So pretty!!! 🤩

Any MADK fans here? I’m so obsessed w all the art & character designs

Someone asked me if I had made any art about feeling trapped in one's own mind, like you're going crazy just wanting to get out. I thought the idea was so inspiring (and one that I could relate to), I ended up drawing it!

Made this little manga one-pager last night :3

Titled "Thick Skin"

It follows a boy exploring existential dread after a failed facial transplant surgery.

This is my first ever one-shot I submitted to manga plus creators.

I had so many ideas for this but I had to keep it short and simple. I didn't know much about pacing this manga and thats why some of the scenes felt poorly executed. I hated this manga since I had a lot of ideas for it but since this was done in a 2 week deadline I decided to rush it.

My Art has improved a lot tho since I switched to digital

Here's a preview to the horror graphic novel/American manga I'm writing, tell me what you think

Despite someone just falsely calling this "surface level loli," one thing I love about Happy Sugar Life & Kagisora's work is there's so many layers. It's the oneeloli yuri onion that never stops peeling. Even if you don't like it's content, calling it "surface level" as if it's some Dragon Maid fan service is delusional because there's so much hidden meanings you don't realize until months/years later.

I've watched the anime 3 times, read the manga almost twice & somehow I still missed this. Both u/Descowo & I pointed out the connection to the aunt's locked room & how there's some weird parallel between that one & the locked door in Satou's apt.

I talked about how it's like they both have locked away their shame, the parts of themselves they don't want anyone else to see. Desco mentioned how it clear that Satou is having flashbacks when the police try to open up that very same room, >!confirming the CSA by the aunt + her men!<.

Desco was right.

Look at these 4 panels vry carefully. When I first skimmed this, I naturally assumed she's talking about the boys from her school--she's not. Look at the context--the boys only had missing eyes where this is once again painted in black. >!Three men stand over her which would be a rather unusual situation even for a HS sl*t. !<With the added context that she's having this flashback at the same time she's opening the locked room which mimics the aunt's >!molestation room!<

>This is a flashback to Satou being >!molested !<by at least 3 men simultaneously as a child, her aunt let this happen (maybe she even got paid for it, how does she pay the landlord after all?)

Sugar. Salt. Pepper. (Shouko backwards) Sweetness. Bitterness. What's this taste in my mouth?

We all know sugary sweets is a, if not the, main theme of Happī Shugā Raifu. But why?
Some of the obvious surface level discussions are it's part of the duality & contradictions of HSL. It's sweet on the surface but bitter, dark & horrifying on the inside (much like Satō's childhood.)

>Another analysis is Satou's childhood was so traumatic & she was taught the wrong idea of love that she now fails to understand her own emotions. She conflates sexual abuse with love before Shio so ofc she doesn't understand happiness or sadness; from right or wrong. She describes her feelings as flavors because that's the only way she understands them partly due to her aunt.

>Because auntie taught her that love has many flavors & they're all as good as the rest.

Both these interpretations are correct. Like I said in the past a lot of the metaphors have multiple meanings, not just one. However, in the HSR fanbook (above) Kagisora drops the fact to us ignorant westerners that their last names are Japanese meat brands. Which is a contradiction to the sugar sweets & *almost* don't match..

But we constantly see a repetitive theme of not just sweets but eating & consumption ‼️

It reminds me of this scene from the infamous Spirited Away

Asahi \"I'm going to eat you, Matsusaka.\" (notice the fork)

Sugar Girl Eats Love. Boy Eater.
The literal Japanese translation of chapter 1 is “The Sugar Girl Feeds on/Consumes Love.” The verb 食む (hamu) is interesting because it isn't merely the ordinary “eat” (食べる / taberu). It can mean to eat/feed on/consume, and can have a somewhat literary or figurative quality. The official English localization renders it “The Sugar Girl Eats Up Love.”

Kagisora repeatedly describes Satō through consumption verbs:

>Satō has an appetite for love and people become the objects through which she attempts to satisfy it.

