I had watchAggrestsuko last year, so I'm quite familiar with Retusko's personality and love the fact that it's taking everything office life and making it a bit more interesting and a bit over the top, but not too over the top.

I would like if the comic was a bit longer than just three storylines, but having all the pages in full color was probably the reason why three storylines were printed.

“Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max” brings the rage in new form (Opinions portions of article)

This graphic novel contains the first three stories from the series that were previously released as single-issue comics. The first is from the creative duo of “The Black Mage” writer Daniel Barnes and D.J. Kirkland. Their tale is a fitting one for today’s time as the office gets swarmed with employees hit with the C-Virus or Carrier Virus. Retsuko and the remaining healthy coworkers mask up and get to safety. While giving readers a thrilling horror feel, the story presents an important message regarding work and health.

Jarrett Williams (“Rick and Morty” and “Dream Daddy” comic writer and artist) brings fans a story between Retsuko and her dik-dik (small horned African antelope) coworker Tsunoda. Retsuko tries to enjoy getting new outfits but Tsunoda drags her into the land of luxury and shockingly high prices. Williams reveals a little heartwarming side of the socialite who still sends Retsuko into her signature rage.

The final story in this collection is from Brenda Hickey, “My Little Pony” comic writer and artist. She gives Retsuko a unique challenge in the form of the Canadian goose Karen. The avian visitor stops by to take a look at how her Japanese counterparts are doing due to low employee satisfaction scores. Mr. Ton assigns Retsuko to show the guest around while trying to show that things are fine in the office. This new task and Karen’s evaluations give her a lot of stress but she tries to keep it in while in the presence of Karen. It seems that Hickey plays with the stereotype of “Karen” with her complaints but shows that things aren’t always different in different cultures and understanding can be reached.

While there are different artists in each chapter, they capture the style of “Aggretsuko” well while showing their own flairs.  The slight differences keeps a fresh feel while the story adds a bit of depth to both Retsuko and her featured co-workers. “Metal to the Max” also contains a small gallery of the comic covers of the individual stories. Interested collectors may want to check out their local comic shops to see if they may have some of the special variants.

I was so excited when I saw "Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max" in the "Read Now" section of Netgalley. I am a fan of the Netflix original show that follows Retsuko, the red panda, an overworked company employee by day, and metal karaoke singer by night. Her adventures and endearing personality always get a chuckle out of me, and make a hectic day at work seem less so. 

This graphic novel follows Retusko on three different adventures: trying to stay healthy at work while everyone else is falling ill, a day out shopping with her social media obsessed co-worker, and touring a consultant sent to raise the morale of the employees in the office. Just as in the show, her struggles are very relatable, and she always breaks down into metal karaoke singing to help her overcome them. The illustrations are very cute, and almost all the characters from the show make an appearance, which was great to see. 

This is a great read for fans of the Netflix series. It takes about 15 min to read (about the same length of one episode) and is sure to put a smile on all of Retusko's fans' faces. Thank you to Netgalley and Oni Press for the opportunity to read a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

I got really excited when I spotted that there is an Aggrestuko comic! I love the Netflix series. 

The base story is this: Retsuko is a young office worker in Japan, who strives to be an ideal employee but she deals with a lot of work stress. Her one escape is karaoke, more specifically death metal karaoke. Her adventures manage to hit just the right notes on how personally taxing it can be to do everything right at work and putting our personal interests aside. The series is also very real about relationships, workplace friendships and the difficulties of a grown up life. 

It is good to have seen at least a few episodes before you read the comic, as it doesn’t really have an introductiory part and you might wonder who are all these characters. Sadly, I did not like it as much as hoped, a lot of them feel like watered down, shallow caricatures of the characters I came to love in the show.

Each chapter seems to tackle a different topic. First, we deal with a virus outbreak at Restuko’s company. Corona, anyone? In the second part we go shopping and have a bit of a look into second hand stores vs. brand clothes. In part three a foreigner colleague makes a work visit. While the first two parts felt a bit rushed for me, this last part was written pretty well and it was an enjoyable journey with Resuko and how she deals with Karen, the Canadian office lady who is hellbent on improving employee satisfaction.

