The character Aggretsuko (Retsuko) was created by Sanrio and first appeared in 2015. That same year, she ranked eighth in Sanrio's 'Sanrio Character Ranking' competition, which marked her actual breakthrough.

Aggretsuko began as a short series with episodes of approximately one minute each, broadcast as a segment within the program 'Osama Branch' on Japan's TBS channel from April 2016 to March 2018, totaling 100 episodes.

Despite being a Japanese product under Sanrio, the character achieved greater popularity outside Japan, especially among working women in the West who suffer from work stress. Her international success is attributed to the fusion of metal music (death metal) with Japanese culture.

When Retsuko reaches the peak of her anger, the kanji character 'retsu' (烈) appears on her forehead and her face transforms into a makeup similar to 'corpse paint' from metal music as she screams death metal songs, an ability she inherited from her grandmother who undergoes the same transformation when angry.

In the Japanese version, Retsuko's normal voice acting is performed by Kaolip, while the metal screaming sounds (death voice) are performed by a separate performer named Rariko, who is also the director of the series.

An original Netflix anime (ONA) was announced in December 2017, and the first season consisting of 10 episodes of 15 minutes each was released in April 2018 with the same TV production team, but with changes to character settings from the official Sanrio version.

The first season of the Netflix version received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews, with critics praising its satirical blend of criticism of Japanese work culture alongside cute characters and absurdist comedy.

In 2018, the show achieved its highest ranking in the 'Sanrio Character Awards' competition, placing twentieth overall, topping the vote in Brazil and the United Kingdom, and ranking second in Italy, Germany, France, and the United Arab Emirates the same year.

In March 2021, famous Japanese television host Matsuko Deluxe spoke about her admiration for Aggretsuko on her television program after watching the series without initially knowing it was produced by Sanrio.