Flowers of Evil (2013) User Reviews

Not a show for everyone but definitely worth a try

[korireviews · 8/10 · 1 July 2013]

Aku no Hana is by far the most controversial Anime of the Spring Season 2013, receiving by far the most hate and still having quite a big fan base that does like it. Which one of the two sides arguing against each other is right?

Story: The story of Aku no Hana takes place in Japan and revolves around Kasuga Takao, a quite normal boy, who goes to school, loves books (especially Baudelaire's "Aku no Hana") and has a crush on what is supposed to be the beauty of the class. One day he finds her sport clothes as he wants to get the book he accidentally forgot in the classroom. He takes them out and hears a sound. In the hurry he just takes them and leaves quickly. Later on the psycho child of the class, being Nakamura Sawa tells him she saw him stealing the clothes. From then on she makes him do things that...well are kind of awkward. The whole story is really well executed and as far as I know follows the Manga quite well (didn't read it). It is really enjoyable to watch and it keeps unfolding in directions that the viewer doesn't expect to go to. It was a good story, but no masterpiece! 8/10

Characters: The characters are the shining point of the show. Even though the only ones that get any focus at all are the three main characters that everything revolves around, they are that good developed that that is no problem at all! Kasuga Takao seems to be one of the most normal students we've seen in a while in Anime. He likes books, has a crush on a girl and doesn't have any powers or things he is really good in. That is until he gets seen by Nakamura stealing the clothes and his life gets more and more messed up, just as his mind. Nakamura Sawa is a psycho. That's what everyone agrees upon. But it is a kind of psycho, that seems more pleasant than the "I'll kill you all" type, and rather is someone that is claims himself to be a deviant and searches for people that are the same as she is. Saeki Nanako is the girl Kasuga has a crush on. She is a kind and good looking girl. I am not gonna talk a lot about her since I'd just end up spoiling. One must be said: The characters aren't likable at all! It is hard to really like them, but that is the point the series wants you to be in. It's a point were you can look down on the show from a spot a lot higher, which makes every single character a lot more human and makes their built up incredibly well done. 10/10

Art: Well....the first thing that comes to your mind while watching Aku no Hana is the character design, which looks to say it in a polite way different. It is not a bad thing to make them look this way, since it is just another point that makes you feel more distant to the characters. The point were the art fails is the animation itself. The characters suffer from either to much movement at the same time and you just can't seem to concentrate because the characters look as if they would tremble without a reason or they don't move at all. The amount of still screens in this show is incredibly high and makes the show feel as if it was something based on an incredibly low budget, which it probably is. Later on the Animation gets a lot better but still not good enough to make up for what they did within the first episodes, which makes the enjoyment go down by far and the hate level rise in the same way. 4/10

Sound: The Soundtrack of Aku no Hana is incredibly simple. It mostly consists of tones getting louder and louder which creates a suspense that really fits the show as something dark and awkward. Aku no Hana has one of the most memorable endings ever created. A song only sung by a computer voice singing about the flowers of evil definitely is really creepy and fits the whole show really well. Just as the 4 Openings do. Every single one of them is weird in it's own way but still it fits the show so well that by now I really enjoy hearing them on their own. The voice acting is nothing that really stands out. While it definitely is not horrible, it is nothing I do love. 8/10

Enjoyment: I have no idea how to score this...honestly! This show is nothing you will enjoy! However it is something that makes you want to shut down your browser and never open it again. At parts I couldn't watch an episode in a single sitting, but had to constantly pause it to calm down a bit, since my nerves were blank, but this is what makes this show so good! 9/10

Aku no Hana is not a show everyone will enjoy, that is for sure. It is hard to watch and if you aren't into thrillers or that kind of stuff you really should stay away from this, but if you like them or if it even interests you a little, go watch this and make your own picture of it.

Overall: 8/10

As with most other higher or art anime, it tries, but it's success is average

[NRTOOD · 7/10 · 12 October 2014]

