20190411:
I was looking for a show to watch and thought I would give Aggretsuko a try. I watched it with English audio and English subtitles, but the subtitles didn't match the English audio.
Netflix determined the series for me as an 83% match.
[20190417]
20230216:
I started watching Aggretsuko again today.
20230216:
As I'm beginning Season 5, it appears that the English subtitles match the English audio.
20230217:
As I neared completion of the series, I felt that the show had drifted away from what made it interesting in its first season. Perhaps because the writers wanted a story that ended, they had to figure out some happy ending for Retsuko. But I think of all the various possible happy endings, the one they landed on did not suit the original spirit of the character - a person who has a hidden coping mechanism for her day-to-day struggles. And arguably towards the end of the series, she appears not to gain much agency - being forced/pushed to run a campaign against her will. As mentioned, she does find happiness, but I feel it wasn't on her terms.
Overall, I find that I typically don't enjoy how shows end. Sometimes it's more appealing to just repeatedly watch the characters repeat their struggles endlessly. In this situation, if Retsuko was just constantly finding herself in disappointing situations season after season and using her metal voice to relieve her stress, I'd probably be happy with ten seasons of that. The direction I might have taken to add variation is building out a death metal band. The show did this whole OTMGirls arc, but decided to turn away from pushing that to the next step. Perhaps my direction would have been too cliche? In any case, while the last two seasons weren't as good as the first two seasons, it had its moments.
20190411: S1E01.
20210408: S1E01-S1E02. JAES.
20210409: S1E03. JAES.
20210410: S1E04-S1E07. EAES.
20210415: S1E08-S1E09. EAES.
20210416: S1E10. EAES.
20210418: S2E01. EAES.
20210421: S2E02-S2E05. EAES.
20210423: S2E06-S2E09 [?]. EAES.
20210603: S2E10. EAES.
20210619: S3E01-S3E06. EAES.
20230216: S3E07-S3E10. EAES.
20230217: S4E01-S5E10. EAES.
Season 1
S1E01
0: strange style, perhaps very Japanese.
0: women and tea.
0: competent vs incompetent.
0: shitty boss song.
0: lol choke on my rage.
0: she says in English "leave it on the table" but the English subtitles read "I didn't order anything"
0=20190411, 1=20210408
S1E03:
1: I don't see why online would have been bad but I guess the pay part was important.
1=20210409
S1E04:
1: lol she opened the jar effortlessly.
1=20210410
S1E05:
1: lol the yoga instructor had a vision and tipped them off? (to go karaoke)
1: oh, its later revealed.
1: hehe another two hours (contrast with other episode).
1=20210410
S1E06:
1: interesting, will there be repercussions?
1=20210410
S1E07:
1: huh something fishy
1: given the start of the episode
1: hahahaha she did it.
1: you're a shitty boss!!!!
1: lol "you guys want to order anything else?" great way to cut the tension
1=20210410
S1E08:
1: Hmm. A romantic interest.
1: My son kept calling Retsuko a cat and I thought she was too until today I noticed her tail. She's a red panda.
1=20210415
S1E09:
1: That much coffee can't be good.
1: Ha! He asks her out, she says yes, and then he just makes his way back through the crowd.
1: I was expecting the song would trigger her complaint about the coat.
1=20210415
Season 3
S3E07:
1: Hahaha. The F chord.
1: Interesting. Calluses/blisteres. I wonder if Retsuko will end up being a decent guitarist.
1: Interesting. Retsuko was trying to think of someone who knows how to play... Does she already know Haida used to play bass?
1=20230116
S3E08:
1: Sometimes there's interesting differences between the English audio and English subtitles
1: Smile. "Now turn Retsuko down!" Hurrrr. "Sure thing."
1: Awww. She called him a friend.
1: Hehe. Awkward... (Inui passes by Retsuko)
1: Oh. In Japanese audio, the same voice actor voices Fenneko and Inui. But it's different for the English audio.
1=20230116
S3E09:
1: Haha. A literal yellow card (when earlier she alluded to a red card being too harsh)
1: Huh. I don't remember what happened previously. Did Retsuko get found out at one point? I vaguely recall she did get found out, but was able to get her job back. [This next scene indicates her boss already knew]
1: English audio: "If I have to choose, I choose them." English subtitles: "When the time comes, I'll give you my two weeks."
