FLCL

Since this show is a Coming-Of-Age story about a 14-year old boy with rebellious "all adults or either stupid or selfish" themes running through it, and I am a 15-year old boy, I feel that I am especially qualified to review this here anime.

It's meh. Decent. Fair. However you want to say it, this anime is not particularly remarkable in terms of quality.

The Story:
The story is as minimalist as this type of series can be, which I can get behind. It's a bit liberating to not be overwhelmed with plot like a LOT of other anime are wont to do. However that doesn't mean it's ... great. FLCL's story is good, but only good. It's not as deep or engaging as some more plot-heavy anime like I was referring to earlier, but it does have some subtlety despite what you may have heard about this. There are some good themes and still manages to hook you in at the end. Now onto the bad. The show has a terrible habit of breaking the 4th wall or making references every chance it can get, and it isn't even funny. Firi Kiri also has a habit of thinking of something it thinks is cool, (i.e. guns) and then having that thing all throughout the episode ad nauseam. And it seems to think it can get away with all manner of sexual references just because it is a CoA story. It sort of does, but still, some may get tired of it like I did. All in all, pretty mixed. 6/10.

The Art:
Why does it matter? What show could have such good or bad art that it makes or breaks the anime?
Mini-rant aside, the art style is fantastic with some great shots every now and again. Nothing more to say, except there a couple of CGI cycling shots that look horrendous. 9/10.

The Sound:
How much do you like Grunge? If you don't care for it, congratulations on having horrendous musical taste. (Just kidding, but I'm pretty sure you knew that already.) Pretty good. 7/10.

The Characters:
They suck and there's pretty much no development for any of them and 2 of the 3 female characters are pretty bad people and arrrrghhhg. They do a thing at the end where two of the characters turn into villains but one of them stops like 30 seconds later and it doesn't make much sense. The protagonist functions as a kind of straight man to any of the adult antics in the show (and there are a lot) and to all the weird BS going on around him. He works alright in this role, but he is quite the Grumpy Gus at times and some viewers may find that grating. The writers put in a (kind of) love interest, she can get rather irritating at times, especially in the finale, but she's not horrendous. There's a robot. Not much else to say. 3/10.

Enjoyment:
It was fun. I was entertained at least somewhat throughout, I got quite invested in what little plot there was at the end. "Fooly Cooly" had some annoyances as I mentioned earlier, but those don't quite break the anime. 6/10.

Overall:
A cautious recommendation, though numerous amounts of people would tell you it is a must watch. It kinda is, just because it's old Gainax and has the reputation it does throughout the anime community. 6/10.

I've heard really positive things about FLCL and after a few years I finally decided to watch it. The art, style and music are all really great, but the story itself kind of bored me. Its not that I didn't get it, I did, it just wasn't very engaging or interesting to me. It was fast-paced but among all the chaos it didn't really develop much, just a bunch of random things thrown out. The ending was pretty good and it did somewhat tie everything up in the last episode but I still didn't really find it as good as I heard everyone else say ... it was.

But I can see why people do like it, like I said the art and music are really nice and I guess if you like these kind of bizarre, hectic story-lines you could enjoy this.

The show has its good moments but there would be times where I would get the biggest headache in the world trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I don't think its a bad show but I also don't think its good, its kind of just in the middle for me.

The First episode was one of the worst anime episodes I've ever seen but the show honestly grew on me as it went on. But to be honest if I hadn't read what the plot actually was then I wouldn't know what was actually happening. Everyone says you need to watch ... it multiple times but I shouldn't have to watch a show 3-4 times to understand the basic plot. And trust me I was paying as much attention as possible and in the end I still had to look up what the show was about. On top of that Naota's father is super annoying and extremely weird and I especially hated the manga box art that popped up in the first and last episode. I only really started to enjoy the show when I turned my brain off and just enjoyed what I was looking at. I think the show works best when you just zone off and don't try to think so hard about its "deep meaning" that everyone says it has. It sucks that I felt really bummed out when trying to figure out the story because I love the art style and music that the show uses, I think its a very unique experience, but in the end there's just to much to understand with no explanation from the anime, the anime itself even knows it confusing.

Anyways you might like it, you might not, but I wouldn't watch trying to figure everything out as it happens. I believe if you really want to know the story like that then you can do the whole re watch thing but if you just want to vibe out and enjoy the visuals I think that's best. Also that outro song is badass!
(Watched in dub)

Ahhh… I was so excited for FLCL, but despite it’s energy and enthusiasm i’m afraid it just misses the mark.

It’s a shame because the setting is good. The premise of the story is good. And the characters are interesting. It literally has the ingredients for a genuinely good anime - but it’s so focused on sending a series of messages indirectly that it forgets to actually slow down and provide anything of actual substance.

You’re going to get told over and over again that “You just don’t get it!!” and that “It’s all metaphorical! There’s a hidden meaning behind every scene!” - but I ... just don’t buy it. FLCL makes an incredible amount of REFERENCES - and that’s all. Yes, I get the fact that there are supposed to be metaphors about sex, the coming of age, and this ‘alien’ women that flips his life upside down.

But there’s no real meaning behind any of it. None of it actually adds anything to the story other than some nice background commentary on some facts about puberty. I just don’t get what’s so brilliant about that. Nothing that we’re interested in is ever really explored, and there’s very little coherence for the series of events that we bear witness to. There’s no specific reason why the story unfolds in the way that it does.

To be honest, I didn’t even make it halfway through, and I couldn’t care less. I’m sure some of it makes more sense when you get to the end and rewatch it - but this isn’t something fun or enjoyable to watch. It’s a puzzle. A series of moving images that needs constant Freudian levels of analysis to appreciate in any regard.

