Maidens of the Kaleidoscope

~Beyond the Border~ => Sara's Audio-Visual Import-Overflow Retail => Topic started by: t0k on April 08, 2013, 01:53:27 AM

Title: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: t0k on April 08, 2013, 01:53:27 AM
Genres: Psychological, romance, high school, drama
Subs: Crunchyroll (http://www.crunchyroll.com/flowers-of-evil), Deadfish, gg

There's a new show out this season called Aku no Hana, Japanese for Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil). Why the French? This show takes its name from a French book by the legendary poet Charles Baudelaire. It's about a sensitive, quiet high school boy who likes poetry. Because there's only one episode out, I don't know enough to write a full description of it yet... but it's a very somber and melancholic show so far. And the perverted aspect:
the first episode ends with the main character stealing the gym clothes of the chick he has a crush on! Whoa, gross!

One interesting thing about the animation is that it's rotoscoped (traced over live film). This results in very beautiful backgrounds but very ugly characters. I think it was a great design decision on the producers' part because it results in an absolutely unique art style that really stands out from the kind of majority of high school romance animes, and the art direction also takes focus away from art so that the viewers can pay more attention to the story.
If you're needing an anime or two to pick up this season and want something a bit quirky and artsy, this is a show you should definitely pick up. I think it looks rather promising.
(http://ompldr.org/vaTB4Mg)
As you can see, the backgrounds are very detailed while the characters are rather simple.
(http://ompldr.org/vaTB4Mw)
Main character reading poetry in a bookstore
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: Jq1790 on April 08, 2013, 02:21:29 AM
Ah, the art style kind of reminds me a little bit of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.  Anyway, if I find out Crunchyroll has/gets it I might have to look into it.  Sounds interesting enough, if a little on the odd side.
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: ♛ Apher-Forte on April 08, 2013, 08:42:19 AM
Let me remind myself why I would like to watch an anime and not as I was reminded of : A Scanner Darkly. This is not a cartoon, this is not A Scanner Darkly. This is not genius, it is simply... no.
Genius worked against itself ZEXCS just... I dunno what happened. This isn't even about moeblobs vs realism anymore, there is too much of the latter on this that all ships crashed against an iceberg.
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: t0k on April 08, 2013, 07:58:19 PM
If there are interesting characters and good dialogue, does it really matter how the show looks? I think that aside from the story, the artist is also doing commentary on the medium. That in itself isn't a bad thing I think... there needs to be more anime that breaks the mold and takes on a life of its own. That's how I interpret it, anyway...

Another good rotoscoped film is Waking Life, have you seen it? Like this show, it's very surreal and thought-provoking.
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: ♛ Apher-Forte on April 08, 2013, 10:08:19 PM
My point still stands, I wasn't looking for realism in an anime, hence, this is not what I want from it, I want a faithful adaptation from the manga, which itself in a way describes a kind of ugly rom-com quite unlike your typical mold of harem shit - far from it in fact, it reminds me of stuff like NHK but darker. It was already great, adding this rotoscoping gig wasn't exactly necessary but it was ugly enough to detract the point of the show... so I guess... it cancelled itself in application.
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: t0k on April 09, 2013, 02:02:04 AM
That's an interesting perspective. I agree that the manga already has a great story and that the unique animation probably turned off a lot of potential fans, but while the art is polarizing, I think that the people who appreciate both the manga and the rotoscoping are going to get an even bigger pleasure out of this show than they could out of just about any other show this season, and the people who appreciate the rotoscoping are going to love it for the same reason probably 70% of viewers are going to hate it. In a way, it's like the anime staff is aiming to make this work obscure and underrated... maybe they don't feel that the story is meant for the general population so they deliberately make it seemingly inaccessible.

On an unrelated note, Crunchyroll is subbing this show (http://www.crunchyroll.com/flowers-of-evil). So anyone who enjoys watching anime subtitled legally is in luck!
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: akj on April 10, 2013, 06:55:49 PM
Quote from: ♛ 真・天夢音 - Shin Amamune-ryuu on April 08, 2013, 10:08:19 PM
NHK

3 magical letters that piqued my interest.

I do like the unconventional art style. It stands out for one.

Also, Waking Life was fun.
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: ♛ Apher-Forte on April 10, 2013, 08:18:16 PM
But I can give you just as many numbers of manga out there that follows the pretty girl makes life a living hell/heaven for a closet pervert. I would not want to link them here but think Ibitsu Okada Kazuto or Onani master kurosawa or Abnormal-kei Joshi , all of these follow the very pattern. But each of course has its own brilliance, how you consider it depend on your perspective, but of all of them I think I rather not see them rotoscoped.
said pattern:
1. the male/female protag (female in the case of Nana to Kaoru) must be a closet pervert of some kind, has never had any experience with the opposite sex, tend to be unsociable or has an awkward attitude, may or may not be a hugely popular person outside but is inside lonely - a classic dandere.

2. A male/female antagonist usually appears after an unlikely noticing by the former, normally the kid who doesn't talk much suddenly taking interest in the protag. He/she may or may not have weird fetishes and gets off at looking the protag tortured (usually mentally) by their antics, which they tend to blackmail them into it.

3. Cue the beautiful transfer student/permanent popular girl which the protag has a crush for, or in some cases, the weird unspoken fetish the protag has ie. dolls and an incredible dedication to his craft ie. making dakimakuras or some shit. This can be a trait of both the protag and antag, their common interest bridges them when things get a little too scuffed between.

4. Antag will use the crush as a bait for protag to do all kinds of bad things, eventually protag actually learns to enjoy all the horrible acts. 
Title: Re: [Anime] Aku no Hana - Poetry, perversion, and rotoscoping
Post by: t0k on April 15, 2013, 05:39:07 PM
Episode two just came out, the story's taken a pretty interesting turn... I'm really curious as to where it'll go. One thing that I like about this show is that it makes me feel very uncomfortable and squirm a lot for some reason. It seems like the debate over the art style is getting pretty fierce on some parts of the net, here's a pretty funny video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJz2WB3dF10) made about the anime community's reaction to the glorious art style.