Guess who's back?
Hello ladies, peoples and animals it is I. The one. The only. Arcane Reviewer! Man it's good to be back! Now yes I did say that I was going to return in late August but some things came to where I was unable to really sit down and do any reviews. Hell I wasn't even motivated to watch any anime or review any of it either. But it wasn't until I came across this little piece of "What the fuckery". See I am a bit of a manga reader. It kinda goes hand-in-hand with being a fan of anime. Now I'm not much of an advent manga reader. I read a couple of chapters in a series that I like or even read all the way through short or completed series. Yeah I just don't read a lot of it but I do read quite a bit. So while I was looking for an anime to review I kinda got stuck and gave up until I could find something that really caught my interest. So far nothing came to mind. It wasn't until a friend of mine mentioned a little series called, Aku No Hana. The name rang a bell so I looked into it. It turned out that I actually did hear about this series through another friend of mine who mentioned how "fucked up" it was. But he also made it clear that he actually liked the manga. So I thought, hey might as well give it a try. This ladies, peoples, and animals is what brought me back. After reading this manga I felt compelled to jump on my computer and give this book a review!
Now first off; this is my first time reviewing a manga so this is going to be a bit different from my normal reviews. Here are some of the things that are being changed up.
- I will not be covering the animation. Because there isn't any animation......you freaking dumb-ass
- I will not be covering the music. Because there isn't any.......you freaking dumb-ass.
- I will be covering the art.
- I will be going into spoilers about the ending. This won't be the stranded for when I review manga. It's just that the ending of this manga is something that has a lot of people split and I feel as though I need to discuss it in full detail.
- There will be no Nitpick category. I'm pretty much thinking about dropping the category completely but until I deiced I'm just not going to put it in this review.
Story:
The manga starts us off in a small town in Japan in which we are introduced to our main character, Takao Kasuga. A middle school student who is pretty damn shy and is a pit on the pretentious side. He has a crush on the class idol, Nanako Saeki. In fact he has such a huge crush on her that when he realizes that Saeki left her gym uniform back in class he does what any normal person would do. Pick the clothes up and smell them. Because that's obviously the first thing one should do in that situation.
But when he hears a bump in the thought-to-be empty class room he freaks out and does another logical course of action. Stuff the gym clothes up his shirt and run away. I get the feeling that Kasuga isn't all that bright. After that awful situation, Kasuga runs into the freak of his class, Sawa Nakamura. A very odd individual who reveals that she saw Kasuga steal the gym clothes. She threatens to reveal Kasuga to the whole school unless he makes a contract with her. What does this contract entail you might ask. Oh nothing much. She just gets to do horrible things to him and systematically ruin his life and any chance he had at being normal. You know I never had to go through any of this shit while I was in middle school. So the scene is set and Kasuga's life is going to get a whole lot more interesting than it was before. Now from the surface this not seems like a very odd idea for a plot but you have to wonder just how far can they go with this concept. Well this is where Aku No Hana actually pulls the rug from under your feet. You see this story is nowhere near as straight forward as my little synopsis made it out to be. This manga has a lot of depth when it comes to it's story and the themes that it tackles. To it's core the manga is a coming of age story about a young boy who is lost in the world that he lives in and we follow him from his teenage years into his young adult years. The story does a great job at showing a youth who is pretty much not motivated by much and when he is it really isn't because it's a life choice he has decided to follow. It's because he has no one else to go to so he just follows what seems convenient at the time. The story also dells deep within the psyche of our characters so we get a little too familiar with them. The story is strong and dives deep into the mind of madness and these are what makes the manga so damn good.
Art:
The art here is handles extremely well by Mr. Shuzo Oshimi. He does really damn good job here, at points. The artwork for environments, backgrounds, and some of the more trippy scenes look amazing. Oshimi has such a great style with how heavy shading needs to be and this heaviness in shading actually help put a lot more tension and even some impact in the most mundane actions in the manga. His character designs though are a bit rough. Now granted this manga was first published in 2009. The fist couple of chapters has some pretty funny looking expressions and character designs looked really goofy and a little unsettling. I will say though that the art did get better over time and everything looked much better at the end of the first major story arc. I'll also say that when art got better I was really able to appreciate the look at all of his major characters. None of them have any really big stand out looks to them, they all just look normal. But that's the thing, they all look normal. None of them looked like the stranded anime main character, they all had very average looks, builds, and features that you would see on an average individual you'd see walking down the street. I really liked this because this story is so grounded to reality that the art and characters actually helped my immersion and had even more into the story then I was originally. So even though I had a bit of a rough patch to get pass through, the art here is top notch and drives home the narrative even more.
