It's a Darker and Edgier Sanrio anime, what would you expect?
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Retsuko vomiting in her death metal voice. To those unfamiliar with death metal, it sounds like she's having her guts ripped out.
- When Fenneko shows images from social media to Haida, he gets really creeped out by her behavior and how often she uses it to check on everything. Fenneko then tells him if he thought that was bad, then he should stay off of social media since he isn't as familiar with it as she is. It doesn't help that the way she said that made it sound threatening.
- After Retsuko starts eating cheap lunches alone in the archive room after giving a very expensive wedding gift, Haida mentions his concern for Retsuko's absence to Fenneko, to which Fenneko tactfully suggests that Retsuko may have killed herself.Fenneko: Day after day she takes a ration of crap from those above her on the food chain. Until one day when she's had enough...and jumps off the roof.
- As if Fenneko's cold delivery wasn't enough, it gets even worse when you realize that in real life, Japan has a disproportionately high suicide rate for office workers due to extreme financial and social pressure.
- The absolutely chilling Mood Whiplash of Retsuko, after coming home from a night out with her friends looking cheerful, about to open the door to her apartment... only to see it's already been unlocked. She peers inside to see a light coming from her bedroom door and a shadowed figure moving from behind it. And unlike some other scary moments in the show, it's not exaggerated in the slightest, just the pure, gut-wrenching paranoia of feeling unsafe in your own home, and all Retsuko can do is run across the street and call the police, sweating and crying "I'm scared." For added tension, there's also no music for several seconds.
- Even when the comedy does come back, with Retsuko trying to find something to defend herself with from a nearby construction site, she's still trembling and crying the whole time. Before that, she's so on edge that a passing cyclist makes her jump.
- Once you get past the hilariously sadistic punchline that it's just Retsuko's nosey mother, there's still the matter of how she made a copy of her daughter's house key without her consent, all so she could take an iron grip on her personal life whenever she feels like it. And she will not take no for an answer!
- Anai and his complete inability to take criticism. This is a man (or badger) who is so volatile, irrational and hypersensitive that many fans have compared him to a workplace shooter. At first, he just comes off as childishly innocent... but the second someone, anyone (from Retsuko to Ton, the head of the department) corrects him, he becomes a completely different person, sending them hostile emails with the intention of using anything they say as leverage against them! He eventually goes so far as to goad Retsuko into saying something potentially incriminating as a threat.
- After Haida fails to get through to him, we see Anai sitting on the floor of his apartment, hiding under a blanket and frantically typing another Strongly Worded Letter, muttering "Don't mess with me!" over and over through gnashed teeth like he's on the verge of Going Postal. And that's how the episode ends!
- The absolute fear in Haida's voice, at least in the English Dub, after he and Retsuko read Anai's email to him, and he realizes exactly what she has had to deal with.Haida: (voice cracking) AUUUGHHH, WHY COULDN'T WE JUST DO IT FACE TO FACE?!
Retsuko: You get it now?! This is what my life has become!
Haida: Oh my God… that kid is nuts. How the hell do we chill him out?
- The absolute fear in Haida's voice, at least in the English Dub, after he and Retsuko read Anai's email to him, and he realizes exactly what she has had to deal with.
- Before that, he follows Retsuko into the archive room and corners her, holding up his phone to record her response to him. His alternating between malicious whispering and screaming at the top of his lungs as he confronts her scares Retsuko so badly that she is reduced to tears. You wouldn't be blamed for assuming he had much darker intentions.
- The way his eyes roll back into his head (complete with a Sickening "Crunch!") any time he gets defensive, as if something is possessing him to behave this way, just to illustrate how immediate and profound the switch is between both personalities. There's also his bloodshot-eyed Nightmare Face, which some fans have compared to Smile Dog, as he's backing Retsuko into an emotional corner.
- It's not helped by the fact that even though he's acting crazy, he still knows how to send emails and such in a way that while it's creepy, he can't lose his job! If Kabae hadn't stepped in and treated him like a child still learning, he very well could've drove people into quitting.
- After Haida fails to get through to him, we see Anai sitting on the floor of his apartment, hiding under a blanket and frantically typing another Strongly Worded Letter, muttering "Don't mess with me!" over and over through gnashed teeth like he's on the verge of Going Postal. And that's how the episode ends!
- Retsuko seeing a graphic photo of the aftermath of a car crash/accident while in her driving safety class, complete with a dead driver and a bloody cracked windshield. She admits that it makes her queasy.
