Pissed Is The New Cute

Meet Sanrio’s latest character, Aggretsuko

Like a lot of people I know, my introduction to Sanrio was through Hello Kitty sometime in the early ’90s. She was on office supplies, in coloring books—a precious white cat who baked treats and gardened. Inexplicably, her one pet was also a white cat (they could not speak to each other). After that initial foray, I wasn’t really aware of the company again until 2013 when they debuted a new character named Gudetama. He’s a lethargic egg who constantly employs the ellipsis while saying #relatable things like, “Meh…” or, “The future… I can’t.”

It’s like they said, “How can we make Garfield but not get sued?” so they made an egg—and Gude was a huge hit for them! He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, his YouTube videos are driving most of their channel’s traffic, and I found myself loving his little yolk butt despite myself.

So for their latest character, which debuted this week, Sanrio seems to have taken things one step further on the #relatability spectrum: “What does every girl on the internet picture herself as in three traits or less?” Their answer is a red panda named Aggretsuko, which translates literally to “aggressive rage-girl.” Like the rest of us gals in the big city, Aggretsuko has an unfulfilling job and a secret karaoke persona:

“Despite her cute appearance, something deep within her is… Aggretsuko,” explains the trailer. Pissed is the new cute. And they’re kind of right.

Again, despite myself, I cannot overcome the fact that every translated quote ends up being a perfect “it me.”

Needless to say, my interest has been piqued. I’m especially interested to see how the Director Gorilla and Secretary Bird end up playing into the whole plot here. Are they, too, pissed? If they can detect “over it” better than the men can, will Aggretsuko be able to maybe start a metal band and tour the world? This is turning into fanfic.

I just think it’s cool that depictions of masculinity in the Sanrio world continue to devolve and deconstruct using the same oversimplification I saw in the ’90s, but femininity in that same world is suddenly… fucking wild. And I’m here for it (even if it is pandering).