Characters:
Now with every great story you need great characters right? Well it's a good thing that this story had some pretty damn good characters. First off we have the main character himself, Kasuga. What I really liked about him was that he actually wasn't very like able in the beginning. As I said earlier he's shy, cowardly, and has a bit of a stick up his ass. But this is what's so good about him on a character standpoint. We get to grow along with him. Yes he starts off as a whining little shit bit that's understandable because he's an 8th grader. He a kid. Most kids his age are whiny and annoying. But as the story progresses we get to see him mature little-by-little and eventually we see him become a much better person then who he was at the start of the manga. We also get a good look inside his head and we really get to see what he's thinking and how he's handling all of the crazy and fucked up situations that he finds himself in. We get a great idea of what it's like to be him and we can at points completely see things from his side of spectrum. He is a very well developed main character who felt like he had a complete characters arc once the story is all said and done. Now how do the side characters hold up, the same as our main character but without much focus. Sawa's character is indeed a very strange and even psychotic person at points. She is rude, nasty, and doesn't take shit from anyone. This is what makes her character so interesting, why would she take such an interest in someone like Kasuga? Well we do get to look inside her head as well and see just how much of a mess she really is. We see some dark stuff from her and even though she's painted as a horrible person in the early stages of the manga you can't help but to find interest in her and once her character is revealed a bit of sympathy as well. She's a really good character because the manga had you guessing just what the hell her deal was and even made some feel bad for her. Now we move on to Saeki, was she a good character? Well the manga just kind of shows her off as the class idol who just so happens to have a thing for Kasuga. Nothing really special. That is until we get to the later half of the second story arc. Saeki has some of the most disturbing and darker moments in the entire manga. I won't spoil exactly what happens to her or what she does but I will say this. What the fuck!? She was a very well written character and was the most shocking out of the whole cast and I was just dumbfounded by her character development. Overall, she was a good character.
The Ending( Warning I Will Spoil The Ending Of The Manga! If You Wish To Not Have the Ending Ruined For You Then Skip To The Overall Category!)
Now this ending has a lot of fans split. I'll talk about it for a bit and explain my own opinion on the ending itself. So at this point in the story Kasuga has moved out of he old home town and lives in the city. He was able to overcome his weaker self of needing to follow someone because he was aimless and has actually taken charge of his own life now. Hell he even fell in love with another character, Aya Tokiwa. He was able to love her for her and even convinced her to show her true self and not be afraid of who she is and what she loves to do. This in turn made her fall in love with him and the two became a couple. But everything isn't all sunshine now because Kasuga wants to finally put an old ghost to rest. He wants to see Sawa one last time to bury the hatchet once and for all. This was a very big moment in the manga because to this point both Kasuga and Sawa hadn't seen each other within 3 years. So a lot of suspense of building up to this moment. Now the problem that a lot of people have with this ending was that it didn't go out with a bang. Because when Kasuga meets Sawa again after all these years she is nowhere near as crazy. Sure she's still a bit of an oddball but she isn't psycho anymore. Plus the whole confrontation ends on a light note. After some arguing and even Aya admitting that even if she loses Kasuga here she'll be happy that he was finally able to end things. The whole thing end with them actually getting along and playing on the beach. Okay the scene makes sense if you read it, just take my word for it. Sawa tells Kasuga that he's normal now and he should never come back to see her again and we end with a flash forward in time to see Kasuga in college. Him and Aya are still a couple and are still very much in love. This ending had people a bit let down because they thought that they were going to get a huge melt down of shit going wrong and Sawa acting crazy and shit. But in all honesty, I really liked they way it ended. Because as I said before this is a coming of age story. Kasuga isn't the same little kid that was too afraid to stand up for himself anymore, he's a changed person. Same goes for Sawa, she's not the same anymore. She's grown up. We clearly see that she has matured a lot during the 3 year skip which makes a lot of sense. If Kasuga was able to mellow out surly Sawa could too. The story at it's heart is about growing up and we clearly see the characters have indeed grown up. Which is why I personally loved the ending.
Overall:
So to wrap this up I"ll just say that this was one of the best manga that I've read in a long time. The art was dark and atmospheric, the characters where detailed and dripping with depth, and the ending was very satisfying and left me with a big ol' smile on my face. So yeah if you haven't been able to guess I quite liked this manga a lot and it felt like the perfect piece of entertainment to get me back into the reviewing mood. So if you haven't been able to guess I highly recommend this manga to anyone who's looking for a dark story with a cast of disturbed but brilliant characters.
Arcane Reviews gives: Aku No Hana: The Flowers of Evil a 9.5 out of 10.
Thank you all for reading I"m glad to be back......Oh.
You're probably wondering my opinion on the anime adaption right?
Well I only have three words for that show.
DON'T WATCH IT!!!!
Now I wonder. What should I review next?I know!.....My treat to all of you......
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