Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we\u2019re checking in with what might well be the most gleefully self-destructive cast of characters I\u2019ve critiqued in my animation tenure, a group who could literally trip over happiness and fulfillment and emerge only with scuffed knees and fresh demons. That\u2019s right, it\u2019s time for Scum\u2019s fucking Wish, as our misguided collection of high schoolers and high school-brained teachers bash against each other in some grotesque, self-harming approximation of intimacy.<\/span><\/p>\n When last we left off, Scum\u2019s Wish had dedicated a full episode to articulating Akane\u2019s psychology, and her feelings towards both Kanai and Mugi. Brief summary: she sucks, being simultaneously empty and self-absorbed, and combining Hana\u2019s desperate need for affection with a power-hungry cruel streak all her own. Like many of Scum\u2019s Wish\u2019s characters, she is more of an exaggerated articulation of one particular feeling than a coherent psychological profile, a melodramatic irritant who, if you opened up her skull and looked inside for the <\/span>real<\/span><\/i> story, you would discover is literally defined as \u201cmelodramatic irritant.\u201d Akane is less of a person than a slow-moving natural disaster, and at this point I can only hope Hana is strong enough to pull at least <\/span>one<\/span><\/i> of her delusional suitors out of her orbit. Let\u2019s get to the bloodshed!<\/span><\/p>\n Episode 11<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI want more. So shiny and beautiful. People\u2019s thoughts and feelings. Desires. I want to collect all the colors and blur the lines between them.\u201d Akane once again talking like a supervillain as we open our latest episode. Having declared herself an empty person with no genuine feelings, she is eager to pervert the feelings of others and prove they are no different, to \u201cblur the lines\u201d between affection and lust, passion and possession. It\u2019s ultimately all a project of self-justification, the classic \u201cwell if I don\u2019t genuinely care about others, everyone else must be lying when they say they do, and I\u2019m going to prove it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It feels like the point Mengo Yokoyari is pursuing here is \u201ceven adults are still mired in the emotional, identity-forming uncertainty of adolescence,\u201d and given our two alleged adults here are both young twenty-somethings at their first real job, and a job that involves constantly engaging with the mindset of high schoolers at that, I can see that point at least holding some ground here. But I think pursuing that theme itself points to a greater issue with Yokoyari\u2019s writing: her inability to differentiate character voice and internal psychology, such that all of her characters ultimately possess one collective voice and a sort of emotional hivemind<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, the point is less \u201cadults are just as emotionally adrift as teenagers\u201d than \u201cadults written like teenagers will act like teenagers.\u201d With her third-wave emo internal ramblings, Akane doesn\u2019t feel like an emotionally stunted adult, but like a teenager in an adult\u2019s body<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOnly if we spend the night\u201d is her condition for her next date. As she says, she\u2019s intent on proving no one\u2019s feelings are any more pure than hers, and if she has to put her thumb on the scale in order to make her lovers seem equally \u201ccompromised,\u201d she will happily do so<\/span><\/p>\n This focus on \u201cpurity\u201d also sorta reflects the Yokoyari hivemind problem \u2013 whether they reject it, embrace it, or accept it but feel guilty regardless, all of the characters in this show have the same \u201cembracing sexual desire is inherently contemptible\u201d hangup, something that clearly points to an aspect of their upbringing or social conditioning or trauma that would make them feel this way. But this is not a feeling seeded into the characters by their various histories \u2013 it is a feeling they have all collectively inherited from Yokoyari, an assumption of the text reflecting the unconsidered assumptions of its author, with no actual in-universe grounding<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m having a wholesome date with the minor next week.\u201d These ornate music box frames do a fine job of demonstrating her feelings regarding her suitors, as both possessions and prizes, little boxes on her shelf<\/span><\/p>\n We see the younger, internal Akane looking down on these various transgressions. It seems like she thinks that if she can remove herself emotionally from her actions, she can maintain a core that stands apart from her destructive choices<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs he angry I spent the night? Why does he look so sad? Did I cross a line?\u201d This very focus on transgression demonstrates the immaturity of her feelings. She is rebelling against an expectation that is being imposed by no one; she is both prisoner and jailer, delighting in scandalizing herself. Adolescents rebel because it\u2019s their only way to express agency; Akane possesses total agency, but still wants something to dramatically rebel against<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI feel so disconnected.