Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d take a fresh look at Scum’s Wish, wherein Hana most recently consummated her relationship with Ecchan. Of course, Hana doesn’t actually feel anything romantically towards Ecchan – she’s just lonely and horny and confused, driven by the taunting of Akane into whichever arms will hold her. It’s bad business all around, and Hana well understands that this new twist will undoubtedly harm basically all of her personal relations.

And to be honest, I’m perfectly fine with that. Hana is living in a daydream of romantic longing, idolizing her childish fantasy of romance over anything approaching reality. All the mental ink spilled over her feelings for Kanai and Mugi will fade from her consciousness with the end of high school; though she genuinely feels she is wallowing in unending misery, it is merely the broadness of her aperture preventing her from seeing how limited her perspective truly is. That’s part of why I so appreciate the introduction of characters like Akane or Moca, who proudly declare “I am going to cause problems on purpose” and then proceed to do exactly that. Hana doesn’t need Mugi, Ecchan, or Kanai – she needs to get out of her own head and find a hobby or something, and if it takes Akane’s meddling to achieve that, then I guess it’s time for some bad medicine. Let’s get to it!

Episode 5

This episode’s title is “DESTRUCTION BABY,” and I am so here for it

We open on a letterbox memory of Hana as a child, sitting alone on a swing as the city is blanketed in snow, making it seem like “a new city altogether.” A scene that speaks to Hana’s anxieties in two ways, reflecting both her fear of isolation and obsession with “purity.” The problem with Hana is that none of the things she currently wants will in any way resolve her insecurities – only time and experience will do that, as she learns to find confidence in her own identity, and discards the sense of all-or-nothing fatalism that adorns her current perspective on romance. As she currently is, wrapped up in these misconceptions of “fated love” versus “tainted scum,” she can only do emotional damage to herself and those around her

“After my father left, my mother cried the tears that should have been mine as well.” Ah, this explains a whole lot. No wonder she’s so obsessed with the theoretical “right way” to pursue romance, as well as the scorn that accompanies any deviation from that path – her childhood was defined by her father’s failure to uphold those values

Additionally, given she held in her tears for the sake of her mother’s grief, refusing to express her true feelings and just stoically accepting the feelings of others now comes most naturally to her

“I didn’t know the thing I was never given. The comfortable feeling of being alone.” I’m frankly surprised at this acuity of self-reflection on Hana’s part, though I suppose her tendency to overthink her emotions must result in at least a few genuinely useful insights. But yes, this is a key absence for her – Hana is never comfortable alone, and runs into trouble through her desperation to fill that void and always have someone beside her

And of course, it was Kanai who served as a shelter for her in those days, and “brought her world color.” A source of support she desperately needed, but which has shifted over time into an unhelpful dependency. It seems Kanai is still the only person she feels she can be unguarded with

Waking up next to Ecchan, Hana briefly sees Akane replace her in bed. A nod to her own anxieties, echoing her fear of turning into a person like Akane

We return to Mugi at home. A pan across his room reveals a space devoid of decoration or personality. You can tell a great deal about a person from their bedroom, and Mugi’s reflects how empty his life is, echoing the all-encompassing focus on romance that is impoverishing both his and Hana’s lives

“I really already know everything. I’m not that stupid.” Even Mugi understands what Akane is truly like. It seems Kanai is basically the only one in the dark

Ah, it was actually his ex-girlfriend Mei that told him about her. So even his innocence regarding his true crush was taken by her

I appreciate that Mugi knows the truth – as the show is demonstrating, it’s not like knowing the truth would shift his heart from wanting what it wants, so I’d rather just dispense with any arbitrary drama of him briefly denying her true nature

Alone on a Saturday, he ends up calling Mei to meet up. Oh Mugi, Mugi, Mugi

“Please do something about my adolescence.” Oh my god, this could be the tagline for like half of all anime

“Did you know we’ve never done it when you wanted to before? So this makes us even.” Yes, I’m sure those are the words that will make him feel better about this scenario

“She went home without spending the night.” A reflection that’s contrasted against him tossing a Starbucks cup in the trash, emphasizing the petty and transactional nature of this whole engagement

With so much deception and fresh baggage under the surface, Hana and Mugi can no longer confide in each other. Though they designed their relationship as a lie, they once at least shared the intimacy of confidants sharing a secret. Now, even that is lost

“If it’s just about filling in the loneliness, I don’t need him anymore.” But it’s not, is it? Hana’s relationship with Mugi is the closest thing she’s got to a reciprocal and honest relationship, as tortured as it is

And having each endured such terrible experiences of sex over the weekend, they now find not just consolation, but genuine pleasure in each other’s arms

“Time passes equally for everyone. It’s up to you to decide whether your life is boring or not.” We return to Akane spouting a perfectly Akane-style slice of philosophy. She’s basically a very horny libertarian

Nice use of screen-in-screen partitions to simulate a sense of frenzied commotion as Hana and Mugi rush towards a more private venue. The effect cleanly evokes the sensation of being too rushed and preoccupied to pick up anything more than image fragments, partial snapshots of the world around you

There’s actual romantic tension now, an electricity of uncertainty, as their feelings have shifted from the purely mechanical to the genuinely felt

Oh my god, Akane is such a stinker. Kanai returns to hear her answer, but because Hana isn’t there to be traumatized by it, she can find no pleasure in telling him either yes or no. Instead she lands on the stalling balance of “let’s get to know each other better,” presumably just so she can drag him around town looking for Hana

“I knew from the start that he was boring. But he was even more boring than I thought.”

Having almost lost all hope of mining some satisfying drama out of Kanai, Akane’s hopes are restored when he accidentally refers to her as Hana. It seems that there’s truly no second level to Akane – she’s here for drama and will not accept substitutes

“I agreed to go look at the skyline because I felt sorry for him.” I love the subtle background joke of Kanai playing out his naïve idealized romance while Akane mentally tunes out. He’s basically living out a more traditional anime romance, oblivious to the fact that everyone around him is boning each other simply in the hope of feeling something

“He’s asking permission now? Honestly, Hana-chan, what do you ever see in him.” As ever, for Akane, this isn’t really a relationship with Kanai at all – it’s a relationship with Hana, conducted as an elaborate dance of reveling in what Hana can’t have. Unfortunately, Kanai’s so damn boring that she can barely even enjoy this part of it

Sadly, our other encounter isn’t going much better. Hana decides against having sex after all, and when Mugi asks if she’d like to start dating for real, she storms out almost without a word

And thus, in the end, it’s Akane who wins the day, as she at least gets to brag to Hana at school about it

And Done

Well, that didn’t seem productive for just about anybody! Except for Akane, of course, who delights in chaos and thus clearly had a delightful evening. But as for our other leads, this episode was one more exercise in mismatched expectations and painful regrets, with Mugi now mirroring Hana’s bad decisions from last episode. The awkward part is, Hana’s unrealistic expectations of romance actually seem to be pretty much exactly what Kanai himself was looking for – but with Akane having claimed him, it now only seems certain that no-one is going to get what they truly want. Well, again, except for Akane. Our little romance arsonist is going to be just fine.

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