Scum's Wish came at a time when I was searching for unconventional anime to get me interested in watching anime again. Alongside "Happy Sugar Life", I'm really glad I've made my return. This is the stuff that makes me proud to be a weeb. This is the kind of powerful experience people who dismiss anime as scummy lewd content doesn't understand. This is the kind of daring story that dares to tell something different and force you to rethink about life and all its complexities, all its hardships, and all its pain. So, so much pain. And happiness too.
Plot: 9
It would be really easy for someone to compare it to "Happy Sugar Life", maybe generalizing it as a "lighter HSL", but I do feel like it's comparing apples and oranges. Whereas HSL is more focused on a single girl's self-discovery about what love means to her, Scum's Wish is an ensemble cast story that paints a big picture filled with fascinating but broken people clawing their way to their scummiest of desires, no matter how taboo society has deemed such wants to be. Whereas HSL focuses more on how Satou's perspective of love changes and develops, Scum's Wish is more about how the perspectives of multiple characters mature further into a state that they can be relatively satisfied with.
The premise is about two high school students, Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya, both of whom knew their love could never be. Hanabi is in love with her childhood neighbor and teacher, Narumi Kanai, while Mugi is in love with Akane Minagawa, another teacher in the same school. Their love met a turning point when they learned that Narumi and Akane were in love with each other, and thus they buried their feelings deep. But upon a chance encounter, Hanabi and Mugi discover the other's circumstances and decide to assume each other's body as that of their respective love interest, satisfying their forbidden fantasy of being with their treasured love one.
If that premise alone isn't enough to catch your attention, there are a number of other lovers thrown in the mix as well. But because it's nothing as outrageous as the kind of loves present in Happy Sugar Life, many viewers might appreciate this more realistic approach and could even relate with these various innocent expressions of love, and perhaps cry along at the painful life the scums have chosen for themselves.
I'm of the school of belief that the ending can really determine whether if it was worth it for me to sit through 6 hours of staring at the screen (and worsening my myopia), because the ending is where all the themes and ideals of the characters come together in a final sum-up, a final statement to drive home the point the writers want to make. Before the final episode, I was a little bored of the series (more so than HSL) because there have been quite a number of episodes where Hanabi and Mugi were just whining and moping incessantly about how their lovers were outta their reach. Though such moments are compensated by the exploration of other character journeys, they do slow down the pacing a bit that I wasn't looking forward to each following episode. There was also too much time in building up Akane's drama in my opinion that almost forced it into the typical shoujo love-triangle territory.
However, when that ending came, it hit pretty hard just how far all of the characters here have come and all the lessons about life that they've learned. It was such a satisfying yet realistic conclusion. It was the only conclusion that made sense, but the thing is, I thought the writers would have taken the cheap conventional way out, giving the main characters a reward for struggling for so long. I didn't expect the writers to have the guts to take such a realistic approach to what could have been a sappy love story. It almost reminds me of another favorite romance anime of mine, "5 Centimeters Per Second", yet another tearjerker that had a not-so-ordinary ambitious but satisfying ending. Even Clannad: After Story, once one of the most praised slice-of-life anime ever, had a cheap happy ending.
Characters: 9
In spite of the anime title, the characters of Scum's Wish aren't really psychotic, morally disgusting or even that scummy. These are pretty likable people going about pretty ordinary lives; yes, even Akane. Whether if making everyone a relatively decent human being turns you off or not (I know I got bored a few times), you have to admit that it makes them easier to be connected with, their struggles more sympathetic. In spite of their loves being considered "taboo" at first glance, you eventually discover that these feelings they have are quite relatable and almost innocent; yes, even Akane's. Much like all of us, they spend the anime trudging through the confusing and murky veils of life, being happy just being close to their loved ones even if such loves are not reciprocated, and then reaching a relatively satisfying closure by the end.
And another character growth I've came to realize they have is the separation of lust and love. Unlike HSL, all the characters here eventually come to realize what real love means, what it really means to love another individual past our bodily desires. It's not a sentiment that's spoken to the audience, but you can see that maturity in their actions and decisions by the end of this show.
Art: 9
The animation for this anime is beautiful. Watercolor-based animation is pretty common now, but when it's used appropriately, they can effectively convey that sense of innocence and gentleness. Whereas an anime like Hourou Musuko used it to convey the innocence of those children's desire in crossdressing, Scum's Wish emphasizes on the purity of the characters' various loves. It's a style that can be overused, but in this case, where the various loves are taboo in many parts of the world, the visual emphasis on innocence seems fitting.
Of course, we have to talk about the anime's unique style of framing various scenes in these rectangular frames overlapping over the screen, creating a nice manga-like visual while also effectively showing multiple perspectives in the same shot alone. Very nice touch.
Music: 8
That ending theme ("Parallel Line (平行線 Heikousen)" by Sayuri). God, the melancholy that hits you every time an episode ends to remind you of the bitter reality these characters are in... and then used in such a bittersweet way in the final episode to show how the characters were able to move past the bitterness. So freaking beautiful.
Enjoyment: 8
I cried at the end. I don't think I've ever cried watching an anime for a long time. Not only was I touched for having seen such a bold ending to a story, but I think I just can't get enough of stories that tell you that you might never get that happy ending, but life is about always trying to reach it anyway past all the BS and heartbreaks. The sincerity of the anime's message is beautiful in its candidness. The characters' acceptance of their situation and trying to grow from it in spite of being unsure what the future holds is inspiring and heartfelt. And while the pacing and mundane dialogue might not be my cup of tea, the impact of the message is undeniable.
