Now that the initial controversy has subsided I finally feel able to form and voice an opinion on Aku no Hana. The art style didn’t put me off, surprisingly. I actually had reservations about whether the main characters would be so flawed and twisted that it would be impossible to form any sort of attachment to, or interest in, what happens to them. It is in fact a breath of fresh air due to its unusual approach, and is a textbook example of ‘grimly compelling’.
I also started following the graphic novel after learning that it’s currently ongoing, and it’s a fascinating piece of work. Thematically it reminds me a little of, as some other viewers have pointed out, Shunji Iwai’s All About Lily Chou-chou, plus Tetsuya Nakeshima’s Confessions but also a bit of Onani Master Kurosawa I think (only without the fapping). It’s a top-tier piece of suspenseful psychological character study that plunges a literary probe into the deepest recesses of its protagonists’ minds, and for this reason alone I’d recommend it.
The (anti-)hero at first comes across as harmlessly likeable if a little quiet; his foil clearly has some serious issues though, and I can’t wait to learn of her background. The heroine, on the other hand, is a strange one. Mainly because on the surface she’s anything but strange: she’s the stereotypical Prettiest And Nicest Girl In Class, and it’s only later that cracks start to show.
The characters of the Aku no Hana graphic novel look to me like they’re around fourteen or so due to the way that Oshimi draws them; in the anime, even behind the mask of rotoscoped ink, the actors look a couple of years older than this. Whether it’s my inability to judge the characters’ ages or an intentional choice of casting on the part of the TV production crew I don’t know, but the anime feels more mature, more serious and more edgy.
This is what Saeki looks like in the manga…
…and how she’s portrayed in the TV adaptation
As minor as this distinction might sound, think about how quickly we change during adolescence: in the space of two years your feelings, attitudes, sexuality and morality could make you feel and act like a slightly different person. Because the characters in the anime look more mature than their in-print counterparts, this impression colours how I view the production as a whole.
I like to see different versions of a story play to the differing strengths of their respective media: the first five episodes of the anime follow the manga pretty much scene for scene, but for all the fidelity to Oshimi’s storytelling it’s different in the presentation.The gritty realism means that it’s perfect for the transfer to TV, as Hiroshi Nagahama has proved…and if you doubt those credentials, remember how Detroit Metal City had a lot of character interaction involving toe-curling cringeworthy moments, and Mushishi succeeded in being both subtle and powerful without a single misstep.
The anime’s own effectiveness, above and beyond the manga’s own considerable emotional clout, comes from its unique atmosphere. The setting is in a run-down, boring small town that bears little resemblance to Tokyo’s futuristic cosmopolitan sheen, and this is depicted very well. The soundtrack is minimalist, going for a less-is-more approach kicking off with a batshit insane blackly comedic opening theme…which would I think make a fantastic choice in a drunken karaoke bar.
The background art really is something
Then there’s that weird ambient, experimental end tune that sounds like a World’s End Girlfriend song being played on a scratched CD that keeps skipping. Again, it’s a very good choice lyrically, but the slow-fast-slow vocal is very strange indeed and constantly tugs at you, preventing your brain reconciling the weirdness.
While I’m on the subject of weirdness: my own experience of the rotoscoping technique before this show was limited to the Richard Linklater movies Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. In both cases it’s used to shift the production away from the reality of live-action film: Waking Life deals with the surreal world of dreams while A Scanner Darkly tells a semi-autobiographical P K Dick story from the point of view of a protagonist who is under the influence of drugs.
Aku no Hana is taking a tale out of the world of the graphic novel and into a more ‘real’ one, so to me it’s trying to do the opposite of what Linklater intended to do. The end result when it hits out screens is still very similar though: the off-kilter effect is both real and surreal at the same time so our brains – which aren’t used to processing both live action and animation simultaneously – have a hard time pigeonholing it. The TV budget means the framerate isn’t as high as it perhaps ought to be, but I was susprised at how quickly I grew used to it.
If you think this is weird when taken out of context, it is even creepier in context
Adolescence is rough. Although I admit to having had a teenage crush on The Prettiest Girl In Class back in my days at school, nothing as mortifying as what happens to Takao, Nanako and Sawa ever happened to me (or any of my other classmates as far as I know). Even so, part of me finds the whole experience of Aku no Hana uncomfortable due to the second-hand embarrassment. My mid teens are half a lifetime ago but it’s painful to see them making fools of themselves because although the specifics are far stranger, the general setting and situation is universal to many of us.
Crucially though, this sort of tale is utterly, overwhelmingly gripping. The plot is like a car crash in slow motion, keenly observant and wonderfully executed. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Breaking Bad won’t end well either when it reaches its conclusion later this year, but that’s still cited as one of the best pieces of character-driven TV drama in years. I don’t know how far Aku no Hana will follow its broken people but as descents into the abyss go, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it done as well as this.