Kuzu no Honkai (Scum’s Wish): Season 1/ Episode 1 "Make a Wish" [Series Premiere] – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyc3bclxqm8

Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Unrequited love, especially from a person you have access to, who interacts with you but never develops the same feelings you have for them is a weight on the heart. This is on full display and may sadly bring back memories of not the proverbial “One who got away” but the one who never allowed themselves to be had.

The Introduction

Yasuraoka has known Kanai since she was a child. He was the male figure in her life since her dad wasn’t around and her mother was his maternal figure. As neighbors, they grew a close bond but for Yasuraoka, their bond crossed over onto love. Sadly, it seems Kanai’s heart may belong to Akane. She is the love interest of Mugi, a boy she used to tutor in middle school and who, like Yasuraoka with Kanai, has found to now be his high school teacher.

Having to now try to hide their feelings because it could affect their beloved’s job, and deal with seeing them fall for someone else, Mugi and Yasuraoka share a mutual sorrow. So, one day, after spending a lot of time with one another, Yasuraoka makes a move on Mugi. It starts as a joke but develops into a full blown relationship. However, it is more so a relationship to act as love’s methadone than because of a real interest in each other. At least, that’s the story for now.

Highlights

It Gives you “The Feels”

The feeling of being friends, or simply close, to someone who you have feelings for. The type of feelings beyond the physical but you are mentally and emotionally attracted to them, that’s hard to deal with. Especially in the situation Yasuraoka and Mugi are in for not only is there a likelihood of rejection, but now the relationship they have has to be secret. They can’t have close, almost intimate in a way, relationships with students. For your love to likely be unrequited hurts enough, but now you can’t share it on top of that? You can’t put it out into words and share it with someone to lessen the weight of it? Imagine that. How can you get over someone that you can’t be told the flaws of, told how you could do better or any means which could try to chisel away at a crush?

Though you may not have had an exact situation, a crush on a teacher or authority figure, it is easy to relate to the idea of feeling so much for someone who only feels just enough for you to keep you hanging on.

It Got Sexual Without Seeming Dirty

Sex in anime often times leans toward being ecchi or just straight hentai. It seems made strictly for male viewers to get tantalized by. Now, I won’t say the fondling scene between Mugi and Yasuraoka couldn’t be seen that way, but it seems more about intimacy, perhaps even a longing by both parties to touch or be touched, than something done for hard ons.

It Isn’t All Doom and Gloom

While dealing with a subject matter I’m sure many don’t necessarily want to revisit or be reminded that it currently exists in their life, there are comical moments. There are moments when, even if they can’t have the ones they really want, there is some solace in Mugi and Yasuraoka having each other. And while they aren’t necessarily settling for the other person, but perhaps compromising, there is something peaceful in their relationship. Something that leads you to believe that while love and what you as a person need may not come from the one you want, it doesn’t mean you are undeserving. For while there is a pact between the two to not fall in love with one another, it honestly seems they are fooling themselves. Especially Yasuraoka.

Low Points

The Big Bro Thing Is Kind of Creepy

In the beginning, I thought this was about incest. Yasuraoka calling the guy she likes “Big Bro” and it not being made clear, at first, they weren’t related was weird enough to make me question watching this. Though, as time went on, and it was made clear they weren’t blood relations, it made this easier to watch. However, it doesn’t lessen the creepiness of the idea she calls someone her Big Bro and she wants said person to kiss her, touch her intimately, and love her as no one has before.

Overall: Positive (Watch It)

This is definitely a decent season for anime featuring romance, but this one maybe the cream of the crop. It isn’t dealing with a boy meets girls under weird, and sometimes random, situations. It is about two people using each other to feel what someone else isn’t likely to give them. Yet, there is an openness about it. Leading you to wonder, if not hope, they may find love in each other and not through the filter of seeing each other as their beloved. Though, only time will tell.