Happy Sugar Life

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.

This anime scared the shit out of me like how Mahou Shoujo Site was, but thankfully it didn't try to be as edgy AF, but im my opinion, Happy Sugar Life is at heart a psychological horror yet decent drama-based show that I'm actually quite contented (and secretly excited...?) to see what mysteries and miseries does this series put us through the overall setting.

Happy Sugar Life follows its aforementioned manga adaptation (which is fully caught up at the time of this review), and shows us the "love" of a broken high school girl (Matsuzaka Satou) and her victim of a broken yet naive understanding, Shio ... Koube. The title of the show is very misleading (just like Asobi Asobase, only more darker and sinister), but it creates a good context for all of the characters who are broken and/or blind-sided in many ways:

Matsuzaka Satou, the pink-haired Yandere, voiced by the goddess Hana Kanazawa (and damn does she ever do a great job defining Satou's character). Spoilt out of love in her own family, which consists of her brain-washed of a wreck aunt, Satou has been mislead growing up, and asking about the concoction of love, to which her aunt shows her that love is everything of pleasure and desires, if she so wishes. And to that, her own experience of messing around and sleeping with boys serve as the catalyst of "Do I really want to keep this love?", and to that, her own heart is like a sweet, sweet jar, the happiness-filled jar that was once full is shattered into pieces, and in order to retain her love, she'll stop at nothing to make sure that she sees this towards the end.

The Koube family, of Shio and Asahi. Ah...the family conflict, someone gets drunk and accuses the significant other of upbringing the children in a bad way. Both characters have suffered under the demise of their wrecking ball of a father, so much so that the only link holding them both is their mum, to which her sanity could not be contained further, and Shio was kicked out of the house, abandoned by her mum. It was then and there that Satou found her and their Happy Sugar Life starts from there, maintaining the love jar and filling with sweet memories, while naïve that Satou didn't kidnap nor harm her in the process, and strives to protect Satou in her weakest. The brother however, is kinda of a bad brother, as both him and Shio part ways to help their mum survive, and now he's back to take her home, with the realism that Satou "kidnapped" her for her own pleasure. A hidden character always that doesn't stand out, he is left to fend for himself.

Satou's workmate and close friend, Taiyou Mitsuboshi the pedophile and Shouko Hida, the friend who promises of kept secrets and wants the best for everyone. For Taiyou himself, I don't really need to explain his character because it is what it is: his madly-deeply driven forbidden love for children that he's pretty much a psychopath and a lunatic at that, often taken advantage of in precarious situations. Shouko on the other hand, is pretty much a barebones character who often plays the best-close friend troupe, always concerning for others and helping them in need. If you haven't been paying close attention much, she is the ONLY sane character out of everyone, until her demise in Satou's vicious hands calls out her presence to save those still in the trap of trauma.

Don't think for a millisecond that you're watching this show just to shit trash on it, its characters will turn you upside down to the point of misconception and stunning acting.

Newcomer studio Ezo'la's art and animation really was off-putting to say the least, but for the balance between the real world and the various horror scenes that enclosed the vibes from the manga, it was a pretty good adaptation overall. For once, there were a lot of things going for it, such as the art degradation towards the comic feel (such as the static screens of horror) and the psychological aspect which plays a big part into making this series feel like reality that hits us in the face when we least expected it. The unique feel for the new studio just blew my mind at how the staff directorials punch in what is arguably the best part of the show: the unsteady visuals.

The music is also another area that best explicits the foreshadowing of the series to come. Many scenes with the horror vibes are actually used at the correct moments of storytelling in time, and not just for show. Just like Asobi Asobase (yet again, musically), the OST was a definite surprise for me as both the OP and ED nailed at whatever exposition the series storyline has going for it. Not to mention that the ED presents ReoNa's debut single, and its heart-warming tonality makes it the perfect ending IMO (and one of the best EDs of the season).

Happy Sugar Life, we knew ye, we kinda understand ye. Horror is very subjective, that pertains to your own tastes of how you see it. As for personal takeaway, the real world complications exemplify the need for all of us to have the sense of the "Happy Sugar Life" jar in our hearts, even when bogged down by trauma. It's the same with trying to understand someone's life and what they have went through that culminates the core hypocrisy of all men, and this series did that for me.

So unless you have an affinity of finding out what your Happy Sugar Life is, watch this show to find out (and it's a recommendation too), ONLY if you're a sane person. (And yes, I'm definitely still sane after this).

This was pretty dreadful. Sure it was creepy you can like that stuff, but unlike decent anime I've watched that do give you chills like Higurashi, this was shock value. Pure shock value. It had no weight to it and it was incredibly boring and plain, besides the scenes where she goes scary yandere, I was SO surprised(sarcasm). You never feared that she was going to get caught, she had nothing to lose besides her precious loli that we all knew she would just end up murdering everyone for. Many of the characters were an eyesore, the art had no special qualities, it was stable ... but that was all.

Characters: They characters were SHIT. Ok, so the loli girl(Shio), was alright. She had what looked like a mental disorder which can explain a few of her actions and made me genuinely sad when I saw her being mistreated. And then, we have our MC. Satou. She was incredibly fucked up, which is not a bad thing in general, but all we see is an emotionless husk walking around, unless she's with Shio, or protecting her. I know there can be Villain Protagonists, but I at least want to see her get what she deserves every now and then. She can literally get away with EVERYTHING, because the police in this world don't give a shit. She has no personality, and even though it's supposed to be a don't judge a book by its cover kind of series, when she's happy, she's cardboard. When she's angry, she's copy and paste yandere girl. She never is really approached with a challenge, and when she is, she has to refrain herself from MURDERING PEOPLE as a solution. Her relationship with Shio is a love relationship, but I'm not sure if it's a romantic relationship or platonic which gives me an uncomfortable thought every now and then. The fact that she could be in love with a girl who's acts under 10 is unsettling. Asahi is a generally good guy looking for his sister Shio, but from what I've seen, is probably going to be killed for wanting her in the first place(just saying). And then literally, everyone else has some sort of edgy backstory and poorly written mental disorder as a plot device, so they will go after Shio/Satou, and Satou will have a 'justified' reason to kill them, or look like a total badass beating them up. Satou is actually a bit likable, with her intense love for Shio, how she's willing to work hard day and night to provide for the both of them, that brought a smile to my face.

Story: Ah, where do I begin? There are many questions that never seemed to be answered or given an excuse. This makes the writing seem lazy and boring. Even certain characters are brought up just so that they can get in Satou's way, for example the creepy teacher masochist who wanted to molest her, or a generally good guy who wanted to find Shio, his smaller sister. The police are never fucking useful in this world, they practically only exist when needed, and from what I've heard so far, they're only used once. They seem to used the abused backstory card, as Satou is somehow justified of her behavior because her (Spoiler) not gonna say their name** taught her a twisted love. Sure this explains her actions but doesnt justify them. I can't say Satou is even on the same page as the world she's in, she gets away with everything and the story doesn't care because it's supposed to send chills down your spine. I had to use the 'anime logic card' because it was so incredibly stupid. Every time our MC is about to kill someone, it's just boom, there dead. We never truly cared about what was happening, because nothing made sense. The concept of kidnapping out of love isn't unique, and is dealt with poorly, because all Satou has to do is to place a lock on the door from the outside, and done! Our blind loli hostage can't escape. No I don't mean the girl is physically blind but just taken advantage over. The story throws happy moments out of nowhere being hooked on the creepy on the inside happy on the outside that it feels really out of character. For example, when she's jealous because Asahi had said vows to Shio, she's goes a little insane, which is acceptable. But then she just goes happy go lucky because it apparently means her love for Shio makes her jealous, and mentally thanks her for that. It didn't evoke any emotion out of me because the story just puts it in my lap and waits for me to go, "Awwww, cute!".

Art: The art was ok, the opening was the best example of what was supposed to look like a simple moe theme. But for the rest of the show, the characters look half-baked besides Satou who literally looks like a carbon copy of Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki. The backgrounds seemed like any other basic anime, and Satou's apartment has no character in it whatsoever. Even in the place they sleep there is no desk with textbooks to describe that Satou is a student, no toys or anything to convey that Shio is a child. Their apartment has no character, and is plain and an eyesore. There is actually one overview shot of Satou sitting at a table in a room, and I can't even tell what room it is in because there was literally nothing else but Satou, a chair, and a table. It could have been anywhere. When Satou goes crazy however, it has a decent art effect on her eyes which in my opinion, makes her look cool, rather than scary and insane. The art also does a good job portraying their struggle for money, as Shio's meals look just enough to fill her hunger, and are not overly polished. Her character design also do a good job on displaying a small child and an average teenager.

Sound: The sound was pretty decent. The songs were average, she being pretty bland, but the OST was actually ok. There's nothing remarkable but there was something.

Enjoyment: I didn't really enjoy it from an analytical standpoint but I did enjoy it when I turn my brain off. Watching Satou nearly murdering people got me excited and seeing the two live happily day to day was heart warming. Unless I looked into it further, I always would see Satou as a cool intelligent schoolgirl who would kick ass. But as soon as I looked deeper, it all went downhill.

Overall: If you don't care about story and character elements, jump right in, enjoy the shock value. But if you've already seen some messed up creepy horror anime that had genuinely scared you, you might have second doubts, this could be just a boring anime with lame action scenes. If you can't turn your brain off, then just find a better show, the characters are hardly enjoyable and the story has lots of giant, gaping plot holes.

I was very close to dropping this show come the 7th episode. I felt so frustrated around the halfway mark. This show tries waay to hard to be one of those "its not what it appears to be on the surface" kinda material shows. At first the artwork and character designs drew me in but the amount of pandering to try to seem "edgy" and "dark" is making me want to quit. Literally every character is deranged in some way or another which makes it infuriating to watch. I'll end up finishing it anyway, but at this point its not for enjoyment. Hopefully some questions ... get answered before its over.

How far would you go for happiness?

Happy Sugar Life is not for everyone. If you have problems watching pedophilia, sexual harassment, murder and psycho characters searching for love in their own concept, this is not for you. However, if you're tired of happy predictable stuff, and you want to feel real tension, fear, while thinking about how much love can challenge your principles and moral, I suggest you give it a try.

The Story focus on Satou Matsuzaka, an empty girl who is seeking love to fulfill her soul. Although she can't find it in the boys she hang out, she finds it in an abandoned ... little girl, named Shio Koube, that she keeps ilegally in her apartment. You can wrongly think she is a pedophile, but there is no sexual content between these two. It is just pure, unlabelled and reciprocal love. Satou's craziness is in counter-position of her love for Shio.

Most of characters are not normal. In contrast, we have Asahi Koube, a sympathetic guy who is looking desperately for his little sister. His dream is pretty simple: to have a normal life with his mom and sister. And besides we have Shouko Hida, who loves Satou and want to be closer to her.

What I most like in this work of art is the emotional conflict. We will see very cute scenes of love between Satou and Shio while feeling sorry for Asahi. Personally, I couldn't ignore Asahi's fight for finding his sister and make his dream come true. My principles says Shio has to go with her brother. However, my heart wants Shio and Satou to be together, after seeing how much they suffered before and how much they love each other now. The fact of Shio being a child is irrelevant, since there is no sexual content. But of course, each person will have a different point of view.

Plus, we'll want to know how far would Satou go to protect her happy sugar life with Shio. We don't know how much violent she can be or with whom. We only know she is a psycho who is willing to eliminate anyone who interferes in their precious love relationship. Each episode leaves a mystery, that will be explained later, and it is so unpredictable and full of tension...

And so we have a story which involves a series of domestic abuse, violence, sexual harassment, child abandoning, etc. Each of these twists the mind of the characters pushing them to do stuff. But this is where it becomes beautiful. What these crazy people search for is LOVE, the innocent love they were denied from their parents who beat them or the innocent love that is taken away by a slutty abusive woman. And the desire for love can have consequences, dark and disturbing consequences.

Happy sugar life is not gore. The director wisely chose to focus on what happens instead of gushing blood everywhere. It is psychological horror, afterall.

This anime reminds us that bad things can happen in the world. Unfortunately, for some people, the bad things happen in their own homes. It reminds us of all those taboo subjects we are aware of, but we're afraid to talk about.