For me, that is not a ‘pro’ of FLCL. Sure, it’s different and unique - but it’s not always better. Some might call me ‘unintelligent’ for this - but I would not agree. It’s not really a metaphor if the manifest content (the face value story) is nonsensical and only the latent content (underlying tones) mean anything. Most ‘intelligent’ stories at least have a face-value story that makes sense on its own to keep you distracted and engaged with something else - and then upon revaluation you notice certain hidden meanings and themes which were not apparent at first. But without a superficial layer, you’re just peering into a bunch of ‘ideas’ that don’t really come together in any meaningful way.

Instead of this manifest content distracting us from the hidden meanings, it is the complete other way around. It’s like there are so many ‘hidden’ ideas and themes shoved down your throat that you’re distracted from realising that the actual story that you’re supposed to be watching bears no relevance to any of this nonsense that you’re trying to figure out.

Other than that, the art and animation can go from piss poor to extremely impressive in a matter of seconds and can add some charm to an otherwise highly cartoonish show, the soundtracks are nice and very well placed, and the character designs are really cool and interesting. It’s just a shame that all of the most important foundations for a good story were thrown out the window in preference for sending a ‘message’ which isn’t even anything groundbreaking or unique in the slightest. Like how can someone seriously say “The way that FLCL describes a young boy starting to mature so brilliantly and amazingly is impressive” with a straight face is beyond me. I just don’t get what’s so brilliant and ingenious about describing puberty through a series of metaphors.

I really don’t get it. But hey, if that’s your thing then go for it. I guess it’s like marmite - you either love it or you hate it.

For a start I don't think it would be appropriate to evaluate this work as just an anime, and by the way I don't intend to diminish those that are classified as anime, it's purely due to the lack of efficiency and even the attempt that the FLCL work itself has to fall into what would be categorized as a good, or just one, anime. As a result, it can and will cause viewers discomfort to demonstrate the point in existing. When talking about FLCL, important things in other animes such as plot, character growth, pacing and cohesion ultimately become of minimal importance and instead ... all the weight of the work is placed in its expressionism and rebellion against the Japanese animation media and its stories of coming of age and themes that are complex and, later on, too subjective to be comfortable. This discomfort is essential to the work, dealing with the discomfort from a critical point of view with the work that is in the midst of so many others, as well as the individual discomfort caused by strangely sexual and bloody scenes. I don't think that people who took only negative or incoherent parts of this work for themselves and gave negative grades are unjustifiable or incomprehensible, in fact, I wouldn't even know what grade to give to such a peculiar experience and mixture of feelings, six would be for me the balance between the quality of the anime in being an anime and the quality of the work in being artistic and inventive.

Something I hadn't noticed while watching and just reading other reviews and interpretations about the anime that came to my mind as FLCL is essentially a work in constant protest, almost an anti-coming of age. it is so raw in its subjectivity that it ends up giving the viewer almost nothing to hold onto and manage to come up with an interpretation that seems to be already there waiting for him to find out. More than that, FLCL practically forces anyone interested in making their own unique interpretation of the events presented to them. The existence of themes perceived as maturation here are reversed. While the anime asserts itself as a common narrative amidst several other common coming-of-age stories across the industry, "nothing extraordinary happens here." It contradicts itself with its events, animation and dialogues. In fact, nothing extraordinary could happen by itself. The work needs an observer to be perceived and then exist based on what the observer defines as normal and not, extraordinary or not. Nothing extraordinary happens in this story, it's just another story.

It may be disconcerting to read or think that FLCL is just another story. The anime makes a point of making it impossible to get something out of it that is contained only in what it presents, and this is part of the experience that it shows is happening every time someone interacts with the work. It's easy to feel dumb after seeing six episodes of what appears to be nothing more than a poorly directed and structured mess, this is the show's purpose, as part of the rebellion against everything that says an anime can't be FLCL ends up talking all the same time, and it does it smart enough not to become saturated or pseudo-intellectual. Everyone has covered the smallest details of this piece, which is funny how, unlike others that approach it as an evangelion, the anime has no problem laughing at this idiotic obsession of fans with giving meaning to every little thing as part of a big lore within the world. In the sixth episode Naota is confronted that he is the protagonist, so he should know what FLCL is and in that same discussion they end up saying that it doesn't matter what FLCL means. Or Haruko talking about being an illusion of Naota's youth to soon after fly off on the wasp and be revealed as almost a celestial god. He constantly laughs at our need to catalog every symbolism in a work that opens up enough to be what you take out of it and nothing more, while still simulating that familiar environment that demands from the viewer an emotional and intellectual understanding of the work and of himself to realize she's going to be everything he's allowed her to be.

Works cannot advocate by themselves. There is no holder of your truths, whether creator or critic, or anything else. The only ones who could give meaning to their existence are themselves and yet they show themselves incapable of finding themselves in a limbo where there is what is perceived by those who watch it. Rather than being something concrete and definitive, a piece of art is the purest form of a Rorschach test that is constantly changing depending on the person who perceives it. With that in mind, FLCL made me realize how fundamentally there is no pure communication in this world. Each person is too individual to have an honest existence with others, the people I know only exist in my head. This does not prevent moral codes from existing to maintain peace between people, but it ends up disabling art from being something concrete and potentializing it for countless interpretations that could not exist if it weren't for this individuality. Every human being is alone with their individual truths. FLCL looks at this and laughs at the uniqueness inherent in the human condition, using its almost non-existent structure and creating its own uniqueness to communicate with everyone. Furi Kuri is the work about the failure of works to be tangible, and talks about it integrating into the subjective and conditional, while talking about things that could only be said in an environment so full of lies that it turns out to be the most honest any art can be. Thinking about the future is destructive, indeed.

