It's very gory, despite the name this show is very disturbing and disgusting, but the show is very entertaining
16 Reviews
Must Be Watched to be Believed
robinsonaustin-0749021 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
So what anime is there that is probably more messed up than Citrus? Well, a recent anime that had come out is named Happy Sugar Life, which is anything but. I swear, out of a lot of the shows I had watched thus far this year, this show is without any doubt the most disturbing thing I had ever watched. Based on a psychological horror manga, Happy Sugar Life is about a high schooler named Sato Matsuzaka who puts on a façade of politeness when it comes to her work. Initially she was believed to have been pretty easy-going, claiming that she had relationships with millions of boys that she would often leave within a time frame of three days. So she didn't have a firm understanding on what true love really was. At least until she met someone who she immediately fell in love with and decided to live together with. Except that is not what you may think.
The first episode was something, I'll give it that. In it, Sato tries to find more work to support herself and her lover, so she comes upon a restaurant and meets a young man there named Mitsuboshi whom she rejected when he was asking her out. Things get even more weird when Sato is made to clean up at later hours, and Mitsuboshi seemingly vanishes, apparently still saddened by his rejection. At this point, it's not too hard to get the notion that the show has something sinister underneath the hood. Sato seems pretty normal at first glance, but then you get those moments where you can easily tell that something's going on up there. However, what the show actually ended up doing caught me off guard. As you may have guessed, Mitsuboshi actually didn't simply "disappear" because of him being heartbroken. No...the manager reveals that she had kidnapped him after hearing him profess his love for Sato, and so she keeps him in that cabinet of hers so she could do whatever she wanted with him to try to force him to love her. Sato becomes critical of the manager for doing something like that....except she isn't as innocent as she is trying to make herself out to be.
So, with that being said, who was the love of her life that she met one day and decided to live with? Surely he must be some tall, dark, and handsome mystery man. Except you'd be wrong to assume that as well. No, the person that Sato had met and fallen in love with is...a young girl appearing to be no less than 7. If you had vomited at that point, that's the natural response to learning something like this. As for how she ended up meeting this little girl named Shio...she kidnapped her. Yup, that's right ladies and gentlemen. Our protagonist is a blackmailer and a kidnapper (and potential pedophile), but that doesn't even begin to describe the ending where she opens a door revealing a bloodied weapon, and three bags indicating that she had not only kidnapped this young girl, but she also murdered the original person who owned that apartment. Worse, the first impression of both characters are them wearing what looks to be wedding rings whilst standing on a burning building....at the very least, there doesn't seem to be anything sexual regarding Sato's relationship with Shio, the way that she would describe her innocence really rubs one the wrong way.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the anime does try to make it clear that Sato has a couple of screws loose due to her experiences in her life growing up. In the manga, you know that her aunt slept around, so maybe some of that served to drastically warp what Sato conceives as true love. Even though it is hypocritical in a way because she gets onto the manager for kidnapping someone to get them to love her, when she herself kidnapped Shio, and while she may not be forceful with trying to make her love her, she is grooming her in a way to make her dependent on only her. But again it could be that the simple reason as to why Sato believes that she is in love with Shio is most likely because she never got to grow up normally. Sato looks very cute in the way her hair is styled and her mannerisms are sometimes cute, but because of her upbringing, she never left that way of thinking.
I do admit that I find the premise of the anime disgusting because it reeks of smut just for the sake of shocking readers of the manga. With Citrus at least it was the sexual assault and pseudo-incest, here, you get kidnapping, implied pedophilia, molestation, and all other inappropriate subject matter. I would not recommend seeing the anime due to the content, not even if you are innocently curious about it, but I won't take away the experience for you if you decide to watch it anyway despite my statements.
The first episode was something, I'll give it that. In it, Sato tries to find more work to support herself and her lover, so she comes upon a restaurant and meets a young man there named Mitsuboshi whom she rejected when he was asking her out. Things get even more weird when Sato is made to clean up at later hours, and Mitsuboshi seemingly vanishes, apparently still saddened by his rejection. At this point, it's not too hard to get the notion that the show has something sinister underneath the hood. Sato seems pretty normal at first glance, but then you get those moments where you can easily tell that something's going on up there. However, what the show actually ended up doing caught me off guard. As you may have guessed, Mitsuboshi actually didn't simply "disappear" because of him being heartbroken. No...the manager reveals that she had kidnapped him after hearing him profess his love for Sato, and so she keeps him in that cabinet of hers so she could do whatever she wanted with him to try to force him to love her. Sato becomes critical of the manager for doing something like that....except she isn't as innocent as she is trying to make herself out to be.