This will be my first and last review on this godforsaken site. This review will contain spoilers (obviously) but it doesn't matter because you shouldn't fucking waste your time with this. I don't know how many drugs the directors or producers were on when they approved of this flaming piece of shit garbage but as soon as I finished Happy Sugar Life it just... spoke volumes. First, let's start with the story. If you don't know how I feel about it already, IT'S SHIT.
They introduce us to a lovely view of an apartment complex on fire, panning to the main characters which consists of ... a cute pink-haired girl, looks like she goes to high school or something, y' know, the typical. And a goddamn, I don't know how to explain this while dancing around it so I'll say it outright, A FUCKING TODDLER. Pink haired bitch spouts some bullshit over how she doesn't know what love is, who cares and then this 8-year-old girl she was holding pushes her off the burning building and end of the epilogue. Transition and you're thrown into presumably the past before someone commits arson and you're holding a child. This highschooler, Satou, being asked out by some background character. Obviously, she rejects him cause she's better than anyone else, obviously, she's the main character how could she ever be near those peasants. She’s called down by a friend and or coworker (you don’t know by that point) and she heads to work with her. Same bullshit about love comes up again, this friend asks why she rejects everyone they come in contact with and she responds with “because she already have a ‘love’ at home” which in your mind you’re just like “Oh man! Hope it isn’t that toddler she was holding earlier haha! (spoilers: it is)”. Dumb work montage. Whatever. She heads home and she is just tackled by this child. At first, you gather context clues. Earlier she stated that she was living with her aunt, maybe she’s her little cousin? Which rules out completely because uh hello where’s the aunt??? Maybe, This is a very tragic story where something bad happened and that’s her child? No, couldn’t be because she would have probably mentioned it by now, right? Before you think “Oh little sister!”, This show doesn’t waste any time in showing them kiss. Now you know what this is. Something that will definitely get you in jail. A. Goddamn. Eight. Year. Old. Kissing. A. Highschooler. They’re not related in any way. I tried denying it since I saw them kiss. It only got worse from there. What makes it worse is that they kissed. While reciting wedding vows. What the fuck. Anyway. The rest of the episode is her being treated badly by this boss of hers because she wants to work for this kid, she snaps whatever, get this guy she was working with out of this boss’s closet because she was definitely doing illegal stuff to him and apparently scares her enough to fuck off and give her money. I don’t remember very well going on top of my head so I’ll just talk about what else I remember. This goes on for like 2 episodes. She goes home. Commits an actual crime by being in love with a fucking child. Goes to school. She finds out her teacher obsessed with her. Somehow scares him enough for him to do her bidding because she’s so intimidating and she’s doing this for her child lover. Shit like that. The usual. Find out she murdered someone or just multiple people? Like it was supposed to phase the viewer. Wow! I’m sorry I’m just gonna break character and say what the fuck why do people like this anime. Why is it rated to highly. It’s so fucking bad. What the fuck. So predictable in every way. And very fucking disgusting lol. Anyway. I’ve only grown tired writing this out. The same coworker Satou saved turns out to be a fucking pedo as well and Is in love with this toddler too because she helped him get out of this traumatizing state he was in since he was basically assaulted by his boss. He only found out about her because Shio, the toddler, has an older brother who is looking for her. For some reason, he just didn’t go to the police to report her missing because fuck adults I guess. The “fuck adults” mindset is a big thing in this story, by the way. It’s almost like the author was projecting so hard that he wanted to kidnap and diddle kids so bad that he just hated adults since they were, I don’t know, adults. Uh, the coworker Satou has was actually her best friend? The friend she’s been with for a long time who she tells everything to but suddenly stopped when she “got a boyfriend” aka kidnap a child. Her name is Shouko. She’s actually one of the normal characters of this story. She gets worried, tries to talk to Satou, Satou says fuck you and basically walks away. They show that Shio and her brother Asahi were actually abused by their father. Shio and her mother run away while they left Asahi behind. The mother only came back to actually kill the father so Asahi could come back to her and Shio. But when Asahi does come by, His mother informs him that she, filled with grief, left Shio in an alley because she was a bad mom. Yeah. That’s the situation put bluntly. All you need to know after that is Satou killed a guy for a spare apartment, made her teacher burn the body parts, Satou’s aunt is weird. She didn’t abuse Satou at all. She was just very… weird. She had a kink of just getting beaten, I guess. Satou just turned out like that because she was just so obsessed with love and she found love by kidnapping a little girl. Normal stuff! By the end, Shouko finds out about Satou hiding this missing girl since she was helping out Asahi. Asahi and Shouko had a forced romance cause why not ya know. Satou has one of her breakdowns and basically kills Shouko. Then she “marries” Shio. At first, Shio started remembering how she got there and actually yelled at Satou for using her for her sick fantasies but then she suddenly reverses that character development and she wants to be with Satou for all eternity. Dictionary would call that Stockholm Syndrome but why should I say anything. Satou confesses that she killed someone to Shio and Shio is just okay with it? I already stated that this author is using this as an outlet to just say “HEY! I WANT TO FUCK KIDS!” but clearly he or she doesn’t know how kids act in general. They should, I dunno, seek medical help. I am so tired of this shit. Continuing, Satou tells her aunt she also killed someone and the aunt is very supportive and helps Satou out. In the montage, (yes there’s one of those here for whatever reason) and this is just a personal pet peeve, Satou is clearly shown to be disgusted by her Aunt when it was completely unjustified when she is literally helping her get out of where they live and run off with this kidnapped child? At least be more appreciative, cunt. I really hate Satou Matsuzaka. Back to the story, Asahi finds out where Shio is because his lover who he doesn’t know was killed took a picture of Shio and Satou just hugging outside and sent it to him. Which is why she was killed. Uh, Satou and Shio try to get out, Asahi is there, They run back to the elevator. Satou’s aunt starts committing arson for her niece and burns up the whole row where Satou and Shio were living. That’s right, ARSON. But you probably aren’t surprised, this shit is already fucked. Shio and Satou head to the top of the apartment complex, But Asahi followed them so, fuck you. They argue, Asahi holds back since Satou makes him think He’s hurting his little sister. Shio herself just tells him to fuck off. He gets sad, tries to get her again by convincing her that her mom and he loves her and she needs her family more than anything. She considers it, but Satou books it with her. Asahi is left with just a damaged lung since he was in smoke the whole time, the fire is getting on top. Satou and Shio decide to kill themselves, while falling, Satou says “ill see you in the afterlife” and uses herself as a pillow to save Shio. Honestly. I wanted the ending to be like "My mother abandoned me so I'LL ABANDON YOU TOO (PUSH)" from Shio finally realizing what this is. and I really wanted it to happen. But what Satou did worked, I guess, kinda. It shows the news covering what happened. Satou and Shouko were found dead. Satou’s aunt was arrested for arson. Satou’s teacher was arrested. Her coworker that was left traumatized was, left traumatized again. Asahi was shown carrying flowers to the hospital, Shio in the hospital bed, She tells him to fuck off and that she doesn’t want love cause she has already experienced it while she holds Satou’s ring and bow.
The end! Wonderful ending huh? This was so pathetic. What I’m trying to say is, don’t watch this. It isn’t good. It shouldn’t be compared to other psychological horror anime. Wasn’t even scary. This was a 12-year-old from Deviantart wet dream who’s into shipping creepypasta characters. Plus a little pedophile sprinkled in. The story was horrendous. Characters average. Sound average. Although, I liked the opening. The only good thing about this is the opening. The art of the opening is very good. That’s the only positive thing I can say about this. Don’t watch this. Please. I beg of you. Whoever enjoyed this, seek help.

All’s fair in love and war. It’s an expression that I’ve heard a million times. It’s so cliche that I kind of just take it for granted. The idea that anything is permissible if you do it for love seems fair enough on the surface. I never really questioned the validity of that cliche until I watched Happy Sugar Life. All’s fair in love and war feels like it should be right, but if I really think about it I start to run into some problems. What sort of actions truly are permissible in the pursuit or defence of love? If two loves are competing ... with each other then which one is just? Do the reasons or justifications behind someone’s feelings of love matter or is the love defensible regardless? Happy Sugar Life explores all these questions and it does so while maintaining a high entertainment value. The moral questions present themselves naturally in the show through the interesting and compelling actions of the characters and how they conflict with each other. The artstyle of the show helps to enhance the themes, especially the general feeling of dread that persists throughout. Overall, Happy Sugar Life puts my thoughts and feelings in conflict with each other. While I might think certain actions are universally wrong I end up feeling like they are justified in the specific events of the show because they are done for love.

Happy Sugar Life is about a pink haired psycho bitch (Satou) who abducts an innocent cute little blue haired girl (Shio) and basically uses her as an emotional support animal. On the surface it might seem like Satou and Shio have a shallow relationship but due to their past traumas we can see that isn’t the case. The relationship between Satou and Shio is by far the most emotionally substantive relationship that either one has ever experienced in their lives. Their relationship can accurately be described as “love.”

Satou has spent most of her life up until this point trying to find out what love is. Satou was orphaned as a child and ended up living with her Aunt who is an extreme pleasure seeker. Satou’s Aunt’s concept of love is very twisted and extreme. She pursues love through means of physical pleasure. This has lead to her becoming damaged, both physically and mentally. Satou’s Aunt’s pursuit of pleasure transcends any sort of common sense. She seeks physical love despite any cost, happily accepting beatings from random men.

