History Manga / HappySugarLife

** At one point, Asahi comes across Satou and lends her a missing person poster with Shio on it. He doesn't know she was Shio's abductor back then.

** At one point, Asahi comes across Satou and lends her a missing person poster with Shio on it. He doesn't know she was Shio's abductor nack then.

* IfOnlyYouKnew: After Satou beat the two deliniquents to a bloody pulp becauae they were messing with Shio, Shouko mentions a news report of two guys having their eyes gouged out with Satou during a casual conversation, not having a slightest idea that the person who did it is standing next to her.

* IfOnlyYouKnew: In 4th Episode Shouko in casual conversation with Satou mentions a news report of two guys having their eyes gouged out, not having a slightest idea that the person who did it is standing next to her.

* JumpScare: Happens in-universe when Mitsuboshi is out at night and some women startle him. He gets scared shitless due to his mental trauma from Princess Imperial's manager's abuse. Shortly after that, he's seen obsessing about a missing person poster of Shio still in the dead of the night when suddenly Satou creeps up on him from behind with a disturbing look in her eyes and the intent to blackmail and silence him.

High-schooler Satou Matsuzaka has a reputation for being easy, but one day her lifestyle of sleeping with one boy after another comes to an end. She comes upon a lost child named Shio Kobe, who awakens feelings in her that she has never felt before. Believing that this emotion must be true love, Satou is determined to hold Shio close and never let her go. No matter who or what stands in her way.

* ButtMonkey: Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her, constantly making himself bare as a target for misfortune, as well as blackmail and extortion from Satou, and at once, even ''Asahi''. In the end he ends up raped again by Satou's deranged aunt and unceremoniously vanishes after the main story's ending.

* ButtMonkey: Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her, constantly making himself bare as a target for misfprtune, as well as blackmail and extortion from Satou, and at once, even ''Asahi''. In the end he ends up raped again by Satou's deranged aunt and unceremoniously vanishes after the main story's ending.

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: In the 20th chapter Asahi finds Shouko bawling her eyes out about how she hurt her friend Satou and would be better off dead. [[spoiler:Satou grants her wish two chapters later]].

* BrutalHonesty: In 13th chapter Shouko bluntly asks Satou "why does she [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] so many guys".

* ButtMonkey: Although it's not even remotely PlayedForLaughs[[labelnote:*]]or is it?[[/labelnote]] Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her. Which fails spectacularly when a bunch of street thugs beat him up for earlier interfering with their bullying of Asahi. As a consequence he shuts himself in his home only for Satou repeatedly pay visit to him, just to mentally mess him up. After having a freak-out from the possibility of Shouko becoming a "competition" to him, he tries to get over his obsession of Shio. Only to be startled by two random women at night due to his mental trauma and Satou getting the jump on him shortly afterwards. Satou blackmails him to get rid of Asahi for her, but Asahi sees right through his botched attempt at diverting him. As a consequence Asahi lures him into a trap and interrogates him. In the end he ends up raped again, this time by Satou's deranged aunt and then unceremoniously offed.

* ButtMonkey: Although it's not even remotely PlayedForLaughs[[labelnote:*]]or is it?[[/labelnote]] Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her. Which fails spectacularly when a bunch of street thugs beat him up for earlier interfering with their bullying of Asahi. As a consequence he shuts himself in his home only for Satou repeatedly pay visit to him, just to mentally mess him up. After having a freak-out from the possibility of Shouko becoming a "competition" to him, he tries to get over his obsession of Shio. Only to be startled by two random women at night due to his mental trauma and Satou getting the jump on him shortly afterwards. Satou blackmails him to get rid of Asahi for her, but Asahi sees right through his botched attempt at diverting him. As a consequence Asahi lures him into a trap and interrogates him. In the end he ends up raped again, this time by Satou§s deranged aunt and then unceremoniously offed.

