Kuzu no Honkai

The hardest review to write is for an incomplete series, but judging by the "omni-directional" approach it isn't presumably hard to rate unless the author decides to not lay his plans out so predictably.

Like most series, it cannot simply "remain" a work of art or story to be enjoyed. In the sense that it is created and enjoyed, then gets dragged up in its own success until it starts caving in on itself. Good artists never "stagnate" exceptionally long. Always improving and fluidly evolving.

However, an unexpectedly good idea will simply get the creator carried away. We see this with long-running series, multiple-season anime, and "one-trick ponies". It keeps doing the same thing until it simply ceases to be creative or entertaining.

Somewhat remarkable that it isn't porn or simply mediocre to start with, it does get carried away. Up until then it was a multiple-viewpoint series with insights into motivations, mindsets, and decision making from different characters. It didn't dwell too long on any one character.

However it abruptly abandons this and starts shelving characters for the sake of drawn-out "character development" story-arcs that simply cannot be described as actual character development nor story arcs. Mostly just a standard setting with internal monologue, self loathing, and self pity. Then capped off with the problems virtually solving themselves while the currently followed character groans but accepts it. There are a remote few gems, but most solve themselves.

Understandable to a small degree, but also absurdly aggravating, is that the male characters are woefully neglected, if not outright targeted. Understandable in the sense that the author is a female that also does porn... japanese porn at that... but when a story is to be taken seriously ALL characters should be constructed carefully. Get a co-writer who actually knows how men think or function.


All in all, it starts off good but becomes over-saturated. At least somewhat female-biased by over-generalizing men. Lastly, it starts to become bland, very telegraphed, and just uninteresting around the mid 30's or so. Before that, it was rather good at building characters with a few somewhat forgivable hiccups that have very little impact.

Yokoyari Mengo knows how to draw manga; not so much writing manga.

The whole premise is that unrequited love hurts. A lot. Been there done that. This manga really puts into illustration that pain one receives. However, the characters and the relations between those characters makes the plot redundant and long for no reason. What could've been summed up in 4 or 5 volumes turned into 8.

Some good things about this manga:
Art: Yokoyari Mengo knows what they're doing, no problems here.
Theme: I like manga that take a darker tone because we all know how many copy and paste romcoms are out there. Something like this is a breath of fresh air, the theme of unrequited love.

Now to the bad things (Trying to keep it spoiler free)
Characters: Man, it's bad. Some characters are a saving grace, Like Hanabi and Sanae, but everyone else is bad. For the first few chapters, Hanabi and Mugi couple is something that ACTUALLY happens in real life, although it's not stated. Not really dating, more of just having sex to cope with something they can't have. Sanae isn't that bad of a character, her relations to Hanabi is something realistic when you're in that situation. But, why does Noriko exist? You're taking a for the most part dark realistic story and throwing in... her. No girl actually acts like that. It's the ultimate manga girl romcom BS that i hate. Remove her. As soon as we find Akane's personality does thi smanga take a nose-dive. Why do Narumi and Mugi like her? Knowing who she is? And why did they write Narumi like that? Once he really met Akane? God i hate the relationships to each other in this story. The main relationship I understand, but everything else is either eh or bad.

Now for the glaring problem of this manga. The middle part. Why, and i mean WHY, is the story so damn confusing? It goes back and forth between past and present constantly. I had no idea what was what until it continued to present after a fest of confusion for about 8 chapters.

There is two type of people who read this manga. Those who love it. And those who hate it.

Some people say that this manga contains NTR, but that isn't totally true. Kuzu no Honkai (Sick Love) premise lets you know that the MCs don't have feelings for each but for other so NTR by definition can't be related to this manga.

If you've read before some smut, seinen or mature romance, chances are that you will get hooked up with this manga.

It depends on yours tastes. Some people would call this manga "fucked up". If you like the premise of the manga, I think you will likely enjoy the manga. If you don't stay away.

If I had read this when I was younger, I would be crying a lot to most of the pages of this story, and would have perhaps been left traumatised. It's a realistic possibility duo to how I was when I had first gotten in to anime and manga.
The way I am though(mature, I do calim to be), it only causes me to be instantly fully awoken up in the mornings when I regain my dream-staggered consciousness , with the first thing on my mind even before I have opened my eyes being the characters of this story.