So, here we have one of last year more prominent animes, i mean one that tries to lift itself above the dross-line. HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD... The protagonist is a high-school student named Takao Kasuga, a typical high-school student who has an ideal fantasy class high-school girlfriend whom he loves from afar (or to put it in his words, a "femme fatale") and thinking himself more supreme and intelligent from his classmates because he reads more and especially reads poetry. Things go wrong one moment when he is alone in the class and sees his idealized girlfriend underwear, in an uncontrolled urge he picks them up sniffs them and then when wanting to put them back into the locker students start to arrive in the hallway so in the rush of the moment he hides them and carry them home with him. But one girl sees it, the class outsider and loner Sawa Nakamura, who from now on blackmail him and taunts him for the rest of the series. So, reading the premise of the series i thought that what she was going to do to him is physical humiliation, but the things she does to him are mainly horrible in his head. Yes, to most persons (more than people are willing to admit), school students and youths in particular this can be humiliating, but far from something that will ruin someones life. So, as people realized by now, his a weak jelly instead of a spine non-male in the style that becomes more and more prevalent in anime's since the 2000's (think Golden Time's Tada Banri for an equal or even worse). I wonder if the director or manga this is based on is trying to tell a story in the style of Margaret Atwood "Cat's Eye" where the torment of the main character is psychological, it isn't good as cat's eye. Moving on, it is pretty obvious why he is so afraid of Nakamura, he deems himself idealistically pure, he is more good natured, more worthy and sublime from his classmate brutes, then comes Nakamura, a girl who is not only stronger than him and has perversions, but she's got no problem with her perversions, she's, in a way, "a natural" and more pure than him. At some point, Takao befriends his ideal classmate girl Nanako, who is a simple minded schoolgirl who finds Takao something of a cross between a weirdo and an almighty youth intellectual, therefore alluring. Nakamura orchestrate their relationship in a way that, to her, it always will look like Takao's fault every time more details about the mysterious underwear thief are discovered. Despite that, his behavior is so remote from her she tries to understand him, in the episode where they escape to the mountain, Nanako is literally brought to tears by his behavior, but still, Nanako image as a femme fatale is broken for Takao, who sides with Nakamura, you are decadent not because you want to but because you can't help it. Too strong(?) for Nanako and too weak for Nakamura, they both leave him. In the last episode we get to see Nakamura's diary and her motivations into her teacher-student of perversions relationship with Takao, in short, she thought she had found an equal to evil like hers, she could teach him true humanity, which is evil, because every good person has an horrible perversity in his core, and the mass of humanity are hypocrites who hide their true core under veils of goodness, that's why she wants to go behind the mountain and see if there is something beyond ultimate peak of nature (she tries to bring the symbol into tangible reality, which is a very uncommon way to use symbolism. She's almost aware of it, almost, but then she's not, and i wonder what the author of this had in mind).

So, maybe there is something other to this, but this is all very predictable and done better in other places. The animation, places, direction and mindfulness of other surrounding stuff that related to making film and art are certainly interesting and something different, but aren't good enough to make you forget it's subtext weakness. The themes here are undoubtedly decadent (Baudelaire and staff) and a little bit nihilistic. A little above average but that's all.

Beautifully disturbing yet falls on it's face at the vital moment !

[dergo1976 · 7/10 · 9 May 2014]

When ep8 stars with six and a half minutes of the two main characters, walking slowly, hand in hand. In silence, whilst a minimalist ambient piece of ambling drone music plays over the top, i knew i loved this anime. Bar Studio Ghibli and a very few others, I cannot bare anime. Lolita harems and mind numbing monster fights usually glaze me over, reaching for the off button. Aku No Hana, did not do this. Seemingly not representative at all. The hate, poured upon it for it's use of Rotoscope Animation, is well documented.

I won't to go into details of the plot, as it is far more eloquently dissected all over the net. In a Japanese social context, it comes across as very interesting indeed. A small insight into how Japanese highschool and young teen people are expected to behave and the fallout therein.

The performances from both the live actors and the voice actors who dub them are excellent. Minami Sasaki (live actor) and Mariya Ise (voice actress) who play Sawa Nakamura are both particularly exceptional. Creating a truly deranged young girl, without camp or nonsensical behaviour, so apparent in many anime. Nakamura is seriously bad news and it pours from the screen, both alluring and disturbing in equal measure. The main protagonist, a seriously confused beta-male, Takao Kasuga (finely played and voiced by Shin'ichirō Ueda) is a less endearing character, because of his simpering, self destructive behaviour. A vehicle for Nakamura to wield a destructive hand over everything. An enabling entity for her frustration. Despite his mildly annoying manner, it is great fun to see Nakamura emasculating him and using him as her plaything to create havoc throughout. Nanako Saeki, represents a mirror for Nakamura and helps create absolute conflict for Kasuga. This adds to the story, as he squirms and panics, having bitten off far more than he could chew. His worship of Saeki, really backfires as he realises he cannot actually have his cake and eat it, culminating beautifully in ep10, when forced to chose between the two girls.

The main attraction, really is the atmosphere, realistic tone, slow pacing and other worldly musical score of the show. The anime flows, dreamlike, over 13 episodes. Long shots of nothing in particular, a soundtrack consisting of ambient drones and some minimal piano score for the most part. Opening credit music is a fun way to introduce each episode. By Japanese band Alien, it is broken up over the episodes and sung in turn by the main voice actors for Nakamura, Kasuga and Saeki. The ending theme is an absolutely bizarre,terrifying, beautiful piece by Asa Chang and Junray called "A last flower". Even without watching the anime itself, i highly recommend seeking it out on youtube. The version used in the end credits is disturbing indeed. And in the climax of ep7, it reverts to the original recording, complimenting the (suddenly) beautiful animation perfectly. Ep7 ends in a romantic scene, indeed.

Tolerance of the rotoscoping, is down to the individual. This is not film studio quality rotoscoping, a'la Ralph Bakshi. This is animated on a TV budget. Frames dropped, giving it a very odd look at first. If you can stomach the somewhat choppy animation for three episodes, it won't even register after that. The vitriol aimed at the animation style, is usually over the top knee-jerk reaction by anime fans who are angry that the character models are not 'Moe' enough for their liking. Odd, given that the original manga art is not at all like the generic lolita styled 'moe'. It's more akin to guro manga.

7 out of 10 ? Reason, for me, is the final episode climaxes in a nonsensical manner. Episodes 1 to 12 recreate the manga with flawless accuracy. The studio recreates the manga's first 21 chapters faithfully, up until the start of episode 13 and then shoe-horns the next 15 manga chapters into about a minute and a half at the very end, trying to create some kind of conclusion. The viewer is, of course, left baffled by what just happened, should they be unaware of the manga story itself. It's a terrible and cheaply rushed ending, abandoning everything it strives to achieve beforehand. It leaves a sour taste, as it appears to not be intentional, rather the director's hand has been forced. Such a shame. It builds up SO much tension, so much intrigue. All for literally nothing.

Is there no point in sitting though 13 episodes of drawn out, dreamlike slow drama, for no actual conclusion? Like many things in life, it's more about the journey than the destination. The atmosphere flesh crawling at times. Nakamura is an incredible character. You spend almost all of the time she is not on screen, waiting for her to return because of what might happen. The music and sound is beautiful. The Rotoscoping animation, whilst not at it's best, does actually create a disturbing parallel, alongside the sound. An impending sense of doom is created perfectly. The performances (assuming you're watching Japanese language) are superb.

Highly unlikely there will be a second season, especially anytime soon, due to it's poor reception. Like so many unique ideas, it has been shot down for no good reason, other than it doesn't sit well with the generic formula that floods this particular genre. It tries something new and the result is jarring.

The (admittedly sub-par) animation and forced ending detract absolutely NOTHING from the rest of this anime. It is refreshing to find an anime that wants to do something different and take it's time in doing so. A confirmed second season would influence a higher score, as i'd assume it'd continue the story concluding the main Nakamura arc, which gets even more crazy and disturbing. But it finishes with such a whimper, falling so short at the very end, sadly.

7 out of 10. Nakamura 10 out of 10.

The Unseen Flower.

[bedpilled · 10/10 · 22 August 2017]

I'll start this review off by saying that I think this show is criminally underrated. Got it? Okay? Okay.

To keep things concise, the plot revolves around teenager Kasuga who has a crush on class idol Saeki. Much to his detriment, he's very shy and his interactions with her is limited to him staring at her until she notices his gaze whereupon he quickly begins acting as if he was looking at the very interesting wallpaper behind her....quite hopeless, really. So far, this sounds like your average romance anime. Luckily for us, the plot takes a unique turn when Kasuga impulsively steals his crush's gym-wear after school and is subsequently seen in the act by class outcast Nakamura who blackmails him into forming a "contract" with her which involves.....details you will have to watch the anime to see! This begins the chain of events that is the story in a nutshell.

The first thing you'll likely notice about this show is the animation style it uses. If you aren't familiar, this show utilizes rotoscoping, which means manually animating over live action footage shot beforehand in contrast to simply animating the show. This aspect of the show has garnered it a lot of unearned hate. Admittedly, the animation had me a bit concerned at the beginning but it really grew on me by the end and helped give the show a strong sense of identity and unique nature. Due to the very serious and dark nature of the show, the unnervingly realistic character designs helped paint the mood very well. If anything, it is very much a strong point of the show rather than a weak one. I don't think the show would have been nearly as enjoyable for me had the characters been animated in a generic manner with gravity-defying hair and massive eyeballs.

The show itself is quite dark thematically, as it deals with topics such as bullying, depression and resentment. Interestingly enough, this show was heavily inspired by a book of the same name, The Flowers of Evil by a French poet, Charles Baudelaire and the book itself is featured in the show and used as a major plot point. So, you know....a little something-something for fans of poetry or philosophy. The imagery the show presents is gorgeous and beautifully embellishes the themes it presents. A rusty stop sign overlooking cracked cement on a cloudy day, a small book shop overshadowed by buildings surrounding it; the distant cracking of sunlight atop a purple morning sky overlooking a vast field, its grass swaying softly with the wind...various scenes of this show really do make for some pleasant wallpapers.

Voice actors/actresses do their job very well. Conversation doesn't sound overacted, and feels very genuine, tying into the very taut and real nature of the show. The music of the show is amazing as well, boasting a grand four individual opening songs in a thirteen episode season as well as one very unique ending song. The soundtrack itself is absolutely gorgeous in what it is trying to do; present a melancholic nature in the story. Having listened to the soundtrack myself, it makes for pleasant listening even outside the viewing of the anime. Several tracks were downright mesmerizing.

Without delving into spoiler territory, the ending of the show initially feels quite empty and leaves you with a metaphorical gaping jaw and almost left me feeling with a dreary sense of anticlimax in my mouth as it fails to resolve much. However, after a second viewing, I would say it ends on a rather interestingly good note. It's implied there will be a second season to this, something I would genuinely love to see, and would make the ending to this season appear that much better. The ending overall wasn't great, but it was by no means bad. I've seen my fair share of bad endings and that wasn't one of them. A second viewing experience and perhaps some speculation on the viewer's part will clear up any issue....at least, that was the case for me.

When all is said and done, I HIGHLY recommend this show. I absolutely adored it, and has earned one of the top spots on my list as far as anime goes. That being said however, it certainly is not for everyone. I can definitely see heaps of people dropping this show on the basis of the animation style alone, and even more so with the omnipresent dark themes but you would be stupid to do so as you would be missing out on one of the most unique and investing anime out there right now. If you're a fan of dark themes, complex romance and feel that the anime medium at the present is rather stale and needs some individuality struck back into it again, this is the show for you. Please support the fine chaps who made this by buying it and spread the word about it to encourage the production of a second season.

For anime similar to this when done watching, see: ~Monster ~Another ~Serial Experiments Lain

A *masterpiece* of modern anime and TV programming

[iamakitten · 10/10 · 13 November 2013]

This show is a masterpiece. Intimate, thoughtful and thought-provoking. It expresses the struggles and reality of an entire generation in a series of achingly beautiful scenes.

It's the story of a teenage boy caught in a perverted situation (the kind of perversion that every teenager goes through as a course of growing up) by a classmate and then becomes beholden to her because of shame. Afraid she'll reveal what a pervert he is. More than that though it's a show designed to make the viewer question the nature of reality and their own psyche, by inevitably identifying with the lead character it raises questions about whether current notions of "perversion" or even relevant. I believe the conclusion is that our cultural view of morality, perversion and deviance is hopelessly out of touch with modern living and causing harm on a wide scale.

If I had to recommend any two shows of my generation it would be The Wire and Aku No Hana.

Not appreciated in it's own time and yes that mean it's everything a masterpiece is about.

[falconbeast-25225 · 10/10 · 18 September 2021]

This series comes under heavy criticism from BOTH the anime community and the rest "mundane" group of people who don't like anime. Unlike the rest of thee animes, this one unfortunately has nobody baking it up.

This show is the most realistic anime I've ever seen especially because the animation that the studio decided to use is called rotoscoping, a style of animation where people are filmed in live-action and animators draw over the film frame-by-frame. This same style of animation is also the reason it gets more hate than it should. It isn't that spectacular initially but you'd get used to the animation which infact truly suits the storytelling. Conveying a more realistic perspective, the characters in this show aren't exactly what you'd call "anime" attractive but this same fact also makes them seem like your next door neighbors.

The story revolves around our protagonist "Kasuga Takao" a young boy in middle school who loves books especially Baudelaire's "Aku no Hana/ Les fleurs du mal/ Flowers of evil". One day, he forgets his copy of Les Fleurs du Mal in the classroom and runs back alone to pick it up. In the classroom, he finds not only his book, but Saeki's gym uniform, a girl who he has had a major crush. On a mad impulse, he steals it.

His life after that turns into a huge rollercoaster since Nakamura, a weird girl from his class, sees him steal. Now everyone knows that some "pervert/ deviant" stole them and he's filled with guilt, terror and the feeling that he's committed a sin and hurt the one girl who he loves and who's his "Femme Fatale". Further, Nakamura forces him to do certain "things" which are not exactly normal and makes him undergo a huge character inspection of some kind.

The entire story has been amazingly written and the music is also one of the major factors which keeps you hooked throughout. The slight discomfort with the animation could well as be borne until you get used to which doesn't take a lot to be honest. The manga version is superior but that doesn't mean that the anime has let it down in any way. It's truly one of a kind and one of those rare series that you watch that just changes how you see people.

Perfection, reflecting on the mundanity of life.

[revlol · 10/10 · 3 January 2017]

On the surface people will look at the story and think they've seen it before; a coming of age drama set in school. A boy dealing with his emotions and puberty. This isn't about maturing or growing up. It's a striking and disturbing look into the mundanity of life. The visuals hint at this. The beauty of the art style is how it contrasts the plain looking characters with the incredibly detailed backgrounds, showing how people go on with their lives, eventually fading away, yet the buildings and mountains persist. Many shots linger on the backgrounds and the ambiance fills the dead air. People you see on the street, each and every one feeling like the world has eyes on them and when the day is over, no one really noticed. The show feels real. It's raw and hard to watch. It attacks your psyche and doesn't care how you feel. The show lets you decide, it lets you perceive and give meaning. The main character goes throughout his days ready to burst with anxiety. In the big picture however, no one notices his plight. The story is claustrophobic, yet open ended. The atmosphere is immense and uncompromising, making the viewer uneasy. When the show is over, it plants a seed in your head, your days drift by and a flower blooms. You wonder if life and everything that has happened so far is actually significant.

Flowers of Evil

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 9 July 2013]

On the surface to plot to this series is very simple; protagonist Takao Kasuga is a schoolboy with a crush on classmate Nanako Saeki; one day after school he steals her gym kit… he decides to return it but he is too late; everybody knows it has been stolen and they believe some pervert took it. Took make matters worse Sawa Nakamura, a girl with no friends and a propensity to cause trouble saw him take the clothes. From that moment on Takao's world starts to change as Nakamura threatens to expose him if she doesn't do as he says… she believes that he is a pervert and she intends to make him accept that fact and even rejoice in it.

This is one of the most distinctive anime series I've seen; the rotoscoped animation may not be to everybody's taste but I felt it added to the sense of creepiness as did the unsettling music used in the series. Another thing that added to the suspense was the slow pace; at one point half an episode is taken by Takao just walking through the somewhat rundown town; this could have been incredibly boring but instead managed to raise the tension while we waited to discover the consequences of his actions in the previous episode.

The story was believable with characters that didn't feel too exaggerated; even Nakamura, who is probable psychotic, didn't become an over the top stereotype. There is no real violence but at times it feels as though there could be at any moment. Takao was an interesting protagonist; outwardly a good if somewhat quiet student but inwardly tormented by feeling he didn't understand.

I would definitely recommend this to anybody looking for something rather different although it is definitely a 'Marmite' series… people will either love it or hate it! The final episode doesn't wrap up the story but strongly hints of more to come; I certainly hope enough people enjoyed it to warrant another series as I was left wanting more.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

You need to watch this masterpiece

[deys-38237 · 9/10 · 14 February 2021]

I am highly satisfied by this anime category.. wow man what an anime. It is masterpiece just go and have a watch.

Creepy and extremely good.

[bergviciers · 10/10 · 9 September 2021]

This, out of all the animes I have seen, this one is my favorite. And that's saying something! It was released in 2013, so it didn't get a lot of hype, same for the company, because it was cartoon reeled and acted out by real people. That's one of the things I love about it so much. It makes it look realer and gives it a creepier new effect.

In the anime the teenage boy gets a crush on a popular girl in the class. A less pretty girl with glasses supposedly gets jealous and takes his underwear and does so so much blackmail. Getting him to wear it, doing really 18+ things, suggesting and although the anime is scary. It's really good because it relates to real life. I had to binge watch this series. I don't know why it's so underrated but I loved every moment. There's always so many cliffhangers at the end of the episode, I wish there was a season 2!

I loved it

[AnAlienFromVenus · 10/10 · 2 November 2020]

It is a thought provoking series that leaves you shocked after every episode. Because of the unique artstyle and no usual anime cheesyness it feels almost like you're watching a live action show rather than an animated one, each character has a uniqueness to them which makes you get attached to them no matter how the characted behaves. The ending left me questioning what happened so I will deffinely have to watch the series again.