I will mainly write about why I love the scenario and characters and why I preferred the second part, the one which has never been adapted into anime. For this purpose, I am going to spoil the whole story, so don't read this unless you have finished the manga.
I moderately liked the beginning of the manga because I did not really understand what the characters wanted (the MC in particular) and it seemed to me that they were acting irrationally. The escalation of catastrophic risk taking was fine but not enough to make me love the manga and I think I was right because the
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rest of the manga gives a new meaning to this part which is in fact a mere introduction.
To me, it tells the story of boy who is introvert/asocial but not deeply abnormal and who cultivates his uniqueness because he fails to fit in. He believes that if he can't be as good as a normie than the other normies, it means he has a different/superior fate and he convinces himself that his "thing" is poetry, something the others can't understand. He finds a place for the pretty girl he fancies in this thinking pattern, calling her his "muse" (which is quite ridiculous). The MC is therefore at first pretty unhappy and lonely but comfortably confined in his simplistic relation with the rest of the world and vaguely in love with some girl he doesn't really know. This distance between them, which should be a source of pain, actually comforts the idea he has made of himself and make the situation more coherent and convenient than if he tried to seduce her.
When he gets closer to her, it is in fact natural that it doesn't go too well: he is still asocial, he doesn’t know how to fit in by her side and he doesn't have much to say to her. I hadn't understood it, reading the first chapters (I couldn't tell if it is normal, if we are supposed to understand later, of if I am a bit dumb, but however I understood later). On the other side, Sawa gives him an opportunity to increase his uniqueness, to improve his pattern which keeps him away from the others. She is genuinely different, way more than him, and even offers some new categories to add to his pattern (the concept of perversion, the concept of "shit-eaters" (misanthropy in fact) and the concept of "other side") which he tries to match with his understanding of Baudelaire's poetry. When he rejects Saeki to turn to his tormentor WHOM HE DOESN'T EVEN UNDERSTAND, I thought it was dumb, but it's actually very coherent. To this selfish interest is apparently added the desire to help Sawa, to offer her the company of someone who is like her and who can understand her, in opposition to Saeki who is a normie et doesn't need him. However, we clearly feel that he never completely succeeds, that she remains more special than him, that he never understands her and can't really save her, which creates a malaise during this whole part of the story which I find retrospectively delicious.
Then comes the chapter of the summer festival: she betrays him, pushes him away and tries to die alone. He doesn't understand, neither did I at the moment, but it's actually simple: she's thanking him for all these efforts he made for her which have mitigate her misery for a little while but wishes that he keeps living because she understood that he was less abnormal than her and that he could find his place in the world with some efforts, unlike her. The MC only understands this in the end and I only completely understood it at the same time he did. But what makes her so different? Why would Sawa be so desperate while he wouldn't? Is she right to think this way? She's right, and the reason is simple: as seen in the last chapter (which, in my opinion, was not necessary to understand this, but it is an indisputable confirmation which puts an end to any hesitation), she is genuinely, clinically crazy. I don't know anything about psychiatry but it must be some form of schizophrenia. Her perception of the world is biased, everything she says or do in the whole manga is irrational. She's desperately crazy while the MC is merely a bit different from the normies.
For some years, he won't get out of the illusion that he was different like her, that he was able to do something for her, and he will live in the nostalgic remembrance of their relationship and the incomprehension of Sawa's final act. It all changes when he meets the third girl whom he will seduce without giving up his particularity but without persisting in withdrawal. He will understand that he can be normal too, even if he has a passion apparently rare in his environment (literature), and finally give up his dumb pattern which was his shell during adolescence. Then comes my favourite passage: he meets Sawa, who almost didn't evolve, unlike him, again and, after a night of horseplay, reminiscent of the horseplay of their adolescence, she tells him not to ever come again because he is not like her.
I should also write more about Saeki and her friend Kinoshita who suffer a lot because of the MC's mistakes, they are two very good characters, but the essential point is here: a MC who doesn't fins his place and cultivates his difference; he believes (wrongly) that he can help a truly different (crazy) girl and persists in this way despite his failure without ever finding any satisfaction; it takes a lot of time for him to get over it but finally becomes normal while she remains in her desperate situation from which no one can get her out, and anyway from which the MC won't ever try to get her out anymore.
