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justminawrites · 3 years ago

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Aggretsuko Season 4 and why it was so Brilliant but so Awful at the same time?!

The shipping, oh god, the shipping.

Listen kids, I’m not the most avid RetsuHaida fan out there but even I know how to read the road signs they’ve been putting up since the end of season 2.

It was obvious that Haida was going to end up being Retsuko’s love interest at some point, the man never got any characterisation besides lovesick puppy (literally), and since he was still pining for her even after she politely rejected him it was only movie logic that they would end up together, especially since they had Fenneko pulling through for them in so many ways.

But man, was that payoff completely not worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, the side cast were wonderful: the show’s commentary on the way companies use psychological tactics to push out honest, hard-working people was on point and the struggles faced by working mothers was incredibly well done, and I was very, very happy to see Himuro getting his ass kicked even if he did have a point about the sinking ship that this company is. Ton’s arc was the best thing to come out of this whole season and you can fight me on that, but the actual storyline fell a bit flat for me.

Honestly with so much set up I thought I would feel at least a smidgeon of catharsis when these two finally got together in season 4, but I was just fully confused. To the point where I thought that whole road trip of theirs was some kind of fever dream he had or something, because it was so chaotically crammed in with the rest of the episodes that it just threw off the whole flow of their dynamic.

We spent a good chunk of the season exploring Haida and Retsuko’s flirtation, and it was weird as shit? For no logical reason at all? Wasn’t it supposed to be an advantage of their relationship that these two were friends?

Walking home together was cute and it was the perfect opening for Haida to get in her good graces and confess to Retsuko that he couldn’t see himself ever loving anyone besides her. It should be more natural this time because let’s not forget that he’s already confessed to her twice before this, once after her breakup with Resasuke and (basically) in the Karaoke bar– so it’s only fair that he gets a solid Yes or a flat out Never Gonna Happen. Instead we get Haida panicking and chickening out so hard, which was funny the first time but ohmygod he singlehandedly fucks up even his friendship with Retsuko to the point where it is no longer humorous.

He does it for the weirdest reasons too. Look I get it if they started dating and then he starts feeling like he’s not enough for her; i.e., if people recognise her on the street or ask for autographs or if she keeps getting calls to do interviews due to the rising fame of OTM Girls - it can be a little disheartening to be called The Boyfriend Of So and So - but none of that happens. We just see Haida get into his own head about what is good for Retsuko, like she’s not capable of making that decision for herself, and it’s not a good look for him. At all.

Speaking of Retsuko, I feel like there was a certain character regression that happened with her, that I just couldn’t put my finger on, so I went back and rewatched the other three season for good measure, until I finally figured it out.

Retsuko has gone back to being completely uncertain about her life and what she really wants.

Now I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a trauma-response (would explain a whole lot more if it was but I didn’t pick up on any subtext there) after everything that happened with that crazy fan of hers, but regardless, sis has gone back to being just as uncertain as she was during the first half of season 2, when she was forced to confront her reality of growing up and getting hitched and all that jazz.

It’s what completely puts her off from making a decision about Haida. When Washimi and Gori prod her about what she’s going to do, Retsuko doesn’t even give them a straight answer— brushing it away by saying that she hasn't thought about it because she doesn't really know Haida well. This is fair but not completely true and we know it.

Knowing someone isn’t really a requirement to want to date them, especially in her case. She barely knew anything about her last two boyfriends (Tadano and Resasuke) and was down to try speed dating for a while too. Retsuko’s pattern is obvious when you start looking: she falls in love as she pursues her affections, but first she needs a spark to set her off. [That spark wasn't really there with Haida even by the end of season 3.]

Later, when Haida actively pushes Retsuko away (much to Fenneko’s absolute horror) with his miscommunication and all her friends pressure her to take the first step, Retsuko reluctantly responds with “Why do I have to do it?”, which is the same behaviour she displayed around her mom back in season 2.

She’s being petulant, she’s being childish, she’s uncertain wether she even wants to date Haida in the first place, and that’s actually a normal thing to feel, for her.

In the previous season, it’s clear that she never wanted to be an idol, she just got roped into it because of that damn Hyoudou (Producer Leopard), and then ended up paying the price for it heavily. While Haida did have good intentions, his feelings about her got in the way when he tried to bring her back, and instead of being grateful that he was trying to help her keep her job, Retsuko got irritated with the way he kept clinging onto her instead.

So her feelings for him are complicated to say the least.

I’m not mad about her hesitation at all. Retsuko deserves to take a breather after everything she’s been through. What I am mad about, however, is how the show kept pushing them together against her will. From Fenneko (best girl) to Tsunoda (also best girl), to Washimi and Gori (who never forced her about matters of the heart, mind you), it seems like all everyone wants is for these two to be together, for no goddamn reason. Fenneko, I get it; she’s been putting up with Haida’s pining for five excruciatingly long years, she’s sick of it— but Tsunoda? And Gori??

Tsunoda could just be helping Fenneko out for whatever reason, but Gori is 100% just projecting in this case. She created an app with Tadano’s AI that she still hasn’t managed to market, despite being a marketing manager, and wants to set up her only two beta testers.

To make matters worse, we never get to see the effect of this relationship on Retsuko at all. We never see her feelings for Haida change in any way or evolve– she blushes once during their road trip and posts a picture of her food with his hand in the background, but that’s it.

We don’t see her feel particularly happy or sad or anything really. They spent half the season rehashing their whole I-don’t-know-you-enough-to-like-you spiel only to continue not getting to know each other at all? What? Was it all done offscreen?

Look the audience doesn’t need to be spoon-fed the details, we just want to see why she fell in love with Haida after everything that happened, and we didn’t get that at all. (Side note, I sincerely doubt it’s because the guy can parallel park; the bar is low but not that low).

What we do get is about half of an episode of them on this road trip, before we cut straight back to office drama and a completely Haida-centric arc. This, coupled with the fact that Retsuko is still very uncertain, lessens the impact of the relationship altogether and makes it feel really incomplete; like something’s not quite there yet.

We also get to see Haida in a relationship, and it is just.. yikes. It’s something alright.

We were blessed with a lot of Haida character development this season— the corruption arc was just *chefs kiss*, literally all his interactions with Himuro were charged with incredible Bi Energy but oh how his love for Retsuko suffered.

Haida isn’t happy about his job, he’s made that clear at every opportunity, and he desperately wants to be valued, despite not being good at valuing anyone or anything else.

Thanks to Inui (bestest girl) we find out that he’s this absolute paradox of a man who wants someone to see him, to really see him, to not end up a faceless worker bee in the crowd of people of his life. Someone who wants to be noticed so badly but refuses to notice what's in front of him in the first place.

He didn’t know Inui was a temp, which is insane, because that’s one of the first things they would’ve talked about, you know, since they met in the same office. You can argue that this is just because Haida didn’t love Inui the same but we see him actively blow off Retsuko when she’s trying to confess to him about her involvement in Ton’s banishment too. Haida isn’t very observant, in a relationship or otherwise, and it’s pretty clear throughout the season as he slowly transitions from her boyfriend to her boss, constantly shutting her out in order to win Himuro’s approval.

At first, this seems like a great foil for Retsuko. One of the main conflicts of the show is that Retsuko bottles up her emotions to the point of needing a whole Death Growl to properly vent her feelings, and as the seasons pass we see how she manages to slowly fix her stressful situations until she learns to react to things without it, using external love and support instead.

In season one; this support came from Friends: Gori and Washimi who she met in Yoga class. They helped her understand that she didn’t need to conceal her emotions all the time and that they aren’t some kind of big secret— it's okay to feel things and let other people know, you don't have to hide who you are. This was shown very nicely with Resasuke, where she hid her feelings deep, deep down and gave more than she had left to give, and eventually realised that isn't how she wanted to live at all.

In season two; this support came from Family: her Mother; while Retsuko spent most of this season trying her level best to adult - driving, cooking, speed dating - it was her mother who encouraged her to come out of her comfort zone and live or else life will pass you by before you know it. Here, she learned from yet another relationship; Tadano with his brilliant ideas and his desire to change the world, and when she found out that they had different pathways in life she made the most adult decision she had so far. Instead of clinging to the idea that somehow love would be enough, Retsuko let him go and moved on with her life.

In season three; the support came from her Talent; she began considering what she actually liked and wanted to do, and when life presented her with the opportunity to showcase her love of Metal to the world, to quite literally, come into the spotlight– Retsuko thrives.

As the show progresses, we see that Retsuko gets more and more comfortable with her feelings and refuses to remain her doormat self. Until the season finale, of course, and she’s back to a shell of her former self. Understandable when you consider the very real impact of what she’s been through.

Dating Haida could’ve been great for her.

Here we have a man who is dense and unable to communicate properly, so it would’ve really helped Retsuko come out of her shell, stop beating around the bush, and have her not apologise for her feelings for once. It could’ve brought her character arc in a full circle. But it did not.

Instead in season four; we see her try to support someone else: Director Ton. We see Retsuko fuck up, blindly trusting someone like Himuro who will never have her best interests in heart, and drown in guilt once she realises that her actions have very real, very awful consequences. Even as everyone around her tells her it’s not her fault, he made his own choice, etc etc this is the only time we see Retsuko actively trying to change the situation she’s in. For most of the show we’ve watched her get thrust into drama or unable to decline it out of politeness, but we’ve never seen her seeking it out of her own volition, until now.

This is because Ton is the first and only character Retsuko has bonded with in her workplace. Gori and Washimi? She met them in yoga class and even then almost screwed it up bc work hierarchy. Puko? Highschool friend. Tadano? Driving school. Manaka? Idol Group. Even well into season three we get Fenneko calling out how secretive Retsuko still is about her life, pointing out how even though it’s been five years, she only sees them as “work friends” and nothing more.

But Ton has been there since day 1.

He asks her to consider the value of what she was giving vs receiving with Resasuke in season one. He refuses to accept her resignation, in season two, telling her that she needs to start figuring out where she wants to go before she drops everything for a guy like Tadano. He even offers to pay off her debt (200,000 ¥) because he thought she was being blackmailed into staying with the idol group in season three.

Ton’s is this half-foil, half-mentor figure to Retsuko and he ends up giving her advice at her most crucial points throughout her life, and it’s fair to say that she wouldn’t have grown into her full potential of it wasn’t for him.

It’s usually his plain speech and tough love that spurs her into action most of the time: when Ton points out something about Retsuko, the man is honest, and brutally so. He goes from office bully to begrudging father figure in Retsuko’s life and this is the first time we see her value him for it.

Retsuko really wants to fix her mistake and save Ton, and so she ends up going to the last person we’d expect: Tadano of all people, bracing herself for rejection. Instead she’s finally met with someone willing to help out, for the first time in the whole season. And not just someone willing to help her, Tadano insists that she take the lead, stating how he “..can’t be the hero this time. It has to be you.”

This is some interesting character development from our billionaire tech-whiz, who, the last time we saw him, was hell bent on being said hero. [He wanted to save the workplace environment from drudge work and believed that creative pursuits were the keys to unlocking human potential, to the point where he came off a little preachy and tone deaf when he agreed that his work would put a lot of people out of jobs].

His breakup with Retsuko seems to have changed the both of them; once a carefree and irresponsible insomniac, now Tadano’s.. probably still an insomniac, albeit a more thoughtful and intuitive one. He’s able to read Retsuko’s thoughts even as she keeps them in her throat, surprising even Retsuko herself. This is a large improvement from the last time these two saw one another, when he was completely blindsided by her ambushing him during karaoke.

Tadano’s advice proves to be exactly what she needs to save Ton, and even though these two have grown as people, their cute dynamic remains unchanged— he still teases her, and she still scolds him and it’s wholesome af.

While their breakup was essential to both of their arcs, there still seems to be a little magic left between the two of them that blossoms even under these conditions— platonic or otherwise, Retsuko and Tadano are clearly always going to have something going for them.

As her relationship with Haida grows colder and more distant, her support system grows, adding Ton, Kabae, Fenneko, Anai, and nearly everyone else from the office, to stage a coup and wrest control of the office from Haida, and by extension Himuro.

The heist was Everything.

Kabae’s vent game was strong and the fact that Fenneko knew all of Haida’s passwords had me shaking my head. He really doesn’t appreciate how she easily she could ruin his life smh.

But the ending is where it fell a little flat for me again.

Committing tax fraud is romantic and all but it was really irking to see how blatantly Haida was lying to Retsuko when she dragged him off to karaoke. Sure, he might have been telling himself it was for her, but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Haida was hooked to his new boss, and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Himuro had a few decent qualities that were never really touched upon in depth, and I would’ve liked to have him stay on as the new CEO for another season at least.

On that note, the whole reset thing at the end didn’t sit right with me. It felt like a cop out tbh; why did everyone go through so much pressure and stress if the old CEO was done and going to be coming back anyway? Why did Haida resign?? What was the point of it all???

After much deliberation I propose an alternate ending instead:

We’ve already established that the company had been sinking because of the previous CEO’s wacky ventures.

Now that they were forced to window-dress statements, the only logical path to have everyone win is to blackmail Himuro into reinstating Ton and Kabae back into the office under a foolproof contract or else they release the real statements to the public. Blah blah blah, the company loses the trust of the shareholders, stock prices plummet, it’s the end of the world so he has no choice but to give in.

This would keep Himuro as the CEO (possibly teasing a Washimi arc in the future) and bring back everything to it’s morally neutral terms while still having a new and unique villain in the story— how will Retsuko butt heads with a master manipulator, where her rage might get the better of her instead?

It would still keep everyone on their toes while providing a permanent shift in the office, which, let’s be honest, it definitely requires.

Haida can still quit under these circumstances (after properly saying bye to Fenneko bc WTF WE DIDN’T EVEN GET A FAREWELL AFTER EVERYTHING SHE’S DONE FOR YOU??), and it makes more sense now since he’s a liability; his relationship with Retsuko can carry on until it fades out, or completely vanishes into the background idk I stopped caring a while ago.

Either way, I’m not going to say that keeping Himuro as CEO would’ve saved this season because I did enjoy some parts of it, but a few dynamics and the show as a whole did start feeling a little stale about halfway through, so I think resetting everything isn’t going to magically make things better.

TLDR: Season 4 wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either and I blame RetsuHaida, I’m not sorry.

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