gh02t

Ahh... yandere. I mean it doesn't have to be awful, it's just that it's all pretty awful. Even then, we can get a perverse enjoyment from it. Two examples - School Days is truly one of the worst anime ever made (fight me), but it's still fun and I'd say I enjoyed Mirai Nikki more than I hated it. My point is, nobody apart from serial killers watches yandere series because they expect something deep and touching, but that doesn't have to stop us from enjoying it.

Happy Sugar Life, however, is not very enjoyable to watch. I'd argue that the appeal of yandere series is their campy silliness- they have the same sort of over-the-top appeal as goofy summer horror movies. HSL fails because it wants to be to be as repulsive as possible, but it forgets to include anything resembling a coherent plot, memorable characters (I can barely even tell most of them apart), interesting dialogue... there's nothing. Everything seems to be loosely strung together, poorly developed plot lines intended to lead to the next awkwardly placed shock piece. Admittedly I'm reviewing this after episode 9, before it has finished, but the show is already far enough off the rails that there is no saving it.

I'll admit some moments are creepy, but for all the wrong reasons. Characters act utterly inhuman, in completely ridiculous ways. The main character is clearly a psychopath as well as deeply disturbed (though, the show fails to go into much detail about how exactly she ended up so twisted), and how inhuman she acts would normally be creepy. Except that just about every character is pretty fucked up, so it kinda ruins the creepiness because there's little contrast. Very quickly you reach the point where you're just staring at the screen, wondering what act of horrific violence or depravity they're going to throw at you next, but there is little in the way of actual impact because it's so nonstop. I'm not offended or unsettled by any of it, just bored and confused.

Positives? The animation is ok I guess. It's nothing special and many of the characters look far too similar and generic, but overall it's smooth and has some nice lighting and color effects. The music is decent too, and is nicely layered into different situations to add a little impact (the music can't help that what's happening is stupid).

Overall: strongly recommend you pass. It's not even fun, it tries to be hyper serious but overemphasizes the shock factor, resulting in a bland mess.

Update: Oh yeah I watched the rest. Still sucks.