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Blossom of Evil Japanese: 惡の華 More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 11
Chapters: 58
Status: Finished
Published: Sep 9, 2009 to May 9, 2014
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
Bessatsu Shounen Magazine Authors:
Oshimi, Shuuzou (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #4382 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #64
Members: 168,618
Favorites: 12,618 Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 70 / 86
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Jan 14, 2017
I will mainly write about why I love the scenario and characters and why I preferred the second part, the one which has never been adapted into anime. For this purpose, I am going to spoil the whole story, so don't read this unless you have finished the manga.
I moderately liked the beginning of the manga because I did not really understand what the characters wanted (the MC in particular) and it seemed to me that they were acting irrationally. The escalation of catastrophic risk taking was fine but not enough to make me love the manga and I think I was right because the ... 
May 26, 2011
This manga is crazy. I'm sorry, actually, allow me to correct myself, this manga is FUCKING crazy.
So you thought School Days was fucked up, you haven't even begun. I'll start with the flaws, because they are apparent. First of all, the story isn't the most original thing you've ever heard of. You have a boy who has a crush on a girl and is forced to make a contract with another girl because he is caught stealing the first girl's underwear. It doesn't take a genius to realize where the romance is going to be placed. The characters aren't the most developed characters ever and they ... 
Apr 14, 2015
Aku no Hana fills me with despair, not because of the subject matter that it covers but because it's a classic example of the "Death Note" phenomenon that happens a lot in anime and manga: a particular work starts off with an interesting concept, ends up becoming insanely addictive as shit gets more and more intense until finally, all of that momentum is lost with a major event happening that kills your buzz and you're left feeling more unsatisfied than a sexually frustrated wife is with her impotent husband. Aku no Hana is a good manga but if you're expecting a completely fucked up story
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Mar 7, 2019
Aku no Hana was 60% of the time the worst thing I've had ever read in my life.
The central theme that Aku No Hana proposes to analyze during its first arc is the mindset of a criminal. It is, till the very end, a character study, focused on creating a situation in which our protagonist faces the consequences of a certain action that he makes at the beginning of the manga and eventually reaches the realms of insanity. This may sound like something really interesting to you if you ever stopped and spent some time trying to understand the mindset of a random criminal you saw ... 
Jul 11, 2012
I actually think this manga could be labeled as a "horror-manga" because it all plays out like some sort of demented never-ending nightmare. Not the sort of nightmare where you're chased by a serial killer, mind you. But rather the sort of nightmare where you discover that you've forgotten to wear clothes to school. (I would name the genre "social-horror")
The set-up is wonderful! Kasuga Takao is a somewhat pretentious boy who considers himself different (and perhaps better) than other people because he's reading difficult french poetry. His favorite book is "the Flowers of Evil" by Baudelaire (thereby the title of the manga). One day he ... 
Nov 5, 2017
Usually, the plot, based on the worrying of a teenager, problems in school, inferiority complexes and fear of recognition in love, does not cause much interest in the observer, primarily because of his banality. Often the problem of one boy or girl is offered, in which the author rests with all his strength and pulls it throughout the story, but here we will see a completely different picture, which, if not forced to love this work, but at least it will not waste your time.
Aku no Hana shows that reading means thinking through of someone else's head instead of one's own, which is what happens ... 
Feb 28, 2013
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, ... 
May 20, 2014
Man, this manga is AMAZING. Simple as that. Thought-provoking, intense, realistic, meaningful, angsty, increasingly captivating.
I really hate to use this world freely but here i think i can say it with no regrets: in my opinion, this manga is a masterpiece. It‘s unbelievable, really, that i felt like dropping it back in the early chapters. And boy, am i glad i decided back then to continue reading...! The truth is, Aku no Hana improved tremendously over the years. Both visually and plotwise. The gritty and sometimes painful-to-read start gave away to an insightful, intriguing coming-of-age story. The characters also followed that evolution beautifully. Kasuga went ... 
Mar 29, 2011
Aku no hana has an somewhat interesting story setting, but nothing original or something out of the ordinary.
The protagonist steals the gym cloths from the girl he likes and is seen by a quiet girl in class. He's the typical spineless, crying guy, who is getting blackmailed by this evil mysterious girl in his class to do all sorts of stuff for her, just to prove that he is a real pervert, while he continuously tries to prove that he actually is innocent and a good guy. So the story seems really predictable this way, that this mysterious girl and the protagonist will end up together instead, ... 
Sep 2, 2015
Life is basically a series of meetings of people who may have or not some effect on the involved. These effects can be minor or big, but, undoubtedly, they change people. For good or bad, meetings are one of the few things that can truly influence people. Aku no Hana shows one of such meetings and how it changed everyone involved for the worse and how these people dealt with it.
Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil) is a psychological manga written, created and illustrated by Shuuzou Oshimi, who also created Boku wa Mari no Naka. It began serialization in 2009 and ended in 2014. ... 
Oct 25, 2020 Not Recommended Funny  Preliminary
(12/58 chp)
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 ... 
Aug 3, 2021
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.
Jun 19, 2012
What can be said about this manga that others haven't? I am not sure, so I will say it anyway.
It is basically what happens when a boy becomes so obsessed with a girl his life spirals out of control and he throws away everything he believes in or has worked for just to try and make her happy. The girl, is a sociopath who shows no emotion except joy when others are in emotional pain and has no qualms about leading the boy down a path of self-destruction because she simply doesn't care about the world or anyone (herself included) in it. Some might say ... 
May 20, 2014
Boredom. It usually occurs from repetitive and seemingly uneventful occurrences in someone's life. In the case of Aku no Hana, that boredom is caused by living in a bland town full of normal people. So what happens when you finally get a glimpse of someone or something that isn't normal for the first time in a long time? You would probably do whatever it takes to keep that thing close to you and prevent it from being tainted by the boring pieces of shit that exist everywhere else.
As you can probably assume from that brief introduction, Aku no Hana is a dark psychological story. It ... 
Apr 29, 2022 Not Recommended Funny Preliminary
(46/58 chp)
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 ... 
Jul 19, 2024
What made me want to read aku no hana is the psychological tag. If you're also a big fan of psychological story, this story won't let you down. However, we need to make one thing clear before we go ahead; the story is not that complex, stop reaching. So, if you're a big fan of complex story-telling, you'll have a bad fucking day after reading this. With that being said, let's start this shit.
Characters, 6/10 We need to focus on the 3 main characters of this story; Nakamura, Kasuga, and Saeki. We first will start with Nakamura. At first sight, she's a really interesting character ... 
Apr 21, 2013
When I first started reading this manga honestly I though it was pretty bad. It starts off as the boring "someone saw me do something weird and I'm in a lot of shit" cliché, but then suddenly after about the 7th or 8th chapter the story completely evolves and takes a completely different turn. At about this time the story stops focussing on all the weird stuff going on and shows us the the effect it has on the main character, Kasuga.
This manga really messes with your head and you even find yourself being able to relate to some of the feelings Kasuga experiences. ... 
Oct 30, 2017
Here is my take after reading all 58 chapters of Aku no Hana by Shuuzou Oshimi.
There are times when you accidentally stumble upon diamonds in this world, and I don't believe in accidents. It is difficult to put the experience of reading Aku no Hana in words but I would try my best to do so. The story revolves around Takao Kasuga, a middle schooler, and his beliefs, principles, dreams, and aspirations; how they were formed through his love for Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire, crushed by the perverted Sawa Nakamura and reassembled by Nanako Saeki just to be crushed once more ... 
Nov 19, 2020
Aku No Hana, oh boy here we go.
[Disclaimer] The following review is based off of my thoughts, opinions and observations. You are in charge of what you consume and should you choose to read all of this you are responsible for your reaction and response. Basically, it's fine if you disagree just please be a decent human being about it. [SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD] Aku No Hana is a very dark manga, I'll first be explaining the story a bit and then break it down so that it's easier to understand. This manga follows the story of our protagonist who is obsessed with the book Les Fleurs du Mal. ... 
Aug 20, 2024
Aku no Hana is without a doubt one of the most captivating mangas I've ever come across. I mean, I've read a lot of stuff, but nothing has grabbed me quite like this. And no, it’s not the romance, the ecchi elements, or even the twisted nature of the plot that hooked me—it's the way the story dives deep into mental illness and rips apart societal norms with sharp, unapologetic critique. I absolutely love it. The characters? Straight-up divine. Seriously, the author is on another level. Never heard of him before this, but he's now in the ranks of gods when it comes to writing
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