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What starts out as a seemingly cheesy romcom premise - we can't have the ones we really love, so let's hook up as each other's substitutes instead - turns into a complex, scandalous and overall compelling story, emotionally charged and beautifully illustrated.

Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya are two high school students, each with a crush on their respective teachers, Narumi Kanai and Akane Minagawa. When they find out those teachers are falling for each other, Hanabi and Mugi, in a state of emotional despair, make a pact to be a stand-in for each other's object of desire, with the stipulation that they can't fall in ... love with each other. Along the course of the twelve-episode run, other young hearts are drawn into the fray, such as Noriko "Moka" Kamomebata, Mugi's friend since preschool who never lost her crush on him, and Sanae "Ecchan" Ebato, a close female friend of Hanabi's who develops deeper feelings for her.

The series allows us to look into the mindsets and emotions of all persons involved. Some have questionable morals and motivations for sure, and hearts do end up getting broken. But Scum's Wish captures genuinely the complexities of emotional and hormonal development of youth and young adulthood, even if the journey does cross a line or two.