelle accountant who puts up an optimistic front when in truth she tries to kiss up and annoy others for her amusement.
Known as Giselle in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Is bad-mouthed frequently by all of her co-workers due to her kissing up to Ton so much, to a point where at one point she admits to knowing well just how much most of the staff doesn't like her.
- Animals Not to Scale: A gazelle who is the same height as a red panda and a fennec fox.
- Anti-Hero: None of the main characters like her very much, but she does have technically good intentions since she tries to make work days go faster by making Ton happy. She does end up causing quite a few issues for them in the series though.
- Blush Stickers: She has permanent pink circles on her cheeks, adding to her adorable appearance.
- Brutal Honesty: When Fenneko asks her to help Haida with his confidence, Tsunoda tells Haida that if he chickens out on asking Retsuko on a date, then she'll put him in the Loser file.
- The Corrupter: A not very serious example, but she encourages Retsuko's new found Instagram addiction in the Christmas special. Naturally, this makes Fenneko furious.
- Custom Uniform: Tsunoda doesn't wear the standard office lady attire that Retsuko, Fenneko, etc. wear. She is always seen at the office in a black skirt and pink blouse with a ruffled collar.
- Demoted to Extra: Doesn't get as much screen time in the second or third season compared to her more active roles in the first season and the Christmas special. She gets more screentime in the fourth season.
- The Fake Cutie: Uses her sweet voice and feigns naivete to annoy or control others, including her boss.
- Foil: To Fenneko. They both have Gadfly tendencies, and they both pretend to like each other even though they can't stand one another.
- The Gadfly: Arguably a bigger one than Fenneko, since Tsunoda's teasing can even make her skin crawl.
- Gold Digger: Tends to go out with older, richer, more successful guys. When she hears Retsuko is dating Tadano, she wants tips on how to land a rich guy. When she realizes she won't get an answer, she loses interest and goes back to social media.
- I Am What I Am: She knows she's a flirty, manipulative brown-noser. She apologizes for nothing.Tsunoda: Can't bullshit a bullshitter!
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite her manipulative ways and often annoying others, she usually goes out of her way to help those around her when asked and mostly cares of maintaining harmony in the office.
- Necessarily Evil: She's actually not that bad of a person, but her constant sucking up to upper management makes her very disliked by her peers. Tsunoda is actually fully aware of this but doesn't care, as she genuinely believes her actions are in everyone's best interests, and to a certain extent, she's right.
- The Pollyanna: Tsunoda is always seen smiling and is the most optimistic of the characters. With the exception to Anai, virtually nothing will bring her down.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: She tends to suck up to authority figures at work.
- With Ton, it's a front to avoid Ton's wrath and to control him. She tries to pass this tactic off as an advantage to keep him from being a bigger pain in the butt for everyone else.
- When Haida is promoted Tsunoda immediately starts flattering him and tending to his beck and call, despite spending the prior episodes trying to set him up with Retsuko. Fenneko comments that Tsunoda can smell money and success and wants it for herself.
- Punny Name: "Tsuno" (角) is the kanji for "horn", obviously referring to the two little horns she has due to being a gazelle. The fansubs renamed her as "Giselle".
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: She always has these, complete with little sparkles in them. They add to her image as The Fake Cutie and most likely help her to manipulate people.
- Selfie Fiend: Tsunoda is an obsessive Instagram user; as noted by Fenneko in the Netflix series' very first episode, her posts tend to follow a pattern of "selfie, dessert, latte art" and a thigh pic every thirteen days without fail. The comic's first issue shows she even does this while sick, as she takes a selfie with Komiya after he catches the flu from her.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed. She immediately comes off as a suck-up and manipulator pretending to be The Pollyanna, and over time she turns out to be... The Pollyanna, and her manipulations are an attempt to maintain harmony in the office.
- Shipper on Deck: Works to get Haida and Retsuko together in the fourth season, even working with Fenneko to do so.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: To Fenneko, who can't stand the girl and is easily driven up the wall when Tsunoda is around, though Tsunoda couldn't care less.
