This anime is only going to be interesting to a few specific types of people: Pinky:st collectors, fans of toyetic media, and people interested in mid-2000's CG animation. I belong to all three of these groups, so I'm pretty much the target audience, but I still can't seem to give it more than a 6/10. tl;dr- probably not worth your time unless you're a Pinky:st collector OR already 100 meters deep into whatever internet rabbit hole led you to this page in the first place.
I'll start with what's good about this show. The 3D animated sequences, which make up about half of each episode, are
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Sep 2, 2022
Gyokou no Nikuko-chan
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings Informative 
**TL;DR AT THE END.** i am genuinely sorry that this review is so long. i will be discussing the fat elements of this movie a lot, since it's a perspective i understand intimately.
a quick summary of this movie: it's a sweet slice of life centered on the protagonist, 12 year old Kikuko. the movie is split into three arcs which cover three seasons. in the summer, Kikuko gets into her first Petty Middle School Drama at school when her only friend forces her to make a tough social decision. in the fall, Kikuko begins a friendship with a quiet, strange boy that goes to ... her school. in the winter, Kikuko falls ill. Through all of this, Kikuko lives her daily life on a houseboat with her fat and joyful single mother, Nikuko. as a fat woman, i was really excited when the trailer for this movie came out, because i thought that it might take a look at the relationship dynamic between a daughter and a fat mother. media that looks upon fat people favorably is rare in general, and in the anime/manga scene it's practically nonexistant. that being the case, i knew that the representation wasn't going to be perfect. but i still had high hopes- a mother-daughter relationship provides an absolutely perfect environment to explore fatness, how fatphobia changes women's lives, and how living as a fat woman impacts your familial relationships. i was, unfortunately, very disappointed by what the movie had to offer on this front. i was surprised at the backseat role that Nikuko plays in this movie, given the film is named after her. especially in the first two arcs, Nikuko is largely (hah) absent for most important scenes, and serves more as the backdrop of Kikuko's life. despite this movie's trailer framing the movie as a mother-daughter movie, Kikuko hardly has any meaningful interactions with Nikuko until the last arc of the movie. more on that in a bit. let's talk about Nikuko's fatness for a second. Nikuko is drawn in a way that's really cute, and her life is joyous, and she's not ashamed of herself. that in itself is nice, it's nice to see fat characters existing and being happy without any "i'm sad because i'm fat" plotlines. Nikuko does have a very strong history of being manipulated by unscrupulous men, which i side-eyed a bit, as "fat woman is easy because she's insecure, gets totally played by asshole guy" is a plotline that irks me to no end. thankfully, the writers didn't take it all the way there, never revealing why it is she's so prone to manipulation. not so thankfully, this is because Nikuko never gets any meaningful character development or character exploration throughout the entire film. even more unfortunately, although the writers made the wise decision to not make Nikuko into a woobie and play into Fat Angst, it feels like it leans too much into the opposite direction. Nikuko's entire character can't be taken seriously at all. Even when serious things are happening to her daughter, Nikuko can't be serious about it, because then she wouldn't be the Funny Jolly Fat Lady anymore. no matter how hard you squint, Nikuko is hardly anything but a clown, even during her own slightly depressing backstory. she's there to make you smile and laugh by being fat. i think it's possible to make a fat character funny WITHOUT making their fatness the butt of all their jokes, but the writers chose not to dig into that, presumably because it's not as easy as just saying "look, she eats a whole French toast in one bite, isn't that soooo funny?!" so, the fat representation in this movie is kind of a miss. what about the wholesome mother-daughter relationship? well, that ends up being a bit of a miss too. through the whole thing, there's this awkward distance between the two, where neither seems to want to make the effort to become closer with each other, simply settling for daily life and surface-level conversations. Nikuko doesn't act very motherly, aside from providing Kikuko's basic needs, instead playing a role resembling a big sister or best friend. in fact, there are many scenes where it feels like Kikuko plays the role of mother, while Nikuko acts like a child, and the detrimental nature of this dynamic is never even casually mentioned, only being touched with a ten-foot pole once (when Kikuko says "who's the child here?!" as a throwaway joke). this was very frustrating at times, because it felt like there was a huge elephant in the room being ignored: that Nikuko kind of sucks as a mother and Kikuko is struggling in silence because their bond isn't deep enough for her to seek out Nikuko's guidance. even when there are emotionally potent moments in the movie, they hardly ever involve Nikuko. this is an incredibly sad missed opportunity to me. Kikuko has emotional struggles that would be perfect as a pathway to introducing Nikuko's more motherly side, but instead of getting Nikuko involved in her personal life at all, Kikuko solves most of her problems