An honest and upfront review on the psychological story of Aku No Hana (The Flowers of Evil)

Appreciation of the author: The story of Aku no Hana could not of been told better by anyone other than Shuzo Oshimi. The way he’s able to collect a group of characters are give them such a personality of which you can grow an understanding of. The way he conducts the story in such a unique way you can immediately tell what you’re reading is a Shuzo Oshimi story. Overall i’d like to give my appreciation to his work and write an honest review on one of my favorite manga i’ve ever read.

Introduction: This story starts off no different than most off Shuzo Oshimi’s works. We’re immediately introduced to our main protagonist Kasuga, who is obsessed with the book “Les Fleurs du mal” by Charles Baudelaire. He finds himself stealing his classmate, who he views as a goddess and utterly worships Saeki Nakano’s gym clothes. While doing so, he’s caught in the act by Nakamura Sawa. Immediately we’re introduced to our main 3 characters.

Characters and Intro : The characters portrayed in the story could be seen as somewhat relatable to some. I think Shuzo Oshimi does a great job giving character to Nakamura, a girl who sees the world as a “sea of shit bugs” who are only interested in sex. This character plays the classic “rebellious” character but the way she’s portrayed is so much different than our average rebellious character. She’s rude, demanding, and forceful with her attempt to find someone similar to her, who hates the world of “shitbugs”. Though she’s against the the way sex is portrayed in modern day society, she is disgusted by her own sexual nature as well.

Charcaters and Intro Part. 2 : The reason I gave my synopsis on Nakamura before our main protagonist Kasuga is because I feel her connection needs to be made to Kasuga before he can really be truly explained. Kasuga, on the outside is an average kid driven by his own sexual interests while maintaining a “respectable” facade on the outside. Though when caught stealing Saekis gym clothes, Nakamura captures the true nature behind Kasuga. Figuring as such that he has similar motives to that of herself, she wants to unluck his true potential. And thus blackmails Kasuga into signing a contract with her.

Characters and Intro Final Part : Now with a contract signed to Nakamura, Kasuga feels trapped and overall unsure of what to do. Over time he grows close to Saeki and eventually they start dating one another. While the weight continues to weigh down on Kasuga he decides the way to confess to his theft is to vandalize the classroom with Nakamura, and confess his true nature to Saeki. After doing so, Saeki refuses to break up with Kasuga. Kasuga then and there, found himself lost, unable to make a true decision in his mind. He can’t seem to make a set decision on who and what he wants to be. Once his parents find out about his vandalism, he takes off on his bike and ends up biking up the mountain with Nakamura with Saeki in pursuit of them both. Unable to choose between the two, he finds himself stuck, and the police show up and collect them all. He is truly stuck.

Overall Character Review : I think the characters are portrayed well. Though I always found Saeki a bit difficult to understand. I was never truly sure of what she wanted, though after reading the story completely through and looking back, it’s easy to see she just wanted to be happy. Besides from her, Kasuga and Nakamura each share similar struggles portrayed in different ways which makes there characters complex but also easy to understand. Overall the characters receive a 9/10.

Our midway point : After reading the first 30 or so chapters it’s difficult to get an understanding of where our story could be going, but of course then comes our big swing of events. When Kasuga finally decides what he wants to do and who he truly wants to be, he plans to do something big with Nakamura at the local festival. Before this though, we witness a quarrel between the two characters as Nakamura absolutely despised Kasuga for acting like such a “shitbug”. Then after that Kasuga knows that he wants to be with Nakamura and be by her side. Once they commence their big event, which is to jill themselves together at the festival by lighting themselves on fire, Nakamura pushes Kasuga away at the last moment, and Nakamura’s father tackles Nakamura before she is able to light herself on fire. This point in the story recieves a 10/10, it truly leaves you wanting so much more, to find out why she did what she did and why Kasuga inevitably wanted to die then and there. Then leads to our time skip.

Timeskip : Our timeskip consists of a departure of our main three characters from each other, as they all move away from their hometown and find themselves starting from square one again. Though Kasuga wants to start fresh, he can’t seem to knock off his usual gloomy aura. He’s practically without friends, reason being he can’t truly find anyone like Nakamura again, until Tokiwa Aya shows up. When Kasuga is invited to Karaoke he initially declined but after being nagged on to come he finally decides to go. Sitting in the same room as him is Tokiwa, and he can’t seem to keep his eyes off of her. He then decides to later leave after finding no interest in the friend group he’s in and decides to go home. The next day he finds himself at a book store, which hits him hard since after his move, he hasn’t been to one in years. Inside he sees Tokiwa, reading none other than “The flowers of evil”. Immediately shocked he decides to start conversate with Tokiwa about books, and a spark flies. Later him and Tokiwa become friends and eventually lovers after he openly confessed his love to her in front of her boyfriend at the time.

Tokiwas novel : I think Tokiwas novel plays a huge role in Kasuga truly finding himself again. Once he reads the plot of the story she was planning he immediately becomes overfilled with joy. He relates so heavily to the character she’s depicted and wants her so badly to write this story. I think without this part in the story, Kasuga would just be as bland as ever, but with Tokiwas novel he truly finds himself again. To the importance of the end of the story I would say this part plays a huge role.

The end of the story : I’ll be honest, I was disappointed by the end of the story. After Kasuga opens up about his past and Nakamura to Tokiwa and they decide to visit her, I just feel lost. What does Tokiwa really want to know, and why Nakamura is the way she is now. Though Nakamura and Kasuga seem to have fallen down similar paths the end just doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. Once Nakamura, Kasuga, and Tokiwa talk on the beach it feels like we’re left with an unfinished ending to the story. Unsure if this was Oshimis intent or not, it just doesn’t feel complete. I wish Nakamura explained more, and we learned more about the character of Tokiwa and what her true intentions and nature were. I feel like we’re left with nothing to go off of at all. A disappointing end but overall still a fantastic story.

Final Review : Overall the story feels unfinished, but the ending shouldn’t take away from the other parts of the story. Even with the feeling of an unfinished end we still feel satisfied with the story in most aspects. I think Kasuga and Nakamura’s characters were explained and well planned. And I believe the timeskip portion was very important to the story. Overall the story was one I couldn’t put down, I felt so immersed into the world of the story and found the characters so well written. Also knowing Shuzo Oshimi put so much of his life into this story also makes the story feel more real. I wish I could read this story for the first time again, it was truly something to read. Overall the story from me receives a 9/10. I can’t wait to keep reading the works of Shuzo Oshimi. Thank you :)