The Flowers of Evil - Vol. 11 Ch. 57 - What Our Hearts Consists Of...
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wow
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I've just finished this and wow... classic status
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Soooo... the previous chapter was the real end and this was a look into Sawa's mental illness that started this whole ride?
Not saying its terrible or anything, just not what I expected. I feel like I'm about to get a phone call with someone on other end whose going say, "7 days" after reading this chapter just now.
Not saying its terrible or anything, just not what I expected. I feel like I'm about to get a phone call with someone on other end whose going say, "7 days" after reading this chapter just now.
Quite frustrated by the few last pages/panels...
I get the idea behind and the whole thing and checked beforehand to be sure. Still, i have some questions...
Since Sawa see everyone as a dark-flame-shadow thing, the only face she saw was Kasuga in the classroom, ok.
How was she able to know that was Kasuga here...? I mean... for her in her PoV, it was just a random dark-flame-shadow coming back to the class... No indication or whatever for her, no?
Same thing, Sawa seems to be eaten or consumed and turned into <something>, what is that something? Another dark-flame-shadow? Make no sense to me, and yet at that point, Kasuga on his bicycle is not a trigger here.
Does she able to see anyone clearly now, or just Kasuga.
I really loved the whole Sawa PoV thing, but the last pages put more questions than anything else.
I get the idea behind and the whole thing and checked beforehand to be sure. Still, i have some questions...
Since Sawa see everyone as a dark-flame-shadow thing, the only face she saw was Kasuga in the classroom, ok.
How was she able to know that was Kasuga here...? I mean... for her in her PoV, it was just a random dark-flame-shadow coming back to the class... No indication or whatever for her, no?
Same thing, Sawa seems to be eaten or consumed and turned into <something>, what is that something? Another dark-flame-shadow? Make no sense to me, and yet at that point, Kasuga on his bicycle is not a trigger here.
Does she able to see anyone clearly now, or just Kasuga.
I really loved the whole Sawa PoV thing, but the last pages put more questions than anything else.
Nakamura was a deviant living in a world that looked completely filthy to her. I'm assuming the perspective was because everyone around her confined themselves to social norms and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens. From her POV, there was no point in acknowledging the identity of anyone because they were only fulfilling a role in a stagnant society. In a way, they're also all being fake (to appear socially acceptable) and controlled by a system (school, small town politics etc). As a result, people are all dark matter to her because they may as well be simulations of humanity. As someone who understood herself to be unique in comparison, this also made her feel like an outlier, hence a deviant. A person who deviated from society. And the only deviant living in her world.
Then Kasuga swung by and perv-ed on Nanako's clothes, which Nakamura witnessed. It made her realise that she was not the only pervert/deviant in existence. It was also why Kasuga's face became apparent to Nakamura: Curiousity about what he felt while perving out, and perhaps to acknowledge his facial identity as well.
The black stuff crawled across her skin and nearly consumed her into another form of black matter. My conjecture is that she ran out of energy to be 'herself', as it would be infinitely easier if she was able to play her part as an 'average student'. In exchange, however, her sense of self as a deviant would be severely compromised or lost. She was about to fall into despair and 'die', when Kasuga arrived. Spotting a fellow deviant made her grab onto Kasuga for survival, or at least till she can die as a deviant instead of living as a puppet to society.
As for what she had become in the end...... Still a deviant, imo. Though because she's no longer a student (a role forced upon her) and no longer forced into social situations around other students and teachers, maybe she found peace. It's probably way easier to relive the same days over and over again when she's living in a more beautiful small town and away from the oppression she felt as an obvious deviant
When Kasuga asked Nakamura if she had become normal, I felt it so much when she turned her eyes upwards into flowers of evil. Though the scuffle with him and Tokiwa probably gave Nakamura some closure
Then Kasuga swung by and perv-ed on Nanako's clothes, which Nakamura witnessed. It made her realise that she was not the only pervert/deviant in existence. It was also why Kasuga's face became apparent to Nakamura: Curiousity about what he felt while perving out, and perhaps to acknowledge his facial identity as well.