While the parts with Retsuko singing hit the same notes - this is where she gets real about issues that bothered her during the day - as there is little substance to her in the short stories she comes off meaner as she actually is.

I am unsure about a few translated phrases, like why people call her Calendar. I think it was short-timer in the show? That made a bit more sense, but I don’t get what Calendar even means in this context.

Overall this was a fun read, but I felt that the stories were a bit short to really have the same impact as the series.

Retsuko is an mild mannered accountant working in a mind-numbing corporate job. But when karaokeing, she turns into Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max.

When her entire office comes down with the “C-virus”, it’s Retsuko to the rescue. How you say? A vaccine? Social distancing? Bleach injections? No, of course not! It’s heavy metal karaoke over the office intercom!

We all wish getting over our current c-virus could be this easy. But honestly, no one has tried Retsuko’s solution. It may actually work.

There are two more full stories and a two-page short in addition to the one I describe above. One of the short stories is about Insta-fame. The other is about a Canadian coming to Retsuko’s office “to help optimize workflow synergy”. I loved the culture clash within the second.

This comic is a fun read. The characters look identical to the ones on the Netflix show. The plot is humorous. For fans of the show, like me, Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max is easily worth 5 stars!

Thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is one of my favorite anime on Netflix right now so I was super excited to see my favorite heavy-metal red panda, Retsuko, in manga form. All the characters are here but with brand new stories not previously done in the Netflix show. The three stories here include an office contagion of zombie-like proportions, a long day of shopping with a social media obsessed shopaholic and a visit from an international division of her company who comes in with a bang and is determined to turn their Japanese office into a copy of her own Canadian office. The first story was by far my favorite and I laughed out loud a few times. Plus, we get plenty of screaming heavy metal from the leading lady herself.

I would highly recommend these stories for anyone who is already a fan of Retsuko or those who have no idea what I’m talking about. This was a great read for me after an especially dark and depressing series of books and these quick short stories really brightened my day.

Received via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

This graphic novel was every bit as good as the excellent tv show! Retsuko navigates the world of work with all the enthusiasm that can be expected from an emotionally exhausted red panda. Humour, truth and just a little touch of nihilism are definitely Aggretsuko’s brand. If you’re a tired old millennial then Aggretsuko is for you!

Fans of the Netflix series will love this comic series. Aggretsuko is the perfect relatable main character I've always wanted. She is adorable, and feisty while still being flawed. She makes you laugh, cry, and rage all in the span of minutes. 

I may be biased since I'm obsessed with her, and think everyone needs a little bit more Aggretsuko in their lives.

A fun read with art that’s fairly true to the show. If this is your first exposure to the Aggretsuko world, it will not hook you. It’s just not as powerful and original. But if you know and love Retsuko/Aggretsuko and her world, this will give you your fix until the next season comes out. 

I wish this would have had more of Gori, Secretary Bird, and Kabae (the hippo), which are my favorite characters on the show.

I enjoyed the Canadian workplace consultant character and its commentary on multinational corporation work culture.

Overall, would recommend but not a must read.

I really love the series of this so was happy to see the comic .  It’s a fun read . Bright and colourful . The characters are great and the stories are well written .  I had a good time reading it .

I love Aggretsuko!  Ever since I first laid eyes on her Netflix show, I was hooked!  This has led to purchases of funko pops and pyjamas bottoms adorned with her face.

Metal to the Max is a great companion to the show, all the usual suspects are there - her horrible boss Ton, Fenneko, Tsunoda, Haida and the fabulous ladies Washimi and Gori.  It has several stories including the dreaded lurgy coming to the office, an annoying shopping trip and a work visit that plans to increase morale.

There is plenty of Karaoke and dry humour plus it is as fun and colourful as the tv show.

A definite for fans!

I really enjoyed this comic. This perfectly fits into the world that the tv show creates and i thought that the characters were all true to their tv counterparts. The art style was great and i would love for more comics in the Retsuko world.

