Happiness! centers around Yūma Kohinata, a high school student attending Mizuhosaka Academy's regular section of the school, and his close friends Jun Watarase and Hachisuke Takamizo. The other section of the school, aptly named the magic section, was founded in order to train mages in the art of using magic. The day afterValentine's Day, a gas explosion at the magic section causes all the mages in training to transfer to the normal sectionfor the time being. Two girls from the magic section, Haruhi Kamisaka and Anri Hiiragi, are placed in Yūma's class. Now Haruhi and her friends must adjust to the transfer into the normal section of Mizuhosaka Academy.
Happiness! is the sixth title developed by the visual novel developer Windmill. The project's planning was headed by Kocha and Chatora, who also served as the director. The scenario was written by four people: Chatora, Celery, Kei Watanabe and Ayaka. The art director and character design was provided by Kocha, and the super deformed illustrations were done by Yui Haga. The music in the game was composed by members of Elements Garden and OdiakeS under the name Ecnemuse. Happiness! was released in Japan on October 21, 2005 as a limited edition version, playable only on Windows PCs as a DVD; the regular edition was released on November 18, 2005. The limited edition came bundled with an illustration booklet and the game's original soundtrack. A fan disc titled Happiness! Re:Lucks was released on July 28, 2006 as a limited edition version playable on a Windows PC as a DVD; the regular edition was released on September 15, 2006. Developed by Windmill's sister brand Windmill Oasis, the staff for Re:Lucks was largely the same as the original game, except for the scenario staff, which was divided between Chatora, Celery, Eiji Takashima, Hare Kitagawa and Kei Hozumi. Happiness! was ported to the PlayStation 2 by Marvelous Interactive under the title Happiness! De:Luxe on January 25, 2007.
Adaptations
Novels
Harvest published seven novels based on Happiness! from April 2006 to July 2008. The first two were written by Nikaidō Kageyama, the next four were written by Satoshi Mikado, and the last was written by Mutsuki Mizusaki.
Manga
A manga adaptation, illustrated by Rino Fujii, was serialized in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine between the August 2006 and June 2007 issues. Two tankōbon volumes were released: the first on December 22, 2006 and the second on May 23, 2007.
Anime
A 12-episode anime adaptation written by Satoru Nishizono, directed by Hiroshi Hara, and produced by Artland, aired on Japan television between October 5 and December 21, 2006. On January 25, 2007, an original video animation episode was released with the first print limited edition of Happiness! De:Luxe. Two pieces of theme music are used for the anime: one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Happiness!" by Ayumi Murata, and the ending theme is "Magical Generation" by Yui Sakakibara. The anime's original soundtrack was released on November 22, 2006 in Japan, published by Media Factory. It was released on DVD in Japan from December 5, 2006 to May 25, 2007. Maiden Japan licensed the series and released the complete series on DVD on April 1, 2014.
Music
The opening theme of the Happiness! visual novel is "Zero" by Hiromi Satō, and the ending theme is "Mezame no Asa" by the voice actresses of the four main heroines, performing under the name Happiness! Heroines. The opening theme of Happiness! Re:Lucks is "Happi-day♪" by Yui Sakakibara, and the ending theme is "With You..." by Hiromi Satō. The opening theme of Happiness! De:Luxe is "Happiness Hōteishiki" by Yui Sakakibara, and the ending theme is "Ohayō" by Ayumi Murata.
Reception
In a 2007 survey of Dengeki G's Magazine readers, Happiness! ranked 38th in a list of "the most interesting bishōjo games"; a five-way tie with Tokimeki Memorial 2, Tsukihime, Welcome to Pia Carrot G.O. and .
