292nd G-View: Anne Happy!

With the Moe Trifecta taking a breather until their time to dominate the Girls Club spectrum comes again, it was time for other potential Girls Club shows to step up and show their moves. In the 291st G-View we took a look at Bakuon!! This time we will cover the “misfortune” themed GC show, Anne Happy and see how well it did.

Alternate Title:

• Unhappy (Japan)
• Unhappy go Lucky! (Japan)

Genres: Comedy, School Life, Slice of Life, Moe

Themes: Misfortune, Yuri.

Number of episodes: 12

G-Rating 11/10

Plot Summary: Tennomifune Academy is an elite school where students train in various subjects such as arts and sports. That is, except for the students of Class 1-7, a.k.a. the “Happiness Class”, who have been deemed “unfortunate” and must try to overcome their own misfortune and achieve happiness. The series follows Anne “Hanako” Hanakoizumi, who has terrible luck, and her classmates Ruri, Botan, Hibiki, and Ren, who each have their own misfortunes, as they try to find their own happiness.

Hanako. Cuteness incarnate.

Describing Anne Happy is very simple: It is a show about “cute girls doing cute things” while facing challenges revolving around finding happiness through great misfortune. Basically no matter how unlucky a person is one can always find joy if they look hard enough and work around their misfortunes. That is essentially the gist of Anne Happy…and the reason why it is one of the best, if not THE best, Girls Club anime of 2016 (by far). The reason being that besides the vintage cuteness (and sexiness depending on the girls’ measurements) found in many Girls Club media, the addition of the “happiness” classes and the girls’ misfortunes are what make this show stand out from the wonderfully crowded GC market.

Botan is love. Botan is life. Botan is the savior of the universe.

The reason being is that while most of the “happiness” class activities/assignments are simple tasks that are made more challenging to the girls being unlucky, there were some activities that could have easily been mistaken for an action anime episode or an adventure show. They were that amazing. As for the misfortunes themselves they may look easy to understand at first glance but the unfortunate have more layers to them besides their moe archetypes that adds more interest in seeing how the girls will pass whatever test they are given. That is one of the reasons why this GC is special along with what is coming next.

The show’s animation is delightfully colorful.

I am a sucker for really colorful shows and Anne Happy looks beautiful. If it were only the cute screen cap gags then the show’s animation quality would be good but then there are moments like the above picture or the way Hibari is drawn when the camera closes in on her that had me smiling uncontrollably.

Captivating.

So beautiful and adorable to look at, this show is. The same can be said for most of the soundtrack. Cute tunes with occasional epic and tense tunes fitting the situation. Also the aforementioned visual gags were cute and hilarious.

“I can fly.”

“NOOOOO!”

This is still one of my favorite gags.

Left to right: Ren, Hibiki, Anne (Hanako), Ruri (Hibari), Botan

Now for the cast:

• Hanako, the leader of the group and as previously mentioned cuteness incarnate has the most complex misfortune and somehow ends up being the cause of the more tense moments on the show. Otherwise she is very easy to like for everyone but internet critics.
• Hibari initially has a strange crush type of misfortune but as the show progresses her misfortune is revealed to be not that simple. The somewhat levelheaded member of the Clover Clique with some tsundere tendencies
• Botan, aka best girl, aka the megane goddess is a gift from the heavens who is sadly self-deprecating, frail and very fragile. Her pain is my pain. However, that does not stop her from being a great friend.
• Hibiki, aka Syaro (Gochiusa) and Sakurako’s (Yuru Yuri) hybrid clone has poor sense of direction and is an all-out tsundere with a misguided ego.
• Ren is a chick magnet, especially when it comes to female animals and is usually sleepy…unless something specific happens.
• Other fun characters include the bodacious and devilishly clever Kodaira, aka Evil-Sensei, the bunny bot that is loathed by a certain Latina fan of mine Timothy, another bodacious teacher that appears around the second half, aka Strict-Sensei and of course Hanako’s relative.

Ren X Hibiki.

Source: http://www.zerochan.net/2002730#full

Now for the usual pre-conclusion yuri discussion. There are other good pairings like Hanako X Hibari, Botan X any girl and another that but the strongest OTP on the show is without a doubt Ren X Hibiki. The fact that this OTP got an origin story should be evidence enough to know that these two are fated to wed…if the writer does the right thing before the manga ends anyway. It is a yuri crush on Hibiki’s part as is usually the case with a lesbian tsundere in love but other Nation members who watched the show can attest that it is only a matter of time…

Overall Anne Happy is a Girls Club that took advantage of the Moe Trifecta’s absence and made an emphatic statement that it deserves a spot alongside other iconic Girls Club shows. A must watch for lighthearted SoL and especially Girls Club shows. Not recommended for people who want more depth in their SoL. You know, the ones who clamor for “the old days when SoL shows were deep man.”

PS: This show NEEDS a second season, especially so we can get more of the mystery girl.