Happy Sugar Life

For as long as I’ve been watching anime, there has always been a considerable amount of the community who can find so much entertainment in shows which are “so bad, they’re good.” Whether it be the ostentatiously pandering fan service of shows like Eromanga Sensei, the immeasurably trite and gaudily derivative plot of shows like In Another World With My Smartphone, or the hysterically edgy situations in shows like Magical Girl Site, the community always seems to find something to enjoy in shows that are simply, undeniably, and blatantly trash. But as the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, and it lookslike I’ve found my treasure in the trash that is Happy Sugar Life. First and foremost, let me be clear with you this exact brand of trash was thrown aside just so a degenerate with the exact perversions as myself could crawl by and fish it out of the muddy gutter. If you aren’t messed up in the head in the exact same manner as I am, then you should stay as far away from this embarrassing train wreck of an anime as you possibly can, so I’ll just cut to the chase. If you don’t like yuri romance, age-gap romance, moe girls, lolis, or Stockholm Syndrome fetishism, then take your leave immediately for your own sanity’s good. This show is abjectly terrible, so just save yourself while you still can. But if you are into that shit, then let’s dive in. Happy Sugar Life is in the “horror comedy” genre of anime, anime which are technically horror thrillers, but anime which are so bombastically bad at being provocative they just become funny. Everyone and everything is comically over-the-top edgy for no reason. There’s murder, rape, extramarital affairs, any overused bullet point on the edge checklist gets checked. Everything looks ugly as sin, the animation is god awful, the character designs are beyond basic, the OST is either boring or actively unfitting, the cinematography is almost exclusively flat-panning shots with 70% of every episode being still frames, and I could honestly keep going because this is a bottom-of-the-barrel production from a nobody studio and staff which looks and runs terrifically bad. That said, the main character is a cute yandere girl with pink hair, buns, and is somehow voiced by Kana Hanazawa who is in love with an elementary school loli with whom she shares a home, bath, and bed. I am fucking sold. This show may as well be perfect. Watching this week by week was hysterical. The show is worst of the worst, but I got to be reminded there is a real show, actually being made in real life, which features a yuri age-gap romance about a psychotic sex-craved schoolgirl who murders and blackmails anyone who threatens to interrupt her life living with a loli she literally kidnaped and locked in her apartment. I don’t need to elaborate on the concept because only one single thing of note happened throughout the entire show, and I don’t think just because there’s a decent five minute scene at the end of episode nine you should go and watch the whole show, because the remaining two hundred and fifty nine minutes were pure garbage. Any mature person who happens to come across this review can see this show is nothing but mindless self indulgence, so if it sounds like something you can indulge in like I did, give it a watch. That’s it. Done. Ten out of ten, would watch again. Thank you for reading. I know my other reviews are more serious than this, but this show was just far too much for me to handle sober and with a straight face.

Happy Sugar Life (HSL) is a psychological horror about normal people being pushed to their limits. Throughout this show, contrasts are stressed and found in every way possible as I will be discussing throughout this review. Art 8/10: One of HSL's best attributes. Studio Ezόla has opted for a pretty basic art style for this Anime. The surroundings or backgrounds are simple, but never feels fake or takes away from the original style, so no points deducted from that. This is the best example of where you can see contrasts being used. In happy or cheerful scenes, the colors used are extremely bright and sparkly. The colorscale also shifts more to red to give that "alive" and "warm" feeling. And on certain scenes the art turns extremely dark. The entire scene gets washed in a blue like hue to give of this "dead" and "cold" feeling. HSL also uses the "eyes are the windows to the soul" saying to its fullest. In some scenes, the eyes of the characters change drastically to reflect their inner struggles. Subtle things like the eyes giving of a burning sensation when the characters are engulfed in anger is a nice touch and is sometimes pretty hard to see unless you look carefully. There is almost never really on-screen violence in the Anime. The Anime uses visual hints as well accompanying sound effects to make you visualize those scenes for yourself. Which is what makes this Anime a truly psychological Anime. Sound 8/10: The Opening explores this contrasts theme a bit more. The OP begins with an innocent voice and a happy sounding tone. The Opening then switches to a more deep tone and the singer (Akari Nanawo) sings in a more intimidating tone. The Ending has an overall calm tone to help with pressure release and the end of the episode. The OST is subtle but effective, builds tension when it must and sets the overall tone for the scene when needed. In some stages the lack of an OST is also used to give a false sense of security to the viewer before taking you by surprise. The special insert song used in its respective episode was used to support the visual metaphor of the arc as well as support the feelings of the character the arc focuses on. Characters 9/10: The characters are all introduced as normal people. On the surface they all look trustworthy. All the characters are in respectable positions and are in some cases even