'Aggretsuko' Season 3 Ending Explained: Will Haida's unrequited feelings for Retsuko finally be returned?
Spoilers for 'Aggretsuko' Season 3
Another season of Aggretsuko has come and gone, and fans are already eager to move on to Season 4 - especially with that cliffhanger at the end of Season 3. We take a look at where the events of Season 3 have left our favorite heavy-metal singing red panda, and what that means for a potential Season 4.
Retsuko's idol career
First drawn into it out of necessity, Retsuko's (Kaolip/Rarecho/Erica Mendez/Jamison Boaz) career as the lead singer of OTMGirls may have been the first time she's ever followed her dreams. We see her act assertively when she tells her incompetent business manager, Hyodo (Sohta Arai/SungWon Cho), that he needs to think smarter about his merchandise, and we see that Retsuko is, for the first time, happy about the work she is doing - she's even willing to leave her job in order to continue being a heavy metal pop idol.
However, the decision to leave her job was not one that was made lightly, and it was made before a rabid fan tried to first undermine her confidence and then kill her, believing she ruined OTMGirls with her heavy metal influence. Retsuko's final performance at RockStock earned her enough money to finally pay Hyodo off, and give up her dreams for the comfort zone of accounting. OTMGirls will do their best to continue without her, but it will be hard going - all of them have part-time jobs just to make ends meet, even Hyodo, who we see in the last moments of the episode works as a window cleaner.
Retsuko and Haida
Haida (Shingo Kato/Ben Diskin) really tried to get past his feelings for Retsuko this season, but ultimately, realized that he still has feelings for her. He was especially convinced after finding out on Director Gori's (Maki Tsuruta/GK Bowes) dating app that he and Restuko are destined to be together. However, this might not hold water, as Tsunoda (Rina Inoue/GK Bowes) may possibly have altered the app's algorithm to give Haida a fighting chance.
Haida finally confronts Retsuko with his feelings, despite having been rejected once before. Retsuko rightly calls him out on the fact that he does not know her very well, and has been projecting his idealized image of her onto the real Retsuko - pushing his feelings onto her in a way that she does not care for. In a heavy metal karaoke song, Haida finally expresses his frustrations with Retsuko, and makes the case for them to be together - he wants to be a safe harbor for her if she's willing to give him a chance.
The season's final moments show that Retsuko might just be willing to give him that chance. Mirroring a scene from earlier when Haida tried to ask Retsuko out to lunch, she suggests that they have lunch together. This is not confirmation that the two are actually a pair - but given how much emphasis has been placed this season on Haida actually getting to know Retsuko, this implies that the two have decided to at least get to know each other better, which is a step towards the relationship Haida has wanted for so long. The important thing, however, is that whatever steps forward Retsuko is taking, they are on her terms.
The season ends there, leaving fans who have shipped Haida and Retsuko together to wait for Season 4 before they can find out how successful the new relationship will be - or if there even is one at all. It's taken three seasons and the help of all their friends to get the two together, and Season 4 will determine once and for all if there's more to the romance than Haida's one-sided pinings.
All episodes of 'Aggretsuko' Season 3 are now available to stream on Netflix.