Leave it up to Scum’s Wish to break some more taboos about love. I’m not gonna beat around the bush here, this episode was magnificent, the way it grabs you in closely and never lets go. I felt emotionally wasted after the episode ended, but for good reasons. We finally have some major developments in the main plot- the premise that was promised in the beginning by our main characters, not tangled by any supporting, third love this time. Mugi confessed to Akane, and Hanabi confessed to Narumi – pretty straightforward. But things won’t end here, mind you, it’s spinning out of control just as messy as everything came before it. Scum’s Wish understands that making characters miserable all the time don’t produce massive impact. After all, if we’re keep going down to the bottom, the only way when we reach there is up. Instead, they give us some moments of genuine feelings between Hanabi and Mugi, before crushing our hope down to pieces. Dang it, Mugi has to f*ck it all up! The fireworks finally appear (for those of you who don’t aware, her name Hanabi literally means fireworks) to signal the storm about to come so I know we’re about to have a thunderous final act of the show.
Let’s start with the newest taboo this show tries to tackle on, relative member’s crush. Now mind you, it’s debatable when it comes to perception on cousin love relationship, even today around the world people still arguing if cousin marriage is legally acceptable or not. I know in Japan this is not uncommon for cousin to love each other, though it’s becoming less and less prevalent now. From where I come from, in contrast, that same topic is strictly perceived as a taboo for example. But let’s move on now since I know that topic isn’t what you come here for. Well, introducing Atsuya- Ecchan’s cousin, that late in a game doesn’t really bode well with me, because I think the show is offering Ecchan a safe way out and a bit unnecessary conflicts on his yet-another unrequired one-side crush. We’re all know that Ecchan tried everything she can to take all she can take from Hanabi physically and emotionally; so that guy is a voice of reason, the guy who would step back and say to Ecchan “You’re trying too hard”. That’s good, mind you, it’s mean some more character development for Ecchan, and I truly think Atsuya inclusion here helps Ecchan to realize the stopping point on her own relationship to Hanabi. From the preview next week we have Hanabi and Ecchan in some random country house so (smirk) prepare for some yuri show time next week. Oh and that Ecchan’s hat!
It’s Mugi and Hanabi who actually share some intimate moments together, and for the first time since they started forming contracts, they acknowledge that they see each other as themselves, not as a substitute for other lover. It’s a major development if you ask me. Before, their relationship was strictly business, consoled each other by way too much touching in other to hide away the pain; but now, they start to have feeling for each other, Hanabi starts to feel and enjoy the warm when they hug. Those are one of the warmest, most hopeful moments in Scum’s Wish and really, hoping for them can get through all the batshit in order to become a normal couple might be our greatest rewards. But I’m telling ya, don’t get your hope up, not because of the mess Mugi had done (I’ll get to that later), but as I keep saying for awhile now, I don’t think they can become a healthy normal couple. What they lack is sharing, especially in regards to their problems. I get that each of them have to face all these personal issues for themselves for their own maturity; but they are unable to share their problems to each other and just kinda let it pass. No. That will never work as a couple.
And Hanabi is the only unfortunate soul to get a short straw here. Both being rejected by her crush, and her partner-in-crime falling into pitfall created by Akame. Hanabi confession is as conventional as it gets, but it’s touching because she can finally let it all out, resulted in her outburst. And that four-eye teacher handles the situation surprisingly well, always stays calm and respects her every words. Kudos the show for handling the sequence with great framing and near-perfect pacing. The other confession though, is as unconventional and (again) taboo-breaking as it could get. Although Mugi is the one who ask her out and confess his love, it’s very clear that Akame is the commander in charge here. Mugi claimed that he knows everything bad about her, determines to change her but he couldn’t help but fall for those sweet words anyways. We actually did see some genuine facial expressions from Akame (or was it not? She’s the liar-master after all), but it’s bad. It’s bad because he has her way too easy, thus he will eventually become one of her prey, never get out of her spider-web. He can never have her by himself, and our Hanabi will always be alone. Forever alone. And our hearts again will be crushed along with her.
p/s: after watching this episode, I had to put on the ED of Flowers of Evil to calm my mind and arrange my feelings. Does that make me a broken deviant who like being tortured and manipulated? So be it.
I don’t think Mugi is at Akane’s mercy here, in fact quite opposite. My belief is based on my subjective understanding of Akane’s character after seeing this episode. I haven’t seen more nor read the original material. I could be completely wrong.
The problem is that Akane’s behavior is a result of her psychological repression. It is inevitable for her to realize that and wish to move on to a higher plane, where a meaning can be found, i.e. to have an actual relationship. I believe Mugi just now pushed her exactly to the tipping point. Her behavior until now has just lost its effect entirely and she can only move on to a new world, one that renders her skills of deception useless, which effectively makes her a complete noob, helpless and at a mercy of people with “feelings”. She can’t trust anyone, its a cruel world out there, for from her only perspective people are out to hunt her (just like she had been doing). Mugi is her only safe card, because he was the only one who went after her for her qualities other than her allure she used to hunt. For her this makes him her only link with a future she can survive in, leaving him in the position of control. Not her.
In the anime, I don’t see their relationship having a long future, because once Akane grows able to fend for herself emotionally, Mugi will lose his card and the age difference will naturally split them up. There is also the fact that Mugi is set up as a device here to help Akane grow, but most importantly he remains the only viable partner for Hanabi.
In reality their relationship would also not hold out, because:
1) Mugi idealizes Akane (and thus not love her true self) and is naive in his thinking he can change her (he can “cure” her problem, but not change the real her, which is not what he really is after).
2) Akane is too insecure and immature in her approach to relationships (her behavior is a symptom of this). She is someone who will always have a problem to maintain a long term relationship, its clear from the fact that her self-defense mechanism went this far. She has been completely oblivious to value of a relationship. When she will become aware, she will be clueless and lost. She has no foundation to a value system and can not formulate a (life) objective. She could only desires one and borrow one (from Mugi, for example: “I want to have a life-time partner”), but if she did that, her understanding of it will be incomplete (and selfish) and her happiness (as well as any accomplishments) nil the moment she becomes aware of it. Once she would overcome a depression (if at all), she would finally be ready to start formulating her goals and means and participate in a relationship in which she considers her partner’s happiness as well. By that point she would be too old and too scarred.
Ultimately Akane is a weak insecure person, unaware of her problems and underlying weaknesses and not utilized to help herself. She is only emotionally stable because she compensates for her lack of control of self, for now. Without this compensation, she would be lost and prone to exploits, abuse, lack of motivation, abandonment issues, dependency, depression and in overall low quality of emotional life due to trust issues and unclear perception of the boundaries of self and others.
How her course of life would go would terribly depend on the kind of partner she would find and it could go really well for her if it was someone who could mentor her and guide her spiritually as an equal, while providing the right environment for fostering the right values. But Mugi is definitely not that kind of person (not many are) and in real life he would just silently walk away at one point, leaving her desperate and lost.
Oh and +1 for Flowers of Evil ED. Isn’t it like, a dadaism or something?
It’s downright creepy and it completely calms me down, as paradoxically as it sounds. But then, even right now as I’m writing this I’m listening to “Paranoia” by Takeshi Abo from Remember11 VN.