idolized, but then their insanity meter gets turned up to 11 if they are pushed overboard. Contrasts are once again used here, down to the names of our two main characters, Satou (sugar) and Shio (salt). On the topic of names. The names of the characters all have a meaning to what they provided or represents in the Anime. If you are done watching the Anime I would recommend searching the meaning of their names. The characters feel real in the sense that they all have the inner struggles that we as humans are fighting everyday. The only part where this subtracts from realism is the fact that so many characters snap around the main character. Story 9/10: The story is pretty dark. Themes are explored which is not really that common in some Anime. Which once again brings it back to the contrasts. All of the characters are looking for their "Happy Sugar Life." Yet they don't see that by searching for this happiness they keep on leaving despair and once they find this “ideal” life, they are confused as to why they are not happy. The story intentionally makes you empathize with the main character. Which I would say is hard to do as if you take the character out and place them in the real world, this member would be hated. The story does a great job in making you root and care for a really repulsive being. The pacing is not something to complain about. Not too fast and not too slow. The ending was a bit abrupt and for many was a bit distasteful. Enjoyment 10/10: Why I liked it: The use of all the above discussed means to tell a pretty dark story was something I enjoyed a lot. The overall usage of contrasts was also something that I liked a lot. Studio Ezόla did a pretty fine job in their first Anime and I am looking forward to more of their work if they are to pursue more titles in the future. I have since then bought the Manga for this and the adaptation done by the Studio was pretty good. The ending was also fully original as the Manga stopped around episode 11. Why You might not like it: The story is not a Happy Sugar Life. It is a psychological horror that keeps you asking "Is this really OK?", "Are we the baddies?" and "Why am I rooting for this person?" Even though there is never really that much on-screen violence. The Anime keep hinting towards what happened and the means in which this violence occurred. The ending was for some a bit distasteful. The story is about a relationship between a child and a high-school student. I think those are the main reasons you would not like this Anime. I would also not recommend this as a first Anime for someone just starting out, unless they like Horror or similar shows to this. Overall 9/10: I was really impressed by this Anime. With a totally new Studio and a director which has only directed a few Anime in the past, my expectations for HSL was pretty low. But as the story progressed I could see the effort the director and the animators put in to make this first project a huge success in my opinion.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who didn’t know what love really is. She seemingly had no goals in life with a rootless understanding about love. Sleeping with guys and not truly knowing what her life is about, she didn’t know if there was a place to belong. Wondering around the end of abyss of life and not knowing who she can really be with. Then, a child appeared. An innocent child with a face full of life and sugar. Is this a chance to truly discover love? Is it a chance to live a happy sugar life? As a show that combines elementsof psychological horror, suspense, and thriller, Happy Sugar Life looked deceptive at first glance. Now I admit, I’m a bit of a sucker when it comes to shows where we have an anti-hero protagonist. I mean, the first episode speak for itself once you realize Matsuzaka Satou’s personality. She is essentially living a double life – one that is of a normal girl and other being overly obsessive of Shio Kobe. This devotion to Shio is so strong that she is willing to kill others to “protect” her from harm. In Satou's mind, being with Shio equates to happiness. Despite the complex nature of the plot, the setup of the story is actually very simple. We got Satou who pretty much takes Shio as a partner and isolates her in a place where she feels is safe. It’s an apartment that looks normal on the inside and outside until you realize there may be something much darker going on behind the scenes. The first few episodes is rather cryptic about Satou’s actions including parts where she takes questionable content in and out of the house. Meanwhile, there’s definitely character chemistry going on between Satou and Shio. The duo shares an innocent love chemistry and ritual-like marriage ceremonies on a frequent basis. On most parts, the show seems fluffy during those segments while masking the suspenseful thriller storytelling. Throughout the series, we discover just how far from normal Satou actually is. The show also makes it clear that she will go to any length to protect Shio even if it means murder. Anyone who is familiar with the term ‘yandere’ will easily dedicate her character as such. In essence, Satou is a complex character who sees her idea of love in a twisted way. Regardless of consequences, she will do anything to protect that love. This puts Shio on the opposite end of the spectrum as she is an innocent child. Despite that, she seems to adore Satou and always values their relationship. It’s the sort of child behavior you’d expect from this show. The more I watched Happy Sugar Life, the more I realized how this show depicts human behavior in some of the worst ways possible. Characters such as Taiyou displays borderline pedophile behavior towards Shio. Others such as Daichi and Satou’s aunt also demonstrate their psychological tendencies in several episodes. With the exception of Shio, only one other character came to