\u201d This is<\/span> the ultimate issue, and basically the only true thing she\u2019s said \u2013 the practices that seem to provide others with happiness or passion just leave her numb, so she crosses lines to at least feeling <\/span>something<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do you keep doing this if you\u2019re not suited for it?\u201d Kanai seems to embody a potential way forward \u2013 someone who is not scandalized by her, but who sees she\u2019s unhappy the way she is, and wishes to help her find a happier self<\/span><\/p>\n Her \u201cit\u2019s like we\u2019re having an affair\u201d just sends him into a stammering fit, which only bores her. But what response <\/span>do<\/span><\/i> you want, Akane? You collect rejection, but your collection doesn\u2019t make you any happier<\/span><\/p>\n We touch back down at Banny\u2019s, everyone\u2019s favorite legally distinct diner<\/span><\/p>\n Two classmates called Hana here, allegedly for advice, but now they\u2019re grilling her on Mugi<\/span><\/p>\n Given her experience, they want advice from her regarding their own relationships. Now this feels very true to life \u2013 the blind leading the blind, as those stumbling their way through their first relationship attempt to impart world-weary advice on fellow travelers<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re such a grownup, Yasuraoka.\u201d And yet, in their straightforward questions, they\u2019re actually cutting to the heart of a lot of things Hana is awkwardly, immaturely walking around. A classic tragedy of adolescent perspective: believing there is some secret, complex code to mature relationships that only a few special people have figured out, as opposed to the ultimate reality that simple, honest communication is the heart of any lasting bond. It is easier to assume ignorance of some great conspiracy than to admit your feelings bravely and honestly<\/span><\/p>\n Leaves falling outside serve a dual purpose, both reminding us of time\u2019s rapid, unceasing passage (lending further urgency to the words of Hana\u2019s companion), and also serving as an easy visual parallel to draw us over to Akane\u2019s date<\/span><\/p>\n Kanai says he likes Akane\u2019s sincere, low-affect personality, and suggests she acts more like that at school. He genuinely does seem to like the real her, even though she doesn\u2019t<\/span><\/p>\n And so she shares her ice cream, the only gesture of affection she can manage<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe view is so nice!\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t care about the view.\u201d It is pretty funny to follow her perspective. And I do get it, to an extent; she doesn\u2019t find joy in the simple things the way others seem to, she needs stronger shocks to her system to feel alive<\/span><\/p>\n She attempts to drag him to bed, and he literally flees the room<\/span><\/p>\n Thinking back, she realizes the only time she was able to be physically intimate with him was after forcibly getting him drunk. Just keep digging that hole deeper, Akane<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kanai\u2019s just trying to enjoy a nice friggin\u2019 vacation at a lovely hot spring resort. Poor guy<\/span><\/p>\n And then he steps on his glasses, leaving him half-blind. He\u2019s just off in his own genre over here, conducting a one-man romcom in flagrant disregard of the melodrama everyone else is experiencing<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you mean when you told me I didn\u2019t have to stop?\u201d \u201cWhat are you referring to?\u201d Kanai apparently doesn\u2019t even recall the one conversation that actually gave her some hope regarding their relationship<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI do it because I like it, but I\u2019m asking you how it makes you feel.\u201d A question which he has to stop to consider. So he didn\u2019t actually forget, he was just so unbothered she had to remind him \u2013 basically the opposite of her usual system, where it is precisely the agony inflicted by \u201ccrossing a line\u201d that she explicitly harvests from her relationships. Kanai\u2019s just like \u201cwell, you shouldn\u2019t have to quit your hobby just because we\u2019re going out\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I nervous?\u201d And as this boy who genuinely doesn\u2019t judge her considers his feelings, she realizes she actually cares about his opinion of her. She\u2019s not just harvesting suffering here \u2013 she wants to be liked by him<\/span><\/p>\n Thus she\u2019s reduced to actively demanding he hate her behavior, which she can immediately understand as a pathetic, hypocritical need. He\u2019s making her grapple with some contradictions she was perfectly content ignoring<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I love you.\u201d Without condition<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEven if you love someone, part of your feelings is connected to the notion that this person also loves you.