- The Social Expert: Being pretty and popular, Tsunoda has a keen understanding of social dynamics. Played for laughs in the fourth and fifth seasons whenever she tosses Retsuko or Haida in a meeting room in the name of relationship advice and self-improvement.
- Unknown Rival: Subverted. She knows Fenneko hates her. She just doesn't care.
Ookami
Voiced by: Sota Arai (Japanese), Lucien Dodge (English), Ferso Velázquez (Latin American Spanish)
"If she waits for perfect, nothing is ever gonna happen."
A maned wolf who's part of the Accounting Department.
Known as Wolfgang in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- While he still doesn't do much during it, he gets a lot more screentime during episode seven of season one than he had gotten in previous episodes.
- In Season 4, his brief scene proves instrumental in getting Retsuko and Haida to finally overcome their awkwardness and start a real relationship together.
- A Dog Named "Dog": His name means "wolf" in Japanese. note
- Flat Character: Doesn't have a lot going for, besides being a generic guy.
- The Generic Guy: His personality hasn't really been expanded upon past him just sort of...Being there. It's even lampshaded in Season 4. Fenneko says he's so shallow that his only responses are "Seriously?" and "That's crazy!" She's right.
- Hidden Depths: "Unavoidable Impact" reveals that he admires Kabae for being able to juggle being a good mother to her three kids and always finishing her work on time.
- He seems to have his personal life pretty well sorted, and gives out good advice that you can't just sit around and wait if you ever want to go anywhere in life.
- When Retsuko and the others meet up with him outside of work, he's stylishly dressed and very chill.
- Nice Guy: Shown to be an overall friendly guy.
- Non-Standard Character Design: A minor example: he's the only character other than Washimi and Shachou without a visible mouth and no reason why it would be hidden, instead having his muzzle stretch when he speaks.
Anai
Voiced by: Sota Arai (Japanese), Billy Kametz (Seasons 2, 3 & 4) and Ricco Fajardo (Season 5) (English), Armando Zuñiga (Latin American Spanish)
A Japanese badger who recently came out of college and is hired at the Accounting Department during the series' events (at the halfway point in the TBS series; the beginning of Season 2 in the Netflix series).
Known as Doug in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the TBS shorts, Anai is a nervous new employee with an annoying habit of asking way too many questions due to his nervousness. His personality was significantly changed for the Netflix series, where he smiles a lot more and keeps his anxiety hidden at first. Then it is revealed that he is bonafide Jerkass as well as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who spams his co-workers with furious e-mails if they so much as try to criticize him in any way and bullies Retsuko so severely that she breaks down crying at the mere prospect of having to work with him. He changes considerably during Season 3.
- Bad Ol' Badger: He's a Japanese badger, and while on the surface he appears to be enthusiastic and eager to learn (if a little nervous), he's actually incredibly aggressive due to his insecurities about being able to handle a real job and bombards people with scathing texts and e-mails whenever he feels threatened.
- Beneath the Mask: When first hired, he acts super friendly, enthusiastic, and eager to learn. Deep down, he's terrified of having to grow up and work in a real job, so he twists every correction or request into accusations of "workplace bullying" for his bosses and coworkers, threatening to report them to upper management unless they back off and let him putz around all day.
- Berserk Button: Any criticism or request, no matter how gentle or minor, triggers a Sanity Slippage.
- Best Friend: Sees Haida as his. When Haida calls him in Season 5, Anai is thrilled to finally hear from him, as he was worried his buddy had ghosted him. This isn't enough for him to let Haida crash at the apartment Anai shares with his girlfriend ("I DO NOT WANNA GET DUMPED!"). Anai (along with Retsuko and Kabae) is one of the people who reams Haida out when they find out that he was homeless and sleeping in an internet cafe.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Maintains a friendly facade around the office while secretly bullying Retsuko within an inch of her sanity to get her to stop trying to mentor him. He even has the audacity to go out for drinks with Retsuko's friends while bombarding her with threatening texts and emails. Season 3 has him grow out of this.
