Happy Sugar Life

Happy Sugar Life is one of the greatest psychological horror shows anime has to offer. Trauma, lack of mentorship, and the pursuit of love push the characters to perform direly, leading to a beautifully executed tragedy ripe with emotion; and plenty of violence. Plotwise, it's quite intentionally disconcerting, which one could consider "edgy," but, even as characters act in the most obviously morally corrupt manner, the tone comes across as more unsettling than anything. The ending is satisfactory-- Studio Ezόla doesn't hide the plot's tragic tendencies, especially with the opening scene. While true horror is a rarity in anime, more than enough happens ... to categorize this show as such.

This show is best watched blindly, and binged. I imagine it would have been quite frustrating trying to watch this week by week. There was a lot for me to digest watching this so the rest of the review may contain light spoilers. If you're desperate enough to look for horror in the anime department, it's unlikely you'll be disappointed.

As a horror, Happy Sugar Life delivers best in the psychological department. Each episode carries increasing suspense as characters are introduced and begin to interact with one another. Tensions build while the viewer awaits an inevitably violent outcome, served every few episodes. Some scenes also work very well as jump scares, intentional or not. The only gripe with this is, this anime being flagged with a "gore" tag and all, even the most violent scenes seem to lack a gory gut punch.

The plot is slow moving, and utilizes an abundance of flash backs to deliver key character exposition. Slow moving not in a running in place kind of way, or in a K-on fluffy slice of life kind of way, but in a steamroller or trash compactor kind of way. This is where an important mystery aspect of the show comes in to play. The objective of every scene, and one of this show's greatest strengths is that every scene has an objective, is to add a piece to the puzzle of the story for the viewers. Flashbacks, while plentiful, are intensely emotional and answer important "why" questions pertaining to the character's current situations. Some purposefully offer justification for characters' actions, while others purposefully do the opposite.

In general, all of the characters are, by design, flawed beyond repair and ultimately doomed to their tragic fate. There isn't much character growth, some character withering, but for the most part the focus is exposition; simply revealing more details to the viewer. Each character clearly affects others and adds to the attempted justification of Matsuzaka's actions. However a specific character comes to mind; the teacher; that felt like it wasn't used to its full potential. He becomes so vital to not just the plot and suspense of Matsuzaka's secret, but also plays the role of an an important anti-mentor to Matsuzaka herself, that it feels wasteful to suddenly drop him half way through the series, only to suddenly show one more scene of him in the ending as a cameo style "remember this guy?".

By "justification" I'm simply referring to answering the "why" portion of the character's actions, which pertains for the most part to Matsuzaka and the other main children in the story. Since there were very few characters in this series, any actions they take are impactful, both inside and outside the fourth wall.

Themes of love and mentorship, or perhaps more the misrepresentation or lack thereof, are also quite obvious and prominent.
What is love? ......... don't hurt me, no more.

Studio Ezόla weaponizes a fatally cute and somewhat simple art style, at least by today's standards, to accentuate the show's already disturbing tone. The animation is not particularly sophisticated; a lot of still frames and some shotty background CGI are used, but generally it doesn't hurt the viewing experience, especially since there aren't any action scenes. The musical score is quite good, and the opening and ending songs fit well. The creepiness of Matsuzaka is, in my opinion, the greatest part of this anime, the build up of her influences and circumstances to the final ending scene of episode 12 really carries the show's atmosphere. She's not crazy in a Gasai Yuno type of way, she's a monster of unfortunate circumstance and possibly some genetic mental illness.

The less-than-ideal rating, I believe, can understandably be mostly attributed to all of the messed up things that happen, and the intentionally terrible characters. Imaginably it would be difficult for most people to say that they enjoyed the experience of watching this show. The execution is great, so try to immerse yourself in the intent of the direction.

Generally it seems horror shows aren't exceptionally well directed, so to me this one stood out. It's not the gore fest of Another, or the moral desperation elicitation of Shiki, nor does it have the elaborate mystery of Higurashi. Emotionally distressing, uncomfortable, and suspenseful before wiping the floor with an eerie ending that might have come off as bittersweet in another anime.

A psychological thriller with a crapsaccharine twist- I want to rate this anime higher, but for all the qualities that make it appealing, it fails to exceed in any given area.

Happy Sugar Life hooks you with the protagonist's Death Note-esque calculated Machiavellianism, and the short 12-episode season culminates in a much more satisfying conclusion than the 2006 anime. However, the mid-season was painfully slow-paced and featured side-plots which failed to grab my attention. Conversely, all they did was interrupt my suspended disbelief- how did all these unhinged characters converge? One answer might have lied in Happy Sugar Life's religious undertones, but this explanation was barely ... addressed by the season's end—truly a missed opportunity.

This anime is a good pick for those who want a psychological thriller with a captivating cynical protagonist, sans the shonen action that characterises so much of modern anime. However, consider "Classroom of the Elite" to satisfy a Death Note itch, Kakegurui for a similarly cerebral female-led high-stakes drama, or, if shonen is your thing, Mirai Nikki for another obsessed tsundere psycho-in-pink.

