Sanrio welcomed 2017 by introducing their newest character who most people can related to. Her name is Aggretsuko. She is a cute red panda filled with anger issues and secretly hates her job.
This adorable, yet relatable little red panda works as an office associate in an accounting department of a highly respected trading company. She narrates this in the short clip below. It turns out that it was her dream to work as an accountant, but she soon became the company's push over. Anybody can relate to that. She also has unsympathetic bosses and workmates who can't seem to mind their own business.
Introducing, #Aggretsuko! She's a Red Panda who works as an office associate of a trading company in Tokyo. Watch this video to learn more! pic.twitter.com/wwh79GzRw4
— Sanrio (@sanrio) January 5, 2017
At the end, when pushed to her limits, she goes out for a drink and filled her heart's content with heavy metal music. Now, that character is easily relatable to the current generation.
Sanrio has been known for its Hello Kitty franchise and other "kawaii" characters. Since Hello Kitty's debut in 1960, they have amassed a global cult following for the cute character.
Although the company has been iconic for its cute and pastel-colored characters, take Hello Kitty and Hello Mimi for example, they have been constantly defining kawaii aesthetic relevant for decades, according to The Verge. Among the other bizarre characters that were recently added include Kirimichan, a salmon filet, and Gudetama, a sleepy egg who is most of the time wrapped in bacon blankets.
GameSpot reported that in a report by Crunchyroll, Aggretsuko was created after fans asked for an "office lady" or "salaryman" character, both of which are common in anime. In fact, Aggretsuko has her own series of short anime, which debuted in April 2016 in Japan. However, whether this will be launched in the West is yet to be known as Sanrio has not mentioned any details. Don't worry because fans added English subtitles for the short clips.
Check out a couple of anime shorts of Aggretsuko below.
