So, you know how Disney has this lineup of iconic adorable cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and goofy that they barely use in TV or
movies instead choosing to just slap them on any merchandise
They can
Sanrio is kind of like that except that the cute character merchandise thing is the whole reason the company
Exists and all of their work in film and TV has come about as a direct result of that merchandise as success
you probably know them for this cat as seen on the cover of many bad video games every kind of
stationery clothing item and accessory ever conceived by man
And of course the screens that will lull us into a false feeling of calm in our dystopian nightmare future
Sanrio first got into the film business in
1977 with two cute animated features about talking animals and an American documentary about a big adopted family that won an Academy Award
Which means that yes
The embodiment of Japanese commercialism beat the god emperor of anime to that particular punch by almost two and a half decades
although to be fair
They were helped by the guy who made Snoopy senarios characters have become so widespread and ingrained in not just Japanese culture
But global culture as a whole that in 1983 Hello Kitty became the official mascot of the United Nations
charity UNICEF and if you can't see why that's a big deal consider that Akira didn't come out until
1988 Sanrio was a truly global media brand at a time when you couldn't even put anime on
television without giving it the old Speed Racer trans-lux treatment
San Rio's character artists have a
remarkable talent for condensing a feeling emotion or
Concept into a few simple shapes and colors a talent that they mostly use to appeal to kids and especially to young girls
But recently they've been venturing out of that highly lucrative comfort zone to create more mature
Adult characters and stories like gudetama an adorable egg on toast whose primary personality trait is that he's overwhelmingly
chronically depressed
Sanrio has also been making ventures into
Serious anime for serious people and while their first two efforts show by rockin Sanrio don
She didn't quite click with me their new Netflix original series a gret schoo
Really did and judging by how much buzz there's been around the series online
I don't think that I'm the only
feeling that by a long shot
which is kind of surprising since out of all the anime for adults that Sanrio has produced so far a gret schoo is the least
Adult looking of the bunch by far although looking at some of my other recent favorites
I've clearly got a fetish for beleaguered Japanese office ladies
So maybe that's not surprising at all a gret schoo short for aggressive rets
KO is another cute animal mascot much like Hello Kitty
But instead of representing cute girly innocence rets ko represents the harsh realities of wage-slave working life
She's a hard-working hard drinking red panda accountant stuck in an office filled with self-centered jerks who blows off steam?
After hours by singing death metal karaoke about how much her life sucks the Netflix anime tells in easily
Digestible 15-minute chunks the story of rhett SCO's attempts to somehow escape her terrible job and find happiness and spoiler alert
none of them work across ten episodes
She jumps from one unrealistic escapist fantasy to another first dreaming about leaving her job to work with her irresponsible friends import store
Which is less of a real store and more of an ebay page then about getting hot marrying a rich guy and quitting to be
a housewife and then there's the
Ridiculous fantasy that reporting your literal sexist pig of a boss to HR can somehow get him to change his ways
That's hilarious
Everytime Rhett's Co is smacked down by the reality that life is just hard and there are no easy outs for that
But she also gradually comes to see that everyone around her from the jerks who give her trouble to the people
She looks up to are also having a hard time and doing the best they can to cope with their own flaws
So even if she just has to deal with shit and take her happiness where she can she's not alone in that
it's a very nuanced human story which may sound strange to say because
Aesthetically it's as simple and cartoony as anime gets and there's not a single human in sight
but I think that's why it works a Gretz ko is a
Cartoon for adults but not in the same way as cynical vulgar adult cartoons like Family Guy and South Park
It's not just an adult comedy with animated visuals rather
It takes the same lens of straightforward simplified honest
Storytelling that children's cartoons like Arthur apply to childhood and points it at the more complicated problems of adult life likely
coworkers who use their seniority as an excuse to make you do their work for them or
Catching drunk feelings for someone who's actually a bit of a boring thoughtless. Jerk
Which are just as valuable
subjects for simplified cartoon lessons as dealing with bullies are getting a dog or getting glasses for the first time but there are things that
nobody ever really sits down to talk through in that way as adults were mostly just
Expected to figure this shit out on our own but Aggretsuko tries to change that by providing helpful answers to those problems in
A friendly easygoing and entertaining manner that gives the show a lot of value as in many classic kids cartoons the over-the-top
on-the-nose
Presentation of these concepts makes them really easy to process and digest like when Retsuko falls into her crush on Resasuke the whole world
Literally transforms into a sea of pink and hearts and rainbows his bland face
Physically morphs in her mind into the face of a quiet thoughtful handsome dude, and his voice becomes deeper as he speaks
It's not at all subtle, but it is a very accurate
Depiction of how a crush can basically blind you to your problems both with the object of your affection
And the world around you and how that can be a good thing in the short term
But an absolute nightmare in the long term this series make sure that we never get too caught up in Retsukos
lovey-dovey fantasy by frequently cutting from her and Resasuke to her friend Haida who is in pain because of the
feelings that he has for her from Rhett SCO's perspective falling in love is an
Uncompromisingly happy and good thing but because of how its structured
narratively the show leaves us feeling as though something must be off which is of course paid off when we see Resasuke act like
An inconsiderate jagoff constantly while still being viewed through Retsukos rose-colored glasses
For as simple as it looks at first glance the direction, editing and especially writing in this show are all top-notch
And when I say that, I'm not just talking about the character puns though
those are pretty god tear like was she meet the CEOs secretary is literally a
Secretary bird soon Oda, the dough makes doe eyes at tone the chauvinist pig tones Lackey
Comia is a literal weasel and I could go on this is not an analysis of animal
but I did want to take a second to
Appreciate how clever some of these characters and their designs really are the trick that makes the show work
So well is that while everyone is introduced as a flat cartoonish caricature of some office?
