(L) Aku No Hana (Flowers of Evil)

[orion]

I broke down and watched the first episode. I was actually waiting for the CR version. I'm in the minority with this one. I loved the first episode.

I don't see a happy ending for this scenario. The escalating downfall of the MC is going to be delicious to watch.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Another change that I don't see getting any mention is that Nagahama changed the characters from middle-schoolers to high-schoolers (either that or they just made them look several years older and aren't saying anything about it) which I think significantly changes the dynamic (and not for the better). Given the nature of the content it doesn't surprise me, but it's still quite an important change.

Well the conversation those boys had about a certain person's genital area was definitely mature. Maybe they can do more animation wise with the theme if the characters are more mature. Middle schoolers having that conversation wouldn't be "accepted" by the public but high schoolers having that conversation would be expected.

[ninryu]

I don't hate the animation because it's realistic - I hate it because it's fucking ugly. Jin-roh is realistic. The Aku no Hana anime is just ugly.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Another change that I don't see getting any mention is that Nagahama changed the characters from middle-schoolers to high-schoolers (either that or they just made them look several years older and aren't saying anything about it) which I think significantly changes the dynamic (and not for the better). Given the nature of the content it doesn't surprise me, but it's still quite an important change.

I assumed they were in high school but I didn't realize they were supposed to be in middle school in the manga.

[orion]

Originally Posted by ninryu

I don't hate the animation because it's realistic - I hate it because it's fucking ugly. Jin-roh is realistic. The Aku no Hana anime is just ugly.

Well "reality" isn't pretty either. So far they are close to what a co-ed high school should be like. The cute girl even got a backhanded compliment when she did something good.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by orion

Well "reality" isn't pretty either. So far they are close to what a co-ed high school should be like. The cute girl even got a backhanded compliment when she did something good.

That's why we're watching anime .. I don't know about you but I'm not looking for realism let alone ugliness when watching anime. It was realistic for sure and it portrayed the people like they would in real life .. No super mega pretty girls and stuff but .. why would you exactly want to watch that? It's supposed to be entertainment, not poison for your eyes.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Dist

That's why we're watching anime .. I don't know about you but I'm not looking for realism let alone ugliness when watching anime. It was realistic for sure and it portrayed the people like they would in real life .. No super mega pretty girls and stuff but .. why would you exactly want to watch that? It's supposed to be entertainment, not poison for your eyes.

I watch realistic animation to balance my viewing diet and broaden my horizon. Sometimes certain themes are better expressed in different ways than the popular animation style. And different styles can also be entertaining. For example, I'm also salivating for the new Captain Harlock movie (CG animation).

I do realize that the popular animation style is popular for escapism reasons on the viewer. My loving this does not negate the views of those that don't.

[Dr. Casey]

lol at avoid like the plague, buttshit-insane, and the horror tags

I haven't watched this anime yet.

[DorkingtonPugsly]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

Since the manga is a freaky psychological horror story, I'd say the animators have succeeded brilliantly.

I actually tried out the manga and I'm 17 chapters in and liking it a lot. It's very dark but it's the kind of dark I like and is interesting to read.
Finally watched the episode as well but it just isn't for me. I'll stick to the manga and I guess that's that.

[Folenfant]

I think what stood out to me was how dull the pace of the premiere and the art style made things. Not much happened to get me into any sort of mood be it creeped out or whatever. Also the animation style gets a lot of attention but the voice acting stood out to me as particularly poor, especially the MC. Lots of awkwardly inflected seemingly mistimed muttering that was barely audible at times. I'm curious to see if and how he handles any dramatic scenes where he has to emote.

[ThereminVox]

It's a real shame that the character animation falls into the uncanny valley so often, because some of the backgrounds and scenery look amazing.

It seems to me though that if you're going to make a stylistic choice, you need to have a vision of what the style is going to be, and then stick with it. The choice of technique may be bold, but someone needs to direct that vision into a consistent style so that it doesn't feel like it's popping in and out of different visual spaces.

[frubam]

Geh, I can't wait for next week so that I can stop reading comments about how bad the faces look =02. I mean, I understand, but it gets old. Fast >=0\.

[Athena]

The manga is fine...but this art...no thank you.

[omimon]

Originally Posted by frubam

Geh, I can't wait for next week so that I can stop reading comments about how bad the faces look =02. I mean, I understand, but it gets old. Fast >=0\.