//

Pra começar eu não acho que seria adequado avaliar essa obra como só um anime, e por falar isso eu não tenho a intenção de diminuir aqueles que são classificado como anime, se dá puramente pela falta de eficiência e até mesmo tentativa que a própria obra FLCL tem ao se enquadrar no que seria categorizado como um bom, ou somente um, anime. Em consequência disso ela pode e vai causar desconforto nos telespectadores para demonstrar o ponto em existir. Quando se fala de FLCL coisas importantes em outros animes como plot, crescimento de personagens, pacing e coesão se tornam ultimamente de importância mínima e no lugar todo o peso da obra é colocado em seu expressionismo e rebelião com a própria mídia de animação japonesa e suas histórias de amadurecimento e temas complexos e, mais pra frente, subjetivos demais para conseguirem ser confortáveis. Esse desconforto é essencial a obra, se tratando do desconforto do ponto de vista crítico para com a obra que está no meio de tantas outras como também do desconforto individual causado por cenas estranhamente sexuais e sangrentas. Não acho que as pessoas que tiraram somente partes negativas ou incoesas dessa obra para si e deram notas negativas sejam injustificáveis ou incompreensíveis, na verdade, eu mesmo não saberia que nota dar para uma experiência tão peculiar e mistura de sentimento, o seis seria pra mim o equilíbrio entre a qualidade do anime em ser um anime e a qualidade da obra em ser artística e inventiva.

Algo que eu não tinha reparado enquanto assistia e somente lendo outras reviews e interpretações sobre o anime que me veio na cabeça como FLCL é essencialmente uma obra em constante protesto, quase que um anti-coming of age. é tão cru em sua subjetividade que acaba dando quase nada ao telespectador pra se agarrar e conseguir tirar uma interpretação que pareça já estar ali esperando para que ele descobrisse. Mais que isso, FLCL praticamente força a qualquer um que tenha o interesse em fazer sua própria e única interpretação dos eventos que lhe são apresentados. A existência de temas percebidos como amadurecimento aqui são invertidos. Enquanto o anime se afirma como uma narrativa comum em meio a várias outras histórias de amadurecimento comuns por toda a indústria, “nada extraordinário acontece aqui”. Ele se contradiz com seus eventos, animação e diálogos. De fato, nada de extraordinário poderia acontecer por si próprio. A obra precisa de um observador para ser percebida e então existir a partir do que o observador define o que é normal e não, extraordinário ou não. Nada extraordinário ocorre nessa história, é só mais uma história.

Talvez seja desconcertante ler ou achar que FLCL se trate de só mais uma história. O anime faz questão de deixar impossível tirar algo dele que se contenha somente no que ele apresenta, e isso faz parte da experiência que ele mostra que está acontecendo toda vez que alguém interage com a obra. É fácil se sentir burro após ver seis episódios sobre o que parece ser nada além de uma bagunça mal dirigida e estruturada, isso é proposital da série, como parte da rebelião contra tudo que falam que um anime não pode ser FLCL acaba falando tudo ao mesmo tempo, e faz isso de um jeito inteligente o suficiente para não se tornar saturado ou pseudointelectual. Todos já abordaram os detalhes mínimos dessa obra, o que é engraçado como, diferente de outras que se aproximam dela como evangelion, o anime não tem problema nenhum em rir dessa obsessão idiota de fãs de atribuirem significado a cada pequena coisa como parte de uma grande lore dentro do mundo. No sexto episódio o Naota é confrontando com o fato de que ele é o protagonista, logo deveria saber o que é FLCL e nessa mesma discussão acabam dizendo que não importa o que FLCL significa. Ou a Haruko falando ser uma ilusão da juventude do Naota pra logo depois sair voando na vespa e ser revelada como quase que um deus celestial. Ele ri constantemente da nossa necessidade de catalogar cada simbolismo em uma obra que se abre o suficiente para ser o que você tirar dela e nada mais, enquanto ainda simula esse ambiente familiar que exige do telespectador um entendimento emocional e intelectual da obra e de si mesmo para perceber que ela vai ser tudo aquilo que ele permitir que ela seja.

Obras não podem advogar por si só. Não existe um detentor de suas verdades, seja criador ou critico, ou qualquer coisa que seja. As únicas que poderiam dar sentido a sua existência são elas mesmas e ainda assim se mostram incapazes por se encontrarem em um limbo onde existe aquilo que é percebido por quem a assiste. No lugar de ser algo concreto e definitivo, um pedaço de arte é a forma mais pura de um teste de Rorschach que está em constante mudança dependendo da pessoa que a percebe. Tendo isso em mente, FLCL me fez perceber como fundamentalmente não existe comunicação pura nesse mundo. Cada pessoa é individual demais para se ter uma existência honesta com outras, as pessoas que eu conheço só existem na minha cabeça. Isso não impede que códigos morais existam para manter a paz entre as pessoas, mas acaba incapacitando a arte de ser algo concreto e a potencializa para inúmeras interpretações que não poderiam existir se não fosse essa individualidade. Todo ser humano está sozinho com suas verdades individuais. FLCL olha pra isso e ri da singularidade inerente a condição humana, usando de sua quase não existe estrutura e criando sua própria singularidade pra se comunicar com todos. Furi Kuri é a obra sobre a falha das obras em ser algo tangível, e ela fala isso se integrando para o subjetivo e condicional, enquanto fala sobre coisas que somente poderiam ser ditas em um meio tão cheio de mentiras que acaba sendo o mais honesto que qualquer arte pode ser. Pensar sobre o futuro é destrutivo, de fato.

Crazy anime, but it doesn't really stand up in any of the other aspects.

Pluses
+ Good soundtrack. Can't say it's amazing, but it is really good
+ Nice animation style. Most anime I see are kinda static, this one is not and has a lot of crazily dynamic scenes
+ Has few interesting moments and ideas, feels unique

Minuses
- I absolutely hated the main hero. He is childish, dumb, boring and I haven't felt any real character progression. The fact that his head acts a portal adds even more repugnance.
- Usually I like crazy chars, but Haruko here was like too low-dimensional: she run around doing crazy aggressive stuff ... (non-important mostly), because of her enormous unexplained power nobody could possess a challenge to her, and, sometimes, she said to main hero smth like "you aren't mature" or "you are childish". That's kinda all her traits. Boring(
- Weak, unexplored, underdeveloped characters in general. And adult characters act as powerless clowns(
- Weak, slow, unconnected plot. Hated shounen-style fights that had no logic and happened in the end of probably every episode.
- Bad logic in general, doesn't seem to actually be deep. Seriously, I HOPED it is deep and that later episodes will explain things happening (because of some reviews) aaand nope, ending has left me confused. I read every character information on MAL and quite a bunch of other reviews and my conclusion haven't changed at all.
- Doesn't shine as a comedy. There are few good jokes, but most others just aren't good

So, in general, my thoughts:

It's a chaotic fantasy anime with space intruders that throws in some crazy stuff, scatters plot all over the place, tries to make some rapid character development moves (like when they forced the boy to deflect his first baseball - by creating a situation where the city would be destroyed otherwise lol)... and ultimately feels disappointing and rushed in most of it's aspects.

But watching with someone to talk along was somewhat interesting)

Ridiculous lunacy, with understandable deeper undertones as a metaphor for growing up and dealing with loneliness, puberty, and family drama. But just because it's deconstructive and Lynchian... does that make it artistic, or just a bad drug trip?

Story & Writing: 4/10
Characters: 5/10
Art: 3.5/5
Sound: 4/5

Average: 5.5/10

To start, the characters have some appeal to them in how weird they are. The dad is as creepy and obnoxious as Dads get. The main character is an interesting shell of invulnerability based on recent life events, and the girls fall into strange spectrums -- channeling dark, quiet guilt on one side, and excited impulsiveness on the other.
...
I kept waiting for the depth of that setup to kick in... but nope. Really just a drug-induced manic storyline plays out with little sense surrounded by deconstructive humor, over-the-top sometimes perverted characters, and a lack of meaning in the conclusion. Even with 6 episodes it was tough to get through.

They certainly exceeded in the English dub, with amazing voice actors, especially the flamboyant Haruhara. Also, the ED is one of the best of all time. The art looks decent, propelled by clever, fascinating, and playful artistic decisions.

If you're seeking a solid story, it's not for you. But this probably is for fans of quirky, mind-bending wackiness, with meaningful core themes. It could be an entertaining romp and a feast for the eyes in an extremely abstract way. So take it with a grain of salt, and you might dig it. I didn't. But it was 2.5 hours of my life so it could've been a lot worse.

aparteid and discrimination; FLCL IS AWESOME but not for the reasons of it's art-style, Hiroyuki Imaishi, kind of lost the point of this review. FLCL uses the Pillows like Katy Perry uses a music video. FLCL is a music video, but it's sprung off as some "deep", "poetic", "interesting" show. I call FLCL's bluff. It's designed to work around it's cast of music *coughs* the Pillows and works alright because of it. FLCL isn't one thing: boring. It does everything it can cram into each individual minute and I'm scared of how well it does certain things like the outro of the show. Other things ... are handled in weak, superflous ways. The plot is nothing special despite some sort of "symbolism" that is supposed to be understood (ala: the smoke which casts itself over the fictional town) If my criticisms missed something important, ama! -v

I'm a story person, and this anime was not the best one for me to watch the first time around. It's a wonderful anime after about the second or third time, and because of this I had to give it low marks. This anime is the embodiment of crazy psycho trip. This anime is so crazy and so random that you fall in love with it's comedic aspects, but if you are like me and you love story, then this anime will take time. This anime boasts rock and crazy randomness and it delivers in a finely wrapped package. The music and characters are great ... and all work together well to show this anime. Still on the subject of music this anime acts far better as a music video than it does an anime sometimes, but that doesn't offset it at all, as a matter of fact this is kinda like the focal point of the anime. Now to move on to the level of enjoyment personally the enjoyment was low the first time do to the craziness covering up the story which is highly creative. I did, however, love this anime after I watched it a few times. In grand total, I give it just a 5 because of the simple fact that this does take more than one time of watching it to get into it if you are a story person.
Well this has been another rocking review.

-Darkness Knight

First of all I'm from Chile (Probably you even don't know that country) and my english is not perfect at all.

Honestly I can't understand why this anime is called a "masterpiece". Starting with the boring experience that it was when I saw it for the first time. Story don't catch because there is not story. It's all a script made without thinking, just a lot of thing which happen for some reason.
Characters are unbearable and everything except interesting. When Haruko do her debut I felt curiosity but to the end of the episode I start to fell rejection to her. To the rest ... of characters is basically the same thing.
When neither the story or the characters aren't atractives to you it's complicate enjoy the serie.
The only thing that stands out a bit is the music and sountrack in general. Also the animation and designs are decent.

I never saw FLCL as a child or as a teenager, so it doesn't have a special nostalgia-framed place in my heart. Perhaps that makes it easier for me to view the work objectively, but perhaps also puts me outside of the target demographic for the show's message. My experience with FLCL has been thus: I watched it once, then I read a number of interpretations, reviews and analyses on various online sources, and then I forced myself to watch it a second time to see whether my opinion and impression would change.

Before I get into criticism, I would like to mention what I ... liked about the show: The audiovisual component, in my opinion, was well-made. The visuals were quite soulful and atmospheric, as was the soundtrack by the Pillows. Overall, the series did have the most important thing I look for in a show: atmosphere. That was the one good thing I took away from watching FLCL. Perhaps this was due to the director and his team really having fun and doing exactly what they wanted to do with their work. In any case, I felt it and I applaud it. Also, hats off to Haruko's seiyuu, Mayumi Shintani for her performance: that was some of the best seiyuu work I have ever heard. Not the absolute best, but extremely professional stuff. Her voice and the Pillows soundtrack are probably the most memorable things from FLCL to me personally.

Now for the bad.

My first problem with FLCL is that for a show that puts so much emphasis on its megadoses of surrealist comedy, it completely failed to entertain me. I remember chuckling maybe once or twice for the duration of the whole series. It's not that I don't appreciate absurdist slapstick humor: never have I laughed harder while watching anime than when I watched Nichijou, for example. Maybe the bar for comedy in anime has been raised somewhat since 2003; I haven't seen enough shows to say for sure. Nevertheless, I saw pretty much all the show's comedic sequences fall completely flat, and since those make up 80% of the viewing experience, I was thoroughly uninspired 80% of the time. The protagonist getting run over by Haruko's bike wasn't particularly funny, and it happened several times after that with little variation in context and presentation. I must admit the first encounter with Haruko on the bridge in the first episode was rather promising, and there were some moments in the dialogue that were almost witty. Haruko's guitar beatings were also not funny, even though they make up a sizable portion of the comedy. The problem is not just that they weren't funny, but also that all those scenes were pretty much exactly the same. There was no nuance to keep the idea fresh for the duration of even such a short series. I would like to contrast this with another comedy series also based on the protagonist receiving beatings from a girl: Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-Chan. It's also a relatively short 5 or 6-episode comedy series about an angel that constantly beats the protagonist with her club. Even though those beatings happen much more often in that series than Haruko's guitar beatings in FLCL, I found them much funnier and less stale, because there was generally more build-up and variation to them.

The rest of the slapstick comedy in FLCL was executed in a similar vein: no situational nuance, just physical violence accompanied by loud shouting, and the occasional simplistic anime "comedy faces" (white circles for eyes and white triangle for mouth agape. Even though every anime does this to some extent, I have seldom seen a series abuse this as much as FLCL) I didn't find the guy with seaweed for eyebrows funny either, nor did I see any comedic value in those eyebrows falling off. Etc. Etc. I didn't find any of it clever or subtle enough to be witty, nor did I find it crazy or innovative enough to be overwhelmingly stimulating.

As for funny dialogue, the funniest thing I saw was the aforementioned scene on the bridge with Haruko, where there were a few interesting twists in conversation, but that was the zenith of the whole thing. The rest was Naota's grandfather and father repeating "furi kuri, furi kura, kuri kuri, kuri kura" for no reason for a full minute for some cringy sexual innuendo, or things of a similar caliber. Again, there was no context to set this up or make it funny, it's just given as is, because the maxim of this show's comedy seems to "lol it's random so let's add it in". In terms of random humor I actually find internet flash animations of the early 2000s such as Arfenhouse and the Demented Cartoon Movie to be both funnier and more random. In fact, a lot of FLCL's craziest moments are rather tame in comparison to a lot of more recent works, like Kill la Kill or the aforementioned Nichijou. Perhaps all those were inspired specifically by FLCL, I don't know, but even if that's the case and FLCL deserves to be paid homage to in a purely historic sense, that still means that it's been made obsolete by its spiritual successors, at least comedy-wise.
There was also a lot of referential stuff, like that South Park scene, but again, there was no build-up or context to make them relevant or fitting to that particular moment, so I didn't find it funny so much as I found it just interesting and cool.

Now for the plot. Granted, I didn't understand the plot the first time-round. My understanding comes from other people's explanations and my second viewing of the show. This time I was able to follow the sub-plots rather clearly, but they're all quite simple premises, so I'll move on to the characters and organisations. The Space Patrol agency or whatever is introduced out of the blue in the middle of the series, along with the seaweed guy who works for it, but there doesn't seem to be any proper interpretation of what this agency is supposed to represent. Medical Mechanica is supposed to be Freudian superego, as I understand it.

Haruko's role in this agency is also nigh unexplored and unexplained; the significance of her being in this agency is also totally unclear. Her relationship with seaweed eyebrows is shown as somewhat significant for the contrast between him and Naota, but again, the details of their shared history are not clear enough for me to be invested in this, or take any lessons away. I guess she was the only character with firmly defined and consistent motives: to find Atomsk and get his power, although the reasons for her wanting this power are also unclear, since she seems more than powerful enough on her own.

We should suppose that Naota's father and grandfather, his immediate family, would hold a key to understanding how Naota came to be the person he is, but here we draw a blank as well, because they are reduced to 1-D clowns for more comedic effect, and all we can do is speculate about his upbringing, which once again conveys no tangible message.
The specifics and causes of Mamimi's arson and her psychological problems are also unexplored, even though this is an incredibly important issue in the context of the show's alleged deeper messages. Mamimi was actually my favorite character of the show, because she actually had (gasp) a multi-dimensional personality and was very promising, but the show did next to nothing to develop her or explain her motivations for anything she does, other than the fact that she likes hanging around Naota as a substitute for his brother.

Eri's character development was promising at first, but was cut short extremely curtly. It started well enough with her family issues and her defense mechanisms in response to that, but ends rather abruptly when Naota exposes her cheating in front of the class, after which some curry and a whack from the guitar sets everything straight. It wasn't enough to make me think or to make me care about her. Her feelings for Naota are understandable, I guess, in the sense that she senses a kindred spirit in him, but beyond this primitive assumption there were no moments to anchor this idea. She doesn't react realistically to Haruko being in the room after she confesses her embarrassing actions and motivations to Naota, which makes her character not believable.

As for the robot, the director himself admitted that the robot has nothing to do with anything, so there you have it. And finally, with regards to Naota himself, I don't believe this was a coming-of-age story for him at all, as I've often seen mentioned, but that's an argument for another time.

For a show that is supposed to contain many important themes, the plot does next to nothing to explore, portray or develop them. In fact, certain narrative choices merely confuse the whole system of inchoate symbolic associations: If the objects that come out of one's head are supposed to be a phallic symbols representing newly emerging sexual and emotional urges, then why does Eri produce a robot out of her head? Surely horns, guitars and robots are male (phallic) symbols? And if they're not just male, then why does Mamimi never shoot them out when she "overflows" and merely falls unconscious? Is it because "overflowing" in Mamimi is something different to Naota and Eri's experiences because she's older? And if only Haruko can awaken a space portal inside one's head with her guitar, then how come Eri never receives a blow from it and yet is able to summon monsters? As for defeating her monster with curry, that's also nonsensical. If curry is supposed to represent an outgoing personality or whatever, then what does that mean? That hanging around outgoing and energetic people cures her emotional issues?

