Aku no Hana – 08

Well, this happened. 

Ah, I have to leave the wonderful happy feelings that I’ve been getting from immersing myself in the shoujo genre the past week and come back to… this. Though I guess this has been a high point for Aku no Hana. …But you just know it’s not going to last.

The creators knew just how damn good the last scene of episode 7 was and felt like showing it again at the beginning of episode 8. Putting that scene here again, it kind of felt like they were saying “look at how awesome this is” as opposed to it having that much meaning to it. Though it did kind of bring back those feelings that happened at the end of episode 7, which made what came after flow nicely. I mean, watching Kasuga and Nakamura walk slowly isn’t anything special. Watching them walk slowly after watching the scene where they trash the classroom means something. You just know that they’re still enjoying the feelings they had before and don’t want to come back to reality just yet. …Or perhaps Kasuga isn’t enjoying the feeling quite as much as Nakamura would be, but he probably doesn’t want to come back to reality either. As thoughtful as it was though, that one scene did seem to go on a really long. There is only so much walking I can sit through before fast forwarding the episode.

So yeah, Kasuga has made his decision now and he’s pretty much condemned himself. However, unlike his freak outs before, Kasuga takes this reality pretty calmly. He goes to school instead of running away and keeps pushing forward with a kind of grim acceptance. If the background music (and that scenario in his head) is any indication, he definitely feels anxiety, but he doesn’t try to avoid going to see the aftermath. …Or at least he doesn’t until he actually gets to the school gates. It seems like forever ago that he had that conversation with Saeki, but I guess it was only the day before. It kind of looks like he’s matured (…if what he did can be counted as mature), but deep down, he’s still a coward. Luckily for Kasuga though, the class doesn’t really know that he did it. He did have to face reality, since Saeki seems to know that it’s him, but he  didn’t have to face the reality of his entire class judging him. He just have to live with the fact that he completely disappointed the one person who meant the most to him. …Which may or may not be worse. Nakamura seems pleased with him though for once, so there’s something.

Poor, poor Saeki though. Just after her boyfriend assures her that he’s not hiding anything, this happens. Not only was he the guy who stole her gym uniform, but he made a big spectacle of it too. Plus, he was involved with Nakamura, which is what Saeki feared. Maybe not to the extent Saeki thought he was involved with her, but the truth still has to hurt. Really, in trying to escape, Kasuga has hurt Saeki pretty badly instead. Her reaction to this should be interesting (provided the anime actually gets to the part I’m thinking of).

…It’s hard to talk at length about an episode when  half of it was devoted to watching two people walk places with zero dialogue. I mean, I got the point about after 3 scene changes. There really was no need for it to go on that long. Though I guess the episode ended off at a rather good place, so I’ll give that to the director. Anyways, Kasuga has made a choice, and I guess all that’s left is to go through with what comes afterwards. …Or maybe he can still pull himself out of this since he still seems to be regretting his actions. If he had really made a choice to become a pervert or whatever with Nakamura, he wouldn’t have tried to run away at the entrance like he did. So now he’s kind of part way between being normal with Saeki and being a social deviant with Nakamura. And yet, he’s not quite completely either. You could probably predict which ‘side’ he’s going to end up going to though, based on how the storyline has moved thus far. Anyways, looks like love triangle (ish) time next episode.

If Kasuga was more of a smooth operator, maybe he could make an OT3 happen. …Or maybe not. 

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.