I'm not into serious romantic dramas because in my experience they often fall in the same pitfalls of being littered with coincidences and inauthentic will they/won't they designed to extend the drama past still having anything genuine to say. At these shows' worst, I expect something like Domekano, an anime just littered with bruh moments; shocking but shallow scenes whose existence made for one of the most tiring and forceful reads I've experienced. As such I was not looking forward to watching Scum's Wish when my friend told me to. Based on the controversy, I was expecting Domekano 2: The Resurrection but thankfully I couldn't
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be more wrong.
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One of the simplest most important ways that Scum's Wish separates itself from other romantic dramas is the extent to which it keeps respect in its characters while being provocative and dramatic. Even in its more ecchi scenes, due to the panel-like presentation and the detached, kensuke ushio-esque soundtrack, it's always titillating for the characters in the show without being titillating for the audience at all. This way it never comes across as exploitative or even like pornographic; the vibe is always that they're doing ecchi shit because that's what real people do and what the story calls for rather than doing it for the audience watching. As a result, it can properly explore a very specific kind of immature, inevitable, adolescent relationship in a brutally honest way. Even aside from the ecchi scenes, the detached nature of the presentation is extremely important when it comes to the decisions that the characters make. The show never tries to glorify its characters or the actions that they take; the story only works at all because they rarely make the correct decisions, but it never berates them for making messy decisions that would be inevitably made by anyone in their position. It always just presents the information straight and lets the audience take it how they will, which makes it more interpretable based on personal experience. It's also more naturalistic than most anime of its genre; relationships form and end naturally, and the dialogue feels like a conversation people in real life could have as opposed to lines that are meant for an audience, which, in this anime specifically goes a long way into making its more controversial subject matter more believable and understandable.
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At its core, Scum's Wish is about filling the void left in your heart and tying your sense of self-worth with other people through toxic, unhealthy relationships, shown through its main 4 characters: Hanabi, Mugi, Akane, and Narumi. Hanabi and Mugi are both on the rejected end of an unrequited love with Narumi and Akane respectively, so the two form a relationship as a coping mechanism but naturally, it doesn't actually end up satisfying either of their desires. The two have similar arcs in terms of attempting to regain a sense of loss, but they differ in how they deal with it; to attempt to feel loved, Hanabi does toxic things to herself and her friend, all the while comparing herself to her as a child and feeling her self-worth downward spiral, whereas Mugi tries to grasp onto the miniscule hopes he has left to make things happen with Akane, tunnel visioning into it and not batting an eye to everything else in his life. It's quite difficult to watch the two bring out the worst in each other because the conflict is rooted in very understandable, grounded desires, but develops in severe, albeit realistic ways. Akane on the other hand, loves herself and gets self-worth out of hurting and fucking with others, but only does it to protect herself from being the one getting hurt. While there is no true villain to Scum's Wish, Akane is the perfect foil to the other two and acts as an excellent catalyst for conflict.
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Although the story is partially defined by its characters' bad decisions, it doesn't let that dictate what the story stands for, since all of the characters have their own redemption arcs that stem off of the bad decisions they had already made. [SPOILER] Hanabi and Mugi learn that they have to be able to split up to stop enabling the worst parts of each other and allow themselves to actually find true love instead of faking it to feel better. Not to mention Narumi, this sly motherfucker looked like he was gonna be the weakest character in the show because he didn't have any underlying depressive shit going on, but it was exactly his ability to straightforwardly love which snapped Akane out of her head and made her realise she wasn't as detached from the world as she thought since someone was willing to accept her despite being fucked that made him the most mature out of the main cast.
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All of this is to say, Scum's wish is brutally honest but extremely authentic, and very purposeful in how it encourages change in the audience, which it smears amongst every aspect of its writing and presentation, more so than any high school romance anime in my eyes.
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Feb 21, 2021
Kuzu no Honkai
(Anime)
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I'm not into serious romantic dramas because in my experience they often fall in the same pitfalls of being littered with coincidences and inauthentic will they/won't they designed to extend the drama past still having anything genuine to say. At these shows' worst, I expect something like Domekano, an anime just littered with bruh moments; shocking but shallow scenes whose existence made for one of the most tiring and forceful reads I've experienced. As such I was not looking forward to watching Scum's Wish when my friend told me to. Based on the controversy, I was expecting Domekano 2: The Resurrection but thankfully I couldn't
...
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