1: It's strange, because I thought her boss was just going to ask for favors from her, like free tickets or something
1: That's scary. The mysterious character is named "Fan" in the credits.
1=20230216
S3E10:
1: Holy moly. So lucky of Retsuko that Haida was there.
1: Hehe. He basically said "Logically i would choose you, but emotionally I choose Retsuko."
1: "He's the king of stupid."
1: I bet the app says it's Retsuko.
1: Lol. Though... how many users are on the app?
1: Hehe. Haida busts out some metal.
1: Smile. Retsuko goes Super Saiyan compared to Haida's metal
1: Oh. That makes sense (Gori suspects Tadano tampered with the algorithm)
1: Hehe. He's a window washer!
1: "Just count to ten."
1=20230216
Season 4
S4E01:
1: Lol. Wha?!?! He chickened out?
1: hehe addicted to games...
1: oh no. an online "friend" abusing the fact that he spends money
1=20230217 AM
S4E02:
1: ooo. bow ties. it means this online friend is a girl.
1: Hehe. Cancellation fee.
1: Lol. What kind of voting is this process is this? I feel like one can't just object. There should be a reason behind the objection.
1: Hehe. "We're about to eat lunch as slow as we can..."
1: Lol. Perhaps he appreciates the 'yes' men for what they are, but in part I also thought he would fire some of thm and replace them with a more competant board
1=20230217
S4E03:
1: Oh, I thought we were gonna get some Retsuko metal. At the beginning of this episode I felt a kind of metal rage hole. I guess it happened in S3E10, but I don't recall before that.
1: Haha. No holding back against listing Komiya who is right there.
1: Great analogy about pit crew
1: "No one's getting canned on my watch." (I thought he was gonna reveal that he himself got fired as a sacrifice for his team)
1=20230217
S4E04:
1: Hehe. They run into the president.
1: "Career Experience Design Office"
1=20230217
S4E05:
1: Huh. What is he tasked with doing?
1: HAHAHA. "or is that what you tell yourself?" Karate chop from Tsunoda.
1: Hehe. Director Gori out of nowhere.
1=20230217
S4E06:
1: Hehe. They're learning to appreciate Director Ton
1: Hmm this is an emotional episode (Kabae leaving)
1: Wait. What? "That way of working is unimpressive." (English subtitles) / "I'm sorry but I can't condone this behavior." (English audio). I really hope he's talking to the interim manager and not to Haida. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it.
1=20230217
S4E07:
1: Hehe. Definitely the obvious outcome from the end of the other episode.
1: Haha. Even Haida has his mouthy dropped while sitting in the seat
1=20230217
S4E08:
1: That's nice of Retsuko.
1: Oh no... Haida was asked to fudge some numbers?
1=20230217
S4E09:
1: hahahaha. "retsukol0ve"
1: Washimi is such a badass
1=20230217
S4E10:
1: Less than 1K views vs over 7.5M views
1: Hehe. This is the first time she spotted him.
1: A fun little plot (they have a plan to get his keypad code and then extract it)
1: The overlooming threat of being exposed should be enough for him to perhaps just undo it himself
1: Lol. A request to arm wrestle and Tadano accepts.
1: Hahaha. That's quite a resolution to the climax. Metal laser beam + "I didn't think you were gonna kill him." + "So metal!"
1: Mid-credit scene where Tadano says his arm is sore. Enio tells Tadano, "you legit bodied him" 1=20230217
Season 5
S5E02:
1: I don't understand why he doesn't turn off the monitors
1: Lol. This is the third time recently where Fenneko uses her "hahahaahahahaha"
1: Hehe. She admits she enabled his whaling
1: Lol. I feel like. This noob is Retsuko.
1: Ha! Okay. Not too far off.
1=20230217
S5E03:
1: Hehe. They're all crazy (in the cafe).
1: Lol. They're truly crazy (they all confront Haida in the cubicle. "Does the condemned have any final words to share?"
1: "Are you Fennelope?" "What gave it away?"
1: Huh. That's kind of surreal / psychological horror level
1=20230217
S5E04:
1: Haha! Mama vision. Cohabitation detected.