- Blackmail: Twists every correction or request into blackmail material to report to upper management for "workplace bullying" ... At least until Kabae's motherly tutoring helps snap him out of it.
- Can't Take Criticism: To put it lightly, he really can't. Even the most gently worded criticism will cause him to send a strongly worded e-mail accusing whoever tries to correct his behavior of "workplace harassment".
- Character Development: Has significantly calmed down in Season 3, he ended up doing a blog on cooking that lead to him publishing a cookbook, and he even has a girlfriend!
- Compliment Backfire: In one episode of the TBS shorts, he tries to defend Retsuko from Ton's verbal abuse, but does so by praising her in ways that are actually insulting.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Whenever he shows his more sinister side, his eyes become bloodshot with dark bags under them.
- Defrosting Ice King: Kabae is the only one who understands that he's still only a kid fresh out of school and, thanks to her motherly instinct, is able to actually get him to listen to her and become willing to learn how to be a decent employee. He soon stops being a thorn on everyone's side.
- When Kabae is forced to resign from her position in Season 4, Anai has a heartbroken meltdown.
- The Dreaded: Once his threats to Retsuko hit a boiling point, no one - not even Tsunoda and Director Ton - can hope to break him. Only Kabae's motherly attitude is enough to defrost him, much to the relief of everyone at work.
- Easily Forgiven: He torments Retsuko with his incessant emails about her "workplace bullying", which he eventually starts doing to everyone in the office, to the point that they're all so scared of getting reported by him that they'd rather let him have his way instead of actually doing his damn job. He does eventually have a Change Of Heart and seems to have calmed down for good, but nobody seems to hold his past insane behavior against him.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Even after he learns to feel comfortable at work, he can still go from chill to enraged in a second. Exemplified when he starts screaming at Haida's refusal to accept that Anai has a girlfriend.
- Hypocrite: He berates Retsuko for a non-work-related phone call during office hours (even though the call was unsolicited from her mother), yet Retsuko points out that he sends her non-work-related texts and emails during office hours, and wastes huge portions of the day "checking his emails." He also tries to justify his refusal to cooperate with the festival because he's being paid to be an accountant, even though he refuses to learn how to do his job and spends most of his time at work lazing about.
- Innocently Insensitive: While he does mellow down considerably after his Character Development, he's still prone to making insensitive and tactless remarks, such as flat out saying that Retsuko must look ugly in her driver's license if she's so unwilling to show it to him and Haida.
- Karma Houdini: Twisted any innocuous comment about him into blackmail material to avoid doing work, harassed Retsuko through angry text messages and even aggressively cornered her in a dark supply room. He is not punished for any of these actions and only became a nicer person due to Kabae's positive reinforcement.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: While he has cut it out with the work harassment texts, Season 3 has him suffer a few times. Haida drunkenly declares that Anai's girlfriend must not be real given how few of his coworkers could stand his personality, and says that she looks good for a hologram.
- Keet: He's incredibly enthusiastic about his new job. Turns out to be an appearance he puts on to hide his massive insecurities about joining the workforce, and it quickly falls apart once he starts to feel threatened by his co-workers who are simply trying to help him. Once he has everyone scared of him reporting them to upper management, he doesn't even try to pretend like he cares anymore.
- Leitmotif: Two, in fact. His text messages and Madness Mantra are usually accompanied by a very unnerving tune to emphasize just how much of a psycho he really is. Once he finally snaps out of it and decides to help Retsuko out in the family festival, he cooks to an EDM remix of his leitmotif and even breaks into song similarly to Retsuko.
- Loophole Abuse: He knows the company policy backwards and forwards, which he uses to get away with lazing about at work, and if anyone tries to call him out on it he twists the company's policies around to make it seem like they're engaging in inappropriate workplace behavior, whether toward him or in general. He also refuses to help out coworkers by explaining it's not technically part of his job.
