Scum’s Wish #01 — Angst Porn
January 12th, 2017
With only a slight more emphasis on the porn part than usual.
Impressions:
Since this is a particularly melodramatic noitaminA show with angsty teenagers being especially insecure sacks of garbage built right in, I'm half tempted to give it the "hell no" treatment too, but I would hate to give off the impression that it was something as drab as those things that are its greatest sins. Obviously it's not the near-sex either. I'm pretty sure that's one of its selling points. Look how edgy we are. Teenagers having sex. Have you ever heard of anything so wild? Someone better get on the horn with the authorities and stop them before Japan society crumbles from the collective gasps of ten thousand PTA members. And only adult shows have teenagers having sex. Remember how adult Cross Ange and Valvrave were?
No, it's the nonstop exposition that does it. There is no emotion in exposition. There is no life in narration. And that's what dominates the entire thing; a never-ceasing monotonous announcement of her current feelings and explanation of the current situation. The entire show would be 5,000 times better served if every internal monologue was gone. No announcement of being able to tell they were shared the same pain from one glance in his eyes. No explanation of "that frustrates me" while making a face and growling. Nothing. And it could fall back on the excuse of artsy and atmospheric too. No amount of sad pianos, washed-out paletes, or shots of rain is going to cover up the 20 minute train of thought narrating every single goddamned thing, nor give it any actual emotional weight. It only has the vague affectations of emotion. And especially not the weird cut-ins or times when it decides that it wants to be a cutesy romance instead and starts making silly faces. It's hard to even really say it's fulfilling the 'drama' part of 'melodrama.' It moves too slowly for that for one, and spends the first half of the episode repeating itself, then flashing back so it can then re-establish what it just established.
Posted in Anime | 5 Comments »
I usually hate these teacher romance things and while I still hate that here too, the show was pretty alright. The directing and the music were really good. It’s too bad the teachers are just these really bad cardboard cutouts, a glance at the male teacher and you can tell he’s as dense as a harem lead and it’s just frustrating thinking about how he’ll show up again for the sole purpose of being dense.