Let me start this review off with a miniature literature lecture. Charles Baudelaire was a crazy French poet who was an aspiring lawyer but decided to drop it all and become the archetypal struggling artist. He borrowed money extensively and spent them on booze and whores. Of course, he burnt out and died from overdrinking alcohol but he left behind a grand literary legacy. His poetry was vulgar, decadent and entirely brilliant, inspiring a movement called the Symbolist movement.
But rather than focus on Baudelaire, let’s focus on another poet called Rimbaud (Takao also reads him). Rimbaud became and avid fan of Baudelaire. He was a
...
young teenager and felt trapped in his parent’s home. He frequently ran away from home and eventually moved to Paris to join the Symbolist movement there. The most important thing he preached was the theory of the voyant. Rimbaud believed that a true poet (the voyant, or seer) could only achieve the pinnacle of his art with what he called ‘the derangement of the senses’. He believed that a poet had to achieve every kind of evil and suffering, to make his own soul into a monster. He saw Baudelaire as the first voyant in the whole of poetic history. Of course Rimbaud took the same path of decadence Baudelaire took. His poetic career only lasted 5 years, yet he wrote works that are widely read by the French public even to this day. After his 5 years in Paris, he spontaneously decided to travel to Africa and in the end became an arms dealer. He died of a sickness he caught overseas.
Finally let’s go to an era that’s closer to our time, around 1940s – 1950s in America. A group of Literature students in Colombia University felt sick to their stomach about the actions of the US government and about life in general. Of course, I’m referring to the Beat Generation. Allen Ginsberg’s famous “Howl” and Jack Kerouac’s famous “On the Road” became a cult classic, leading to the rise of an entire new counterculture movement altogether. The most important thing is that the members of the Beat Generation were influenced by Rimbaud. When one reads On the Road reads up about the lives of Beat Generation writers, the main theme running among them all is spontaneity and anarchic freedom. They aimed to flout the rules and societal norms as much as possible and to lead a life of utmost chaos.
After reading a couple of the reviews posted on this manga, I see the same things repeated again and again. I see people reading it as a manga about Femdom and they claim the plot is unoriginal because the “sadistic girl forcing the guy to make a contract” has been done before. On the other hand I saw the work as a completely differently thing altogether. Of course it requires a certain mindset to see this perspective.
There are those people who take a look at the society they live in and genuinely hate it to the very core. They see people who live lives of unhappiness and die unfulfilled. They get the impression that everyone is socially isolated from everyone. They see people indulging in stupid pleasures like dirty jokes and momentary experiences like karaoke sessions. They think chasing after stuff like wealth and cars are just another form of escapism and self-delusion. They dream of running away to Woodstock in the 1960s and spending 3 days of freedom and drugs and rock and roll. They dream of following the footsteps of street artist Banksy and spraying paint and art all over the walls of the city. They think that people are only truly free when they are free to run around in fields, to scream, to have cathartic moment after cathartic moment, to ride On the Road without limits and without care. They don’t like the obligations they have towards society and think it’s a complete waste of time, to live such a myopic lifestyle.
Of course, all this is like simple Anarchist theory. You can read more about these sorts of theories of human freedom in things like the works Situationist International and the movie My Dinner with Andre. What I see Aku no Hana as is a portrait, a representation of the burden (and it is a huge burden) and yet simultaneous beauty of leading the lifestyle of sin Baudelaire and Rimbaud once led. Nakamura isn’t just a sadistic BDSM queen; she’s a representation of that lifestyle, a symbol. Takao submits to her because the sheer thrill of their exploits is a form of exaltation. Likewise, I was drawn towards the glimpse of that lifestyle, two people doing things I could never have done and looking so unbelievably joyous in their carnage.
