Is Scum’s Wish Manga Complete?
Scum’s Wish is a completed manga series. Creator Mengo Yokoyari wrapped up the main story, and it is no longer publishing new chapters. If you’ve been holding off because you didn’t want to start something unfinished, this is your green light — you can read the entire story from beginning to end right now without waiting for new volumes.
The series originally ran in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan magazine. In Japanese manga publishing, stories typically debut as individual chapters in magazines like this before being collected into book-form volumes that you can buy off a shelf or online. The complete collected edition is available in English from Yen Press, a major English-language manga publisher, making it easy to find at bookstores and online retailers.
This is one of those series where knowing it’s complete actually matters quite a bit. Scum’s Wish tells a tightly constructed emotional story with a definitive ending — it wasn’t cancelled or rushed. Yokoyari got to finish the narrative on her own terms, which means the conclusion feels deliberate and earned rather than abrupt.
How Many Volumes Does Scum’s Wish Have?
The main Scum’s Wish series is 8 volumes long. That’s a very manageable read — you could finish the whole thing in a weekend if you were so inclined, though the emotional weight of the story might make you want to take breaks between volumes.
Here’s a quick overview:
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Title | Scum’s Wish (Kuzu no Honkai) |
| Creator | Mengo Yokoyari |
| Volumes (Main Series) | 8 |
| Status | Complete |
| English Publisher | Yen Press |
| Original Magazine | Monthly Big Gangan (Square Enix) |
Eight volumes puts it in a sweet spot — long enough to develop its characters and themes meaningfully, short enough that it never overstays its welcome. Every volume pushes the story forward. There’s very little filler here.
If you’re looking to grab the series, the Yen Press English edition collects the complete story across all 8 volumes.
Scum's Wish
What Is Scum’s Wish About?
Scum’s Wish follows Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya, two high school students who appear to be the perfect couple on the surface. The reality is much messier: both of them are in love with someone else. Hanabi is in love with her homeroom teacher, Narumi Kanai — her older childhood friend, which makes the emotional entanglement that much more complicated. Meanwhile, Mugi is in love with his former tutor and current music teacher, Akane Minagawa.
Unable to be with the people they actually want, Hanabi and Mugi enter a relationship built on mutual loneliness and physical comfort — a “scummy” arrangement where they use each other as substitutes for their real desires.
What makes this series hit so hard is that it refuses to romanticize any of this. The characters know what they’re doing is unhealthy. They know they’re hurting themselves and each other. The manga examines unrequited love, emotional manipulation, jealousy, physical intimacy used as a coping mechanism, and the painful gap between who people want to be and how they actually behave.
The Emotional Darkness
Scum’s Wish is not a fantasy series — there are no monsters, curses, or supernatural threats. Its darkness is entirely psychological. Characters make selfish choices, use each other, and struggle with desires they can’t control. The series depicts the darker sides of love and longing with a rawness that can be genuinely uncomfortable to read, placing it in the broader tradition of manga that earns the label “dark” through emotional brutality rather than violence or horror.
A content note: the series deals with mature themes including sexual content, emotional manipulation, and unhealthy relationship dynamics. It’s aimed at an older teen and adult audience and doesn’t shy away from showing why these characters’ choices are damaging.
The artwork reinforces this tone — Yokoyari’s art is beautiful but often carries an undercurrent of melancholy. Intimate scenes feel heavy rather than titillating, and character expressions convey layers of conflicted emotion.
Does Scum’s Wish Have a Sequel or Spin-Off?
Yes — after the main series concluded, Yokoyari published Scum’s Wish: Décor (Kuzu no Honkai: Décor), a supplementary volume of short stories set after the main series. Décor expands on the world of Scum’s Wish by showing what happens to various characters after the main story ends, as well as providing side stories that flesh out characters who didn’t get as much focus in the original 8 volumes.
Décor is essentially an epilogue collection. If you finish the main series and want more — or if certain characters’ endings left you wanting closure — Décor is designed to address exactly that.
