Jun 10, 2022
Happy Sugar Life flirts with two core audiences that it fails to deliver to.
The first audience is those looking for a dark, mature story about irredeemably flawed characters being punished for their sins. Happy Sugar Life sets itself up as though it may be that kind of story, but it doesn't have the teeth to commit, nor does it actually condemn the main characters.
The second audience is those looking for a cute, twisted romance between a yandere lolicon and the object of her affection. Happy Sugar Life doesn't seem at first, to court this audience genuinely, but if you keep watching, you'll probably come to
...
the same conclusion as I have: This is the true core of the story, but it fails in execution.
Happy Sugar Life is a really, really poorly told love story. It is the story of Satou, a high-schooler in search of the meaning of love, and Shio, the little girl who teaches it to her. It's the story of two girls, victims of their own unique abuse, with deeply concerning ideas of what a relationship is. And, despite their traumas and their complexes and their immaturity, their relationship IS somehow perfect. There is no apparent condemnation of their age gap, and the major structure and climactic dialogue all compound the message at the core of their relationship: Their love is the only thing in their lives that matters. Without it, they are empty people, and no amount of connecting with other people or going to therapy can fix them. The only hope they have is each other.
The love story between Satou and Shio, (which, I stress, is what the writing clearly treats as Important and Good) is interrupted, strained, and broken up by poorly-realized adult themes and juvenile edge-for-the-sake-of-edge. Child predators, rapists, and stalkers roam every corner of Satou's city, for the express purpose of interrupting her life with Shio, and providing "fair game" for her manipulative and murderous tendencies. But, and this bears repeating, the story is not really ABOUT these darker things. They are simply plastered on top of the obvious focal point - the romance - for the sake of introducing conflict and appearing mature and morally complex.
The views of human nature expressed by Happy Sugar Life are bleak and immature, as is the eventual ending. The writers believe that people can be broken, and not fixed, and simultaneously that there are no emotions worth living for besides full-hearted devotion to your love. There are no characters with pure intentions except for Shio, and, if you take the side that the writers take, Satou as well.
(PLOT SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH)
You see, the major, important twist of the story is, ultimately, that Satou is "innocent." Not that she never does terrible things, but that all of these things are, ultimately, justified. They are all self-defense, for the sake of protecting Shio, or done to people who "deserve" it by the metrics applied by the writers. Satou is not a serial killer, nor is she a kidnapper. She is a child, backed into a corner, who does what she has to for the sake of the one thing in the world that is considered Good and Pure. The ultimate climax, and the unwinding of the plot, hinges on Satou being driven to finally kill someone who doesn't "deserve" it like the others do.
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TL;DR:
Before you decide to watch Happy Sugar Life, ask yourself why:
- If you want a mature story about Bad People receiving their Divine Punishment, you should find another anime.
- If you want a twisted love story about a yandere lolicon being driven to her limit, stop watching after episode 11. It makes a much better ending, and you can fill in the gaps however you wish. Episode 12 will only ruin what little Happy Sugar Life has going for it.
In the end, Happy Sugar Life is a deeply flawed and poorly executed idea, with no courage to stand by its morals and an immature desire to play at "tragedy" without meaning.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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