While I was waiting for the Flowers of Evil manga to go on sale I picked up the anime to tide me over, and BOY, was I glad I did that! First of all, it LOOKS unique. There was a bunch of fuss about…
Aug 3, 2020 • Subscribe
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Flowers of Evil
By Andrew Osmond. Anime is often compared to live-action cinema. If so, Flowers of Evil is the cultish indy film, whose moody images sing with the torments of…
335 – The Flowers of Evil part 3
This week Seamus catches up on Vinland Saga,dakazu struggles to read Meisou Senshi Nagata Kabi Gurume de GO!, and we examine the new license announcements! Then we return…
336 – The Flowers of Evil part 4
On this episode we keep discuss the success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train and celebrate that Hajime No Ippo: The Fighting! is streaming…
333 – The Flowers of Evil part 2
This week Darfox and dakazu return to indie manga with Glaeolia 2! Also dakazu regrets returning to Saikin Kono Sekai wa Watashi dake no Mono ni Narimashita......! And…
332 – The Flowers of Evil part 1
On this episode dakazu revisits Toru Seino’s Sono ‘Okodawari’, Ore ni mo Kure yo to regale us with tales of wasteful book reading practices and Seino trolling an…
Rotoscope and You: The Flowers of Evil
The Flowers of Evil is one of those anime that creates powerful responses in people, and not all of them are good. For one thing, in tone and…
The Power of Three: Sankarea
The premise of “The Power of Three” series of posts is that we’re going to be looking at some kind of three-way relationship to see how it works.…
The Power of Three: Penguindrum
Penguindrum is one of those thing, like Wonder Egg Priority, that people have been recommending to me, like, forever. Really. Seriously. For ever. A Certain Retailer had two…
The Power of Three: Nana
Like a lot of media, not just anime, love of various sorts plays a large role in Nana. Well, it could hardly not, after all. You can call…
The Power of Three: Millennium Actress
Satoshi Kon was the original flim-flam man. Well, probably not. The original flim-flam man probably dates back to about five minutes after the invention of portable currency. If…
The Power of Three: Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is one of those things that’s so unique in construction that it’s hard to see the pieces it’s built out of. That’s one of the reasons…
The Power of Three: Tokyo Godfathers
The late Satoshi Kon was famous for playing sleight-of-hand with his characters. They were always existing at two or three different levels of reality or slipping around in…
The Power of Three: Steins;Gate
I was thinking about Steins;Gate for a different reason when I hit on why it works narratively. Because it shouldn’t, you know. Steins;Gate is really kind of a…
The Power of Three: Princess Jellyfish
I briefly ran out of reading material … no, that’s not quite right. You all know it’s been a rugged time for a lot of us and I…
Spiraken Manga Review Ep 193: The Flowers of Evil (or Good and Evil)
In This episode, May-san returns to finally review another manga. Due to some technical difficulties, we had to postpone Xan's Review til next episode but hope you enjoy…
The Power of Three Squared: Fruits Basket
Okay, I’ll be honest: Fruits Basket is not exactly in my wheelhouse in terms of what I want to see, right? I mean you take the rom-com thing…
The Power of Three: Amagi Brilliant Park
For REASONS (that I no longer remember), I keep thinking about Eternal Triangles, and it occurs to me that I’ve mentioned the degenerate form of the Eternal Triangle…
The Power of Three: Komi Can’t Communicate
Komi Can’t Communicate is one of those stories that chaps my ass when you get right down to it. You see Communication is my racket. I is a…
The Power of Three Minus One: Promare
The movie Promare came around a while ago and I missed it. I read the previews and said, “Meh. Mechas,” which is about what I say about any…
The Power of Three: Welcome Back, Alice
I’ve made my appreciation for the work of Shuzo Oshimi very plain at times. Oshimi is the magaka behind The Flowers of Evil, Inside Mari, and Blood on…
The Power of Three: A Silent Voice
One of the nice things about A Silent Voice is that it’s about kids growing up, and it treats the kids honestly as characters in that it lets…
The Power of Three: Carole and Tuesday
Elsewhere I’ve written about the way Shinichiro Watanabe treats female characters, which is to say for the most part much more fairly than most anime writers and directors.…
Flowers of Evil (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing
Shūzō Oshimi’s Flowers of Evil was adapted into a rotoscoped anime a decade ago, but now it’s back in print in the UK and on Blu-ray by Anime…