I remember my first anime, Fate/Stay night, and how for 6 months after having had gone through the story, 8 years ago, I couldn't think of much of anything, other than Saber.
I had fallen in love with her, and she was gone. It doesn't matter if you know Fate/Stay Night or not, it was the feeling of someone you love, and who loves you, not being your possibility simply because the world doesn't allow it(not in the sense that I was actually wishing for an anime character to be alive (I WAS(I DO), DEFINITELY), but in the sense of that what happened in the story I had projected on to myself).

Another example.

5 Centimeters per second.
That, I've gone through only less than a year ago, and as rugged as I've developed to be, due to my age and the amount of stories that I have gone through thus far, 5 Centimeters per second made me feel alive, really alive.
Alive by not being able to close my eyes at night in my bed even though I was exhausted and tired.
Alive in the way of, I hope you know what it is that I'm going to try to describe now(never quite found an expression to describe the feeling with, not one I was satisfied enough with to have memorised it);
Alive in the way of having the feeling of breathing being really difficult.
Having to, not physically, struggle to breathe in. That compressing feeling of sadness and knowing that what is making you sad is reality itself.

Kuzu no Honkai is basically the two things that I have described above, from start to finish(though the manga is not yet over, at the time of writing this).
To draw a line with a metaphorical comparison..
You, the reader, are a freshly open wound. No, that's not good, naturally you don't have such kinds of wounds, hopefully..
This story is, a stick, doesn't matter what really, but something solid.
This story pokes at your heart, if you read it sincerily.
It's like poking at the inside of your flesh, but in a sense of thought, your mental state.
Do you get sick with sadness by the thought of the person you love.. Not loving you.. Leaving you.. Leaving you for another...
If you delve in to this story with full respect, the respect I believe you should approach to every story with, the respect that allows you to take the whatever the story is with full sincerity, if you delve in to this story like that, enjoy yourself.
Sadness and happiness are just two sides of the same coin that is life, and this story will make you feel alive very much.


From now on, a heavily interpretation-based segment follows.

This story's premise is people's inner-most workings.
How choices are made, when there is by far not a single positive choice to be had in sight.
The single statement that I want to make, the single thing that makes this work a 10/10 for me;

The characters in this are real people.
More mature for the ages that they are, but that's not a bad thing(at least I wish I was like them when I was of their age).

Altruism, OBJECTIVELY, does not exist.
Everything anyone ever does is the best thing that one can do.
The best thing in the sense of how much you like it, the best thing in the sense of what you gain from it, the best thing in the sense of you losing the least by it.
Everything anyone knows is the world their eyes portray to them.
This work, in the packaging of romance, portrays the the principle of "I live for myself and no one else".
We are ALL SCUM, and only you know it.
We are all scum, but because no one other than yourself will ever be YOU, to peak inside your inner-most depths of thought, no one will ever know you are scum.
"Scum".
That is something I (believe I) know about everyone, but I only see the world through my eyes.

You can never be selfless, you make the decisions you make, and just by making a decision, you were already selfish. Selfish enough to have denied the existence to one possibility, because the the possibility you've chosen suits you better.
People are not pebbles on the river bed.

There would be no heroes if everyone knew the thoughts of anyone.
It would be best, if everyone knew everyone.
But this isn't the End of Evangelion.

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To finalise, Hanabi's (the main charactressess) eyes are stunning. That is to say, the art of the manga is beautiful.
Realistically drawn everything, just as I love it to be.
Realistically drawn beautiful characters manga characters, the best thing.
There is even an occasional.. I don't know what those are called, but like, when the character's face is in one instance drawn really funny just to sympathise e.g. how much that character thinks that what the other character said is stupid! You know, right? Anyways I love those whenever, and in a story such as this one.... It's like being given an ice cube when you have a nasty burn that really hurts..
Also, the way the characters' thoughts are portrayed, the way it's all "folded" in to a manga format, it's so great.
It took me while, but after it, I've started reading the manga as if I were reading three things at the same time.
Reading through reality,
the character that is in the moment the focal point of the story,
and the "heart" of that character.
This might sound confusing for those who're reading this without having had read the manga at least for a bit.

