ボードレールを愛する少年、春日高男。ある日、彼は、放課後の教室に落ちていた、大好きな佐伯奈々子の体操着を、思わず盗ってしまう。それを、嫌われ者の少女・仲村佐和に見られていたことが発覚!! 盗んだことをバラされたくない春日に、彼女が求めた“契約”とは‥‥!? ボードレールを愛する少年、春日高男。ある日、彼は、放課後の教室に落ちていた、大好きな佐伯奈々子の体操着を、思わず盗ってしまう。それを、嫌われ者の少女・仲村佐和に見られていたことが発覚!! 盗んだことをバラされたくない春日に、彼女が求めた“契約”とは‥‥!?

Bookworm Takao and class bully Sawa may not appear to be the best couple, but together, by chance, they shake up their entire rural community to its core. In love with the class idol, Takao is given a chance to become a real hero and finally break out of his shell after righting a wrong he committed in a random moment of passion and affection. With the help, or blackmailing by, Sawa Nakamura, Takao is on his way to change his future and enter a world of decadence. Contrary to Takao's predictions, the girl he was falling for, Nanako Saeki, responds by eventually accepting the bibliophile for who he is. Or at least, who she thinks he is. In the second volume of Flowers of Evil, Takao's lies have given him new life with his now new girlfriend Nanako. And as he becomes closer to Nanako, his relationship with Sawa only deepens as the "contract" they share weighs heavily on the teen.

In the third volume of The Flowers of Evil, Takao must make a decision. He now has an opportunity to break free from the social shackles that Nakamura has placed on him, as he has a chance to be loved by someone he has affections for. This could also be an opportunity to be accepted by the masses in his small community. But with this choice comes fear and self-reflection. After having an chance trip to Nakamura's place, where he got to experience the world his only "friend" has grown up in, he realizes that for both teens, there is very little future to look forward to as they are raised in the boonies. Their lives are mapped out before them. For most adolescents these days, life will continue to be blase at best, miserable at worst. Can they change things together? Do they want to even bother?

In the fourth volume of Flowers of Evil, Takao makes his decision... He will try to win the affection of one his muses. This will be no simple task, as the teens in this manga drama are all now damaged and warped. Growing up without a mother has twisted their hearts. Helping people like that open up may be impossible, but Takao has thrown away his own humanity as well. Furthermore, Takao is now in search now a utopia. One that can only be shared with his best and only friend, that will sit, even if briefly, among the rice paddies and in the mountains of his rural hometown. And most importantly, it will be a place that pokes fun and underminds every little thin ideal that holds this town together. There is no way this new society will be accepted, but that is exactly what these two wanted in the first place.

SWEATY YOUNG THINGS When Nakamura said to Kasuga that Saeki wanted to have sex with him, might she have been telling the truth?

In this sixth volume of The Flowers of Evil, Takao and Nakamura are now deep in the darkness. After creating their own secret world in the rice paddies of rural Gunma, someone who resented their relationship attempted to destroy that haven, in an attempt to disrupt the beautiful chaos the pair had created. Now the duo have been wrongly-accused of a crime, and their previous hijinks -including many school pranks- have placed them in an awkward position within their tiny community. Furthermore local authorities now involved and are more than willing to blame all strange behavior this small town has seen recently on the two teens. Is this the end of this drama? Will being treated as outcasts in their own community keep these two from crossing over to the other side?! No! It is just the end of the second arc…

In the seventh volume of the Flowers of Evil readers are sent to a completely new time and locale. Takao and Sawa have been forcibly separated. Takao is now living in suburbs of the big city. His parents have new lives in a small apartment and their past for the most part has been forgotten. Now and then little cracks appear in that facade but for the most part they are playing their roles to become a normal happy family. Takao is in a new school; your average model student. And while he is just as awkward, Takao has made some friends and is even occasionally being asked to be social as a new high school student. Even more intriguing is the fact that Takao might have already found himself someone to open up to. Like Sawa this person can see that there is more to Takao than meets the eye. But in this case it is her who reintroduces him to literature.

Flowers of Evil tells the tangled tale of Takao Kasuga, a shy middle-school boy who falls in love with one girl and ends up being blackmailed by another in rural central Japan. Throughout a series of catastrophic adventures, Takao remains absorbed by French poet Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), which becomes the key to this engaging, wide-ranging narrative of romance and revelation. Readers have been charmed and captivated by this all-too-credible, yet often outrageous, story of awkward, young love. Flowers of Evil creator Shuzo Oshimi was recognized as one of the most gifted of the younger generation of manga artists, and in 2001 received the Tetsuya Chiba Award.

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.

While dealing with the death of his grandfather, Takao finds out where Nakamura is now living, and sets out to see her again, hoping it will help him move on with his life.

A lonely, bookish teen struggles to find his identity through Charles Baudelaire’s poetry until two girls, a bully and the class beauty, help him realize true love and real friendship. In the eleventh volume of The Flowers of Evil, Takao Kasuga has blossomed. After years of struggling with his inner demons and a lifetime of boredom, the young man has found peace. Now a high schooler living in the growing city of New Urawa, he has come a long way from his days of riding his bike and hitting used book stores in his sleepy mountain hometown in the rural regions of Gunma prefecture. But now he returns to Gunma, intent on finding the person who set him on this journey of self-discovery, for some closure.

The first combined edition of The Flowers of Evil features volumes 1-3 of this best-selling and acclaimed series. It follows the adventures of a lonely bookish teen struggling to find his identity through Baudelaire's poetry, until two girls—a beauty and a bully—help him find true love and friendship. Edgy, intense, and romantic, this new edition will give fans a chance to reconnect with Kasuga, Saeki, and Nakamura as it explores the issues of bullying, loneliness, individuality, and identity.

Flowers of Evil Complete volume 2 collects volumes 4-6 in an omnibus edition and features story and art by Shuzo Oshimi. Takao makes a decision…he will try to win the affection of one of his muses. This will be no simple task, as the teens are all now damaged and warped. Takao is in search of a utopia, one that can only be shared with his only friend, that will sit just briefly among the rice paddies of his rural hometown. But then Takao and Nakamura are wrongly accused of a crime, and the local authorities want to pin all strange behavior this small town has seen recently on the two teens. Will being treated as outcasts in their own community keep these two from crossing over to the other side…?

Flowers of Evil Complete volume 3 collects volumes 7-9 in an omnibus edition and features story and art by Shuzo Oshimi. Takao and Sawa have been forcibly separated. Takao is now living in suburbs of the big city. His parents have new lives in a small apartment and their past for the most part has been forgotten. Now and then little cracks appear in that facade, but for the most part they are playing their roles as a normal happy family.

Flowers of Evil Complete volume 4 collects volumes 10-11 in an omnibus edition and features story and art by Shuzo Oshimi. After his grandfather falls ill, Kasuga goes with his parents back to Gunma—his first trip back to his hometown ever since the incident with Nakamura—and Kasuga must confront the friends and family he hurt in the past. A former classmate gives him a tip regarding Nakamura’s current whereabouts, but will he have the courage to track her down and ask her the question that has haunted him since that day? In this final installment, time passes and people grow, change and heal, and we get a glimpse into the first fateful encounter between Nakamura and Kasuga, from her point of view…