When the anime adaptation was announced in March 2018, Kagisora's comment was essentially that she wanted to watch Satō and Shio come alive on screen while eating meat:

>「さとうやしおが画面の向こうで動き出すのを、お肉を食べながら一視聴者として見守りたいと思います。」

“I think I'll watch Satō and Shio moving on the other side of the screen as an ordinary viewer while eating meat.”

It's not just about sugary sweets. It's about the consumption of people. Now I'm going to diverge from strictly canon stuff into my own interpretation. It's about the commodification of kids.

As someone who's talked about prison abolition, a point I've heard a handful of times is "fixing capitalism might stop crimes of poverty but it won't stop pedophilia." While there is a truth to this I would actually heavily pushback. Capitalism directly feeds the exploitation & trafficking of minors. "WHY IS THERE MAOIST TALK IN MY YURI!??" actually Happy Sugar Life is filled to the brim with critiques on capitalism especially the kind found in modern Japanese culture but that's such a powerful discussion we're gonna save that one for later.

Capitalism is the commodification of human experiences. We commodify love. We commodify connection. We even commodify 3rd spaces so you can't even exist for free. Capitalism creates a global power imbalance that creates exploitation in "3rd world" countries that are having their resources extracted from them while receiving little in return. The rich countries/citizens have the economic power to pay at-risk women to exploit, sell, etc. their own children. (How is this about Happy Sugar Life?) Well we know auntie SA's Satou. We know auntie has men over her apt who she services & while she isn't doing this strictly for money (nor is it even her main motivation) as this is kinda her thing she does end up giving Satou *an insane amount of money* in which you have to ask where did that come from.

\"Auntie, this candy is hard to eat!\"

\"you were only a dessert.\"

Happy Sugar Life in the 1st few chapters immediately establishes adults preying on children & comparing that experience to consumption. This one is more obvious, especially with the sweets reference. But then I noticed consumption is hidden throughout the entire fucking series!???

\"What should I make for dinner tonight?\"

I saved this panel as a joke but the more I read it the more I can't unsee it. Okay I'm starting to feel a little insane but really think about it: she asks "What should I make for dinner tonight?" and immediately following is the Shio poster, as if it's the universe continuing the conversation for her. Remember Kagisora rarely writes random nonsense words. She's much like Aaron Sorkin where no word is wasted, so much of what she says had meaning even if it's subtle. The poster quite literally says "salted meat."

>Let's go back: “I think I'll watch Satō and Shio moving on the other side of the screen as an ordinary viewer while eating meat.”

You know damn well I'm not pulling this from my ass. And as uncomfortable as this makes us, Satou is The Sugar Girl Eats Love. She was exploited by so many people in her life from her aunt to the men around her who used her for her body whiling filling her jar with empty meaningless words. So ofc this behavior is something she reflected onto Shio at first before her character development. On top of that the meat brand Kōbe is actually top-shelf beef with strict standards in order to qualify as the "God's door" of meats. She was going to "consume" Shio in the way that she has been consumed. After all, she's waiting at home to greet her. It would be a quick meal.

The commodification of all of our lived experiences directly fuels the cycle of abuse (as seen in Yuuna's backstory) & CSA. We see it in marketing like in Cuties. We see it in clothing brands of children. We see it in music, on Disney, Nickelodeon. The reality is pedophilia pays--a lot. The market for these things are directly created by capitalism.

The teacher's perverted desires may not stem directly from capitalism. But the normalization & desensitization to these things are created by market forces.

>People dare to call Happy Sugar Life "pedo slop" but the more I think about the stories it tells the more I can't help but think it's actually calling out the commodification of children that turns people into meat eaters. It's a force as powerful as auntie's or imperial manager's abuse.

Update: forgot this part, to add to the analysis in the 1st few drafts of The Sugar Girl Eats Love--Kagisora was planning to make a story about carnivorous/predatory animals. In that initial draft, Satou & Shio still existed (because they're true lovers in every universe) but Shio was a black lion & Satou is a bear

She still made a story about carnivorous predator animals, she just made them look human

Suehiro Maruo recently tweeted (now deleted) that a new Midori figure is in the works which is very exciting!