Happy Sugar Life Review

Satou & the Sugar Girl

Happy Sugar Life (ハッピーシュガーライフ) is a shoujo ai (girls’ love) and psychological horror series. Those are two genres that you don’t typically see together. But, Happy Sugar Life attempts to combine them. And, I say “attempts” because I don’t think it did a good job.

I’ll get to my complaints about the series toward the end of this review. Before we get to that, though, what’s this anime actually about? What is a happy sugar life? At its core, it’s about the love between two girls. But, there’s a lot more to it than that.

It’s also very much about broken people. Almost every character in the series is broken in some way. And, the different ways in which these characters are broken are what bring them together. Some come together to support each other. And others come together opposing each other.

Our two main characters are Satou Matsuzaka and Shio Koube. These girls both suffered from family and abandonment issues. And, that’s exactly what brought them together. Satou has been searching for a healthy love, and in Shio, she found that. Shio has been without a stable home her entire life, and with Satou, she found that, too.

But, what’s a bit unique about Happy Sugar Life is that none of the characters are “fixable.” Yes, Satou and Shio have each other now. But, that doesn’t mean their past trauma is gone. All they’re really doing is helping each other cope.

So, I still haven’t answered the second question I posed. What is a happy sugar life? This is what Satou is seeking. It’s what she calls a life without all the unpleasant things she doesn’t want to think about. Her life at home with Shio is the happy sugar life she wants to protect.

Everyone Except Shouko Sucks

Shouko Hida, Satou’s best friend, is the only character in the series who isn’t broken in some way. I already mentioned why Satou and Shio are broken. But, there’s more to say about how being broken affects their lives.

Shio has a fear of going outside. When she was younger, her mother punished her for doing so. And, her mother also abandoned her outside. But, that works out perfectly for Satou, who doesn’t want Shio to leave their apartment. You see, Shio is a young girl and Satou is kind of her kidnapper.

If anyone found out that Shio was living with Satou, it could be a problem. So, to protect her happy sugar life, Satou goes to increasing extremes. She has no issues blackmailing, physically harming, or even killing. As long as it means keeping Shio all to herself, Satou will do anything.

I mentioned that Shio is a young girl — like elementary school age. I also mentioned this is a shoujo ai series. So, yes, Satou is a high schooler in love with a small child. And, this is a recurring theme in the series. Satou isn’t the only pedophile around.

One of Satou’s bosses who assaulted high schooler Taiyou Mitsuboshi fits this description. And, later in the series, Satou’s aunt does the same thing to Taiyou. There’s also Satou’s teacher, Daichi Kimaumekawa who’s obsessed with being dominated by Satou. And, there’s Taiyou Mitsuboshi, the aforementioned victim. He also has an unhealthy obsession with Shio.

Not every broken character has an attraction to children, though. Most do, sure. But, there’s also Sumire Miyazaki, Satou’s kouhai who wants to become her. And, there’s Asahi Koube, Shio’s older brother. He believes that reuniting with Shio will somehow fix their broken family and his life.

The Third Quarter Was Decent

My biggest complaint isn’t the fact that so many characters in the series are pedophiles. It’s the fact that the series tries to be extremely edgy. Of course, the pedophile characters are part of that. But, there’s more that goes into it.

Happy Sugar Life reminds me a lot of Angels of Death, which actually aired during the same season back in 2018. The entire point of both series is to be edgy. And, because of that, they’re pretty cringe, as well. But, I’d say Happy Sugar Life is the worse of the two.

The first half of this series didn’t have much in terms of redeeming qualities. It was all about setting up how terrible and broken all of the characters are. But then, the third quarter of the series gave me some hope. It brought the mystery aspect of the series back into the spotlight.

From the very start of Happy Sugar Life, we knew that Satou had a dark secret. There were bloody trash bags stowed away in a locked room of her apartment. And, we didn’t know what was in them. The implication was that these were the remains of her aunt.

However, I never thought that was the case. And it’s a good thing I didn’t because it turned out to be wrong. I assumed these were the remains of Shio’s mother. My guess was that Satou killed her and assumed her role as Shio’s caretaker.

But, that was also wrong. I’m not going to say whose remains were in the bags because you can watch the series for yourself. But, this is also the point in the series when things begin unraveling for Satou. That was fun to watch until all the edgy action happened at the end.

Happy Sugar Life: 4/10

I don’t think Happy Sugar Life is a good anime. It had some interesting stuff going on with the mystery surrounding Satou’s apartment. But, aside from that, it was bad. And that’s why I have to give it a 4/10. It would have been so much better if it focused more on the mystery than the “edginess.”

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