1: Ton has these great moments - which I think in part comes by how he's written to have this tough/lazy side that contrasts with wiser moments
1: Smile. Her dad at the last second reframes from the three of them to mainly just her and her mom... Kind of odd seeing how he just said friendly words to Haida
1=20230217
S5E05:
1: Hehe. Poor guy. Though they did have that prior scare.
1: Wha... I love persimmons.
1: Hmm. I didn't see that angle of story (re: Shikabane and the other guy)
1=20230217
S5E06:
1: Jeez. What a conversation with his father.
1: I guess this is major growth for Haida to stand up to his dad in a conversation about his situation and defending the friends/people he met at the netcafe.
1: Wow. Retsuko held it together.
1: Hehe. Haida expected her Death Voice.
1: I guess that's some character growth for Retsuko.
1: Oh man, that's so mean. Does that even make sense? Where's the victory in tricking Haida to take the money. He logically only took it to be nice to his brother. [Though I guess his brother would be the dumb one. Haida could in theory just blackmail his brother.]
1=20230217
S5E07:
1: I'm guessing there'd be a chance she'd run if it would somehow 1-up Haida's brother.
1: Huh. Kind of weird that she's forced into it... so like why would she want to be a politician versus just a singer?
1=20230217
S5E08:
1: Okay, so she in fact doesn't want to run
1: So this is where the competition comes in. He reveals that among all the possible seats, the best chance is against Jiro (who presumably he wasn't aware slash wouldn't care that this is Haida's brother)
1=20230217
S5E09:
1: That's ridiculous. He comes to her asking her to run. And he wants her to pony up the fee to run?
1: Interestingly they were willing come up with the money
1: Oh. Haida is his family name. So what's his first name?
1=20230217
S5E10:
1: I can't believe this season (and potentially series) is going to wrap up in 30ish minutes.
1: Hehe. Someone yelled back, "Yeah we get it."
1: I mean... it does kind of make sense. Why not try and separate herself by using her death metal voice.
1: Ikari agrees with the death metal voice approach
1: LOL. Nice. The OTMGirls!
1: Holy crap. That's so dirty. Your own family.
1: The music is dominantly electric guitar while Haida is playing a bass
1: Retsuko narrates a calm reflection of the outcome
1=20230217
I was looking for a show to watch and thought I would give Aggretsuko a try. I watched it with English audio and English subtitles, but the subtitles didn't match the English audio.
Netflix determined the series for me as an 83% match.
[20190417]
20230216:
I started watching Aggretsuko again today.
20230216:
As I'm beginning Season 5, it appears that the English subtitles match the English audio.
20230217:
As I neared completion of the series, I felt that the show had drifted away from what made it interesting in its first season. Perhaps because the writers wanted a story that ended, they had to figure out some happy ending for Retsuko. But I think of all the various possible happy endings, the one they landed on did not suit the original spirit of the character - a person who has a hidden coping mechanism for her day-to-day struggles. And arguably towards the end of the series, she appears not to gain much agency - being forced/pushed to run a campaign against her will. As mentioned, she does find happiness, but I feel it wasn't on her terms.
Overall, I find that I typically don't enjoy how shows end. Sometimes it's more appealing to just repeatedly watch the characters repeat their struggles endlessly. In this situation, if Retsuko was just constantly finding herself in disappointing situations season after season and using her metal voice to relieve her stress, I'd probably be happy with ten seasons of that. The direction I might have taken to add variation is building out a death metal band. The show did this whole OTMGirls arc, but decided to turn away from pushing that to the next step. Perhaps my direction would have been too cliche? In any case, while the last two seasons weren't as good as the first two seasons, it had its moments.
20190411: S1E01.
20210408: S1E01-S1E02. JAES.
20210409: S1E03. JAES.
20210410: S1E04-S1E07. EAES.
20210415: S1E08-S1E09. EAES.
20210416: S1E10. EAES.
20210418: S2E01. EAES.
20210421: S2E02-S2E05. EAES.
20210423: S2E06-S2E09 [?]. EAES.
20210603: S2E10. EAES.
20210619: S3E01-S3E06. EAES.
20230216: S3E07-S3E10. EAES.
20230217: S4E01-S5E10. EAES.
Season 1
S1E01
0: strange style, perhaps very Japanese.
0: women and tea.
0: competent vs incompetent.
0: shitty boss song.
0: lol choke on my rage.
