Tokyo temperature has been averaging a single digit celsius and with a state of emergency, many of my colleagues and I have excessively increased the screen time to pass our spare time📺.
I chatted with a couple of colleagues this week and learnt about shows that they enjoy watching and I noticed a genre that seems unique in Japan.
Gone are the trends of ‘kawaii’ or cute characters like Hello Kitty, Totoro and Nintendo Mario. Many of the current popular Japanese animes are cute …with a twist of sad reality.
Here are some of the shows:
すみっコぐらし (Sumikko gurashi)
“Sumikko gurashi” roughly translates to living in the corner.
These cute and cuddly characters appear like a children animation but each character carries a slightly sad situation.
- an edge of a pork cutlet that no one wants to eat as it’s 1% of meat, 99% fat and its friend is a tail tip of a prawn tempura. Both of their dream is to be eaten by someone.
- a polar bear who doesn’t like the cold and have moved down south
- an anxious cat that scratches many surface
- a penguin who isn’t sure that it’s a penguin and is in the search of finding itself
- a lizard that is hiding that it is a dinosaur
- a weed with a dream of becoming a bouquet-a bunch of dust
- some left over tapiocas-a slug that is faking as a snail but putting on a shell or other objects
- a ghost who enjoys cleaning and working at a cafe
They all find comfort in living in the corner and in each other’s company.
I watched Sumikko Gurashi the movie on Amazon Prime and perhaps because I was warned by my colleague, I didn’t find it too sad. I found many characters adorable with their imperfection but at times, it caught me with a sad reality that their dream won’t be fulfilled (like the weed wanting to become a bouquet 💐.)
アグレッシブ烈子 (Aggressive Retsuko or Aggretsuko)
The main character of this show, Retsuko is an average office worker in Tokyo slogging everyday in the accounts department under a mean boss and lazy colleagues who pile up jobs on her. As a stress relief, she secretly goes to karaoke on her own and ‘sing’ in death metal voice.
Sounds like a mundane and a bit depressing show that may be too close to home for some people. Yet, available on Netflix and it’s very popular because the main character is a cute red panda and her colleagues are also cute animals like hippo, pig, gorilla and deer to name a few with quirks and funny personality.
My colleague asked, “Imagine if the characters weren’t cute anime but a normal actress and actors? I don’t think anyone will watch that.” I have to agree with him on that! Although some of the things that Retsuko have to go through are stressful watching it like when she gets yelled and grilled by her boss in front of her colleagues or younger colleague threatening power harassment case, I found it quite addictive to watch the 3 seasons (as did many of my colleagues). In a weird way, it was educational for me to learn an ‘average’ Japanese work environment through this show.
A bit dark with a sad reality of adult life, it’s surprising that Aggressive Retsuko is from the same animation company that produced the wonderfully cute and perfect world of Hello Kitty, Sanrio.
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The popularity of these animation with cute portrayal of a reality may be due to people’s preference on relatability while seeking comic relief instead of watching faultless characters’ awesome adventures in their wonderful life✨.
With the world being so unpredictable and at times hard to anticipate a bright future (especially in Japan that has been struggling through a sluggish economy for 3 decades), I think people want to know that they’re not alone.
Sumikko gurashi, Aggressive Retsuko and other characters are the culmination of a time when people may feel tired of the reality of being an adult who finds solace in what Japanese do best – soft power and brilliant story telling through animation.
Have you seen either of these animation?
Native Expat 