|
Just a warning before I get started, this manga is very disturbing. So just keep that in mind before you start reading.  So, ya you probably got the gist of it. Introduction: Aku no Hana, or The Flowers of Evil, is a manga by Oshimi Shuuzou, serialized in Kodansha's monthly "Bessatsu Shonen Magazine". Another popular manga serialized in that magazine is our beloved Shingeki no Kyojin. Like Shingeki no Kyojin, I find this hilarious because, like Zorak said, the magazine's name implies that it's a manga for "boys" (shonen = boys), as this means it's for children of young age however.... This manga is ABSOLUTELY not appropriate for children of young age because well it's extremely dark and nihilist; it does not hold back anything when it comes to story telling and character. Plot Summary: Kasuga steals a pair gym clothes of the girl he likes. The next day the girl that sits behind him reveals that she saw everything.. Now if he don't form a "contract" with her she is going to tell everyone. The plot doesn't sound like much but it picks up extremely quick and does get extremely creepy rather quick too. Characters: Takao Kasuga - Our main character. He is extremely naive and loves reading. He suffers from a superiority complex of sorts. Not going to add a picture because he looks pretty generic. Sawa Nakamura - The girl that saw him steal the clothes and forces him to enter a contract. She is absolutely insane (look at the first picture of the thread)! I guess her character is a yandere of sorts, but she has no "dere" side what so ever. The funniest thing I think about her is that she looks really like Ayanami Rei.  Here's Sawa. Notice any similarities? My Opinion: The main reason I like this manga is that it tells a story about really pathetic pretentious kids who think they are better than everyone else. When really they are just crazy and desperate to make themselves unique just because they don't want to be like everyone else. Of course everything won't go their way and lots of stuff happens. I just really like this idea and the story isn't half bad either. I'll say this manga is definitely not for everyone, but it does have its appeals. Also if you have a thing for genuinely crazy or evil female characters, definitely check this out. So give it a shot! jonjonaug posted:Also the series is officially available in English. The first three volumes are available in English right now, with the fourth on the way in about a month. Additional Stuff: 1. Volume 7 of the manga just got released in Japan. 2. Recently, it's been announced that this manga will be adapted into an anime. It's going to be directed by Nagahama Hiroshi (Mushishi) and animated by studio ZEXCS. It is scheduled to air around April 2013. 3. Also I'm pretty bad at writing threads. 4. A lot of the things in this manga is semi-based on the author's own life. Oh Snapalope fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Dec 17, 2012 |
#
?
Dec 16, 2012 17:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 16:36 |
|
|
Couple of things you probably should have realized before posting this thread. 1. The official title is called "The Flowers of Evil" (the title comes from the book "Les Fleurs du mal" that Kasuga is always reading). 2. Also the series is officially available in English. The first three volumes are available in English right now, with the fourth on the way in about a month. This manga does own a whole lot though, and I'm glad to see someone made a thread for it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2012 18:41
|
|
|
Ok I'll slowly update the OP as I go. The way I write threads is I do a crappy job and slowly proof read and edit it as I go which is point 3 in the additional stuff section and is a bad habit that I really should get out of. Anyways thanks for pointing out my mistakes.
Oh Snapalope fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Dec 16, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2012 18:47
|
|
|
What exactly do you mean its not for boys?
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 00:12
|
|
|
Truculent Twisty posted:What exactly do you mean its not for boys? This manga sounds cool but because it's released English does that mean no fansub talk?
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 00:51
|
|
|
Suspicious Lump posted:Not for children of young age. Yes no fansub talks but the official English release is only at volume 4 right now. The official translations are very good from what I hear. Truculent Twisty posted:What exactly do you mean its not for boys? I updated the OP to make it a bit more clear. I meant it's not appropriate for children of young age.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 02:59
|
|
|
Oh Snapalope posted:The official translations are very good from what I hear. They are significantly better than the existing fan translations. If you've read the manga in the past and enjoyed it, make sure to buy the releases if you haven't already.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 03:10
|
|
|
 This manga. I can't wait to see this animated
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 04:38
|
|
|
It's like Onani Master Kurosawa except even more hosed up. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 04:50
|
|
|
Oh Snapalope posted:
The anime will be broadcasting in the Spring 2013 season (i.e. starting in April 2013) and the studio producing it is ZEXCS. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 05:24
|
|
|
This manga is great. I'd love to meet a girl like Nakamura, all twisted and hosed up who will lead me astray. aaaand it turns out that she's actually based on a real person the manga artist went to school with. Suspicious Lump fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Dec 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 05:27
|
|
|
Suspicious Lump posted:This manga is great. I'd love to meet a girl like Nakamura, all twisted and hosed up who will lead me astray. A lot of the manga is semi-autobiographical. Not in the sense that "this stuff actually happened to me", but in the sense that the town it takes place in and several of the characters are based on the author's childhood. The author has said that several of Kasuga's habits he had himself when he was that age (reading tough books and having an inflated sense of self-worth for it, for example). JosephWongKS posted:The anime will be broadcasting in the Spring 2013 season (i.e. starting in April 2013) and the studio producing it is ZEXCS. Totally making a thread for that when it comes close to starting. I really hope it does well.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 05:35
|
|
|
JosephWongKS posted:The anime will be broadcasting in the Spring 2013 season (i.e. starting in April 2013) and the studio producing it is ZEXCS. Why do all the characters look the same??
