A Look at: Happy Sugar Life

Series: Happy Sugar Life

Presentation Style: monthly

Genres: yuri, drama, horror, mature, mystery

Three Sentence Summary: After meeting a little girl named Shio, high schooler Matsuzaka Satou becomes convinced that the bond they share is true love. This leads to Satou to stop sleeping around with boys and to start living together with young Shio. Cute but psychotic Satou is willing to stoop to anything in order to stay with her beloved, but for how long will the two girls enjoy their “Happy Sugar Life?”

Three Strengths:

• Without fail, every chapter brings new twists.
• The artstyle is both cute and beautiful, which clashes against the interesting combination of genres.
• Actually has a considerable amount of shiptease. Sharing baths and making vows as well as desperate hugs and sweet kisses!

Three Weaknesses:

• There will be mature content (so those who are faint of heart should look elsewhere).
• It may be hard to find characters to root for since most of the cast have issues. As of chapter 5, I think only two or so characters are not in desperate need of therapy.
• Some may say the adorable artstyle, combined with the topics explored in this manga, could be considered too jarring.

Verdict: At its heart, Happy Sugar Life is a story about a messed up person trying hard for the sake of someone she loves. This kind of story is almost guaranteed to end in tragedy. If you’re a fan of train-wreck series (where things seem to go wrong and get worse with every chapter or episode), then you should consider picking up this manga.