Rating:7.33
Approval:53.5% (3 votes)
Happy Lesson Advance is the middle segment of what is effectively a three part series that goes Happy Lesson Happy Lesson Advance Happy Lesson Final. Personally I thought it was the weakest of the three but if you like the series overall it is definitely worth a watch.
Animation: The art for character design and backgrounds are decent, but I really enjoyed the animation. Some of the character reactions and physical humor made me laugh out loud. The individual characters are fairly well done. With 5 women on screen at one time in many shots, it is critical to make them stand apart, and they accomplished this, although I did find a little hard to tell the difference between Chitose’s Homeroom teacher and the school nurse in some scenes, particularly when they were not wearing their trademark attire.
Sound: pretty good. The opening and closing music is catchy and sets the tone for the show, although its somewhat less interesting than the theme music used for other segments of Happy Lesson.
Story: **If you haven’t seen the original Happy Lesson, this might be a spoiler for you** As with the rest of Happy Lesson, this is the story of 5 teachers who adopt and move in with a troubled high school boy and the hilarity that ensues from having 5 mothers with 5 different agendas, all while trying to keep this arrangement a secret from everyone else. The story is good, but it does feel a little stretched. The first and last few episodes seem to be intent on dealing with the ongoing plot while the middle feels like filler. Not always a bad thing, because its good filler, but in a 13 episode series, if you cant fill it up with plot you might want to try harder. The main theme of the show, which is the perilous relationship of the male lead to his teacher/mothers isn’t really advanced much. Instead, the main story of this series is something of a side plot involving a new character who appears as a rival to Chitose.
Characters: Again the trick to making this series work is to make 5 teacher/mothers distinctive from each other. They do a good job in giving them all unique quirks which then play off of each other and off of the embattled Chitose. Chitose (the male lead) is kind of interesting because outwardly he doesn’t seem very likeable, but as with many such characters it is progressively revealed that such characteristics stem more from social awkwardness rather than being a bad person. Nothing hugely original in any of the characters, but they fit well together and are enjoyable to watch.
Value: If you liked the original series, this is worth getting. It’s a lot of more of the same, but the original was good enough to make it worth seeing more. You don’t NEED this series to make the Jump from Happy Lesson to Happy Lesson Final, but it is a lot of good laughs and more of the same situations that made the original great.
Enjoyment: Funny stuff. This isn’t my favorite comedy, but it’s up there. It is a pretty unique spin on the whole “harem anime” genre (one guy surrounded by an otherwise female cast) and makes me laugh as well as care about the characters. If you havnt done so already, get the original Happy Lesson first, and then check this out for more goodness.