Happy World!

At only three episodes, it really is difficult for a series to do much. Taking elements from shows like Oh My Goddess (Elle is like Belldandy) and Tenchi Muyo! GXP (Takeshi is like Seina), Happy World! tries to be a comedy and a drama. On the comedy front, the series works pretty well. I got a few good laughs from Takeshi's early bad luck (the dog scene had me rolling) and from Sanae-san's chop attack to shut people up.

The show fails on the drama side. The attempt to make some emotional connection with Takeshi by showng what a rotten father he had didn't really work for me. Then in episode three, we are shown one of Takeshi's undersized female classmates (Kusakabe) and her troubles. It felt too contrived to be effective and the outcome was predictable and done way to many times. Had there been more episodes, maybe this could have been explored more and been more effective.

Finally there's Takeshi. If you saw OMG, Keiichi appreciated his "gift from the heavens" (Belldandy). Takeshi doesn't appreciate Elle that much. He's often abusing her either verbally or physically. Granted he does do some nice things for her too, but on the whole it annoyed me that he'd treat a beautiful angel that poorly.

Bottom line: too short to do much, and the drama is forced. Takeshi's abuse of Elle is annoying. That aside, there are enough laughs in here to make it worth a rent.

Last updated Friday, June 04 2004.