Fans defend all of this by saying the show was too short to explore all these characters and plot points in more detail, but that doesn't really excuse all these things from sucking.

There's supposed to be a lot of symbolism in this anime, but it's all either quite hamfisted like guitars symbolising dicks, or they're all the director's personal associations. The point of using symbolism is that there's supposed to be a reason for choosing a certain symbol to represent a certain idea, something that makes the symbol particularly powerful and fitting within the context of the narrative. What irreplaceable role does curry play in the narrative? What role does soda play in the narrative? Why choose those items to represent maturity instead of others? Sweet soda is supposed to represent immaturity and childhood and sour soda is supposed to represent adulthood, but frankly soda in general is a child's drink. I don't remember preferring sweet candy to sour candy as a child.
Some symbols don't really make sense to me, whereas others the show didn't make me care for, for example the baseball symbolism. We see Naota carrying his brother's bat around, and yet being unable to swing it. I was told that this shows that he admires his brother for being an adult, yet is unable to act or take responsibility like one. But the show doesn't do anything to make me care for this fact. We don't see Naota's attachment or love for his brother expressed in any emotional scenes, we don't see his attitude or feelings towards his brother affect any major decisions. His decision to swing the bat was encouraged by Haruko, not his brother. It's just an idea that's there and is left to rest on the narrative like a dead manta ray. The same goes for other symbols: Canti, the robot, and how it symbolises a protector figure to Mamimi, is another. There was no set-up to this relationship, nor is the robot a satisfying representation of Naota's brother, because we have no idea what his brother is like. People also say that an airplane flying overhead represents Naota's brother, but I counted only two instances of a plane flying overhead, and his brother was mentioned only during one of those sequences, so I don't see why I should care. There's also the iron representing the crushing, flattening influence of society on personal creativity, but we never see the iron in action to anchor this visual metaphor: all we have is a comment by Seaweed Eyebrow's partner who supposes that is the case, which is a wasted opportunity, and quite frankly, lazy exposition.

There is nothing in the show's narrative or cinematography that would make me care or empathise with any of the characters or develop any particular attitude to the symbols that are supposed to be important and meaningful to them. All the screen-time that should have been dedicated to this was spent on animated still manga panels of Haruko eating ramen and other such trite.

There are more examples of symbolism and narrative not making sense and lacking any emotional weight, but I think those are enough to illustrate the problem. Apologists and fans of the show defend this by saying that it's a surrealist anime and it's not supposed to make logical sense, but the problem is that it has nothing to offer other than its deeper layer of symbolism. I can forgive the plot making no logical sense (even though it's presented clearly enough and in enough detail to warrant consistency), but that's supposed to be a sacrifice for the sake of bringing symbolism to the fore and making it shine. And yet the symbolism is also messed up and has neither weight nor consistency. The surrealism was supposed to remove the constraints of reality from the narrative in order to explore the themes with more visual clarity and flair, but instead it turns it into a train wreck.

So you see the paradox that emerges here: fans of the show say that if you don't like the show, then you just don't understand the deeper layers of the show, and yet when you try to analyse the deeper layers of the show and they don't make sense, they tell you it's not supposed to make sense because it's surrealist comedy and they tell you to just enjoy it as it is.

To me, all these aforementioned problems stem from the fact that the creators tried to make it too many things at once. I've read that FLCL was made to showcase Gainax's new animation technology, so they wanted to add lots of dynamic visuals. FLCL was also made after Evangelion, which was also a show intended as a profound message, so they wanted to add some of that too. But they also wanted something funny. The director also wanted to add a whole bunch of stuff he personally liked, but has no relevance to anything else. They also wanted to make it short. Like that song by Lenka in Microsoft's Windows 8 ad, except the problem is it's very difficult to have "Everything at once" crammed into 6 episodes. If they wanted to convey a message about growing up, they should have made it longer, dropped the useless comedy and told the director to cull his quirky caprices. Perhaps they would have created something like Lain, but more melodramatic. If they wanted a comedy, they should have used stuff that was.. more funny, I guess. If they wanted surrealism, they should have either dropped the comedy, or the pretense of deeper meaning. In any case, a lot of things just didn't work for me here. During my first viewing, I was confused and kind of bored. During my second viewing, I was just bored.

Overall, FLCL left me quite disappointed, especially because of all the praise I read about it. My impression of the show leaves me to quote Naota's famous line: "Nothing amazing ever happens here; everything is ordinary". Well, Naota, I'm inclined to agree. I didn't think anything that happened in FLCL was that amazing, and in terms of an overall appraisal I would rank it as quite ordinary indeed.

The plot of FLCL and its deeper themes are quite famously elusive and require multiple viewings to grasp. What does this say about people who claim to like FLCL for its plot and themes? It says that those are all people who rewatched FLCL multiple times after their first viewing, presumably by choice. And what does that say? That means that people who watched FLCL multiple times thoroughly enjoyed their first viewing of FLCL. In other words, these are all people who enjoyed the surface elements that make up 80% of it: the dumb humour and the lolsorandom visual craziness. My conclusion is that people who are impressed by the deeper elements of FLCL are people who were also impressed by the surface elements.
Basically, if you didn't find it funny the first time, you probably won't find it deep or complex the tenth.

Fooly Cooly was quite the unique and abstract anime for sure. It will appeal to some but not everyone. It has a special kind of pull to those who enjoy random, fast pace story, and craziness that you may never understand. In spite of all of that, it was a fascinating and engaging anime.

Story wise, it was very fast paced and a short anime at that giving character and world building more of a difficult time. Which they did in a decent way. Keeping your attention while driving some deeper meanings to their plot. If you could see it. Honestly speaking it was difficult to ... see where there were going with the whole story growth at times.

