I wasn’t writing (yet) for OASG when I came across Flowers of Evil this spring. There are usually one or two shows every season that are so captivating that I can’t wait to acquire the newest episode and watch it as soon as possible. This spring there were two: besides this little gem, the other had to do with semi-intelligent giant towers of flesh that are fond of eating humans just for the heck of it. Having watched each episode, I looked through what different people would be writing about this series. Much to my surprise, the initially mixed reactions soon took a nosedive and after a few episodes practically everyone whose weblogs I had been reading wrote off this series as terrible, leaving me wondering why people weren’t appreciating it.
I think there are multiple aspects, multiple reasons why this series didn’t suit most peoples’ taste. The first reason is the unconventional animation method. Indeed, rotoscoping might not be a novel technique, but it’s rarely used in Japanese animation. The fact that it’s clearly visible that the characters are not animated by traditional techniques alienates the visual aspect of the show from the more mainstream anime series. The backgrounds are just like photographs, beautifully drawn. Water (or fluid) used to be hard to animate by hand, but recently CG or other techniques allow for quite lifelike representation of those. Contrary to most people, I liked that the animation was very realistic. It was so refreshing to see something different from the run-of-the-mill high school girl/boy face portrayed in your usual anime. Not just the hair color or the shape of the eyes was different, each character had their own facial features, just like real people. Similarly the voice actors performed their roles as if they were just talking – there was none of the usual high-pitched moe voice and other stuff which annoys me. I usually go for anime that provide “realism” in one sense or another (and this is why I have issues with Coppelion, but that’s another story); and Flowers of Evil was definitely off to a good start.
You don’t usually find faces in anime drawn like his…
…or her, for that matter.
The second problem with this anime is apparently that characters are often described as bland. It doesn’t help that it’s difficult to flesh out characters in a mere thirteen episodes – but it’s definitely not impossible to accomplish. The series opens with the one-sided crush of Takao on Nanako, the ace of his class. It goes without saying that apparently Nanako doesn’t even realize he exists. Takao thinks he’s so much better than the rest of his class, but in fact he’s no better, he’s just different. The girl usually referred to as the third person in the love triangle, Sawa, is not interested in him in a sort of romantic way. I wish I could disagree with most of what I read about the characters on the ‘net, but I can’t. Nanako’s character is not fleshed out enough, I think, to be really interesting; I understand why Takao’s conceited attitude irks most people and I concur he’s weak-willed (maybe a little bit too much), and Sawa seems just to be a sadist who enjoys destroying others’ real (or imaginary, it doesn’t really matter) happiness. The rest of the class are figureheads, they don’t have nearly enough screen time nor presence to be worth mentioning. But in the end it didn’t matter – the rest of the anime clearly made up for it.
The third – and apparently the most large – issue is the subject of the anime. I think that of emotional abuse, attachment, and helplessness was a very bold choice from the animation studio and applying unconventional animation techniques to underline it, to make it realistic was the correct choice on the director’s part. As the episodes show, things get quite nasty sometimes. What I think most people don’t get is that you have to accept that all three of the main cast are broken in some sense, however unrealistic this may sound. Once you accept this, all their subsequent actions become so much easier to digest, and it was so much easier to identify with them and feel for them. Maybe another reason why most of the people disliked Flowers of Evil is that everyone has different memories of compulsory education. Though Takao doesn’t seem to be a victim of abuse or bullying and as far as I can remember, I haven’t been either, somehow his sense of attachment towards Nanako hits me close to home. What would be a hideous or inexplicable act – stealing a girl’s underwear – is suddenly explained by his state of mind: he wants to be so close to her that he can’t help but take that piece of clothing home with him (not that I would do something like that were I in his shoes). I read some opinions that he wants to use the underwear to…well, do stuff that would earn a figure eighteen in a red circle in most countries, but I don’t think that’s the case here.
I think the reason why he initially accepts the unreasonable terms is that he’s too attached to Nanako and fears the potential fallout from having his acts revealed to the class. Later on he’s become so attached to Sawa that he can’t get loose from her anymore and even turns down Nanako when she confesses to him. They way I see this phenomenon is similar to the Stockholm syndrome – it doesn’t matter to him that Sawa hurts him, he becomes more and more attached. Maybe this overly helplessness and attachment is what resonates with me, and that’s why I liked this anime so much. I can’t feel about Sawa the same way though. Initially she’s tormenting Takao just for…well… fun, interpreted in her own way, but during the course of the thirteen episodes she can’t avoid changing as well. Contrary what we would believe, she also becomes attached to him. The problem is that this change is somewhat not so credible to me, but I can’t really put a finger to it. The least believable – to me at least – change was Nanako’s interest in Takao. She’s cute and all that, but girls like her don’t go for Takao’s type of guy. Again, everyone has different experiences on this matter – I only have mine which say her interest in him is a bit hard to believe in.
Only this anime can make destroying a classroom so exhilarating
So, ultimately, what made this series so enjoyable for me? Though the premise might seem far-fetched, both the execution and the subject were so realistic and fascinating that it just strung me along. It got me to think about attachment as a mysterious phenomenon and what impacts it has on our lives. The ending of episode thirteen hinted that Flowers of Evil would continue, though sales for this series in JP weren’t all too good, but if there is going to be a continuation of it, I’m very much looking forward to it.
