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Fraternizing allowed?
- Doesn't Retsuko's friendship with Washimi and Gori violate fraternization policy? If anyone catches on that the three are associating outside the workplace, especially Ton, this could raise questions in management of undermining the chain of command.
- Technically not due to their positions. Gori is a supervisor in marketing and not in accounts so she's got no power over Retsuko and Washi is a secretary to the CEO so she also has no authority over the employees or power to enact things on paper. That being said the fact that she's a Hyper-Competent Sidekick is another matter.
- Besides, its Retsuko. She'd never accept a handout or help from someone (at first, anyway), even if its from Washimi or Gori.
- If it helps any, we don't really know what their exact policies are and their friendships don't really hurt the job or their performance any. On top of this, they don't seem to cross any boundaries.
- Also of note is that Washimi and Gori only befriended Retsuko OUTSIDE of work, through a shared activity, c which presumably falls outside of Company policy.
Different uniform?
- How come Tsunoda doesn't wear the standard office lady uniform that Retsuko, Fenneko, Kabae, etc have? Considering how strict and conformist Japanese society is, I have to wonder how Tsunoda gets away with her Custom Uniform?
- Presumably because she's in SUPER good with the boss. As is often the case in work environments, being the head honcho's favorite has certain perks to it
- Office jobs like theirs typically don't have a uniform so much as a dress code. So long as Tsunoda's clothes look respectable, she wouldn't have any trouble. Plus, there has been a trend since 2017 or so among big Japanese companies to relax the dress code a bit.
Carnivore Confusion
- In season two, in the family festival episode, Ton and his family, who are a family of pig people, eat yakisoba at Retsuko's booth. Said yakisoba, prepared by Anai, has hot dogs in it. Is this just one of those things that one isn't supposed to think too hard about?
- Who said the sausage had mammal meat in it?
- I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that the hotdogs were fish
- Pigs are omnivores and eat pretty much anything they find. Cannibalism isn't something they're concerned with.
- If it helps, those hot dogs could have been vegetarian or made of a different kind of meat, while yakosoba can have other types of meat in it.
- Who said the sausage had mammal meat in it?
Being scared of Anai
- Why are the office staff, even Ton, so scared of Anai even though he's junior to them all? I imagine in most work places harassing and threatening other staff would be a sackable offence or at very least earn a formal written warning (not to mention in quite a few countries the harassment and threats outside of work would be a police matter; I don't know if this is the case in Japan) so why don't they report him to HR or higher management?
- This is because of Values Dissonance. In Japan, recent college grads like Anai are seen as valuable to the workforce, and if anyone started badmouthing him it would make the company look bad. If they tried to complain, it's actually more likely that they'd get fired rather than him.
- The weirder part is why isn't he written up for using his cellphone excessively during office hours? In American offices, while cellphones are allowed, most handbooks have limits on use and you can get written up if wasting time on them during work hours. Given Anai is holing himself up drafting letters of complaint, that doesn't seem to count as fair use. Even if he knows the company handbook by heart, Ton has grounds to respond. Is that also Values Dissonance?
- Yes, actually. When it comes to terminating employment, Japan is almost the exact opposite of many western countries. It's very difficult to fire an employee from both a cultural and legal standpoint, but it's normal and legal to try and pressure employees to quit. But Anai just isn't the type to be pressured to do what he doesn't want to.
Deconstuction?
- Is Aggretsuko a Deconstruction of the modern Japanese workplace? I had wanted to put this as a trope on the main page but the likelihood of removal or editing prompts this idea as needing further discussion. I lean towards deconstruction myself because of Retsuko being so stressed out from her workday, especially Ton's behavior, that she has to do her death metal rage singing to cope. This is even moreso for Anai. While there seems to be a Broken Base on this character, YouTube user Brotakuza Anime & Gaming has a video about what Anai's problem is: he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of years of schooling, cram schooling and the job search. His video
discusses this more in general.- "Modern Japanese workplace" isn't really a genre, so I'd hesitate to do that. Deconstructions are more about dismantling tropes or genres in fiction than things in real life.
- That really doesn't answer the question.
- Then maybe this is a better answer: the series isn't really a deconstruction since the way it presents the Japanese work environment isn't actually far from how it is in real life; it shows all of the drudgery and casual sexism, just with a layer of cartoony exaggeration and with all the characters being cute animals. It isn't meant to be a slap in the face saying "This is how the workplace really is outside of fiction" because the intended audience already knows this. It's a series that's about being relatable for Japanese working women, not about dismantling established tropes in fiction.
Shouldn't she take a break?
