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When ep8 stars with six and a half minutes of the two main characters, walking slowly, hand in hand. In silence, whilst a minimalist ambient piece of ambling drone music plays over the top, i knew i loved this anime. Bar Studio Ghibli and a very few others, I cannot bare anime. Lolita harems and mind numbing monster fights usually glaze me over, reaching for the off button. Aku No Hana, did not do this. Seemingly not representative at all. The hate, poured upon it for it's use of Rotoscope Animation, is well documented.
I won't to go into details of the plot, as it is far more eloquently dissected all over the net. In a Japanese social context, it comes across as very interesting indeed. A small insight into how Japanese highschool and young teen people are expected to behave and the fallout therein.
The performances from both the live actors and the voice actors who dub them are excellent. Minami Sasaki (live actor) and Mariya Ise (voice actress) who play Sawa Nakamura are both particularly exceptional. Creating a truly deranged young girl, without camp or nonsensical behaviour, so apparent in many anime. Nakamura is seriously bad news and it pours from the screen, both alluring and disturbing in equal measure. The main protagonist, a seriously confused beta-male, Takao Kasuga (finely played and voiced by Shin'ichirō Ueda) is a less endearing character, because of his simpering, self destructive behaviour. A vehicle for Nakamura to wield a destructive hand over everything. An enabling entity for her frustration. Despite his mildly annoying manner, it is great fun to see Nakamura emasculating him and using him as her plaything to create havoc throughout. Nanako Saeki, represents a mirror for Nakamura and helps create absolute conflict for Kasuga. This adds to the story, as he squirms and panics, having bitten off far more than he could chew. His worship of Saeki, really backfires as he realises he cannot actually have his cake and eat it, culminating beautifully in ep10, when forced to chose between the two girls.
The main attraction, really is the atmosphere, realistic tone, slow pacing and other worldly musical score of the show. The anime flows, dreamlike, over 13 episodes. Long shots of nothing in particular, a soundtrack consisting of ambient drones and some minimal piano score for the most part. Opening credit music is a fun way to introduce each episode. By Japanese band Alien, it is broken up over the episodes and sung in turn by the main voice actors for Nakamura, Kasuga and Saeki. The ending theme is an absolutely bizarre,terrifying, beautiful piece by Asa Chang and Junray called "A last flower". Even without watching the anime itself, i highly recommend seeking it out on youtube. The version used in the end credits is disturbing indeed. And in the climax of ep7, it reverts to the original recording, complimenting the (suddenly) beautiful animation perfectly. Ep7 ends in a romantic scene, indeed.
Tolerance of the rotoscoping, is down to the individual. This is not film studio quality rotoscoping, a'la Ralph Bakshi. This is animated on a TV budget. Frames dropped, giving it a very odd look at first. If you can stomach the somewhat choppy animation for three episodes, it won't even register after that. The vitriol aimed at the animation style, is usually over the top knee-jerk reaction by anime fans who are angry that the character models are not 'Moe' enough for their liking. Odd, given that the original manga art is not at all like the generic lolita styled 'moe'. It's more akin to guro manga.
7 out of 10 ? Reason, for me, is the final episode climaxes in a nonsensical manner. Episodes 1 to 12 recreate the manga with flawless accuracy. The studio recreates the manga's first 21 chapters faithfully, up until the start of episode 13 and then shoe-horns the next 15 manga chapters into about a minute and a half at the very end, trying to create some kind of conclusion. The viewer is, of course, left baffled by what just happened, should they be unaware of the manga story itself. It's a terrible and cheaply rushed ending, abandoning everything it strives to achieve beforehand. It leaves a sour taste, as it appears to not be intentional, rather the director's hand has been forced. Such a shame. It builds up SO much tension, so much intrigue. All for literally nothing.
Is there no point in sitting though 13 episodes of drawn out, dreamlike slow drama, for no actual conclusion? Like many things in life, it's more about the journey than the destination. The atmosphere flesh crawling at times. Nakamura is an incredible character. You spend almost all of the time she is not on screen, waiting for her to return because of what might happen. The music and sound is beautiful. The Rotoscoping animation, whilst not at it's best, does actually create a disturbing parallel, alongside the sound. An impending sense of doom is created perfectly. The performances (assuming you're watching Japanese language) are superb.
Highly unlikely there will be a second season, especially anytime soon, due to it's poor reception. Like so many unique ideas, it has been shot down for no good reason, other than it doesn't sit well with the generic formula that floods this particular genre. It tries something new and the result is jarring.
The (admittedly sub-par) animation and forced ending detract absolutely NOTHING from the rest of this anime. It is refreshing to find an anime that wants to do something different and take it's time in doing so. A confirmed second season would influence a higher score, as i'd assume it'd continue the story concluding the main Nakamura arc, which gets even more crazy and disturbing. But it finishes with such a whimper, falling so short at the very end, sadly.
7 out of 10. Nakamura 10 out of 10.
score 7/10
dergo1976 9 May 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3015143/ |
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22-11-2019 12:13:31
