Scumbag System (SVSS) Ep 1 Watch Along

The first thing I did while watching? Laugh. It was mean, and now I feel bad, but I laughed and said, “Are we really doing this?” The show is animated using occasionally questionable GCI, and I’ve sense heard their budget is minuscule. No shade at all, as I’m loving the show, and I know how budgets can be, but the background crowds and a few other things have a distinctly “angry, fallen forest god from Hiiro No Kakera” vibe. If nothing else, I suppose it serves to showcase how our characters exist in a fictional world within a fictional world wherein background characters and events are never the main focus.

That is to say–all jokes aside–in Scumbag System, an angry millennial reader gets sucked into the world of a Xianxia harem webnovel he maligned and finds himself in the body of one of the hero’s biggest antagonists. Now, armed only with his novel knowledge, he has to change the story (without being too OOC–out of character) or face his character’s brutal death at the hero’s hands.

This still from the opening illustrates what I’m talking about. The MC looks great, but the stiff, 2000-eqsue motion of the background characters made me start laughing!

Realistically, the close ups and scenery images have been beautiful so far, so we’ll see how things progress. As the show picks up an audience, I anticipate a budget increase and enhanced animation. Scumbag System is based on Scum Villain’s Self Saving System (SVSSS) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, author of The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven’s Official Blessing; fans of the secretive author’s works are excited to support the ever increasing adaptations!

Episode one got me interested in the plot. I didn’t anticipate that I’d be as curious as I ended by the end of the episode. It introduces a good number of important characters like:

Shen Yuan in the body of villian Shen Qingqiu, Lord of disciples–panicking about everything and, I mean, can you blame him??

Luo Binghe, the novel’s hero and MC–he’s had a really rough life, and in the original novel, his treatment at the hands of his master and fellow disciples triggers later revenge…

Yue Qingyuan, the Mountain Sect Master–seems brotherly toward Shen Qingqiu, and considering that Shen Qingqiu’s dramatics in front of him don’t trigger an OOC alert, they must be pretty close…

Ming Fan–a disciple and bully who was encouraged by the original Shen Qingqiu to be cruel to Luo Binghe,

and Ning Yingying, the lone female disciple and, in the original novel timeline, an eventual member of Luo Binghe’s harem.

A few more things of note: this show does poke fun at some traditional harem elements. For example, Ning Yingying is the only disciple to wear a miniskirt, and for no practical reason whatsoever. (insert shrug emoji because I feel it in my soul) Additionally, I am living for the hilarity of Shen Yuan/Shen Qingqiu’s absolute internal PANIC.

So far, I suggest this show highly, and I’ll be back with more on episode two!

Legally watch episode one here: