Aku no Hana
The Flowers of Evil

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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, ... boy dumps nice girl for another girl that was FUCKEN BLACKMAILING HIM, blackmailing girl leaves too, boy hooks up with 3rd girl... which is fine for a story.... IF THIS WAS FUCKEN HENTAI AND HAS A NTR TAG UNDER IT.

Art is basically 1995-2005ish art style... where the period of art was transitioning between traditional (faces with lots of detail, people looked more realistic) and modern (bi-shounen / bi-shoujo). ie. small eyes, round faces, lines to show blushing instead of tint.

The characters are IMPOSSIBLE to synthesize with. the decisions they make are SO FUCKEN STUPID it makes NEAR's [DN] deductions sound like they make sense. The main character dumped a girl he had mutual love with for a girl that's been black mailing for like X days. And the only role of the Blackmail girl is to call everyone else stupid and be a douche bag.

Enjoyment - I'm representing the rating using 4 bits in 2's compliment so 9 = -7

Overall, this is not bad. (yes it was)

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 ... would be so disappointed: we are talking about a guy, pretending to be more intelligent and cultured than his classmates (because he reads Baudelaire you see), but who never ever thinks before acting.
I mean the guy gets bullied because he stole some f***ing clothes, and I still don't get why he stole them by the way.
Okay sometimes you don't have time to think, but the dude is scared of throwing the clothes in the trash because there are people around, but who cares!? He could have put the bag in a trash bag if he wanted to hide the fact that he was throwing some clothes away...
Then comes the bully, who threatens to tell on him if he doesn't do what she wants, but again, who f***ing cares!? Nobody likes this girls so why even pay attention to her???
That bully, by the way, is a girl who likes to insult everyone and consider them as perverts.
The two protagonist are completely hateful personas to me.

So now you could wonder why did I even bother reading the second volume, and that's because I genuinely thought it would get better, but it didn't...
It only gets weirder and weirder, especially at the end of this second volume when the bully asks him to write what he's done on the black board, he refuses, and she finally decides to leave him alone. That means that he won't get bullied anymore, isn't that great? But no we can't end on that! The boy, suddenly and deliberately, writes everything on the board, calls himself a pervert, etc.
I really don't get this last part. I know the story needs to continue but this scene doesn't make any sense.

I don't know if it's the same for every version of the manga, but on the French one "je dédie ce manga à tous ceux qui souffrent ou qui ont souffert des tourments de l'adolescence" is written, which means "I dedicate this manga to all of those who are suffering or did suffer from the torment of adolescence".
And I can't help but think that nobody would ever let themselves get bullied like that, I mean come on, the guy even gets undressed by a girl and not a particularly muscly one. So I don't know if we can talk about suffering when our protagonist deliberately chooses to get bullied, must be a sadomasochist of some sort.

This story is completely dull, so I dropped it after two volumes, and I don't think I could recommend that to anyone.
And to think this is a seinen...

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.

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 ... part of this manga. There is no way that someone could sympathise with any of them, all of their acts are illogical, they have as much depth as a poddle even tho the autors tried to give them any.

World building is non existential. It feels like this characters have no past and live exept when they are on screen (panels?).
Story is at the same level as fanfic made by an edgy 12 year old, that have no idea about writing and psychology of humans, and thinks that swearing and bullying others is cool.

But I have to admit, I liked the high school segment more. If you cut the first half and put it olny as retrospection and show Kasuga's trauma from bullying and him trying to life a normal life, slowly opening to Aya it might be an intersting and relatable experience.

Other nice thing there is art. It's really pleasent to look at, even tho it's not the most beautiful one.

Well this manga takes the cake - the epitome of making a mountain out of a molehill. The supposed coming-of-age story with depth somehow ended up being an obnoxious case of bipolar teens suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

Every character in Aku no Hana is unlikable and unrelatable. Aside from the fact that it’s difficult to wrap my head around why stealing gym clothes can turn into such a fiasco, but how does a middle school kid get bullied into succumbing to his fellow classmate and eventually developing an attachment to the said abuser is the main problem. There’s no clear/convincing explanation to Nakamura’s behavior either, ... i.e. why she acted the way she did, except the reader is constantly hammered by the hysteria brooding within the MC. And then there’s the crush, who actually has a backstory as to why she’s bipolar, but again her extremity requires such a mental leap that you can’t help but wish she seeks psychiatric help throughout the manga.

I have no idea why this piece is praised to high heaven; perhaps I'll never understand unless I adopt the mindset of Happosai (the infamous underwear thief from Ranma ½) who, believe it or not, may actually be more sane than any of the characters in Aku no Hana.

i really love Shuzo mangas, but this was so poor
they just look like childs, and the way they act is so dumb(?) bescouse they have so simple things that become a gigant mess
[spoiler in this part] all the PE clothes is soooooo dumb, like he could just put back, and if she say something he could say "no, she is saying that becouse was her"[end of spoiler]
and like, the story looks so poor, why he follow her, why he is so dumb, why she is so manipulative?
everything just look childish
i really think there is so much things that are missing, or are just unnecessary
they ... autor is amazing, but i really think could be better
if you want a very cool story and with good characters and development, i dont think is this one