"I am your real brother and I have come to take you back."
Midori Wakatsuki seems to be a normal student on the outside, but her life is actually not very ordinary. Her parents died in a fire when she was young, she was separated from her older brother Tokio and placed in foster care... and at "home" she withstands her adoptive brother's sexual abuse, alongside her foster parents treating her as little more than a stand-in for their deceased daughter Reika.
Midori's terrible life starts taking a turn when, after dropping out from school and while still in her uniform, she meets a man who comes from the States, asking for directions to the Tokyo Tower. She forces her way into his route, asking him to kidnap her... sort of. They end up becoming friends rather fast — And later, it turns out that the man is Tokio, her long-lost brother! Tokio eventually finds out about Midori's horrifying life and decides to help her out, reclaiming custody and taking her into his household. From then on, Midori and Tokio start mending their lives. . .
Eden no Hana ("Flowers from Eden") is a manga by Yuki Suetsugu, which was serialized in the shoujo magazine Bessatsu Friend from 2000 to 2004.
Eden no Hana has examples of the following tropes.
- Attractiveness Isolation: Midori's classmates wonder if this is the reason why Midori is a borderline outcast in class. It's more because of Loners Are Freaks.
- Alpha Bitch: Arika is beloved by the majority of Midori’s female classmates, and she’s also a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and Attention Whore.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Tokio actually breaks back into Midori's life right via revealing that he has been granted her custody... when she's about to be raped again by her stepbrother. While Midori's parents refuse to let him see her, that gives Midori the courage to fend off said stepbrother via a Groin Attack and reply to his calls, pretty much jumping through the window and into Tokio's arms.
- Broken Bird: Midori
- Brother–Sister Incest: Midori's being sexually abused by her adoptive brother.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Masamune is very flashy, but he's also pretty reliable at getting info and a good emotional support for Tokio.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Just as Midori reunites with Tokio, her stepmother barges in and demands she get away from him while still continuing to call her as if she’s her deceased daughter. Midori has enough of being treated as nothing more than a mere Replacement Goldfish, and yells out, "I'm NOT Reika! MY NAME IS MIDORI!" Her stepmother stands there shocked into silence as Midori and Tokio walk away, as if it finally sunk into her that Midori was never her late daughter and accepted her as her own person, thus letting her live for her own happiness.
- The Chikan: Midori falls asleep on the train and the man sitting next to her gropes her thigh. Her classmate Hashiba looks at the man threateningly and he gets off the train.
- Coming of Age Story
- Entitled Bastard: Midori’s stepbrother sexually abused her for most of her life, then randomly calls her and he outright demands she pose for more forcible nude pictures since the site where he sold said pictures has been shut down. And this was only mere days after Midori escaped from the stepbrother trying to outright rape her. Unsurprisingly, Midori hangs up on him.
- Flower Motifs: Roses, they’re everywhere in this setting.
- Joshikousei
- Hypocrite:
- Midori’s stepfather forbids Tokio from taking Midori after he won legal custody of her, because he has a happy family so doesn’t want to break that mold. Even though the only reason he agreed to adopted Midori is to smooth his wife’s broken mentality due to the loss of their daughter, who treats Midori as a Replacement Goldfish, without showing concern for Midori’s wellbeing nor addressing her by her real name while their son is sexually abusing and selling forced nude pictures of Midori. Not to mention that this whole conversation is happening while his son is trying to rape Midori.
- Midori’s stepbrother and his goons try to record a gang rape on Midori, until Tokio swoops in, and one of them outright declares that he’ll call the police over Tokio stoping them, as if he didn’t even consider what he and his buddies could’ve done to Midori would have certainly landed them behind bars. This only pisses off Tokio even more and promptly beats them all up. These bastards do nothing but whine over their pain while they never had empathy over Midori’s pain, something that Tokio lampshades as he’s calling out the stepbrother while he’s pulling a Villains Want Mercy, after he threatened to release Midori’s nudes to the public.
