Happy Sugar Life: An In-Depth Review

Happy Sugar Life is an anime about obsession. Nearly every character is obsessed with something, believing it to be their source of happiness, their "Happy Sugar Life". However, their desires are often unhealthy, and end up harming others or even themselves. The story follows Satou, a highschool girl, who secretly lives in an apartment with a young girl called Shio. Believing Shio to be her first true love, Satou will do anything to ensure her "Happy Sugar Life" with Shio remains intact. This review contains heavy spoilers, so click here to skip to the spoiler-free summary.

STORY

The story is probably the weakest part of the show. The pacing is rather slow. The first half, while it is used to develop the characters, offers nearly nothing to the overarching plot of Asahi tracking down Shio. Some episodes are just Satou dealing with a new crazy character's shenanigans, such as episode 1 (the Manager), 2 (the Teacher), and 5 (the lesbian Coworker). I only really got excited for the story once Episode 9 hit, where Shoko's death providing Asahi key information was the beginning of the endgame.

Aside from slow pacing, there are some contrivances in the plot that if you think too much about, don't end up making much sense. For example, Satou's downfall was leaving her ring behind- but why did she take off the ring in the first place? Why the hell did Mitsuboshi-kun give into Shio's sock right after he went on about wanting to live a normal life? Or how did Shoko find Satou's apartment?*

*To be fair, this is explained in the manga as she asked the aunt.


THEMES

Asahi's obession for Shio

As described in the introduction, this is an anime about obsession. And I think it delivers that well thematically. Nearly all the characters, with the exception of Shio, have obsessions that lead to harming others or themselves. Satou wants to be with Shio at the cost of killing other people. Asahi wants to be reunited with Shio but doesn't take into account Shio's happiness with Satou. Taiyo wants Shio to purify him, but ends up coming off as a pedophile. To a less extreme degree, Shoko wants to help Satou, but pays the ultimate price for it.

Aside from obession, the anime does touch on the theme of love as well, embodied by Satou's love for Shio. Satou doesn't know what love is until she discovers the pure love Shio gives her. She believes her true love for Shio is romantic- hence the marriage vows and kiss on the lips- which are the first things you'd think of when you say "love". However, many of her actions are more like that of a mother- bathing with Shio, feeding her, playing with her. Ultimately she realizes what she had was a motherly love, and sacrifices herself for her at the end. Other types of love are explored too- sexual love (teacher), abusive love (aunt), friendship love (Shoko), etc.

CHARACTERS

To get the bad out of the way, I'll talk about the side characters. Some side characters, such as Kitaumekawa the teacher and Mitsuboshi the blonde coworker, are so exaggerated in how insane they are it becomes more comical than disturbing. It definitely doesn't feel real, and causes some scenes to lose any sense of seriousness. A good example is quite literally any scene with Mitsuboshi-kun in it, such as when he gives into Shio's sock. Furthermore, aside from Shoko and Asahi, the side characters lack proper development.

Dude you just said you were gonna live a normal life.

That aside, I believe the character writing really shines on the main character Satou with special mention to the side character Shoko.

Satou is a refreshing Yandere and also a well written character. In terms of being a Yandere, she is cool in stressful situations, always finds a way to verbally corner or manipulate her opponents, and never resorts to violence unless it is her last resort. Most Yanderes in anime are straight up psycho and don't think much before killing. Her relationship with Shoko also adds a lot of depth to her as a Yandere. She recognizes Shoko wants to help her. In turn, she wants to trust Shoko. But before that, she allows Shoko to meet her aunt as a test- whether Shoko will accept something this shocking. If Shokou can't, she definitely couldn't trust her with the fact that she has killed people. Unfortunately Shoko falters at this key moment, and when she tries to make up for it she pays the price. However, Satou shows remorse over killing her, seen when she bites her lip as she dresses her in episode 12. This shows that despite what Satou said about how she never felt anything towards her (episode 9), she indeed did care. More often than not Yanderes are cold blooded and show no remorse; but this is a rare exception.

In terms of being a character, Satou is a girl looking to understand love. She has had no parents to show her love, and her closest motherly figure is a masochistic whore aunt willing to take abuse from other people and call it a form of love. Hence Satou became promiscuous like her aunt, only to find no love in fooling around.