I haven't yet watched the anime of Aggretsuko, but I've heard a ton about it and have wanted to check it out. When I saw there was going to be a comics series featuring her and her fellow characters, I had to pick it up. The art style perfectly matched what I have seen of the characters and anime and Retsuko was a great character to follow. Her bouts of using karaoke to blow off steam was hilarious and relatable at the same time. If you're a fan of the anime or if you just want to get acquainted with the characters and feel it out, check out this one!

I enjoyed the stories in this comic! I enjoyed seeing Aggretsuko in situations I hadn't seen before. And the writer and artist keep the look and feel of the series. A must for Aggretsuko fans!

This Manga was hilariously relatable. From the "C-virus", to Aggretsuko's somewhat people pleasing nature, to the different types of people she meets at work.. I couldn't help but feel a strong bond with our little red panda (aka Aggretsuko)

Even though I've yet to see the anime adaption, the moments when Aggretsuko and her co-workers screamed their frustrations at karaoke.. I FELT that. And I also loved that they made little rhymes for their raps 😂

After reading this Manga, it's just convinced me that I need to watch the Netflix anime sooner because I just want to see more of Aggretsuko 😆


Thank you so much to Netgalley and Oni Press for providing this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max by Daniel Barnes & Brenda Hickey et. al. is a free NetGalley e-comicbook that I read in late September.

Against the grain color scheme and dialogue, it's very un-PC and vividputrid when Retsuko’s at work, then lively, squee, and (obviously) metal when she’s off-work and at karaoke, revealing her true feelings and stressors.

I adore Aggretsuko and relate to all the drama so much. The first issue talking about a virus? So funny, and to think this was first published in February? Us, sweet summer children.
Loved the art and the colors, it made me smile and laugh and that is everything I was looking for.

I love Aggretsuko. I was super excited when the 3rd season was finally added to Netflix, and no lie, I kind of want a couple of the character plushies, because I’m absolutely that kind of geek. I love the idea that someone can be shy and sweet most of the time without it being pretense, but that they also have less-sweet emotions and thoughts that they need to release by means of screamy death metal music. I love the way it presents people as multi-layered and complex, and also that even if someone’s less-public side might be surprising, there will always be people who understand and accept that. If you haven’t watched the show yet, I highly recommend you do so; it’s gained popular status for good reason, and don’t let the fact that it’s made by the same company who made Hello Kitty fool you into thinking it’s some cutesy little childish thing.

So hell yes, I was thrilled to get my hands on Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max.

The first story in the comic collection, Down With the Sickness, is about an illness spreading around the company where Retsuko works, one that’s unique to that company and is caused by employee stress, poor self-care, and bad management. And I honestly can’t tell if, given the current pandemic, this story is in poor taste or brilliant. On one hand, when there’s a devastating disease still infecting thousands every day, maybe playing an virus for laughs isn’t the best option. On the other hand, the idea of a viral infection getting really out of hand due to poor management at higher levels, and the demand for people to go to work even when they’re sick and ought to stay home… You know, I can see why that might resonate with some people! It’s also playing off the whole “zombie virus pandemic” thing that’s still popular, since infected employees just sort of rush around in hordes and try to infect others. Yeah, not sure if it’s secret brilliant or in poor taste. Maybe a bit of both?

The second story involved Retsuko and Tsunoda going shopping and Retsuko getting annoyed with Tsunoda’s superficiality. Nothing too special there, but amusing enough. The third story, though, was about how an employee satisfaction survey showed that the company’s Japanese employees were less satisfied than ones in the West, and so a Canada goose named Karen is sent to change up how to office works, to improve employee happiness. She does so by getting in everyone’s way and making a bunch of suggestions that the employees are resistant to, and I’m sure she was meant to come off as… well, as a karen, and doubly so when you consider that she was trying to change things in one culture based on the sole perspective of her own culture.