The animation style was unique bringing in a few different types at times that really changed the flow and feeling of the anime. Keeping it fresh and entertaining. Though at times it changes so fast it was difficult to keep up with what was going on in the scenes. Never the less it was still a nice show and welcome change to animation.

The MCs and supporters were fun, funny, and enjoyable most the time. Other times they were just annoying and or upsetting. Opinions aside, the characters personalities had a wonderful effect of giving some high and low feelings for them. Even when they would do questionable actions or things that were not explained.

In the end it was a enjoyable anime, but not my cup of tea. I could tolerate it but it isn't something I would of finished if it wasn't as fast paced and short of an anime. Though it is nice to understand why so many people are a fan of this anime. And I respect all of your opinions. :)

Random. Funny. And completely plot-less. + Action.

The only thing where FLCL stands out is presentation. With it's own fuzzy and wacky style. On the other hand the FLCL is weak in everything else. By "else" I mean content itself: zero character development, weak character back-story, weak and plain idea of the story arc, e.t.c.

You may say: "What kind of "character development" you expected in 6 episode anime?"
Anything but a zero. Even Nichijou (despite being "slice of life" genre) has more character development in 2-3 episodes than FLCL in all 6. (Yes, I know there is 10 years difference in them. Yes, I know FLCL ... has it's place somewhere in "classics". No, that doesn't take away all the Story, Character flaws FLCL has.)

It's like me carrying a video camera around filming random stuff than I do, the jokes I said, the funny and stupid things that I did,... with a nice, fitting soundtracks being played when needed. Would you call it a masterpiece? (don't answer.)

Outro:
If you are looking for something to take a break from "convenient" and "stereotypical" anime then this might work for you. FLCL is a wacky mixture of "slice of life", "Mystery" and "action". If you don't mind zero character development and plain story - go for it.
And if you are still in doubts and keep reading other reviews for answers - just stop and watch anime already. You will spend less time watching actual 6 episodes long anime rather than reading all those essay reviews.

FLCL is interesting to say the least. It is a highly abstracted and hyperactive experience, seemingly using as many elements and genres as it can. For the "every frame a painting" kind of person who loves analyzing everything about literature and art, it works well, providing loads of little details to look at that reference the series itself and other works. Everything seems to have a hidden meaning and some people love to theorize and conjecture how everything might fall together. I am not one of those people. For those who like concrete worlds and storylines, you will likely not enjoy this show, finding entertainment ... only in the ridiculousness of it all, and in the flashy art. To me it seems the writers were too busy adding second meaning to everything in the show, that they didn't bother to add the primary meaning. Nothing makes real sense, there isn't much for story at all and the characters develop only in the metaphors that are used to represent them. The rules of the world change constantly and I find little enjoyment in the mess that this creates. With that said I it did what it was trying to do, and with the few episodes there are, I think its worth the watch just to find out i you like it or not.

It's the first time I'm going to write a review and it's not for a good or a bad reason, it's just because I found this anime totally different.
Having only 6 episodes FLCL is a confusing anime, very fast but you can understand the characters' personality from an early time in the anime.
The story begins with the protagonist who wants to become an adult. Let's go by points...

Story 4/10:
Honestly, it was the part I liked least, I expected something much better since it's a gainax classic that is a big company, the story about Haruko who only thinks about herself and Naota who falls in ... love with the grown woman, who clearly just wanted use it to gain power and I won't go into the story any further.



7/10 Characters:
The characters are a strong point in this anime, although the anime is extremely short we can see that each character is extremely distinct, although distinct they all pursue the same journey of loving someone who doesn't love them back.
Haruko who chases something impossible and just cares about herself(I don't think she's a bad person but I don't think she's a good person either)
Mamimi is a character who clearly has the major flaw of depending on others and being obsessed with taking care of someone while ignoring who she is.
Naota is quite different he is a good guy who just wanted to stop being a child and become an adult and starts his journey to realize that what matters is being himself.

Art and animation 10/10:
2001 anime and is so amazing i don't have words to describe how funny even when the animation is not very detailed always gives a comic sense to the anime, even the CGI is well worked in many moments when it is used, the art is very differentiated in the positive sense.

Music 8/10:
The music is very good and always appears at the right times almost sounding like another gainax classic gurren lagann where every song fits into the perfect time to be played.
FLCL is not so perfect but their music is still of a much above average level.

enjoy 6/10:
The anime have amazing stuff like i said but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, the first 3 episodes are total masterpieces, the last 3 are way below what I expected and very confusing in my opinion.

This is the end of my review, remember this is just my opinion...
I intend to re-watch the anime to see if I understand exactly what FLCL represents.

(edit) after some time and a re-watch I changed my mind and I really love FLCL one of my favorites animes!

Si bien el anime cumple con los géneros que asegura tener, hay algo en la composición que no me cierra.
A lo mejor debería darle una puntuación más alta porque sí es lo que propone, pero no cumplió para nada mis expectativas.
Siempre odie el arte abstracto, en cualquier ámbito; probablemente por eso este anime me gusta tan poco. Pero es que realmente no le encuentro valor al sin sentido, porque, si tengo que ser sincera, así es como veo esta historia: Los personajes no me agradan, a la mayoría los siento tontos e insoportables; y la trama, qué decir, es ... cualquier cosa.
La animación es llamativa, pero no me basta. Hay situaciones muy raras, y la forma en que se cuenta la historia también lo es.
Lo único que destaco es la cantidad de episodios. No sé si eso sea algo bueno, pero cuando lo ves se siente como si fuera mucho más, como si hubieses visto más episodios de los que realmente hay. Es raro, pero quizás solo se relaciona con que no veía el momento de que se terminase.
Sé que a la mayoría la serie le agrada, pero aunque haga un esfuerzo no puedo verle aspectos positivos.
De todos modos, recomiendo que la vean. Creo que es probable que mi percepción sea errada, por lo cual estaría bueno que todos pudiesen sacar sus propias conclusiones (más teniendo en cuenta lo poco que te puede llevar verla).

