Aggretsuko season 4 should inspire everyone to unionize their workplace 

Netflix’s Aggretsuko It is best to hit close to home. And the show’s fourth season hasn’t just struck close to home for me — it has my address and is banging on the door.

Aggretsuko This anime is a delightful slice of life. It follows Retsuko, a gentle-mannered red panda who has a hidden passion for death music as she struggles to make ends meet. But while previous seasons had me invested in the inner workings of Retsuko’s love life and personal fulfillment, this season sparked a passionate engrossment in the inner workings of Retsuko’s workplace — and inspired me to pen this call to action.

(Though don’t get me wrong — I am still very invested in Retsuko’s dating life).

[Ed. note: This essay contains spoilers for season 4 of Aggretsuko]

Image: Netflix/Sanrio

As in previous seasons, the conflicts of Retsuko’s inner life are augmented by external issues — and in this case, it is the company passing hands to a new CEO, bent on making changes. By changes, he refers to making the company more profitable. Retsuko’s manager, the old-fashioned and stubborn Director Ton, refuses to nominate anyone to be cut, saying that the company has weathered worse and taken care of its own.

They are anxious. Tohn gets reassigned in a new department. It is designed to be an end-all for him so that management can remove him. The new manager immediately puts pressure on the department. Chatterbox Kabae immediately becomes the prime target — as a mother, she has to balance caring for her young kids and her responsibilities, and even though she always gets her work done, she gets put on probation. The new manager suggests to her that her work be prioritized over family when she leaves work to take her son to daycare. Retsuko, along with the other members of the accounting team offer to assume her duties. However, the manager is still not happy.

Retsuko with her friends meet up in the break area to talk about possible downsizing of their department. The group is puzzled as to why Kabae was targeted. Despite her constant gossiping, she’s a hard worker. Anai, a fresh graduate from the University of Tokyo gets very upset and says that there should be an end to these injustices. Retsuko’s friend (and love interest) Haida, however, expresses resignation to the situation, feeling like it’s out of his hands.

Image: Netflix/Sanrio

There are a lot of Aggretsuko has always been focused on Retsuko’s worklife. The first season dealt a lot with her feeling jaded towards her job and frustrated with Director Ton’s frankly rude treatment, while season 2 juggled exasperating co-workers. Seeing the characters commiserate about workplace politics isn’t atypical, but with the fate of their jobs in the air for once, the stakes are more dire than just dealing with a gossipy deskmate. None of them are happy about this situation, and the main takeaway seems to be that they can’t really do anything about it.

But that’s where they’re wrong! It’s time for collective action! Unify your workforce! Unite to fight unjust layoffs and workplace discrimination.

Now, I do recognize that the show (1) takes place in Japan, where, as the characters explain, workplace laws are very different (for instance, it’s nearly impossible to lay anyone off directly, so management ends up encouraging workers to resign instead); (2) follows an accounting department, a career path I know little about; and (3) is about talking animals, so my specific experiences are not necessarily applicable. But watching the workers receive unfair treatment — especially poor Kabae, who is denied time off to take care of her sick child, and told that she may want to consider being a stay-at-home parent if she cannot prioritize work over her family — lit a spark in me and made me super thankful for my own workplace union.

Unions are beneficial for even the best-intentioned employers. As I’ve learned over the years, no matter how good the intent, there are just some things management is not aware of. Situation in Aggretsuko is obviously not going to one-to-one reflect real life experiences — especially for audiences in the United States — but seeing this injustice pan out might just spark enough recognition to similar situations. It’s not like what Haida said there It isWe can all make a difference in these difficult workplace situations.

Each season Aggretsuko introduces huge life changes for Retsuko — be it becoming a pop star idol or dating a millionaire — but by the time each season ends, Retsuko ends up in the same place as before, though with a newfound understanding of herself and what she deems important in life. Season 4 pans out similarly: Retsuko and Haida’s relationship gets thrown on the rocks for a moment, as he gets bumped up to management and believes he’s doing right by his coworkers by doing all the sketchy white-collar crimes that the CEO asks, but by the end, the old CEO returns and Ton and Kabae return to work and even though Haida quits his job, he and Retsuko’s relationship has grown stronger.

Sanrio/Netflix

Retsuko’s friends joined forces to create this resolution. They Don’t unionize, but they doEx- and current employees can be organized to find enough evidence for workplace fraud, so they can take down the CEO. And because this is a show where romantic conflict is regularly solved with the power of death metal, that means organizing a workplace heist where Retsuko’s former idol band members distract Haida so that Kabae can crawl through the vents and steal his flash drive, while other coworkers learn his password so they can hack his files. Retusko’s big takeaway of this season is more about finding connection in a busy world, but I think a workplace heist designed to bring fairness for all workers speaks to the power of collective action.

It is the best thing about Aggretsuko It is easy to see how the show is relatable, even in the midst of some more bizarre plotlines. This show is great at balancing the absurdities (workplace heists and pop idol fame), with relatable, more concrete situations. These moments are very close to mine, and I often find myself bristling at the fact that these experiences can also be shared by thousands of people in their mid-20s office jobs. It’s cathartic to watch them play out in this world of talking animals, and to see Retsuko walk away from these situations with more insight on her own life.

Season 4 was even more intense and made me feel righteous as I watched accounting staff worry about their future. AggretsukoIt can be difficult, but it is possible to find comfort knowing that, no matter how stressful things get, our red panda heroine will come out of them stronger, more resilient, and with people who care about her.

AggretsukoSeason 4 can be streamed on Netflix.