Comics Review: Aggretsuko #2

Overview:

Retsuko ends up at a thrift store to buy some new clothes after a snide comment from her peers.

Our Take:

Retsuko ends up being picked up by Tsunoda, who takes her to luxury stores so she can choose a new outfit for an upcoming charity event she’s attending. It’s a lot less of a bonding moment, even if we do find out a little more about her.

We know that Tsunoda cares about relatively superficial things, even if she is quite smart in figuring out how to get them. In the main series, she sucks up to their boss a lot, but she’s also quite aware that’s what she’s doing and is only doing so to get ahead. She is also the avid instagrammer, and cares very heavily about her virtual presence online. While she is smart, she uses her intellect mostly for the clout game, especially to gain more of a following online. What she says is very accurate– posting a lot and coming into contact with influential people, however brief, is a good way to gain followers. The more followers and interactions with her posts that she has, the more visibility she’ll gain on the platform. This is a very valid social media strategy, one that’s been proven to work. The only issue is that she treats charity like a clout game. There are very important reasons for charity events, and not just for personal gain. Of course, that’s not to say that personal gain isn’t something to gain from attending large scale events, but Tsunoda only seems to think of what she herself is going to get out of it. That defeats the whole point of the event, as well as makes her look shallow and false.

When Retsuko finally does return to her office to vent, it’s about how frustrated she is regarding everyone heaping their own beauty standards on her, and also for being more affordable in the process. Honestly, I can understand where her frustration comes from. Modern beauty standards are suffocating, but most people have little choice but to adhere to them, because they are judged by them. Retsuko doesn’t like being judged and sees the whole effort as stupid, but she still goes shopping anyway because she doesn’t like her peers side-eyeing her. Still, the ending makes it very clear that even though Tsunoda has the online game figured out to a T, she’s also way too far gone. Internet clout isn’t everything.