Name: Happy Lesson TV
Type: ANIME
Platform: Video
Company: KSS-inc
Release date: 2001
Reviewed by: Bata-kun
Picture "Love Hina". Go ahead! Picture "Love Hina".
Take the hapless male. Make the guy a high school student. Remove the glasses. Give him a more aggressive personality.
Bring out the main girls, change the presentation of the innocent one to make her look a lot like "Eva's" Rei and give them the same age as "Love Hina's" Haruka or at least close to her age. Make the females the hapless male's mothers instead of girlfriends. Don't worry. We're almost done.
Now, take out all of the dramatic episodes and story. Finally, increase the comedy by a notch. No. Make that two notches.
Okay! It's over. Hey! You have brought out an image of "Happy Lesson".
"Happy Lesson" is based on a Dreamcast adventure game series by Datam Polystar or rather published by that company. The games came out three years ago and the anime started out the year before last year. Like many Japanese games that stayed in the country, I have not played this one yet. There are three OVA's and two television series. The first one, which was 13 episodes long, appeared last year.
Hitotose Chitose's parents died in a tragic accident, but ended leaving him with their house and that's a big responsibility for someone like him. On the verge of quitting school all together, five of his teachers, who are all young women, decide to move in with him and be his surrogate mothers. (That's why the series is called "Happy Lesson".) A scenario like this may seem like a blessing, but it's a bother also for Chitose.
"'Happy Lesson' is glad to be sponsored by Xerox!" Yup, that is about as good a statement as it can get if you describe "Happy Lesson". I don't think it could have been better. Having this formula is a double edged sword and I'll get into that as we go along.
Art - 8
To keep this part short, the art is nice. It is done by Sasaki Mutsumi. The bad trait seen here is that the art is a lot like "Love Hina". Ichimonji Mutsuki-sensei equals Naru. Sanzein Yayoi-sensei equals Motoko. Really similar, huh?
Story - 7
Does the series seem to follow the games? Does the series seem interesting for everyone? Does the series have a lot of originality? "Yes, maybe and no" are your responses in that order.
Audio - 10
The seiyuu: other than Yayoi-sensei's Inoue Kikuko-sama, you won't recognize many of them, unless you have played the games. As a person who has never played the games yet, the group of seiyuu is well, a lot like "Love Hina" and that's a good trait. The music is nice. I love the pop feel in the series.
Fun - 8
What makes "Happy Lesson" a fun series is that it is a series full of twists. Making the women the hapless male's mothers did surprise me right there. Chitose is not like your typical male lead, as he is a guy who seems like he wants to quit life altogether. It's nice to see that an old dog can still learn new tricks.
It's a darn shame that the twists are also backed up by a lack originality. Yeah, I love seeing series like these, and yeah, they're still fun after all of these years, but series like this don't have what it takes to get high scores. They can get solid scores, but not high scores from me. If there was a little more focus on story, the series would get a higher score from me.
Life - 9
Fans of comedy will really get so much joy out of this one. That's for sure.
Overall - 8
In simple terms, "Happy Lesson" is a solid series that could use help in originality at times.
+
Nice art, nice audio, Happy Lesson learned and adopted lessons on how to make the series silly and fun overall.
-
Lack of originality in various categories can and will eat up the series.
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