So, with that being said, who was the love of her life that she met one day and decided to live with? Surely he must be some tall, dark, and handsome mystery man. Except you'd be wrong to assume that as well. No, the person that Sato had met and fallen in love with is...a young girl appearing to be no less than 7. If you had vomited at that point, that's the natural response to learning something like this. As for how she ended up meeting this little girl named Shio...she kidnapped her. Yup, that's right ladies and gentlemen. Our protagonist is a blackmailer and a kidnapper (and potential pedophile), but that doesn't even begin to describe the ending where she opens a door revealing a bloodied weapon, and three bags indicating that she had not only kidnapped this young girl, but she also murdered the original person who owned that apartment. Worse, the first impression of both characters are them wearing what looks to be wedding rings whilst standing on a burning building....at the very least, there doesn't seem to be anything sexual regarding Sato's relationship with Shio, the way that she would describe her innocence really rubs one the wrong way.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, the anime does try to make it clear that Sato has a couple of screws loose due to her experiences in her life growing up. In the manga, you know that her aunt slept around, so maybe some of that served to drastically warp what Sato conceives as true love. Even though it is hypocritical in a way because she gets onto the manager for kidnapping someone to get them to love her, when she herself kidnapped Shio, and while she may not be forceful with trying to make her love her, she is grooming her in a way to make her dependent on only her. But again it could be that the simple reason as to why Sato believes that she is in love with Shio is most likely because she never got to grow up normally. Sato looks very cute in the way her hair is styled and her mannerisms are sometimes cute, but because of her upbringing, she never left that way of thinking.
I do admit that I find the premise of the anime disgusting because it reeks of smut just for the sake of shocking readers of the manga. With Citrus at least it was the sexual assault and pseudo-incest, here, you get kidnapping, implied pedophilia, molestation, and all other inappropriate subject matter. I would not recommend seeing the anime due to the content, not even if you are innocently curious about it, but I won't take away the experience for you if you decide to watch it anyway despite my statements.
Sickening yet compelling but with an undecided moral
ecvoid7 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The premise of this show is that the main protagonist finds true love in her platonic relationship with a little girl. Right from the start the main character's capacity to do harm to protect the one she loves is obvious. The show's shtick is the use of various degenerates' perception of affection to be in conflict with the MC's true love. So expect a short array of people with gruesome sexual practices.
Watching the determined protagonist act against or around the dangerous deviants was rewarding, even when she committed actual crimes. However I couldn't help but perceive her love as exploitative. At some point I though the little girl she claimed to love caught on to that at the beginning of a certain confrontation scene. But the show pulled a bait and switch and instead of resolving the unhealthy relationship, the immoral dependence was reaffirmed stronger than before.
Trauma is also an important subject in the show. The situations depicted led to believable character development. Except in the case of the young pedophile in the making who's portrayal was too lenient. Which leads to the main issue of the show, namely its ambiguous morality. The relationship this anime is based on, at times becomes uncomfortably less than platonic. Furthermore if harm done to evil characters can be absolved in the name of love, the same can not be said in the case of the genuinely good ones (which are few to begin with).
The ending is also indecisive. A moral is drawn but not where it really counted. Instead of fully redeeming or condemning what's important, the anime ends in a tragic middle ground.
Watching the determined protagonist act against or around the dangerous deviants was rewarding, even when she committed actual crimes. However I couldn't help but perceive her love as exploitative. At some point I though the little girl she claimed to love caught on to that at the beginning of a certain confrontation scene. But the show pulled a bait and switch and instead of resolving the unhealthy relationship, the immoral dependence was reaffirmed stronger than before.
