The Flowers of Evil
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Artsy said: well, I call it completed then.hublaa said: Is that really the end? MAL wrote that 58 is the finishing chapter, right? :/ It's good though, somehow I like it when it represent the past event by different point of view. I thought of it too, but then I remember there was a special chapter, 17.5. MAL is probably taking it into account in the chapter count. The same thing is going on TWGOK manga, MAL wrote the final chapter was 271 when the final chapter is 268 :/ |
| *insert philosophical quote here* |
| Welp, it was an 8/10 up through the first acts of the story, but sort of on a downward decline after that. I think I understand parts of what the author wanted to say and do with this, but I just don't think the ending act was executed well at all. It was, nonetheless, cool to see things from Nakamura's point of view. But I'm really thinking the author just didn't know how to end his own story properly, and that's why it ended up like this. |
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| This better not be the fucking ending lol. |
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DoctorWasabi said: This better not be the fucking ending lol. Well, it is. |
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| So I finished the anime around 1:30pm (I started it about 6am...went out for 2 hours before resuming) and immediately after that I started reading the manga (took a break when I got to chapter 34 to play my 360 for a tiny bit) and just finished it. It would be nice to see a 2nd season but I've heard that the DVD and Blu-Ray sales for season 1 wasn't very good....is this true though? So after finishing the manga, chapter 56 deals with Kasuga having a dream after having sex with Aya, where it depicts his future desires and hopes everyone else gets a happy ending with Sawa potentially getting her whole family back, Saeki and Kinoshita reuniting, I think there's one for Saeki having a family...not sure who it was on chapter 56 page 15. However, he wakes up and realises he's still at university and is still going out with Aya, who's great. The final chapter showed us how Sawa saw her world at that time and the whole "other side" thing was probably her way of saying she wants to live with her mother rather than her father as the town she ends up moving to can be read as "the other side". After finishing that manga, I felt a little empty beacuse even though it was bittersweet...it did sting a little but it really was an incredible read. I'm so glad I just decided to just do it....I had been holding off it for a while because the anime was retro-scoped, which I ended up not being bothered by it and in a weird way I appreciated it. I gave both the anime and manga a 10/10 |
Ale1212 said: DoctorWasabi said: This better not be the fucking ending lol. Well, it is. Yup. No loose ends here. The author even gave you a glimpse into what the "future" is like for the characters. Infer all you want, but I'm pretty sure this is all that you're going to be hearing officially about this one. Perhaps they'll twist things around in the anime, but I won't be going down that road anytime soon. Strange stuff be strange, but in all a good, creative, twisted story. |
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ravagestorm said: Chapter 55 is the real ending. chapter 56 and 57 are just epilogues for Kasuga and Nakamura. Anyway it is a shame the anime sucked so bad. If it was handled by a decent and NOT SELFISH director then the show could have been a cult classic. I bet we will be seeing Nakamura figmas if they only used the original art style from the manga. *sigh...So much potential and it's wasted by a selfish director. Agree, is very sad the anime was a crap, but fortunately the manga still better. For me the true end in when they get separated after the festival and the tentative suicide, after that part the rest seems more a pace filler toward a sorta of resolution and habby ending. Overall a good serie, 8/10. |
Fn76Jun 2, 2014 1:28 AM
| I'm probably going to repeat what a lot of people already wrote here but I'm not going to bother reading everything. I'm just going to write my thoughts after finishing it last night. chapter 56 the end chapter 57 epilogue In chapter 56 you see how the Flower once again grows inside Kasuga which you can see because how his crazy eyes. Then he starts to write again for Nakamaru. Why for her? Well in the past Kasuga was only able to write when he was 1. possesed by the Flower and 2. if it was to make Nakamaru "happy" Now to chapter 57 you see the beginning from Nakamarus perspective. This is kind of weird but the author is showing us the future through the past in a way because you see how she meets him for the first time and realises how he is a Hentai. This brought a bit of balance her severe mental problems I think, because she has someone who is just like herself. What I'm trying to say is that I think Kasuga is writing for Nakamaru to awaken the Flower in her once again. Not sure if this makes sense, I'm not an native english speaker but whatever. I give Aku No Hana 9/10 |