Décor is supplementary rather than essential. The main 8-volume series tells a complete story with a clear ending. Décor adds context and resolution for side characters, but the core narrative stands on its own.
Mengo Yokoyari’s Later Work
Fans of Scum’s Wish may also know that Mengo Yokoyari went on to serve as the artist for Oshi no Ko, a manga written by Aka Akasaka. In manga, it’s common for the writer and artist to be different people — in this case, Akasaka wrote the story while Yokoyari drew it. Oshi no Ko became a massive hit and focuses on the Japanese entertainment and idol industry, which is a very different setting from Scum’s Wish. However, Yokoyari’s talent for depicting complex emotional dynamics and characters who operate in moral gray areas carries over. If you loved the character writing in Scum’s Wish, her artistic evolution into Oshi no Ko is worth checking out.
Is There a Scum’s Wish Anime?
Yes, Scum’s Wish received a TV anime adaptation that aired in 2017. For those unfamiliar with the distinction, manga refers to the printed comic — the panels you read on a page — while anime is the animated television or film version. Many popular manga series get adapted into anime, though the two formats often differ in how much detail and internal character thought they can convey.
The Scum’s Wish anime was produced by Lerche, an animation studio known for adapting manga and other source material into TV series. The adaptation covered the main story and is widely considered faithful to the manga’s heavy emotional atmosphere.
For readers wondering whether to watch or read first: the manga is the original and complete source material. The anime is a solid adaptation, but the manga offers more of the characters’ inner thoughts and emotional nuance. If you prefer to experience the original version first, start with the manga.
There was also a live-action TV drama adaptation — a version performed by real actors rather than animated — which is less commonly discussed in English-speaking manga communities but exists as another way to experience the story.
Reading Order for Scum’s Wish
If you want to read everything, here’s the straightforward order:
- Scum’s Wish — Volumes 1 through 8 (the main series, complete)
- Scum’s Wish: Décor — 1 volume (supplementary side stories and epilogue content)
That’s it. No complicated reading order, no branching timelines, no alternate versions. Read the main 8 volumes first, then Décor if you want more.
Should You Read Scum’s Wish?
This depends entirely on what you’re looking for. Here’s a quick breakdown:
You’ll probably love it if:
- You enjoy emotionally complex romance that doesn’t follow typical feel-good patterns
- You appreciate characters who operate in moral gray areas and make bad choices for understandable reasons
- You want a completed series with a definitive, intentional ending
- You’re drawn to stories about the messier sides of love, loneliness, and desire
- You like manga that makes you think and maybe feel a little uncomfortable
- You normally read darker genres and want to see psychological darkness applied to a realistic romance setting
It might not be for you if:
- You want a happy, uplifting romance
- You need protagonists who consistently make good decisions
- You’re uncomfortable with mature content and unhealthy relationship dynamics
- You’re strictly looking for fantasy, action, or supernatural manga right now
Scum’s Wish is one of those series that provokes strong reactions. Some readers find it painfully relatable. Others find the characters frustrating. Very few people feel nothing about it, which shows how effectively Yokoyari crafts her emotional narratives.
At 8 volumes, it’s a small time investment for a story that packs a serious emotional punch. You’ll know within the first volume whether it’s for you.
Final Thoughts
Scum’s Wish is finished, it’s 8 volumes long, and it tells a complete story with a clear ending. The Décor supplementary volume adds optional epilogue content. An anime adaptation from 2017 covers the main narrative faithfully.
If you’ve been sitting on the fence about this one, the fact that it’s complete and relatively short makes it easy to pick up. It’s an emotionally raw, sometimes uncomfortable, always compelling look at the worst parts of love and longing — told with gorgeous art and sharply written characters who feel painfully human in their flaws.
Grab volume 1, give it a shot, and see if Hanabi and Mugi’s messy, bittersweet story pulls you in. For most readers, it does.