Because of Satou’s upbringing she didn’t have a good understanding of love. Satou ended up spending a lot of time engaging in sexual relationships with men however she did not derive pleasure from these relationships. The relationships were very shallow and focused in physical pleasure only, this did not satisfy Satou’s deep rooted emotional needs. Satou tolerated these shallow sexual relationships because they offered her a place to spend the night at a time when she was trying to escape her Aunt’s putrid apartment. Satou was alone in the world and had to use her own wits to survive.

Unlike Satou, Shio could not survive on her own. Shio is an innocent cute young girl who is filled with boundless energy and a childlike optimism that is cheerful and inspiring. Despite all that, she was treated terribly by her mother. Shio’s Mother was heavily abused and the trauma from the abuse lead to her becoming extremely paranoid and eventually hostile towards Shio. She ended up abandoning Shio on the street, running away her responsibilities as a mother, leaving Shio alone to suffer.

On the night that Shio was abandoned she ended up being found by Satou. Satou took her in. Shio’s presence had a calming effect on Satou. Satou was experiencing a happiness like she never had before. Perhaps she didn’t yet realize that this feeling was love. Satou’s boyfriend at the time had never seen her so emotionally satisfied before. As his extreme jealousy of Shio boiled over, he attempted to strangle her to death. This lead to Satou committing her first murder.

Satou’s first murder was defensive in nature. It wasn’t premeditated, it was simply a spontaneous and necessary action to defend Shio. Unfortunately this murder would lead Satou down an irreversible path, where anything to protect Shio is permitted.

This is the point that the first episode starts at. Our first introduction of Satou and Shio is of them living alone together in secret. Satou goes to school during the day and works in the evening. She puts on a facade to get through the day. Shio stays home alone in their heavily locked apartment. When Satou returns at the end of the evening she is greeted warmly by Shio and they spend the night together. Satou is shown to be completely obsessed with Shio. Every action she takes is for the purposes of protecting her status quo situation with Shio. When other people threaten to interfere with Satou’s lifestyle, whether intentionally or not, she deals with them decisively. She uses various immoral tactics including deception, blackmail, and even murder. These tactics are relatively successful when dealing with isolated incidents. For example in the early episodes we see Satou successfully quashing love confessions, coercing her boss into actually paying her properly, and turning an attempted rapist into her loyal errand boy. Unfortunately these isolated successes don’t prepare her for what’s coming next; a focused effort from Shio’s brother (Asahi) to find Shio.

Asahi’s persistent search for Shio serves as Satou’s biggest threat. From Asahi’s perspective, Shio is a missing child. He searches tirelessly for her. He has a weak disposition and is often ignored, and even beaten, when trying to pass out flyers. Asahi presents the major moral conflict of the show. Is Satou right to be holding the custody of Shio? Through Asahi we see that there are people who care about Shio. It becomes clear that Satou is not in the right for hiding Shio from the rest of the world. Although Satou’s intentions to protect Shio might be good they are having unintended consequences.

Shio in not mentally stable. While Satou is out and about all day, Shio stays alone in their apartment. Shio is shown to have an unclear memory, distorted due to the trauma she faced. Shio is shown drawing an effigy of her mother on a closet wall despite repressing memories of her. Shio’s mental instability is heightened when she is alone.

Shio’s situation touches on some moral conflicts. Shio is clearly better off with Satou than she was with her mother. Satou provides a motherly presence for Shio that her actual mother did not. However Satou isn’t capable of healing all of Shio’s wounds, and there are even some that she doesn’t know about. Is Shio truly better off being with Satou? Would Shio be better off with her brother or some other caring guardian? Is Satou’s protection of Shio a selfless act to protect Shio or a selfish act to satisfy her own needs and desires? These aren’t easy questions to answer and that’s part of what makes them so compelling.

The moral conflicts of Happy Sugar Life are very interesting and they make me want to think. However, thoughtful and difficult moral questions do not make an anime good by themselves. The art of Happy Sugar Life add a lot to the emotional element of the show. Below, I will discuss some of my favourite motifs and symbols that forced me to feel.

One of the main visual motifs and symbols is the jar full of candy. This jar is shown in varying states. Sometimes the jar is full of candy and the characters eat from it. Sometimes the jar is spilled and the candy is absent. The symbolism here is obvious but powerful. The candy represents the positive emotions associated with the concept of a “Happy Sugar Life.” The jar represents the capacity to maintain these positive emotions. It’s important to note that the jar is made of fragile glass. The characters need to put in a concerted effort to maintain the wholeness of their jar. Even if the jar is completely empty and devoid of candy the presence of the jar itself is evidence that the capacity for a “Happy Sugar Life” still remains. Satou has to work to make sure her jar remains intact. She doesn’t want to end up like her Aunt, whose jar is described as being broken, which can help explain her bizarre behaviour and general insanity.

Every night Shio and Satou perform a wedding ceremony. Shio drapes a white bed sheet over Satou’s head as a veil and they recite matrimonial vows. This nightly ritual serves not only as an affirmation of their love for each other but also as an act of purification for Satou, who uses morally questionable tactics to maintain her status quo relationship with Shio on a daily basis.

During a particularly brutal and emotional scene, Satou ends up with scars on the back of her hand. The scars are left as the last attempted resistance of one of Satou’s murder victims. The scars on Satou’s hands serve as a reminder to Satou of the lengths that she has gone to to preserve her secret relationship with Shio. They are simultaneously a reminder of her regrets and of her conviction. The scars reminded me of the “damned spot” that stains the hands of Lady Macbeth. After feeling guilt and regret about her decision to commit murder, Lady Macbeth hallucinates a blood stain on her hands. She cries “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” as she frantically tries and fails to wash the imaginary blood from her hands. Satou does not react to her hand’s scars in same way as Lady Macbeth but the similarity between the two remains. They both have an uncleanable permanent stain on their hands. One that appeared there due to their own decisions and actions. One that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Throughout the entire show the art is underscored by this unsettling and horrifying theme of contrast. When Satou and Shio are alone together the colours are bright and vivid. The presentation seems happy and carefree similar to something from a cute girls slice of life anime. But unlike those cute girls shows, the happy artstyle here is chilling due to the stark contrast with the rest of the show. The rest of the show has a very drab artstyle which is a lot more in line with the darker and more morbid themes of the show. This contrast between happy and carefree with drab and morbid is what makes the show horrifying for me. This contrast makes everything unsettling. The parts that are happy and carefree feel like they are on an island, surrounded by violent waves of morbidity. The happy parts feel like they don’t belong and they feel like they could be swallowed up by the ocean of morbidity at any time. The characters act in ways that corroborate this theme which helps to enhance its effect. Satou is cold and calculating when she is in the outside world but when she is alone in her apartment with Shio she is warm and loving and kind. A lot of Satou’s actions can be viewed as her protecting Shio from the cruel outside world.

Overall I think the art direction does a great job at complimenting the themes of the story. The symbols and motifs are quite potent and the general tone and style of the art helps accentuate dark themes and makes dramatic moments more impactful. The actual themes themselves delve into deep moral questions. The moral questions are not forced down the audience’s throat but rather they present themselves naturally through the interesting and compelling actions of the characters and the conflicts they have with each other.