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| Well that was a nice ride. The middle part got kinda boring but it picked up near the end. The ending was sort of ambiguous, but I liked the whole dream sequence where Kasuga dreamt a perfect life while still being haunted by the flower of evil; he wants to write for Nakamura. I wish we got to learn more about Nakamura though, but it was an alright ending, and I'm not even that keen on open endings. That extra chapter from her perspective was cool, though. Shows how distorted her reality actually was, and how she must've felt when she finally met Kasuga who she thought would understand. It also hints that she must've suffered from multiple mental disorders, and that she probably was on a shit ton of meds when they met her at the restaurant (her mother mentions how calm she had been lately). So yeah, those were my hastily written thoughts. Nice manga. 8/10. |
MoogJul 8, 2014 3:07 PM
| Great manga ... But damn I can't forgive the autor for what he did to Saeki ( even though I get the message he wanted to convey etc ....) |
| As long as he stays with the damn fine Aya, I don't mind whatever he awakens. But yeah, weird ending. |
| I'm confused. Is there a chapter 58 after all? |
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| So she was tripping balls this entire time and wanted to suicide until she found the poor kid on the bike. |
| Nice closing. Showing Nakamura's perspective. |
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| I admit to not caring for the second half as much as the first but it was overall an entertaining read. I am confused why MAL is saying there are 58 chapters, is this an error? |
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gswelcome said: I am confused why MAL is saying there are 58 chapters, is this an error? It's because MAL can't consider ".5" chapters, so they always add a full one instead. example: Chapters 1, 2 and 2.5 MAL considers as ch. 1, 2 and 3. |
| I loved the ending. Things come full circle and start again from another viewpoint. Seeing things for a moment through Nakamura's lens is an emotional punch to the stomach too. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| The ending kind of freaked me out ... i wish i hadnt read this chapter ( ._. ) That being said this was one of the most unique story i have read so far . Definitely worth the time. 9/10 |
| There’s no hope on the battlefield. It has nothing but unspeakable despair. Just a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated. Yet humanity has never recognized this truth. And the reason for that is, in every era, a dazzling hero has blinded people with their legends and prevented them from seeing the evil of bloodshed. The true nature of humanity has not advanced a step beyond the Stone Age! |
| Started reading this after I dropped the horrible anime version. This is million times better! Now we get to know a little more about Nakamura inner madness and I find it really dark and crazy. I hope she will find someone too who can bring her happiness. |
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| Lol. This manga is hilarious. It's really entertaining how the first half expected me to take it seriously. That was so ridiculous. Although, I really appreciate the more toned down resolution. The writer chick came through. Weak last chapter though. It revealed nothing about the blackmailing psycho chick's mentality. But whatevs. |
| I was thinking of writing a comment about this, but I read the current page and saw Danton's comment, and he expressed the most things I wanted to point out. The only thing is - I am not sharing the morale of the story opinion, but I will keep it to myself, I guess. Other than that - a near perfect explanation of what people manage to misunderstand in the manga. And you sure explained it more accurately than most of the other people, so it totally makes sense and no need to doubt yourself there. :) With manga's end out of the way... overall, I realy enjoyed the first part of the manga much more for some reason. It had that mysterious vibe about it, making you wonder what was going in the characters heads sometimes. The 2nd part is basically explanations and some a little less than casual romance kind of story. No real development from there on. The manga itself got average art, the characters are well drawn, but background realy suffers.. Where it failed the most though, is probably how many loose points we get - okay, the main 2 characters were explained rather fine.. aya was done not too bad too. But other than that - there realy lacked an impact on others. After new town things just went completely wrong - there was supposed to be some family drama, that got dropped/axed, fine with me, it's not too important to the story, still a little detail. Saeki was realy a weird character.. it's simply like author has some certain hate on this type of girls.. Everything she did was just so.. Baseless? Wrong? I don't know how to explain it better really... and in the end she didn't even leave much impact on MC. There is also Ai, who was too rash on action, which is not too unrealistic, but how she calmly accepted MC afterwards realy didn't suit her character type.. Well, the flaws could flow, but I will end there.. 7/10 from me, It was rather interesting to read, but for it's own reasons, nothing I would totally recommend. |
