I loved this! Still need to finish watching the TBS shorts, though.
Bumping this thread since Season 2 is set to premiere sometime this spring.
I'm really excited for the second season. The first season was one of the most mature and relevant series I've seen in a long time.
It's been fun.
Season 2 drops June 14th.
Awesome. Wonder if it'll be as a chunk?
It's been fun.
And Season 2 is finally out.
Just got done watching all of Season 2 this evening. Boy did things get interesting.
Red Spade, Black Heart
I'm surprised there are so few people talking about this anime. It's phenomenal. It probably isn't helped by the fact that it's about cute cartoon animals, which typically appeal to younger children, but it's about the foibles of office life, meaning it's aimed strictly at adults, but it's not "for adults" in the sense that children think is cool.
Me, I think it's very hashtag relatable. I wish Retsuko, Haida, and Feneko were my friends.
Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
And all the characters are so roundly characterized. Ton is an asshole, but he has reasons for being an asshole... but that still doesn't make how he treats Retsuko right, nor does it really make things easier for her in her day-to-day life. The deer woman whose name I forget could easily have been a one-note Alpha Bitch character, but she's just making her way through a hostile environment with her own set of weapons. It's not wrong, just different.
It's been fun.
Man, you know, I don't remember Anai being such a freak in the webseries.
It's been fun.
Okay, maybe I feel bad from some outside source, but I don't remember the show being physically uncomfortable to watch in season 1.
I'm just going to skip episodes until Anai's creepy freak face isn't on screen anymore. Someone tell me if I missed something important.
It's been fun.
Ehhh, you'll kinda miss his entire character development if you do that, but there isn't much else to speak of in those episodes.
Well, that’d be jus’ a waste. Why would ya want to deprive the world of such anomaly as yourself?
Well, I think I've gleaned most of the arc - I really just skipped the food stall episode. Honestly, the message of 'sometimes young men are angry and will overreact to even small slights by harassing you day and night, tarnishing your work record, and cornering you in the storeroom, but really, you just need to be nice to them because they need validation too' may not be the best message.
It's been fun.
Taking a break for now; I'll probably watch the rest later.
Can Washimi and Gori just date already? Seriously.
It's been fun.
I'm digging Washimi's eye beams in the background.
Relatedly, I know she and Gori are fighting right now, but can we all agree they make a great power couple?
It's been fun.
Red Spade, Black Heart
Honestly, I think Anai is a millennial stereotype. The kind that's (allegedly) always bitching about microaggressions. And the point they're trying to make with him is that recent college grads don't understand the nuances of work-based relationships.
That having been said, the ways he overreacts is so extreme that it's hard to have any sympathy for him. Also, I can't figure out what animal he is. Some kind of mongoose?
Is that a Wocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Japanese Badger.
insert commentary here
"Late stage capitalism is such a pain. That's why it's gotta go."
Well
THIS SEASON SURE TOOK A TURN.
Not exactly sure how I feel about this development.
It kind of feels a little more like the writers wanted to Say Something with the new characters, rather than focusing more on character writing, perhaps? I mean, I know Director Ton is The Showa Boss and the tsuchinoko lady is The Nasty Sempai and stuff like that, and the show's always had a message, which isn't a bad thing at all; but it feels a bit different somehow from season 1. Self-driving car HAL 9000 creator Tadano is a good example, and Anai might be another. Maybe it's that Anai and Tadano feel more like characters introduced for the purpose of having an arc, that is then resolved, rather than being a persistent presence (or problem) like Ton or Kabae.
...Which makes me realize that Fenneko and Haida have averaged like one line per episode in season 2. That sucks.
Edited by RedSavant on Jun 16th 2019 at 8:48:26 AM
It's been fun.
...You know, sorry for the double post, but I think I figured out what it was that was bothering me with Anai's arc. In short, it feels bothsidey to me. The whole point (or joke or whatever) of Anai's character is that new graduates entering the workforce don't know what it's like, and are unable or unwilling to adapt to reality, so they throw fits, call in sick, write up actionable complaints over harmless ribbing, get things in writing/on recording so they can blackmail people, and so on.
The thing is, we've seen Director Ton sexually harass people, engage in workplace bullying and humiliation, illegally threaten Retsuko's job (which Tsubone also does), and keep Retsuko from taking vacation days because he dislikes her personally - all of which seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to, say, record on your phone, or escalate to a higher level of authority. Yet Ton is, on the whole, presented as a cranky dinosaur you just kind of have to tiptoe around and live with, while Anai is presented as an obsessive and possibly dangerous freak whose major arc revolves around harassing Retsuko and the other sympathetic characters over minor slights.
It just seems like the overall message is 'settle down, learn how to fit in, and don't rock the boat', which is pretty different from the first season.
It's been fun.
That is admittedly a very Japanese moral. Sometimes you should just suck it up because life sucks, your apartment is too damn expensive, and you aren’t paid enough. Join the other 97%. Doesn’t make you special.
That is very true, yeah. And we did get a Reality Ensues finish to season 1 that boiled down to Retsuko keeping her head down and carrying on, but that felt more like an And the Adventure Continues end than any kind of commentary.
It's been fun.
After the recent news of the Sanrio\'s Aggretsuko (Aggressive Retsuko) getting renewed for a Second Season. I decided to create this thread as a general discussion about the Netflix series as well as the original TBS shorts that ended weeks before the Netflix series premiered worldwide. As we are waiting until 2019, I decided to create this thread for those that really enjoyed it.