The Flowers of Evil

The timeskip turns the whole tone of the series upside down, instead of pretentious teenaged anarchy it goes all angsty.

And where the fuck is Nakamura?

Could you imagine the rage of those waiting for the "School Days" end if it just closes on Kasuga demolishing the flower for good?

Or the rage of nearly everyone if the manga simply ended with Tokiwa's boyfriend demolishing Kasuga's face.

So he embarrasses the boyfriend, she quits and he and her walks off into the night. Laughing. Chapter closes with something like "Both of them overcome their pasts and walk towards the future" (paraphrased). NOW if this goes back to the way the series had been, this should not bode well for our new couple. The boyfriend was not happy..this is going to go very bad Imho.

Err... what?? It is already? He confess and it's over, she breaks up suddenly with her boyfriend and they live happily ever after (I know, there are still a few chapters more)?

That was... eugh... uh... well... I didn't expect... that things would be so shockingly good... too much. Maybe later I comment, but indeed I was not expecting this. And it doesn't seem that this is going to have more plot: The boyfriend actually is not a bad guy, at first when he appeared he tried to react very calm, understanding and nice, although it was clear that he was suspecting about Kasuga and he was subconsciously unfriendly. After they broke up he was who apologized although in this case Tokiwa had fault as well, but he put his pride in his pocket and he wasn't hostil or made weird looks to Kasuga when he apologized with him. And EVEN with this the boyfriend reacting after they go out, he didn't look a vengeful bastard (who, in this case, I can comprehend somehow), if he was then he wouldn't have comment Tokiwa's sad face.

Let's see tomorrow if I can reorganize my mind about what happened and I expect from now on. But I'm not very pleased with this. Too perfect.

... Seriously? For real?

I wasn't expecting this either... Not at all.

Like Sormat said, it was too perfect. Kasuga arrived, confessed, made a number, told her several heartfelt words, cried and... and she cried too. And she accepted and she went with him. Just... like that.

I mean, sure, it wasn't a clear thing whether Tokiwa thought of Kasuga as a friend or maybe something else, but to do this she must have really felt a lot for our wimpy protagonist... was their connection really that strong? Suddenly I feel like I've been living a lie!

I too need to reorganize my thoughts, but I don't see this turning out all that well... Kasuga's family situation at home is very bad, not to mention that he still must be a wee bit fucked up somewhere inside... There's no way in hell this is ending without Nakamura having a decent part in it... right? No matter if she's present or is it's just as a thought of Kasuga's... she's got to have big relevance somehow, doesn't she?

Sure, I love Tokiwa. She's a wonderful person, fun, interesting, her personality reminds me of Kurosawa's Takigawa Magister in several ways, and I won't mind at all if by the end of this manga she's actually what we could consider the ''female lead''. But Nakamura is, or had been the heart and soul of this story since the beginning, long before Tokiwa was even a concept in the author's mind... Is she going to have the importance she deserves before this is over? It worries me.


If this story actually ends with a 'happy' ending instead of a fucking depressing one, I'll be very surprised - depends on the execution whether that's in a good or bad way. Tokiwa deserves to be happy, and Kasuga should have some rest now that he's finally pulling his shit together, but has Aku no Hana ever been the kind of tale to deliver to the characters what they deserve? Hell no, this manga is messed up, cruel and unfair, and it'll take a very well done finale to convince me that things are good turning out otherwise.

And what about Saeki? Will she get that much warranted kick in the teeth she deserves before all's said and done?!

Just kidding.

...and then they get hit by a truck and die.
Or Nakamura or Saeki appear out of nowhere and start to make Kasuga's life miserable again.
Or Kouji comes at them with a knife in each hand.
Damn it, Kasuga's not allowed to have a happy ending!
(Anyone else think the translation was a little...off?)

Perhaps Nakamura is gone. Not coming back. To be honest, and I understand that she was the heart and soul of the story pre-time skip, she was not the truly mentally disturbed one. Nakamura x Kasuga's shenanigans never rose above juvenile delinquency wrapped up in narcissism and teenaged pretentiousness. Counting out the "suicide pact" she was certainly venomous and nasty but I don't think they ever crossed the moral event horizon.