The black stuff crawled across her skin and nearly consumed her into another form of black matter. My conjecture is that she ran out of energy to be 'herself', as it would be infinitely easier if she was able to play her part as an 'average student'. In exchange, however, her sense of self as a deviant would be severely compromised or lost. She was about to fall into despair and 'die', when Kasuga arrived. Spotting a fellow deviant made her grab onto Kasuga for survival, or at least till she can die as a deviant instead of living as a puppet to society.
As for what she had become in the end...... Still a deviant, imo. Though because she's no longer a student (a role forced upon her) and no longer forced into social situations around other students and teachers, maybe she found peace. It's probably way easier to relive the same days over and over again when she's living in a more beautiful small town and away from the oppression she felt as an obvious deviant
When Kasuga asked Nakamura if she had become normal, I felt it so much when she turned her eyes upwards into flowers of evil. Though the scuffle with him and Tokiwa probably gave Nakamura some closure
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Part of me wondered "is this a depiction of her mental illness?" before realizing "Duh. You think that a kid who causally treats everybody around her like garbage, hangs out alone, talks about super creepy stuff with the guy under her thumb, and then tried to kill herself on live television wasn't more than a little fucked in the head?"
It really puts stuff in perspective, though. She couldn't stand the rest of society and felt alone until she saw Kasuga sticking his face in Saeki's duds. Seeing somebody be their more honest self when nobody else was looking was what gave her hope. It's even more telling when she sees herself being "consumed" by the darkness that's taken over everyone else, just for it to recede when she saw the same pervert from earlier. She felt afraid of becoming "fake" or "less like herself", like the people around her.
Then we put "But I was also a shit eater" in perspective. Even at the height of her and Takao's madness, she managed to acknowledge that she wasn't really all that different from everyone else; all she did was look the other way while still living "in this town". In that society. It's a good realization, even if her solution to the problem at that time was to kill herself. Once she got some more time to cool down and live in someplace that wasn't Gunma, she seems to have accepted being part of society. She is still alone in the sense that she doesn't seem to have "found love" unlike Takao with Aya or Saeki with her rando, but the final dream showed her interacting with others in the restaurant with an honest but not unkind or disgusted half-smile. She definitely doesn't appear to be regarding them as hideous creatures. She's healed.
The events of Part 1 were just as important for her as they were for Kasuga. Even if it was through blackmail and driving him deeper into corruption, she made her first genuine connection with him. Friends, of sorts, albeit very odd ones. (In fact, it's not very unlikely that she might have viewed him as somebody she was in love with, considering some of her actions and reactions to things involving him. One of the most telling was Saeki's comment that Nakamura was shaking after learning that Saeki and Kasuga had sex. Somebody who was "just a friend" would not have been that upset by learning that.) The strength of their bond seems to culminate in her decision to push him off the stage on the night of the festival. It could not have been a selfish decision. She was about to die, as far as she knew, and had nothing to gain from preventing him from dying alongside her. As such, it had to be for his sake. It could have been repentance for dragging him that deep with her. It could have been an action born from the hope that he might be able to live a happy life. It could have just been that she didn't want him to die. But there's no mistake that the push was for Kasuga's sake, and she did it for his sake because she was the only person she had a genuine connection with. That connection was built throughout the entirety of Part 1, and while she is absent for the majority of Part 2, it was probably that connection that enabled her to better connect with others later. (Considering her mother thanks Kasuga once she learns who he is, even right before she asks him to leave, I think that her mother is also aware of the role he played to enable Nakamura forging her first real connection with another person.)