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 05:59
|
|
|
Truculent Twisty posted:Why do all the characters look the same?? Anime.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 06:09
|
|
|
The messy bowl-bob is a pretty standard girl haircut but Nakamura does come off as a yandeRei in affect. Art direction for the Mushi-shi anime was pretty baller so I have high hopes for this adaptation.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 06:47
|
|
|
This manga is amazing because it's basically about the slow destruction of a human being.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 07:10
|
|
|
Dr Pepper posted:This manga is amazing because it's basically about the slow destruction of a human being. The slow destruction of several human beings, and how the degradation of one slowly spreads and metastasizes to everyone close to them. But yeah, this manga is like what would happen if Shinji and Rei were contemporary middle schoolers in a boring, go nowhere town without giant robots and Freudian psychology.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 09:10
|
|
|
Dr Pepper posted:This manga is amazing because it's basically about the slow destruction of a human being. Poor dude just wanted to be a poser with his Baudelaire.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2012 14:02
|
|
|
This manga is hella gripping.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2012 08:56
|
|
|
the climax when they trash the classroom was amazing. It's been 6 months though since since I've seen a new chapter and 32 was such a massive cliffhanger
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2012 06:37
|
|
|
cisneros posted:Poor dude just wanted to be a poser with his Baudelaire. One of the things I like about this manga is that even though our protagonist is a spineless, wishy-washy teenager like pretty much every other hero of school manga ever, he's also got that massive pseudo-intellectual arrogance going on. It makes him seem like more of a person and less of a bland cutout.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2012 17:40
|
|
|
cooldude2.0 posted:the climax when they trash the classroom was amazing. Volume 7 of the manga only just came out in Japan a couple of weeks ago and there don't appear to be any raws of it available on the internet yet, so I guess the team working on it couldn't do anything even if they wanted to. I echo the sentiment, though-- I want to see what happens next!
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2012 20:04
|
|
|
The Timely Howard posted:Volume 7 of the manga only just came out in Japan a couple of weeks ago and there don't appear to be any raws of it available on the internet yet, so I guess the team working on it couldn't do anything even if they wanted to. I echo the sentiment, though-- I want to see what happens next! Yes I know right? Volume 6 ended with a cliffhanger like and now we have to wait so long for volume 7.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2012 22:11
|
|
|
I've caught up with this manga and holy poo poo I need chapter seven. The three main characters are so perfectly broken, yet I can see where they're all coming from.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 06:52
|
|
|
Oh my god that cliffhanger.THAT.CLIFFHANGER. This is on par with Inio Asano's suff in regards to damaged people and lovely, lovely decisions.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2012 15:25
|
|
|
Personal_Nirvana posted:
Haven't started reading this yet, but based on this and the other responses I think I might grab the first couple of volumes. Why are stories about broken people so gripping 
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2012 01:33
|
|
|
bobomb posted:Haven't started reading this yet, but based on this and the other responses I think I might grab the first couple of volumes. Why are stories about broken people so gripping Honestly, I find the horribly broken characters in this story completely believable. I think most of us in our middleschool/teenage years would think "I'm smarter than everyone else!" or "I hate this town! I can't wait to leave!". They all want to be individuals and special, yet at the same time what they really need is to learn that they're not alone. And then everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2012 02:09
|
|
|
Volume 4 arrived at my doorstep today. Vertical did a great job with the release as always.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2013 00:03
|
|
|
5 new chapters have been translated.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2013 07:26
|
|
|
And now it's a normal High School manga, unless things are going to go back to being horribly wrong soon.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2013 20:42
|
|
|
Wandering Knitter posted:And now it's a normal High School manga, unless things are going to go back to being horribly wrong soon. It's Aku no Hana, of course things are going to go back to being horribly wrong soon. Presumably Nakamura will show up soon.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
I think it's pretty clear that all of this has to be just foreshadowing for something more terrible. Just when he seems to grasp of "normal life", reader led to believe he'll manage, everything will come crashing down. It's clear the protagonist's dad is in bad mental health for example Also, changing haircuts seems to be a plot device, took me way too long to realize it was our old protagonist. This manga has a bad influence, we're cheering for the INSANE now? v Dessel fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Feb 4, 2013 |
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2013 22:05
|
|
|
I am so stoked for him to go crazy again, I hope he brings the new girl down with him.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2013 02:27
|
|
|
Oh man, I just finished and really want to see where this goes next. I love how the art evolves at an incredible pace once Kasuga starts to search for the Other Side, really helps the world feel darker and more mature. And yeah, while the unrelenting nihilism is disturbing and it would be nice if the manga ended up confronting that, its also incredibly entertaining and I think everyone wants to see the flower of eye bloom once more. edit: I think one thing this manga does well is build up tension until one big, cathartic action scene. If it takes another 12 chapters before we get another classroom painting scene that's fine, because it'll only be sweeter for it. Scrree fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Feb 4, 2013 |
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2013 12:28
|
|
|
Chapter 39 is out now. Kasuga looks like he's starting to ease back into a normal life finally! Let's see how long that lasts before something happens to make it crash and burn.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 00:13
|
|
|
Things are looking up? Wow man. Just got into reading mangas, and this one has made me  the most by far. Although Swweeet was pretty gnarly too. Interested to see how shits gonna hit the fan.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
quote:Charles Baudelaire (book sample) When by the changeless Power of a Supreme Decree The poet issues forth upon this sorry sphere, His mother, horrified, and full of blasphemy, Uplifts her voice to God, who takes compassion on her. "Ah, why did I not bear a serpent's nest entire, Instead of bringing forth this hideous Child of Doom! Oh cursèd be that transient night of vain desire When I conceived my expiation in my womb!" If the manga follows the book's mood till the end, there's just no way anything good can happen to anyone involved.  e: typo
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 04:32
|
|
|
Moonshine Rhyme posted:Things are looking up? Wow man. Just got into reading mangas, and this one has made me He's going to take everyone in his new town down with him, I presume.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 09:47
|
|
|
Chapter 40 is up. The flower awakens.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 22:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 16:36 |
|
|
My new favorite page in a manga full of favorite pages (spoilers, obviously).
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2013 23:56
|
|