Aku no Hana was in simple words, a beautifully illustrated and well written coming of age manga that sheds a bright light on the lives of outcasts and the harsh reality of coming in terms with the world. This story was amazingly written and had me constantly biting at my nails in anxiousness. It was not only an extremely good page-turner it is a manga that I will most definitely not forget.
Story: 43% / 43%
The story delves deep into the lives of small towns in Japan and how they feels stuck and crushed by the limitation of their circumstances, it also shows a little side of Japanese families and school lives and how all of this come into the psychological upbringing of the Japanese Youth. What I loved the most about the manga and the reason why it gets a solid 33/33 is that the story is strongly tied to the actual "Flowers of Evil" by Baudelaire. In the collection of poems which is called Flowers of Evil the biggest sin and the worst thing a human can ever be is boring. Nakamura in Aku no Hana takes advantage of Takao idolizing Baudelaire and constantly calls him boring to get him to follow with her schemes. The way the actual peoms and the manga are tied together is just beautiful to say the least. Truly, a work of art.
Characters: 31% / 33%
Takao is a quite kid and he is obsessed with books and poetry especially a poetry book by Charles Baudelaire called The Flowers of Evil, he is not very sociable and he has a big crush on the pretty girl from his class.
Nakamura Sawa on the other hand is a rude girl who is always in trouble with the teachers and she is very anti-social and hates the town she lives in, the two get tangled in a strange relationship and they wreck havoc on the other residence of the town and with the law too.
Both of these characters can resonate deeply with many people who consider themselves outcasts of society no because of their perverted tendencies but because of the feeling that every person has felt at least once in their life. The feeling of being different from everybody else.
Art: 19% / 23%
Oshimi has come a long way since Aku no Hana, but nevertheless, he deserves a lot of recognition for his superb art style and amazing facial expressions. That combined with the way he draws backgrounds was simply... subarashii.. Regardless, there are inconsistencies here and there. I'm not talking about the final few chapters, I'm thinking more about actual details that could've been better. Besides that, Chi no Wadachi (the manga I compare Aku no Hana to a lot) was just better art-wise, thus, the rating.
Conclusion:
Aku No Hana is a lot more realistic than a very high percentage every other manga. It takes the outcast kids and shows them the cold harsh reality that is life and being an outcast kid. This was truly a work that connected with me and was hard for me to keep it together throughout reading it. As I write this my heart is beating fast while I recall this manga. My throat feels clogged and this is simply something I had never experienced before even after reading actual tons of manga of this genre.
Overall: 94% / 100% or 9.4/10
