I am beyond PISSED. Fuck this episode and fuck Satou. One of the few characters in this show that I actually like, and she meets such a brutal end. Shoko did not deserve this, but she was wrong in trying to rationalize with a psychopath. It also doesn’t help that Shoko kind of turned her back on Satou after meeting her aunt. But my god I am so fucking angry. Last week’s Banana Fish made me angry and shocked. This time, take out the shock and just add more anger. I hate Satou.
To events leading up to this are simple. The episode was mostly slow-ish, with a lack of dread. Mitsuboshi meets up with Asahi to tell him about the “clue” he found to Shio’s whereabouts. He gives him Shio’s tie from her school uniform, complete with his mother’s handwriting and finally Asahi is happy at getting a clue but has doubts immediately when he thinks that Mitsuboshi is lying to him and tricking him. He runs off in anger but realizes that this the best clue he’s gotten so far. And my god I feel so bad for Asahi. I’m full on Team Asahi. Later that night in the park he talks to Shoko about the guy he met. I find it a little annoying that Shoko didn’t tell Asahi that she knows Mitsuboshi. If she did, things would have gone very differently. Shoko doesn’t want him to get hurt if it’s wrong info and just wants him to be happy. I feel terribly for Asahi because Shio is his source of happiness. The kid is broken, but not a bad kid. His one wish in life is to find Shio and live with her and his mother. That’s the only happiness in his life but he’s close to having a breakdown. That’s when Shoko brings him into a hug and apologizes for saying something mean and assures him that he’s not broken. He may be trembling in fear, but he’s pushing on to find his little sister and it’s admirable, and amazing! And I agree. This poor boy has been the punching bag for his abusive father, but he still latches onto hope and fights on to reunite with his sister and mother. It’s then that Shoko kisses Asahi.
This scene was so sweet! The love and support from Shoko was really something Asahi needed. And even though Asahi isn’t totally Shoko’s usual type, she fell for him because of how strong he is (even though he’s weak physically). It was so adorable but for some reason I didn’t catch on that when characters kiss in a horror anime, then that means something terrible is going to happen to one of them. H-Ha…haha….fuck me.
Shoko and Asahi exchange numbers and Asahi leaves for the place Mitsuboshi told him about.
The next part of the episode I gave little shits about. Satou follows Asahi the next morning secretly to confirm his leaving, and then turns back to the city. She goes on and on about Shio making her happy and honestly at this point. hearing the same internal monologue is really boring. I get it, Shio made you realize what love is, I don’t care. I don’t need to hear it almost every episode.
It’s the anniversary of them coming together, I guess?, so Satou goes to a bakery to get some cakes and buys matching rings at a jewelery store. She comes home, she and Shio share cake and talk about getting married and their future and spending all their time together and crap. They plan to make their own wedding so Satou wants to step out to buy a veil and some flowers. As Satou steps out the door, Shio gets really happy and jumps on her and says “I love you” as they giggle and they both pop out of the apartment. And at that moment, Shoko is standing right there and snaps a picture of them on her phone.
Satou turns her gaze immediately on her. Shoko is shaking, but she’s fiddling with her phone which of course made me think that she sent the picture to Asahi immediately. And from the end of the episode, she was successful. Satou grabs her and throws her inside and at this part, the show gave us a montage with some narration comparing Shoko to a singing canary, along with an insert song. We saw them speak with each other but we didn’t know what they were saying until a couple lines were shown later. Shio went to her room and covered her ears, which makes me wonder why Shio would even do that when Shoko wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I’m sure Satou brainwashed Shio that way. The girls talk in the kitchen, as Satou takes Shoko’s phone but didn’t know her passcode. So, Satou knows that Shoko sent the picture but she doesn’t know to who, which is huge. Basically, Shoko tried rationalizing with Satou and tried accepting her. At first when Satou let her go, Shoko was surprised to see Satou ambush her from behind with a large knife in her hand.
“I don’t feel anything for you at all. You’re no different from anyone else.”
Those were incredibly harsh words to hear coming from your “best friend”. As Satou holds her down, with one hand over her mouth, Satou brings down the knife with her other hand, stabbing the side of her throat. The red filter throughout this part made the murder even more chilling as we heard Shoko struggle, watching her scratch at Satou’s hand over her mouth, her legs kicking, the tears streaming down her face. It wasn’t even a quick death either. It was a slow, painful, and inhumane death. I literally screamed when Satou grabbed Shoko and I just knew…yes, this is the end. She’s going to die.
I just wish Shoko had ran away after she took the picture. I wish she had made the message clearer to Asahi when sending him the picture. I wish she ran after their yelling in the kitchen. I wish Shoko had given up on trying to fix Satou! There’s no fixing this type of girl, but even then Shoko didn’t exactly know what kind of person Satou really was until she held the knife above her.
Satou returned to Shio, in her undergarments covered in blood. I’m going to wonder, how is Shio going to react to all this? Will she see Shoko’s bloody corpse? Will Satou try to rationalize her actions? I’m disgusted, I have such a seething hatred towards Satou. I never liked her, but now my hatred is just stronger. Shoko didn’t deserve this. And it just sucks that the only person that showed support for Asahi is now dead. But now knowing that Shio is indeed alive, I’m hoping that Asahi will find her soon, and I hope Satou’s disgusting “happy sugar life” gets destroyed.
I’m rooting for you, Asahi.
I fear that the very first scene of the show (Satou and Shio leaping to their deaths) shows that Asahi will not avenge Shoko…unless Shio survives.
I fear that, too. Orrrr…the anime can pull an ERASED and have a net ready for them at the bottom and they can arrest Satou. 😛
This episode was all around hard to watch I hope satou gets what’s coming to her rip shouko
I hope so too! This time she’s killed someone very close to her. When Shoko is going to show up missing, of course Satou is going to be investigated. We’ve reached the third and final act, I hope things come crashing down on her.
I can’t cheer for Asahi my reasons are simple, an ending were the psycho goes to jail and everyone is happy just seems boring. Don’t get me wrong I liked Shoko, but I also like Shio and Satou. It’s just the thing is I don’t want this anime to have a boring ending. I want them to make it interesting, like for instance yes Satou goes to jail and Shio is saved by Asahi. Only for a few years or months to pass when Shio runs away from Asahi to be Satou. Or another instance when Satou just wins in the end like in the opening scene. Hell I’d be satisfied with the fact that after after spending so much time with Satou, Shio becomes just like her. My point is that I’m burnt out on anime that have boring endings, I just want one were the psycho or villain in general wins. Sorry to waste everyone’s time with this rant I just felt like I needed to get it out y’ know.
Oh before I forget if anyone knows where I could find anime where the villains win and the heroes lose please tell me. Also I’m aware of the spelling and grammar mistakes I just don’t care.
Happy endings aren’t necessarily bad. I think it’s HOW they get to the happy ending that can sometimes be boring, but that’s my opinion. Though I will admit, with how things are going and especially with the opening scene we saw in the first episode, I have a feeling that we won’t have a happy ending. Or at least it’ll be tough to have one. I really have no idea how the show is going to finish. But now that you mention that, I can’t even think of stories where the villain wins.
I actually don’t hate Satou, even after all this. Sure, Satou is not a good person – in fact, she is positively terrifying. But there’s a good reason for that: she’s broken. Despite all the over the top craziness in the show, Happy Sugar Life is a tragedy. It’s about broken people trying to find some happiness for themselves, but horribly failing because they’re too broken to realize their actions are self-destructive. And Satou is the perfect example of this: for the first time in her life, she found some happiness, some relief from her emptiness – for the first time, her life has a sweet taste. So of course she wants to protect that at all costs. Even if the world thinks her love misguided, and it can never be sustained, she will do anything to keep her happy sugar life afloat – not because she’s inherently evil, but because it’s all she’s got.
So, yeah, I think she’s an interesting character. She’s flawed and broken, but her flaws are very human. The tragedy of trauma is that, through no fault of their own, people may only be able to find happiness in things that will lead to the destruction of themselves and their loved ones, and I think the show captures that well. Satou’s actions may warrant hate, but I think she also deserves our pity.
Anyhow, playing the devil’s advocate aside, I gotta say, I’m really impressed with the show’s direction. With all the over the top craziness going on, and the show’s ludicrous premise, there’s no reason it should work this well, but the show absolutely nails its key moments. The visuals and soundtrack really enhance the experience, and Shoko’s death in particular was very hard to watch. Nice surprise this one.
Oh she is absolutely broken, no doubt about it. Her upbringing with her broken aunt caused her to be broken too, and have her develop this obsessive love. For the first time, she was able to feel happiness and warmth with Shio. I completely understand it, and I also couldn’t help but feel sorry for Satou when we found out how far gone her aunt it. But, all of that doesn’t justify her actions and decisions. I understand it, I feel a little sorry for her, but I can’t bring myself to like her.
I mean, it’s the same with serial killers. I don’t want to get too real because, lol, this is anime, but serial killers almost always had horrible upbringings that caused them to do terrible things in the end. When you hear of their killings you hate them, but when learning about their childhoods, you can’t but help feel sorry for them. Watching documentaries about Aileen Wuornos, the way she presented herself was erratic and broken. Then upon learning of her childhood, well, it was terrible. I definitely felt pity for her, but that just can’t excuse her murders.
But yeah, I totally get what you’re saying.
You know, sometimes this show can surprise after all the over the top stupid moments. As much as Shoko’s death made me rage, the way it played out was gruesome and well done. I’ll give it that.
Oh yeah, I completely agree that the fact that Satou is broken does not justify her actions. Her actions are evil, no two ways about it. But I think you can separate a person from her actions: even if a person’s actions are wrong, that doesn’t always mean she deserves to be blamed or despised for it. Obvious cases are when a person has been brainwashed, hypnotized, drugged, and so on, but I think people who have been broken by their traumatic past are a good candidate too, and Satou is a perfect example of this. It’s not just that she feels empty, and wants to protect the sole source of happiness she knows. She also doesn’t seem to have an understanding of right and wrong, of what makes her actions evil. Treating a person like that as a full-blown moral agent, who deserves our hate when she does wrong, seems a bit misguided to me.
That being said, I totally get where you’re coming from too! When you see a person do all these evil things, it’s only natural to despise her for it, even if at some level you know that she’s too broken to warrant blame. Satou isn’t easy to like, and I would also be pissed if she’d get a happy ending. A tragic ending fits this show better, and that’s probably what we’ll get.