EPTIn fact, it's been a while since I read manga at all.
Too many manga out there filled by fan service, violence or repeated themes (hero vs evil or struggling or romance) and it sort of killed my interest in manga after all these years.
So I was extremely surprised when I started reading this manga purely because of the title, Aku no hana (Flower of evil) and couldn't sleep until I finished it.
Unlike other mangas, there is little violence, over the top scenes or sex appeals.
What keeps you interested is how realistic and relate-able it is:
Do you remember the years when you gained clarity in life and see that you are trapped in with everyone, stuck doing the same thing in the same places forever?
Made you realise you have to do something to escape from the contamination of the world?
This manga will bring you back to those years and show you what would happen if you gave into the evilness.
Instead of walking in the middle ground of choosing what's right and wrong, you walked the dangerous path.
One that you acknowledge evil is part of you and to stay true to yourself and trying to not be assimilated into the disgusting world.
In other words, this manga is dedicated to those who glanced into darkness too often too much.
But at the same time, it also asks if we ourselves have just been assimilated into the world as we have once feared.
This being said, it is entirely my interpretation. To some, it is probably just a dark slice of life style manga.
The plot also has some parts which are quite open to interpretation.
Netherless, I am sure it will get you thinking even well after you finish it.
Rating: 9/10
Suitable for:
Young Adult and older
Readers who love dark sources
P.S. If anyone likes otsuichi novel, you probably will like this manga. It is similar but darker. (dark otsuichi style as Taiwanese and Japanese would label it)
Unrelated photography update
+ Show Spoiler +
~Photography~
I think my progress is slowly halting, which isn't a surprise because I have the basic exposure learnt down to heart pretty early on.
The difficult part, art, is much harder to 'get' and there is no quantifiable measurement to say hey i improved.
https://kingdras.imgur.com/all/
To get the fun back into photography, I recently bought an old fashion TLR camera.
It is basically the cheapest way to get into medium format photography and at the same time let me try out film photography.
So why is there two lens on a TLR system?
Basically the top lens is a non functioning lens, except for viewing and focusing.
You cannot adjust anything on the top lens, what it does is that it helps you to focus. It has the fixed large aperture which means the image that is and is not in focus can be identified clearly.
My first roll of film however turns out mostly out of focused. It probably is because the taking lens (the lens that actually captures the image) is at the bottom and therefore if you have camera tilt up/down, the focus won't be quite correct.
It's challenging and fun to use.
The only downside is the long time development from shop and it is pretty expensive.
I think my progress is slowly halting, which isn't a surprise because I have the basic exposure learnt down to heart pretty early on.
The difficult part, art, is much harder to 'get' and there is no quantifiable measurement to say hey i improved.
https://kingdras.imgur.com/all/
To get the fun back into photography, I recently bought an old fashion TLR camera.
It is basically the cheapest way to get into medium format photography and at the same time let me try out film photography.
So why is there two lens on a TLR system?
Basically the top lens is a non functioning lens, except for viewing and focusing.
You cannot adjust anything on the top lens, what it does is that it helps you to focus. It has the fixed large aperture which means the image that is and is not in focus can be identified clearly.
My first roll of film however turns out mostly out of focused. It probably is because the taking lens (the lens that actually captures the image) is at the bottom and therefore if you have camera tilt up/down, the focus won't be quite correct.
It's challenging and fun to use.
The only downside is the long time development from shop and it is pretty expensive.
