BACKGROUND
I started watching anime shows like Dragon Ball, Captain Tsubasa and Ginga Sengoku Gunyuuden Rai when I was a kid on national tv. However, the anime which inducted me to the manga/anime world was Naruto.When I first saw it I liked it very much that I started looking it up on the internet to re-watch the episodes, it was back then when I discovered the fansub world and the anime/manga industry.
After catching up with Naruto I started looking for other similar shows, and that's how my adventure has started.
IMPORTANT NOTES
I rate shows that I've watched based on:
- Their impact on me (50%)
- Enjoyment (50%)
So basically I don't care about other factors (Music, Animation, and voice actors...) , all I care about is how much the show is original and the story/characters' impact on me. So, don't be surprised when you see my list.
All Comments (33) Comments
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O w O o3o >_< ; A ; ; u ; ; n ; C; ;3c TTwTT TT~TT TT_TT 8-D QwQ
I used to be very active on this anime website called Crunchyroll and back then it was quite a common thing for people to come up with all sort of emoticons just for the heck of it :X It's really just for the sake of cuteness really :P
I read the manga before the anime even came out and it was a weird-read for me at first but i found it extremely entertaining even though all the characters in the story was a nut-case. In the sense of art, it's your below average art that you see back in the early 2000s and late 1990s and it wasn't really unique or good either so i didn't mind it that much when they did rotoscoping in the anime. However, it's not a series for everyone and i can understand why. Most people read manga/anime because it's fictional and they can imagine as the main character within the story doing cool thing being an idealistic hero. *I actually talked to a few people in the past that reading is like escapism for people and to live/relate to the character within the imaginary world of the story.
However, story like Aku no hana doesn't do quite well for them since it's pretty dark and the characters aren't exactly likable which i'm sure it was intentional. The way the author depict the world that the characters live in is pretty either- it's dull, it's ugly, it's boring which is like the world that we all live in and i thought the anime reflect that pretty well. Not to mention, it also reflect on the way in which the character view the world. The protagonist Takao may seem like your average weak-willed character both emotionally and mentally (almost like shinji ikari from EVA) but he has some depth as a character that is almost relatable to some people in the real world.
Aku no Hana is almost like a coming-of-age ceremony kind of story- you can see Takao's struggle and growth as the series progresses. Except what makes this differ from other kind of story is that it wasn't depicted in a pretty way, quite dark and dull actually. What started this whole story of Aku no Hana is due to Takao's sudden impulse for his desire for Saki and stole her gym clothes whom he have a crush on and regarded as a muse. Takao worshiped like she was a goddess (she's untouchable, she's pure, she's kind etc) and such a person was out of his league since he whole-heartedly believe a person like himself could never approach her and taint her pureness. However, he couldn't control his impulse and could only express his affections secretly by stealing her gym clothing. It sounds perverted indeed but i can understand why it happened o_o! Even after that, he felt very guilty and regret deeply what he has done. Perhaps, it was from that moment on, the flower of evil seeds begin to sprout. o_o
Unfortunately, that action alone causes his downfall as he was seen by the crazy and a bit psychopathic Nakamura-san. Talk about bad luck! o_O The series then took a very weird turn and we as the audience was being exposed by the perverted things that Nakamura forced Takao to do. She seemed like she was a sadist and a really psychopathic pervert. Of course, that was what we thought of her until we see that what Nakamura really wants is to expose Takao and show his bare self (his wall/his skin) in which Nakamura regarded him as a 'deviant'. I thought this sort of development was pretty intriguing and i begin to understand a little about Nakamura as the story slowly progresses. Initially, she was depicted a psychopathic and sadist girl but what she really wants is to see the true self of other people without faking any mask and persona that people put on. I'm sure you probably know this and we see that she was fed up with seeing people faking themselves (people acting nice, nice words but empty feelings, etc) which i thought it reflected on our society pretty well. Everyone in this world fake themselves in one way or another in order to lead a much easier lifestyle or to get what they want.
As the story progresses, Takao' seed of flowers of evil seems to be growing larger and larger and possibly began to occupy by the way he he thinks and act in which i am assuming that every time Takao takes down a wall that he shielded himself from, his sin would becomes bigger as a result before it begins to bloom. Pretty poetic i thought. I have never read the poem "The flower of evil" but i making an assumptions that the story provides lot of references to it and in some way another has a connection with that it was said in there. What i found really interesting is that despite Takao being your average weak character, he actually looks down on everyone around him in which he partially admitted in the story that he read the book The flower of evil because it makes him seem different and special from the rest of the people in town. Takao never actually understand what the message in the book was but he was really intrigued by it for some odd reason.
He spoke of the world (the town) being dull and boring and it's rusting away which i thought perhaps he felt like he was caged. To escape from this unwanted reality, he indulges himself into reading and became awfully obsessed with Aku no Hana. Perhaps he wanted to feel special and build his worth when he's probably just like any other people in his age but he looks down on them. But it maybe because there was never truly a person who understand Takao even though he has friends and perhaps he felt like he was alone. He wasn't like how other people in the town were and he doesn't seem to like the way they lead their life and he wasn't satisfied with living like that either. However, when strange psychopathic Nakamura entered his life- he began to change but whether he changes for the better or worst is hard to determine. It wasn't exactly something that can be seen as just black and white and i feel they don't exactly think of the world this way either. For them, the world is just dull, not exactly beautiful and it wasn't hell.
Perhaps, it was one of the reason why they don't seem to view their actions as being bad or good. Even though Takao probably knew he shouldn't be doing it, he still do them because of Nakamura. Nakamura was also alone all the time because she's so introverted- she doesn't have friends, she doesn't exactly have a loving relationship with her family and to make it worst, she deliberately excluded herself from the other people which probably because she think they don't worth her time. Nothing seemed interesting to her and being alive or dead probably won't make much of a difference to her which would probably explain how she could feel so comfortable and unnerved when performing all sorts of criminal acts. It's probably because of this, Takao couldn't leave her alone even after Nakamura said she'll break off the contract. Perhaps he felt like Nakamura was just like him (they felt like they were connected, etc) who viewed the world in the same way and are always alone. (Kind of like the feeling you got when you see another person who felt the way you do or in the same situation, you can't help but feel like being on their side) No one other than themselves can understand them better than anyone. I thought it was really interesting, I meant i never seen people being depicted in such psychopathic way before. :P
It's a complex topic and story in my opinion. The characters are somewhat a bit hard and complicated to put into words but at the same time i can somewhat relate to them even though their actions really do surprise me a whole dead. This series certainly do have more things going on in them than what it seemed above the surface. I probably would even enjoy it even more or even understand the depth of the series even more if i understand the poem itself. But literature aren't exactly my forte and i can't understand classics that well either :U But Aku no Hana i's really intriguing to me because dark and twisted series appeals to me the most. I'm a weird person. I like all sort of genre, so i can almost read anything without thinking "This isn't my cup of tea" so it's a great thing for me xD