Review of Aggretsuko (ONA) 3rd Season

I'm so conflicted about this one! Season 3 continues to have great writing, touching on mature themes and elements of adult life in a way that effortlessly blends comedy and commentary. The move away from the office setting for most of this season isn't a negative in my eyes - it was about time Retsuko had a real stab at self actualisation, trying to find a more fulfilling life than her job allows, without it being more or less a single episode affair. Idol media is absolutely not for me but the usual bubblegum and innocence is replaced with a far more emotionally complex display ofthe challenges of success in a creative industry, aiming for security vs. passion in life, and the issues that come with popularity.

The problem with this season is something we can now assume is a permanent part of the series - the status quo must be returned to at all costs. This manifests in multiple ways that I won't get into for the sake of spoilers, but this season creates a lot of very obvious opportunities for permanent character development with multiple characters, builds them up, and totally trashes them so that the next season starts the same as the first and second did. This was true for the first two seasons as well, but this time I feel the writers have really shown their hand. For once I'm not really looking forward to the next season, because if I know nothing is going to change, what is there to be invested in?

Moment-to-moment the season is still excellent. It's a super bingeable show, and one that always impresses me with the places it goes that most media doesn't. If you liked the first two seasons I'm sure you will like at least 75% of this one. But at the same time, you could probably skip this entire season when the inevitable fourth one comes out, and you'd miss nothing, which I find really sad.