Aku no Hana

Takao Kasuga, a high school student fascinated by poetry, reveres Charles Baudelaire and even decorates his room with the poet's portrait. On a normal day, Takao forgets his copy of The Flowers of Evil in the classroom. When returning to retrieve it, he steals the sports garments of Nanako Saeki—a model student who Takao calls his muse and a femme fatale.

Deeply ashamed of his act which he sees as a sin and what others see as a crime, Takao realizes with horror that Sawa Nakamura, his classmate and social outcast, knows about his theft. Blackmailed by her, Takao is now forced to partake in Sawa's disturbing fantasies, lest she reveals his deeds to everyone. Caught in a negative spiral of increasingly traumatic experiences, will Takao be able to break free from Sawa's thorns and atone for his sins?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nakamura, Sawa Main

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Kasuga, Takao Main

Ueda, Shinichirou Japanese

Saeki, Nanako Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Kojima, Ken Supporting

Hamazoe, Shinya Japanese

Yamada, Masakazu Supporting

Matsuzaki, Katsutoshi Japanese

Kinoshita, Ai Supporting

Uemura, Ayako Japanese

Kasuga, Father Supporting

Naka, Hiroshi Japanese

Nakamura, Grandmother Supporting

Kasuga, Mother Supporting

Kobayashi, Ai Japanese

Saeki, Mother Supporting

Doi, Mika Japanese

Nakanishi, Go Producer

Tateishi, Kensuke Producer

Shintaku, Kiyoshi Producer

Kawasaki, Tomoko Producer

Reviews

Feb 8, 2025

dg_t0des

Recommended

This anime simply came out at the wrong time, that's it.

Internet culture in the early 2010's was very generic and homogeneous. There wasn't much "nostalgia" for the old times nor was there any revival of the "old times".
Nowadays people love it when old styles (such as rotoscoping in this case) get revived and put into a modern context. Just look at how people today obsess over y2k fashion, old video games, frutiger aero etc. If the director made this anime today in the exact same way, people would suck his cock for reviving a lost art style with all of its unique quirks. ... We would see MILLIONS of pretentious youtube essayists reading wikipedia articles of this art style for their audience.
But back then there simply was no such culture, at least not on nearly the same scale as today, therefore everyone back then thought it was "weird and ugly".
Make no mistake, the rotoscope choice might be controversial but imo it fits the gloomy and realistic feel of the story so damn well. The "ugliness" that people complain about ironically adds so much to the overarching nature of this story.
This anime is so much more mature in its way of dealing with themes like loneliness, romance and pervertedness than all of its contemporaries - so much so that it might as well could have been a TV show.
I can understand why someone would think it's not "real anime" in a certain way, but that hardly bothers me because I absolutely loved watching this show.

I read the manga too which is obviously great of its own, but part of me feels like I would not have enjoyed the anime as much as I have if they had decided to copy the art style from the manga. This show is its own cool little thing and I love that for it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by dg_t0des (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 10, 2024

moccomori

Mixed Feelings

Aku no Hana is one of those animes where you either get it, or you don't.

As one of the first few anime to use rotoscoping for it's animation, it fits the vibe and story incredibly well. It works well with the soundtrack to convey the feelings and experience of falling deeper and deeper into a hole until you can never get out. It feels raw, and you don't get that very often.

There are lots of interpretations of Aku no Hana— some say that it is about going through puberty. Some say that it is a metaphor for depression, and perhaps that is what makes it ... so enjoyable. Being able to apply your own feelings and experiences into the characters on screen isn't something that many are able to achieve, however, this did exactly that.

It is a roller coaster of emotion. You can go from hating a character to feeling bad for them to loving them to hating them all in the span of about 20 minutes.

Aku no Hana is not for everyone. But, I would recommend to at least give it a chance.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by moccomori (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jan 9, 2024

Jhintelman

Not Recommended

Funny

We usually watch anime under the assumption that a story can't exist for no reason, right? Well come Aku no Hana, and as intriguing as the visuals of the flower of evil, the trailer and the first episode were, it just goes nowhere, it doesn't pick up up, the ratio of psychological tension to the events happening is unbalanced, so you have a bombshell moment that leads nowhere, it defeats the point of watching a show when there is no pay off.

So enduring 12 episodes of a wimpy male lead, the same bit over and over, a ditzy love interest, a sadistic purposeless bully was ... all for nothing, and if you're thinking well maybe the source material has the answers, nope, it only gets more underwhelming after the show is over.

The art isn't worth it, I don't mind the style as much but it definitely caused the show to suffer, all in all, a waste of time, not worth perusing, you can read the entire story summary of off Wikipedia if still you're curious, but you're not missing much.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Jhintelman (13)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Underrated & Hidden Gems

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 550 Restacks

the ultimate guide to become an anime elitist watchlist

by Wasaaaabibaby

44 Entries · 301 Restacks

Famous Paintings Reference in Anime

by stefanoiulli1999

6 Entries · 2 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for December

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for December. Week 1: December 7 - 13 Anime Releases Aku no Hana (Flowers of Evil) Complete Collec...read more

Dec 11, 2021 1:22 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (5 comments)

Q2 2015 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 5/30]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the second quarter (Apr-Jun) of 2015. Spring anime which were licensed before th...read more

Mar 31, 2015 7:15 PM by Snow | Discuss (47 comments)

	Poll: Aku no Hana Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - May 18, 2013	256 replies	by keirashii »» Feb 14, 10:47 PM
	Poll: Aku no Hana Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - May 11, 2013	109 replies	by keirashii »» Feb 10, 5:52 PM
	Poll: Aku no Hana Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - May 4, 2013	172 replies	by keirashii »» Feb 7, 5:03 PM
	Poll: Aku no Hana Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 12, 2013	471 replies	by keirashii »» Feb 4, 3:23 PM
	Poll: Aku no Hana Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 5, 2013	1,741 replies	by keirashii »» Feb 4, 1:54 PM

In Numbers: The Best Anime of the Decade

What's the #1 anime of the 2010s? Which year was the best? What studio had the most hits? We have the answers to all these questions and more!

by Shymander

653,181 views

[Manga Store] Recommendation's from the Editor #2

If you call yourself an otaku, then be sure to check out these otaku-life centric manga!

by MAL_editing_team

31,096 views

Spoiler