"You were all proud of that humongous bell around your neck without even knowing what a cowbell is."
Nanami holds a party to show off her expensive jewelry, but Juri casually upstages her at her own party. As luck would have it, Nanami receives a mystery box from a famous jewelry designer just in time to salvage her big reveal — a luxury cowbell. She wears it proudly around the Academy but soon finds herself turning into a cow.
"Cowbell of Happiness" provides examples of:
- Big Eater: Nanami gradually becomes this the longer she wears the cowbell.
- Bull Seeing Red: Anthy presents Utena with a freshly knitted red sweater just in time for Nanami to turn into a cow, resulting in a bullfighting scene.
- Catapult Nightmare: Nanami jolts awake after dreaming that Touga sold her for slaughter.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Nanami holds a fancy party for the purpose of showing off a piece of jewelry, but is upstaged by Juri who shows up wearing even classier jewelry. Desperate to remain the belle of her own ball, she seizes on the unexpected arrival of the "Sebastian Dior" box to bring the focus back on her. And it works... but not in the way she thinks it does.
- Contrived Coincidence: By way of Rule of Funny. Anthy is the one who ordered that cow bell, for her pet cow that just happens to be named Nanami as well, from a designer named Cowstian, and the mailman got the packages mixed up. She also spends the episode knitting a red sweater for Utena, and gives to her right in front of Nanami which causes Nanami to flip and turn into a cow for real.
- Everyone Has Standards: Nanami's lackeys are horrified to various degrees when she unveils the cowbell around her neck. Yuuko's shocked, Keiko's repulsed, and Aiko looks like she lost the will to live.
- Fictional Counterpart: The necklace that Nanami ordered was from Sebastian Dior, a reference to real-life fashion designer Christian Dior
. Meanwhile, Anthy ordered the cowbell for her cow named Nanami from a designer named Cowstian Dior. - Forced Transformation: Nanami's cowbell slowly turns her into a cow the longer she wears it; at first she just shows cow-like mannerisms, but towards the end of the episode she actually becomes a cow.
- Hand Gagging: Characters are generally reluctant to say the word "cow" during this episode. Yamada, Tanaka, and Suzuki grab Utena and cover her mouth just as she is about to say the word. She punches them out — one, two, three — for laying hands on her like that.
- Hurricane of Puns:
- In Japanese, this episode leans heavily on the homophony of the sound a cow makes ("mō") and a common expression of exasperation ("mō".)
- While the English version localizes the brand name as "Cow-stian Dior," in Japanese it is "Koushi-chan Dior" where "koushi" means "calf."
- Right before Nanami turns into a cow she lets loose a pun-storm of words that begin with "mō."
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Utena, of all people, keeps telling Nanami it's weird for her to wear a cowbell since it's a thing meant for cows, without stopping to realize it's along the same logic lines as the people who tell her she can't wear a boy's school uniform. Nanami even calls her out on this, with Utena not appreciating the comparison.
- Later on, Juri comments on Nanami's obsession with status as a fool's quest... while Juri just happens to be covered in jewelry. Miki replies that he doesn't believe Juri's sincere.
- Inappropriate Pride: Nanami is delivered a cowbell she insists is from fashion designer Sebastian Dior, and starts wearing it everywhere, convinced that everyone's stares of perplexity is just envy.
Then she starts acting like a cow and things get even weirder. To cap it off, the cowbell was actually ordered by Anthy from the designer "Cowstian Dior" for her pet cow, also named Nanami, and the mailman just got mixed up. - Infomercial: Anthy is watching a late-night home shopping program offering a Sebastian Dior pendant. The audience doesn't get to see it, but Anthy admires it.
- Non Sequitur Environment: The finale of this episode throws continuity of time and place out the window.
- The scene ostensibly occurs in a park late at night, but since it's time for the confrontation and there hasn't been a shadow play, the background abruptly changes, without a cut, to the school locker room at sundown so C-ko can do her thing.
- Once the shadow play wraps up the show gets back to the action... except that it is now a sunny day in an alpine pasture with Ohtori Academy inexplicably in the background.
- Not His Sled: This episode is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Emperor's New Clothes, but with the twist that there evidently is actual magic going on which can turn the proud and gullible into barnyard animals.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Everyone is shocked and horrified when Nanami unveils her latest "addition" to her collection and it's a cowbell.
- Mitsuru, Utena, and Anthy have this reaction when they see Nanami's literally eating grass. Though Anthy might've been playing it up.
- Running Gag: Whenever someone thinks about saying the word "cow" or points out what wears cowbells, a silhouette of a cow mooing or a still of a farm with yodeling playing over it is shown.
- The Shadow Knows: In Nanami's dream she has a cow's shadow instead of a human one, and when she talks the cow-shadow has lip-flap. Her human form is a motionless, blacked out silhouette.
- Take Our Word for It: Anthy later reveals she also ordered a nose ring for her cow Nanami. The girl Nanami shows up for a Student Council meeting, and while the audience is mercifully spared the sight Nanami wearing that nose ring, we do hear Miki and Juri crying out in horror.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: A Japanese translated version of the Yiddish folk song "Dona Dona" is often a part of Japanese school music curricula, which is how it ended up in this episode. According to Ikuhara the similarities of theme between the events of the story and the song are coincidental; one of the staffers read the script and was reminded of the lyrics of "Dona Dona," after which Ikuhara decided to incorporate the song.
- Yodel Land: The episode flirts with Heidi, Girl of the Alps ambiance every time someone thinks about saying the word "cow." It commits to the bit with gusto once Nanami is on the verge of actually becoming a cow.
