Comics Review: Aggretsuko #1

Overview:

The office is full of a lot of sick people.

Our Take:

The office is affected by the deadly C-Virus (Carrier Virus, not a Coronavirus), that has turned most of the office into zombies. It’s highly infectious, and can knock people down right away. The few healthy members of the office that remain have to hold their ground until the military can arrive to intervene.

What results is more of a zombie apocalypse scenario, with people being thrown into the horde, sacrificing themselves, and the rush for survival. The sick can’t be stopped, even if they do retain some of their regular traits, and only Retsuko’s metal manages to stop them– by overwhelming them. Death metal saves the day, and manages to keep the entire office from being overwhelmed.

Even though it’s a fake virus, I did enjoy more of Aggretsuko’s poking fun at and also mildly criticizing the modern work life. Tom, who has worked at the company for years, noted that the same virus popped up before, and it’s even noted that it only affects their company. In other words, this company is notorious for overworking its employees, even over the course of decades. The virus is spread through being in close contact with people, natural when you work in cubicles, and only gets worse through crunch and deadlines. As we know, this company is pretty brutal with mandatory overtime and work crunch, and Tom is not the type of boss to give his employees any breaks. Crunch only makes already dwindling health even worse, and when the company is largely unsympathetic, there’s no choice but to continue the grind. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid, so people come in anyway. An all too common thing in today’s work culture, one that should be familiar to us all.

Despite having saved the day through her metal, Retsuko ends up getting sick and having to take time off. She does break the cycle by deciding to stay home, and heal up there instead. Self-care does trump work, after all.

I like that Aggretsuko manages to break down these everyday problems into a fun, simple story format. It’s not particularly complicated, but it’s fun. I liked the shorts and I like the show, and the comics seem to follow in that same dramatic vein. So far so good.