- Retsuko's stalker. It's not hyperbole to say that absolutely nothing in the series is even close to as scary as the episodes he's in, especially because nothing about him is exaggerated at all. He's as genuine a lunatic as can be depicted in a show like this and not even that much of an exaggeration from real people who are willing to verbally assault, harass, stalk, and even kill their favorite celebrities in some twisted form of dedication (he's been unfavorably compared to the man who killed Christina Grimmie).
- His first appearance wastes no time showing just how far he's willing to go to hurt Retsuko: when the band sells tickets with their CDs which allows fans to shake their hands for three seconds, the stalker shows up, throws down 100 tickets, then forcibly grabs Retsuko's hands, physically restraining her as he verbally assaults her with viciously sexist insults, much to the horror of everyone present. When he's done, he simply walks away, fading into the crowd and leaving poor Retsuko feeling violated.
- From there, he only gets worse, stalking her and posting photos of her apartment and her address online. It understandably puts everyone on edge... except Retsuko, who tries to brush the whole thing off as some lunatic seeking attention, unknowingly leaving herself vulnerable for when he proves just how far he's willing to take this, let alone what he's capable of.
- Retsuko coming dangerously close to getting stabbed to death by her stalker right outside her work, making this one of the only Sanrio works to imply murder. Despite Haida saving her life in the nick of time, the stalker still gets close enough to visibly draw blood, cutting Haida's hand when Haida instinctively uses it to block the stalker's blade from slashing Retsuko's throat. Another split-second and she would have been killed then and there.
- After her assailant is tackled and restrained, Haida is convinced that Retsuko died on the spot and cries out in despair while the stalker CACKLES at him and Retsuko!
That bitch had it coming!- The Nightmare Sequence when Retsuko is unconscious. We see Manaka, Miggy, and Hidarin shaking hands for fans of OTM Girls, followed by the trio sitting on chairs while wearing straitjackets while still thanking their fans, ending with Retsuko onstage as the audience's heads all transform into that of her attempted murderer while laughing at and verbally abusing her.
- While Season 4 is notably light on nightmarish situations similar to Season 1, the beginning of Episode 2 is notably chilling since it ends with Haida witnesses Shachou collapsing in the middle of an evening jog. Haida panics and immediately calls an emergency service to take him to the hospital.
- Ton's listless spiral into depression after he is Reassigned to Antarctica by Himuro. He downplays it in front of his family, but one scene has him standing at the train station and possibly contemplating jumping in front of it.
- Retsuko finds two people accosting her. She brings out the nunchucks. The second person confiscates them. She becomes terrified and flashes back to her stalker. Fortunately, it turns out they were Ton's daughters, and had come to the same conclusion that she had: Ton had lied about taking up employment at a convenience store. They ask her for help since they know she cares about "Daddy".
- Himuro casually blackmailing Haida into fixing the account ledgers. They're having a workout after hours, after Himuro overheard the board cackling because his methods would not bring the company up to par. Himuro said he needs a favor while driving Haida. Haida couldn't refuse because Himuro threatened to fire people in his department, including Retsuko.
- The soul crushing reality of homelessness. Haida has to live in a crowded, uncomfortable den with no natural light, filled with people who have given up on life themselves and have no sympathies. If he wants to be able to afford his way out of homelessness, he has to endure back-breaking labor for hours, only to cough up more money to be able to clean himself up enough to be presentable for job interviews. And to add insult to injury: After taking a graveyard shift in a desperate attempt to scrounge up an imperceivable amount of money, he comes back to find that all of the booths are taken due to a gaming event that day. He's forced to either go back out onto the street or take an open booth, sleeping with his valuables out in the open. Cutting back to Retsuko and her hijinks, with Haida's old friends calling him a loser and making up stories about him cheating on her, its hard not to find their cruelty disturbing. Of course they have no way of knowing what has become of him, but if not for Retsuko's meddling he might have very well disappeared from their lives forever, and they would have thought he was just the jerk that stopped texting back.
- When Haida thinks he has his internet cafe life sorted out for now while successfully lying low from Retsuko, he lies back down on his improvised bed and proceeds to see Retsuko looking over the cabinet wall with one of the most terrifying expressions ever seen. His thoughts practically screams: "I'm F***KED!!"
- While unconfirmed, it's heavily implied that someone, likely Haida's father, ordered a truck to try and hit Retsuko's campaign office. That truck hit Haida instead and could have killed him. His own father nearly killed him to try and protect his political legacy!
