Flowers of Evil - Episode 7

The opportunity to meet Saeki in her own home might have been rather sullied by Nakamura's comments to Kasuga which sets his mind racing, but there's no escape now that Saeki's mother has answered the door.

If you're expecting Nanako to spout off a tear-filled explanation of why she was off school and how Kasuga was at fault for the whole thing however, think again - instead, she calmly asks Kasuga what he thinks a relationship should consist of while asking him if he's hiding anything from her.  Missing an opportunity to come clean on all or some of his misdemeanours up to this point, he insists that he has nothing to hide - something which Saeki duly expects.

All of this is enough to send her protagonist into another headspin, to the point where he begs for Nakamura to tell Saeki about the whole gym clothes incident so that he can "atone" for his sins.  Sensing this moment of weakness as an opportunity for some more enjoyment at Kasuga's expense, she insists that he meet her at midnight before leading him on a jaunt to their school classroom with a view towards making him admit to his deeds by way of a written confession on the blackboard.  This isn't exactly what Kasuga had in mind when he imagined freeing himself from his guilt, but after another manic rant from Nakamura it seems that her lunacy is rubbing off on him somewhat, and before we know it the pair of them are trashing the classroom in what can only be described as the throes of near-orgasmic delight.

Every time I think that Flowers of Evil has reached its high point, it raises the bar a little further, somehow managing to make the ever more insane goings-on feel natural and in keeping with its cast of characters, and even making you doubt your own sanity as you begin to detect threads of common sense in what Nakamura is saying at times as she berates Kasuga for looking for an idealistic escape from his guilt.  The entire thing remains fascinating to watch scene by scene, and by the end of the episode its final scenes stand as a perfect embodiment of the mixture of emotions which come from adolescence, be they emotional, sexual or some noxious blend of the two.