Stereotype or another every last person who gets any degree of screen time is revealed to have a lot more going on under the surface
Washi
Me and Gauri the confident powerful businesswoman who Rhett's Co looks up to are still dealing with their own
insecurities and frustrations even as close as they are to the top of the corporate ladder their
Professional faces at work are an act that they put on and like Retsuko herself
They really just need friends to share their troubles and relax with best girl Fenneko presents herself as a detached and cynical social media
maven but despite her snarky attitude
She cares really deeply for her best friends Haida & Retsuko and when a cute guy flirts with her she can't help getting
Super into it. Yes, he was shouting at the screen. She's literally me every single episode especially during the singles mixer
So there's some circumstantial evidence that she's a very realistic and relatable character speaking of the mixer
Suno - the DOE who organizes it shows a lot of depth as well when she's alone with Rhett schoo
Despite appearing at first glance to be nothing more than a simpering suck-up
She shows a surprising amount of emotional intelligence and a genuine desire to brighten everyone else's day
Even the people she doesn't like because she reasons that if they're a bit less grumpy everybody around her wins
She's also genuinely happy that Rhett's Co wants to hang out with her because she knows her sucking up to the boss
Can make other people like fennec o look down on her and ultimately leave her short on
Friends in one scene this fake sweet liar who we've spent this entire series waiting for the other shoe to drop on
transforms into an immensely likeable
empathetic person all without actually changing
We just see another side of her Megami the offices big mouth. Gossip draws the line at
Spreading rumors that could seriously hurt someone's career
Even if she's a bit too naive to actually make that judgment call correctly and also she's probably a secret agent
Which is pretty cool in its own right even toned the monstrous misogynist who functions as Rhett SCO's primary
antagonist for most of the series is shown to have a good side one that
Remarkably pretty much the same side as his bad side the fact that he's a self-proclaimed bastard who doesn't hesitate to quote
Tell it like it is means that he can actually get through Tourette's go about her
Self-destructive relationship with rosovsky when everyone else who's dancing around the issue and trying not to hurt her feelings
Can't also how cool is it that the job Rhett schoo sees as destroying her life
accounting serves as the metaphor that lets her finally understand how much she's
Actually destroying her life by settling for rosovsky. That is some really good writing right there
anyway
The dude could stand to take a chill pill or 20 and maybe read some
Feminist literature or just watch Mad Max fury road a couple times
But even tones early regressive
Self-centered outlook on life has some value for him and those around him probably a lot of value for the company actually
looking at the guy's mad accounting skills when the chips are down which brings up one more example of excellent writing the
abacus that serves as a symbol of tone status as a stubborn relic of a bygone age allows him to
Substantially outperform everyone else who's using computers to do the same task
It may not be the best tool for the job but it works for him
and that's why he's not gonna change not just because he's an
Inexplicably stubborn asshole tone is probably the least likeable character in the entire cast yet
we and Rhett schoo still come to understand him by the end of the show feeling a
Complicated mixture of love and hatred for him just like we do for the kind of mean
Backwards thinking people in our own lives who we know too well to see as pure monsters
you know like that grandma who's really sweet and caring generally speaking but refers to people of color who she actually
Likes as the good ones I could go on and on talking about the great characters in this series
but this video has to end at some point and before it does I really want to talk about retz go and hide up because
They're both so well written that it demands closer examination
Like everyone else in the series Rhett schoo is a lot more complicated than the show initially
Let's on for starters despite how put-upon she acts and how much crap she goes through
She's just a self-centered as everyone else around her
She does a lot of things for other people but it's mostly just because it's easier for her not to say no to that
She's kinda bad at seeing the human being underneath her stereotyped perception of others
We discover things about these characters simultaneously
As Rhett schoo does but we've known them for a couple hours at most while she's been around some of them for what like five
Years now, it's only the self-inflicted threat of losing the job that she hates
But which pays her bills a lot better than a passion project?