Saeki on the other hand committed at least 2 major felonies and she is in the same freaking area right now. She of the group is the most disturbed of them all and I just got a sinking feeling that she is going to go truly batshit insane..especially when she see's the new girl is a Nakamura expy.

Having no clue how they are going to end this, I just do not see it ending good at all for anyone and I fear Tokiwa is going to end up hurt the worst. Reading this chapter is telegraphing to me that they are not going to go with the happy end.

Oh god-damnit, Pretty Anon, stop suddenly translating everything I read.
Well, at least a group like Chibi Manga isn't translating it. And Doomed Dane wasn't that good at it anyway...

I'm starting to think there is a new triangle forming, with Saeki taking the place of Nakamura. That conversation in the diner made it quite clear she is no longer the sheltered or dependent object she once was and has done little to actually recover mentally. She is (rightfully) pissed at Kasuga but she went so far as to hope that Kasuga and Nakamura would have succeeded in burning themselves alive on national television. Then she goes on to ask if Kasuga was going to ruin the life of his proxy for Nakamura just like he did to her. She snapped and I have a feeling she is going to play the vengeful-ex role. Tokiwa even pointed out that Saeki's boyfriend resembles Kasuga. There are definitely lingering feelings and resentment coming from this broken girl, and she seems to want Kasuga to suffer for it. (And we may get more Saeki rape faces)

I'm having trouble trying to place Tokiwa and Kasuga, neither are particularly sheltered and Tokiwa really seems to mirror the old Kasuga to some extent. She does however have a large collection of novels and cannot seem to find an intellectual outlet with her current friends, which causes her to have to lock up a part of her when in their company. There does seem to be a recurrence of sorts of the mountain scene represented by Kasuga's proposal at the restaurant, so it makes me wonder if she will be the one to struggle between the "normal" life she thinks is more socially except-able, and her desire to liberate herself from the entrapments of conforming.

Since I find parallels between Nakamura's old role and Saeki's reappearance, Tokiwa may be a more realistic version of what Saeki was supposed to be to Kasuga (i.e. a developed 3 dimensional person and not an ideal), and Saeki will probably use Kasuga's past to attempt to destroy his new found happiness. Since Tokiwa seems to accept Kasuga in a similar way to the old Saeki this would give kasuga a chance at redemption, to learn from his mistakes and to truly understand the meaning of Charles Baudelaire's "Les fleurs du mal".

Alternatively he spectacularly screws this up as well and just as he loses it all, is reunited with a heavily medicated and "cured" Nakamura. They then live happily ever after where they can indulge in their most primal (albeit artificially repressed in Nakamura's case) urges. In this scenario Saeki probably ends up blowing up a train or jumping off a bridge, and after recovering from an emotional upheaval Tokiwa probably learns to balance what society expects of her and what she wants for herself.

Everything comes down to Saeki. She is the undeniable wild card in all of this.

Although I definitely think of Saeki's big involvement as a possibility like all of you do, it's also possible (if the manga is aiming for a less negative conclusion) that the most active part of Saeki's role ended after that conversation with Kasuga, which served to make him realize he had to change his old ways if he didn't want the same tragic story to repeat itself again. Saeki's words about making Tokiwa unhappy as well made him face the situation more seriously and find the resolve to change himself for good this time.

And that's when he smashed the Flower of Evil.




I don't know, perhaps I'm just being naively optimistic here. I have no problem with sad / depressing / fucked up endings, but I guess a part of me certainly wants Tokiwa to have a happy life (as for Kasuga, I feel ambivalent: he's done enough good and bad things to both deserve a great or a terrible outcome).

As I mentioned earlier, Kasuga's family situation is still pretty dire, and I don't doubt that's going to have at least some kind of negative effect in his relationship with Tokiwa.

If they went with sappy and happy ending, I would love it. And I too want to be optimistic about it. I guess the key is in the bildungsroman description of the story, and how does Baudelair ultimately get interpreted: Literally or figuratively.

And yes, his home situation is spiraling enough to be noteworthy.