my mind who I can say is normal. Her name would be Shouko Hida but I wouldn’t get attached to her easily. In fact, try to refrain from getting attached to most of the characters in this series because their real personalities are incredibly disturbing. Another reason is that some characters will not make it alive. I’m not going to mention it as it’s spoiler but let’s just say that death isn’t uncommon in the story. As the majority of the series adheres to psychological horror, it’s hard to really root for any single character. The characters Satou deals with are often evil as she is with some being even more twisted. However, I think some of her past can be sympathetic. Satou wasn’t born with evil intentions but events shaped her to become what she is now. The past explores her character in depth and there’s even one episode that explains how Satou ends up where she is now. Narratives in this series is incredibly important as it fishes out a character’s personality to the fullest. Satou is the primary example of this as we see a journey to understanding love in her words. There’s also a character named Asahi Koube in the show with a deep desire to reunite with Shio as a family. But unlike Satou, he doesn’t go to measures such as killing to achieve his happiness. It’s a bit sugarcoated but he is more of a hero than Satou will ever be. By the time you reach the conclusion of the first episode, I think it’ll become obvious whether or not it’s worth following this anime. Are you the type that love suspenseful horror? Do you favor a story with twisted inhumane characters? Do you want to see if characters such as Satou or Shio really find love in each other in the end? If these are some of the questions in mind, then definitely give this anime a shot. Otherwise, it’s going to be a sluggish ride as every episode builds more and more into the suspense. I personally find this anime unique in the sense that it isn’t truly deceptive yet always makes me anticipate on what to expect next. The character cast wants you to hate them and they succeed without jeopardizing the plot. And to me, that’s a feat that I admire. Like the title suggests, Happy Sugar Life has a sugary and sweet coloring to its animation style. Studio Ezo’la (one that I never heard of before until this series) bought out its ideas to fullest. It’s vibrant and full of life during moments when we see happiness. Then, there are those dark eerie scenes that brings out the horror of the story. It’s often moody especially in Satou’s apartment where questionable content lies in the dark. As you should expect, this show contains violence that includes murder. The TV version seems to have tone it down a bit as some of the graphic content is done behind the scenes rather than shown directly on screen. Satou is the main culprit of this but there are some other characters that commit sinful deeds. Oh and be prepared for some uncomfortable scenes from the main cast. Taiyou is a guy that I deeply regret watching for his pedophilic tendencies. Good God, erase him from the show. Other character expressions in the series are disturbing to watch such as with Satou’s red predatory eyes or her aunt’s mentally unstable behavior. The light in the dark tunnel is Shio as she brings in sugar, spice, and everything nice. If you want psychology in this series, you need the characters to be convincing. Thanks to the modern talent of Kana Hanazawa, that is achieved. She’s known for a variety of heroine roles and to play a yandere in this series truly bought out her talent to full. Misaki Kuno is also able to step into the shoes of a child to portray her character’s innocence. The theme songs contain an upbeat mood that contrasts with the tone of the show. It’s very playful and bubbly while the ED theme contains a more melodramatic feeling. Happy Sugar Life tells the tale of love that isn’t the typical romantic story you’re familiar with. Instead, it crafts psychological horror with a cast of degenerate characters. There are some that you’ll find to be abominations of our society. Yet, this series is far from an abomination. It’s a psychological horror done right with a clear set of intentions at its heart and soul.

-THIS IS MY FIRST EVER REVIEW ON AN ANIME SO I APOLOGIZE IF THIS REVIEW ISN'T ENOUGH TO CONVINCE YOU TO WATCH THIS MASTERPIECE.- My Intro I have been a fan of psychological animes and mangas because it feels so unique when you watch this kind of genre. Happy Sugar Life is one of the best psychological anime that I have seen, I have never felt this best feeling since Mirai Nikki (This one's a pretty badass psychological anime too, recommended 10/10). STORY It's plot is pretty much the same with yandere animes (killing for the person you love, have different personalities, become merciless and be a beautiful andcute yandere character with a twisted mind) . The story is so good it will make you cry, of satisfaction of course, it ended beautifully and it has some mindfck scenes which will give you goosebumps for the whole 12 episodes. It's decent and beautiful. :) 10/10 ART The art style is cute as heck but turns demonic in the next second, it's pretty good and has a cute slice of (throat) life feels on it. It's good. 9/10 CHARACTERS Jesus! The characters bro, they are so damn unpredictable! Don't let their looks and personality fool you because it will change in a mere second. First, we have a pervert. Second, we have a lolicon. Third, we have a bisexual. Fourth, we have a dangerous MILF. Fifth, we have a depressed emo. Damn, HSL has it all! 8/10 OVERALL Please, just watch you will know immediately on what I'm trying to say here, just watch and enjoy it! It is WORTH IT! Recommended 10/10 My Outro Thanks for reading this poor review of mine, I know it does not suit your needs on an anime review but I tried my best for this at least. Thank you very much.