Small attempts are made to broaden the appeal of this comedic manga
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Cotoji
Translation/Adaptation: Amanda Haley
What They Say
Class 1-7’s sugoroku challenge is in full swing, but even in a class full of students afflicted with “negative karma,” Hibari, Hanako, and Botan’s collective bad luck is really just staggering…
When the girls are given an extra assignment to collect lucky items, could this be their opportunity to turn their fortunes around?? Sadly, sour luck won’t be their only obstacle!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Anne Happy doesn’t offer a lot of story to talk about because it focuses on setting up jokes. As a primer for those who might not have read volume 1, the series tells the story of a class who have been put together due to their bad luck. Anne has the worst luck, so she becomes the focus for other characters, but her friends Hibari and Botan each have their own issues. In addition to Anne’s group, the characters Hibiki and Ren take more direct roles in these chapters. As part of their education, the class often plays a life size board game that puts them in uncomfortable situations or they are sent out into the world to take on a challenge established by their homeroom teacher.
Chapter 8 offers a new set up for the yuri subplot of classmates Hibiki and Ren. Over these chapters, readers learn Ren has always attracted other females, and species are no barrier. Hibiki hides her latent attraction for Ren by seemingly controlling her for the sake of advancing their team. One of the school games requires Ren to feed Hibiki a pocky stick mouth to mouth. While this volume does not have a strong yuri undertone, these character interactions seem to be developing greatly over the first fourteen chapters of the series.
A slight difference in this volume is the addition of fanservice in the form of Hibari wearing a bunny costume and lingerie. Even though the homeroom teachers, older women with cleavage and curves and weapons, exist to provide cheesecake, the girls have previously remained less sexual in their presentation. That seems to still be the norm, but the creeping in of fanservice only underlines the rather empty storyline that depends more on setting up gags than on advancing a story.
Probably the character I have the most problem with is Botan. She has an inferiority complex and uses self-deprecating descriptions of herself that cross over into a persona of a masochistic or humiliation-loving pervert. Her demeaning talk and her frail health seems to create an odd dynamic between her and the other girls.
The art style of the series tends to vary depending on each chapter’s setting. When in school, especially in scenes where they play the game, the backgrounds have fewer details and the setting becomes more abstract. In some cases, there are no backgrounds or simply screen tones surrounding the characters, but when the stories take place outside, the details of the scene become more important and create interesting juxtapositions between the girls and their surroundings.
This volume builds on the previous, but the characters and the stories remain superficial. The original demographic was seinen, and I feel that too much of the appeal has been limited on creating cute girls with big eyes that seem to have a strange depth. If you like the look of this type of character and want a simple comic that sets up consistently silly gags, then this might be for you.
In Summary
Volume 2 works through the same jokes as the first, but there seem to be additions in these chapters that will appeal to a broader readership. The mangaka spends a significant portion of the volume setting up the yuri angle between Hibiki and Ren. The other girls seem to have their idiosyncrasies and kinks (pun intended) exploited for similar effect to the first seven chapters.
This series seems to be targeted to board game otaku, but this volume begins to introduce fanservice to broaden the appeal. Anne Happy has frustrated me because it has potential. Characters could be more than the stereotypes they are, but the stories make them so egocentric or blind to the others that the group dynamic never develops–even though some of the planned humor depends on readers “feeling” the group’s friendship. Readers who want quick chapters with direct humor will appreciate this volume more than readers looking for anything deeper.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: August 30th, 2016
MSRP: $13.00