In the Chapter 1 redux, we see Nakamura feeling disgusted with the society around her, feeling alone in the world, and feeling like what's consuming the world is consuming her. Chapter 1 shows us her witnessing of Kasuga's perversion and the realization that there might "be another like her". We see them become more connected, even if partially toxically so. At the night of the festival, we watch her acknowledge that for all her problems with the world, she wasn't really all that different. At the meeting at the restaurant and then at the beach, we see her considerably more at peace with herself and not actively treating others like garbage - even if she does snap back in response to Kasuga's sudden actions. In her last appearance in the present, we see her clearly relieved that Kasuga is going out with Tokiwa and tell him not to come back "because he's a normal person". She doesn't say this with disgust, but with a sense of bittersweet contentment. The care that she came to feel for him has remained within her and manifested as a wish for him to live as happy of a life as he can, with somebody who has clearly been a positive influence on him. Then in the final vision, we see her living normally, on amicable terms with people around her, clearly loving towards her parents, and - while still walking alone to a degree, because she will always be herself - able to function in society and continue forward.
I think that part of why she also told Kasuga not to come back would be because even if they did become fond of each other, their relationship was basically founded on abuse. So while she welcomed it as a kid who just wanted somebody like her around, she tells him not to come back because she's more aware of how wrong it was and doesn't want him to keep himself in the past. She severs his last ties to the past herself.
If it wasn't obvious by now, Nakamura is easily the most intriguing character in the story to me, even if Kasuga has much better fleshed out development.
It really puts stuff in perspective, though. She couldn't stand the rest of society and felt alone until she saw Kasuga sticking his face in Saeki's duds. Seeing somebody be their more honest self when nobody else was looking was what gave her hope. It's even more telling when she sees herself being "consumed" by the darkness that's taken over everyone else, just for it to recede when she saw the same pervert from earlier. She felt afraid of becoming "fake" or "less like herself", like the people around her.
Then we put "But I was also a shit eater" in perspective. Even at the height of her and Takao's madness, she managed to acknowledge that she wasn't really all that different from everyone else; all she did was look the other way while still living "in this town". In that society. It's a good realization, even if her solution to the problem at that time was to kill herself. Once she got some more time to cool down and live in someplace that wasn't Gunma, she seems to have accepted being part of society. She is still alone in the sense that she doesn't seem to have "found love" unlike Takao with Aya or Saeki with her rando, but the final dream showed her interacting with others in the restaurant with an honest but not unkind or disgusted half-smile. She definitely doesn't appear to be regarding them as hideous creatures. She's healed.
The events of Part 1 were just as important for her as they were for Kasuga. Even if it was through blackmail and driving him deeper into corruption, she made her first genuine connection with him. Friends, of sorts, albeit very odd ones. (In fact, it's not very unlikely that she might have viewed him as somebody she was in love with, considering some of her actions and reactions to things involving him. One of the most telling was Saeki's comment that Nakamura was shaking after learning that Saeki and Kasuga had sex. Somebody who was "just a friend" would not have been that upset by learning that.) The strength of their bond seems to culminate in her decision to push him off the stage on the night of the festival. It could not have been a selfish decision. She was about to die, as far as she knew, and had nothing to gain from preventing him from dying alongside her. As such, it had to be for his sake. It could have been repentance for dragging him that deep with her. It could have been an action born from the hope that he might be able to live a happy life. It could have just been that she didn't want him to die. But there's no mistake that the push was for Kasuga's sake, and she did it for his sake because she was the only person she had a genuine connection with. That connection was built throughout the entirety of Part 1, and while she is absent for the majority of Part 2, it was probably that connection that enabled her to better connect with others later. (Considering her mother thanks Kasuga once she learns who he is, even right before she asks him to leave, I think that her mother is also aware of the role he played to enable Nakamura forging her first real connection with another person.)
