I really wish I could love Aku no Hana more than I did. The concept is bursting with all kinds of twisted potential, and when I saw what the animation style looked like -- so bizarre and unique in a sea of same-same shows featuring green-haired girls with eyes half the size of their heads, I knew I had to watch this. Unfortunately, even though I loved the style and atmosphere of this show, the confused characterization and pacing ultimately made Aku no Hana a letdown for me.
Story: Without giving away too much, this show turns into a melodramatic soap opera much too early on
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for my liking. A major breakthrough that changes each character dynamic irrevocably happens more than halfway through the show, so the rest of the series seems quite rushed after the fact. It’s unfortunate that Aku no Hana will never get a second season, because if the events were drawn out much longer, allowing each character to simmer in their undercurrents of hatred and anxiety for longer than a day before moving onto the next convoluted plot event, this might be something close to a masterpiece. I think this show shines when it succumbs to just how psychologically and sexually insane it could be, while still making some time (not nearly enough time, unfortunately) for interesting character development. Again, a caveat: the show’s middle school setting made the sexual content -- tied to themes of humiliation, domination, and fetishization of purity -- difficult to reconcile with how old the characters are. That being said, those are some pretty intense and subtly-outlined themes for an anime, so when the show isn’t tied up in tiring “you’re a pervert!”, “no I’m not!” arguments and other boring anime conventions, looking closely at the kinds of sexual behaviors and attitudes happening reveals a lot more than is spelled out about each character. I sort of liked the direction the show took after most of the sexual elements are stripped back in the last few episodes -- the plot twists into a trope that is so prevalent in stories about teenagers for a reason, after all -- but again, the pacing is so off that it felt tonally inconsistent with the psychological torture and horror of previous episodes.
Art: Can’t praise the art enough! I’m not very surprised that there’s such hysterical arguments about it -- taking such artistic liberties in a medium where people often spend more time worshiping cute characters than actually paying attention to nuances in the story (if there are any, that is) is bound to make a lot of people pissed off. I haven’t read the manga, but I think the style elevates the material here beyond the conventions of anime (which, unfortunately, makes every time that the story succumbs to such conventions even more jarring and disappointing). You can see by how richly detailed the backgrounds are, how beautifully surreal some scenes are drawn, and little things like the reflections of characters seen in TV screens, that the odd animation and character design is totally on purpose. The fact that this show is rotoscoped adds emphasis on movement instead of detailed character design. Each character is so bizarrely drawn that, although they are certainly more realistic looking than your average anime character, they don’t look entirely human. But they move like a human. In a show where alienation from others is paramount, the style strengthens this aspect more than any bit of dialogue or plot twist could. Each character’s troubles with fitting in and understanding the people around them are only emphasized by their blank, simple appearances...they’re empty characters living in an empty, rusted, hopeless world. I appreciated that Nakamura, who looks like a cute Rei Ayanami-clone in the manga, looks like a normal girl in this show. The animation style makes it difficult to reduce her to the “cute crazy girl” that so many people seem to have done. Nakamura’s blank, semi-realistic appearance allowed me to sympathize with her and understand her as a human being, not a stereotype.
Sound: I skipped the main song because I don’t sit through openings with no animation but OH MY GOD, THAT ENDING SONG. I think it’s my favorite ending to an anime yet. Although the show has some problems with maintaining tone sometimes, the ending always brings it all back because it’s so creepy sounding. It’s always cued in at the right dramatic moment, and each time I heard it I began to like the show more, in spite of all my reservations with it. I’ve never actually heard of a show whose ending song actually makes the content of the show better, but goddammit if Aku no Hana isn’t just that.
Character: As with most anime, I ended up liking the side characters much more than the main character. Aku no Hana obviously devotes more time to Kasuga than Saeki or Nakamura, but the screen time they do get shows that they are just as muddled and complex as he (supposedly) is. Unfortunately, the show’s horrendous pacing means that right when the contours of Nakamura’s true personality become a bit more defined, it ends. I really wish we saw more of Saeki, as well. It’s rare that such a nice and sweet girl is given a chance to be interesting beyond having a sad backstory. Speaking of sad backstories, although I have major gripes with Kasuga’s characterization, I loved that Aku no Hana never resorted to giving a character a sad or abusive childhood to “explain” the way they are. Each character has a loving family that often only wants to understand them, and in this way, the way each of them act becomes a little more heartbreaking.
Now, I don’t know if it’s just extraordinarily difficult to figure out in general or if this show handled the manga’s characterization of Kasuga poorly, but I found it hard to understand if we’re supposed to sympathize with him. He’s pitched halfway between a Shinji-Ikari-shy-blank-slate of a main character and a nuanced criticism of that often-tired anime trope (no shade at Shinji, I love him). He gets tugged around by an insane girl, is disgustingly obsessed with a his crush’s purity even though he steals her uniform for ostensibly sexual purposes, and childishly revels in his outsider status even after realizing that’s...childish...? All things that point to a more intelligent way of looking at this character type, but because we spend so much time with him doing so much over the top screeching and crying and monologuing, I just couldn’t figure it out.
Speaking of over the top, I know this is an anime but there were a lot of times in Aku no Hana where characters, specifically Saeki, act in ways that aren’t based in reality at all (or maybe they are, but there wasn’t enough thought given to the pacing to provide a realistic explanation for those actions). Fortunately, the sheer spectacle of the show allowed me to ignore all of that and revel in the insanity and soapiness.
Enjoyment: At its core, this is a 1/3 sordid sexual-humiliation tale, 1/3 “get me out of this town” love triangle soap opera, and 1/3 semi-nuanced character analysis. So...it’s pretty enjoyable. There are quite a few long takes that remind me of NGE’s slower scenes, and although I wasn’t anywhere as nearly invested in the events of this show to fully pay attention during those scenes, I respect the decision to include them as much as I respect the animation style. Characters do stupid, outlandish, bizarre shit that sometimes makes no sense but who cares! It’s a lot of fun, if you like being uncomfortable! In the first half of the show, not knowing what Nakamura will subject Kasuga to next is pretty terrifying to watch as the stakes go higher and higher...and when those stakes all get annihilated, it’s impossible to see what will happen next. A shame that the last episode almost entirely hinges on the false assumption that this will get a second season, though. Totally looking forward to reading the manga!
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Aug 12, 2017
Aku no Hana
(Anime)
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I really wish I could love Aku no Hana more than I did. The concept is bursting with all kinds of twisted potential, and when I saw what the animation style looked like -- so bizarre and unique in a sea of same-same shows featuring green-haired girls with eyes half the size of their heads, I knew I had to watch this. Unfortunately, even though I loved the style and atmosphere of this show, the confused characterization and pacing ultimately made Aku no Hana a letdown for me.
Story: Without giving away too much, this show turns into a melodramatic soap opera much too early on ... |
