Kuzu no Honkai Episode 12 Discussion

Vacu0us said:
that ending was perfect. it was bitter-sweet but very realistic and we don't see stuff like this very often

8/10

Otaku090 said:
Can someone explain the ending to me?

Storm-Sage said:
Yikes...
By episode 2 I figured this was some School Days 2.0
but at least school days had a legendary satisfying ending that made up for how awful everyone was.
This kinda gave everyone a pass and at the very least they came out of it as better people
but really didn't have any redeeming qualities of everyone involved.
Just a terrible story of terrible characters being terrible to each other.

vlaine said:
Le sigh... this anime was like a hard slap in the face. to get this out the way, my rating for it is 8/10. i liked the story, but i disliked most of the characters, which makes sense i guess. it's not called scum's wish for nothing. that said, atsuya and sanae are probably the greatest wingmen in the story. but ill get into that later.

starting from the people i like the least though, i've got mugi sitting at the top of the list. this man had all the knowledge he needed to avoid the worst possible outcome [his own, at least] and instead, failed on every single front. the worst thing about him though, is
how he clearly knows this, and refuses to even resist his own stupidity. it got to the point of stupidity where i stopped caring about the guy by the end of episode 10. he knew who he wanted was the worst person to choose, and he still chose her. now i don't like dishonest characters like akane, but i can at least respect them. mugi, goes beyond this, into full-on stupidity. he not only had 2 (possibly 3) other potential people he could have made something meaningful with, but he burned the fuck out of all of those bridges for the one guaranteed to burn on it's own. (still friends with the 3 i assume, but the point stands). this man is just about everything i dislike about standard MC's, with few, if any of the redeeming qualities that said generic MC's. not even the generic personality. he failed on every front, and the only thing liable to keep him afloat romantically (unless he learned something from this lesson, which i believe he did) is his good looks. his ending, was his choice, he knew what he was asking for, he got what he asked for, and he deserved what he got.

the next person on the list, is actually a tie between akane and takuya, both of whom are the types of personality that i personally despise in real life. to start, takuya, he's bascally a somewhat lower tier, male form of akane, the dude clearly thinks with nothing but his balls, and while it works -for- his character, it does him -as- a character, no service. he's simply a man who can't get who he wants, so he instead went for every other woman possible. a great character, and yes, realistic, but a somewhat shit person.

following that though, is the alpha bitch herself, akane. akane is the kind of woman who deserves little, if anything that she gets, but receives it anyways, because she is beautiful. she's knowingly fucked over (and fucked over) no less than 4 characters in this series, clearly takes joy in breaking relationships, and corrupted just about everybody who came into contact with her. pretty sure anybody past 25 (maybe past 20) has met that kind woman in real life, and the saddest thing about this story, is that this ending, is exactly how many of those women have ended up in real life. married to a man who deserves better, and likely to fuck said man over in the ensuing years simply because they can (applies to takuya as well, to a lesser extent) my dislike of her stems from who she is as a person, how she so cleanly escapes karma, and how her growth is portrayed in contrast to how she's acted up until that point. it's the most rosy ending, for what is clearly the most corrupt person in the cast. no offense to those who think different, but you can't turn a ho into a housewife, nor is the thot process that simple to break. kanai, while happy with what he's getting, deserves somebody who isn't liable to cheat on him in the next 5-10 years.

speaking of captain cuck, he's next on the list. i have nothing against him really, i just don't much like how he's portrayed as the perfect guy, he's basically all the redeeming traits of the generic romcom MC that mugi lacked, with enough forgiveness to give jesus a run for his money. dude's busted in the head man, with a mother complex that's keeping him attached to the worst character (personality wise) in the show. it's not healthy for him, and it kind of saddens me that he gets the jizzy end of the stick in his relationship. dudes fucked in the heard, but he at least deserves somebody better.


after that, comes hanabi, it's not that i don't like her, but that the rest of the people below are that much better imo. and honestly, i don't have too much to say about the people below, or hanabi herself. she's the person i rooted for the most, and she had the most growth in the story, bar possibly akane (who's growth was less rewarding for me, on account of how fake it could turn out down the line). she dealt with the same temptations as the rest of the cast, but unlike the above characters, she slowly learned how better to fight it, how to make up her own mind, and how to value herself without the eyes/ touch of another person. she's more complete than the characters above, and doesn't really realize it until the final episode of the anime. her relationship with mugi went down the drain, but while i was shipping them at first, in the end, i'm glad hanabi didn't get with mugi, not just for her sake, but for his sake as well. there was the point in the middle where they both could have made something of themselves together, but once that point passed, mugi lost his shot at all options, and hanabi was too far ahead of him in personal growth for such a relationship to even be worth shipping. she's the 2nd core of the show alongside akane, but she's the core that made it out without having to trap herself between the wheels.

then we've got noriko, aka moca. who's one of the least developed, but one of the most stable of the main characters in the show. she came in as the annoying sheltered princess in love, but in the short amount of time she got, she took the hurt and rejection, turned it into motivation to do better, and by the last episode, became the 2nd best girl in the show for me. she's still 99% the same girl she was at the start, but she learned, rather quickly, how to grow on her own. she failed her main goal, but she made it through the anime with fewer scars than just about anyone else, and learned from them way faster than anybody else.

which brings me to my favorite 2 people in the anime sanae, and (by extention) her cousin atsuya. sanae and atsuya are the closest things to a wingman this anime has, and their use in the last few episodes exemplifies this perfectly (though i do believe atsuya was shoehorned in rather clumsily). sanae, realizes from the start that her desired ship's gonna sink, and while she knows this, all too well, she tries, for a short while, to keep it afloat, culminating in her breakdown, and acceptance that she'll never be able to get with hanabi. at which point, she vanishes from the anime, but not from the narrative. she's reintroduced this episode, in the best way possible. she knew she couldn't handle her ship sinking, and instead of fucking it up further, she takes some much needed time off, to reform herself, so that she can handle her own feelings, all the while pushing hanabi to do something similar, she's the good friend every character in this series needed (aside from the yuri anyways), but didn't have. and my personal favorite of the group. she kind of had the same problems as captain cuck at the start, but as the story progressed, she realized, with minimal help, that she was not only hurting herself, but that she couldn't really help, or even remain near, her best friend, the way she was, choosing for herself, to change, and adapt.

which is where her cousin, atsuya came in, he was basically the shoehorn to tip the scales of the story, and while that's not the best of writing, it achieved the desired results, and resulted in one of the better characters of the series being created. his advice, and his personality, were both selfish, but they had the hints of wingman needed, to help both hanabi and sanae get over their own individual problems. not too much to say for him outside of that, but he earned his spot next to sanae at the top, simply for being (arguably) the least broken person in the series.

aside from the characters though, the artwork, and style of the anime, were both very well done, and the soundtrack is well made as well, fitting the tone and pace of the series with each arrangement.

so did i enjoy Kuzu no honkai? not really, it was more of a "why am i subjecting myself to this?" than it was a ride of enjoyment. but i did appreciate it. i appreciated the divergence from the standard style of story, because among all the lovey dovey stories you see every day in anime, it's still somewhat refreshing to see something not end the way you want or expect it too. and for all the complaints i may have about who did what (or who), or who didn't do what (or who), i did at least, have something to think about.