Flowers of Evil - Episode 12

From the madness of his dreams, a shoot of common sense seems to have sprouted within Kasuga's mind as he finally begins to realise the toll that his actions have taken upon Nakamura.  It's something he realises needs to be rectified, and makes haste to do so... by writing an essay.

In another of those moments of adolescent naivety, Kasuga plans to simply give Nakamura the letter-cum-essay after school and be done with it, but of course Nakumura wants nothing more to do with him and simply ignores his attempts to hand her the note.  Even chasing down the street after her while reading the "essay" out loud doesn't help either - despite espousing a truth about how selfish he was in terms of his time previously spent with her, he remains completely blind to the selfish behaviour he's indulging in right then and there in an attempt to make himself feel better.

With this plan having failed, Kasuga instead heads off to Nakamura's house to leave the letter for her there, only to be greeted by and invited in by her father.  This leaves some awkward discussions to be had surrounding Kasuga's relationship with Sawa and the whereabouts of her mother, but their conversation does at least reveal that the Nakamura we see at school and in town is no different at home, right down to her decision to plaster the words "Keep out, shit-faces" on her bedroom door.  Of course, this is exactly the kind of thing that inevitably piques Kasuga's interest all the more...

Another slow-burner it might have been, but Flowers of Evil still continues to engagingly portray the follies of youth in a way that is simultaneously suitably dramatic and still easy to relate to for anyone with a memory of their teenage years - I'm intrigued to see where the series is planning to leave things, but I can only hope that it's a satisfying enough conclusion without having to rely on a second season which may never come.