Happy Sugar Life is very unique. It's a story that romanticises the development of the relationship between 2 broken girls. Normally, coming of age stories talk about how characters grow out of their own flaws of youth. Well this one's a bit tricky because the flaws are that one girl is a murderous psychopath and the other has had a terrible childhood. If you can accept this outrageous context, you'll find HSL very rich in story and character depth and quite similar in tone to other coming of age tales. Chapter by chapter, the heroines learn something more about themselves, or come to the conclusion that they must do something to grow as a person or grow for their lover or what not; they forge new ideas about what love, sin and happiness are. It seems like everyone has a process of growing up, even psychopaths.

The story is terrible when you look at the context. The situation on the ground is almost unbelievable and there are quite a few plot holes surrounding side characters. However, HSL's identity as a manga revolves not around its settings but around how the story develops. The big question this manga asks is "what is love?" and it does a very good job of pacing this development so that simpler emotions are played out first before the whole dynamic between these two girls change as their concept of love changes.

Characterization? Very strong. Somehow even with a ridiculous setting, HSL's story is able to be spun off realistic conflicts. Do you protect your lover from knowing about the sins you've committed or do you confess and pray for forgiveness? What is the value of family? Is family still more valuable than friends if it were a broken family? How do you decide which form of interpretation of love is right? Through the manga we watch our girls attempt to answer these question and delve into main girl's psych which might almost make you say "damn I actually get where she's coming from" but then you remember she killed a couple of people so she's still not okay. I was actually surprised to read that even the damn loli had character development and then turning out her change will be a big part of the story. Kind of happy she wasn't just a token loli to pull in viewership.

Art wise, I like the contrast of Shio's kotatsu-like warmth and softness to the cold brittleness of Satou's unstable mental health but I can't compare it the likes of Umino Chika's 3 Gatsu's art (it has a similar warm vs cold setting). It's mediocre. Average at best. Nothing really screams horror except some unsettling scenes and the black squiggles here and there.

If you're here from the anime site I suggest you give this a go. The anime is honestly too low production that it omits the nuances of the story that's in the manga. And once you've gotten over the idea that a psychopath, an immoral teacher, a pedophile, a hermit, a masochist, a stalker and an abducted loli can coexist in a single story then it's actually a rewarding read.