Trauma is also an important subject in the show. The situations depicted led to believable character development. Except in the case of the young pedophile in the making who's portrayal was too lenient. Which leads to the main issue of the show, namely its ambiguous morality. The relationship this anime is based on, at times becomes uncomfortably less than platonic. Furthermore if harm done to evil characters can be absolved in the name of love, the same can not be said in the case of the genuinely good ones (which are few to begin with).
The ending is also indecisive. A moral is drawn but not where it really counted. Instead of fully redeeming or condemning what's important, the anime ends in a tragic middle ground.
How far would YOU go to protect what matters most?
HannahCN27 December 2018
Happy Sugar Life is one of those shows that has to be seen in order to be believed. In an era where 'horror' has become more and more synonymous with jump scares, gore, and good visual effects, Happy Sugar Life instead chooses to focus on the horror that human beings can inflict on each other. There are plenty of extremely good horror anime out there, such as Berserk, Madoka Magica, and Goblin Slayer, to name but a few. However, we can watch those and not be all that scared because we know they aren't real. There are degrees of separation. However, watching Happy Sugar Life makes one squirm because it is uncomfortably realistic, albeit exaggerated. The characters could be people you meet in real life. The situations are things that could happen to any one of us with enough bad luck. And it *doesn't* feature tons of blood, it *doesn't* feature close-ups of brutal killings, none of that stuff. Instead, most of the time it chooses to cut away from the most brutal moments, and leaves the visual details of what it was that happened up to the darkest corners of our minds. Happy Sugar Life is one of the most haunting anime to have come along in a long time, and watching it will leave you with an extremely uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach... but I still highly recommend that you do!
The single worst anime ever made.
Vunk5 January 2020
I don't know what kind of drugs the others reviewers were using, but this anime is just stupid, with no plot, no consequences, and no believable characters. A giant mecha alien would be more realistic than this crap, it's so unbelievable bad that you have to be a edgy teen to unironically like this.
It doesn't even deal with dark themes, it's just psychos for the sake of being psychos, a monkey could write a better story.
It doesn't even deal with dark themes, it's just psychos for the sake of being psychos, a monkey could write a better story.
Good horror, drama.
kristenlswinton4 February 2019
A show that is hard to watch and isn't at the same time. It's about sexual abuse (rape), child abuse, pedophilia, with a side of cold blooded murder. It's deeply disturbing as it should be due to the content. Watch at your own discretion.
Y'know those times you regret watching a show?'
HardLight18 October 2022
Or a movie or a drama or read a book or anything like that? It's a feeling in the pit of your stomach that somethings just wrong, like a heavy weight has fallen into it and you're just left feeling icky after it.
Yeah, Happy Sugar Life does this to me in one scene and one scene only, its the ending and any who have seen it will know what I mean.
I went into this review of a show I watched in 2018 today with a massive worry, it's got a very high appreciation mark for its content and I thought I'd see nothing but praise and luckily I don't. But to be brief, I don't have a problem with the violence, I don't have a problem with the setting, I don't have a problem with the story overall. All of that is compelling and interesting to watch.
Its just that ending, man, that ending sort of smacks you so hard in the stomach that everything about the story before it is not only tainted but utterly ruined and it becomes a "oh that" moment for you for future shows and movies and I've only had this feeling once before with a movie and then this and now a third time with a series I won't make a review on until its finished airing as while I won't watch it, I don't plan on making comments until its finished airing for specific reasons.
Happy Sugar Life takes the ideal of the Yandere obsessed girlfriend we all thought we wanted when Yuno Gasai appeared and gave us a more realistic depiction of it, and I do not like it one little bit. It's not a good ending and that ending I'd hold up is in line with the theme of the story, which makes it a good written ending, but damn is it a uncomfortable one.
Yeah, Happy Sugar Life does this to me in one scene and one scene only, its the ending and any who have seen it will know what I mean.
I went into this review of a show I watched in 2018 today with a massive worry, it's got a very high appreciation mark for its content and I thought I'd see nothing but praise and luckily I don't. But to be brief, I don't have a problem with the violence, I don't have a problem with the setting, I don't have a problem with the story overall. All of that is compelling and interesting to watch.
Its just that ending, man, that ending sort of smacks you so hard in the stomach that everything about the story before it is not only tainted but utterly ruined and it becomes a "oh that" moment for you for future shows and movies and I've only had this feeling once before with a movie and then this and now a third time with a series I won't make a review on until its finished airing as while I won't watch it, I don't plan on making comments until its finished airing for specific reasons.