"Did they make the pedophile a cute girl so she's harder to hate?"

This is a real quote from a friend of mine when I asked her opinion on the show. After watching it, I'm certain the answer is yes.

Happy Sugar Life is one of those shows that markets itself as a complex psychological story about nuanced characters who are undoubtedly bad people yet still manage to curry sympathy with the audience for how the story digs into them as characters. It is also one of those shows that uses that veneer as an excuse to avoid criticism for its true nature.

The protagonist of Happy Sugar ... Life is a bad person. She is "in love" with a prepubescent girl she is keeping in her house. She kills people who get in the way of her romance with this child. Yet her attachment to this girl is never, ever sexual in nature (and in fact, she *condemns* molesting underage kids in the very first episode) and all things considered, the young girl seems happy and the people she kills tend to deserve it. Her scenes with the young girl she's holding hostage are framed in a way that would invoke feelings of moe (what with all the happy music and shoujo sparkles), not fear.

HSL thinks itself to be a nuanced story about complex people, but really it's a "love story" that took way too much inspiration from Mirai Nikki. It loves its characters too much to actually condemn them. The relationship between the young girl and the pedophile might not be “right” per say, but it's tragic that their poor circumstances led to this relationship where remarkably they both genuinely love each other and are happy and no one is getting hurt (except the outsiders trying to stop this, of course). It’s sad and tragic that this genuine love blossomed in a place it’s not supposed to. You know, genuine love, between a teenager and an eight year old. Because an eight year old can clearly discern what real love is while romantic music plays in the background. She can clearly make adult decisions about what she wants for herself. It’s fine because their relationship isn’t sexual. Isn’t it so sad that that happened, even if it wasn’t “right”? Isn’t it a beautiful love in its own fucked up way? Don't *you* want a cute, pink-haired yandere girlfriend who will kill for you?

And the character design doesn't only serve to make the supposed "villain" easier to like. It also makes it way less scary. Blood and gore aside, pedophilia is scarier when you're reminded that pedophiles are people who look like you. This would be way more unsettling if these characters looked like people and not anime girls.

It never outwardly pretends that the actions of this adorable anime murderer are “good,” technically, but if you pay attention to the attitude that the narrative seems to hold and you'll realize it is way too genuinely attached to her to make her a villain worth anything because it's afraid you won't like her.

And I'm not saying that it's impossible to make a pedophile character who is still sympathetic and complex. In fact, I think other shows that are actually good have done it well (such as Revolutionary Girl Utena or Chainsaw Man). I *am* saying that you have to be detached enough from the character so that your clear love for them doesn't get in the way of making them a villain who is truly interesting. It's interesting when a despicable character is still sympathetic, but HSL is too afraid to make its favorite lolicon truly despicable.

And it's not just her. Pretty much every character, main or not, is also a pedophile with few exceptions. That's just ridiculous. Ever heard of the concept "too bleak, stopped caring"? It pretty much loses all tension when every single character is also like this. What are the stakes? Why should I root for anything?

There's another character who is obsessed with the little girl because he was raped by an older woman and is now afraid of them; even girls his own age can freak him out. So, he thinks loving this very young girl is going to make him "clean" again. This would also be interesting if they weren't afraid to make him actually hurt children, just like with our protagonist, but no, his creepy obsession never actually results in harm. This was just a huge missed opportunity because his rape trauma is taken very seriously, and it actually managed to stir up some sympathy in me because of how broken he was over it (although I can’t give it too much credit; he was intentionally designed with a lot of moe appeal as shortcuts to audience compassion, what with how he wears hair clips and uses boku) but they forgo any attempts at actually making him truly complex because they chickened out at the last minute. He's a pedophile but he can't be *too* much of a pedophile because then you might not like him. Again, they did the exact same thing with the main character. It's a pattern. The show loves its characters too much to make them actually complex. They're afraid making the characters too evil will make them less likable, but it has the opposite effect on me.

(By the way, this guy ends up getting raped again by another woman for like, no reason. Christ)

The only ones who actually molest people are the side characters, who usually end up at odds with our main character. And our "hero" taking down other pedophiles while also being one herself could be an interesting bit of psychology if the story weren't afraid to make her actually commit sex crimes like the pedophiles she's at odds with tend to do. Because between her and them, someone clearly has the moral high ground and it's not the actual rapists.

She's not complex. She's not nuanced. She's not evil enough to be any of those things. She's a pedophile but they're too afraid to make her actually molest children because that's *too* complex. You're supposed to love her in spite of her bad actions because of her pain and trauma rather than loving her because of her bad actions which make her an interesting character. Because this is a love story, after all. This is about how she and an eight year old girl are in genuine love with each other, even though she’s a bad person.

Just commit and make her a full-on child molester, coward.