Check out this rotoscoped hottie… err.
Recap: Kasuga’s classmates are shocked to hear he went on a date with Saeki. All seems bright for our protagonist, but Nakamura does not buy his “purely platonic” interest in Saeki one bit.
I am not used to covering good shows. In fact, I am not very good at writing positive commentaries about anything. When I praise something, things tend to run out of hand quite easily, eventually leading to a mess of literary references, nonsensical metaphors, silly analogies and pseudo-philosophy. The problem is that The Flowers of Evil is actually, honestly good. It is tense and thought provoking, like a probe drilling itself into mankind’s deepest Nietzschean– OH GOD DAMN.
Anyways, The Flowers of Evil seems to have neatly nestled itself in its slow pacing. That makes it a wholly different experience for me when compared to the manga, which I — fast reader as I am — often zipped through out of excitement of what would happen next. While I have completely lost any idea on at what point in the manga’s story the anime will decide to call it quits, going through the very beginnings of the tale at around thirty percent speed does give me the opportunity to empathize with the characters a bit more. Well, as far as empathizing with these sociopaths is actually possible.
For once, uncanny valley in this show is a good thing.
This episode picks up right where the last one left off in terms of theme, with Nakamura still scheming to rein Kasuga back in after his daring move on Saeki last week. Her attempts to keep him under her foot can be easily explained by a rather cartoonish sense of sadism, and while it is clear Nakamura does adore screwing our hero over, it also becomes more and more glaringly obvious that she is clinging to him and not letting go until he has confirmed that he is indeed a crazy deviant like her. Nakamura’s antics basically boil down to a looking for a soulmate. When she saw Kasuga stealing Saeki’s gym clothes, she thought him to be that kindred spirit. No matter if he actually is, she will do whatever she can to turn him into this legendary deviant she is looking for.
The easiest way for her to tear down Kasuga’s so-called “strictly platonic” affection for Saeki is at its core very simple. Because convincing him that his love for Saeki is merely lust is too hard even for her, she starts breaking down the ideal image of Saeki Kasuga has been building up for himself. Kasuga is slowly starting to get the hang of their dynamic, however, and it seems as if Nakamura is starting to underestimate him. What he is not aware of, though, is that Nakamura is no longer strictly focused on him alone. She has her aims on Saeki already. Her puppeteering has now shifted from a single to both sides of the romantic subplot, and as a result, we get to see Saeki play a much more active role from this episode onwards.
It’s already weird when people do this in traditionally animated anime.
It is once again evidence of the almost divine level of control Nakamura has over the show’s overall plot: Saeki will not start playing an active role until Nakamura accounts for her to do so. The further we delve into The Flowers of Evil, the more evident it becomes that this is not necessarily a story about love or lust, but one about a depressed boy desperately trying to escape his insecurities and guilt given flesh and seemingly unlimited power over the course of his life. With lots of swearing.
The Glorio Blog 
This episode made me wonder if Kasuga genuinely wishes to see Saeki as a platonic friend for the rest of his life if he could, or if he’s just sexually repressed and refuses to admit that Saeki is the object of his fantasies. Normally I’d be going with the latter simply because Kasuga’s a teenage boy, but in a series like this, who can really say for sure. In any case, I admit I was quite harsh on Aku no Hana’s pacing at first, with the first couple of episodes feeling really drawn out, but as you say it seems to have found its feet quite nicely now. The way I can tell I’ve just watched a good episode of this is when I found it almost painful to watch – the raw intensity of the show is definitely it’s strong suit.
Definitely. The ambiguity of Kasuga’s character is pretty hard to nail down, as you said. I think Kasuga is a romantic, in the strictest sense of the word. He takes refuge in poetry and literature, and very often muses about how he wants to escape this cruel world or exterminate his “ghosts”. That becomes a very recurrent theme in the manga at least.
Overall, I think Kasuga is obviously attracted to Saeki, but not in an overtly sexual kind of way. He has a very idealistic, romantic conviction of “love”. The tension between Nakamura and him stems from the fact that she thinks he is a massive pervert, while he tries to convince himself he isn’t. It remains to be seen if he’ll give in, or escape her taunts.