Structure of Scum (Kuzu): Reading The Structure of Iki Today through Scum's Wish

Mengo Yokoyari's series Scum's Wish saw phenomenal success in the international anime and manga scene, and yet its narrative and the actions of its characters leave many shocked, disgusted, or at the very least, conflicted. It is far too easy then to conceive of the "scum" in the title as a negative moral judgment, but this does not appear for us to be the case, for in the mutual deceit and betrayal in the narrative we find an alliance with the aesthetics of iki ("taste") outlined by Shūzō Kuki in his seminal Iki no kōkō/The Structure of Iki (1930; 1997), which has its ground in Kuki's philosophy of contingency. This article shall then attempt to demonstrate that "scum" is used in the manga series as a neutral term, and through its neutrality, Yokoyari urges all her readers to come to accept the world and others as they are, despite the cruelties at every corner.