0: she says in English "leave it on the table" but the English subtitles read "I didn't order anything"
0=20190411, 1=20210408
S1E03:
1: I don't see why online would have been bad but I guess the pay part was important.
1=20210409
S1E04:
1: lol she opened the jar effortlessly.
1=20210410
S1E05:
1: lol the yoga instructor had a vision and tipped them off? (to go karaoke)
1: oh, its later revealed.
1: hehe another two hours (contrast with other episode).
1=20210410
S1E06:
1: interesting, will there be repercussions?
1=20210410
S1E07:
1: huh something fishy
1: given the start of the episode
1: hahahaha she did it.
1: you're a shitty boss!!!!
1: lol "you guys want to order anything else?" great way to cut the tension
1=20210410
S1E08:
1: Hmm. A romantic interest.
1: My son kept calling Retsuko a cat and I thought she was too until today I noticed her tail. She's a red panda.
1=20210415
S1E09:
1: That much coffee can't be good.
1: Ha! He asks her out, she says yes, and then he just makes his way back through the crowd.
1: I was expecting the song would trigger her complaint about the coat.
1=20210415
Season 3
S3E07:
1: Hahaha. The F chord.
1: Interesting. Calluses/blisteres. I wonder if Retsuko will end up being a decent guitarist.
1: Interesting. Retsuko was trying to think of someone who knows how to play... Does she already know Haida used to play bass?
1=20230116
S3E08:
1: Sometimes there's interesting differences between the English audio and English subtitles
1: Smile. "Now turn Retsuko down!" Hurrrr. "Sure thing."
1: Awww. She called him a friend.
1: Hehe. Awkward... (Inui passes by Retsuko)
1: Oh. In Japanese audio, the same voice actor voices Fenneko and Inui. But it's different for the English audio.
1=20230116
S3E09:
1: Haha. A literal yellow card (when earlier she alluded to a red card being too harsh)
1: Huh. I don't remember what happened previously. Did Retsuko get found out at one point? I vaguely recall she did get found out, but was able to get her job back. [This next scene indicates her boss already knew]
1: English audio: "If I have to choose, I choose them." English subtitles: "When the time comes, I'll give you my two weeks."
1: It's strange, because I thought her boss was just going to ask for favors from her, like free tickets or something
1: That's scary. The mysterious character is named "Fan" in the credits.
1=20230216
S3E10:
1: Holy moly. So lucky of Retsuko that Haida was there.
1: Hehe. He basically said "Logically i would choose you, but emotionally I choose Retsuko."
1: "He's the king of stupid."
1: I bet the app says it's Retsuko.
1: Lol. Though... how many users are on the app?
1: Hehe. Haida busts out some metal.
1: Smile. Retsuko goes Super Saiyan compared to Haida's metal
1: Oh. That makes sense (Gori suspects Tadano tampered with the algorithm)
1: Hehe. He's a window washer!
1: "Just count to ten."
1=20230216
Season 4
S4E01:
1: Lol. Wha?!?! He chickened out?
1: hehe addicted to games...
1: oh no. an online "friend" abusing the fact that he spends money
1=20230217 AM
S4E02:
1: ooo. bow ties. it means this online friend is a girl.
1: Hehe. Cancellation fee.
1: Lol. What kind of voting is this process is this? I feel like one can't just object. There should be a reason behind the objection.
1: Hehe. "We're about to eat lunch as slow as we can..."
1: Lol. Perhaps he appreciates the 'yes' men for what they are, but in part I also thought he would fire some of thm and replace them with a more competant board
1=20230217
S4E03:
1: Oh, I thought we were gonna get some Retsuko metal. At the beginning of this episode I felt a kind of metal rage hole. I guess it happened in S3E10, but I don't recall before that.
1: Haha. No holding back against listing Komiya who is right there.
1: Great analogy about pit crew
1: "No one's getting canned on my watch." (I thought he was gonna reveal that he himself got fired as a sacrifice for his team)
1=20230217
S4E04:
1: Hehe. They run into the president.
1: "Career Experience Design Office"
1=20230217
S4E05:
1: Huh. What is he tasked with doing?
1: HAHAHA. "or is that what you tell yourself?" Karate chop from Tsunoda.
1: Hehe. Director Gori out of nowhere.
1=20230217
S4E06:
1: Hehe. They're learning to appreciate Director Ton
1: Hmm this is an emotional episode (Kabae leaving)
1: Wait. What? "That way of working is unimpressive." (English subtitles) / "I'm sorry but I can't condone this behavior." (English audio). I really hope he's talking to the interim manager and not to Haida. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it.
1=20230217
S4E07:
1: Hehe. Definitely the obvious outcome from the end of the other episode.
1: Haha. Even Haida has his mouthy dropped while sitting in the seat
1=20230217
S4E08:
1: That's nice of Retsuko.
1: Oh no... Haida was asked to fudge some numbers?
1=20230217
S4E09:
1: hahahaha. "retsukol0ve"
1: Washimi is such a badass
1=20230217
S4E10:
1: Less than 1K views vs over 7.5M views
1: Hehe. This is the first time she spotted him.
1: A fun little plot (they have a plan to get his keypad code and then extract it)
1: The overlooming threat of being exposed should be enough for him to perhaps just undo it himself
1: Lol. A request to arm wrestle and Tadano accepts.
1: Hahaha. That's quite a resolution to the climax. Metal laser beam + "I didn't think you were gonna kill him." + "So metal!"
1: Mid-credit scene where Tadano says his arm is sore. Enio tells Tadano, "you legit bodied him" 1=20230217
Season 5
S5E02:
1: I don't understand why he doesn't turn off the monitors
1: Lol. This is the third time recently where Fenneko uses her "hahahaahahahaha"
1: Hehe. She admits she enabled his whaling
1: Lol. I feel like. This noob is Retsuko.
1: Ha! Okay. Not too far off.
1=20230217
S5E03:
1: Hehe. They're all crazy (in the cafe).
1: Lol. They're truly crazy (they all confront Haida in the cubicle. "Does the condemned have any final words to share?"
1: "Are you Fennelope?" "What gave it away?"
1: Huh. That's kind of surreal / psychological horror level
1=20230217
S5E04:
1: Haha! Mama vision. Cohabitation detected.
1: Ton has these great moments - which I think in part comes by how he's written to have this tough/lazy side that contrasts with wiser moments
1: Smile. Her dad at the last second reframes from the three of them to mainly just her and her mom... Kind of odd seeing how he just said friendly words to Haida
1=20230217
S5E05:
1: Hehe. Poor guy. Though they did have that prior scare.
1: Wha... I love persimmons.
1: Hmm. I didn't see that angle of story (re: Shikabane and the other guy)
1=20230217
S5E06:
1: Jeez. What a conversation with his father.
1: I guess this is major growth for Haida to stand up to his dad in a conversation about his situation and defending the friends/people he met at the netcafe.
1: Wow. Retsuko held it together.
1: Hehe. Haida expected her Death Voice.
1: I guess that's some character growth for Retsuko.
1: Oh man, that's so mean. Does that even make sense? Where's the victory in tricking Haida to take the money. He logically only took it to be nice to his brother. [Though I guess his brother would be the dumb one. Haida could in theory just blackmail his brother.]
1=20230217
S5E07:
1: I'm guessing there'd be a chance she'd run if it would somehow 1-up Haida's brother.
1: Huh. Kind of weird that she's forced into it... so like why would she want to be a politician versus just a singer?
1=20230217
S5E08:
1: Okay, so she in fact doesn't want to run
1: So this is where the competition comes in. He reveals that among all the possible seats, the best chance is against Jiro (who presumably he wasn't aware slash wouldn't care that this is Haida's brother)
1=20230217
S5E09:
1: That's ridiculous. He comes to her asking her to run. And he wants her to pony up the fee to run?
1: Interestingly they were willing come up with the money
1: Oh. Haida is his family name. So what's his first name?
1=20230217
S5E10:
1: I can't believe this season (and potentially series) is going to wrap up in 30ish minutes.
1: Hehe. Someone yelled back, "Yeah we get it."
1: I mean... it does kind of make sense. Why not try and separate herself by using her death metal voice.
1: Ikari agrees with the death metal voice approach
1: LOL. Nice. The OTMGirls!
1: Holy crap. That's so dirty. Your own family.
1: The music is dominantly electric guitar while Haida is playing a bass
1: Retsuko narrates a calm reflection of the outcome
1=20230217
Date/Time
Thursday, April 11, 2019
@
20:00
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