Oooh boy, here we go!
Fun fact I forgot my login to MAL, I lost my previous acc ayy. But that being said after reading the reviews on this particular anime I felt obliged to write something because I feel people are too bust being sarcastic or memey with this anime to get to the real point people want to hear with this.
I recently finished happy sugar life and I’ll admit, I went in knowing it would be dark. I heard yandere and since we actually don’t have too many anime’s entirely centred round yanderes (except that one with a certain pink
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haired anime who will not be named) and it got me intrigued. I saw that the yandere interest was a little girl- through me off a bit but seeing it being described as “pure” I was like “ah like a big sister little sister thing”.
First off, can the people calling this relationship “pure” go and rethink what pure is. Yes this relationship isn’t sexual and the general interactions between the two girls is fine. But it’s a twisted relationship, with an unstable girl and a little girl that clearly gains stockholm. This is not a “pure” relationship no matter how “pure” the interactions between the two are. It is pretty much a tamer version of pedophilia.
Now, now lolicons, before you start defending your underage hentai manga saying “but it’s just cartoons”, regardless of how much I disagree with people treating the two girls relationship as “pure” (or calling it age gap romance- my dudes no, age gaps only cool when they are both age of consent, NOT WHEN ONE OF THE CHARACTERS IS 4) I don’t think this shows intent was to promote pedophila as so many people are saying it is but avoidinh dropping the pedo bomb for.
Happy sugar life does not go out it’s way to glorify the characters actions, but much rather it tries to look at the idea of sexuality and the topics surrounding pedophilia in different lights- mostly anti pedo as I will explain. The overall theme of the show is love and it tackles this theme by looking into love corruption and where it stems from. Asside from our tame pedo pairing in the foreground, is a character who after being raped, gains pedo tendencies from the experience, an actual extreme psychological response to sexual assault and rape. We get a weird stalker and obsessed character, a masochistic pervert character and a character who see’s love as abuse. This show tackles the nitty gritty of love and in a way that I think is quite well. It takes us into areas we are too afraid to explore and just shun off the moment we hear it.
The show goes out it’s way to tackle the idea of pedophilia and it looks at it from all angles. These two girls clearly care deeply for one another, should we shun their relationship? The person who was raped, clearly has been through something traumatic, should we call him a monster for his perversion. The show really kicks you out of your comfort zone to ask those questions and make you ask them. However this show does not aim to show pedophilia in a good light.
The show does all it can to make these characters disturbing. Many reviewers have stated “it’s for edginess” but they are missing the point. These characters are not meant to be liked. The show does not want you to condone what they are doing. Down to our pink haired yandere, they want you to feel like what she is doing is wrong and uncomfortable with her actions. There a scene where she literally asks the audience in her mind “What I’m doing is okay isn’t it? I’m not in the wrong!” This is purposefully put there so you can reply back “no, what you are doing IS wrong!”
The show will put it’s creepy characters on full max and you will always have an overwhelming feeling of disgust and discomfort around them. Me and a friend were talking about this show the other day and we agreed, happy sugar life is a sattire on these topics and personality types. But not a funny one. A sattire is meant to make you question the characters type and your own thoughts on a topic or debate through their exagerations. I can hobestly say it made me feel disgusted and that’s just my general opinion on those topics anyway. The show does a good job at really making you question your morals.
As for the soundtrack. I liked some of it, didn’t think much of the rest. I liked the main theme and how it fit the bipolar feel of the show. As well as the opening, it truly was a bi polar themed one and I always found myself watching it. If was a kind of refreshing op, albeit nothing grandeous. The main theme for the ost has some different renditions of it and I liked how that was used. The rest is meh and I swear there was an ost that sampled the bleach ost as well in there 😂
As for characters and voice acting. I liked the voice acting! It wasn’t the konosuba of voice acting but it was far from bad. The characters however were either pretty disturbing, cliché and occasionally alright. Then again seeing as this is a horror I think disturbing us was the point. With the themes and charscters. The horrors not in the main characters murders but in the general feel and theme of the show.
The art was nice but held a massive uncanny valley feel for me in that I swear I have seen the style before, what’s more I think it’s a shoujo artists style of all things too!
I wanna end this review on why I think this show was made. In japan currently one of the biggest problems they have is pedophilia- particularly in it’s otaku community. Yes let’s lolicons will start hissing and saying it’s just cartoons, but alot of lolicons already have or go on to have a real twisted interest in young children. That interest is not okay and you need to see help. This anime does it’s best to show that without being direct about it. In those scenes where you are thinking “these characters are twisted and need professional help” they are scenes where you can perhaps compare them to your own views and realise maybe you are just as twisted and need help. It doesn’t show pedophilia as something natural but as something that stems from mental illness. And I’ll end this by saying, please get help if you do have any sort of relation to any of the topics explored in this show, be that pedophilia, rape or anything else. There are professionals who will help and not judge.
And that’s that. Now we wait for me to loose my login to this acc too!
Oct 2, 2018
Happy Sugar Life
(Anime)
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Oooh boy, here we go!
Fun fact I forgot my login to MAL, I lost my previous acc ayy. But that being said after reading the reviews on this particular anime I felt obliged to write something because I feel people are too bust being sarcastic or memey with this anime to get to the real point people want to hear with this. I recently finished happy sugar life and I’ll admit, I went in knowing it would be dark. I heard yandere and since we actually don’t have too many anime’s entirely centred round yanderes (except that one with a certain pink ... |