| Seeing things from Nakamura's point of view was interesting I guess. Though I am rather disappointed with this ending. Was going to give this an 8/10 but this ending made me lower it to a 7/10. This did vastly improve however,the first 23-25 chapters were awful imho (4/10 worthy),but the pay off after that was magnificent (8/10 worthy),but then this ending so had to lower to a 7/10. |
| This ending was really bad, but overall the manga was great. |
| We finally get to see things from Nakamura's point of view. Perfect way to conclude the manga. In the end, I'd like to think that Kasuga will live on with Tokiwa. The previous chapter gives us a dream sequence in which everyone basically get's their own happy end. Of course that may not be the case in the future, but it certainly is a plausible outcome. We saw that Kasuga becomes a writer as well, however, the one thing that irks me is his driving force behind it. His case of Stockholm syndrome still lingers within and the truth of the matter is that it always will. Either way, this is one fantastic manga. I loved every moment of it. |
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| Nakamura wanting to die from her point of view. I could really sympathise with her. The ending was decent and we see Kasuga has moved on for the better. |
 All credit goes to Sacred. |
| The mental pressure/stress from this manga is just too much. I dont know what rating to give, this will probably be the first and last manga I leave with no rating. |
| This might've been mentioned before, maybe not, but I've read a bunch ass forum pages about this, so I don't know what's what anymore. This is how I see it: the flower is escapism (stole it from here), and while it is about moving on, I see another aspect to it. It's about finding himself. Or better yet finding what he really wants to do with his life, what's he passionate about ("I didn't care about the New Your Giants like they did. I cared about Sputnik. I was nuts about it, it was passionate. Nobody told me yet adults were supposed to be ashamed of those feelings" - a little shout-out to Halt & Catch Fire). First it "was" Baudelaire - I suspect he liked what his father told him about it, more than for what it actually was, as he didn't understand it at that age. Then it was the idea of a perfect, non-sexual woman, even though we see him peeking at Saeki's crotch. An indication that his beliefs don't match his behaviour. That's probably why it was so liberating to be friends with Nakamura, to finally be rid of the contradiction, act closer to his true self. But that wasn't him either. Not entirely. All these things were escapist. I'm not sure to say if they're deliberate or he simply didn't know until he went through all these experiences. And so he, after the dream sequence, realizes this. I don't think he realizes Nakamura is his dream girl or anything. He just realizes she was the biggest influence on his life. And since he like reading and writing, what better to write about than that. I think he'll end up with Aya. He sees her note and wakes up to their life together. It's not an end all argument, it's an open ending, but that's what I like to believe. Aya is a better match for him than Nakamura. Speaking of Nakamura, she's a realistic character with a mental illness and a grudge against fakers and the like. That's fine. It's just that I, like some of you, wanted more for her. It was a bit misleading until the end. But maybe that's another point - maybe it was a reality check - she's not some cool sensei, she's sick. And there are people that never get better and which are crushed by the world. Try not to be those people. To sum it up, I think it was a story about Takao all along, we just didn't see it. And it was about finding what he wants to do what kind of person he wants to be, we just didn't see it. And as that, it's wrapped up. The future is a bonus, Nakamura's last issue is a bonus. The dream where he sees Nakamura and starts writing would be enough to end what the central issue of the manga. I might be looking at this from my perspective a bit. I kinda wish I was a writer. To be honest, I don't write almost at all. But I think I learned something from this story. I often wondered "What should I write about? Where do authors get their inspiration and ideas?" and Oshimi answered my question, especially since he said it was an autobiographical tale. "You should write", he said metaphorically, "about what you care the most". And that's what Takao did. That story arc ends the moment the tip of his pencil touches the surface of the paper. I also like to think that the point isn't to conform to the world. He didn't settle with/for Saeki. He looked for something better (suited for him). And he continued his perversions - in writing. It was just about finding the balance between "erase yourself for the sake of the world" and "erase the world for your sake". On a side note, I remember having an idea about half way through the manga. So I'm reading it again. Might post more if I remember what it was. Unless I already said it here. I was reading so much about AnH trying to remember, more than to better understand the work, but that was a motivation too. Double kill. Might've found what I was looking for without even realizing it. |
