#// i then slapped some watercolor brushes on it to make it look more ~*artsy*~ because otherwise it was a bit Too Much

[hellguarded-moved]

// it doesn't get gayer than the dancing in the kitchen trope

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Scum’s Wish, Episodes 1-3

And so we begin! Well, begin again. And holy shit, I did not give this show enough credit my first time around. This is excellent.

Elevated Smut

You ever have one of those moments in life where everything just lines up perfectly, to such an extent that your normally athiestic ass is half-convinced that maybe there actually is some higher power up there stringing you along his own personal structured D&D Campaign? Because that’s where I’m at following my first returning foray into Scum’s Wish. For context, I just finished watching Domestic Girlfriend last night, and while you can read my full review if you’re so inclined, short version is I thought it was a thuddingly wrongheaded attempt to turn a smutty, saucy melodrama into a “respectable”, artsy mood piece, and the tonal whiplash just ended up making the whole affair dreadfully boring. It didn’t make sense to me how someone looked at a source material that excelled at being pretty much better-written porn and thought “Yeah, this is Midnight in Paris material”. But now, I think I understand a little more why Domestic Girlfriend went in the direction it did; it was trying to be Scum’s Wish. And honestly, I don’t blame it for aiming for that goal, even if it fell woefully short, because I was shocked at how good this show turned out to be upon revisitation.

Yes, it seems that for whatever reason, two-years-ago me just didn’t have the necessary tools yet to fully process what Scum’s Wish was trying to accomplish. Because coming back to it now with a fresh perspective, I’m struck by a realization that this show may genuinely be the best possible version of the kind of elevated smut it’s trying to be. It’s a uniquely intimate experience of young love that’s able to be sexy and indulgent in interesting, genuinely satisfying ways without sacrificing the poignancy and emotional truth of its overall narrative. It succeeds in all the areas where Domestic Girlfriend falls short, actually managing to strike an effective balance that uses its erotic elements to enhance and inform its narrative in a way that literally no other anime I’ve seen has been capable of. It’s restrained without being cowardly, explicit without being crass, and honest without being dull. In fact, if it keeps this level quality up, Scum’s Wish is 100% going to end up as my first ever positive experience with ecchi anime. And that is fucking exciting. So let’s take a step back and examine how this show is able to pull off such a complicated feat with such alacrity.

Laughter Amid the Watercolors

The most critical point of contention I had with Domestic Girlfriend was how it tried to slap together two competing tonal sensibilities without bothering to figure out how they would logically fit together. There’s nothing saying goofy smut and atmospheric drama can’t be made to work in tandem, but it requires the skill to pull both aspects off effectively, making them compliment each other rather than distract. Thankfully, Scum’s Wish succeeds in both of those areas, ending up as a grounded, nuanced coming-of-age drama that’s confidently able to slip into silliness and back at a moment’s notice. The closest comparison I can think of is Kimi ni Todoke in terms of tone. It takes place in a wispy, ethereal approximation of reality that feels like it was painted on with a beautiful watercolor brush, less a perfect representation of reality than an idealized, untethered approximation of it that occasionally slips sideways into giggle-inducing surrealism. It’s a smart choice that allows for far more freedom of expression than DomeKano’s miserable attempt at pure realism; much like in Kimi ni Todoke, establishing a worth that’s a little removed from true reality makes it easier to accept the obviously unrealistic sparks of goofy anime faces and exaggerated interactions that pepper the interactions of the otherwise realistic characters. Admittedly, it isn’t completely flawless; Moca as a character exists on a level of cartoonish exaggeration far above everyone else, to such an extent that she feels out of place (that said, good god are her faces to die for). But for the most part, it keeps those two sides of itself working in tandem, informing each other as part of the same whole.

