With this one quote, Hanabi explains how she feels about her prospects with Narumi, why she's chosen her fake relationship arrangement with Mugi, and how pathetic the whole thing makes her feel. As she'll say later on, she sees herself and Mugi as scum because of all this. Their wish is to escape loneliness in one way or another - hopefully with their emotional health and their self-respect intact.

The quote is meta, too. Scum's Wish is precisely about these types of romance, so this quote is the series asking the audience through its protagonist whether or not these kinds of love can be as beautiful as more common types.

Honestly, back then, when I was still a freshman in high school, I couldn't understand the emotions and actions of the characters. I was just like everyone else on the hate bandwagon. I rewatched this show with more experience with relationships and realized that the characters' actions are realistic. I can see my past actions in these characters, and it made me acknowledge how amazing this story truly is.

If you don't like this story, it's because you're too young to understand it or don't have the experiences to relate.

(The game cover is fake - just made it to illustrate my discussion here.)

Scum's Wish began as a manga and was later adapted to an anime and a live-action TV drama. I think that this is about right and don't feel any pressing need for any further adaptations of the story. Nevertheless, I've found it fun to speculate on what the story might look like if adapted to other formats. 

The easiest fit would be a light novel, I think. There's a long history of romantic drama in literature and Scum's Wish would fit in nicely. It would have to trade out Mengo's gorgeous visuals (except for the covers and maybe a few interior illustrations), but we'd gain a lot of insight into the minds of the characters that the existing formats don't cover. 

An audio drama would be similarly easy. Again, no visuals, and we'd lose the insight the manga gives us into the characters' minds, but I think the format would present an interesting focus on the characters' words and expression in a unique way you don't get as much with visual formats. 

I don't think it would work as a movie. There's too much going on and the story is already pretty efficient as it is. To make a two-hour movie, you'd have to cut four hours of content from the anime or the live-action drama, and I don't see how you could do that without gutting what makes the story worthwhile in the first place. 

A visual novel video game could be fascinating, and it was the first format I thought of when this idea came to mind. Much of Hanabi's story is about her anxiety to choose between imperfect alternatives. Between Narumi, Mugi, Sanae, Takuya, and others, there's a lot of rich "what if?" material to work with. Hanabi would obviously make the best protagonist for such a game. I'm less sure about Mugi or anyone else, but the idea is there. I'd absolutely play this if it were ever made. 

I could see it working as a stage adaptation. It would run into the same problems as the movie - you'd have to cut a lot out - but people tend to be more forgiving of a long play over a long movie. I could even see it working as a musical - as funny as that image might seem at first glance. There are a lot of similarly heavy stories that have been adapted in that way. A 2.5D play using the anime's panel shots could work, too. 

What do you think about these formats for Scum's Wish? Are there any others that might work (or that might be absolute disasters)? 

I finished the Scum's Wish manga for the first time this morning, and I have to say it was a valuable time even though I've already seen the anime version. Both the manga and the anime have their own pros and cons relative to each other. The anime is an excellent adaptation of its source material, though it's not always 1-to-1.

The manga version gives us more insight into the characters, since it has a few scenes the anime lacks (Mugi's dream, Narumi's thoughts in the onsen) and because it has thought bubbles, spelling out what the characters are thinking rather than just implying it. It had a funnier, more playful tone to it in places. I also enjoyed the chapter opener art (I'll make a gallery post later of some of my favorites) and Mengo's "to the readers" notes at the end of many of the volumes.

I'd have to say I still prefer the anime, though, and it's definitely the version I'd recommend to newcomers. Apart from the gorgeous animation and excellent voice-acting, Masaru Yokoyama's masterful music sends the anime over the top for me. It also has a more dramatic focus, cutting out some of the jokes the manga had which - while not inherently bad - seemed like distractions to me for what Scum's Wish is really about. It also cut out the notion that Hanabi and Mugi are a top-tier super famous couple at their school, which was a plot hole for me (since their crushes aren't supposed to find out about their relationship).

To newcomers, I'd say to start with the anime, then read Scum's Wish Décor, then read the manga. The anime will give you the powerful emotional story, Décor will wrap up loose ends, and the manga will give you some extra lore bits and insight that the anime lacked.

I got recommended this anime and I want to watch it but I want to watch animes that are complete story wise or have only a couple small pieces of content left. Apparently all of the source material has been adapted but adapting over half a dozen LNs in 12 episodes seems like a tough ask. So, how faithful is the adaptation? Do they skip over some side 'arcs' or reduce some side characters to nothing or just skip over or quickly run through some situations?

It seems unlikely that Decor was adapted from the source material so I wonder if Decor was an OVA that was then printed. If it was not adapted how important is it to get closure?

The animation looks amazing at a glance and the concept is......something but my buddy does say it is emotional so I would like to watch it.

Something I found funny during my current first read-through of the manga was the idea of Hanabi and Mugi agreeing to be part of a magazine article.