- Love Redeems: In Season 3, his coworkers start noticing that he got more calm and nicer ever since he got a book deal with an editorial. Haida correctly guesses that a main factor in his change is that he has a girlfriend (even if he thinks Anai's girlfriend is virtual). It's later shown that Anai's girlfriend is real, her name is Hakumi, and she is helping him with his book drafts.
- Madness Mantra: At one point, he's seen frantically typing a threatening e-mail on his phone while saying "Don't mess with me" over and over with a psychotic look on his face.
- Meaningful Name: The first kanji in his name (穴) means "hole"; in Japan, badgers are known as "anaguma", which literally means "hole bear".
- Never My Fault: Even the tiniest criticism (no matter how gentle) sends him spiraling into a Sanity Slippage Madness Mantra in which he bombards the poor critic with incessant emails asserting that he feels he didn't do anything wrong, and they're just unfairly bullying him, and threatens to report them to upper management until they leave him alone.
- Nightmare Face: When he loses his cool, his eyes either roll back into his head like a zombie or suddenly become extremely bloodshot with dark bags underneath.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Not even Tsunoda's flirting can move him to actually do his work.
- Political Overcorrectness: In his strongly worded emails, Anai has a nasty habit of twisting any perceived criticism of his workplace conduct as microaggressions against him.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He's terrified of working a full time adult job now that he's out of college, and cannot take any sort of criticism, terrorizing anyone who dares give him feedback on his work with threatening messages till they give in and let him laze around during work. This is complemented by the plethora of Nightmare Faces he drops while typing said messages, many of which make him seem criminally insane. The motherly Kabae is the only one that manages to get through to him in any meaningful way, because she recognizes the "child" part of his psyche and is able to steer him in more constructive directions through gentle encouragement.
- Sanity Slippage: His overly optimistic behavior is the result of him fearing how to work in a real life job, and as a result he comes across as an unhinged person who can quickly descend to adhering to rules his superiors (in this case Retsuko) don't follow, which prompts him to fall into manic episodes of threatening his superiors with text messages for any sort of misbehavior they may have done/said to him.
- Shadow Archetype: Anai's role in season 2 was to put a dark-spin on the struggles Retsuko herself faced in the first season. While Retsuko is a sympathetic Audience Surrogate, being a 20-something overwhelmed by her stressful job and poor work/life balance, Anai is a more cynical portrayal of the same type of demographic. Anai, compared to Retsuko, is a Lazy Bum and overly sensitive to any type of criticism he receives and looks for any opportunity to call out his co-workers. On top of this, he keeps himself calm when cooking Yakisoba by channeling his stress into a high-speed rap, much like Retsuko channels her stress into heavy metal karaoke.
- The Slacker: Once he succeeds at getting everyone in the office to fear him, he slacks off on any actual work given to him and just hangs out at the office reading emails.
- Strongly Worded Letter: His preferred method of confrontation is to send anyone who upsets him a hostile email, describing the exact time, date and wording of his grievance and demanding that they respond in writing rather than confront him personally.
- Supreme Chef: Kid can't answer a phone right, but he can cook a mean yakisoba! Season 3 goes on to show Anai started a popular cooking blog online, which even led to him scoring a book deal.
- Tsundere: His real self is implied to be this, as whenever he receives a genuine compliment he slowly looks away while blushing.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Sort of. Any time a coworker or boss tries to train him to do his job, or ask him to do a task, he twists their words around to make it seem like they're bullying and demeaning him, and threatens to report them to upper management to get them to back off and let him slack off at work. Kabae's motherly encouragement helps him grow out of it.
Yagyu
Voiced by: Shingo Kato (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)
A water buffalo who's one of the Accounting Department's managers alongside Komiya. In Season 4, he initially becomes the department's new director after Himuro forces Ton out of the position, only to be replaced by Haida when Himuro promotes the latter.
