Comic Review: Aggretsuko: Out of Office #1

 

 

Overview:

It is Golden Week, meaning everyone in the office has a full-week paid holiday. Everyone in the office is excited about their plans, but Retsuko is keeping her vacation a secret.  

Because her friend Puko has the perfect getaway all planned out for her. For the whole week, the girls can stay at her Aunt and Uncle’s lodge in exchange for doing some chores around the resort hot spring.  

Unfortunately, Retsuko was not prepared for the amount of work that is needed to be done for a free vacation. And worst of all, she may be responsible for releasing the demon that has haunted the resort for centuries.

 

Our Take:

The long wait for season four of Aggretsuko to arrive on Netflix is almost over. Thankfully, Oni Press has made that delay easier by providing us with many stories about Retsuko’s troubles in the office. But just as the new season approaches, this new mini-series is taking Retsuko “Out of Office” for a much-needed vacation.

Honestly, if the surplus of Aggretsuko comics has taught us anything, it is that there is plenty of frustrating elements in office jobs. And one of them is the slow-ticking monotony that drives one insane over long periods of time. Unfortunately, when such a story is translated into a comic book, it makes for a pretty simplistic read.

Taking Retsuko out of the office is just what an excellent comic needs for her stories to be more eventful. This first issue does the job of establishing Retsuko’s vacation and packing in multiple characters, plots, and suspense. What is more impressive is the writer took her on vacation and still made it as frustrating as possible.  

The best part of this story is the incorporation of Japanese legends. The resort in which they are staying has a long history of being haunted by an Oni. Rumours say the retired samurai that established the lodging built a special shrine, a Kamidana, to keep the beast at bay. And who else could be left in charge of such an important job of maintaining the Kamidana the Retsuko?

It is refreshing that one of these Aggretsuko comics is trying something different. As entertaining as some of the previous one-shots and mini-series have been, they all suffer from staying too close to the source material. Taking Retsuko away from her standard setting and castmates automatically makes this a unique story to read about everyone’s favourite Red Panda.

There is still lots of this story to unfold as this is just the first in the series that will take us into 2022. However, Out of Office is already one of the most intriguing comics featuring these characters to be released this year. Hopefully, it will only get bigger and bolder from here as demons are released, and Retsuko is outworked.