But, I mean, one of the suggestions she made was updating the accounting software so that things ran more smoothly and efficiently. And the idea was met with, “Nah, it’s fine, and it would waste so much time having to be retrained.” Most of her suggestions were out of place and very much unwanted, but her literal job there was to find ways to improve company happiness, and “more efficient workflow” is absolutely a valid way to do that and it wasn’t an unreasonable suggestion. But it was treated as being an unreasonable as saying there should be more motivational cat posters, or the whole, “I want to speak to your manager,” thing she did toward the end of the story.

Ditto her problems with Ton being a bad boss who takes advantage of the people under him. Retsuko had a point that she has to stay and live with the consequences of not appeasing Ton whereas Karen gets to leave and forget about it if she wants, but Karen also had a very good point about bosses getting away with too much, and sometimes that can get very very bad. Hell, that very issue came up in an episode of the show!

(Also want to point out the irony of Karen saying that having dinner with coworkers was “out-of-the-box thinking” for boosting employee morale, since a lot of company in Japan mandate employee drinking parties at least once a month, and from what I hear, a lot of employees hate them. It’s hard to get out of them without seeming like you’re not a team player, and all they do is make you waste time and money and result in you going into work hungover the next day. “Out-of-the-box,” my ass! I’m not sure if that was meant to be Karen’s ignorance of Japanese work culture, or just something the comic’s writer wasn’t really aware of, but either way it gave me an ironic chuckle.)

I will say that some of the characterization seemed kind of off to me, but I have to concede that might be because when I watched the show, I watched it with Japanese audio rather than English, so the characters might be spot on for the English dialogue used. I really can’t tell. But for the Japanese version I’m more familiar with, there was a bit of a disconnect. It’s tough to see Retsuko saying, “What the hell?” for instance, and while Tsunoda might be very concerned with her appearance and manipulative, I can’t remember any hints that she might be super rich and think nothing of spending $700 on a dress or buying out a jewellery display case. Friends who watched the English dub, can you chime in on this one and offer clarity and context?

The art was good, and very true to the source material, and the stories were fairly creative, but I think there was a bit too much of a disconnect in some areas for me to like Metal to the Max as much as I enjoy the anime it was based on. The characterization wasn’t quite there, and 2 of the 3 stories had some sticking points for me that kept me from just reading and enjoying them; I felt too much like they were trying to make a point but missing the mark just a little bit. It wasn’t bad, far from it, but it was the little things that kept coming back to me, and the little things added up in the end. Fans of the anime will probably enjoy this supplementary comic, so long as they don’t look too deep or want it to be 100% true to the show, I think.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of Aggretsuko's first trade!  I LOVE Aggretsuko!  Aggretsuko is a sanrio character, she's an angry red panda.  She likely lives in the same world as Hello Kitty, but alas, HK never makes a cameo.  

Aggretsuko is in her early 20's, and just trying to figure out her life while dealing with her nagging and societal pressure to find a man.  She works in the accounting office of some kind of company, and is still just starting to experience life on her own.  She experiences a decent amount of anxiety, especially at work, but has found that doing "death metal" karaoke helps relieve her stress.  Her co-workers are hilarious, and run the gamut of work stereotypes.  She has two older friends--women in their 40's maybe, but possibly 30s--who offer her insight into some of her experiences.  

I have watched her show on Netflix, and these comics are a great extension of that.  I think that watching the show probably helps with some of what is going on in this trade, which involves an illness that spread throughout the office, a frivolous friend who cannot get off social media, and dealing with a new co-worker from Canada named Karen.  This is definitely a fun read, but probably not for kids, more because of all the office storylines that I think kids wouldn't care about that than because of language or violence.

The comic is rather easy to read an enjoyable, has kept to the tone of the show and is very visually appealing. 

However, I can't justify giving it a rating higher than 3 stars because of the first story - it is about the "c-virus", a  spreading in Retsuko's office and requireling military intervention to be stopped. I realise it was originally published in Feburary, but putting it inside this combined edition seems kind of tasteless considering the current situation. The pandemic has been traumatic for many people  

The other stories were pretty fun, and the reason for the rating not being too low. I think the second story, Mall Madness, was my favourite.