would that forces her to get to know her co-workers on a more than
Superficial level which lets her take better care of herself and be more empathetic towards others. She's so
self-obsessed that as soon as she starts daydreaming about nabbing herself a rich hubby her first thought is to ask HIDA who's obviously
Got feelings for her whether or not he'd want her to work if they were married then when she doesn't get an answer she wants
she immediately ducks out of the
Conversation never bringing it up again while hi does left to think about it constantly from that point on. This is just one of many
Inconsiderate things that Resco does while worrying about her own shit, which is kind of the point of the show
Really everyone is dealing with their own stuff and everyone has unfair expectations of others
Everyone is aligned in someone else's angry heavy-metal karaoke solo. Metaphorically speaking
Even Gauri a very strong woman who does a lot to support Rhett schoo
Emotionally has nights where she just needs to crash at a friend's place and keep them up with a night of crying life is all
about trying our hardest to do right by ourselves without
doing wrong by anything else and we all mess that up from time to time and that
Brings us to hideout who is I think one of the best written love?
Interests in anime at first glance HIDA just seems like a nice guy
Sorry, that's a nice guy in big quotes with a trademark at the end
he likes rets Co, but he doesn't have the guts or
self-confidence to tell her so instead he contrived ways to spend time with her in groups and tries to ply her with favors and decidedly
Unsexy niceties. He won't actually ask her out yet
He'll ask fennec Oh to get in the way if other guys do looking at his character design
He's clearly just as frazzled and exhausted from the job as retz Co is so I figured that towards the end of the series
We'd come to understand that his crush on her is a coping mechanism just like the ones that she's been using instead
They do something much better with his character though
When push comes to shove and Rhett's co starts dating rosovsky
Qaeda has the emotional maturity to actually recognize that he's got nobody to blame but himself for not asking her out sooner. Sure
He's still mad and jealous
And he says that he wants to punch Resaca, which he even does symbolically
But ultimately he beats himself up for it first and foremost
He tries his hardest to give Rhett's go space to be happy which confirms that one. He's a genuinely good guy
Not a fake and two that he actually loves her and that this isn't just some kind of shallow crush
Narrative Lee speaking
The anime is showing us why HIDA could be good for Rhett schoo while also
Demonstrating to any dudes who might be watching what healthy respectful
Affection really looks like and like the best kids cartoons it lets the audience reach their own
conclusions about this message along with every other message in the show while still making it easy to
Understand but without beating us over the head with it
Which is good because it gives me as the guy pedantically breaking down the series in an Internet video something to do
Thanks Sanrio and please don't copyright claim this anyway
While that's going on in the narrative the show is visually
Reinforcing the idea that HIDA is a genuinely good match for Rhett schoo in a subtle way
Namely with HIDA support Minh and casual street clothes while he's not in his work suit HIDA
Dresses like a punk rocker and it's implied that he uses punk music to cope with his life the same way that Rhett schoo uses
Metal to cope with hers. That's a thing that they'll probably bond over
if as the ending of the show implies they do end up going to karaoke together at some point in the future when he
Finally asks her out
Hi des himself acknowledges that he's really just in love with the idea of Rhett's Co that he's built up in his head
But from the omniscient perspective of the audience
We see that they're a match in more ways than either of them realize
Risque by contrast has a roomful of potted plants because that's kind of what he is but beyond the on-the-nose metaphor
There that implies that gardening is a genuine hobby for him and that he does have stuff going on beyond his bland persona
He's not the right guy for rats ko clearly, but maybe there's someone out for him
and hey
look
This silly simple cartoon has me
actively
imagining what other characters will do off screen now that the story is over and they're clearly defined enough that I can use evidence from
the show as a basis for that speculation
This is what strong
three-dimensional human characters look like
Flat 2d animals and that to me is why a gret schoo works as so much more than just a cynical
pointed piece of short form office culture satire
It goes out of its way to humanize
everyone and make it seem like they have lives beyond the screen with the kind of writing depth that we expect from an
Adult-oriented show yet
It makes it all easy to swallow with the straightforward
Honesty of a children's cartoon teaching lessons about how to live and just be around other people
That you can't really get anywhere else, and I don't know about you guys
But that was something that I didn't know I needed until Netflix gave it to me
So rock on a Gretz go rock on I'm Jeff thew professional shitbag signing out from my mother's basement