While we wait for the second season, we have Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas. This is one of the coolest and most clueless animations of the Netflix Originals catalog, and now it’s back to a small 22-minute special where we find the beloved characters who are now struggling with the typical problems of this time of year in Japan (watch here).
You can find here some spoilers of the 1st season.
The lovely Retsuko is addicted to Instagram. And the people around her are worried about it. At the same time, she needs to deal with the lack of what to do on Christmas Eve and with her co-worker who, having a never-declared crush for her, needs to take the courage to ask her out.
It’s a simple plot, but that fits perfectly in those little more than twenty minutes in which we satisfy the nostalgia of one of Netflix’s coolest animations.
Christmas Eve
In Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas, we meet Retsuko having problems with her photos in Instagram. She has become addicted to more and more likes, and this has consumed her social life. It makes her not pay much attention to what happens around. Contrary to what may seem, this narrative line is a huge criticism of the society that lives by appearances and “likes” in social networks. When transforming the protagonist of the story into a girl who has serious problems to get to leave Instagram and to live life outside the internet, here we have a pointed finger to us, almost like saying: this is the history of you, we’re only showing how your life is.
This is clear to the people around Retsuko. While there are those who encourage this behavior, there are those who realize that she is getting more and more addicted. At the same time, Retsuko must decide what to do on Christmas Eve. With all her friends and office mates busy with party preparations – even Director Ton, the one who most looks like a villain in this whole story – she’s left with no options and not knowing what to do.
At the same time, we have Haida, Retsuko’s co-worker who is in love with her. At the end of season one, he managed to confess what he felt to her, but got an evasive response. In this Christmas special, he wants to invite her to spend the date with him, but he doesn’t know how. That’s the fun part: Haida remains shy, not knowing how to act with Retsuko, even more after telling her about his feelings.
Bittersweet
Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas is a cute Christmas special and it ends with a bittersweet feeling, that only by watching you’ll understand. Even if you’ve never watched the first season of this original Netflix series, you’re going to fall in love with Retsuko’s story and life, even though this particular special doesn’t present the character’s main feature: her routine going to karaoke booths, typical of Japan, to spill all her anger, frustration and yearnings by singing death metal songs.
But honestly? It does not matter much here. The friendly script – despite the criticism of society that promotes the appearance of things rather than the essence – leaves everything light and very fluffy, thus making this Christmas special a product that is more than an appetizer of an eventual second season. We kill the longing for Retsuko and her companions, for their troubled life and mishaps, in which we can easily recognize ourselves.
You can also like Hi Score Girl, Watership Down, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Back Street Girls: Gokudolls and F is for Family.
Some additional information about Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas Netflix
Synopsis 1: It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and she’s desperately posting like-inducing content – authentic or otherwise!
Synopsis 2: While Retsuko desperately makes plans for Christmas Eve, her new obsession with seeking validation through social media spirals out of control.
Age rating: 10;
Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas Netflix - Review
While waiting for the second season, we have the special episode Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas. This episode has a critique of modern society.
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