Sato is a horrible person.

This is an interesting series for the position it puts the reader in. It’s not quite like those stories where the protagonist does some terrible things but we see them positively enough to basically be on their side, but it’s also not like the ones where everyone is so horrible across the board that you don’t ever care what happens to anyone.

In this one I begin to feel sympathy in several different directions, then each time the reality Shawn articulates kicks in: “Nope—horrible.”

Except for Shio, of course. Shio isn’t horrible, just the (mostly) innocent catalyst for horror heaped upon horror.

The great thing about how long it's been since the last update, is that I don't really remember what happened in the anime.

...

I really hope that they haven't forgotten anything

...

I really hope they didn't

If this ends exactly the same way as the anime im going to be really disappointed.
even though in real life sato is obviously a bad guy, this is a story so please give satou a good end~ the author already went out of the box with this story, with sato being like a super yandere, killing people and kidnapping a loli, then suddenly the ending becomes a run of the mill bad guy dies, it's like how shouko tried to hear out sato but didn't have to guts to accept her. please author-sensei, i know it's gonna be controversial, but i hope you'll find the guts to give a bad guy a good ending to truly make this story unique and different! :3

I think the point of this story is that Sato is so damaged, and has done so much damage to others as a result, that it's just not sustainable. There can't really be a happy ending here. She's murdered, she's kidnapped. We the readers, as a witness from the outside looking in, have to accept the flicker of what could have been but never will be that we can see, and the melancholy "happiness" that as twisted as she is, Sato did find some mote of happiness and peace before her inevitable sad end.

You can argue that the anime ending is actually morally worse than a typical ‘happy ending’ though.

For a happy ending that Satou and Shio successfully escape, there is that black spot of Satou escaping her crimes uncharged. The anime ending however, have Shio being implied to be haunted and possessed by Satou’s ideal. She is no longer only physically imprisoned by Satou, her entire mind and soul now is trapped by Satou, forever. And considering we never know why Satou’s aunt that fked up, it’s possible that Shio could end up a twisted version like the aunt is

Still best aunt though

Is the "aunt" her real mother?

Is the "aunt" her real mother?

at this point, she might as well be!

ok great im gonna go ahead and pretend this entire clusterfuck of a story ended on page 120 and live my own happy sugar life by imagining my girls chilling on a malibu beach with that bag of gold that auntie gave her

I think the point of this story is that Sato is so damaged, and has done so much damage to others as a result, that it's just not sustainable. There can't really be a happy ending here. She's murdered, she's kidnapped. We the readers, as a witness from the outside looking in, have to accept the flicker of what could have been but never will be that we can see, and the melancholy "happiness" that as twisted as she is, Sato did find some mote of happiness and peace before her inevitable sad end.

You can argue that the anime ending is actually morally worse than a typical ‘happy ending’ though.

For a happy ending that Satou and Shio successfully escape, there is that black spot of Satou escaping her crimes uncharged. The anime ending however, have Shio being implied to be haunted and possessed by Satou’s ideal. She is no longer only physically imprisoned by Satou, her entire mind and soul now is trapped by Satou, forever. And considering we never know why Satou’s aunt that fked up, it’s possible that Shio could end up a twisted version like the aunt is

Still best aunt though

I actually haven't watched the anime, I just know what happened in it from people here discussing it.

I mean, yes, I agree. The story is "Happy Sugar Life". "Satou" means "sugar". It's definitely not an overreach that Sato's influence on Shio ("salt") is just like how it works in the real world--adding sugar to something that is too salty will negate the saltiness... but too much will ruin the dish. Sato has "overriden" Shio, who was already coping poorly with some pretty heavy psychological issues. And in the end, like I said, Sato can't escape from her reality. She was finally able to enjoy a happy, syrupy sweet life for a while, but it has to end and can't end well. The title is quite clever.