Happy Sugar Life had an interesting effect on me. While individual actions by Satou are pretty clearly objectively reprehensible I still end up with this feeling like she isn’t wrong. This conflict between my thoughts and my feelings is at the core of why I like this show. This show took a character who does bad things for an arguably unjustifiable motive and it made me like her. Satou is damaged and flawed and I really think that I shouldn’t support her but I can’t help it. Her fight just feels right to me because she is fighting for love. So while “all’s fair in love and war” can be picked apart with logical arguments, it still just feels right. Maybe not everything is fair in the pursuit or defence of love but in Satou’s case I feel like she is good. And if I’ve learned anything from this show, it’s that good things are worth fighting for.

This was a messy pile of trash.

Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki is back everybody, except this time she is a kidnapping pedophile (well I guess she was a kidnapper already). In this mix of horror, shitty writing, and an overload of edge we follow Satou and Shio, the Yuno and victim respectively as they try to avoid any and all uneccasary contact with people other than themselves. What makes this edgy though? The fact that we can't go two minutes in the first three episodes without encountering, a new pedophile, blood/murder, obscured mental trauma, rape and related thoughts, and the most important one, kidnapping. All ... of this comes together to make a laughably over the top horror setting, that was executed very poorly. Next we just add the shitty writing and bam, Happy Sugar Life.

Plot - I basically already described the basic plot which I'm sad to admit is probably the best part of this show. Edginess runs rampant as Yuno Gasai has to keep her loli confined like an unused pokemon. That's about it. The show does get more fucked up though and tries to give the characters some backstory and even incorporate some philosophy. However it all goes down to drain since whoever wrote this is straight incompetent. Only good backsotry goes to the loli who was abused by her family, and she is the not-fucked up character who somehow has the worst backstory. The show plays with the question "what does it mean to love someone". Thankfully the show gives us an answer: completely controlling who you love like a dog. Thanks for the great philosophy that was injected into every piece of dialogue in the show as if we didn't know already.

Characters - Now this is the fun part. Pedophile #1, Pedophile #2, Pedophile #3, Pedophile #4, Pedophile #5, loli, and ONLY 2 normal people. Well you've now seen all there is to see for characters, move along. Jokes aside, these characters were horrible and yes, there really were 5 pedophiles in the show. Every character is a shitty, cringy edge fest trying to hard and there is also a loli with an annoying voice actress. The only way I see the characters being good, is if the viewer doesn't have any problems with pedophilia. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one to be against the idea of an eighteen year old kidnapping a five year old and trying to marry it. Who knows? I'm also not a fan of seeing a pedophilic Yuno Gasai clone, an already shitty character. Her name is Satou and she even has pink hair! There is also a dude who is a rape victim but instead of seeking counseling, turns into a pedophile himself and begins to literally drool over the probably hundreds of missing person posters of Shio. Great character writing I know. As for the loli, there isn't anything particularly wrong with her, but she's just a loli with an annoying voice actress so who really cares. The two normal people don't have anything going for them either. They're the only not edgy characters, but they also don't have much of a personality either. I think the worst character would have to be Satou, the Yuno Gasai clone I mentioned earlier. The show has the need to constantly remind the audience that she loves a child and is crazy, as if we didn't know already. Her backstory is also so basic, her aunt took poor care of her, Big deal. I have a cousin like that but they do't go around kidnapping children. The characters are some of the worst I've seen if not the worst. This show feels like a joke but I unfortunately know it isn't.

Aesthetics (art, animation, sound) - Sound was pretty basic, not much else to say. The animation though, damn. The whole budget was put into the opening theme. Everything else looks like shit. I remember a scene where a kid was punched by his father in a flashback and the hand straight up missed but the kid fell over anyway. Only fun part of the show was that. The art style is basic and not as cheery as I think the director's could've made it.

All-in-all, this show was horrible. Poor character writing, constant edginess, and pedophilia take presedence over an actual story and results in the shitfest known as: Mirai Nikki 2 - without future diaries. Thanks for reading and for the love of all things, don't watch if you aren't a sex offender.

Happy Sugar Life is a show where all the human beings are sick and suffer more than anyone else in the city. I consider the story a bit exaggerated. Also, I cannot understand how some can highly praise the series after criticizing Eromanga sensei, Citrus, School Days to name some.

For example, several spectators cannot stand Citrus' assault. However, they can accept a teenager that has committed murder and locks a young girl of no more 6 – 8 years old in an apartment. They accept many other cases of abuse and assault portrayed in this series. Additionally, the series introduces the denigrations of society ... but in a way where almost all the cast is ill and pervert under the flag “that is love.” I forgot the pedophilia references but it is not a taboo in this anime in comparison with other series. The audience accepts it because the series has the psychological, horror and shounen tag. In my case, I only have a word for this, incoherence. In this fantastic world, all the antisocials, ill persons, demons, converged. I think the author forgot recreating some demonic ritual to add more emotion to the plot.

The plot 4/10

The plot is very easy to follow and too fantastic to digest it. We have a little girl called Shio, who is the center of all the story. She has a rough past but irradiates the purity of a young person free of any illness of the evil world, and she is a beacon of hope. One day a teenager, Satou, finds her and magically fallen in love with her (it is called a psychological twist…no, it is called incoherence). However, Satou that felt empty now is a complete person and will do everything in her hand to be with her beloved, but the deprivations of the world already contaminated her mind, and Satou’s actions are total madness and too fantastic to be accepted. The rest of the story is a rollercoaster where the author adds more and more suffering to entertain the audience and several bitten it. Ironically as it looks, in this unreal story, the little girl knows and understands the meaning of love more than the rest of the cast, and I consider it an interesting outcome. For me, the plot fluctuates from average to acceptable with some minor high peaks at the end. Also, the lack of reality in a psychological narrative is a huge mistake because some will interpret the plot as absurd and comical. One of the most important factors in horror and psychological thrill is the reality contrasted with the unreality, but this show is unreality contrasted with unreality the result is a series with some useless scenes where the characters are wasted and distorts the plot development.

The characters 5/10

Almost all the characters are generic. Yes, the face and the madness is interesting, but almost ALL the characters are the same. They are ill silhouettes with a different perversion or suffering. Only two of them have a credible background the rest are a pit of emotional sickness. One positive point is how the author maintained Shio’s personality. She is the most mature character in a nest of failed characters (Mitsuboshi) and wasted ones (spoiler). Also, she is the character that has a healthy progression, but for her age, some can think that it is a sci-fi achievement. On the other hand, the relation between Shio and Satou gives the impression of a relationship between a mother and a child, but in the last episodes, the relationship has a significant evolution that could have appeared early in the middle of the story.

The art and the sound 7/10

The series creates a normal contrast between a colorful world and the pervert and sick one. However, that variation is basic in any horror and psychological film or series. Also, there is good camera management. Sadly, some parts of the art are rough and are not finished correctly. Some angles are very ugly and with wrong proportions.

The sound and the OST are normal. The OP is a mix of soft and hard sounds to create the sensation between good and mad.

The verdict is very simple; you should skip this show if you cannot handle an inconsistent plot, pedophilia, and irrealistic horror treatment because you could end complaining of the outcome.