Before watching this I was told how incredibly unique this is, and that'll change my view on anime, and of course like all hyped anime it was a let down. It is incredibly unique, but just not in the right way, they drip feed you information while still not giving all the info you need to follow the story as it progress. Even now I'm still wondering what the story really was, there was so many plot points for such a short show.

While they are style is unique as well it tries too hard to be quirky and "a refreshing change of pace". But ... realistically, atleast for me, it just kept distracting me from watching, same with the score, hearing a English song with Japanese speaking characters just clashed and kept making me switch my focus from song to subtitle.

Was the rapey dad necessary, it wasn't funny.
Just because she is an alien does not make it ok for her to try and constantly rape the 10yr old, once again not funny.

Of course I understand why people like this but I think if you are some sort of cult follower of FLCL, and there are of lot, you need to go watch cartoons and not anime.

<"What the f*ck did I just watch?" the anime> is how I would describe FLCL in one sentence.

*[Spoiler Free Review]*

It's so hard for me to score FLCL mainly because I don't think my brain is capable of judging this show. I just chose 6/10 because I have to select and overall score and that's probably the only score I can give this show.

Describing what this show is about to somebody who wants to get into it is is like describing the "plot" of a music video. The whole thing feels like one giant fever dream with plot elements being introduced like they are literally coming ... out of someone's ass. It's so weird and strange and unique and I really haven't seen much like it in the Anime industry. The method of "story-telling" (of this very loose plot that I don't really feel comfortable describing as a "story") is always "Oh by the way, [this] is also a thing." without really describing what [this] even is, if that makes sense (it probably doesn't).
I get that it is "abstract" and "not for everybody". It's not really something you watch to understand but rather for the experience.

None of this sounds very good, but I actually kinda enjoyed it?

It's one of those shows that is just weird enough for you to come back to because you just want more of it.
The music by The Pillows is a straight up banger - then again I am a fan of rock music so I was banging my head to literally every moment of this show, can't really say if a person with different music tastes will like it.
The art reminisces of the early 2000s anime like crayon shin-chan or doraemon but has it's own visual identity.

tl;dr

Did I like this show? No.

Did I hate this show? No.

Do I recommend it to people? Well, if you are into abstract anime with good music and decent art and animation and don't really care about the plot as much as the experience - go ahead.

Poetry Reviews #2

Fooly Cooly, hm?.
Lost through all 6, but not time.
Hmm, furi kuri.

Sound of the Guitar.
Expression through drum and bass.
Rocks my mind and soul.

... Sakuga Galore.
Seeds of the future seen clear.
Ahead of its time.

Understood little.
Beyond my comprehension.
Funny asf doe.

Further thoughts:
I personally enjoyed the show, mainly because of the music and animation direction which was ahead of its time. Just mindlessly bobbing my head, vibing whilst being utterly confused and occasionally giggling. Would others enjoy it? Those with either massive 5heads or enjoy animation and music would for sure. However, those who just want to sit down and enjoy a show and follow along? Probably not. I kept going to the comment section each episode to see a breakdown of what unfolded and I would be like "ahh, yeah makes sense".

Around 10 years ago FLCL was highly recommended to me and I decided to watch it. Foolishly I thought that this would be right up my alley but soon I had to realize that I just couldn't handle what FLCL was trying to offer me. I put the anime on hold (which is just a nicer way of saying I dropped it) after the first episode confused and annoyed the hell out of me. Around a week ago and after still hearing so many praises from many different people I caved in and decided to give it another go.

The main story is as easy ... as it gets. It is basically just growing up. That's it The background story includes but is by no way limited to a Space King, a conspiracy that involves irons and aliens. On the surface this might seem interesting but it only ever serves as a nebulous background to the struggles Naota, our MC, faces when puberty hits him and provides another way to throw some more allegories in the viewer's face. And speaking about throwing, that's a little bit what Haruko does when she first runs over Naota with her Vespa. Oh, Haruko. I like Naota well enough, he is just a kid thrown into a confusing wolrd, but Haruka. She is way over the top so there is some apprecation for her because of sheer rule of awesome. A much larger part of me really dislikes her because of one and one thing alone and that is sexual harassment. I get it. Naota is struggling to be all grown up while still being a child. Allegories regarding sexual content are unavoidable. But why does a 12-year-old have to be molested not only by a (self-proclaimed) 19-year-old but also by Mamimi, a high schooler who sees him as a replacement for his older brother? What the actual fuck? And no one seems to think this is concerning. Not his father, not his fellow friends, no one. I am being honest here: this is one of the reasons why I can't rate this higher. Sure, it is all very symbolic and I do love my symbolism and my allegories but there comes a time when all that gets simply too much and becomes a disjointed mess.

The other characters are under-developed and most of them annoying and childish. I especially despised the father of Naota. Of course they are meant to be this way and I suppose their characters can be seen as a reflection of how teenagers generally see people around them and constantly think they are misunderstood; doesn't change the fact that I immensely dislike them.

I fear the slapstick humour didn't work for me most of the time precisely because of the characters. There were times when I chuckled but largely I thought that the behaviour of most characters were simply too anoying to be funny. As noted that might have been intentional but did nothing for my enjoyment.

The truly amazing parts of FLCL are the art and the music. This is an anime that will still look awesome in ten or twenty years and there are some truly good art changes within a single episode, especially the manga segments. The music is still stuck in my head and The Pillows did an amazing job. Sometimes the songs were the only things that really helped me get through certain parts.

FLCL while polarizing for others is rather difficult to rate for me. Some parts worked for me but I feel that the anime and its at the core simple story and message was bogged down by its own almost slavish devotion to cram in as much symbolism and allegories as humanely possible in six episodes.
I appreciate the message FLCL tried to convey but unfortunately I still wasn't too impressed with the final product.