The Happiness Patrol (Season 5)

The fifth season of the British-Japanese dystopic steampunk anime series *The Happiness Patrol* aired from October 26, 2016 to March 8, 2017 in a variety of regions, notably TV Tokyo in Japan, BBC One in the United Kingdom, and NBC in the United States. The season was written and directed by the series' creator, Jay Stevenson, and produced by J-Animations. The soundtrack was composed by Susumu Hirasawa, Shiro Sagisu, and Joe Hisaishi, and features insert songs from a variety of Japanese and Western artists, including Spitz, The Pillows, Shikao Suga, Suede, Alex G, R.E.M.,Boards of Canada and Mitski. The fifth season's opening theme is "Abnormalize" by Ling Tosite Sigure, and its ending theme is "Jobless Monday" by Mitski.

*The Happiness Patrol* takes place in a dystopic society where industrialisation has turned planet Earth into an entirely man-made industrial site, wrought with pollution, overpopulation and crime. The government responsible for this are overthrown in a coup in the events leading up to the series, and the new government's solution to the issue is to reduce overpopulation. A social ranking system is introduced in which every citizen is given a card with their total social point score: the higher the score, the more access and therefore freedom one has. Every three months, the bottom 1 billion in the ranking system are executed. The fifth season of the show follows Zell and Eleanor as they attempt to meet a man called Lewis who discovered Adam's dead body hundreds of miles away from where the organisation is based. Meanwhile, the rest of the Happiness Patrol begin to turn on each other when the government introduce a secret police force, and the group are tipped off that one of their members is enlisted in said force. Despite the fact that the tip-off is revealed to have been a lie, tensions remain high in the group by the season finale.

The season was announced in December 2014, during the airing of the third season. Following Yuri Lowenthal's departure as Adam, the rest of the series' voice cast reprise their roles, including Jason Bateman as Zell, Thandiwe Newton as Eleanor, Alison Brie as Jess, Nicole Kidman as Jara-Kan and Keith Silverstein as Mister. The series aired on Wednesdays at 11 p.m. and consisted of 20 episodes.

The fifth season of *The Happiness Patrol* received critical acclaim from critics. Many were pleased with the change in shift from the slow, emotional and raw fourth season, to a more action-packed and suspenseful fifth season. Critics also cited strong character development in the season, between both Zell and Eleanor in their storyline, and the rest of the cast. One reviewer stated, "The season remains character-driven, but uses its characters in a completely different way to the season before". The voice cast all received praise, with Yuri Lowenthal's departure not seeming to have an impact in performance quality. The storyline surrounding Adam's body received unanimous praise: many felt it was a unique narrative choice, but one that helped serve to explore more of the main cast's morals, objectives, relationships and personalities. The series' art direction was praised, notably for its black-and-white motifs in scenes of confrontation between the main cast. The animation was also praised as being fluid and "hyper-realistic". The series' use of insert songs and its original soundtrack also received critical praise. The series returned to its more violent origins for some elements of the season, but unlike previously, where it was met negatively, critics believed that the show had managed to incorporate scenes of gore within the context of the narrative. Whilst most agreed the season was not as good as its predecessor, the season was seen as carrying on the high quality introduced in the series the previous year. At the 2017 Anime Awards, the anime was nominated for a variety of awards, including Anime of the Year.

Commercially, the season performed well thanks to the critical adoration of the previous series, granting it over 70 million worldwide viewers on average, the peak for the series. Midway through the season's airing, in December 2016, the series was renewed for 4 more seasons, a deal that caught the attention of the press. The series was collected into two 10-episode DVD and Blu-Ray volumes. In 2023, the season was released internationally on Netflix for streaming, as did the rest of the series. A sixth season began airing in October 2017.