Extra information
Season rank 337 (246 points) in Japan

Too often people confuse perversion and degeneracy with a demarcation of intrigue. This anime in particular deals with plenty of themes that stray from the path of God including homosexuality, killing, affairs, pedophilia, probably rape, but so what? In the end it doesn't make any sense.

If I had to guess the train molestor manga artist who came up with this story was trying to convey the idea that people are all fucked up by writing in characters who lead somewhat normal lives with an intense perverted quirk about them, like BnH for pedophiles. I don't think it works, their backstories aren't fleshed out ... enough to derive a definitive conclusion at this point, but from what I've seen up to episode 5 is that their deviancy doesn't come from strong enough of a place.

The formula thus far has been to introduce another freak in each episode and you have a too many cooks in the kitchen situation that could be seen as a interesting and interwoven plot but none of that matters because from the set up you can already see the ending. The mystery box fails to contain its self and the plot is tracked on a cliched line where all the twists were noticed from the end of the first episode.

Also there is no real suspense each episode follows the same basic punches, you get a cliff hanger moment that gets resolved with no consequences, then the "sweet" portion, then they introduce another degenerate, then there is the "bitter" portion which ends with a cliff hanger that gets resolved immediately in the next episode.

Anytime there is momentum it gets immediately torn away and you get 15 minutes of boring daily shit that has no purpose seemingly, all the resolutions are nonsensical like the author didn't think of them before introducing the problem and just needed to submit some shit before the deadline. I guess I'm just trudging along at this point because the original premise was interesting but this anime actually just sucks.


4/10

TL;DR: Built on an unrealistic setting, but turns out pretty well

People usually have different perspectives on a subject whether this is right or wrong, good or bad? In Happy Sugar Life, this subject of matter is greatly reflected, whether in the anime community or inside the story. Generally speaking, people think this anime is trying to hard to be edgy. However, this anime isn't a straight edgy anime, which gives you a lot of death or violent scenes. This anime is kinda dark in another way around on the characters conflicts and the atmosphere, which is better than most dark anime in my opinion.

+Great ... character interactions
+Descriptive character stories
+Interesting story followed by mysteries
+The atmosphere is kinda well-built

-Slow paced
-the plot is built on an unrealistic setting

To begin with, this story is built on an unrealistic setting, which may bother someone around. Like "Satou love a little girl called Shio and Satou's aunt is sick", but let me tell you, this anime is intended to be like this because it's supposed to be a dark anime and like I mentioned just now, this anime is better than most dark anime, because Happy Sugar Life isn't built on death scenes. If you are sick with dark anime, which gives you violent scenes directly. This is an anime for you, so why would Happy Sugar Life being called as a dark anime? This is because the atmosphere is built on characters solely. The relationship built up is based on some wrong perspectives or past events. The reason why Satou like Shio and they love each other is mainly because of their tragic stories and they found their own love, although in general public we think they're definitely wrong, but I think this is what the writer want to reflect on. This anime doesn't need many violent scenes, as it's already more than enough.

The characters' stories are presented pretty perfectly, it explains well on their tragic events about their childhood and why would the main characters conclude with this kind of relationship from the scratch till the ending. Including the side characters, they all have their own aims and thoughts, which lately on resulting in large conflicts and it's pretty amazing. The inner feelings of the characters are done really well, like they asked themselves whether this kind of action is right or not. It's pretty interesting. For those who hate dark twisting anime in general, they wouldn't appreciate this anime in this kind of way, as they already dislike the setting in general, so you should consider on your preference whether you would accept this kind of storytelling or not.

The only issue I have in this anime is it's kinda slow-paced, as it solely focus on the characters, the plot doesn't really move, it can be the whole episode talking about characters' inner feelings and past events, while the present events don't really move a lot, which someone may feel bored occasionally for people who are looking for thrilling events, but it doesn't affect much to the storytelling, as I generally enjoy what I have watched from Happy Sugar Life.

In short, Happy Sugar Life isn't a typical dark anime, it's a dark anime built on characters relationships, what this anime is lacking of is the pace control, which I think personally this anime could insert more story events, but if thinking from the characters aspect, this anime has already done more than enough. The journey is enjoyable and interesting.

I think the animation is done pretty great, it fits the dark elements pretty well with gloomy textures and shadowing, but the character designs look kinda identical, same eyes drawings, similar face shapes, maybe it's because of the authors' style preferences, but personally I think they could make it a little bit different, so that each character looks more unique. The sound effects are done pretty good, many background music and sound effects are used. Though, I think they could insert more throughout the scenes and events. The op and ed gives me the feeling of the dark atmosphere, which are pretty well-themed. Voice actors are pretty awesome too, Hanazawa Kana is in this anime voicing as Satou, which anime fans can't miss this out.

If you are sick of the ordinary dark anime, this is a refreshing option to you, but if you dislike dark anime in general, you shouldn't consider this anime, because this anime is built on an unrealistic setting that you may bother with. Whether you agree with my points or not, it's up to you, but I just want to tell you that this anime is great in my opinion, that's all.

Story: 8/10 (A)
Animation: 8/10 (A)
Sound: 8.5/10 (A+)
Characters: 9/10 (S)
Enjoyment: 8/10 (A)
Overall: 8.3/10 (A)

Where do I even start. (I will be posting some spoilers throughout so keep that in mind if you read on.)

Happy Sugar Life was an anime of the 2018 Summer Season that caught my attention in the first couple of episodes. It was something that gave me almost School Days like vibes with the way it presented itself. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as I am one of the fans of how that series portrayed itself as almost a deconstruction of the harem genre.

This however, crumbled into a real mess as the show progressed and I put it on the back burner as I ... wasn't really enthralled to watch the series. The first couple of episodes were pretty good and set an initial tone to the show which I actually enjoyed. Seeing Satou and her "Yandere" moments early on were some of the interesting moments of the show.

I'll section this into categories from here.

Story: 3/10

As I said, the initial couple of episodes were actually pretty decent and set a dark tone without going overboard on the whole creepy side. As the show continued it became a series with very little substance. If I had to name it, you could almost call it Stockholm Syndrome the anime. Shio is essentially under house arrest by Satou and locked away from the outside world all day until she comes home. She is so naive that she doesn't seem to notice anything wrong with this situation for a good long time. Just when you think she is going to rebel against Satou because of this, she then reverts and accepts everything, even the fact that Satou has killed someone in the apartment while she was there. The best character and the main source of reason was easily Shoko who provides moments of normalcy throughout the plot. However when she is killed off for what almost feels like shock value after triggering so many death flags, the story becomes damn near ridiculous. The finale was honestly something I was looking forward to as I was genuinely hoping for Satou to truly suffer for the pain and anguish she had caused the rest of the cast. Instead she got hit once and was able to die the happiest she has ever been. At least School Days has a satisfying conclusion in comparison and he got what he deserved. Satou did far worse than Makoto ever did and she got so much more leniency. The final scene with Shio was genuinely creepy and it feels like Satou had managed to perform one last despicable act in screwing up someone else's concept of love to the point where it will probably hurt others as she did herself.

Art: 4/10

The art was fairly bland and certainly nothing special. The expressions were pretty good but outside of that there was nothing of particular note. I was watching it on stream and the scenes with black and white scrawlings over the screen played hell with the buffering. I understand why they were there but they felt lazy. Add to the fact that most of the anime was still frames, it made it feel half-assed and lazy. Almost like they were hoping the shock value of the plot would cover up any discrepancies.

