Scum's Wish is based upon the manga and at 12 episodes, it manages to adapt the entire plot which is great. The anime follows high school students Yasuraoka Hanabi and Awaya Mugi, who both goes to the same school and has a similar dilemma. Hanabi loves her homeroom teacher, Narumi, an old childhood friend who is a neighbor. Mugi, on the other hand, loves Akane, the music teacher, who was his tutor when he was younger. Both their loves are unrequited, while it seems that Narumi and Akane are getting along really well and have feelings for each other.
One day, as a result of finding out each other's unrequited love, they decided to make a pact and become boyfriend/girlfriend. However, this is only to stave off their loneliness and give each other support. They promised that if their love is returned by the person they love, then they will end the relationship. The way the relationship starts is weak since it happens in the first episode, and quickly at that. It would have benefited from a slightly more involved beginning to display more of their loneliness and the need for some company.
Scum's Wish is brilliant at setting the mood with its emotionally intense atmosphere from the very first episode. Coupled with the watercolor art style and stylistic choices, it's a really beautiful anime. While it has a taste of bittersweet, you soon realize that Hanabi and Mugi's relationship is dysfunctional. They each imagine the other is the one they love, they are stony faced towards each other, yet they both understand the feelings of each other really well. The anime can get surprisingly physical at times. While characters are covered in blankets or are out of frame, it is heavily implied if not outright showing their movements on what they are doing.
You have to think at some points, whether the animators are going too far as it is just making everyone seem promiscuous as they spend of their screentime kissing or licking. While it does portray their desires, the writer could have used more variety of ways to show it. It is also a bit disturbing when you think about the characters' young ages and how they so easily accept the (lack of) boundaries in their mock relationship. That said, it also has a sense of seriousness and melancholy about it. More characters are soon introduced which complicate the relationships between the different characters. Now, Hanabi and Mugi are on the giving end of unrequited love with their childhood friends.
The web of relationships is an interesting scenario and dynamic, and Hanabi comes to realize that she isn't so different to her love rival after all. It raises the stakes when we come to realize that even Akane, who appears sweet and innocent on the outside, may have some secrets of her own. As the series progresses, it's shown more and more that both Hanabi and Mugi are taking advantage of other people to fill the gaps in their hearts. Hanabi even starts to realize that she is slowly becoming the person that she hates.
Just when Hanabi is feeling confused and at a low point, she gets hit with even worse news that takes her even closer to the brink of despair. It's done to great effect, especially when the scenes lead so well into the ending theme. When it happens, you just cannot believe that the character would do something this cruel, which leads to the theme of every character in the anime being selfish human beings (hence the title). They do have their own reasons and experiences that caused them to be this way, but they are not portrayed in a good light. While this is reflective of reality, it's rare for an anime to not have a character that you can truly back. That said, Scum's Wish has an excellent story and Hanabi has enough goodness for viewers to support her.
With all these things going on, Hanabi and Mugi start to unknowingly fall for each other. They each decide to confess their feelings and it is emotional, being one of the best scenes. It crushes your heart when as the viewer, you know what is happening with the two perspectives but Hanabi and Mugi only knows their own situation and is hopeful in their confidence with the other. One of the interesting things is that Hanabi and Mugi's stories start to diverge from the midpoint of the series, to the point where the focus is not on the pair of them, but rather their other relationships.
Hanabi and Mugi go on their own separate paths where they don't interact with each other much, and it is jarring when as the viewer, you expected all the focus to be on them. The series also tends to encourage the somewhat unethical scenario (at least to the West) of the ease of a student teacher relationship. The 12 episodes conclude in a surprising ending that defies your expectations. The way that some characters find closure and change their personality, is weak. This is after the whole anime was showing their selfish side and doesn't show off their personalities' gradual changes, rather, they just immediately do a heel-face turn in minutes.
It's not exactly a happy ending but it's not a sad one either, rather, it will stir up your emotions. It 's a little bit unfair but that's life. It provides a resolution to all the subplots which is quite an achievement considering some of the depths it went to with all the characters. That being said, some of the plotlines still seemed to have been dealt with too lightly and shallowly. Overall, Scum's Wish is a complex anime that deals with content that is not often shown in this medium. The art direction, music (especially both theme songs) and atmosphere are fantastic, although the plot struggles a bit towards the end.
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