User blog:AustinDR/Happy Sugar Life PE Proposal: Manager

Original: https://villains.fandom.com/f/p/3179493162221867278

Happy Sugar Life is a psychological horror manga series that had received an anime adaptation that had just recently concluded. Despite the innocuous sounding title, the anime is actually set in a Crapsack World. The series concerns a high schooler named Satou Matsuzaka who —after "mingling" around with several boys had apparently ceased this after finding her "true love." With that being said, Satou is very obsessed with preserving her "happy sugar life" even if it involves amoral conduct.

For starters...there's Satou herself. To get this out of the way...she doesn't count for a plethora of reasons. For a Freudian Excuse, well it is explained in flashbacks that she had lost her parents at a young age which caused her to live with her aunt who was clearly unfit to raise her. Her aunt was someone who loved everyone — well it's more that she was a raging sadomasochist who derived pleasure from being abused — and it was ultimately her aunt that was responsible for molding Satou's perception on love. With that excuse....I personally don't think it holds up much. Especially when Satou tries to use that backstory to justify viewing others as being below her. With mitigating factors, there is her relationship with Shio Kobe - a young girl she met in the streets one time. Okay, let's get this out of the way: there is nothing indicating that Satou felt that way about Shio. The one recurring element that constantly presents itself firmly establishes that at the end of the day, Satou's relationship with Shio is one of maternalistic nature. Shio met Satou when her mother abandoned her on the streets one evening (I'll get into the why later on), and she latches onto Satou as a mother figure. Initially, we are given the indication that Satou only viewed Shio as an outlet for her emotional needs, an accessory, in other words. However, this view is proven incorrect in episode 10 when Shio calls Satou out for always keeping secrets from her, and from there, Satou treats Shio more as an equal. In the final episode as the two were trying to escape the burning building, they both jump off the roof. In her final moments, Satou realizes the meaning behind love, and shields Shio, taking the brunt of the fall for her.

As for the heinous standard...I don't feel she meets it. In total, she had a body count of 4 people. The only issue with this is that three of the victims Satou had murdered were assholes; the first was the original owner of the apartment room she and Shio live in. He was an artist who tried to kill Shio because he was enraged that Satou was now "complete" him initially liking Satou because of her incompleteness. The next two were of some thugs that were trying to use Shio as bait to lure her older brother Asahi to the park. But the issue with those murders is largely that they're mentioned in passing. We do have somewhat of a Gory Discretion Shot with one of the perps, but the aftermath is only mentioned by one of Satou's coworkers. Now, Satou does Jump Off The Slippery Slope halfway in the run of the series with her murdering her best (and only) friend Shouko after she had taken a picture of her and Shio and texted it to Asahi. With this murder, what also adds onto Satou's mitigating factors: while she considers it a case of I Did What I Had to Do, it becomes apparent that Satou felt remorseful for killing Shouko. Her lower lip was also seen trembling as if she were about to have an emotional breakdown (which is different from the manga version where it's more an Ignored Epiphany).

So, lastly there is her get away plan. Said plan involves burning the upper room of the apartment and passing off Shouko's body as her own. Clearly, she would be putting the other inhabitants in the level in danger, and she obviously doesn't care either...but the problem with this? Largely, the news mentions that there were multiple casualties from the fire. But they only mention two: Shouko and Satou. As such, these massive casualties are in reference to those two bodies that were uncovered from the arson incident. What makes this even more problematic is that it also runs under Offscreen Villainy. As such, there is no approximate number of people who otherwise perished in the fire.

On another note, Satou has several moments where she could've done worse, but she chooses not to ala Pragmatic Villainy. For instance, when she realizes that Asahi had a connection to Shio, she contemplates bludgeoning him with a crowbar only to relent upon realizing that it would be hard to hide the evidence. Even when Asahi was proving to be more problematic, she instead chooses the least lethal option of deceiving him into thinking his sister had gone to a different district. There are other examples of instances where she could've been worse, but you get the idea.

As for other characters: 1) There was Satou's boss from a restaurant called the Princess Imperial who became envious of her when she learns that one of her employees — Mitsuboshi — had asked Satou out for a date only to be turned down. So, as her way of fixing that? She kidnaps Mitsuboshi, keeping him locked in a cabinet in her room and repeatedly raping him as a means of forcing him to love her. As for excuses...there are none, unless you consider her feeling bad for her age as one. I was contemplating on suggesting her on the grounds that no other antagonist (major or minor) had stooped to this level of depravity, and that she was obviously over the Moral Event Horizon at that point, having raped Mitsuboshi for a week. This was also seen as horrific by the setting with Mitsuboshi himself being deeply traumatized by his experience.