- Clueless Boss: He is shown to be a rather incompetent manager such as when he served as Ton’s replacement he was reluctant to give Kabae time off to take care of her sick child and not believing that Haida did his work correctly due to being so quick to finish it.
- No Sympathy: He doesn’t show much empathy when dealing with employees' personal problems, such as when hearing Kabae ask if she could leave work to take care of her sick child.
Other Members of the Company
Resasuke
Voiced By: Shingo Katou (Japanese), Max Mittelman (English), Oscar Rangel (Latin American Spanish)
Click here to see Resasuke's pretty face
In both series, Resasuke is a red panda who's a love interest for Retsuko. However, in the TBS series, he doesn't talk and is only seen from afar.
The Netflix series expands on this, with him gaining an actual voice and small story arc. He's described as plain-faced and a bit of a loner.
Known as Lester in the fansubs for the TBS shorts.
- All Take and No Give: Unintentionally, due to being Innocently Insensitive and Oblivious to Hints. Apart from asking Retsuko out and planning their first date (on his friend's coaching), often Retsuko feels she has to put in all the work to keep their relationship afloat while hiding how increasingly dissatisfied she feels, which wears her out. Her boss, Ton, even explicitly states in accounting terms that she's giving more than she's getting. This is what causes her to end things.
- Better with Non-Human Company: He is impressively talented when it come to taking care of plants, but his social skills are somewhat lacking to say the least. He doesn't just misread situations, he outright misses them, as seen on his date with Retsuko.
- Brainless Beauty: Well, the latter's only in Retsuko's besotted eyes. To everyone else, he is The Generic Guy, if not outright The Nondescript.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: By implication. Given all his issues, some of which are shown to cause actual trouble for the company, he must be really good at some aspect of Sales.
- Caring Gardener: A scene in episode ten reveals he actually takes care of a lot of exotic plants, from cacti to ficuses.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doesn't appear at all after season 1.
- Cloudcuckoolander: It is made clear that he mentally spends a lot of time in his own little world. So much so that he is referred to as an "out of pocket prince" by his friends and coworkers — a reference to his habit of accidentally putting his expense reports through the wash, forcing him to pay for them himself because they're too illegible for accounting to process. note He also admits to being late because he was daydreaming on the train and therefore missed his stop, with the implication that is far from the first time it has happened.
- Dull Surprise: Pretty much the only expression on his face is a blank, vacant stare, with his mouth hanging slightly open.
- Emotionless Boy: It's not known if this is due to his shy nature or having some kind of disorder, but he tends to stay completely blank-faced and monotone almost all the time.
- Foil: To Retsuko. Their names are similar and they're the same species, but they're opposite genders and their emotions are the complete opposite of each other.
- The Generic Guy: In-Universe. The only thing about him everyone really seem to notice is how plain and forgettable he looks, and it is often remarked on how his extremely mild-mannered behavior doesn't leave much of an impression.
- Hidden Depths: He grows a lot of plants in his small apartment, and seems to care a lot for them.
- Innocently Insensitive: Due to his lack of awareness and personality, he's a rather bad boyfriend without meaning to be. Retsuko even states the reason she has trouble breaking up with him is she knows he's a good guy.
- Jabba Table Manners: Shown once that when he eats spaghetti, it ends up splattering his face.
- Nice Guy: Despite his social deficiencies, Resasuke isn't a bad guy at heart. The whole reason that Retsuko initially falls for him is because he shows concern for her well-being after she drinks too much.
- Oblivious to Hints: He's completely incapable of understanding indirect communication. When Retsuko points out they've been walking a lot and asks if he wants to eat, instead of realizing she's tired and wants to take a break, he just says he's not tired and keeps walking with her. It's eventually made clear that this is one reason why he and Retsuko are ultimately incompatible with one another; Resasuke is never able to pick up on any hints Retsuko gives him that she's being worn down by their outings, and Retsuko is unwilling to confront him about it directly.
