Aggretsuko Season 5 Release Date, Trailer, Story, and News

Netflix’s adorable death-metal-loving red panda will return for one last karaoke growl on February 2023 after the streaming giant greenlit Aggretsuko‘s fifth season.

The meek Retsuko and her raging corporate frustrations will again take center stage, but it will be for a final season this time.

During the 2022 Netflix TUDUM Japan fan event, Netflix announced Aggretsuko‘s return along with news of other series such as The Way of the Househusband season 2 and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.

In the anime’s upcoming season, fans should expect to see Retsuko involved with the Japanese government and Haida leading a new life after being in season 4’s spotlight.

Aggretsuko Season 5 Release Date

Netflix has only released a premiere window of February 2023 so far.

But, looking at Aggretsuko‘s past releases, one can see Netflix’s and Fanworks’ preference for mid-month premieres.

So Netflix will probably drop Aggretsuko 5 on the 16th or 23rd of February.

Both dates are on Thursday, the same time slot the previous two seasons had.

Netflix has already teased Aggretsuko‘s return at the end of the fourth season.

The final frame of episode 10 of season 4 displayed the text “Retsuko will return” in white over a black background, while the number “5” faintly hovers behind.

Director Rareko will once again return to work on the series at Fanworks. Most of the cast and staff will also be returning.

Aggretsuko Season 5 Trailer

Fanworks and Netflix have yet to reveal an official trailer or a promo video for Aggretsuko season 5.

The video above is the short teaser unveiled by Netflix during the Tudum Japan fan event.

Expect to see this article updated with the official videos should these developments reveal themselves in the coming months.

The teaser above depicted the possibility of Retsuko running for office; Retsuko and Haida’s relationship was also being speculated.

Some eagle-eyed fans noticed an image among the ones on the announcement released by Netflix’s Anime Twitter account.

In the image, Retsuko is seen blushing hard (or getting stressed), with an older scowling hyena in the background.

Some fans speculate that this might be an elder relative of the hyena Haida, possibly his father.

This development led to fans guessing that Retsuko and Haida might be getting serious this time.

The duo’s frustrating near-relationship should finally conclude along with the series, and fans hope for a good ending.

Whether that good ending involved Haida ending up with Retsuko, no one surely knows, as fans are still torn between loving and hating on Haida, especially after season 4.

Aggretsuko Story and Season 5 Expectations

Never would have thought Hello Kitty and metal could be an awesome combination.

Retsuko is a red panda in an adult anthropomorphic world of Sanrio mascots. She’s 25 years old and single.

This adorable red panda gets a job in the accounting department of a Japanese trading firm.

She spends her days navigating the life of the modern young adult woman, constantly dealing with daily frustrations from overbearing superiors and annoying co-workers.

Hence she keeps a little secret: every night, Retsuko goes to a karaoke bar and lets out her bottled-up emotions by belting out self-made lyrics over death metal tunes.

Crazy and cute, yes, and that’s why she quickly endeared herself to fans worldwide.

Tons of fans are able to relate to Retsuko’s raging resentments, especially when it comes to workplace inequity.

But still, Retsuko goes on and works for five years, and her misery leads to a series of events that jumbles up her relationships with co-workers and her life in general.

In season 4, the spotlight was lent to other characters of the series, who have their own problems and circumstances.

Haida was a particular focus, though he had a tough season. This greatly disappointed Retsuko (and the die-hard shippers of the two).

They were able to fix it slightly by the end of the season, and season 5 will hopefully be Haida’s redemption arc.

A new character will also be introduced, a multi-talented artist named Shikabane.

Aside from the unending near-romance between Retsuko and Haida, the teaser for the fifth season reveal a new facet of the lead character’s colorful life: a government position.

Though one can argue that Retsuko working in the government sounds not healthy at all, and if she did push for it, expect greater karaoke sessions of death metal.

Still, with it being the final season, fans are hoping to see Retsuko finally be happy and, ultimately, stop singing about her frustrations.

Aggretsuko News

Aggretsuko, or Aggressive Retsuko in its original Japanese title, is based on Sanrio’s red panda mascot of the same name; it was first created by “Yeti.”

The Retsuko that charmed millions of frustrated young adults first appeared in a series of animated shorts produced by Fanworks.

These one-minute shorts ran for 100 episodes on Japanese station TBS Television from April 2016 to March 2018 as part of the TV program Ō-sama Brunch.

With director Rareko again at the helm, Fanworks returned to produce a Netflix original series based on Aggressive Retsuko.

The first season dropped on Netflix worldwide on April 20, 2018.

In the next three years, three consecutive seasons entertained fans around the world on Netflix.

A mobile game called Aggretsuko: The Short Timer Strikes Back was released by Hive in July 2020.

The game employed gameplay similar to Gardenscapes; for every ten levels completed, the user was rewarded with an episode of the original Aggresive Retsuko anime shorts.

For years, Sanrio’s Hello Kitty has become the Japanese symbol of cute, especially for younger women.

The appearance of Retsuko gave the grownup fans of Sanrio mascots a new cute ambassador to love.

Retsuko appealed most especially to ordinary working women, with her singing the frustrations of many young female Japanese adult workers: misogyny at work, pushy superiors and co-workers, and workplace anxiety.

Aggretsuko turned heads even among the hardened TV fans, earning itself a nomination from Ursa Major Awards, an awarding body mainly focusing on the furry fandom.