However, she finds what she believes to be true, pure love in Shio, which is definitely the closest we get to in the show when contrasted with the other characters she's met. Her love for Shio is the only obsession in the show that is not grossly sick and twisted. She never gives off any pedophilic vibes, and she does nothing sexual with Shio. She believes her love with Shio is romantic, hence the marriage vows and that one time they kissed on the lips, but her actions are more like a mother. She takes good care of her- bathing her, feeding her, playing with her.

Wholesome image of Shio and Satou

However, even her love is warped. Shio ends up being like a doll to her, as she points out in episode 10, only used to refresh Satou when she experiences the warped and twisted types of love in the outside world - those that she describes as "bitter". She needs her jar (heart) to be filled with the sweetness that is Shio's pure love for her. Furthermore, Satou doesn't tell her anything important, doesn't let her go outside, and only needs Shio to exist so she can be happy. While Satou shows genuine love for Shio, she is also subconsciously just using her- a selfish love. However after Satou realizes this, she discovers what true love is- it is selfless- so instead of a "romantic" double suicide in the ending, she chooses to sacrifice herself to save Shio.

Satou's sacrifice

I also like the character of Shokou, the only sane person in the entire cast. While it's easy to do this because all the other characters are batshit insane, I think her character arc played a more important role. She starts off being someone who wants to help Shokou after realizing she's been acting strange, but can't muster up the courage to do anything. Despite her words of wanting to help Shokou, when she's tested with meeting Satou's aunt, she ends up averting her eyes and fails. To be fair, this is a normal reaction when seeing something so unexpected. But even so, Shokou wants to try again, showing true love for Satou, but instead tragically dying to the one she wanted to help. While people may point out that if Shokou loved Satou she wouldn't have taken the picture and sent it, it is a moral obligation for her to do so (to help Asahi), just as killing Shoko is an obligation for Satou because she can't just let Shoko run free. Rest in Peace, best girl.

ANIMATION

While the animation quality isn't anything fantastic, it's not terrible either. Aside from Satou's character design, whose pink hair and buns plays into her "cute innocent girl" outer appearance, the rest of the character designs are alright, at least enough to tell them apart. The animation shines most in its use of visual tricks to convey emotion. Satou's glowing Yandere eyes, dark lighting, blood red backgrounds, and images of a static screen are used to build suspense and convey the dark mind of Satou. On the other hand, happy moments are conveyed using bright colors, sparkles, bubbles, images of candy- so over the top it becomes corny- but it works as a tool to convey the happiness Satou feels when she's around Shio. I also like the use of imagery- for example how a person's heart is a jar, Shio is the candy to fill Satou's jar, and Shoko is a canary (which are used to signal impending danger in coal mines- if the bird stops singing, there are poisonous gases).

Bubbles, sparkles and bright colors                                       Glowing eyes and dark lighting

SOUND

Similar to the animation quality, the soundtrack is not amazing, but it works. The rising violins, use of static sounds, periods of silence, vocal distortion are all used to build up suspense well enough. Also, props to Kana Hanazawa's great voice acting as Satou, balancing being a high pitched school girl and a low pitched psychopath.

The OP is also great at conveying the nature of the show. It initially sounds like a happy, energetic song but at 0:12 the guitar riff is distorted, almost sounding like an ambulance alarm, signalling danger. There are also parts of the song where the singing is softer and lower pitched (0:35 to 0:44), as if it were the paranoid muttering of Satou to herself. The song shifts between the distorted guitar riff and the upbeat singing, just like the constant mood swings Satou has when she goes psycho and when she's around Shio.

Canaria, the insert song at the end of Episode 9, is also a great song. It's a beautiful but sad song, conveying the heartfelt attempt of Shoko confronting Satou and her tragic failure in the end. Even the lyrics of the song reflect this: it describes a canary (Shoko) whose voice is like a light that pierces through a deep forest, only for the singer (Satou) to willingly look away from that light.

SUMMARY

While the anime suffers from slow pacing and some plot contrivances, there are many reasons why you should watch it. The main character Satou is a refreshing Yandere, with many qualities that deviate from the archetype, and a well written character. The themes of obsession and love are explored well using its characters. While the animation is average, its use of visual tricks to express emotion is smart. The OST, bar for its OP and insert songs, are nothing special but works to build suspense they need to. While some of the scenes in the show are unintentionally comedic, it nails its serious moments. In my opinion, it's a great psychological drama. 8/10.

-GaryMuffuginOak