last edited at Apr 4, 2019 4:59AM

If this ends exactly the same way as the anime im going to be really disappointed.
even though in real life sato is obviously a bad guy, this is a story so please give satou a good end~ the author already went out of the box with this story, with sato being like a super yandere, killing people and kidnapping a loli, then suddenly the ending becomes a run of the mill bad guy dies, it's like how shouko tried to hear out sato but didn't have to guts to accept her. please author-sensei, i know it's gonna be controversial, but i hope you'll find the guts to give a bad guy a good ending to truly make this story unique and different! :3

I think the point of this story is that Sato is so damaged, and has done so much damage to others as a result, that it's just not sustainable. There can't really be a happy ending here. She's murdered, she's kidnapped. We the readers, as a witness from the outside looking in, have to accept the flicker of what could have been but never will be that we can see, and the melancholy "happiness" that as twisted as she is, Sato did find some mote of happiness and peace before her inevitable sad end.

Yea but i feel like she's just trying to make do with the cards she was dealt. and also it's funny that after all her crimes, i feel like the only one that was uncalled for was when she did in shouko. the person she murdered was as seen in the anime going to kill shio, and i wouldn't call it kidnapping if she took a girl left there to fend for herself. i could think of like a dozen much more horrible scenarios that could've happened to shio if sato wasn't there. and yes you could argue that she should've returned shio to her family, what would she be returning to? shio's mother already accepted the fact that her daughter can't live in that situation anymore so she let her go (which could've been handled a bit more properly than just leaving her there) and watching the anime, i feel like the brother is actually a bad guy since yea, he was just trying to get back his family, but what will they return to? they barely had enough to eat and he prolly drained their resources even further from printing and posting all those posters (here in where i live, photocopying is crazy expensive you could eat a full meal with the cost). all in all, i guess i just wanna see sato have a happy ending. because of the idea of someone in a situation where their only choice is a bad ending is just so sad. i feel like the author giving the story a good ending would be like saying "it's never too late for anyone, no matter what they went through". just gives hope i feel. but with the anime ending, it felt so sad, like after going through all that shit her reward is dying. geez. anyway, before someone responds with "reality is like that, it's cruel" and all that, i know it full well and is the very reason i'd like to see a good end for a person who went through a lot, it just sends a message i guess of there's light at the end of the tunnel. and i think it wouldn't be condoning doing crimes since as i stated only shouko's was uncalled for, but that's just me, guess i really fell for the author selling sato as like the tragic heroine >w<

lel just finished reading the latest chapter after my previous post. this will 99% end the same as the anime. shame. >w<

lel just finished reading the latest chapter after my previous post. this will 99% end the same as the anime. shame. >w<

Be optimistic.

I feel like the manga did everything much better. The subtle guilt of Shouko’s death killing Satou from inside. The revealing of Satou past somehow redeemed and rationalise Satou’s thinking, not to mention the anime rushed like hell toward the end.

Hopefully we will have a happier ending for everyone

Oh god things are going to be so intense these final chapters.

If this ends exactly the same way as the anime I'm going to be really disappointed.

You and me both.
Any ending except a Satou/Shio lovey-dovey happy ending (preferably in some foreign country where nobody will bother them) is going to make me very disappointed.

last edited at Apr 4, 2019 3:33PM

I think Satou needs to die for the story to make sense. It's just the natural course of events for a tale like this. Maybe she'll get caught and go to prison, maybe she'll end up on the run and unable to ever see Shio again, hell maybe Shio will die (I think that'd be the cruelest ending for Satou), but however it happens, this is just the kind of narrative that almost always ends badly. All the signs of the last few chapters point towards death.

While Satou has been preparing, subplots set in motion by her earlier actions were building up in the background. It looks like she might get away with it, but the framing makes clear that she has less and less control over the situation. Meanwhile, Satou herself has been changing. Nothing else caused her the slightest bit of regret, but her murder of Shouko has been weighing on her. Her crimes are catching up with her. The stage is set, the players have arrived, things are coming to a head. That apartment has been her sanctuary, but its protections are fading, her pursuers are almost there. There's going to be a showdown in her castle, and it won't end well for her.

I don't want this to end exactly like the anime, but my problems with that ending were mostly the details and execution. I think the general concept is simply the natural result of this kind of story, and of the details of this particular example.