The first thing I would like to say about this manga is that I feel it is very difficult to give it a numerical rating. Up until now, my rating has been based upon a mixture of my level of enjoyment and the level of success that the series has in doing what it intends to do, be that tell a story, put across a message etc. For this reason though I have given an overall score with this review, I would like you to ignore it and just read what I have written.
Kuzu no Honkai is a whole different kettle of fish from the average series. To me, Kuzu no Honkai was not "enjoyable", I did not like the choices that the characters made, it frustrated me to see them sink to deeper levels, and furthermore to cause others too feel despair as well. However, it never sought to be a tale that viewers could relate perfectly to, it is a tale of our main characters choices when faced with an unrequited love and the repercussions of those choices. It fulfils its intentions perfectly, showing true consequences of this unpleasant underbelly of love where people will do whatever they can in an attempt to achieve that which is out of reach.
I think many negative reviews are based merely on the fact that it is a difficult manga to find pleasant to read, with people overlooking the fact that it does in fact do everything that it set out to do in the first place very well. i would certainly recommend it, there may be others like it, but it is the first time I have come across something like it. The art style is also very impressive, something I did like about the series a lot.
Finally, the follow on Scums wish Decor, brings a slightly more pleasant conclusion to the series, with it taking place a number of years later, looking in on the way the lives of the characters we have seen progressed and where the events of the main series brought them to. So even if you did not like the unresolved state in which the main story leaves you, hopefully this will be a better outcome in your opinion. .

Ok this review is very bias but i will do what i can to try to make it fair
Characters
The FMC is the most insecure girl ever does every manga/anime need to portray girls with so much insecurities if they are perfect.
The Male lead, its so hard to call him an mc since he basically has 0 to none screentime at all and he is basically a walking plot device with 0 personality and when he does have a character development they dummed him down for the female teacher which i will get in a sec.
The Female teacher has the most forced romance ever for some reason the mc and the male teacher have almost everything in common yet she for some reason doesnt like the mc yet is drooling for the male teacher which is your typical nice guy gets every women.
The Male teacher is the most oh jesus deus ex machina faggot I've seen with the love of his life suddenly having a crush on him for no reason besides his somewhat sister being the reason.
The other 2 girls who are somewhat important to the story=who cares about them they barely do jacksht besides that one lesb with the most retarded backstory to be relevant

Story
Your generic can't you see I'm too deep to be understood its pathetic on how almost every scene has inner monologue it simply doesn't understand how show don't tell works.

Art
Its great i guess

Enjoyment
I'm one of those people who doesn't binge read and wait weakly i actually enjoyed first couple of chapters thinking that it would be unique but no it wasn't. Imagine almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger and next chapter nothing happens

Overall
Itsbayed

Scums wish is something that'll make you feel. Whether is be disgust, anger, sadness, the result is a feeling that will carry on towards the end of the manga.

Story: The story is well written for the most part. The premise is unique, and the circumstances needed to be overcome are interesting, as well as emotionally charged. The story effortlessly brings in a tangled sensation of feelings, without getting too messy elsewhere. There's a great sense of pacing, despite the emotional tension throughout.

Art: The art is awesome. Granted, its been a while since I read the manga, but I remember nothing but amazing panels and great use of space.

Characters: The characters aren't necessarily meant to be likeable, but they're real. They have an unbelievable raw edge that screams unrefined and almost idiotic sometimes, but it just enforces how real the characters are. The characters embody a sense of emotional tension about as well as they cause it.

This manga found a spot in my heart, due to how well it handled itself, all the way to the ending. I'd wholehearted recommend it, if anyone is in the mood for an emotional roller coaster.

A fruitless love. A painful love. A one-sided love. Is that really such a wonderful thing?

It's all too common throughout the romance genre to follow the journey of an unrequited love. These stories are light hearted in nature and sparkling with color as characters fantasize about confessing to their unobtainable goal. What rarely gets explored is the emotional toll that weighs on the soul of a person who rests their hopes on the choices of another adolescent. To not be able to share yourself with the one you desire most in this world, even worse watch them grow closer to someone else, is an excruciating ordeal. One that can lead you to make terrible choices out of utter desperation and that is what Kuzu no Honkai attempts to depict in gritty detail - the darkness that can develop from an unrequited love situation and the depths one is willing to go to in order to fill that void in their heart.

In this story we encounter two seventeen year olds named Mugi and Hanabi who attempt to quell the pain from their own unrequited loves by using one another as substitutes, pretending as though the other is the one that they truly love in order to satisfy their raging desires. We witness the consequences they face from beginning such a disingenuous relationship and how it impacts the people around them for the worse.