And most importantly, in direct contrast to Domestic Girlfriend, both of those aspects are actually well done! Scum’s Wish is beautiful as hell to look at, with a poignant, melancholy atmosphere enhanced by the cool directing trick of paneling certain key moments for emphasis. It captures that same ephemeral feeling of youth that Kimi ni Todoke did, of grasping at the strands of growing u before they all slip helplessly through your fingers. Meanwhile, the character-driven comedy is genuinely hilarious, aided by a stellar voice cast who all slot perfectly into the happy medium between anime-esque exaggaration and realistic nuance (aside from Moca, as I previously mentioned). I especially want to highlight Chika Anzai’s work as the protagonist Hanabi, because dear god, she is a delight. Her performance is one of those perfectly sarcastic teen girl roles like Kumiko from Sound Euphonium and Rikka from Gridman, where every snarky quip, no matter how simple, bursts with no much angsty teen energy that you can’t help but snicker with recognition. ”I let my guard down!” ”Damn it. Boomerang.” ”Your shoes are unfair!” ”Don’t run away if you’re not giving up.” Hell, just her flustered, exasperated delivery of “Mooooooom!” in the presence of her crush is easily one of the most realistically goofy anime line reads I’ve heard since Tomoyo Kurosawa’s legendary run of Kumiko noises. And when she’s trading quips with Mugi or anyone else in the cast, the level of snarky interplay imbues them all with a lived-in teenage authenticity that ground the entire show (”I thought you’d cry.” “Baka.”) The drama informs the comedy, and the comedy reinforces the drama. And as a result, the entire show is stronger and more cohesive for it.

Intimacy

Of course, you can’t have a smutty melodrama without the smut, and therein lies the true secret weapon to Scum’s Wish’s success: genuinely the best erotic execution out of any anime I’ve seen thus far. My long-time readers will know that I am usually the first person to complain about anime fanservice, how unnecessary and degrading I tend to find it. By the same token, though, I hold a lot of respect for shows that can manage there indulgences with a degree of tact and purpose, which was a big part of the reason I ended up enjoying the first season of Zero no Tsukaima (and also why the following seasons shat the bed so hard). I want to see more sex in anime, the kind of real, honest exploration of sex that the medium so rarely even attempts. So imagine my delight to discover that Scum’s Wish doesn’t only tackle that kind of open sexuality full-throttle, it handles it better than I’ve ever seen it handled. This is genuinely the kind of emotionally honest erotic storytelling that I yearn to see more than I actually do. And it all comes down to one concept: tactility. Most anime fanservice takes place in some exaggerated netherworld of oversized boobs and miniskirts that would get you kicked out of a stripper’s lounge. It’s patently unreal to such an extent that it doesn’t even feel like it’s part of the story at all. It’s a distraction, a diversion that doesn’t gel with any part of the rest of the story and just takes away from what we’re really here to see. And there’s nothing sexy, or meaningful about disembodied masturbation material floating in the ether, detached from any semblance of caring.

Well, Scum’s Wish says fuck all that noise with a rusty spoon, and it goes balls to the wall (pun intended, naturally) in making the sexual tension between these characters feel like natural extensions of them more effectively than any other show I’ve seen. Every touch and yearning glance is felt, both by the characters and by us. The wispy watercolor aesthetic ends up being a very strong assist here, as the moments of connection and intimacy give form and solidity to the shapeless, ethereal tone. It pulls your attention down to the earth and makes you feel just how uncomfortably real and intimate these moments are for the characters. And as a result, these moments of near sex are all genuinely erotic. Hanabi and Mugi’s first experience is electrifying, shot and edited with an eye for tension and release that makes every fumbling advance feel like fingertips dancing on your own skin. Scum’s Wish isn’t afraid to let its characters be tactile, to let them touch and caress and be sloppy and mussed up and unpolished and raw. Forget the cheap pussyfooting of so many lesser shows; this anime makes a freaking handjob scene feel like the most tender, intimate experience of all time.

And it’s not afraid to be upfront, and let the characters be upfront, about the sexual nature of their interactions. The texture of sex and the way the characters talk about it is integrated into the show’s overall presentation, part of that same tactile, goofy, sarcastic, yet poignant and achingly sincere world. Hanabi calls herself a virgin offhandedly in the first episode with no big flourish, there’s an understated scene of train molestation that’s uncomfortably effective for what it doesn’t show more than what it shows, characters touch and lean on each other with regularity, hell, Hanabi and Mugi have a conversation at some point about how he ended up jizzing on her uniform, and it’s treated with the same frankness and clarity of purpose as anything else. I recognize it’s a bit weird for me to be fanboying over this kind of material, but this is the kind of risk-taking clarity of purpose I live for. This is the strongest, most realistic portrayal of sex in anime I’ve ever seen, and it accomplishes that without ever compromising it’s ability to amuse or evoke. Literally every other anime ever, take notes. This is how you have your cake and eat it to.