Sound: 4/10

There were no stand out moments in the soundtrack. The OP and ED were fine but certainly nothing special. Certainly not on my download list or anything like that.

Character: 4/10

This is probably the main point of contention as this was the focus of the anime all in. Character traits were taken to extreme levels to the point of being totally unbelievable.
Satou couldn't find love until she kidnapped an elementary school loli who just happened to smile nicely and hold her hand.
Shio is honestly hard to make heads nor tails of. She was essentially Satou's prisoner for weeks/months and eventually rejected everyone else just because Satou "loved" her. Watching her turn against her brother in the final episode was honestly rage inducing.
Taiyou was downright creepy and as much as I find lolis cute, this guy was one step off plucking a child off a playground just to sniff her hair. It was distressful to watch and his fate was one I didn't mind as it honestly served him right.
Shoko as I said was the main saving grace of the show and kept some semblance of common sense throughout the characters during any time she was on screen. Her interactions with Asahi were honestly the highlight of the show and I won't deny there had to have been a ship out there for them among the fanbase.
Asahi was the real tragedy of this whole series. He spends his life trying to reunite his family and goes from getting the crap beat out of him by random guys he meets to being rejected by his sister after finally finding her. I genuinely felt for him as the plot was so against him for the whole show.

Enjoyment: 5/10

It was fun, in a cringy way, the first couple of episodes were nice and interesting to watch, however as the show progressed I found it harder and harder to enjoy as things kept getting more screwed up. Seeing another "fingernail" scene reminiscent of Higurashi was absolutely horrifying for me and I found it very difficult to maintain my focus on the show for the remainder of that episode. I would have enjoyed it more had the series had a satisfying payoff but sadly it didn't deliver.

Overall: 4/10

So yeah we got a show with rage inducing moments like School Days, however this doesn't have nearly as memorable an ending as the former and will no doubt fall into obscurity like a lot other "horror" anime. It's a shame too as it had potential at the start.

It's kind of pointless to review this anime, as you'll either love it or hate it no matter what I can say. However, I still find it disturbing people not only enjoy this series, but even defend it not as an amusing trainwreck, but some kind of genuine masterpiece. I seriously tried to see any of the redeeming qualities people are writing about... And they're just not there.

This series is not a good psychological anime. All characters are absurd, obnoxious caricatures that you can't relate to or be genuinely intrigued by. Hida is maybe the only exception – I actually somewhat bought her behaviour (it ... was nearly human-like!) and her demise was quite gruelling. And that was literally the only moment this series caused any other emotion than disgust with how dumb it is.

This series is not a comedy. Calling it such gives it way too much credit: it might be comically over-the-top, but I saw no hints it doesn't treat itself dead-seriously and the way is was exaggerated was obnoxious rather than funny.

This series does not have a good story. It actually barely has one – it's a slightly-disguised slasher movie plot with pseudo-psychological mumble on top of it. Until the literally last two episodes, the only plot progression is people you don't give a shit about dying for stupid reasons.

The one thing is potentially has going for it is the visual and sound gimmicks – basically different forms of distortions symbolising traumas and repressed memories. There are some unusual switches in perspective and "experimental" sequences. I could even enjoy some of them if the story and characters weren't this pathetic.

Of course, it's a relatively high-budget production, so it sounds and looks quite good. The actual content, however, is empty at best and offensively stupid most of the time. And unlike the shows I could consider "so bad they're good", it has the audacity to pretend it's about something and has some kind of message. And that's the kind of trash that particularly deserves being called out.

Story is well designed.

But I hate the way this anime aestheticises `relationships` between main heroines. Men are shown as sick pedophiles, but main heroine is not. Matsuzaka Satou is shown as a villain, but authors sympathise this bitch on her way to ruin the life and personality of much younger Shio. If you think that Matsuzaka is not sick as she is also kid, you loose your site of the fact that Matsuzaka is much more older than Shio and have more opportunities in life, is much more educated and has power over her. Actually Satou leaves no chance for Shio to grow up ... the normal way and develop, recieve proper education. Yes, Satou is traumatised, but almost all the other characters are traumatised too and that differenses in representation are so appaling.

The `love` of main heroines is as horrible thing as `love` of Shio`s brother or that pedo teacher or aunt. All disgraceful ways to show off the feellings of characters are shown in right way but not Matsuzaka`s. And that`s a fatal mistake of perverted anime producers as `relationships`between Shio and Satou is the main theme of this anime.

a anime about a bunch of pedos trying to see who can get into the pants of some small innocent girl first. None of the characters are likable and it tries to be really edgy and shocking but ultimately fails and looks like something I'd see on flip note in 2009 on DeviantArt. I'm baffled how people even like this anime and just compare it to something like Elfen Lied. The only thing I'm glad about is how the start of the show does that dumb "End before Start" scene so I know how the fucking thing ends.
TLDR: waste of time

Warning: This anime only appeals to very certain audiences. I am one of those. So when I first saw the cover and title of this anime I ignored it bc it seemed like a shitty SoL cutesy kids show. But I finally got curious and read its summary and holy shit I was dead wrong. Basically there's this Highschool girl named Satou who fell in love with this abadoned little girl and took her in. That little girl faced trauma and lost a bunch of memories (I believe). Satou then decides to protect her whatever the cost, ... even if it means committing a crime or killing someone.

This anime has probably not a single normal character and i'm not even kidding. There's probably one mentally sane person in this whole anime. The MC is a yandere yuri pedophile. The little girl has ptsd, some other weird mental issues, and stockholm syndrome ig. There's a blonde who is a pedophile. There's the little girl's older brother who goes crazy when his father dies and some other weird shit. There's a teacher who's a masochistic creep. In short no one is normal and it's absolutely amazing. The MC is p smart and finds ways to deal with threats to her everyday life with discreet tactics. When she goes yandere mode it is just so exciting and intense. The music, art, and sound effects makes it so much better. The art in this anime at times can be so cute and fluffy while at other times will be very scary, horrific, and eerie. Each episode is a thriller with introductions of new fucked up characters that each have a role in the anime.

One critic of this anime i see from many people is how unreasonable the MC is at times and it pisses them off. I do have to agree to a certain extent there, she definitely goes too far despite not needing to all for the sake of "just in case". Also biggest critic: the ending absolutely sucks. It was a horrible way to end it and it also made absolutely made no sense whatsoever and did not close any areas that needed closure.

I rate this anime a 9/10 because I absolutely loved it. This anime is definitely not for everyone but I still highly recommend. This would be good for someone who wants to see a really fucked up anime and if you're gonna watch it I suggest not taking it too seriously but anyways yeah that's it.

After reading the synopsis about a psychopathic murderous lesbian pedophile loli girl who is in a relationship with a 4 year old child. My first reaction is.

Yea..no..yea..no..yeaaa!

Happy sugar life is the new addition this season that currently have only 6 episode released as of this moment. And I already watched them all.

The main character Matsuzaka Satou, voiced by Hanazawa, Kana is a freshman highschooler that works at a cafe to finance her life with Shio Koube a 4 year old child(approx).