Normally I classify works under two forms. One is a work that is a beautiful illusion, a work of fiction that is perfect in every way for escapism and sentiment, drawing out simple emotions. Things like melodramas and thrillers and comedies fall under this territory. Then there are those that have glimpses of direct, real lived experience within them, those works that can give you bits and pieces of life. These are the works that will enrapture your soul and depress you because they capture just a mere iota of a full experience that you know is currently out of your reach or force you to confront a dire reality. Things like Welcome to the NHK, Subarashii Sekai (by Inio Asano), Synecdoche New York, All About Lily Chou Chou, Fight Club (to a small extent, it’s more of a thriller).
It didn’t pick up though until that first event in the classroom. The ultimate glimpse of pure anarchist delight embodied in the two dancing adolescent youths. There’s a certain mindset that you need to have before entering such works, the mindset that you are both lonely and damned, the twisted romantic view of life. Aku no Hana is a work for dreamers. The first step is to not see the main characters superficially as a mere twisted couple mimicked in many other stories but representatives of different aspects of humanity. Anarchy, conformity, angst, spite, jealousy, rebellion are all present.
Seeing past all the standard critiques, it’s not a matter of clichés or characterization at all, in the end it all comes down to how much you empathize with that beautiful vision of anarchic self-destruction.
This review may sound like it comes from a complete sociopath (Most likely. I had Fleurs du Mal and Rimbaud's Complete works before I even knew of the manga. Also I'm one of those hopeless dreamers who plans to live some kind of struggling artist life in the future) but this is just a single perspective that may perhaps change some people's views when engaging with this manga (I hope).
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Blossom of Evil Japanese: 惡の華 More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 11
Chapters: 58
Status: Finished
Published: Sep 9, 2009 to May 9, 2014
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
Bessatsu Shounen Magazine Authors:
Oshimi, Shuuzou (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #4392 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #65
Members: 159,705
Favorites: 12,159 Resources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 64 / 78
Sort
Your Feelings Categories 
Apr 8, 2013
Let me start this review off with a miniature literature lecture. Charles Baudelaire was a crazy French poet who was an aspiring lawyer but decided to drop it all and become the archetypal struggling artist. He borrowed money extensively and spent them on booze and whores. Of course, he burnt out and died from overdrinking alcohol but he left behind a grand literary legacy. His poetry was vulgar, decadent and entirely brilliant, inspiring a movement called the Symbolist movement.
But rather than focus on Baudelaire, let’s focus on another poet called Rimbaud (Takao also reads him). Rimbaud became and avid fan of Baudelaire. He was a ... 
Jan 14, 2017
I will mainly write about why I love the scenario and characters and why I preferred the second part, the one which has never been adapted into anime. For this purpose, I am going to spoil the whole story, so don't read this unless you have finished the manga.
I moderately liked the beginning of the manga because I did not really understand what the characters wanted (the MC in particular) and it seemed to me that they were acting irrationally. The escalation of catastrophic risk taking was fine but not enough to make me love the manga and I think I was right because the ... 
May 26, 2011
This manga is crazy. I'm sorry, actually, allow me to correct myself, this manga is FUCKING crazy.
So you thought School Days was fucked up, you haven't even begun. I'll start with the flaws, because they are apparent. First of all, the story isn't the most original thing you've ever heard of. You have a boy who has a crush on a girl and is forced to make a contract with another girl because he is caught stealing the first girl's underwear. It doesn't take a genius to realize where the romance is going to be placed. The characters aren't the most developed characters ever and they ... 
Apr 14, 2015
Aku no Hana fills me with despair, not because of the subject matter that it covers but because it's a classic example of the "Death Note" phenomenon that happens a lot in anime and manga: a particular work starts off with an interesting concept, ends up becoming insanely addictive as shit gets more and more intense until finally, all of that momentum is lost with a major event happening that kills your buzz and you're left feeling more unsatisfied than a sexually frustrated wife is with her impotent husband. Aku no Hana is a good manga but if you're expecting a completely fucked up story
...
Jul 11, 2012
I actually think this manga could be labeled as a "horror-manga" because it all plays out like some sort of demented never-ending nightmare. Not the sort of nightmare where you're chased by a serial killer, mind you. But rather the sort of nightmare where you discover that you've forgotten to wear clothes to school. (I would name the genre "social-horror")
The set-up is wonderful! Kasuga Takao is a somewhat pretentious boy who considers himself different (and perhaps better) than other people because he's reading difficult french poetry. His favorite book is "the Flowers of Evil" by Baudelaire (thereby the title of the manga). One day he ... 
Nov 5, 2017
Usually, the plot, based on the worrying of a teenager, problems in school, inferiority complexes and fear of recognition in love, does not cause much interest in the observer, primarily because of his banality. Often the problem of one boy or girl is offered, in which the author rests with all his strength and pulls it throughout the story, but here we will see a completely different picture, which, if not forced to love this work, but at least it will not waste your time.
Aku no Hana shows that reading means thinking through of someone else's head instead of one's own, which is what happens ... 
Mar 7, 2019
Aku no Hana was 60% of the time the worst thing I've had ever read in my life.
The central theme that Aku No Hana proposes to analyze during its first arc is the mindset of a criminal. It is, till the very end, a character study, focused on creating a situation in which our protagonist faces the consequences of a certain action that he makes at the beginning of the manga and eventually reaches the realms of insanity. This may sound like something really interesting to you if you ever stopped and spent some time trying to understand the mindset of a random criminal you saw ... 
Feb 28, 2013
If you're someone reads manga because you enjoy the stories of the protagonist and being led on by the emotions of the characters, atmosphere and settings and stuff then probably this review won't be helpful to you.
Before the review, some Q and A. Does this manga use the above elements properly to tell the story? sure I guess... Does it make you feel stuff? I guess.... Was it enjoyable? FUCK.... NO... it was the equivalent of someone putting your brain into the dishwasher for 3 days and then raping it after. The story was pretty standard... boy have crush on a nice girl, nice girl likes boy back, ... 
Mar 29, 2011
Aku no hana has an somewhat interesting story setting, but nothing original or something out of the ordinary.
The protagonist steals the gym cloths from the girl he likes and is seen by a quiet girl in class. He's the typical spineless, crying guy, who is getting blackmailed by this evil mysterious girl in his class to do all sorts of stuff for her, just to prove that he is a real pervert, while he continuously tries to prove that he actually is innocent and a good guy. So the story seems really predictable this way, that this mysterious girl and the protagonist will end up together instead, ... 
Sep 2, 2015
Life is basically a series of meetings of people who may have or not some effect on the involved. These effects can be minor or big, but, undoubtedly, they change people. For good or bad, meetings are one of the few things that can truly influence people. Aku no Hana shows one of such meetings and how it changed everyone involved for the worse and how these people dealt with it.
Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil) is a psychological manga written, created and illustrated by Shuuzou Oshimi, who also created Boku wa Mari no Naka. It began serialization in 2009 and ended in 2014. ... 
Jun 19, 2012
What can be said about this manga that others haven't? I am not sure, so I will say it anyway.
It is basically what happens when a boy becomes so obsessed with a girl his life spirals out of control and he throws away everything he believes in or has worked for just to try and make her happy. The girl, is a sociopath who shows no emotion except joy when others are in emotional pain and has no qualms about leading the boy down a path of self-destruction because she simply doesn't care about the world or anyone (herself included) in it. Some might say ... 
May 20, 2014
Boredom. It usually occurs from repetitive and seemingly uneventful occurrences in someone's life. In the case of Aku no Hana, that boredom is caused by living in a bland town full of normal people. So what happens when you finally get a glimpse of someone or something that isn't normal for the first time in a long time? You would probably do whatever it takes to keep that thing close to you and prevent it from being tainted by the boring pieces of shit that exist everywhere else.
As you can probably assume from that brief introduction, Aku no Hana is a dark psychological story. It ... 
May 20, 2014
Man, this manga is AMAZING. Simple as that. Thought-provoking, intense, realistic, meaningful, angsty, increasingly captivating.
I really hate to use this world freely but here i think i can say it with no regrets: in my opinion, this manga is a masterpiece. It‘s unbelievable, really, that i felt like dropping it back in the early chapters. And boy, am i glad i decided back then to continue reading...! The truth is, Aku no Hana improved tremendously over the years. Both visually and plotwise. The gritty and sometimes painful-to-read start gave away to an insightful, intriguing coming-of-age story. The characters also followed that evolution beautifully. Kasuga went ... 
Aug 3, 2021
Oh my goodness was this so dramatic. Right off the bat its over the top emotions and these over the top events that would be absolutely ridiculous in real life and they just kept happening over and over again, one after the other. I just couldn't take it, it just felt so... absurd. And not in an amusing or entertaining way. Man was this a let down, I was hoping for a good psychological thriller story that was actually interesting, but nope. Three chapters in and it was clear this is nothing but a waste of time, I would never recommend this to anyone ever.
Nov 19, 2020
Aku No Hana, oh boy here we go.
[Disclaimer] The following review is based off of my thoughts, opinions and observations. You are in charge of what you consume and should you choose to read all of this you are responsible for your reaction and response. Basically, it's fine if you disagree just please be a decent human being about it. [SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD] Aku No Hana is a very dark manga, I'll first be explaining the story a bit and then break it down so that it's easier to understand. This manga follows the story of our protagonist who is obsessed with the book Les Fleurs du Mal. ... 
Oct 25, 2020
This is the worst manga I have read so far, so I felt like I had to write a review. Note that this review may contain spoilers of the first two volumes.
The first volume was horrible, I don't even know where I should start from. Well as soon as I opened the book, I could tell that I didn't like the art, but everyone doesn't have the same tastes, and I can't say it's bad so I won't criticize that too much. A bit too old school for me maybe... But to me the story is still the most important, and never did I thought that I ... 
Apr 21, 2013
When I first started reading this manga honestly I though it was pretty bad. It starts off as the boring "someone saw me do something weird and I'm in a lot of shit" cliché, but then suddenly after about the 7th or 8th chapter the story completely evolves and takes a completely different turn. At about this time the story stops focussing on all the weird stuff going on and shows us the the effect it has on the main character, Kasuga.
This manga really messes with your head and you even find yourself being able to relate to some of the feelings Kasuga experiences. ... 
Oct 12, 2021
I've given 10 out of 10 to Aku no Hana because it was the most touching experience I've ever read. It was a coming of age story that simply took me back to my school days, it brought feelings that I hadn't feel since that time, so it probably is my favourite manga from now.
My personal feelings aside, Aku no Hana is a masterpiece about adolescence its confusing mess, harmful love and change. The part of dealing with change its perhaps the most touching one it's a feeling that can make a young one grow blue and the way the manga depicted this feeling ... 
Jul 23, 2021
I've never written a review on MAL before, but I just finished reading Flowers of Evil and it was so good I felt like I had to. Wow, where do I even begin with why I loved this manga so much?
I'm someone who has struggled with depression for a while, and as I read Flowers of Evil, I was expecting it to be similar to Goodnight Punpun, but no it wasn't! Mind you, I thoroughly enjoyed Punpun, but these 2 mangas take very different directions when it came to the ending. It felt so good to read a manga where fucked up people try to ... 
Apr 29, 2022
This manga was an awful expirience.
At the begginig we met Kasuga, which is just a normal middle school student, he have friends, hobby and even a crush (he's no by any mean "unsociable"). The girl sitting behind him in class is Sawa, an edgy teen whose actions are truly illogical. She is mean for everyone and manipulative. Her actions was never explained at all, she is like that and we have to accept it. There is also Nanako, the popular and hard working girl that is also Kasuga's crush. She is also character with the most depth in manga. Characters are probably the worst ... |