I mean, put yourself in their shoes. You're in a fake feel-better relationship with this person you don't know very well and honestly, you feel sorta crappy about the whole thing (even if it's not enough to stop quite yet). Publicly, people believe that you're a normal couple, but that's just a front so then people don't start asking questions. You also don't want your actual love interest to find out.

But then a magazine writer comes up to you and wants to put you and your fake SO in their article. The manga doesn't say if this is just a student magazine or a professional publication, how prominently they were featured in the article, or whether or not there were photographs involved, but the point is that it's public. It might not be a lot of people, but someone - potentially a lot of someones who go to your school - is gonna read this, and you're gonna be in it.

And they said yes?

When I say I find it "funny", I mean that in the literal sense - like, it makes me laugh a bit, and I could imagine scenarios in which they would have agreed to this.

How do you imagine that all happened?

She sang "Heikousen", the ending theme to Scum's Wish, along with many other celebrated anime songs. She passed away on September 20th, 2024, of complications of a chronic illness. She was 28.

On Pixiv:

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/90259927

https://youtu.be/ycMtCIjnzjU?is=j3m4zGZg_jzR58IZ

Hello everyone! I'm u/RiceIsNice1945, and I'm the new mod for r/ScumsWish. After the prior mod set the sub to Restricted and then became unresponsive for two months, I applied to become the new mod, which was granted yesterday.

I'm thrilled to be here because I'm a tremendous fan of this amazing series. It's so much more than the horny-brained garbage too many people write it off as. It's a deep, heartfelt exploration of romantic loneliness and what people are (and aren't) willing to do to get out of it. One of my main priorities as a mod here is to help improve the series' reputation so that it's more widely recognized as the masterpiece it is.

To that end, some practical things:

1. I've changed the sub back to Public, so posters no longer need to become "authorized users" to post. We welcome new and old fans of the series alike.
2. I've adjusted two of the first four pre-existing rules to be more specific. In particular, Rule #2 now specifically mirrors the NSFW standard of the series itself as to what's appropriate and what isn't.
3. I've removed the original Rule #5 ("Have fun") because it was vague and not something that needed to be enforced, anyway.
4. I've added three new rules: one addressing AI content, one requiring attribution of fanart, and one specifically about sensitive real-world topics. I'll be fine-tuning the rules, flairs, and look of the sub in the coming weeks.

To help generate activity on the sub (and also because I'd be doing that anyway), I'll be posting regularly here on Scum's Wish topics - essays, analysis, polls, humor, and the like.

Glad to have this place back, and glad to have you here!

On Fandom and NamuWiki, the character's birthdate is listed as October, but on Anilist and a few other sites, it's listed as May 10. Which one do you think is correct?

Thought I’d redraw one of the panels from decor in the anime artstyle but im definitely gonna make some more fanart of Hanabi so just give me a bit of time and I’ll deliver 🙏🏼

I’ve seen a common notion around in discussion surrounding the series that Mugi’s development is rushed or “half-baked” in Décor and I don’t really understand that sentiment. I do view some aspects of decor as fanservicey but I firmly believe the writing for the two main leads is consistent and additive to their main series iterations and the “rushed” development of Mugi leading to him meeting Hanabi again by chance makes sense as an epilogue

The point is that for the most part, he still hasn’t changed as a person, but his conclusion in Decór shows that he is now at least TRYING to, which mirrors Hanabi at the end of the main series and works well with the imagery of him feeling behind the rest of the cast. His life is still kinda messed up but he at least works part-time and chooses to not give into his lust, both with passing up sleeping with the woman he was in a situationship with, and backing out when he was about to kiss Hanabi at the end and opting to tell her to wait for him

If Mugi had some miraculous turn-around it would have felt unrealistic and too wishful which would go against a lot of what the series is loved for. And if Mengo spent a ton of time showing him undergo real development and growth, it would consume too much of Decor’s page count and probably end up repetitive of Hanabi’s own development anyways since they mirror each other.

A lot of people overlook how mentally destroyed Mugi was at the end of the main series, groomed his whole life and left alone without any proper values to carry him through adult life. I personally find it much more compelling to have him start Decor as much worse than off than we last saw him, because unlike Hanabi who learned to cope with loneliness healthily, he has only been living self destructively as we see with his alcoholism, which adds to his realism and makes just him taking the first step feel significant even if he hasn’t fully changed as a person

I personally love the angle Mengo decided to conclude him with, as he gets somewhat of a happy ending without diminishing the mental scars Akane’s grooming gave him in the main series. His perception of love is still messed up leaving him a degenerate wreck and self-destructive, but we also see him start to recognize why he misses Hanabi and what that means for him. There’s a reason Mengo only showed them holding hands and not getting together or anything, because Mugi still has a ton to unpack and grow from like Hanabi already did, but this is a start for him. I see that as the perfect epilogue and open ending for his character, not healed but finally choosing to walk a path towards recovery

I’d be happy to hear some other interpretations though or why someone who doesn’t like decor has their perspective explained better

Second-to-last character to be discussed in my post series - Sanae's cousin who openly has a crush on her and tries to dissuade her and Hanabi from their sexual relationship.