on her own. the only time Kikuko has a meaningful conversation with her mom is at the very end of the movie, and even then it doesn't get any deeper than an "i love you." the sports festival scene is far and away THE shining moment for both of their characters as we get to see a glimpse of what the movie could be like if it actually cared about their family dynamic. ALL THAT BEING SAID, this movie is still really nice! wholesome to the core, it emulates Ghibli in a way that doesn't feel contrived. gorgeous and lovingly-crafted scenery, beautiful character animation, good pacing (seriously, this movie and My Neighbors the Yamadas are the only slice of life movies that haven't bored me to tears), funny jokes (when they're not about Nikuko being fat), and a good balance between emotional ups and downs that never feels jarring. the emotional flow of the story is smooth like a wave, good at tempering sad moments with twinges of happiness. i think i just wanted more from this movie than the writers were willing to give, which is fine. just because it isn't what i wanted it to be doesn't mean it's a bad movie. that's my take on it, anyways. anyone looking for something about fat people that actually explores the emotional nuances of being fat should read Pochamani. anyone looking for a cute family-centric slice of life should watch My Neighbors the Yamadas. anyone looking for gorgeous oceanside small town scenery should watch Ponyo. anyone looking for a powerful coming of age story should watch Anohana. if you've exhausted those other options, come watch this movie, it's cute. 6/10. tl;dr: the movie is cute, gentle, and wholesome, but ultimately fails to deliver a strong mother-daughter bond AND positive representation for fat people. if you're not looking for either of those things, this is a pretty good movie. if anything, it's worth watching for its great scenery and fun character animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 10, 2020 Mixed Feelings Spoiler
(THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. I felt it was necessary to elaborate on how the show doesn't commit to what it set up, which necessitates spoiler talk. You've been warned!)
I have incredibly mixed feelings about this season, mostly due to the rushed, noncommittal ending. I liked it overall (i'm a BIG fan of the overly dramatic- this season gave me big Early 2000's Shoujo Manga Vibes with how overblown some of the drama was and I loved it), but I just.... Don't really understand why most of the stuff that happened this season, happened. Why did Retsuko quit OTM Girls? Why was ... Gori's app such a prominent thing? Why did Haida/Inui (not) happen? The Haida/Inui thread was easily the most interesting part of this season to me because it hit home- I have been Inui. I knew exactly how she felt, the way she was acting was totally relatable to me.... So I was kind of disappointed that the entire plot thread didn't really have any importance in the final episode. I guess you could say Haida's experience with Inui made him realize he doesn't want to give up on Retsuko, but they ended up shoving that feeling of his right into the audience's faces with Gori's app thing, so it wasn't really necessary for Haida to go through all that. It felt like the Haida/Inui plot was written into there just to shut up anyone who asks "why doesn't Haida get over Retsuko and get with someone else?" Speaking of Gori's app, I strongly disliked this plot device. Gori has long been my favorite character, and it felt like the writers had no idea what to do with her this season. But she's one of Retsuko's close friends, so they can't just ignore her. So what else can you do but make her into Chekhov's Gun? I actually enjoyed it when it was just a funny part of her character, and I appreciated that they were fleshing her out. But when it became clear that she was there as a means of forcing the plot along, it totally lost me. Basically, it felt like the Gori's app plot device and the Haida/Inui subplot did not need to exist at the same time. Both exist as a means to the same ends, and the Haida/Inui subplot was way more emotionally potent and narratively interesting than the app thing. So... I'm not really sure why they decided that the app would be the thing that REALLY mattered at the end. Huh. As a quick aside, I feel that the show didn't do a great job of showing the audience WHY we should want Haida and Retsuko to be together in S1 and S2, and of course S3 was no different in this regard. The narrative is *very* clear that it wants Haida and Retsuko to be endgame, as it continually returns to the pair season after season. However, there's not much in the way of chemistry between the two. Haida likes Retsuko, but when Fenneko asks him why he fell in love with her, all he can really muster up is a story about the day he recognized Retsuko as a Real Person With Faults. He's overwhelmingly dedicated to her to the point of trying to "rescue" her repeatedly, but the show openly points out that the two aren't that close and they don't spend much time together outside of work. On top of that, she's not interested in him, and it doesn't seem like they share much of anything in common except for enjoying music. The writers even chose to contrast Haida's lackluster work relationship with Retsuko to the warm, fun, interesting bond he develops with Inui... and then throws its full weight behind the former. It is baffling that the story pushes so hard for this relationship, and frustrating that it can't even commit to it in the end because it has to be left ambiguous. Can't tie up all the loose ends or else we won't be able to milk