Pachi's Anime Review: Flowers of Evil

Takao Kasuga loves books. His favorite is Charles Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil"; he knows it front to back. He knows that few can understand such a complex book - he believes understanding it makes him better than the rest. But Kasuga's life is dull. He isn't special, he doesn't stand out. He's just a dull, average middle schooler with a crush on Nanako Saeki, a popular girl in his class. She is an angel to him; he could never rise to that height. His head is in the clouds, his body in the dirt. Kasuga does something he shouldn't. Sawa Nakamura witnesses it. She says make a contract with me, or I'll reveal to everyone what you really are...

Flowers of Evil is..........Flowers of Evil is..........okay, I'll be honest, I'm not sure what to do with this review. I'm not even sure how to get started. What can I say about Flowers of Evil that everyone else hasn't already said? It's amazing - go watch it. But I can't end things here. What can I say that's new about the anime/manga written by Shuzo Oshimi, influenced by the original Flowers of Evil book by Charles Baudelaire? Talking about the story seems almost an injustice to the breadth of psychological wonder we're presented with here. When you lay out the plot and discuss them as talking points, it feels like just any other story, but this is NOT just any other story. So what can I do? That brief synopsis up top has already spoiled more than I want you to know. Where do I go from here?

Flowers doesn't work as a story that you just explain to someone and say what worked and didn't work. This is not a formulaic tale that can be mapped out in a flow chart. Above all, Flowers is an individual's experience. And the best way to describe MY experience to you is to impart exactly what was going through my head when watching the first episode, so let's try that and see where it takes me.

I'd heard a lot of hype for Flowers because it's supposedly got a really great story. There's talk of the anime having a different drawn style than the manga - a lot of backlash from fans. Not being one who had read the manga, I ignored that conjecture and was looking forward to being surprised by a good story. Went to Crunchyroll the day it was released, clicked play, and I dived in.

Goings were slow. They remained slow for......quite awhile. I was watching calmly as this kid (Kasuga) walked down the street to school. Nothing was happening, he was just.....walking. In real time. Nothing was happening. When is something going to happen? Now he's in his class. Nothing is happening. He's walking home. Nothing is happening. I don't like this. What is the point of this? He likes Baudelaire, he's a bookworm. There's a girl he likes. Nothing is happening. Why does he like Baudelaire? Why does he like this girl? He's walking to school again. He's walking the same path, but it feels different this time. I want something to happen. I don't like this. This red-haired girl is strange. She just called the teacher a shitface. What's wrong with her? Something needs to happen. I don't like this at all. I can't stop watching this. What does it keep showing? This is unnerving. Nothing is happening. SOMETHING HAPPENED.

That moment where something finally happened is what started my true journey into the experience that is Flowers of Evil. What happens is not shocking or loud or anything like that. Something with the slightest bit of significance happens, something one might think nothing of under normal circumstances. But it comes after such a build-up of dread in a world that seems typical yet foreboding -- the withdrawn main character makes it hard to displace an emotion on the equally withdrawn world set before you, so the first episode is roughly 20 minutes spent holding your breath -- that it hits you hard as an event of immense importance. I've had difficulty describing how this moment is so impactful, until I read another reviewer describe it as the proverbial "pulling of the shower curtain in Psycho". A moment that you were not expecting, but thanks to a masterful application of subtle atmosphere, your body could sense it approaching, even if your mind did not. It is THAT good.

From that moment on, I was hooked; they caught me with my mouth wide open. The ability to pull you in to a story even if you don't particularly like it is a powerful one indeed, and Flowers achieved that for me. My first impressions of the first episode were simple: "I didn't like that! But dammit, I have to see more!" I was so enthralled by the tension and atmosphere permeating from the screen that I had to keep watching to find out what would happen. There are many anime that I will stop watching because "I don't like this". Here's the thing: Flowers is set up as a story you're not going to like - you're not supposed to like it. The world is real; it's a mundane shell hiding a twisted core. It's unpleasant to look at. Kasuga is real; he's typical, flawed, and he keeps his true self that he isn't even sure exists behind a mask. Kasuga, by the way, is perhaps one of the most striking audience surrogates ever put to screen, and Nakamura one of the most biting author surrogates. They are brutally, refreshingly unforgiving in their portrayal of the dual-nature of humanity; the bloody tug-of-war between base desire and the pressures of society. Kasuga is the every-man of Japanese society - the encapsulation of uncertainty in one's social status and the fear that comes from how you are perceived by your actions. Nakamura is his exact opposite, the other side of the coin - she doesn't care one bit how people look at her and acts in whatever way she pleases. But they're not opposites. They're not different. Deep down, we're all the same. Kasuga, Nakamura, you, and me. No matter what society you live in, human beings are the same on the most base level. This is what I felt Flowers was conveying to me. If this show had a personality, it would not like you. It would look down on you, sneer at you, spit at your feet. Shuzo Oshimi sees you otaku masses and your love of fantasy and shounen and moe and he laughs. "You may put on those happy-go-lucky faces," he says, "But I know what you really are."

No viewer wants to be told, "the world is ugly, and so are you," and that's exactly what Flowers does. It talks down to you, criticizes you for putting on a facade of being a good person, because deep down we all have a little black flower of evil in our heart that we don't want to acknowledge. Talking down to your audience is a dangerous tactic. In a lesser work, trying to force such a ham-handed lesson onto the viewer is condescending and unfairly manipulative. But in Flowers' case, the entire point of the story is to be condescending; to reveal the truth, the darkness in our hearts. And the way it does this is just astoundingly well done - the techniques are masterful. The animation is minimalist and drab, showing little but revealing a great deal by utilizing the absence of specific auditory and visual elements to create a truly stinging mood. The sound is some of the most impressive I've ever heard in anime - the use of distance and perspective on what we hear and do not hear brings out the sensation that we are not watching an anime; we're watching someone's life. The experience is almost voyeuristic in that regard, and I can't help but feel it was intentional. I felt dirty seeing this Nakamura, who had broken through the mold hiding the madness beneath the masses, slowly and deterministically force out the depths of Kasuga's soul because I got the sensation that my facades could just as easily be broken.

I never once felt happy when watching Flowers; all I felt was aversion and an uncomfortable itch in the back of my mind. So why did I keep watching it? Because it invoked a feeling in me so deep, and with such skill, that I must give it my respect as a work of art. It's not unlike seeing a well-done horror movie. A really good horror movie is one that can invoke the sensation of fear so well that, even if you were terrified, you come back and say, "They scared me really good!" Flowers is a psychological thriller in its own right. I ended each episode feeling disgusting and uneasy, but then I'd turn around and say, "Man, the way they made me feel like a totally gross, despicable human being - that was well done!" I don't mind a little brutal honesty to balance out the escapist fantasy most anime employ, is all I'm saying.

In more ways than one I found Flowers a refreshing escape from the normal escapism, as it doesn't look like any other show on the market right now. The director, Hiroshi Nagahama, originally wanted to adapt Flowers as a live action serial, as he didn't believe an animated style did its story justice. Ultimately he was refused - it had to be an anime. Clearly not wanting this story to be "just another anime", a compromise was made: rotoscope! Hate it or love it, everyone's got their own strong words towards rotoscoping. Anime fans are no exception. A few days prior to the premiere of Flowers, images of the rotoscope animation found their way to the internet. For context, the character designs of the manga are more what you'd expect. Big heads, big eyes, pretty standard design. They're still realistically designed, but realistic for MANGA, which in the end, is commonly idealized and cartoony.

So imagine when to the surprise of the many followers of the Flowers manga, these rotoscoped images start appearing of the characters they know and love with realistic faces. Features popping in and out depending on proximity to the screen, and body masses jiggling around like jello as by-product from the process of procuring animation from live-action shots. To say the internet exploded would be an understatement. Otaku RIOTED. The beautiful faces of our female protagonists are no more, they cried! I don't care if it's a story I love, they cried, I refuse to watch the anime if it looks like THAT. And why should they? Let's give them the benefit of the doubt for a moment. If your favorite manga was adapted into an anime, had the exact same story as the manga, but the animation was absolute shit, would you watch it? You might say no. If the anime is offering nothing new to the experience of this story, why should you waste your time when it looks ugly?

Now we return to my own experience. Before you judge Flowers for its rotoscoped animation, I implore you to view it for yourself. Watch the first episode - think about it. If you can't stand rotoscoping, fine. No-one is forcing you to keep watching. I found, in my own experience, that Flowers' animation does not detract from the story - rather, it enhances it. The world can be an ugly place, and the rotoscope conveys that. Rather, that PEOPLE are ugly. The backgrounds are actually quite beautifully rendered in comparison, as misshapen blobs of human flesh stagger in front of them. The rigid, uneven flow of the rotoscoping and how little the show seemed to care about it added to the atmosphere of uneasiness I mentioned earlier. Something felt off, something looked off, as well it should have. In my mind, this show wouldn't have worked NEARLY as well in a modern animation style. The aesthetic is what sets it apart from other endeavors. There's also this little tidbit: Nagahama admitted in an interview some time ago that part of the decision to use rotoscope was because he wanted to create a schism in the Flowers fandom. It was his goal to perpetuate the theme of ugly realism and unease off the screen and into the very fandom watching it; to create the experience I've been gushing over this entire time. Well, Nagahama? For me, you succeeded. What you did takes balls, my friend - seriously wicked balls. We need to see more of that in today's industry. More directors taking risks to deliver a truly unique experience that goes as far to defy the very work it was adapted from and become its own beast. Flowers accomplishes that...

...except for the ending which is a pretty big letdown as it ultimately becomes an advertisement for the manga which the anime should've distanced itself from as much as possible due to its unique style and the chances of the anime getting a 2nd season are marginally low so we'll likely never get to see the rest of the story they teased at us for no good reason and should have just let the anime end on its own ground. ^^;

But hey...don't let that stop you from checking this show out. I am still absolutely enthralled by the experience that was the Flowers anime. It was one I've never experienced before, and may likely never experience again. I'm not telling you this is a show you MUST watch all the way through. I'm not telling you this is even one of the best anime ever made. What I'm telling you, dear reader, is if deep down, you're tired of the norm....if you're tired of the same old anime day in and day out.....if you want something different that doesn't pull any punches.....if you want something that doesn't care one bit what you think....then you owe it to yourself to at LEAST watch the first episode of Flowers of Evil. Take from it whatever experience you find, and make your own choice from there, whether you decide to continue or not. I guarantee, whether you like it not, it will be an experience you won't soon forget.

You can currently find all subbed episodes of Flowers of Evil streaming online courtesy of Crunchyroll. The full series has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks - a home video release is planned later this year.