Discussion on Aku no Hana – 01

Ah, yes. Aku no Hana. It’s one of my favorite manga. In fact, I remember when I made a post on the Haruhichan blog asking for someone to translate the manga. I was desperate. I wanted more Aku no Hana. I bet you could guess on how excited I was to learn that it was finally getting animated. This was finally going to be an anime that I could get excited about. However, we all know things don’t always go how we plan.

Sometimes they go even worse than you plan.

Look at that shot. Just look at it. Take it all in and just let it digest in your brain. They turned this:

into this:

You’re probably wondering why they would do such a thing. I mean, why would anyone do such a thing? That’s a legitimate screenshot that I took as I was writing this article. No one needs Photoshop to make it any worse than it actually is. However, I do understand what they were trying to go for when you read interviews with the director and the mangaka. Here’s the basic jist of it as found and translated by someone on the AnimeSuki forums.

After reading that, I figured it was just them trying to justify using such a shitty style. Let’s be honest here. They fucked up. I understand their idea of wanting to use Rotoscope. The mangaka figured this was the closest thing he could get to a live action and the idea was pretty damn cool. An anime all in Rotoscope? Who wouldn’t want to try something like that? However, it’s obvious they didn’t spend as much time or money as they should have. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty cool rotoscoped animations out there. Take the Cowboy Bebop: The Movie’s introduction. That was done using rotoscoping.

Now this is rotoscoping!

Let’s put it this way. I can fully understand WHY they wanted to use this style, but that doesn’t mean they SHOULD have used that style. I’d like to make a quick checklist on why this was a terrible idea.

1. Aku no Hana being a manga had a pretty distinctive and nice looking style. People were expecting a certain style. Changing the style so drastically was a shock to many fans.
2. Anime studios are notorious for having low budgets for developing anime. A lot of studios don’t want to put a lot of money into something if they’re unsure it’s going to make anything back. Aku no Hana just doesn’t have the kind of base to pump a lot of money into it.
3. Not only does the lack of money come into factor, but a lot of studios get pretty lazy when they animate. You hear a lot of complaints in QUALITY from certain studios due to laziness or a poor budget.

The idea of using rotoscope on a normal 13 episode anime is just disastrous. There’s no way they could have had the time, the money, or the talent they needed to pull this off and get a good looking anime. If they had more of the above, I’m sure the style would look a lot better. However, when your anime has no faces until they get closer to the viewer, you should know you fucked up.

>mfw I have no face.

The entire thing is basically a giant joke. In the earlier interview I mention, the mangaka actually says that he hopes that this anime will leave a scar on the viewers. He basically doesn’t care if it’s good or not, he just wants everyone to remember it. I’d have to say that he did a good job in that department with the decision to animate it like this. How could anyone forget a face like this?

It had been a while since we used this picture.

Let’s try and move away from the animation and talk about the OP which bothered the hell out of me. Just as I was getting immersed into the scenes that were around me I was suddenly pulled back into reality when that OP played. This was not something I was expecting. It completely ruined the immersion I had going and pretty much ruined the entire rest of the episode as I just couldn’t get immersed again. One person stated that this was the desired effect. It was to clash with everything that the anime had going. However, I just think it’s shit.

Even the OP happens to agree with my opinion.

Disregarding the OP and the animation, I would have to say that I did actually enjoy how faithful it was to the original manga. Some of the scenes were “perfectly” recreated and if it wasn’t for the jarring animation, the OP, and the rage I felt. I probably would have been really impressed with the first episode. It’s setting itself up like I would expect it to. However, I don’t think some of the scenes using this animation will actually live up to the manga. I think the way the manga looks can’t be properly translated using rotoscoping. Traditional animation or even possibly live action (which is what the mangaka originally wanted) would do a better job at conveying the same feeling the manga gave.

I just don’t think this scene is going to be as hot as it was in the manga.

Only time will actually tell if this will actually be a good anime or the blunder of the century. Personally? I give it a: THREE EPISODE RULE / 10. It’s too early to just declare it shit. I’d rather give it the benefit of the doubt and see if they can really pull it off and make it more interesting than it currently is. I would also urge all Aku no Hana fans to do that same.

At least this anime season will give me more of my qt Ayase. I’m taking solace in that.