While it isn't uncommon for shows to have a Christmas special, very few of these specials become true Christmas classics. Christmas classics represent those specials that viewers make a part of their yearly festive traditions. Ones they return to and rewatch every single year. Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas is a Christmas special that has become a holiday tradition for many people. However, the reason it has entered many people's Christmas rotations is that We Wish You a Metal Christmas offers viewers an unusual but highly accurate depiction of the dark and stressful side of the season.
The Aggretsuko anime started in 2018. It tells the story of Retsuko, a millennial red panda who struggles with love and her tedious and stressful office job. Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas is set between seasons one and two of the series, and it sees Retsuko dealing with a common millennial Christmas dilemma.
Worried that her life is boring, Retsuko becomes obsessed with Instagram, finding the likes on her pictures both validating and comforting, even if the images she posts are not totally reflective of her. However, with Christmas Eve quickly approaching, Retsuko realizes that she doesn't have any plans or a date for the night and this revelation stresses her out. This stress only gets more intense when Retsuko's friends, including her mentors Gori and Washimi, chastise her for both her lack of plans and lack of a Christmas eve date.
When she is asked to work on Christmas eve, this stress overflows, causing Retsuko to try and fake the perfect Christmas eve, not wanting anyone to know what her life is really like. At the same time, Haida is facing similar stress, and when he sees through Retsuko's deception, he tries to make things right, causing chaos in the process.
What makes Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas stand out is that it is one of the few Christmas specials that looks at the modern experience of Christmas, both the good and the bad. Christmas specials, even ones set in the modern-day, still look at Christmas through a very traditional lens. Where families have fun and those not enjoying the season are grumpy Scrooges. And these Scrooges are usually forced to change their ways by the end of the episode. This overlooks the fact that Christmas is a stressful time for many people, and social media and society's pressure to be happy only make this worse.
One of the most moving things about Aggretsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas is that it doesn't condemn Retsuko's stress or her response to it. While she does eventually see that she doesn't need the perfect Instagram-worthy Christmas to be happy, the episode doesn't act like her earlier actions were stupid or wrong, just that she got caught up in an anxious spiral. And this isn't just limited to Retsuko.
During the special, every character experiences their own Christmas problem. In fact, the special perfectly illustrates how the pressure to be happy at Christmas can quickly spread from person to person. Not only do we see Gori and Washimi's insecurities make Retsuko's spiral worse. We see Retsuko accidentally pressuring Haida into stressing out about his holiday situation, showing how this pressure can affect everyone.
When it comes time to make a holiday special, most series are happy to recycle traditional and overdone Christmas storylines and give them a series-specific overlay. Because of this, Aggretsuko must be praised for telling a unique and decidedly modern Christmas story, that while offering a joyful ending, doesn't shy away from the dark side of the season.
At its core, Aggretsuko is a series about millennial alienation and those themes are displayed perfectly in this special. In fact, by showing viewers an unhappy Christmas season, Aggretsuko gives viewers a welcome Christmas gift, one that we all need from time to time: a reminder to not sweat the small stuff.