Heaven's Flower (2011)

Just recently came back to dramas after a few months and finished Heaven's Flower. Since there wasn't any review for it here, I thought I'd throw my two cents in.

I went into this show with a bit too high expectations from reading on what it was about. When I actually watched it I thought everything was pretty slow. There wasn't enough explanations and description of the characters and plot and it made me abit confused. Not because I didn't get what was going on, but it felt like there was so much more to this setting that they didn't tell us about.

After about half of this show though I thought it really picked up. The storyline got alot more focused and characters got way more interesting, I just simply couldn't put this drama down once I reached that point.

Now on a personal leval I'm rating this show an 8, but I can't recommend it that highly to people that have a different taste than me and aren't willing to overlook some things. Because this show had it's problems. Some cliché characters and some things like plotpoints, motivations that when you break them down doesn't make much sense.

I didn't have a problem looking past it since I was enjoying most of the characters, most of the action and the setting. Kawashima Umika as our lead Ai did an amazing job in this. I think it's the first I've seen of her, but I'm looking forward to more. She's great. Ayano Go as Shion needs a mention as what must be the most awesome character I've seen in awhile. He's terrifying.

I'll round this up now by saying if you want a Sci-Fi/Post Apocalyptic (sort of) show you'll most likely enjoy this. As long as you don't nitpick it to death and give it some time to develop.

For me it's an 8/10 because I loved the cast alot (Ayano Go, Kawashima Umika and my personal crush Taketomi Seika among others) aswell as decided not to nitpick it. For someone that might not enjoy the cast as much as me or perhaps you aren't able to look past some things I'd say it's a weak 7/10, so that's what I'm giving it in this review.

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The best thing about this show is that it's only eleven 20 minute episodes, so it doesn't necessarily feel like a waste of your time. And i'm not saying it's bad, but it is very flawed. The editing is all over the place, and a lot of the time, it feels like they filmed a bunch of scenes that explained things, but then cut them out. So you have people appearing in places with no explanation, and characters who don't seem to have a point in being in the show at all, and quite a few jarring cuts between scenes. They also tried to make the main bad guy the comic relief, which didn't suit the show at all.

The acting is good, I really liked the soundtrack, and the basic storyline was fine. But I still found it hard to get emotionally invested in the characters.

There were some very cool fight sequences though.

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I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic series/movies, and this falls quite well under that category; a future without flowers, resources running out, a desolate landscape with desperate people.

I found one of my favourite Japanese songs through this, years ago. It fits very well with the mood of this series. (The one that plays at the end; Amazarashi - Anomie.)

This maybe doesn't have the most intricate, nor the most well-thought out plot, but it is quite entertaining and I liked the basic idea of it a lot. It's interesting enough that I wanted to know what'll happen next. I also found it very beautiful, and at times, very touching.

The girl acting as Ai exceeded my expectations; I wasn't expecting her to be so good in such a role. The male lead is very cute, but the side character Shion was my favourite. The villain... well, I certainly hated him so good job, actor.

Rewatch value? Well, I've seen this 3 times so I'll give that an 8. (Though it took me years to watch it again.)

I would recommend this to anyone who likes this kind of genre, and characters that grow emotionally - and can ignore plotholes. It doesn't get boring since there are only 11 episodes that each last about 20 minutes. Maybe just watch the first one and see if this is your cup of tea.

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