2) Auntie: Satou's Aunt is the one who starts the fire, but the same problems plaguing Satou's involvement also fall on her due to there being no approximate body count to draw from as well as her only being charged for arson and the murder of Shouko. Individually speaking, she isn't heinous enough with only having one count of rape and attempted rape. Beyond that, Auntie also has some forms of mitigating factors such as making it clear that she loves Satou in her own warped way as well as being truly Affably Evil. She could also be seen as being too insane to consider particularly for her happily taking credit for starting the fire.

3) Shio and Asahi's father: He was a posthumous character having died before the events of the anime. For the most part, he is your generic take on a Domestic Abuser with him yelling and hitting his wife. His one unique form of cruelty is shown in a flashback where he rips Asahi's fingernails off out of morbid curiosity at seeing how much pain he could take, and it is also stated that he had always done things like that to Asahi when he chose to live with him for five years after his mom and sister escaped his household. He was ultimately the reason as to why Shio's mom left her on the streets because she feared that she would become like her husband. She later poisons his sake, and he died. The father does commit more crimes in the manga that were Adapted Out when it received an anime adaptation, so I am kind of contemplating on whether that's worth mentioning.

4) There were a few other minor antagonists that I would list, but they ultimately have little merit on the plot of the series.

Overall, those are my thoughts on the series.

Now as for the one I think could count as PE...

Who is she?
The nameless manager of a restaurant named The Princess Imperial in which Satou becomes an employee of in order to make more money. At first, the manager was seemingly benevolent...but she was someone who was really self-serving and wanted all of her employees to love only her. However, when one of her employees — Taiyo Mitsuboshi — asks Satou out on a date and she overhears if from her other employees...that doesn't sit well with her. Not one bit.

What has she done?
As Satou was heading back to the apartment building after work, she notices the manager talking with Mitsuboshi about whatever, making Mitsuboshi follow her to her office. Afterward, Mitsuboshi disappears the next day which is attributed to him "quitting." As Satou continued to work for the restaurant, she received more and more work, oftentimes her co-workers would sabotage her efforts. Soon, Satou had to work longer hours, which gradually ate away at her sanity.

Eventually, paycheck day arrived, and the manager hands out the checks for the employees. Satou notices that her check didn't cover the hours she had to work, and she goes to talk to the manager to sort it out. The manager admits that she was punishing Satou with longer hours as revenge for her catching Mitsuboshi's eyes. She then goes onto explain how her restaurant was her castle, and that the employees would flock to her. When Mitsuboshi strayed away from that intended purpose, this unsettled the manager. Satou tells her that it was immoral of her to try to go after underaged employees, and reaffirms that she would get her full pay if she obliged. Satou then glances at the cabinet across the room, and correctly guesses that Mitsuboshi never quit; rather, the manager kidnapped him and repeatedly raped him as her way of forcing him to love her. The manager confesses to this...only to realize that Satou had filmed the entire thing on her cell phone. To this, Satou threatens to inform the authorities about her "discovery" lest the manager gave her the full amount for her hours. Satou then opens the cabinet door, revealing a bound ang gagged Mitsuboshi within it.

Mitigating factors? Freudian Excuse?
Nay for any excuses. The reason as to why she felt that her employees should love only her is partially because she is insecure about her age. Yeah. There isn't any tragic about it in the slightest: the employees were there to serve her only so that she could feel better about herself. When Mitsuboshi asked Satou out on a date, that bruised her ego to the point that she tried to rectify that by kidnapping and repeatedly raping Mitsuboshi to the point that he suffered trauma from the experience. As for the scenes regarding that, they are played seriously unlike with many other uses of the trope.

And I need to emphasize this: her feeling bad because of her age does NOT excuse her repeatedly raping a teenage boy and traumatizing him. The anime gives no sympathy towards her with Satou herself calling her out for going after underaged workers. In this case, any insecurity that she had is completely blown out of proportion because of her actions.

Heinous standard
Happy Sugar Life is a dark series with the Villain Protagonist herself being the least morally grey of the cast (that isn't to say that there aren't any morally upright characters; there are). Despite this, I feel that the manager does have some factors that could make her count. While she had raped one victim, what sets her apart is the fact that she repeatedly raped Mitsuboshi for a week, thus being way beyond the Moral Event Horizon at that point. The whole reason as to why she did this was especially disgusting; it is Evil Is Petty at its finest. She also has that personal tie with Mitsuboshi as because of her, Mitsuboshi developed a pathological fear of older women, an is very blatantly psychologically suffering because of her. No other antagonist in the series had stooped to this level of depravity before.

Conclusion
I feel that she does enough for a minor villain, but I otherwise feel indifferent towards her counting or not. I may go into discussing Shio and Asahi's father next since like I said he did commit more actions in the manga that were left out in the anime adaptation, but probably at some later point.