Page 45 Review by Jonathan
Collects the original first three volumes.
Of volume one, our Jonathan wrote:
"You perv."
I was somewhat intrigued by the synopsis for this manga, wondering how the French poet Charles Baudelaire could possibly fit in with a high school romance / coming of age tale which might well also have some mild sado-masochistic elements. After reading this first volume I see exactly how so now, and it proved a mildly titillating read, I must say!
Our story begins as the hero, on the face of it just a very typical high school student, Takao, flunks his maths test. However, he then already begins to prove himself slightly deviated from the standard norm as his deep obsession with literature becomes clear and - at this particular moment - his utterly rapt absorption with Charles Beaudelaire's 'The Flowers Of Evil'.
(At this point, in a typically pointless, rambling aside, can I just add that whilst by no means being a connoisseur of poetry - in fact finding much of it rather dreary except from a good slap to the head style haiku - Beaudelaire's The Flowers Of Evil is one of the few 'worthy' traditional works of poetry I did enjoy reading at school. Beaudelaire was a bit of a louche character, it must be said, loving his opium, drink and loose women, but what made his work interesting was much of his output revolved around the rapidly changing pace of life taking place in the 'modern' urban world of the big cities like Paris at the time, and how an individual was inevitably no more than merely a tiny fleeting part of that. It was probably the first poetry I was exposed to that didn't involve copious amount of vales, hills and daffodils etc. etc. and thus was of infinitely more interest to myself. Right, digression over.)
So, after demonstrating his complete lack of interest in long division, Takao, possibly moved by Beaudelaire's heady words, has a moment of madness and pinches the gym kit of his attractive classmate Nanako, whom he secretly has the hots for, of course! Unfortunately for him, his perverted pilfering is observed by the class outsider Nakamura, who begins to blackmail him into a distinctly one-sided friendship, which also appears to have some as yet unclear sexual element to it, culminating in making Takao wear the gym kit under his clothes when he takes the demure Nanako out on a date.
It's well written stuff and rather slyly amusing in places as Takao is increasingly put through the wringer by the delightfully devious Nakamura, when all he wants to do is forget his indiscretion ever happened; particularly now it appears he might actually be able to start a relationship with the girl of his dreams.
Guaranteed to remind anyone of what their early teenage years were probably like when it comes to the often excruciating subject of burgeoning sexual attraction. I'll definitely be reading the next volume as I'm keen to find out exactly what nightmares Nakamura has got lined up next for Takao - if he actually makes it through his first date with Nanako - unscathed and unexposed, that is!
You can carry straight on after this with the original FLOWERS OF EVIL vols 4, 5 and 6.