\u201d A key distinction Akane is drawing. Mugi loves the Akane who loves him, and thus he is possessive and demanding. Kanai just loves Akane as she is, with no restrictions or assumptions regarding her feelings attached. The first she understands, as it is in her mind no more than an extension of \u201cself love\u201d \u2013 not \u201cI love this person,\u201d but \u201chow great am I, that I was able to make this person love me.\u201d But what can she do with Kanai\u2019s feelings? They simply don\u2019t fit within her framework of how people relate to each other, the comforting rationalization that everyone else is just as utilitarian and self-absorbed as she is<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do you love me?\u201d And the key question, loaded with an unspoken \u201cwhen I can\u2019t even love myself\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t you want more?\u201d Her followup question, after he offers a simple \u201cI want the person I love to be happy\u201d that gives her no direction at all. Kanai\u2019s feelings possess no roadmap for Akane to follow<\/span><\/p>\n Lovely exchange here \u2013 Kanai says he holds back because he doesn\u2019t want to inflict pain on the people he loves, to which Akane responds that a \u201cspecial kind of pain\u201d can make people grow stronger. Something she\u2019s essentially forced herself to believe, because otherwise, what was the point of all that pain? A universal tragedy \u2013 that our suffering served no purpose, that our trauma is simply trauma<\/span><\/p>\n And in her mind\u2019s eye, her internal, pure Akane is hugged by Kanai. At last, she is not alone behind the screen<\/span><\/p>\n In the morning, Kanai asks her to marry him<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t change that easily. I\u2019m still calculating.\u201d Yep \u2013 personal revelations are great and all, but changing your mindset and habits is an extremely gradual process<\/span><\/p>\n Nonetheless, she accepts his proposal<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, we then jump straight to her date with Mugi. As she says, people don\u2019t change that easily<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur first date will probably be our last.\u201d Mugi has already resigned himself to Akane\u2019s eventual disinterest. And yet, in the afterglow of Kanai\u2019s proposal, she may be more willing to engage with the world than he\u2019d expect<\/span><\/p>\n Mugi recalls a time when Akane was tutoring him, and she said \u201cwhen I die, I don\u2019t want to be remembered by anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe reason she clings to roles is because she actually wants to be freed from her boredom.\u201d Akane desires the same passion others seem to find in life, but can only seek it by trying on a variety of hats, and discovering to her frustration that these roles don\u2019t do for her what they seem to do for others<\/span><\/p>\n Akane announces her intent to marry<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople can change. But it\u2019s never because of me.\u201d Mugi falling into exactly the category Akane was describing earlier \u2013 someone who loves another because of how their reciprocated love reflects flatteringly on themselves. Thus his immediate response to hearing Akane is getting married is all about himself<\/span><\/p>\n Mugi gathers his strength to at least articulate his true feelings one time, to both himself and Akane. He thought he wanted to change her, but he actually loved her selfish, unhappy identity all along<\/span><\/p>\n And Done<\/b><\/p>\n Holy crap, what was all <\/span>that!?<\/span><\/i> Genuinely positive emotional developments for like half our cast? Honest conversations that brought characters to greater mutual understanding, and actually allowed them to move forward without bitterness or regret? Who are <\/span>these<\/span><\/i> people, and what have they done with our Scum\u2019s Wish lunatics?<\/span><\/p>\n I jest, but seriously, that was so refreshing! Undoubtedly the show\u2019s best episode yet in terms of sympathetic, believable emotional drama, and also its most genuinely insightful regarding character psychology. As it turns out, \u201cNo Peace, Problems Always\u201d Akane was really just a half-step away from contentment all along, ultimately just needing someone who loved her in spite of her allegedly contemptible nature, who in turn would allow her to forgive herself and seek earnest love as well. This steady dismantling of Akane\u2019s various psychological shields did a remarkable job of humanizing what had been one of Scum\u2019s Wish weakest (though undoubtedly most entertaining) links, and gives me great hope leading towards our grand finale. Could these characters actually stop destroying themselves? I guess we\u2019ll find out!<\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0mad<\/a><\/em>e possible by reader support<\/a>. Thank you all for\u00a0all that you do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/May07105529.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
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<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n