Happy Live Show Up Encore!! (ハッピーライヴ ショウアップ アンコール！！) Review

Honestly, when I heard ハッピーライヴショウアップ！ was getting a sequel, I was both surprised and not surprised at all.

Surprised because the original story was already complete enough that there was basically no room for a sequel. The protagonist marries Sofia and they even have a kid. What’s left to say? Were they going to have him go back to school as a teacher, hang around a bunch of female students, and fall in love with the daughter of one of the previous heroines? That’s a nasty setup.

And the not-surprised part is obvious: Miyabi, who had a decent amount of screen time in the original, was never a romanceable heroine. Her presence was too captivating, her charm impossible to resist — half the time she was stealing the show.

I’m a diehard Natsuwa Komachi fan, but I think she already had enough screen time in this game. There was absolutely no need to force a “romanceable route” just to satisfy some straight-guy OCD, especially when it makes the whole story feel inconsistent.

But it’s not my call. F-chan needs to make money, so ハッピーライヴ ショウアップ アンコール！！, a new release with a brand-new Miyabi-exclusive route, hit the shelves anyway.

One glance at the story structure and it’s clear this whole thing was built around Miyabi — a complete romance story that ties into the main plot. From the very start the protagonist is living with Miyabi, and their cohabitation leads to all sorts of sweet “dumb couple” moments. The repetition rate is a bit high, but the mid-to-late sections pay off: the two confess and make it to home base.

As they exchange sweet nothings, the protagonist and Miyabi lock eyes, the screen fades to white, the gentle ED plays, and the bonus heroine’s romance fan disc reaches its Happy Ending…

Yeah right.

This is where I have to praise F-chan for pulling this off. You’d never expect it: after your protagonist and heroine reach their happy ending, in the little epilogue-like scene at the end, the original game’s true main heroine, Sofia, suddenly charges in. Not only does she bitterly mutter about how she was here first, why did this little minx Miyabi sneak in — she also completely breaks down in all kinds of regret, runs crying through the moonlit city, and even goes to complain to the protagonist’s teacher.

This kind of meltdown easily leaves the player staring at the screen in confusion, feeling a sense of guilt — as if your obsession with Miyabi destroyed the perfect couple that was the protagonist and Sofia, a pair even mandarin ducks would envy.

And the final ending isn’t Sofia making a comeback — it’s her choosing to leave, honing her magic and sorcery skills, and eventually meeting the protagonist again at the top of a bigger stage… And just when you think there’s no knife to twist, the chapter title hits you with “Dream Story.”

Right. So it really was all a dream. And waking up still gets you emotional.

So in Miyabi’s route, the protagonist still ends up happy with Miyabi… Which should be a happy, congratulatory thing, but after that whole Sofia breakdown skit, the player is left feeling uneasy. What really gets you in the gut is that title, almost implying that this isn’t real either.

I know most people don’t like Sofia as a character. But for a visual novel, when you’re in the middle of a romance on one heroine’s exclusive route, and at the crucial moment of the two lovers’ happy ending, the other heroines suddenly pop out like they caught you cheating and demand to know why you chose this one instead of them — that kind of sudden turn is hard for anyone to take. So it’s not hard to understand why players felt that bittersweet sting at the end.

I can also understand why the game does this. On one hand, burying knives in the story is F-chan’s corporate culture at this point. On the other hand, I’d rather see it as the scriptwriter’s “revenge.”

In the original, after all, the scriptwriter’s anointed heroine was Sofia. Her growth and transformation were the main axis of the entire story. The other side characters could be deleted or swapped with little impact. But when the game came out, his main heroine became the most hated character for most players, while Miyabi, written as a villain, became hugely popular. That’s infuriating.

Of course F-chan needs to make money, so the scriptwriter was made to write this Miyabi-focused sequel, but he just couldn’t let go of his true love, so he tacked this onto the tail end of the story.

Trolling the players? Not really, I guess. Most Miyabi fans hate Sofia anyway, so isn’t letting Sofia taste the loser’s bitter cup a satisfying feeling?

And saying it gives pure-love fans a guilty conscience? Not really either, because Miyabi traveled all the way from Japan to Russia to find the protagonist precisely to be the other woman. A pure-love heroine can’t be the other woman, can she?

Thinking about it that way, the scriptwriter pulled off his goal flawlessly, in a way that leaves everyone swallowing bitter medicine — a perfect “True Heroine Raising Plan.”

As for who the “true heroine” actually is, the balance is subtly achieved: whoever you’re rooting for looks like the true heroine to you.