Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Award in 2001, Oshimi has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for over a decade for major manga publishers including Kodansha. After drawing nine series, Oshimi's star began to rise in 2008 with the release of his first hit, Drifting Net Cafe. This horror-themed homage to the legendary Kazu Umezzo work, Drifting Classroom, was adapted into a live-action series, and propelled Oshimi onto an international stage. He would soon reach new heights in 2009 with The Flowers of Evil. In 2010 and 2011, the property quietly landed on numerous must-read lists and helped revitalize the shonen genre.
While Oshimi's works are often disturbing and unsettling, they are rarely without positive endings and character redemption. This perhaps speaks to Oshimi's motives in writing these bizarre, yet grounded horror stories. While our lives are fragile and not entirely our own, we have to make the best of them. In this way, Oshimi's works are fable-like. By exploring the darker aspects of our world, he emphasizes the importance of perspective and the individual. The Flowers of Evil [is], in this sense, a classic coming-of-age tale. - ComicsVerse