The contrast between Scum's Wish and LWA is pretty stark. By episode 3, we having little if any direction or concrete goal for our heroes. They are cardboard cutouts. Akko likes Chariot. Sucy likes poisons. Diana is stuck up. Ursula has anxiety. Lotte exists. We don't know the relation of their school to the greater magical world. We don't even know the relationship between the town and the school. Magic only works near the Sorceror's Stone? Whaaaa? How does this sustain a magical world at all? How can you come from a "magical bloodline" if magic needs the Sorcerer's Stone as fuel. Are there multiple? Is the one in Luna Nova unique? How are classes structured, grades, progress? Do they even show the passage of time? It feels like episodes 1 and 2 were 1 day in-universe each but episode 3 was maybe a week or more? Who announces a competition on the third day of school?
Scum's Wish 1 sets up a love rectangle. Mugi and Hanabi establish their toxic, loveless relationship, start getting sexual but create artificial boundaries between themselves. By episode 2, the rectangle is a hexagon, Hanabi is being molested by her lesbian childhood friend, Mugi and Hanabi redraw their boundaries to exclude sex, and Hanabi already upends her end of the "wish". There's also more to Mugi's and Akane's relationship than meats the eye.
One is so dense and dripping with tension it's suffocating (which is its main appeal) and the other one is a beautiful but ultimately empty meal utterly devoid of calories. In 3 episodes of LWA I have seen no sign of an arc or dramatic triangle. It's like TRIGGER is redoing the OVAs, just giving everyone the briefest introduction before hijinx ensue, over and over again, but with much lower budget per instance. On the other hand, Scum's Wish is already on some 5 dimensional chess and is rapidly expanding towards a 6th dimension.
THIS IS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.