I'm weirdly torn between them having a happy ending and not. Huh.

I guess you can call that good writing, really.

I don't understand what exactly the aunt did to traumatize Sato so much, making Sato hating her. At the beggining of the manga, my theory was that the aunt sexually abused her, and despite turning into a pedophile as consequence, Sato didn't want to do the same with Shio, because this isn't love. But now that my theory isn't true, I don't get it. Did the aunt taught Sato that hurtful things are love? That's the problem between them?

The Yuki chan of Yuri

I don't understand what exactly the aunt did to traumatize Sato so much, making Sato hating her. At the beggining of the manga, my theory was that the aunt sexually abused her, and despite turning into a pedophile as consequence, Sato didn't want to do the same with Shio, because this isn't love. But now that my theory isn't true, I don't get it. Did the aunt taught Sato that hurtful things are love? That's the problem between them?

This is my wild guess too. But there was a Satou flashback panel of Satou’s aunt in suggestive clothes on the floor with Satou’s favourite teddy bear been torn apart next to her.

Knowing Satou aunt and her masochism, plus her talent in triggering people up to use violence to sexually abuse her. It’s very possible that she was triggering up the young Satou’s violent tendency (like breaking her favourite toy) to provoke Satou into sexually abusing her and satisfying her masochism. Meanswhile convincing Satou that, such twisted actions are actually love

Which will fk up any child’s sense to differentiate between love and abuse , right and wrong, exactly how current Satou is

last edited at Apr 7, 2019 9:55AM

This hunt me again

Yup they forgot IT

...

What tension! Could this be the end of ...

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?!

She gave her candy calling it love, but some were poisoned, that would have traumatised a kid and also the living environment of her house is horrible

I'm sorry to say this... but that's 100%, completely wrong. The aunt's lines about poisoned candy was a metaphor for her view on love. To her, love is something you experience over and over again with many different kinds of people—like a candy jar with lots of different flavors. You quickly "eat" them and they're gone, but there's always more out there. She invites lots of people into her home to "love". But some of them are "poison" people who proceed to beat her or violently abuse her. The aunt sees even these "poison" people as valuable and worth loving.

As to the original question, I don't know if the aunt "did" anything in particular to Satou. But obviously that apartment would be a miserable place to grow up. The aunt had a parade of random strangers constantly coming through to fuck her, and some of them were extremely violent. She left used condoms, bloody bandages, and other garbage lying all over the place. Did she ever act like a parent to Satou at all? Did she feed her? Cloth her? Help her get to school? No clue, but judging by what we know of her, the aunt was clearly a very negligent guardian, at the very best.

At the worst, well... with all these violent, depraved people coming by this apartment looking for sex, it's not hard to imagine that much worse than negligence could happen to a young girl who happened to live there. Would the aunt have even tried to protect Satou if somebody tried something? This is purely speculative. There's nothing in the text that suggests Satou was abused (at least, nothing suggesting she was abused by her aunt's "lovers"). But let's just say that this is not a good environment for a child to grow up in, and a range of awful things could've happened to her.

last edited at May 5, 2019 9:03PM

OOOOOOOHHHHH it's different from the anime! We have hope! Just don't fucking come back for the ring, let the brother be burnt to death and stuff

last edited at May 5, 2019 9:20PM

OOOOOOOHHHHH it's different from the anime! We have hope! Just don't fucking come back for the ring, let the brother be burnt to death and stuff

it's only the most important thing in their lives, so OF COURSE they're coming back for it!

OOOOOOOHHHHH it's different from the anime! We have hope! Just don't fucking come back for the ring, let the brother be burnt to death and stuff

it's only the most important thing in their lives, so OF COURSE they're coming back for it!

Of course not. The most important thing are each other!!! And the new happy sugar life they both dream of!!! You can't risk it just for a ring, the promise is what matters, being by each other's side. It would be utterly stupid for them to go back for it.

last edited at May 5, 2019 10:07PM

We're getting close. That's good.