Demon Flowers, Volume 1

By Mizuki Hakase (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0298-9

When the ancient gods of Japan came to Earth they mated with mortals and the fruits of those couplings were often born with unnatural powers and abilities. These individuals were known as “Kuruizaki No Hana” which we hear as “Flowers out of Season”.

Ushitora is a demon and an assassin. This elegantly beautiful, arcane and attenuated being hunts down these children of the gods and kills them. Yet one day, whilst performing his latest mission and with all but one child dead he pauses. For some reason he cannot bring himself to eviscerate the happy, trusting little boy before him. Instead he adopts four year old Masato Hiradaira, bringing him to his home to join Nao, a human girl he picked up outside an orphanage five years previously.

This is a horror story about family. Ushitora doesn’t like killing but it is his job and duty. He longs for something different but years later the children are almost grown and his masters and servants all expect him to do what he was made for. Can he escape his dark destiny or is he simply fooling himself? Is he capable of the emotion he’s been mimicking all these years? Most importantly, as the grand design nears completion what will become of his children?

This solid eerie mood piece is a disturbingly languid thriller with a unique tone and a highly stylised, almost abstract art style, cool, aloof and in perfect harmony with the challenging themes of the narrative. Demon Flowers is a beguiling treat for fear-fans.

© 2003 Tachibana Higuchi. All Rights Reserved. English script © 2007 TokyoPop Inc.