this cash cow for any more seasons! I think the most confusing thing to me is the thematic contrast between Retsuko's resolve towards being an idol, which builds up throughout the season, and Retsuko completely giving up on her dream immediately after going through something traumatic. Even in the last song that Haida sings, he says "so punch [life] back," but then Retsuko's idea of "punching back" is to... Return to her soul crushing day job and give up on the only fulfilling and exciting thing she had going on. I know the show is really dedicated to the reality of the situation- that a real-life amateur idol who goes through something like that will probably quit because of the trauma- but the problem is we never got to *see* this trauma because of the rushed ending, so it feels like Retsuko was less traumatized and more like she was kinda shocked and just needed some time off work to fully recover. It would've been a more satisfying story if we got to see how the trauma was really affecting Retsuko's emotional functioning and self-efficacy outside of a single scene of her at her parents' house. At its core, I think that's Aggretsuko's biggest problem: a failure to commit. This show did not commit to Retsuko's trauma. It didn't convincingly commit to the Inui/Haida storyline. It didn't commit to any anti-capitalist themes (having characters spout platitudes about how living under capitalism sucks in order to reel in the younger crowd is... I'll get to that). It didn't even remain committed to arguably the show's biggest pull, which was relatability. Aggretsuko wants to be a noncommittal show that you binge over the weekend, buy the merchandise of, and then forget until the next season comes out and you get obsessed all over again. Sadly, I think this style is starting to take its toll on the quality of the show. Maybe this is nitpicky or "too political," but something that's bothered me about the show from the start that worsened a lot with S3 is the Trendy Anti-Capitalism thing where characters will randomly pop off about how oppressive and soul-crushing capitalism is. I don't even know what to call it- the show doesn't commit to it enough for it to be a theme, and it's scarce and unimportant enough that calling it a motif feels wrong. It's just this recurring thing that the show plugs in whenever they want Easy Relatability Points. Not that I disagree with the sentiment of it! Capitalism does suck, and actual criticism of capitalism by corporate-made/supported art is extremely rare. Sadly, Aggretsuko is not that. Capitalists, including the ones at Netflix (and Sanrio I suppose), have picked up on the fact that many young people are disillusioned enough with capitalism that they as companies can transform anti-capitalism into a sanitary, marketable trend that can be packaged and sold without actually causing any harm to the mechanisms of the system. Aggretsuko has always kind of given me this feeling (it's hard for me to swallow any criticism of capitalism that's coming from a company worth over $220 billion), but S3's immediate jump into "how do you do fellow young adults, capitalism is epic cringe am I right?" paired with the marketing campaign pushing the mobile phone game that released at the same time have made that feeling difficult to ignore. Aaaaall of that being said.... it isn't all bad, really! One thing that S3 did do well was introducing fun new characters. As I said, some characters felt ultimately pointless and many characters did not receive the kind of development you would hope for when watching (still a bit bitter that those two members of OTM Girls, Migi and Hidarin, didn't get ANY development), but every single character in this show is just a joy to watch on screen. Hyodo and Manaka are particularly fantastic additions to the cast. Inui was lovely and, for me, the most relatable character of the season. Lots of existing characters, like Komiya, Tsunoda, Retsuko's mom, and Anai got some hilarious and fun moments squeezed in there. Sadly, some characters are basically completely absent from S3. If you're a fan of Kabae, Tsubone, or Puko, i'm sorry. The music made for OTM Girls was great. I watched the English dub, and I found the songs getting stuck in my head. I also enjoyed the obvious lyrical progression of the songs: OTM Girls' first song is a bubbly track about going viral, their second song is very aggressive and confrontational, and their songs after that are emotional yet much less angry. It felt like OTM Girls' music made a similar arc to Retsuko's overall character gimmick. Started passive, suddenly turned aggressive, then used the lessons learned from the aggression to become a bit more assertive. The art is cute, colorful, and fun to look at, as expected of Sanrio. I do wish that S3 would've branched out into making characters more expressive. Sprinkling in some more unique facial expressions would've gone a long way. It sometimes feels like the animators (or maybe it's just Sanrio) are sacrificing expressiveness for simplistic cuteness (or branding?). Overall, S3 was a fun romp, but it left me feeling like there was a lot to be desired and i'm not feeling confident in the direction of the franchise from here. This season REALLY could've benefited from two more episodes, a better character arc for Inui, less pushing for Haida/Retsuko OR more development of the two romantically, and a complete surgical removal of Gori's matchmaking app subplot. If you liked S1 and S2, you should still watch S3, but don't go in expecting too much. Just have fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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