Happy Sugar Life takes the ideal of the Yandere obsessed girlfriend we all thought we wanted when Yuno Gasai appeared and gave us a more realistic depiction of it, and I do not like it one little bit. It's not a good ending and that ending I'd hold up is in line with the theme of the story, which makes it a good written ending, but damn is it a uncomfortable one.
Really loved this thrilling dark anime!
Irishchatter29 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Seriously this is one of the most darkest anime I've ever seen. I've never seen so much unfortunate real stuff like pedophila, murder, child abuse, domestic abuse, you name it on a horror anime! It is such a thrilling ride to watch especially Shio being kidnapped by Sato. Honestly the girls were adorable together but they unfortunately came from broken families. I suppose that's the idea, they may look or act sweet but they are broken and suffering inside.
As much as he's a Pedo for taking such a strong interest in Shio, you would feel very bad for Taiyo because he was raped by 2 middle aged women and that way, it made him turn crazy by liking little girls like Shio. I mean to be quite honest with you, instead of showing him in a room at the very end of the anime, they should have showed him getting threapy. The poor b*stard badly needs it since it's totally broken too. Let's just say all the characters are broken in different ways.
I have to say, i was quite shocked in the end that Sato killed herself and saved Shio from the fall. I really wonder what will happen to Shio next? Will she be able to move on from the trauma of losing her loved one or will she become a murderer too? Lotta questions came into my head after that lol! I know she's not going back to her family by what her mum did to her but well she change her mind?
Anyways thanks Anime America for suggesting this dark anime to me, it was a very thrilling ride!
As much as he's a Pedo for taking such a strong interest in Shio, you would feel very bad for Taiyo because he was raped by 2 middle aged women and that way, it made him turn crazy by liking little girls like Shio. I mean to be quite honest with you, instead of showing him in a room at the very end of the anime, they should have showed him getting threapy. The poor b*stard badly needs it since it's totally broken too. Let's just say all the characters are broken in different ways.
I have to say, i was quite shocked in the end that Sato killed herself and saved Shio from the fall. I really wonder what will happen to Shio next? Will she be able to move on from the trauma of losing her loved one or will she become a murderer too? Lotta questions came into my head after that lol! I know she's not going back to her family by what her mum did to her but well she change her mind?
Anyways thanks Anime America for suggesting this dark anime to me, it was a very thrilling ride!
If you like this, get to the therapist right now!!!!
christiansb-3779831 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
THIS AMIME IS WRONG IN SO MANY LEVELS O CAN'T EVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The child is abused, gets Stockholm syndrome and "choose" to die with the psychotic girl in the end, the brother quest searching for his sister ends being pointless, Just horrible!!!!!!
The child is abused, gets Stockholm syndrome and "choose" to die with the psychotic girl in the end, the brother quest searching for his sister ends being pointless, Just horrible!!!!!!
Not romantic just psychotic
izyisosm2 February 2020
Annoying Anime Showcasing the Mentally Ill
randomuser110517 July 2022
I hated all but one or two characters in this. Everyone else is a one-dimentional horror troupe with nothing to their personality but their mental illness. This anime/manga tries to be deeper and more creepy than it is. You just want everything to end badly for everyone so they'll just shut up and stop screaming all the time.
Amazing. Purely amazing
papandi-8569719 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I was surprised to see that this masterpiece has such a low rating!
I shall start raving now...
This anime takes from the best, without being a rip off, with questions awoken, but it all gets sealed in the end I love the fact, that they don't introduce too many characters, that's where Tokyo Ghoul messed up big time, for example. The character-development is done well, and every character has a sort of backstory behind their actions, that make sense, more often than not. The only character, who's backstory I kind of miss, is Satou's aunt It's said to be a love story, but it's more sisterly, than romantic, and it's better that way First, I thought Shio was a loli, but by the third or fourth episode, I realized she was literally a child
The ending was sad, but when Shio survived, I was surprised, and when that last twist came, it dragged out the floor under my feet Another amazing thing, that they did very well, is how you root for Asahi to find Shio, and save her, but at the same time, you kind of want Shio to stay with Satou
The artwork is beautiful, the music choice is great
Just perfect,I loved it!
