Kuzu no Honkai Episode 6 Review: Welcome to the X-Dimension

Episode 6 of Kuzu no Honkai spent some time on building our main ‘scum’ couple: Hanabi and Mugi. I have to admit that in the last episode I took Minagawa’s claim with a grain of salt, maybe as her attempt to hurt Hanabi’s feelings. But the pre-opening scene made sure to validate her claim, and thus set forth Hanabi’s further descent to the dark side.

Japanese Title: X次元へようこそ

Plot

You only need one spark to light a fire, and Minagawa threw enough to burn down the school to the ground. ‘Is it good,’ asks Hanagi, ‘to play with people’s emotions?’ only for our favorite psychopath to answer, ‘You wouldn’t believe how much.’ Hanabi, however, is not that interested in the joy of using others. This is personal; this is war and the only weapon with which she can beat Minagawa-sensei is manipulation. She will take the affection her enemy so desperately craves right from her grasp. Hanabi will seduce all the men that she has seduced so far and beat her in her own game. ‘Even if somebody gets hurt,’ asks her conscience (more in Themes and Trivia). ‘Feelings aren’t things to steal or be stolen,’ little Hanabi insists, but this is a battle she can’t win; ‘Scum’ Hanabi has already taken the path to the dark side.

How does her new plan translate in her real-life relationships? She starts dating Mugi for real. Her intention is to make him fall for her and steal him from Minagawa-sensei, but the odds are against her. Not because Mugi is madly in love with Akane, but because he is as much a ‘scum’ as the rest of them. The truth is that he showed a bit of jealousy in his encounter with Ecchan, and Hanabi did say that through their physical relationship she started longing for Mugi himself, but his words and his encounter with Moca betray that things are going to get even more complicated. If Hanabi is going to use Ecchan, what is forbidding Mugi from using Moca? The logic behind this is faulted, but both Ecchan and Moca want to be used and they make it quite clear, the first by being sexually aggressive and the second by being passively romantic.

The second part of the plan is seducing Takuya, the handsome student that Minagawa-sensei is seducing. During their date, Hanabi is able to test her newfound ‘scum’ skills: she pretends to be someone she isn’t (?) to get closer to him, make him fall in love with her, take him away from her arch-nemesis. ‘Sad and pathetic,’ is her opinion for him, a guy so superficial and empty that he is allows Akane-san to use him and in his turn he wants to use Hanabi. He kisses her, a kiss that for Hanabi is just practice: ‘I don’t know what it’s like to kiss someone you love.’

I’ll pretend with you as much as you want. You can fall for a fake version of me.

The whole episode had Hanabi drowning more and more into an empty pit, devoid of light and compassion. If she can’t have the relationship she wants with the man she wants, she is going to destroy the woman that took that away from her, and the only way to do that is to become her.

Episode Highlights

Sex Scene of the Week: I am divided: I liked the awkward Kanai-sensei in the first scene, but I also found the library incident quite enticing. I’m leaving this to you. Which was your favorite scene of this episode? Let me know in the comments!

Themes & Trivia

Conscience: The motivation that comes from our personal moral compass is governed by our thoughts and action. In any case though, conscience is a difficult concept to represent in media, because of its abstract nature. Most of the times it comes in the form of a mentor, a ghost, or a past representation of the character herself. In Hanabi’s case we have the latter, a small girl purely in love with ‘onii-san’, a girl that tries to warn present Hanabi, but miserably fails.

Hanabi: Her name means ‘firework’ and that’s what she has for an avatar in the texting service she uses. Nice little detail.

Comments

Every time I see the new episode of Kuzu no Honkai, I fail to find enough content to fill the highlights and trivia sections. I am so drawn into the narrative and the philosophical monologues of the protagonists that I usually populate the plot section with all my thoughts and nothing is left for the rest. Not that it’s easy to find highlights in an anime that’s full of pain and misery. It’s kind of ironic to call any scene in Kuzu no Honkai a ‘highlight,’ but still I’m trying to find at least one, like the ‘Sex scene of the week’, just to keep the sections in.

Summer Vacations

I’m not sure how Kuzu no Honkai is going to include a beach or festival episode, but if it does it will make sure that the fireworks will be there to highlight all the pain and agony that will come from our little ‘scums.’

Did you like Episode 6? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to check the rest of our episodic anime reviews. You can always check the previous reviews on Kuzu no Honkai’s Anime Info page!

NEXT TIME: Lots of Love (愛はたくさん (LOTS OF LOVE))