For adolescents in a school life setting, our two main characters are unusually mature. They obviously make their fair share of mistakes throughout as any teenager would, but the way that they describe events that happen before them, rationalizing their ever changing feelings by referencing modern psychology and embracing their sexual proclivities make them appear as though they're older than they actually are. Maturity is a prevalent theme as our lead characters look to progress themselves in order to make the people that they love, both adults in their early 20's, look their way. They each have childhood friends who are in love with them and are understandably upset over the suspicious relationship that they share which serves as the root of much drama in this story. Even they begin to change drastically as the plot progresses. Character progression is a refreshing strong-point for this manga as everyone begins to develop before your eyes with the turn of each page leading into the next chapter. Kuzu no Honkai is also told from a variety of different perspectives with each central character getting an opportunity to describe the events through their own point of view, helping to keep the story from ever feeling repetitive or stale.

The art in this manga does a great job of depicting the emotional state of the characters especially during intimacy scenes. Despite the lewd premise however, this is not a very explicit manga as there's much more focus on the reasoning behind why the characters act upon their impulses, rather than the impulse itself.

Given the current events thus far its safe to say what this manga sets out to accomplish as intended by the author: Kuzu no Honkai is designed to make you feel. To evoke a reaction out of the reader that will range anywhere from lukewarm sadness to berserk anger due to the many painful decisions that these characters you grow accustomed to make. It can be quite the vexing read for many who are used to more predictable happy romantic outcomes but a strong quality of any work of literature is the ability to create a rise out of the reader. That was me as I sped through this manga upon discovery which compelled me to compose my thoughts into a review. Hopefully that is what will inspire you to continue on forth with this manga and witness the most oft ignored aspect of love that is human desperation and desperately sought after compensation for a broken heart.

"It's not like it would be the end of this world if someone refused me." - Yasuraoka, Hanabi

Kuzu no Honkai (Scum's Wish) is doubtlessly living up to it's name by portaying how fragile humans are when it comes to temptations and how susceptible we are with negative emotions. Through this series, expect that everything will refuse fall in place. Indubitably manga is unique on it own way of showing us what love really is. Since it shows what really happens when we are broken and in need of someone that to fill out that missing part.

The story revolves with Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya that are high school students who are well known and adored by co-students, but they are in-love with someone whom they couldn't be with. As they share the same pain they have decided to be couple (a fake one), for others to see and fulfill each others sexual and emotional urges.

Love, betrayal and lust are the things you are about to unfold as you progress with the story. I could say that the Scum's Wish is totally unpredictable and enjoyable for the individuals whole likes emotional roller-coaster ride. If your heart is already broken, thus what's breaking it a few more times going to do?

Well written and absolutely beautiful. It might be a depressing and heart-wrenching manga, but I could say that I am utterly satisfied with it's ending.

Overall, I would give 9 wishes out of 10 for Kuzu no Honkai.

WARNING: This review contains explicit language.

Kuzu no Honkai is the only manga I've completed with a fast pace. This is also the first revie that I'm going to publish for a Manga here in MAL because I cannot keep myself from shading my thoughts because this fucking manga has scarred me big time.

Character: 10
I love them and I hate them. I love Mugi and Hanabi and I just fucking shipped them throughout the whole time I was reading this Manga. I'll continue on shipping them till the day I return to dust but at the same time I also hated them occasionally for being so fucked up and for being so stupid. I also hated Akane, that fucking slut. But when it came to the last chapters of the manga, I started to hate myself as well because I slowly sympathized her and came to "understand" her but I still feel conflicted about it but I just can't help it and the fact that Hanabi also said; Her confidence is flawless and I kind of want to have that typenof confidence too.
The rest of the characters were also far from being just mediocre side characters. Even they have fucked up mentalities and I think that's what makes this manga relatable and realistic because everyone of us is fucked up too. *Sobs*

Art: 8
The art is a fucking trap. At first it gives you the false impression of a Shoujo manga. Well Surprise MF! You could also prob feel turned on with all the bed scenes and shit but trust me it only lasts until you get to the middle because when you get there, no matter how hot the bed scenes are, all you're going to be able to say is "WTF R YOU GUYS DOING".

Story: 10
Like I said, at the end of every chapter you'll always have that WTF reaction but there's this certain urge inside you that wants to dig in deeper as the story progresses and you're gonna realize the author and her characters are slowly fucking up you brain but its probably too late to back out now so instead you embrace reading this sinful manga.

Overall its a 10. Even if the ending wasn't the conclusion I wanted it was what Mugi, Hanabi and I needed. Yes, I am now part of it. I can't help it. It's haunted me ever since.

Read it. Just read it. Stop looking at those reviews with a 7 below rating. Trust me. Let's all get fucked up by a fucking manga.