- Punny Name: Red Pandas are also known as "Lesser Pandas" (especially in Japan). Lesser = ressaa (レッサー), plus the name Sasuke, so you get Resasuke. And the fansubs renamed him "Lester".
- Suddenly Voiced: Resasuke is able to speak full sentences (or at least says a few words) while he was silent in the TBS shorts.
- The Quiet One: Even when he speaks, he talks at a very low volume. During the mixer both him and Retsuko are attending, he has to communicate with her via text because she simply cannot hear him over the conversations of the other four people at the table.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Canned Coffee. He even drinks it at a mixer. It's so heavily associated with him that others think of him when looking at coffee drinks.
- The Voiceless: Resasuke never spoke in the original shorts.
- What Does She See in Him?: Both Washimi and Gori honestly can't see why Retsuko loves the guy so much. Retsuko eventually comes to the same conclusion after realizing that she's been Loving a Shadow.
- Yes-Man: He easily agrees with others' requests to do anything, even if it means going out with Retsuko. This ends up running Retsuko ragged as her many outings with him take a toll on her, as shown by her growing injuries on her legs.
Manumaru
Voiced by: Sota Arai (Japanese), Roger Craig Smith (English), Geno Sánchez (Latin American Spanish)
A pallas cat who works with Resasuke in the Sales department.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doesn't appear at all after Season 1.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a little aggressive in how he talks to people, but he's actually a Nice Guy who's trying to help out his friend, Resasuke, with his dates.
- Lovable Jock: Looks very strong due to his species and notable size, but he's always trying to actively help Resasuke with his dates with Retsuko.
- Opposites Attract: To Fenneko. The series doesn't even try to hide the fact the two of them enjoy each other's company (while drunk).
- Satellite Character: He pretty much exists to make sure Resasuke goes together with Retsuko so that the guy takes the chance to date her. He's also implied to be the reason Fenneko's distracted too much (inebriated + enjoying Manumaru's attention) to notice Retsuko's texting Resasuke at the mixer.
- Shout-Out: Some of the faces he makes are references to various pictures taken of pallas cats making bizarre facial expressions.
Inui
Voiced by: Rina Inoue (Japanese), Abby Trott (English), Dulce Melgarejo (Season 3) and Jessica Ángeles (Season 4) (Latin American Spanish)
A Borzoi from the Administration department who quickly develops feelings for Haida.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Non-sexual example. Tsunoda surmises that she tried everything she could just to get Haida to do something romantic while she was at his home, but he kept having cold feet every time and ticked her off until she found out he loves Retsuko.
- Armor-Piercing QuestionInui: "Haida, do you... like me?"
- Birds of a Feather: She has a lot in common with Haida, particularly their shared tastes in music.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Offers to come over to Haida's place and cook curry for him. It's this that convinces Fenneko that she's the one for him.
- Foil: To Retsuko. While Retsuko tries to keep a feminine mask on while in the office whilst keeping her abrasive metal side under wraps, Inui is genuinely feminine, as well as earnest and upfront with her feelings, while Retsuko struggles with opening up until push comes to shove.
- For similar reasons, to Haida as well, mainly how she comes off as more stable while Haida often turns into a Nervous Wreck.
- Hidden Depths: She is a rock music fan, just like Haida.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ultimately, she understands that Haida loves Retsuko and decides to end their relationship.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": "Inui" is a legitimate family name in Japan, but it's usually written as the kanji for "northwest" while her name is written with the kanji for "dog".
- Nice Girl: She has absolutely zero flaws and is an all-around sweet person. At least until Season 4, when she is completely annoyed that Haida didn't even notice when she was fired because she was just a temp worker and scolds him for at least not being ''that'' important to her to know.
- Meaningful Name: While also a Punny Name (written with the kanji for dog), her name is pronounced and spelled similarly to ennui, a feeling of dissatisfaction from a lack of excitement. Haida toils over choosing her or Retsuko, as even though the latter has held his heart for a long time now, their relationship hasn't made any progress while Inui is very up-front about how much she likes Haida and wants to be with him.
