Comics Review: Aggretsuko #4

Overview:

Following an accident, Retsuko ends up with a broken arm.

Our Take:

This is a rare comic where Retsuko… wins for once. Admittedly, she doesn’t cause the victory herself, but rather Goromi and Washimi noticing that Retsuko is doing what she usually does: staying quiet even when something is wrong. Even though she by no means should be at her desk job which involves typing when her dominant hand is broken, she can’t object because she either doesn’t have enough sick days, or can’t use them. The worst part is, that even though her friends are sympathetic, the power structure that she works in isn’t. She isn’t just ridiculed for not coming in, even when she has a reason, but her supervisors seem to give her even more work than usual to make up for yesterday’s loss. As angry as she feels about it, there’s nothing she can do, since she is fighting company policy.

What she is experiencing though, is a real problem. Since companies tend to favor profit over all, often times entry level employees (like Retsuko)are practically forced to come in, even when they should be physically unable to. A lack of substantial sick leave also means that when something does happen, employees burn through their sick time either too quickly, and are forced to come back too early, or would be left with no time for the next time something unexpected happens.

While Retsuko is a passive agent in this story (things happen to her rather than her doing things herself, that’s fine because this is a kind of fantasy on its own. The idea of working a dead end job and having your people who have the power to change company notice your suffering and actually enact that change is something that most people without power only dream of.

Aggretsuko is the life of someone stuck in a horrible job, and this does pose the same issues that the whole series does too; work is unforgiving, and sometimes only people can make it better. Washimi didn’t have to use her influence to help Retsuko, but she did. Not only is Retsuko her friends, but she notices that the company is doing something wrong and wants to change it. She could have easily just took things as is, and nobody would be able to say anything bad against her, but she took the harder route and did the right thing. A lot of people wish that they had Washimis in their lives, but for now– it’s nice to enjoy Retsuko, who does.