| I really enjoyed this manga, but the ending pissed me off a little. |
| Opened ended because life is open ended. We may die, but no one knows what the future holds. I can see why people say this is "masterpiece" but I wouldn't go that far. I will say that in this story you can tell that the author really poured some of his soul into it. A coming of age story with a twist of the "more" deviant side of human nature. I bet many on here have read their share of Dōjinshi/hentai and even though everyone claims to be a vanilla lover we all have our "deviant" tastes. I think the author was trying to tap into that aspect of our nature/culture. The romance in this one was actually realistic (also a good example of a healthy relationship). People who tend to do well together are people who have hobbies/passions in common. It's a must read, but I wouldn't recommend it to those who are still immature in the aspect of life. |
| retributionisblind.wordpress.com |
| Aku no Hana has three central themes that it wishes to convey. Society , Identity , Acceptance and Overcoming your flaws. The "flowers of evil" and "the other side" both have different meanings depending on each character. First thing is first. Nakamura definitely is not mentally stable. She most likely suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder or something similar. For Nakamura "The other side" means escaping society and the grasp it has on you. For Kasuga "The other side" means finding self identity and not being the same as everyone around you and is also one of the main reasons he chooses to read Les Fleurs du mal, not because he understands it because he even told Saiki that he doesn't. He does it because he doesn't feel unique in any way or shape , and Nakamura also tells him this. For Saiki "The other side" is a combination of both Nakamura and Kasuga's. She doesn't have an identity which is why she is seen as an "angel" without any flaws by the protagonist. He projects his perfect vision that he has onto her , and the realization that she isn't perfect comes to a huge shock to him. She however also wants to escape the bonds her mother and father have over her , and also the image that she has put up which her parents have projected onto her of being the perfect student. For Tokiwa "The other side" is about being true to yourself , and admitting who you are. Nakamura feels left out because no-one is willing to be a unique version of themselves and always try to copy what everyone else is doing or expecting of them. (This is also why she tells Saiki that "You've got less substance to you than a F@#$ing fly") They all go with the flow without question and essentially grow into the same flowers that surround them. After all flowers of the same type will grow together. The flowers can be seen as representing people in this regard. This is also apparent in chapter 18 when you can see him running up to Nakamura with the flowers of evil rising up into the sky. The flowers around Nakamura vanish when she walks away , however those around Kasuga don't. This emphasizes how he cannot escape society and is being left behind in a similar way to how he is leaving Saiki behind who doesn't understand him , but envies him because he goes against society. (Reading Les Fleurs du mal, Befriending Nakamura, Vandalizing the classroom, Stealing her gym clothes). Nakamura later tries to also "shed" the flowers (Society) that is holding Kasuga back (Symbolically peeling off his skin) , however he is unable to do so and Nakamura realizes this and how dependent he is on her , which is why she pushes him away when they want to commit suicide. She realizes that he is just like a flower that sprouted next to her , he doesn't have any unique identity , he is merely trying to appeal to her and she hates this fact. (Throughout the series she has accepted him for both his good and bad qualities and wanted him to be open with himself , but in doing so she has shaped him into her ideal which she doesn't want.) This also becomes more apparent at the end of the Manga when she asks him if he is going out with Tokiwa. When he says that he is she acknowledges that he is walking the path that everyone walks. When asked the question if she does the same she lifts her head towards the sky and this portraying her