I Want to Try to Love You

Because therein lies the real reason Scum’s Wish’s portrayal of sex is so powerful. It’s not just part of the show; it’s the entire goddamn point. It’s a smutty melodrama that’s all about our own smutty feelings, how we interact with and process them, how we try to come to terms with the complicated, possibly unfair distinction between love and sex. Hanabi and Mugi are both using the other as a replacement for a crush they realistically have no hope of ever attaining. They are each other’s sexual replacements, as Hanabi lays out in the first episode: ”You can have everything but my feelings.” They want to separate sex and love, but the level of trust they put in each other to achieve that goal makes such an easy distinction increasingly impossible. They can’t not get attached to somebody who they’ve shared such intimate, personal experiences with. Their lives are a complicated web of desires and affections that they have no idea how to process. Having someone care about you can hurt. Forcing yourself to stay distant from someone you could care about can hurt. Hanabi thinks she can separate her personal emotions from her feelings of desire, but then her friend Ecchan reveals she has feelings for her, and she’s forced to realize how painful it can be when someone you care for cares about you in a way you can’t return. Lies can hurt, but honesty can hurt even more. And at some point, you have to take a step back and wonder whether it’s even worth trying to be something you’re not, when any form you take will still end in pain.

It’s a complicated, unsettling question that I really don’t have a reference for myself; I have had so little experience with sex and romance it’s comical. But I do know that sometimes, the only way out is forward. The only way out is being true to what you want, letting yourself take on all the burdens that kind of honesty entails and accepting it as part of yourself, no matter how hard it may be. And that all comes to a head when Hanabi realizes that despite her best efforts not to, she’s genuinely starting to love the guy she only ever intended to be a stand-in. She isn’t even sure if she can, but she wants to try. She wants to find something real amidst the fake, something genuine and touching in their mutual facade. It’s a powerful moment that rewrites the rules of the game; from now on, Hanabi is fighting for Mugi’s sake. From now on, she’s going to have to figure out how to let go of something she no longer wants to hold onto in favor of something she does. And I officially have no more reservations. I regret ever dropping this show in the first place, because it is so much better than I ever gave it credit for. It’s touching, it’s honest, it’s hilariously true, it’s intimate, and it’s powerful. Keep it up, Scum’s Wish. I can’t want to finally give you the attention you deserve.

Odds and Ends

-”So average.” fucking savage

-”Are you sure we won’t fall in love?” “Nope. I promise.” askdhaskdh

-I’m certain I’ve heard Moca’s VA before, but I can’t place it.

-”So I wouldn’t go around clinging to close to things that aren’t mine.” See that, Moca? Those are knows as Yandere eyes. Run while you still can.

-”I’m just possessive.” The dark watercolor clouds pouring in from stage right may disagree with you there, Hanabi.

-”The fried chicken vanished!” “You think it’s poltergeists?” YOU ARE BOTH SUCH ASSHOLES OH MY GOD

-Get you a stand-in BF who sings shitty karaoke with you.

-”Why am I getting ready for a sleepover again?!” Listen, if I didn’t know where the show was going with Ecchan, I would be all over this lesbian panic.

-”Why are you so excited?” lol

-akjdshaskd HOLY SHIT I FORGOT HANABI WAS IN THE ROOM AT THIS POINT WELP

-Muffled Hanabi sounds for the win.

-”You’re hard.” *sound of glass breaking* “Great, she looks interested.” God bless this show.

-”A younger brother who really, really loves her sister.” Dear lord, she’s trying so hard.

And with that, we are on our way. I’ve still got one more session to get through before I reach where I ended last time, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops from here. See you next time!