The Flowers of Evil (Japanese: 惡の華 Hepburn: Aku no Hana) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shūzō Oshimi. It was serialized in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine between September 9, 2009, and May 9, 2014, and licensed by Vertical in North America. The story follows a middle school student named Takao Kasuga who's forced into a "contract" by fellow student Sawa Nakamura, after being caught stealing the gym clothes of his crush Nanako Saeki, and the series of events afterwards that follow these three characters. The title of the manga comes from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal. The manga received a nomination at the fifth Manga Taishō. An anime television series adaptation of the manga, produced by Zexcs, aired in Japan between April and June 2013. It was simulcast outside Japan by Crunchyroll. The anime was animated using rotoscoping techniques, causing some controversy among fans of the manga. The anime has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks.