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Thanks for the feedback, I've heard or read him saying this before but after making that review.

Definite labour of love, but a bit more than that. I want to get into the manga industry at some point, and I feel that applying some critical thought to other stories allows me to effectively develop and improve upon my own.

Ha well you have more self control than myself. I tend to argue with those types of people until 10 hours later I realize it was pointless from the beginning and just give up.

I have to say you've peaked my interest in the manga now. Initially, I'd thought of the manga as juvenile (based on what a few people said) and that the anime adaptation allowed the story to become one far more serious and meaningful, largely due to the adaptation's style. Indeed this is what was going through my mind early on, however thanks to you and a couple others I realize it's not so simple. I feel style can change perspectives, but the core themes, characters, events, etc. will remain (assuming the adaptation is at least mostly faithful). Although admittedly if a second season is announced I'd rather watch that before checking out the manga. On that note, is the manga actually complete?

I think the ending of the anime was perhaps a last ditch effort to convince fans who weren't planning on buying the dvds to actually go out and buy the dvds. Knowing there's more to come, and cliffhangers can inspire craziness in people (I have fallen victim to it I won't deny). Though it could be a 'fuck you' as you say, or some bizarre creative decision. Given other aspects of the adaptation, that wouldn't surprise me..

Damn, you are definitely one of the most sensibe people I have met (well, talked to online). I'm with you on the review writing thing. Rather than add to the Code Geass/Elfen Lied/Attack on Titan reviews, I like to use my reviews to perhaps entice people into watching a particular show, or to raise a point yet to be raised in other reviews. Or if I'm in a silly mood (see my OreShura review) I'll write a silly review.
Your approach to reviewing Aku no Hana was one of the main reasons I started talking to you. Too many reviews stick to predictable and boring formats that only encourage that +/- method you mention, and they all read the same. Yours is concise and entertaining, and has a bit of personality which I like too.
Anyway, I'll be sure to hit you up for your opinion on other shows from time to time. Also apologies for the delay in replying. I'm generally pretty slack when it comes to replying to people.

I assume you know the 'bad art' in Aku no Hana was generally due to the rotoscoping method that was chosen to capture the characters. I thought it was a good choice considering the director originally only wanted to do a live drama and not an anime. As for the ending, there's certainly going to be a second part that I assume will follow the continuation of the manga.

edit: Your review was fair enough, but I couldn't take it seriously considering how articulate you tried to be.

No problem, seems like your review's jumped to the top as well. RIGHT where it belongs.

Ah, well I'm glad you agree then that the background art is stunning. And I will agree with you on the issues with how faces were drawn and animated. It could be due to laziness, though I hope there's an underlying meaning that the director was going for. The face thing didn't bother me that much, but I won't deny that it is an issue.

Ah yes, the walking segments. Another thing I can understand plenty of people taking issue with, yet which I loved. Watching the drawn out walking scenes had a similar affect on me as listening to drone music. It added to the atmosphere for me, and drew me in that little bit more. I don't think it ever became overbearing for me, but it's a risky design choice. I happen to be a sucker for that type of approach in any media, so I can't argue for or against it really. I definitely acknowledge that it can be overbearing.

Ah you say similar things to a friend of mine who read the manga and couldn't forgive the ending, as well as the pacing. He said if he hadn't read the manga, he'd probably consider it close to being a masterpiece (or at least like it a hell of a lot more). As I haven't read the manga, I can only guess what it would be like watching the anime. I like your interpretation of the ending too, in your review - you mention the 'flash forwards' being akin to "a clairvoyant seeing the future but the prophecy of it not yet realized in reality."
That to me could be a good thing but still, if there isn't actually a sequel I will be very disappointed.
I can't really argue with you about both Saeki and Nakamura's characterization. Though, and I don't know if this idea even crossed the mind of the manga author or the director Nagahama, but I found myself viewing Nakamura as representing Kasuga's desire, his perversion and decadence aka his evil. Whereas Saeki represented purity and his desire for a life revolving around that, aka his good. I feel like this is me trying to justify the lack of characterization that you mention, and for me it definitely seemed to justify it while watching the show. But at the same time I kind of doubt it. Besides that's based only on what was adapted from the manga - things could easily change later on.

Anyway thanks for sharing your thoughts. I can generally agree with you, and I'll be looking forward to more reviews from you. And also looking forward to Nagahama Hiroshi's next anime. He's undoubtedly among the top directors working in anime today.

Heya, refreshing review of Aku no Hana and probably the most sensible analysis I've read so far.
I am in the group that considers it somewhere in the realm of 'masterpiece', though I'm curious as to what inconsistencies you found with it, as well as the sloppy art you mention. I thought the artwork was consistently gorgeous, and while the animation was sloppy at times but this for me was not a detractor and forgiveable given the fact that it was rotoscoped - and I'm surprised they achieved what they did in this particular area given how difficult it would be to animate a whole 13 episodes using rotoscoping and make it actually work. Anyway I digress, sorry (I'm very passionate about this show since there are few who are).
I admit I found some pacing issues between episodes 3 and 7/8 (or thereabouts) where the show seemed to fall into something of a routine, but other than that I feel I can justify pretty much everything about the show. I can forgive people not enjoying it, but it saddens me to see so many detractors with nothing substantial backing up their opinions, and who have no intention of attempting to understand the show.
So thanks for writing the review!

You are correct that i needed to amend my questionnaire however the aim was to force people to be neutral rather than give it a score. I wanted to change people perception by making them think twice if i had asked what score did you give it then i believe that more people would have given their score with out thinking twice. But thanks for the feed back .

Oh, I've seen plenty of well thought-out conter-points to our own; it's just that most who love to bash the series take barely any time to substantiate their viewpoints. To clarify, I just want dialogue and discussion; one or two sentences with sweeping generalizations on people's feelings of the series, good or bad, is counterproductive to this point, and bloats the thread for those actually seeking discussion; which seems to be like 75% of the posts in that thread.

But yeah, I was mostly in the same boat as you; more than half of my posts have to be for AO. Unfortunately, other than maybe Tiger and Bunny (surprisingly enough), there hasn't been another show that's come close to the wealth of discussion I've wrought out of an airing anime series. Hopefully I'll find something else as captivating and fun to discuss and speculate about as AO. It may not be my anime of the year, but it was by far and away the most fun to discuss.

Nice to see someone else with structured, substantiated opinions and analyses on AO.

I just found this blog post, and thought you might also appreciate it, considering that you seem to be in the same boat I'm in; that the series is vastly underrated and unappreciated.

http://randomc.net/2012/11/21/eureka-seven-ao-23-24-end/