It opens by shrugging off its own mythology: the Earth Defense Club saved the world once, probably, nobody's sure, and now five guys who are barely even friends squat in the defunct clubroom to waste time after school. That's the joke this season runs on, and it works, because HAPPY KISS knows the magical girl formula well enough to needle every beat of it while still committing to the sparkle. And it does look better than what came before. The art design is louder, glossier, more genuinely candy colored, and the transformation cues and OP/ED are the kind you stop skipping around episode three and start replaying on purpose. The bathhouse hangouts and the aimless banter carry more of the runtime than any plot does, which is the correct call. It never touches the original LOVE! for wit or heart, and a couple of the five fade into the wallpaper, but if you want twelve episodes of pretty boys treating world-saving as an afterthought, this is it.

Five boys inherit a mysteriously abandoned Earth Defense Club at Binan High without knowing why it exists or what it once did. Their main qualification for membership is proximity and a willingness to hang out in the clubroom after school. That changes when Karurusu, an adorable alien otter-prince from Honyaraland, finds them at the local bathhouse and turns them into magic knights meant to bring happiness to lost souls, all as part of his planet's conquest plans. The catch is that Karurusu isn't the only royal with plans for Earth. Another prince, the fox Rafunui, has his own ideas for the planet and grants power to three dark knights of his own to stand against the new magical boys. What begins as aimless after-school goofing off turns into a comedic mahou shoujo fantasy with a slice-of-life streak.