Story revolves how she maintains a nice appearance with people around her at school and work until her relationship with Shio Koube gets challenged. And ... yeah shit will hit the fan.

What would a psycho do out of pure love? Every scene would appear to be predictable but the very intricate execution of the feelings of the character and how it's drawn and presented makes it feel really unique and stimulating. And the moments of what she called happy sugar life brings out a different aura on the scenes that makes it refreshing.

The darkness of the plot will keep you glued in anxiety hoping that everything would work out but obviously wouldn't. And the kind of questions that arouses every episode will keep me hanging and waiting for more to come.

Overall this is a very unique genre and obviously not for everyone. But if you enjoy dark plots with a twist of eye gouging and pedo kissing then this is for you.

The only problem I have is that it feels like everyone here has a mental disorder but yeah I still enjoyed the show.

No one in the world is an absolute saint or perfect, there are some sides to people you just don't know...

Happy Sugar Life looks one such person wanting as much sweet happiness but her "methods" and "ideals" are not exactly right.

Satou Matsuzaka voiced by Kana Hanazawa is that person when she found Shio Koube voiced by Misaki Kuno and the key word here being "FOUND". See Satou is someone who has a corrupted view on what love is as she never knew what love is and her experiencing love in the real world had been fruitless to say the least until she found that happiness, ... that sugar that fills her jar that being Shio and she'll do ANYTHING to keep her secret life, secret from everyone. The thing the majority of the cast have a screw loose, deriving from their desires in some of the more extreme ways, such as Daichi Mitaumekawa voiced by Kaito Ishikawa, a womanizer, even though he's married and has children but he wants that "thrill" of not getting caught and the pleasure of it all which his drives lustful desires, Taiyou Mitsuboshi is also one though not at first, wanting to be pure through Shio due to his extreme phobia of older woman and like Satou will do anything to see Shio.

If Happy Sugar Life is telling anything is looking into society and how it expects everyone to be "normal" but sometimes people wants to break away from that conformity and find their own "happiness" their own way and sure some of these characters are unhinged to the point of absurdity but the thing is, LA thinks some of these cases of madness some of these characters go through have some level of relatability towards them especially looking at Satou's views on happiness and love (of course not her...killy killy side).

Happy Sugar Life at a first glance looks like something you'd stay far away from it's premise especially with Satou and Shio's relationship but diving deeper into Satou's mindset as well as what it's other unhinged minor characters brings us to the table, Happy Sugar Life is more or less telling of what it takes to gain your happiness and what the lengths people will do to keep that "happiness" from disappearing. Yeah and the thing is if you think Shio is all pure due to her being a kid...well think again, by the end of the anime, LA thought that they SHOULD be together considering how fucked up both of them were, almost like society itself has pushed them to be together and all the more better for that in LA's opinion. The only two characters LA thought had some semblance of normalcy were Shouko Hida voiced by Aya Suzaki, Satou's friend and colleague at work as well as Asahi Koube voiced by Yumiri Hanamori, Shio's older brother who's looking for her, but the only one to succumb and get batshit insane became Asahi, almost becoming his own worst nightmare as to what HE was trying to achieve in order to do it.

The animation done by Ezo'la was actually pretty good, from the character designs to the typical background work, but where Ezo'la's animation shines is in it's psychological take on Satou and Shio's mindset and how they visualize as it gets into some very creepy and psychologically damaging visuals and considering the viewpoint and narrative focus is mainly on Satou, the animation work done to visualize her psyche was amazingly done well, be it the symbolism of her "sweets jar" or how her psyche gets more and more corrupted as Satou does increasingly irredeemable things is telling of how the good animation is on that front. Ezo'la really outdid themselves really.

In terms of voice acting, well we have LOTS of playing against the type roles, from the first one LA can think of being Yumiri Hanamori crossdressing role as Asahi Koube to Aya Suzaki as Shouko in a fairly laid back role (where she was usually typecasted into a genki role). MVP's easily goes to Kana Hanazawa as she easily holds this anime from her cutezy moe vocals and instantly change to a menacing, bloodlustful murderer the next, Misaki Kuno was amazing as well, in doing sure, some of her typical typecasted roles, but this time as an unhinged and psychologically damaged little girl that is more than she seems, as considering she had the same amount of screentime as Kana Hanazawa, Miskai Kuno had some great chemistry with Kana in the process, lastly would be Yumiri Hanamori, no not only because of her crossdressing roles but how much of a "playing against the type" role she played as Asahi, both appearance AND personality wise as to how he was near the end of the anime, how she HAMMED it up to acceptable levels. Happy Sugar Life really casted some great voice actors into Happy Sugar Life and really got them out of their comfort zone (well maybe except Kana Hanazawa) and it bloody shows through it's entire cast!

Happy Sugar Life is an invariably deep look into "happiness" to the most extreme degree and how people will do to get it. Satou and Shio's relationship is the focal point of this entire anime and the relationship itself is point of contention to Satou and Shio both as characters, Satou for her corrupted views on happiness and her will and devotion to get it no matter to the point of murder, Shio with her family backstory and how she got to where she was and sure at first being oblivious to what is going on, but soon showing that not even Shio isn't as pure as she is though not of her own volition as it shows that even society can poison the most purest people. But nonetheless Happy Sugar Life's view on society of how people thinking everyone is pure is an outright lie, that people deep down have corruption hidden in them and sure Happy Sugar Life shows this to the extreme but Happy Sugar Life' social commentary of this is nothing but impactful at large when concerning Satou and Shio's relationship and how society shuns their happiness, be it for not "being normal and conform" or individuals wanting to steal their happiness away. Really LA was expecting much more of a gorefest from Happy Sugar Life, but LA got more of a psychological dive into a mind of person who wants nothing more than happiness in ANY ways possible to get it and by all means Happy Sugar Life delivered it with conviction and great execution (no pun intended) to display it, Happy Sugar Life was crazy, psychotic and psychologically relatable hell of a ride and LA loved every moment of it...

LA's jar feels empty now since Happy Sugar Life finished..LA needs more sweets...

I watched this anime thinking it would be something good and scary, sadly i was dissapointed, the characters are super bland to the point after finishing the anime i forgot all their names, it tries to be deep but not knowing how to be deep, the main character is stupidly perfect compared to the rest of the characters, she is pretty and people always like her for some reason despite having no personality

the animation is.. okay, the op looks like a fan made animation more than an actual op, the art style is generic.

i didnt enjoy this anime, it feels fetishistic on many topics, like ... children being kidnapped, children in general, how the character feels things for her. it doesnt do a good job at any deep topic it tries to touch

This animation is the first and last one that has given me more psychological horror than what I can see with my own eyes, leading to a significant case of PTSD.

The background settings for the characters and the resulting storyline were very appropriate and provided ample coherence. What I particularly liked about this animation was the excellent portrayal of the emotions of each character. There were several moments while watching the animation that gave me goosebumps, especially in key scenes where the appropriate background music and special effects were unparalleled. Furthermore, the spine-chilling performances of the voice actors suited this animation perfectly and made it ... even more immersive.

Although there may be a slight loss of coherence in the story due to some omitted details towards the end, it's worth considering that the original manga delves deeper into these aspects, so if you enjoyed this animation, it might be worth checking out the manga to fill in those gaps.