A review by mehsi
Aggretsuko: Metal to the Max, Volume 1 by Daniel Barnes

5.0

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.


SO HYPED! I love Aggretsuko series (though I would love Retsuko to be a bit more responsible in many ways) and I was delighted to see the comic series pop up on Netgalley. I already was eager to read it as several of my favourite artists talked about it on Twitter and showed the covers they made.

The book features 3 stories with awesome fitting name and Retsuko’s frustration listed as well. I have written a short review per story.

Down With The Sickness: 4.5 stars Monday’s suck. Literally in this one as apparently everyone is sick in the office. I had a big laugh at how the sick people looked and acted like zombies and how everything was also kind of handled that way. We get a small group of survivors, glass breaking, lots of running, lots of leaving behinds and more. I had a laugh that the virus was called C-virus, which stands for Carrier-Virus. Which is about people who should stay home because there are sick, but don’t because of various reasons mostly to do with their carreers.
It was an exciting story and I loved the ending. Go go Retsuko! Shout out loud! Though poor her in the end, but I am happy with her decision.
The art by D.J. Kirkland was good. I liked seeing the characters in his style.

Mall Madness: 3.5 stars. In this one Retsuko is shopping when she meets Tsunoda. Yep. Our artificial and not always so kind girl. Retsuko kind of agrees to go with her instead of being honest about why she was in the store and getting some cute clothes for herself. And that is how a day with Tsunoda begins. A whirlwind of fashion, expensive clothes, perfume, and lastly a cup of something to drink. There were times I really liked Tsunoda… but there were enough times I wasn’t happy. She is not one of my favourite girls, she can be quite mean towards people. The moments I did like is that she never pushed Retsuko to buy anything and when she opened up about her youth and how she got to love fashion and such so much. That was a nice moment.
I do feel for Retsuko, some people don’t really care if their clothes are fashionable, they just need to look nice and fit comfortable.
I had a laugh at the ending, let it all out girl. Let it all out. Though next time? Maybe just tell Tsunoda your feelings honestly.
The art by Jarrett Williams was pretty OK. The faces didn’t always work for me.

The Visitor: 4 stars. Karen from the sister office appears to make things better in the Japan office. Sorry, I just couldn’t stop laughing that the girl was called Karen, the name has definitely been ruined due to the internet. And at points she really was a Karen.