Unless the art for episode 2 is even worse. The first episode always get the highest budget.

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by Dist

That's why we're watching anime .. I don't know about you but I'm not looking for realism let alone ugliness when watching anime. It was realistic for sure and it portrayed the people like they would in real life .. No super mega pretty girls and stuff but .. why would you exactly want to watch that? It's supposed to be entertainment, not poison for your eyes.

I watch anime for screwed up characters, philosophical discussions and endings that don't make sense. But then, I grew up at a time when anime in the West pretty much meant Akira and Vampire Hunter D.

[Bombo]

the art of the animation is killing me.. they ruined my favorite manga with this art.. BUT I will watch it against my will. ��

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Bombo

the animation is killing me.. they ruined my favorite manga with this art.. BUT I will watch it against my will.

Wow, someone even willing to be a masochist for this anime. It must be an incredible debut!

I might give this a shot myself .

[Option01]

As someone who has read the entire released manga series, I think a lot of the design decisions that people are complaining about make sense when you consider the themes of the story.

Aku No Hana is about 3 kids who go a little insane due to the futility of their attempts to reject/escape the mundane monotony of their world. Let me repeat that: Their world is monotonous and mundane

Now think about traditional anime. Whether it’s “bright and shiny” or “dark and gritty,” the vast majority of anime is unrealistically stylized to look appealing or at the very least, interesting. Traditional anime styles make the world look appealing and interesting. Thus, it would be difficult to understand characters who hate their monotonous and mundane world when the viewer sees their world depicted as appealing and interesting.

Similarly, I think the lack of faces/expressions on any of the people who are not immediately “in the viewer’s face” helps to convey the “facelessness” of the society around the main characters who are essentially sick of the fake, superficial, mindless drones and sheeple surrounding them.

While I do not think it is pretty or high-quality, I do think the animation style does a better job of conveying the themes of the story better than traditional anime styles ever could.

[SquirrelLuvsPnut]

Now that I have had a chance to cool off I can think about this whole thing objectively. The whole business kind of reminds me of Duchamp submitting a urinal as a piece of art. People were disgusted and upset, but that was the reaction he wanted. I think I can respect the studio for wanting to break the mold of tradition, but I still don't like it.

[DXMichael]

Woah, what unique and different animation, can't say I really like it though

This anime is going to be hard to watch, not just because of the animation. [mod edit: removed allusions to the manga]

[Reckoner]

OK. I'm sick of people defending this as a positive creative choice for the manga, so I'm going to explain exactly why I think it actually detracts and distracts.

Part of the reason why I felt the manga often felt disturbing is because it was the breaking down of a normal reality. When you see the creepy things happen in the manga, it is in clear contrast with the environment they are around. When you look at a character like Saeki, she really appears as the school's idol. Here in the anime she is both the school idol and a hideous ogre (Sorry, she doesn't look realistic at all, but her design lacks detail and she looks unrealistic), which for me creates a cognitive dissonance. Now I'm not thinking anymore about if these visuals are complimenting the work, but the fact that they are not even visually communicating the story properly. It is simply ludicrous for me to believe what is actually being said here.

I think this is going to create even more issues down the line, and overall less impact than the manga because of things like these. It's one thing to make a world feel disturbing that is supposed to look normal, but to create an environment that looks unrealistically ugly, is just distracting. I don't feel unsettled by the visuals in the sense that the manga's storyline felt unsettling. I feel angry because what I am seeing onscreen looks divorced from reality and is distorted. When characters are constantly changing shape like blobs and moving in a really janky manner, it feels more surreal than anything. The anime can no longer break down normal reality for its characters because what we are being shown isn't normal. It's just disorienting.

The scene towards the end with Nakamura shows the worst of it. In the manga you have some sort of typical everyday scene, and it looks really normal and routine. Then suddenly you have a student say something like that ? That's what makes that scene so striking and impactful. It's the sudden, "wait a minute, did she really just say that?" In the anime it just felt like a natural extension of the ugly world we're being shown. In the anime it feels like anything goes because everything is already so weird. In the manga, it felt unnatural and unsettling. For me this is a huge difference in how the stories felt to me, and that's just half a manga chapter or so.

So for me this work is cheap and shoddy, and actually tells the story worse than its manga counterpart. The director screwed up, plain and simple. This isn't even factoring in things like the bad pacing, or the terrible voice acting (Lots of first timers here).