* ButtMonkey: Although it's not even remotely PlayedForLaughs[[labelnote:*]]or is it?[[/labelnote]] Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her. Which fails spectacularly when a bunch of street thugs beat him up for earlier interfering with their bullying of Asahi. As a consequence he shuts himself in his home only for Satou repeatedly pay visit to him, just to mentally mess him up. After having a freak-out from the possibility of Shouko becoming a "competition" to him, he tries to get over his obsession of Shio. Only to be startled by two random women at night due to his mental trauma and Satou getting the jump on him shortly afterwards. Satou blackmails him to get rid of Asahi for her, but Asahi sees right through his botched attempt at diverting him. As a consequence Asahi lures him into a trap and interrogates him.

* ButtMonkey: Although it's not even remotely PlayedForLaughs[[labelnote:*]]or is it?[[/labelnote]] Taiyou Mitsuboshi never gets the end of it. He gets rejected by Satou, then kidnapped and raped for a week by his depraved boss. This causes him to be mortified of older women so he becomes entranced by Shio and tries to get close to her. Which fails spectacularly when a bunch of street thugs beat him up for earlier interfering with their bullying of Asahi. As a consequence he shuts himself in his home only for Satou repeatedly pay visit to him, just to mentally mess him up. After having a freak-out from the possibility of Shouko becoming a "competition" to him, he tries to get over his obsession of Shio. Only to be startled by two random women at night due to his mental trauma and Satou getting the jump on him shortly afterwards. Satou blackmails him to get rid of Asahi for her, but Asahi sees right through his botched attempt at diverting him.

* DownerEnding: The ending is bad for Asahi Kobe and Taiyou Mitsuboshi. Satou [[spoiler:sacrificed her life to protect Shio, and there's no obstacles left for Asahi to have a timely sibling reunion, right? ''Wrong''! Shio rejects him in favor of Satou and decides to live for herself, cementing him as the loser who lost everyone who cared about him, since Satou already killed Shouko beforehand. 8 years later, he's a traumatized wreck wandering the streets.]] Mitsuboshi's fate is even worse, since [[spoiler:being raped a second time was the final straw that degenerated him into a wreck beyond saving.]] Ostensibly though, [[spoiler:Satou and Shio still get a BittersweetEnding -- Satou gets the last laugh by staving Shio out of Asahi's hands and proves herself to be genuinely capable of giving Shio a happy, independent life, though if Satou's death didn't make her mentally unstable, being forced to live like the possession of a mentally unstable groomer in all-but-name definitely did her in.]]

** Satou bribes Mitsuboshi into becoming her henchman by giving him one of Shio's socks to sniff.

* RapeAsDrama:Mitsuboshi's psyche suffered a huge hit after he got raped in the first chapter, but he eventually realized that his newfound obsession with Shio is damaging his life, so he decided to give up on her and go back to being a normal person. A happy ending for him, right? Nope, a trauma isn't something that disappears so easily, and neither is an obsession. [[spoiler:A little push from Satou is all it needs for his resolve to crumble into dust.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the Yuri and Shoujo romance genre, namely because the heroine has a seriously screwed-up idea of love and does morally reprehensible things to keep that love, and the girl-girl relationship is both toxic as and illegal.

** Satou basically picks Shio up off the street and whisks her off home with her, then proceeds to isolate her in an apartment by telling her the outside world is dangerous and later [[spoiler:physically locking her in]]. She knows full well that there are missing person posters everywhere for her, and knows who's looking for her. But she refuses to even consider letting her go.

** Asahi's dad. To put it into perspective, he once ''tore off his son's fingernails'' just to see how long he could endure it. And then made him get liquor afterwords. It's only fortunate that the asshole died of alcohol poisoning later, but it took five years after his sister and his mom left. [[spoiler: It's later revealed he didn't die of alcohol poisoning, but that his sake was poisoned by Asahi's mother.]]
** [[spoiler:Satou's aunt might also be considered this. Although there's no indication that the aunt has ever harmed Satou in any way, she is very clearly not a good role model nor stable enough to be trusted with caring for a child. Satou growing up with her aunt likely damaged her to a far greater extent than losing her parents.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: Chapters 16 and 17 give us an incredible build up of tension. Satou's teacher called the police in order to get them to investigate her apartment, Shouko is with Satou intent on meeting her aunt, they're right in front of the apartment door and those around her look on in suspicion as Satou unlocks the tiny lock near the foot of the door that she installed on her and Shio's apartment door to keep Shio trapped inside and it looks as though Satou is about to be caught red-handed. [[spoiler:Only for the person to greet them at the opened door be not Shio, but [[RedHerring Satou's very much alive aunt]], and all questionable smells from the apartment simply being the garbage that said aunt keeps there. And the apartment where Shio and Satou actually live is on a different floor.]]

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Averted. Even downright villainous characters like Kitaumekawa, the two park thugs and Asahi's dad aren't stereotypically ugly and they might resemble a StockLightNovelHero in any other kind of story. It really shows that ''anyone'' can be a psychopath.

* BookEnds: The manga's first chapter ends with (and the anime begins with) Satou in an ImagineSpot fondly thinking of her future life with Shio, and the twelfth episode (as well as the final chapter) concludes with [[spoiler: Shio having one a few days after the events of the episode]]. Both end with the obligatory TitleDrop.

** How Satou views the world outside of the apartment she and Shio reside in. She repeatedly describes the outside world as "filthy" and "dirty", and views the apartment as a "castle" or a gilded cage of sorts to keep themselves bundled up in away from all of that. Even going as far as to describe her leaving to go to work or school as expeditions where she's acquiring provisions for them to survive.
** The world itself is really not that great. People can seemingly commit crimes arranging from blackmail to kidnapping to rape or murder and remain virtually unaccountable as long as they can cover it up or nobody reports them to the police. Law enforcement is also somehow incompetent enough to be easily neutralized by tricking the informant into telling them to swat an insane woman. It tells that the most sympathetic antagonist in the manga by a significant degree is Satou, the actual BigBad and the VillainProtagonist. Complex and shrewd as she is, she never goes to the level of low that some side characters do.
* DeceptivelySillyTitle: This is a psychological horror series starring a VillainProtagonist who kidnaps a child out of "[[LoveMakesYouEvil love]]", and it is called "Happy Sugar Life". It does have an InUniverse meaning, but that doesn’t change the fact that the title is seriously misleading.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the Yuri and Shoujo romance genre, namely because the heroine has a seriously screwed-up idea of love and does morally reprehensible things to keep that love, and the girl-girl relationship is both toxic as heck and most probably illegal.

** Despite Satou had mindless sex with quite a few boys beforehand, her obsession with Shio is romantic (though likely not sexual) and she's quite willing to [[PragmaticPansexuality seduce other girls as a mean to an end]], as she does to her coworker.

** In a more emotional abuse-based version of this, [[spoiler:it is abundantly clear that Satou did NOT grow up in a good household while living with her aunt. Living in a disgustingly filthy apartment constantly filled with trash, and presumably people walking in and out to have sex and abuse her aunt. She most likely cared about Satou in her own weird way, but it was so twisted that it is no better than abuse. All in all it's little wonder Satou grew up the way she did.]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Actually averted.
** When Mitsuboshi is kidnapped and molested (and quite possibly more) by the female manager of the shop he and Satou worked at for a time, it's shown that the experience has greatly traumatized him. He spent a good deal of time at home after this, and has become terrified of older women to the point of feeling extremely ill whenever one so much as touches him (though girls the same age as him don't bother him as much). [[spoiler:This eventually becomes a driving force for him after he becomes obsessed with and subsequently meets Shio, as he believes that she is the only one who can 'purify' him of his horrendous experience due to his trauma causing him to see younger girls as more "pure" than evil older women.]]
** Repeated when [[spoiler:Satou's aunt rapes Mitsuboshi after he tries to enter Satou's old apartment. Just like the last time, he's portrayed as unnerved and afraid when the aunt forces herself on him, and by the epilogue his mother is clearly worried about his state of being]].
* DownerEnding: If your name is Asahi Kobe and Taiyou Mitsuboshi, then the story is essentially this. Satou [[spoiler:sacrificed her life to protect Shio, and there's no obstacles left for Asahi to have a timely sibling reunion, right? ''Wrong''! Shio rejects him in favor of Satou and decides to live for herself, cementing him as the loser who lost everyone who cared about him, since Satou already killed Shouko beforehand. 8 years later, he's a traumatized wreck wandering the streets.]] Mitsuboshi's fate is even worse, since [[spoiler:being raped a second time was the final straw that degenerated him into a wreck beyond saving.]] Ostensibly though, [[spoiler:Satou and Shio still get a BittersweetEnding -- Satou gets the last laugh by staving Shio out of Asahi's hands and proves herself to be genuinely capable of giving Shio a happy, independent life, though if Satou's death didn't make her mentally unstable, being forced to live like the possession of a mentally unstable groomer in all-but-name definitely did her in.]]

* EvilVersusEvil: Some people the VillainProtagonist Satou had to deal with had minds just as twisted as her own, if not more. Look no forward to the Princess Imperial Manager [[spoiler:and the painter she killed and claimed his apartment from.]]

* FamilyOfChoice: No matter how questionably the circumstances were that drew them together, ultimately Satou and Shio's relationship falls into this. Together, they'd never had as much genuine unconditional affection as they did with their blood relatives.

* FirstEpisodeTwist: After seeing Satou talk so much about how she's found her beloved, and how she's working so hard for them to give them a good life together, she returns home and greets her beloved waiting for her. Then we see that her 'beloved' is a small girl. After the reveal that Satou's 'beloved' is Shio, a child, we see her walking by a lamp post. With a missing person flyer posted on it with Shio's face.

* GildedCage: This imagery appears a lot in regards to Shio and Satou's apartment. Satou does her best to earn money so that they have the ability to live in her [[spoiler:dead neighbor's old]] apartment, with plenty of food, running water, and even television, along with other treats. And Shio has no problems living there aside from occasional boredom. Though this is likely because she's too innocent to understand [[AbductionIsLove Satou's true intentions for always keeping her inside]].

** [[spoiler:Shio and Asahi's father]] is the GreaterScopeVillain and a truly nightmarish [[AbusiveParents parental abuser]]. [[spoiler:An [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]], he spares no love for his wife Yuuna and children, beating them frequently and using them to fuel his unhealthy habits. A flashback would later reveal that he also [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raped his future wife]] because [[DisproportionateRetribution she accidentally pushed him]], celebrated the death of his own father because it left him with a big inheritance, [[ParentalAbandonment left his wife and son]], and only came back after spending all his money. It is no wonder that Yuuna ran away with Shio, and Asahi [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing rejoiced when he died]]]]. He undoubtedly deserves to be called a demon by Asahi and the only redeeming quality he has is [[spoiler:[[PosthumousCharacter nobody has to deal with him]] in the present day]].

* JumpScare: Happens in-universe when Mitsuboshi is out in the night and some women startle him. He gets scared shitless due to his mental trauma from Princess Imperial's manager's abuse. Shortly after that he's seen obsessing about a missing person poster of Shio still in the dead of the night when suddenly Satou creeps up on him from behind with genuinely disturbing look in her eyes and with intent to blackmail and silence him.
* KillTheOnesYouLove: When [[spoiler:Satou murders Shouko for catching her with Shio and snapping a photo of her, since she doesn't trust her not to go to the cops or Shio's brother.]] Averted, though, as Satou admits in [[spoiler:Shouko's]] final moments that she cares as little about her as she does any random stranger on the street. [[spoiler:Zigzagged as the death seems to have caused her [[VillainousBSOD greater emotional upset]] than that.]]
* TheKindnapper: Satou gives this excuse to Mitsuboshi, claiming that she feels that only she can make Shio happy, as there's no telling if being with her family would actually be good for her. Though it's unknown how much she actually believes this as opposed to her justifying her kidnapping of Shio. [[spoiler:Later revelations have it played straight after all; since Yuuna had abandoned Shio just prior to Satou finding her, Satou has some justification in taking her off the streets and caring for her.]]

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Satou can be seen as this, as her violent tendencies emerged after encountering Shio and falling in "love" with her.
* LoveRedeems: Averted. Satou operates under the impression that as long as it's for her love for Shio, anything that she does is perfectly fine. Including threats, assault, and outright murder.

* NoDialogueEpisode: The majority of Chapter 23 (the final part of Episode 9 in the anime) while [[spoiler:Shouko confronts Satou about Shio]]. Though subverted in the last few pages when they do exchange a few on panel words, and all of their dialogue is squished in together on a single page after the whole of the conversation took place.

** Both of Satou's parents are stated to have died when she was very young, and she was left to live with her aunt [[spoiler:who turns out to be extremely unhinged herself. The aunt is a manic masochist obsessed with allowing men and women to abuse her physically and degrade her sexually, which she claims is the utmost expression of love, and has a filth-strewn room ("for trash") in her apartment where she indulges in her habits. It goes without saying that this wouldn't be a healthy environment for Satou to grow up in.]]

** Suu does the same at the end of Episode 4.
** Satou bribes Mitsuboshi into becoming her henchman by giving him one of Shio's socks for this purpose.

* RapeDiscretionShot: Both the original manga and the anime adaptation ''gleefully'' uses RapeAsDrama, with no less than three cases of rape and one case of AttemptedRape, all played for horror. Thankfully, they are at least merciful enough to hold back showing full rape scenes -- sometimes the act itself is never shown, other times it just shows the assailant from the victim's view without being too explicit over it.
* RapeAsDrama: So, Mitsuboshi's psyche suffered a huge hit after he got raped in the first chapter, but he eventually realized that his newfound obsession with Shio is damaging his life, so he decided to give up on her and go back to being a normal person. A happy ending for him, right? Nope, a trauma isn't something that disappears so easily, and neither is an obsession. [[spoiler:A little push from Satou is all it needs for his resolve to crumble into dust.]]

* RedEyesTakeWarning: In contrast to [[RoseHairedSweetie her bubblegum pink hair]], Satou's eyes are an ominous blood red. Hinting at her true, more dangerous nature.

* SailorFuku: What Shio can be seen wearing most often.
* TheShutIn: Shio is often left alone for most of the day because of Satou having to go out of the apartment to attend school and go to work so she can earn money to support them. She is perfectly capable of leaving the apartment, but does not do so due to Satou telling her that the outside world is dangerous. Even to the point where she's asked not to open the balcony door and step outside, likely due to Satou wanting to prevent Shio from being seen by anyone, since she knows someone is looking for Shio. Though Shio later loses the ability to leave the apartment due to Satou installing a lock on the outside of the door to prevent her from leaving under her own power.
* ShutUpKiss: Satou gives one to Suu to get peace of mind from her proclaiming her twisted love for her.

* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Clearly, they do not. [[spoiler:Satou was allowed to live with her aunt since presumably early childhood after the deaths of her parents. With said aunt displaying signs of being neglectful, keeping a positively filthy house, and exposing her from a young age to her sexual deviancy in the form of her insane masochism, among other things. Satou's exposure to this state of affairs for years on end growing up severly warped her view of love, causing her to mindlessly sleep around since she saw love and sex as one in the same. Mitsuboshi's trauma was not dealt with, as he simply holed himself up in his house, and later became obssessed with a little girl who he believed could "purify" him with her touch. Asahi and Shio were forced to suffer a home life of abuse by their father, and both suffer from repressed memories long after said father's death. Even the police who eventually come to visit are just there because they received a complaint of a bad smell from the apartment, and just told her to clean out her room full of garbage. Doing nothing about the wellbeing of the teenage girl who lives there with her.]]

** The Manager of the Princess Imperial has a bloated sense of importance, so much so, when Mitsuboshi asked Satou out on a date, she responded by kidnapping and raping him for a week as a way of rectifying that.

* TooKinkyToTorture: Two particular characters stand out here:

** Satou's teacher, Daichi Kitaumekawa, openly gets aroused when Satou corners him, stamps on his crotch, and threatens to expose his true perverted nature - though he is seemingly more of a ''sadomasochist'' - as is later shown when he is brought to the point of climax by the thought of having exposing Satou's concealed murder in her apartment.
* VillainProtagonist: The main character of this story is holding a child captive in her apartment, and is willing to resort to threats, bribery and even murder to keep her there. Though to be fair, many other characters who oppose her are even more twisted in morality. It also doesn't hurt Satou's case that despite her madness, she's the only character introduced thus far who has demonstrated they can adequately care for Shio, even including Asahi.
* WeakButSkilled: Despite Satou being a small teenage girl, with no fighting experience or training, she is able to defeat bigger people in physical confrontations: such as her grabbing an adult woman by the collar, repelling two thugs in a park at night using her swiftness and weapons, and [[spoiler: killing an adult man by bashing his head in with an easel.]]
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 23, where [[spoiler:Shouko is killed by Satou for [[HeKnowsTooMuch discovering she kidnapped Shio]]. With this, Satou not only killed a major character for the first time, but she also personally destroyed the last and perhaps only real link she still had with her previous, normal life.]]

** Asahi was [[spoiler:still wandering the streets alone, and he bumps into a cat. He sees the cat on the missing poster and was reminded of his lost sister, causing him to go on a freakout. After he gives the cat back to its owner, it's revealed that he also keeps his Shio missing person posters as a TragicKeepsake.]]

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%% * YuriGenre: An undoubtedly dark, and highly twisted take on the genre though.

* EdibleThemeNaming: Though Satou and Shio's names are written in hiragana and thus have no inherent meaning, they can respectively mean "sugar" and "salt". Their given name (and Shouko's surname) are also based on brands of wagyu beef.

* EdibleThemeNaming: Though Satou and Shio's names are written in hiragana and thus have no inherent meaning, they can respectively mean "sugar" and "salt". Their surnames (and Shouko's) are also based on brands of wagyu beef.

* EdibleThemeNaming: Though Satou and Shio's names are written in hiragana and thus have no inherent meaning, they can respectively mean "sugar" and "salt". Their surnames are also based on brands of wagyu beef.

* HopeSpot: When [[spoiler:Shouko]] confronted Satou, there was still a chance Satou would trust her and let her live. The manga intentionally frames the encounter to make it look like she could really reach the little humanity Satou still had.[[spoiler:And then came the knife...]]

* PsychoPink: Satou's hair is of pale shade of pink which would suit any [[RoseHairedSweetie sweet-natured character]]. She's a severly mentally challenged yet cunning {{yandere}} who doesn't hesitate to threaten, extort or straightforwardly murder people who get in the way of her [[TitleDrop Happy Sugar Life]].

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: In the 20th chapter Asahi finds Shouko bawling her eyes out about how she hurt her friend and that she (Shouko) would be better off dead. Never ever did she know that [[spoiler: Satou would grant her wish two chapters later]].

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: When Yuuna's mom comes to check on her some timeafter the incident, she still looks quite young. Granted, Yuuna was still a teenager. Considering she was already pregnant with Asahi, that'd make her mother an ''absurdly youthful grandmother''.

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: In the 20th chapter Asahi finds Shouko bawling her eyes out about how she hurt her friend and that she (Shouko) would be better off dead. Never ever did she know that [[spoiler: Satou would grant her wish very soon]].