This anime takes from the best, without being a rip off, with questions awoken, but it all gets sealed in the end I love the fact, that they don't introduce too many characters, that's where Tokyo Ghoul messed up big time, for example. The character-development is done well, and every character has a sort of backstory behind their actions, that make sense, more often than not. The only character, who's backstory I kind of miss, is Satou's aunt It's said to be a love story, but it's more sisterly, than romantic, and it's better that way First, I thought Shio was a loli, but by the third or fourth episode, I realized she was literally a child
The ending was sad, but when Shio survived, I was surprised, and when that last twist came, it dragged out the floor under my feet Another amazing thing, that they did very well, is how you root for Asahi to find Shio, and save her, but at the same time, you kind of want Shio to stay with Satou
The artwork is beautiful, the music choice is great
Just perfect,I loved it!
DOESN'T WANT SPOILERS, GO WATCHING IT FIRST! DON'T BE BUSYBODY ABOUT OTHERS OF REVIEW!
crestdaniel3 May 2023
Such a mind-fk at episode 9.
I directly go to episode 12, to stop the nuisances.
Let me be honest!
I just only watching this anime, out of ReoNA song "SWEET HURT (from her "unknown*" album) are was featured in.
Those track are pleaseant to heard, until I did give this anime a shot!
Yeah, the main character deserve to begone!
No need to censored it with much beautiful scenery.
Some plot could be changed, but I see "someone" won't give attention.
Most of characters are greedy and filthy, by the way!
It's doesn't make any different with the main one!
Only Shouko won "The Best Character", in my opinions... because she does.
If anyone trying to ask "what is felt like watching it?", I will say "the same feelings when you're watching Spiderman 3 movie.".
It can be great but some things were ruined.
It just "below decent" scale to me, but not "upper good".
Don't recommended to watch it, unless you've got other secondary anime to watch with.
I directly go to episode 12, to stop the nuisances.
Let me be honest!
I just only watching this anime, out of ReoNA song "SWEET HURT (from her "unknown*" album) are was featured in.
Those track are pleaseant to heard, until I did give this anime a shot!
Yeah, the main character deserve to begone!
No need to censored it with much beautiful scenery.
Some plot could be changed, but I see "someone" won't give attention.
Most of characters are greedy and filthy, by the way!
It's doesn't make any different with the main one!
Only Shouko won "The Best Character", in my opinions... because she does.
If anyone trying to ask "what is felt like watching it?", I will say "the same feelings when you're watching Spiderman 3 movie.".
It can be great but some things were ruined.
It just "below decent" scale to me, but not "upper good".
Don't recommended to watch it, unless you've got other secondary anime to watch with.
Just wow
eshikoy1 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Happy sugar life is just amazing the characters and their whole different stories are so easy to follow up and the compelling plot is just *chefs kiss*
When you think if a yandere you think of someone like Yuno Gasai but what difference between them is Satou is realistic and is so loving to the point where she doesn't want to die with Shio she wants to die for Shio
Sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense i just cant put my thoughts into words properly
I love how the storyline goes with the characters (spoiler from the manga)
dog-1181922 November 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This anime was good I found out about this anime because of tik tok and said that they look cute but it's a dark anime so when I watched it there was a lot of disturbing scenes like satou's teacher being so creepy towards here and even stalking her. But all in all I give it a 10/10 because I like the style, story is good, I like how the theme that everyone has something obsessed in there life like satou with Shio but I will recommend this anime to anyone who really love dark theme anime's. But another thing that the anime missed was the backstory of shio's mom how she got r#ped by shio's dad and it really gives more story to the persona that shio's mom had than the anime.
The aesthetic concord of the social discord
kmagic-6766815 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The character, plot, and visuals are all in harmony to generate a mood of "bitter" reality, which makes Sato - a murderer, a kidnapper and a yandere - disturbingly relatable. Although I have only seen this anime through a review in YouTube, the hidden intention of the screenwriter is almost indecipherable yet clear enough that I regard the anime itself as a symbolism of immorality. For four years, I have not forgotten the anime, and now, it is one of my major source of inspiration regarding my writing style.
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