eyes in the same way as the eyes of the flowers that get shown on Les Fleur du Mal. This is symbolic because it tells him that she is alone (Like he was) and that she will never fit in because she is different. This saddens Tokiwa because she was in a similar situation until she met Kasuga and she also tells Nakamura that she could go live with Kasuga because they truly understand each other at this stage. Nakamura realizes that she has been left behind by Kasuga and thus starts walking away. Kasuga wants to merely help Nakamura and has always wanted to help her. Since the very first time they became friends. However Nakamura just doesn't reach out to take his hand. He also tells her that he is happy that she hasn't disappeared because this means that she can still be helped and that she can still find her "other side" (Place of belonging) just like he and Tokiwa did. The reason she pushes him away is because she realizes that he is no longer the person he was. She realizes that he has not only caught up with her , but that he has overtook her , and that she is now trying to catch up to him. After the fight they all reach a mutual understanding , something that cannot be expressed with words. This is that Nakamura does want to be helped , but not by him she no longer wants to hold him behind, she wants him to move on. She is still looking for someone to fill her gap (And probably wants to do some self searching) like he and Tokiwa filled each other's void. She realizes that the love she has held for him was artificial just like his love was for Saiki. She realizes that she had merely been shaping him into her ideal and that she herself must change as well to be someone else's ideal. After all relationships don't work one way. The reason I feel that many people hate the second part for not having enough "craziness" is because they don't understand what Kasuga goes through during the second part. While the first part of the story establishes what "the flowers of evil" and "the other side" is to each individual , the second part shows how Kasuga get's over his fears (Anxiety and Depression) and gains enough self confidence to ask out Tokiwa in front of her boyfriend. He grows as an individual and is no longer a lone evil flower. He finds a partner that understands him. This is emphasized at the end with the field of normal flowers and the one lone evil flower that breaks away with flower petals that pass over everyone that has made peace with their own evils. At the end of the dream Kasuga realizes however that these evils shape humanity into what it is. It encompasses the beauty that is humanity. Both the good and the bad play it's fair role in shaping us into what we become. Whether the bad flowers be actual bad people or bad actions or both, that isn't what matters. What matters is being true to yourself and finding identity. Finding something that truly shapes you into something unique and something that you can be proud of. (This was just my opinion on what Aku no Hana means. I don't believe that there is really a definitive answer as it is up to the readers interpretation , that is probably also why the actual "Flowers of evil" nor "The other side" ever get explained. Because it isn't as clear as it first appears to be and because the author wants you to speculate and think for yourself instead of spoon feeding you). For me the manga was a 10/10. The symbolism it takes and tries to convey is truly unique , and I haven't seen anything similar in any shape or form and the character actions themselves all have deeper meaning. I will however say that I didn't enjoy Aku no Hana. It was something that I will regard as a masterpiece , but it is not something which I like just because of how realistic this is and how much I identify with the characters of the show (Not in the psychotic sense , but in how pitiful and plain my existence itself is). |
PantsuPillowJan 17, 2016 1:56 AM
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| Well this final chapter was pretty much there to spell it out in black and white that Nakamura is mentally ill. I really was wondering how the series would escalate after the attempted suicide and to my surprise it went a different route and we begun Kasuga's redemption, but that tense feeling was always there. It really was interesting to see these characters grow from their youth, and it managed to catch the essence of doing stupid shit as a kid, albeit taken to a rather extreme point. It does feel like it was rushed at parts, too bad the anime doesn't go longer, because I think it really nailed the slow dull atmosphere right, putting you into the state of mind of the characters, improving on the same scenes in the manga. |
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| Idk what to say really. I wanted a fucked up sad ending, and I didn't get that. Idk whether to go with 7/10 or 6/10... I guess, just for the summer festival chapter alone, I have to give it that extra mark. So, 7/10. |
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