The Cartoon Archivist

Hello there everyone!

It’s the holiday season! And what better way to celebrate the Holidays than with your local animation nerd!

So, today we’re discussing—- you guessed it!

….The Aggretsuko Christmas Special.

So, I’ve already watched all of the original Aggretsuko and I imagine that I’ll write a full review of it at some point.

But seeing as this is simply a one-off episode— something to keep the fans satiated until season 2 is ready to be released— I’ll talk about it as a stand-alone Christmas movie, or an OVA in the case of anime.

Since this special has some continuity in regards to the previous season, there will be a couple spoilers for season 1. However, I will try to refrain from it as much as possible and discuss only this special.

In totality, the episode is only 20 minutes long. For a review, that’s not exactly a long time to discuss many points or to nitpick for anything that’s productive criticism. However, I do think that this episode is worth discussing because, per usual to Aggretsuko’s standards, it discusses some instances about adulthood and about life that many people don’t like to discuss, especially around this time of year.

So, to kind of set the context of this episode a little bit for western viewers, let’s talk about what Christmas is like in Japan. In Japan, only about 1% of the population is Christian compared to the 75% Christian-identifying adults and 62% congregation-attending adults within the U.S. So, as you can imagine, Christmas— despite it’s name— isn’t exactly a very religious celebration in Japan.

However, it’s still celebrated to a large extent as it is in the U.S. The major difference is that Christmas is more of a holiday for couples and friends in a manner that is similar to New Year’s, while New Year’s is a time for family, visiting temples, and ushering the new year with hope in a comparable way to Christmas.

With this in mind, many of the jokes and the discussions that take place in this special make much more sense and put it within a much better context than that of the western view of Christmas.

One of the things that I appreciate in Aggretsuko, especially since it is a comedy show, is how skillfully they handle such topical issues and matters that pertain to all of us as human beings— all under the guise of this cute, funny, animal show. And this is no different to how they handle Christmas.

I think for everyone, whether religious or not, all feel the pressure of expectations to make plans for celebrations. Maybe it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah. Maybe it’s New Year’s Day. Maybe it’s your birthday. At some point or another, we’ve all felt the expectation to have the perfect celebration that gives you those warm fuzzies in your belly and makes you feel oh-so-loved.

We’ve also remember when those expectations fall short, and you’re left feeling disappointed.

These are the topics that Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas tackles in this Christmas special.

For those of you who have never watched Aggretsuko, let me give you a basic run down of the show. Retsuko is a red panda in a world of talking animals that lives a life just like everyone else. She works a job that she hates but must work at because she really has no alternative. She has a boss that is not only a sexist pig (literally) but is extremely hard on her for seemingly no reason. She has a supervisor that cons her work off on Retsuko, a brown-noser coworker who seems to get away with too much, a gossip busy-body who seems to be all over her private life, and other people who don’t exactly seem to make her life any easier. She has friends that she talks to, people that she looks up to as mentors, and a boy that’s pinning for her affection (despite how oblivious she is to his hints).

And through all this, her only solace seems to be the karaoke bar around the corner from her workplace, tucked away in a small alley, where she sings— get this— heavy death metal.

As an individual who both enjoys animation and the heavy metal genre, I was immediately hooked and am anxiously awaiting season 2.

When we last left off, Haida— the hyena pinning after her love— had just confessed his feelings for her after an entire season of build up. We had no idea what Retsuko’s reply was and we were anxiously awaking for season 2 to see what she had to say. Well… fans were met with crushing disappointment as Retsuko replied that she simply wasn’t ready for any sort of emotional commitment (despite the fact that she prompted Haida to confess at the end of the episode) and honestly? This made sense. She had just gotten out of a relationship with another individual where she’d put in more than she had gotten out of it; looked at the relationship through rose-colored glasses despite the obvious flaws there were; and simply didn’t feel as appreciated as she should have. Any wise person would look at this situation and see that it’s a recipe for a painful relationship on both sides of the equation— immediately jumping into a relationship doomed to fail would severely damage Retsuko’s self-worth and Haida would also take a hit as it’d be easy to blame himself for the relationship not surviving. Despite the fact that he loves her for who she truly is, it’s simply too early. And I appreciate that they say so.

For here, the special jumps into Retsuko’s point of view and she confesses that she’s gotten addicted to Instagram as there are people who seem to appreciate her all over the world!

And although it seems easy for this to devolve into a social critique about the hollowness that social media seems to create in our real life relationships; the despair at not being allowed to be average and unhappy for a single moment; and how it’s really not a good form of validation…. it doesn’t.

Instead, it uses this as vessel to talk about the more important issue at hand… the holidays. Which, I have to say, is absolutely clever and a perfect transition into a rarely talked about issue for celebrations.

We’ve all been there. You see Christmas specials on TV all throughout the month of December. You swear you’ve heard the same Christmas song about 50 times in the past 3 days. Pictures of families sitting around a big Christmas dinner. Presents underneath a tree, or hiding somewhere out of sight. Every seems like it should be so happy and picturesque and perfect.

But it’s not.

You forget to make plans. You wait until the last minute because you’re busy. You burn the holiday dinner. You don’t get that amazing present you so desperately wanted. No one texts you holidays wishes. Your family seems to be especially annoying this year. All of it leading to a huge disappointment of what was supposed to be a special day.

And this Christmas special says, “Guess what? That’s normal!“

Instead, we should take pleasure in the little things we do get: a warm bowl of soup on a cold evening, running into someone we weren’t expecting, the hope of maybe a better future.

This special says, “You know what? It’s okay for things not to be perfect. Nothing is. It’s okay to be disappointed; it happens all the time. That still doesn’t make those little things any less valuable and capable of happiness. So take the time to appreciate what you have. It makes things better that way.”

And I think that’s the perfect message to send during the holiday season.

The comedy was great as always. I often found myself laughing allowed by myself at some of the crazy antics and deadpan humor that seems to make me chuckle in spite of myself.

The animation was a classic, stylized Flash animation that they’re known for. Everything was stereotypically cute. What little heavy metal that Retsuko sang was enjoyable. Overall, it was on par with the other Aggresuko episodes.

I will say, I wasn’t exactly a fan of their rendition of Jingle Bells. I know they were going for a classic rock (70’s/80’s edition) of what a metal band would make for the holidays. But the fact that the singer sounded like he was gargling marbles didn’t jive with me very well.

Overall, I would rate this Christmas Special an 8 out of 10.

It had a great message, one rarely discussed. As a comedy, it was enjoyable. The music was average. Honestly, the entire episode was just that, average. And maybe that works perfectly with their artistic unity and makes it equal of a 9 because of it.

But for me, it didn’t feel like anything groundbreaking. Nothing that jumped out at me and said, “You know, I want to watch this every single year until my deathbed.”

It was fun.

It was enjoyable.

It reminded me of an important lesson.

But it was just a good Christmas special. A good comedy to break up the constant barrage of emotionally heavy content. And for you, dear reader, it’ll mean the world to.

As for me, it was just average.

And that’s completely okay.

If there are any corrections you’d like to make in regards to this post, please feel free to send me a message with your corrections and I’ll get back to it as soon as I can!

Do you remember a cartoon your friends have never heard of? Got a scene from an animated film that you’re dying to know the name to? Send your questions to The Cartoon Archivist and I’ll see what I’ve got in the vaul