As Happy Sugar Life goes on, the show gets darker and darker. We find Satou at the beginning being the lighter shade of black but as the show goes on, she’s the darkest of them all.

This is a shivering pure love psycho horror story of a girl named Satou Matsuzaka, who has someone she likes. She experiences a sweet feeling when she sleeps with her, and thought it must be love. Everything will be forgiven as long as she protects this feeling, even if she tricks, commits crimes, steals, or even kills, she thought.

Let’s get down to the main review.

Artistic Choice and Execution

Usually this segment is about how color and its use can show emotion in the show along with the theme. However since I’m doing these every two weeks or so, I need to change it up so it’s going to be Artistic Choice and Execution which is a larger idea to work with. We’ll be talking about the symbolism, the use of art to convey a point as well as sound to convey a message.

I have to say for episodes 8 and 9 especially the first half of episode 8 were rife with unique storytelling. Granted it’s not unusual to have a silent point of view like how we had with the Artist of Apartment 1208, but doing so allows us to imagine his words to Satou. For lack of a better term, we can fill in whatever we want for the situations they’re talking save for a few moments near the middle of the episode.

Similarly at the end of episode 9, silence is used with the conversation between Shouko and Satou. We can tell that Satou is angry and frustrated and Shouko is trying to reach out to her.

Finally at the end of episode 9, I want to give some respect to Kana Hanazawa with her voice acting at the end of the conversation with Shouko. At the moment, Satou could be exposed for what she does as Shouko walks towards the door but instead of screaming, she whispers in a soft voice right into her ear. I like to think of it as a contrast to her following actions which made what she did all the more impactful.

 

Story

I’d like to think that the story was moving at 30 mph nice and safe up until this point. Then Episodes 8 and 9 came in and we started gunning it. Now we’re running about 70 at least.

The explanation of how Satou got the apartment was interesting. Originally I thought while the episode played out, the guy from apartment 1208 was a pretty nice guy and just wanted to paint her. However at least the anime is consistent. No one’s a good person so he ends up dead for trying to kill Shio because Satou was more beautiful to him when she was depressed and broken. The second half of the episode goes into Mitsuboshi and you have to feel for the kid. He almost made it back to being somewhat sane then Satou throws Shio’s sock at him and he’s gone again. Now Satou’s got her self a henchman that works for cheap. Sometimes it’s better to control and manipulate people than just kill them. Mitsuboshi knew of Shio and was a potential risk but he was controllable.

So moving on to Episode 9, we get Mitsuboshi trying to lead Asahi away in exchange for time with Shio to be ‘purified’ but Asahi doesn’t really take the bait or at the very least doesn’t believe the story. Then he runs away but then makes the excellent leap in logic that Mitsuboshi has information on Shio’s whereabouts but isn’t able to find him again.

So since he can’t find Mitsuboshi and only has the lead he gave him Asahi leaves for another prefecture to try and find Shio. However not before getting a kiss from Shouko and exchanging contact info. For some reason, Shouko finds herself I guess enamored with him. She isn’t romantically interested him but she finds his determination and kindness attractive.

So Satou watches Asahi go to parts unknown at the break of dawn and is so happy she decides to celebrate all day with Shio with cakes and even some promise rings. After all, that ‘thing’ is out of her hair so it should be a good day for her. However that’s where it all goes wrong. Having so much fun, Shio tackles Satou as she leaves to go to work or school.

And Shouko catches on her phone. Now this is where the horror movie lover in me says run to Shouko but she just stands there in shock. Satou pulls her into the apartment, locks the door, and sends Shio away. The two former friends talk for a while. And at this moment, I have to say that Shouko is a legitimately good person. She’s shocked but ultimately she wants the best for her friend and wants to save her from what she’s done. There’s nothing but love, non-judgement, and acceptance for her closest friend with her words…

And the reward for a friend that cares too much is…death. Satou kills Shouko to make sure that she doesn’t tell the police. Why? She can’t trust her. After all, she rejected her after Satou showed Shouko her aunt. How can she trust Shouko after that? Our actions have consequences. Shouko was dead the second she hesitated with Satou and the second she chose to keep going into Satou’s life.

And with that the episode ends with the revelation that Shouko sent the picture of Satou and Shio to Asahi. Now the real question is what is he going to do with this information.

Characters
Satou Matsuzaka


During these two episodes we see once again the two sides to Satou. During most of the anime we’ve seen her be the legendary manipulator with her old boss, her teacher, the girl that had a crush on her, and others. But we also see her murderous side with Shouko. At the end of Episode 9 we don’t know how Satou feels. We know she feels she’s justified because she’s protecting her life with Shio but even so Shouko was her friend. No matter what she said and how Shouko reacted, Satou cared about Shouko a lot. Shouko was probably the only friend in a sea of acquaintances and manipulated. There’s going to be some mental fall out from this. Not even counting the story will progress after this. The artist’s death is one thing since he was a loner from the start. But Shouko is the daughter of a wealthy family. She goes to school and work and has parents, while controlling, will notice her absence. Things are going to change from here on out.

Taiyo Mitsuboshi


Over the course of the anime, we’ve seen Taiyo mostly just sit around in his room, lost. Granted he managed to gain some of himself back, being able to go out again but ultimately turning himself into a puppet of Satou. I’d say that Mitsuboshi is a lost guy that wants everything to go back to the way it used to be. Some part of him knows he’s been crazy but he’s not enough there to be able to stop himself anymore. I just feel sorry for the kid.

Shouko Hida


Ah yes our noble heroine. Out of this anime, Shouko is probably the only good person. Granted she’s gone because depending on your viewpoint, she cared too much or she couldn’t be trusted at a critical moment. Regardless, I feel for Shouko. Seeing your best friend slowly slip away from you is hard in high school but even harder on Shouko because of her family life. She’s just a useful tool to her parents to make them look good and she can’t act outside of their wishes. For her, Satou was the only thing that brought her happiness in life. So when she saw she was losing her, she tried to get her back instead of letting go. And that’s what got her killed. She tried to push a relationship that was already ending.

So that’s all I’ve got. Happy Sugar Life has definitely changed with Satou killing Shouko and we can see that there’s no turning back on this drama train. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

So until the next review,
Later Days

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