- It's All About Me: Arika has got a bad case of this to say the least, even borderline into the Attention Whore.
- Once it’s found out that she’s the one that posted Midori’s nude photographs on the class’ blackboard, everyone calls her out on it and turns their backs on her. She goes as low as to dump out a box full of the nudes outside the class’ window, which Midori just so happens to catch her in the act. Midori calls her out on this and asks her what she ever did wrong to Arika to hate her to that extent. Arika’s response?
- Proving to everyone that Midori is the genuinely despicable one, not her, blames her being the one at fault for “selling her nudes online”, and still attending school like nothing had happened. So if Midori is not everyone’s “dartboard” then it will cause problems for Arika since she’d be the only one accused. Midori points out she has a lot of friends, but Arika hates that even though Midori’s alone, she’s still noticed and gets attention, something that Arika considers lucky and hates even more.
- Arika finishes her justification on her bullying on Midori by claiming she did it for everyone so that they would see Arika herself useful, then has the gall to openly weep over her plan not going smoothly while criticizing Midori for being fortunate. Need we be reminded that this whole event started because of Midori’s stepbrother sexual abuse and forced nude pictures of her?! No suprise here that Midori gives Arika a Bitch Slap and tells her off for being the selfish brat she is.
- Once it’s found out that she’s the one that posted Midori’s nude photographs on the class’ blackboard, everyone calls her out on it and turns their backs on her. She goes as low as to dump out a box full of the nudes outside the class’ window, which Midori just so happens to catch her in the act. Midori calls her out on this and asks her what she ever did wrong to Arika to hate her to that extent. Arika’s response?
- Large Ham: Masamune is... bombastic, to say at least.
- Mood Whiplash: Tokio and Midori are speaking about paradise and life decisions. Tokio's adoptive brother Masamune shows up. Hilarity Ensues. And whiplash hits again, as Masamune also had the information about Midori's whereabouts.
- Ninja: Played for Laughs with Masamune.
- Parental Neglect: Midori's foster parents. See Replacement Goldfish.
- Rape as Drama: Midori's story of sexual abuse. Tokio almost went through it when in his teens, according to him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Right after Midori gives Arika a Bitch Slap after catching her in the act of dumping out the widow her stepbrother’s forced nudes of her, Midori rips into her over acting like the only one that’s suffering. And her words sunk into Akira’s thick skin and drove her to tears.
Stop joking! Who’s the unfortunate one? Where are you looking at? Being photographed… Being photographed in such a state is considered fortunate? Speechless? These photographs were taking by my elder brother in the family that adopted me. It’s not just photographs, he had abused me previously! Just the thought of not knowing when that person is going to sneak into my room again is enough to make me sleepless at every night! There wasn’t anyone to save me then! What’s there to be envious of? Tell me! It was so hard… it was so hard to find my savior! You don’t have the right to harm that person as well! And you don’t have the right to harm me! You should go and battle with your conscience!
- Replacement Goldfish: Midori's foster parents adopted her to fill in the blank left by the death of her bio daughter. Her mentally-broken foster mom treats her with relative kindness, but calls her by the dead little girl's name and acts as if Midori was the real Reika.
- Shoujo: Before it was cancelled, it ran for 12 volumes and was serialized in Kodansha's Bessatsu Friend.
- Teens Are Monsters: Midori's rapist stepbrother, bar none.
- Threat Backfire: When Tokio has Midori’s stepbrother at his mercy, he threatens to release more forced nudes of Midori unless he’s let off the hook. Tokio is having none of it, especially after he threatened the stepbrother to back off earlier unless he promised to stay away from Midori, only for the bastard to lie and try to attack her again. Tokio replies with this bone-chilling threat upon the stepbrother which finally works on him-
You just try it! No matter when, or where, I’ll be after you till the end! And kill you without hesitation!
- Tragic Keepsake: Midori has a photo of her, kid!Tokio, and their mother among her belongings. Tokio has one of them and their dad.
