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
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and will make you instantly fall in love with her. However, as the story goes you'll start to see that she's completely irrational. There's really no real explanation on why she's like this. The only thing the story gave you is one line said by her father, "she's just like her mother". This is extremely sad because this just feels like her character is only a plot device to let the story continue. Because guess what, without her this whole "aku no hana" bullshit won't happen. It's really disappointing that there's no clear explanation for literally the whole reason why this story exist.
Next Kasuga, the character you're gonna follow for the whole ride in this shitty-coaster. I personally had no beef with Kasuga. However, one problem I had with him is the fact that he's very inconsistent. In the beginning, he appears as a regular guy who had a crush on the most beautiful girl in his school. He fucked up and got black-mailed by the girl who's hated by almost everyone in the school. This girl keep telling him that he's a pervert and he denied it every single time. It's even shown that he's genuinely just a regular dude who fucked up that one time. However as the story goes on, his character all of a sudden turned into this evil pervert. Unlike Nakamura, the reason behind his change actually made sense if you "don't" think about it. He changed because he wanted to be with the girl he liked (at this point it's Nakamura). The problem is that the story is trying to sell that his character has always been perverted since the beginning. If they give us some hints or moment that shows he's actually a pervert in the start, sure this make sense. But as I said before, he's only a regular dude who made a mistake. Sure you'll think that smelling someone's clothes is already perverted enough and I'll agree if you said that. But the meaning of "pervert" in this series is on another league from just your average panty-peeping perverts. The action of those who are called "perverts" in this series is actually more close to something like terrorism rather than having a wild sexual fantasy. So it's really not "he's always been a pervert" because his character did a complete 180° turn from how he started.
Saeki actually had a lot more potential as a character than Nakamura. However, because the author is too focused on writing a story with a message rather than writing a good story, her character in the end felt like she's just another plot device with no real characteristic to her name.
However, gotta admit that it's really fun seeing the characters in the story taking some god-awful decision in their life for no fucking reason at all.
Story, 7/10
Giving this a 7 is already very generous of me. And the only reason it got a 7 is because the later half of the story is pretty decent. To briefly explain, the first part of the story didn't accomplish anything in "forwarding the narrative". Even if the story began in the second chapter and the first part of the story is only told via some flashback with a little explanation, it still would be able to convey the message that the author is trying to tell very clearly. Bluntly speaking, the only important part is only the second one.
Art, 7/10
I'm no art connoisseur but the art is pretty good. At times it felt very real despite still having an anime-ish look. Sure, it's not the very best out of the other manga I've read but I can still appreciate this one.
Psychological, okay/10
The series will not fail to remind you that it is based on "Flower of Evil" by Baudelaire. I'm even intrigued to start reading this piece. And no, it's not because the series tell a beautiful story out of it. (There's actually more to this line but the file got corrupted and left me with some gibberish that I don't understand at all. So I'm just gonna leave it at that.)
So to conclude, is this series enjoyable? Absolutely, it's a fun series. Sadly, it stops there. It's simply just enjoyable and not that great overall. If you enjoy a fun out of pocket story, this manga won't let you down.
Note: This review was written around June 13th and I forgot to post it lmfao.
This is a spite-review (just read a review on onani master kurosawa that said it's just a dumbdown version of aku no hana. I couldn't let that shit pass.)
So, in the end, is this a "better" version of onani master kurosawa? No, that's insulting. The only way to actually describe this manga is that it's an over-exaggerated version of onani master kurosawa.
Jul 19, 2024
Aku no Hana
(Manga)
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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 ... |
