Aggretsuko’s We Wish You a Metal Christmas special is now on Netflix, and it deserves to be a holiday classic. It takes the best of the 2018 anime and throws in extra helpings of heartbreak to create a tearjerking, hilarious, sweet portrait of relationships in our modern time.
Aggretsuko, Netflix’s breakout anime that combines Hello Kitty-cuteness with twentysomething-realness, has proven itself to be the quintessential series and undeserved salve for this trying, miserable year.
Nothing reiterates this better than We Wish You a Metal Christmas, a 22-minute, holiday gift of an episode that premiered on Netflix over the weekend. Just as its first season did back in the spring, Aggretsuko ’s Christmas special finds hilarity in modern problems — and lots of love in its heart, despite the roadblocks.
Christmas Eve is a big deal for couples in Japan, but in the special, Aggretsuko, our red panda hero, remains single and unsatisfied. She’s asked to work overtime on the holiday; her best friends have their own couples-only plans; her favorite co-worker won’t stop judging her Instagram, which gives up the ghost more than anything else.
