An extract from a feature about everyone’s favourite metal-loving panda. Please visit Fandom for the full feature.
Aggretsuko’s selling point is its clash of the cutesy and the caustic. A 25-year-old red panda who works in the accounting department of a trading firm, Retsuko is driven to distraction by bulls– office politics, blatant sexism and the sheer repetition of life. Her secret escape from her existence as a soul-crushed corporate drone is the local karaoke joint, where she vents her frustration by screeching along to frenetic death metal.
It’s a slim premise to build a ten-episode, 150-minute series from. Yet Resuko’s daily trials and tribulations will resonate with anyone ill-suited to the stifling drudgery of office life. Her days barely fluctuate. Her commute is a cattle pen of unsolicited coughs, drools and sneezes from strangers, and the routine toil is even worse.
Ben Hopkins 