Editor¡¯s note: The following article includes spoilers for season five of ¡°Aggretsuko¡±
General wisdom goes that you shouldn¡¯t rely on anime to provide a picture of what life in Japan is really like. Yet that¡¯s not always true, at least in the case of seeing a red panda death-scream her frustration about economic stagnation.
Netflix series ¡°Aggretsuko,¡± based on the death-metal-loving Sanrio character known in Japan as ¡°,¡± has set its sights on Japanese work culture since debuting in 2018. Save for a third-season broadside on the world of J-pop idol music, the show has used the exploits of its fuzzy protagonist Retsuko and her coworkers as a way to poke fun at the more toxic elements of the country¡¯s corporate side, from unreasonable overtime to power harassment. Most of these complaints came out of office worker Retsuko via rage-fueled karaoke sessions.
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