In the Chapter 1 redux, we see Nakamura feeling disgusted with the society around her, feeling alone in the world, and feeling like what's consuming the world is consuming her. Chapter 1 shows us her witnessing of Kasuga's perversion and the realization that there might "be another like her". We see them become more connected, even if partially toxically so. At the night of the festival, we watch her acknowledge that for all her problems with the world, she wasn't really all that different. At the meeting at the restaurant and then at the beach, we see her considerably more at peace with herself and not actively treating others like garbage - even if she does snap back in response to Kasuga's sudden actions. In her last appearance in the present, we see her clearly relieved that Kasuga is going out with Tokiwa and tell him not to come back "because he's a normal person". She doesn't say this with disgust, but with a sense of bittersweet contentment. The care that she came to feel for him has remained within her and manifested as a wish for him to live as happy of a life as he can, with somebody who has clearly been a positive influence on him. Then in the final vision, we see her living normally, on amicable terms with people around her, clearly loving towards her parents, and - while still walking alone to a degree, because she will always be herself - able to function in society and continue forward.
I think that part of why she also told Kasuga not to come back would be because even if they did become fond of each other, their relationship was basically founded on abuse. So while she welcomed it as a kid who just wanted somebody like her around, she tells him not to come back because she's more aware of how wrong it was and doesn't want him to keep himself in the past. She severs his last ties to the past herself.
If it wasn't obvious by now, Nakamura is easily the most intriguing character in the story to me, even if Kasuga has much better fleshed out development.
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God i loved this manga, i’ve been binging everything by Oshimi Shuzo since i found Chi No Wadachi recently, but this was the first series i was able to read to completion- and the ending was beautiful to me. I know this was posted like 2 years ago but if anyone wants to chat about this manga DM me （＾ν＾）
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10/10
ive read this 2 times and its still a masterpiece. every chapter always gave me a sense of warmth and discomfort , its horrifying yet calming; i love it.
Nothing can replace this manga, aku no hana has a special place in my heart. i'l definitely buy the physical manga when i have the chance.
ive read this 2 times and its still a masterpiece. every chapter always gave me a sense of warmth and discomfort , its horrifying yet calming; i love it.
Nothing can replace this manga, aku no hana has a special place in my heart. i'l definitely buy the physical manga when i have the chance.
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To that dude who recomended this on the Oyasumi Punpun comments... thank you.
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@madsweeney Hard-hitting, but not as depressing as Punpun, huh?
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@Thuglas Not even close but this MC is also nicer than Punpun who kinda try to rape a girl and kill Aiko. But it's still kinda sad seeing how Sawa ended, even if she has a quiet life now it doesn't feel like she find happiness and since she is an outcast (or pervert) that may never happen.
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Mod Note: Please use spoiler tags when talking about chapter-specific or future events.Fed-Kun's army
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@MadSweeney I actually think it was a pretty hopeful ending for Nakamura. She seems very much at peace. We see her both interacting with others casually and also walking around by herself. Between that and what her mother said, it seems that she's finally able to actually deal with herself being herself and can both function alone and in a group with no torment or insanity. She might not have won the Kasugabowl, but really, that was for the best. They cared a lot about each other, but their relationship was founded on abuse and she seemed to realize that, which is why she tells him not to come back after their final meeting.
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i wanted her to be with him, why this ending :c
guess it was already determined from the beginning, his personality would never meet Nakamura's, iguess even though a person can change a little in life it can't be fully transformed.
guess it was already determined from the beginning, his personality would never meet Nakamura's, iguess even though a person can change a little in life it can't be fully transformed.
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i just looked at the surface level and just assume she's just suffering from schizophrenia here and that she's finally taking her meds after all those years.
very rollercoaster reading but the dive wasn't as deep as i expected, everything went well for everyone, things connected and had it's conclusion.(except grandpa, and the boyfriend. he's probably still at the back of the cafe taking that break years later. i dont think anyone can ever recover from such a grandiose ntr attack)
very rollercoaster reading but the dive wasn't as deep as i expected, everything went well for everyone, things connected and had it's conclusion.(except grandpa, and the boyfriend. he's probably still at the back of the cafe taking that break years later. i dont think anyone can ever recover from such a grandiose ntr attack)
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I have no words
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i absolutely loved the slow progression of the art style in this manga
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