The Performance of Power: The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Power is one of those topics that pops up over and over in writing and in life. For instance, power underlies a lot of the relationship stuff I’ve…
The Power of Three: Ghost in the Shell
Okay, we all know who the most interesting character in Ghost in the Shell is, and it’s the Major, Motoko Kusanagi. She has the choice between her human…
The Power of Three: Darling in the Franxx
Everyone loves a good mecha story. Well, at least the manga/anime target audience – slightly-nerdy teen-aged Japanese boys – loves a good mecha story. Consequently, there are lots…
Evil Flowers and Messed Up Teenagers
I kept avoiding Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil) for years now because I usually like to stay away from over-hyped Shounen series (there are exceptions but…
How to Build a Story: The Flowers of Evil (Part II)
Okay, last week we left the Flowers of Evil kids in the pits, as Acts I and II of the five that comprise the story resolve the first…
How to Build a Story: The Flowers of Evil (Part I)
Sawa Nakamura her own self I waited until the complete The Flowers of Evil manga set went on sale before picking it up. I won’t say that was…
The Power of Three Minus One: The Dirty Pair
Scott over at Mechanical Anime Reviews has been going through The Dirty Pair recently, and I think he had the same goofy fun I had with it. So…
The Power of Three Minus One: Spy X Family
One of the things that gets me about Spy X Family is how layered it is. It operates at so many layers of reality in its fictional world…
Episode 81 – There Are Three Flowers In A Vase
Currently in an underground facility, we are planning a jail break as we cover chapters 530-532 of the Gintama manga. Download here Show Notes Japan’s Animation Blu-ray Disc…
Flowers of Grass
Takehiro Fukunaga’s 1954 novel Flowers of Grass is considered to be a classic of postwar Japanese fiction, and it’s the sort of book that I imagine many people…
Coffin of Flowers
YAMAMURA Misa (山村美紗, 1934-1996) was very popular in her day, but has probably faded of late. The last time I looked, few if any of her books...
Anime X-Change: Flowers of Evil is a Harsh Reminder to Real Life
They say anime has to be beautiful to get one’s attention. We are so caught up at the time where anything considered ugly will get hated. This isn’t…
The Power of Three Plus Two: O Maidens in Your Savage Season
When you’re dealing with characters in writing, I mean seriously, do I have to say this? The more you have, the harder it is to keep them straight.…
Attack On The Flowers of Originality
So, Aku no Hana. And it’s art style. It’s unique art style. The two major camps in the reactions to it, seem to be divided as either “it’s great…
The Power of Forgiveness
Turn the Page and Start a New Symphony
The Power of Trust
The Promised Neverland is an anime that discusses the idea of trust through its main characters, Emma, Norman, Ray, and Isabella. Here’s a whole video essay analyzing The…
The Mystery of the Evil Eye
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
The Evil Justice of Akudama Drive
Covering a season anime for the first time in a long time, let's discuss Akudama Drive with how it reflects certain cultural anxieties while also very much feeling…
Sword Art Online II, Ace Attorney, Akudama Drive, Hunter x Hunter, No Game, No Life
Saga of Tanya the Evil – the Movie –
The eastern front has reopened.
The Objective Power Of Animation
Animation is a powerful medium, but one that is often overlooked largely by hollywood and the broader world. Well, I think theres a good chance that may not…
The Power of Two: Nana
Man, I like Nana. It’s grown-up, right? Well, at least they try. The gimmick is that both main characters are named Nana, Nana Oosaki and Nana Kumatsu. They…
Urusei Yatsura – 34 – The Flowers of Pee-vil
As is the case with most Urusei Yatsura episodes, this one is split into two distinct parts. The first begins in media res with Onsen-sensei castigating Ataru, Lum, Shinobu,…
Pick of the Week: Cats, Brats and Flowers
SEAN: I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep up with it, given it’s over 20 volumes in Japan, but this week the appeal of Cheeky Brat really…
Flowers, Expectations, and the Perils of Interactive Fiction
I had a variety of subtopics in mind for my return to Flowers, and we’ll probably get to a few of them, but at the moment, I can…
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki #01 — The Language of Flowers
Is mostly yelling. Shikimori is one of those super-late airing shows. It's the last thing for today, but it may take a bit, even not accounting for…
The Three Legends of Lake Biwa
These three stories combine to create a single legend. I kept the original 1918 spellings and grammar. I find them charming and interesting examples of how language can…