Aggretsuko – Season 5 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Other Side of Rage

The big showdown is upon us. It’s Retsuko VS Jiro for the hearts and minds of the political masses in Tokyo. The “Party of Rage” is set up as Retsuko manages to gather her 3 million won deposit, thanks to the efforts of her two best friends, Washimi and Gori.

Jiro comes out swinging in the campaign, winning the crowd over with his humour and charisma. As for Retsuko, she heads out and takes a slightly different approach, hitting the name of Aggretsuko constantly to try and keep it in the public’s mind. Her policies around the economic downturn turn heads at work, as Ton and the CEO are impressed by how well she composes herself. The thing is, Retsuko isn’t particularly resonating with the voters, who just want to hear her death metal voice.

Does Retsuko rock  the crowd?

When Ikari finds out about this downturn, he urges Retsuko to use her death metal voice with the public, as this is really what got people out to take a look at her in person. With a big crowd coming up in Tokyo, Ikari has plants from work in the crowd to get the PR machine ticking along, and Ton even shows up too! The thing is, that’s nothing compared to who Jiro has in his corner – the Prime Minister of Japan himself!

Ton gives Retsuko a pep-talk in private, allowing her to speak up and point out all her little gripes, including streaming platforms initiating a timer for the next program before you’ve even finished watching the credits. Nice little nod to Netflix there! Anyway, Retsuko eventually snaps and brings out the big guns – her death metal voice.

How does Jiro spin things in his favour? What happens with Shikabane?

Jiro and his father start to feel the pressure and that night, as Haida is hit by a truck that reverses into him outside the internet café. He’s lucky to be alive but seeing her boyfriend almost die is enough for Retsuko to contemplate dropping out the political race completely. Haida convinces her to keep going, encouraging Retsuko to sing for the downhearted and the people like Shikabane that have already given up.

Jiro suddenly spins a brand new bill to counteract Retsuko’s singing, the “Old Age Extermination Bill” which would see politicians retire at the age of 65. Everyone cheers for Jiro but it’s only temporary, given Retsuko ends up with people cheering her name way past 8pm, which is the cut-off time.

That night, Retsuko meets with Shikabane and encourages her to channel the rage and how fed up she’s feeling through a positive outlet – like karaoke. The pair head there that evening and have a whale of a time.

Who wins the election?

As for the election itself, Jiro wins by a landslide. Voter turnout was over 75% which is a new record but all those people cheering for Retsuko actually happen to be the downtrodden and the members of society unable to vote.

Retsuko congratulates Jiro on his win when he shows up to see Haida the next day, pointing out it wasn’t him who ran the guy down. As for Retsuko and Haida, they get back in to the usual rat race of work, with Retsuko squashed on the subway train while Haida ends up working a proper office gig where he’s at least happy to go to work. As for Shikabane, she ends up inspired to do better in her life, and she starts to look for a job.

The Episode Review

Aggretsuko’s fifth season comes to a wonderful conclusion, circling back to the earlier moments of season 1 with Retsuko struggling to control her rage. Only this time, she’s found a new inner-peace with herself and is able to channel her anger into a more constructive outlet.

This is a lovely message and a way of showing how much growth our protagonist has now. The political campaign has echoes of Like A Dragon’s storyline, with a ragtag group working to try and derail a seemingly unstoppable political machine. It’s definitely one of the stand-out moments here, while the show does a decent job capturing the usual social issues around work that has made this such a success.

This is a wonderful send-off for Aggretsuko. The final season finally comes full circle and the supporting characters get some good closure too. Ultimately, this was a great final episode.