- Spoilers for season 3: why on earth does no one suggest Retsuko take a leave of absence from her job after she's attacked? I understand why her friends are concerned for her, and given Retsuko's thematic journey this year involves learning not to run away from her problems, it makes sense that she just bailed on work initially... but surely her options at the point where Haida takes her to karaoke aren't just "go back to work" or "be a shut in forever". Does Japan not have LOA programs, or some sort of flexible work that would allow Retsuko to do some activities at home and ease back into office life once she isn't completely traumatized?
- Washimi does mention that Retsuko not showing up has been excused as a leave of absence from her job, so she technically is on one. However, she also mentions that Retsuko may be forced to quit or resign because she's been away for too long. Japanese corporate culture is rigid and it's difficult to take days off, which is why Quitting to Get Married is still common in Japan. As mandated by Japanese labor laws, individuals are entitled 10 days of paid leave per every six months worked (and Article 39 of the Labor Standards Act requires that employees must be present 80% of their working hours), and corporate holidays don't count towards working days. Also, sick days count as paid leaves.
Animal metaphors
- The occasional Furry Reminder aside, this show seems to utilize the Furry Lens trope, where the characters are portrayed visually as animals but are written more or less as humans. They never directly refer to anyone by what animal they are (for instance, when Ton is called a pig, it's referring to his personality, not his species)… with the exception of Retsuko's virtual boyfriend Seiya. The characters directly call him a unicorn multiple times, suggesting he's not contextually human like the other characters, but a literal anthropomorphic unicorn. Does this mean Retsuko (and by extension Fenneko) is a furry/brony for lusting over him?
- Since unicorns are mythical creatures in the real world, it's not unreasonable to assume that they are in Aggretsuko as well since we don't see any in real life. Thus, using a unicorn dating sim would probably be like using a vampire or elf dating sim for humans - odd enough that it'd warrant mention, but not odd enough to get you considered a furry or whatever.
Tadano the millionaire
- The second half of Season 2 drops a bomb concerning Tadano actually being a multi-millionaire tech mogul hot on the heels of creating a revolutionary advanced AI system. It's established that he's famous in the tech industry and even outside of it, as gossip concerning his love life with Retsuko spreads like wildfire. Which begs the question: how did no one back in the driving school ever point this out? You would think people would be quick to make even an off-hand mention of him and his achievements or even have had some paparazzi sticking around to get the scoop on his driving lessons. One could argue that his casual clothing could obfuscate his true identity but his face is plastered all over magazines so it's not like he's some undistinguished tech junkie. Even more damning is how the receptionist never picks up on this either, despite knowing Tadano for a fairly long while, if the mentions of his repeated driving school failures are anything to go by. Even if he never mentioned it to anyone, it'd be near impossible to avoid all the buzz surrounding him for that long.
- There have been several documented cases of well known celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Marilyn Monroe walking around in plainclothes and not being noticed (the Mel Gibson example is very similar to Tadano's situation as he was going to the DMV to drop off forms). People who aren't actively looking for a celebrity won't notice one right away, and might just assume the guy walking by just happens to look like him. And who would expect a super-successful tech mogul to show up at an average, no-name driving school in Tokyo?
- Big shots like Tadano aren't always immediately recognizable, especially when they aren't actors. It's totally possible that Retsuko and others from the driving school have heard about Tadano and his company, but never cared enough to actually look up what he looks like, or just didn't remember his face after seeing him in whatever magazine or news bit he was on.
Haida's plan
- In season 4 their plan to find proof that Haida is changing the numbers is almost stopped because Tsubone reveals something to Haida that could ruin the plan. She is shown to be friends with Ton, so why didn’t he tell her what the plan was?
- Tsubone may not have regular contact with Ton outside of work. In addition to that, Ton was busy trying to support his family as well as helping Retsuko with her plan. Most likely, he was too busy to say anything to Tsubone or it just never occurred to him to say anything to her.
Finding out Retsuko's persona
- In season 5, a lot of Retsuko's friends are suprised when her metal voice is shown on TV. For most of them, it makes sense. Haida, on the other hand, was shown to be well aware of her metal voice, even commenting how he was surprised she didn't use it in an ealrier episode and was aware of the presidential campaign; why was he surprised too?
- Retsuko's metal persona is generally a private outlet (inasmuch as can be defined) for her frustrations with work and existence and she uses a different voice for her idol persona. That TV campaign was the first time she's used that voice publicly (as so to speak).
- Not to mention, right before this Retsuko had basically told him there was no way she could handle the political race. His surprise may have nothing to do with the voice and been purely because it was the opposite of what he was expecting.