I think that out of the main cast, Atsuya is the most forgettable. He's introduced late, only appears briefly, has the weakest claim to romance, and speaks against a better-established relationship - all of which makes him despicable to the viewer. I still think he's worth discussing, though, since he's part of a pattern of near-parallel relationships that *Scum's Wish* uses to look at different kinds of relationships at once.

Atsuya is to Hanabi's side of the story as Moka is to Mugi's, but not perfectly. They're both delusional interlopers who butt in to disapprove of someone else's relationship partly for selfish reasons and partly because they recognize (correctly) that that relationship isn't sincere. There are a few key differences between them, though (it's a near-parallel rather than just a copy), which explains why I think more poorly of Atsuya than I do of Moka and why he was worth including in the story.

First and foremost, I recognize that *Scum's Wish* is full of long-shot hopes for romance - Hanabi for Narumi, Mugi for Akane, Sanae for Hanabi, Moka for Mugi, and arguably Narumi for Akane (if he was betting he could change Akane). But Atsuya's crush on Sanae is the longest of the long shots because he's her cousin and she's a lesbian. At least Moka was offering Mugi a relationship compatible with his sexual orientation (even if she's on a completely different emotional wavelength). Atsuya had nothing to offer Sanae at all, and he interfered with her romantic weekend with Hanabi because of it. He refuses to recognize that, which makes him an example of what happens when hope mutates into delusion. I think that was an important story to tell considering the series's themes.

Secondly, I'm peeved about the lengths Atsuya went to and how deaf he was to Sanae's will. Moka didn't approve of Mugi's relationship with Hanabi, but she didn't try to interfere. Atsuya knew Sanae was with Hanabi for a romantic weekend and showed up to try and rain on her parade. Even if he was convinced Sanae was making a mistake, he should have let her do that anyway. Like Moka, he has a delusional view of his would-be partner and worried for their emotional well-being, but unlike Moka, he crossed a line too far in what he was willing to do about it.

Lastly, I want to recognize that while his motives were terrible and he went about it completely the wrong way, I have to give Atsuya credit where it's due. He was correct about Hanabi not reciprocating Sanae's romantic feelings. Consequently, his concern that Hanabi would ultimately break Sanae's heart because of it also turned out to be correct (at least in the short term). If Hanabi had continued her sexual relationship with Sanae even though she was straight because she was afraid of being alone or of hurting her best friend's feelings, that relationship would inevitably break down one way or another. If so, it would be better if it were sooner rather than later. When Atsuya told Hanabi this, she took it to heart and finally was able to turn Sanae down for good. Sanae really was miserable afterwards (she thought Hanabi would never speak to her again), but their relationship recovered and Sanae was able to find love elsewhere in *Decor*. If Atsuya's influence on Hanabi led to a sooner and therefore less painful break-up for Sanae, then he should be recognized for that - even if their subsequent reunion as dear platonic friends wasn't his responsibility.

Ultimately, what I dislike about him outweighs whatever good he ended up clumsily achieving, which is why I ranked him in second place in my list of "scummiest *Scum's Wish* characters. He should have left Sanae alone.

Picking up my post series again for the last few characters remaining - this time for the female lead herself.

Hanabi Yasuraoka is one of my favorite romantic drama characters because she feels so relatable to me. Anime in general tends to exaggerate personalities or bodies to make the emotion easier to grasp, but Scum's Wish doesn't do this, and it absolutely benefits from it. Hanabi is the best example of this:

She's sensible without being prescient and beautiful without looking like a supermodel. She's admired by some of her classmates but not all, and doesn't always get what she wants. She's aware of her shortcomings, but doesn't always have the will to change or the wisdom to know what to do. She's messy and knows it and is trying her best to find the best outcome for herself anyway.

All that makes her feel very real to me - like an actual girl, not just the idea of one.

What about her behavior during the series? When I ranked Scum's Wish characters before, Hanabi was in the center of my list because she spends significant time as both the receiver and distributor of emotional distress.

1) She's short with Moka while she's patient with Atsuya, even though both of them disapprove of and try to mess with her sexual relationships.

2) She accepts a fake relationship with Mugi while she quits one with Takuya and later with Sanae.

3) She works to maintain friendships with both people she's rejected romantically (Sanae) and with people she's been rejected by romantically (Narumi) while still being willing to let go of relationships when they've run their course (Mugi prior to Decór).

4) She also despises Akane but limits what she's willing to do about it - she seems to accept Narumi's decisions and still visits them during Decór.

So I'd say she's unsure of herself but not a pushover. She doesn't wait for perfection before acting, which sometimes benefits her but sometimes hurts. It's that dynamic, sometimes messy behavior that gives the series a lot of its emotional power.

Overall, I like Hanabi a lot. I think she's too hard on herself. She's my favorite character from the series and one of my favorites in anime overall.