When talking about anime, most people will usually discuss the characters, voice actresses, opening/ending songs, and comparison to the main adaptation source. Other roles like the director or background music composer are clearly far less discussed. But what would anime fans say if they heard the name Aku no Hana? Many would probably throw it away quickly, remembering the rotoscoping adaptation style used that can be said to be visually disturbing, even though the story itself has potential.
I personally watched this anime after I got into post-rock/ambient, so my perspective was different. Despite the weird character designs, I found myself quite interested in the book references, the environmental atmosphere, and especially the music as a whole. Here, I’ll try to review the original soundtrack series composed by Fukasawa Hideyuki.
Fukasawa Hideyuki was born in Tokyo on November 30, 1970, and has long been involved in video games such as Gran Turismo 2, Onimusha 2, Street Fighter IV–V, as well as the visual novel Mahôtsukai no Yoru, and anime like Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot 1 – Wandering; Agateram plus Fate/Grand Order The Movie Divine Realm Of The Round Table: Camelot Paladin; Agateram. More recently, he also contributed to the donghua Tu Bian Ying Xiong X.
Aku no Hana Original Soundtrack “L’hymne du mal” was released on July 3, 2013 under the Starchild label and distributed by King Record Co., Ltd.. The main offering in this album is ambient, new age, and dark ambient, consisting of 16 tracks with a total duration of 71 minutes. Yup, the length per track is quite long compared to other anime original soundtracks.
The first interesting thing is the good ook placement through the melancholic cinematic violin and piano piece “Rusty Clouds,” leaving a good first impression for listeners. The second track creates a transition from ambient to a lineup of soundtrack/dark ambient at 01:25. Several standout instruments appear, like metallic sounds in the 8-minute track, “Premonition and Transformation,” then on “Full Moon and Plan,” and “Traces of Flowers.” There are also glitch sounds added, which are also included in the track “Shadow.”
Then there’s the thick double-bass or other bowed string sound in “Afterimage,” accompanying the xylophone notes. Meanwhile, “Season of Weeds” involves acoustic guitar and a kind of percussion instrument commonly used in zen/meditation music. I almost forgot the metal gamelan sounds that can be heard on the third track, “Takao Kasuga.” “Sawa Nakamura’s Outcry” is a bonus soundtrack track that features drum and bass in the middle section, making it the most contrasting part of the album.
In short, Fukasawa Hideyuki delivers dark, horror/thriller-style music that’s quite intense, even though the anime’s story itself isn’t as dark as Another or Corpse Party. From this, I realized that my initial impression back then was somewhat wrong. I used to think the soundtrack was fully ambient, but it turns out to lean more towards dark ambient.
So, which tracks are the best to my ears? Definitely those that lean more toward cinematic/new age.
Thus, the Aku no Hana Original Motion Soundtrack by Fukasawa Hideyuki is highly recommended for fans of Cryo Chamber, Rojinski, or for those who enjoy horror soundtracks like Silent Hill, The Ring, etc.
Best tracks: Rusty Clouds, The Flowers of Reverberation, Awareness of Craving, Nanako Saeki, Season of Weeds, and Resonance.
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