Flowers of Evil, Volume 9

Recognized as one of the most engaging series in the world of shonen manga (stories with male protagonists), Flowers of Evil shuns the genre's otherworldly conventions to tell down-to-earth stories of the trials of young people as they stumble into love and sometimes back out again. This new-style romance comedy of rural teens centers on the lonely, bookish Takao's search for his own identity, under the influence of Charles Baudelaire's poetry classic Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). Bound by emotion and circumstance to the beautiful Nanako, the girl he desires, and the scheming Nakamura, the girl whose torments put him on the path to adulthood, Takao is also challenged to settle his differences with his parents. Flowers of Evil creator Shuzo Oshimi was recognized as one of the most gifted of the young generation of manga artists, and in 2001 received the Tetsuya Chiba award.

About the Author

At only 30 years of age, Shuzo Oshimi is already considered a seasoned veteran of the Japanese comics community. Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Award in 2001, Oshimi has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for a decade for major manga publishers such as Kodansha and Futabasha.Raised in the slow laid back hills of Gunma, in mid-eastern Japan, Oshimi wished to someday escape his community for bigger pastures. Living solely off of comics and books, he is a man of words and that shows in his very humanist stories. While he has drawn nine series in the past decade, Oshimi's star began to climb just recently in 2008 with the release of his first hit Drifting Net Cafe. This horror-themed homage to the legendary Kazuo Umezzu work, Drifting Classroom, was adapted into a live action series and propelled Oshimi onto an international stage. He would soon reach new heights in 2009 with his most recent series Flowers of Evil. In 2010 and 2011, the property quietly landed on numerous must read lists and has helped revitalize the shonen genre.

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