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Well, here's my review for FLCL (or Furi Kuri, or Fooly Cooly, or whatever the heck you want to call it.) It's really quite a truthful review, for if you're an obsessed fan of the series, I suggest you turn around now and keep your "not helpful's" to yourself.


STORY--- Simply put, there was none. I suppose it was meant to be a coming of age story, but alas, I fail to see this for myself. There was little to no plot, with each episode consisting of nothing but chaotic character interaction rampant with dialogue that could be "misinterpreted" sexually. If I recall correctly, and keep ... in mind that I was told this by a HUGE fan of the show, nearly every phrase spoken could be interpreted as a sex joke. Also: many objects in the show can also be viewed sexually (IE: Canti is supposed to represent a penis when he turns into a red cannon.) Even the TITLE of the show is a sex reference!

Too many sex jokes? Too simple? Too mindless?

Nope! When they're "discreetly hidden throughout the show", even sex jokes are "smart." Apparently that's what the kids are thinking these days while they giggle into their hands, in pseudointellectual glee.


ART--- One of the finer aspects of the show, I, by no means, hated the art. This doesn't mean that I'm a fan of the art style or anything; I just had little reason to complain about it (especially when you compare the art to something more atrocious, like the story.) Admittedly, it was really quite cartoonish at parts, but mostly where appropriate, so I had little reason to gripe about that either. Also, the sketchy art style is unique, if nothing else, so I need to rate this at least a seven out of ten.


SOUND--- Again, this is one of the finer aspects of the show. I honestly felt that the voices, as annoying as they may have been, really did fit the characters perfectly (in English anyway.) Also, the musical score is decent, and while it's not something I'd listen to every day of the week, it is something that I can enjoy once a song gets stuck in my head. This is definitely the best aspect of the show, and as such I'll give it an eight.


CHARACTERS--- 99% of the time I'm generous enough not to rate something a one, but the characters in this series don't have a snowball's chance in hell at scoring anything higher. I HATED the characters in this series more than in most. They're loud, annoying, immature, whiny, and entirely unlovable. They're damn near impossible to relate to, and they display little to no development at all...and if they did, then I missed it because of the chaotic "storyline."

There was ONE character I liked in this entire series, and that was the kid in the mouse costume. "Smoooooooch!"


ENJOYMENT--- The reason I gave this a four was because, when you don't try to swallow the "symbolism" and "intellectual value" that this show allegedly has backing it, it's actually mildly entertaining. Of course, this is long after you've accepted that the show is nothing but mindless entertainment.

And it is mindless entertainment.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of mindless entertainment, so I gave this a four. You'd think that I, the one writing this negative review, would've given it an even lower score, but I do have some reasons for not outright giving it a one. First of all, I did enjoy some of the humor, to some degree. It was random, sure, but there were some parts that I found mildly amusing. It's not like I was bursting out in laughter or anything, nor did I find the show terribly clever or witty, but I did give a chuckle here and there. Also, while I did not come for the art, nor the sound, I did enjoy both of said subjects thoroughly (more so the soundtrack; I didn't really 'enjoy' the art, but I'm not complaining either, so I guess you could call that 'enjoyment' since this is FLCL we're talking about here.)


OVERALL--- I COULD have given this a one. I really could have; especially when you compare this anime to some of the real masterpieces out there. In fact, it deserves a one simply because it is absolute garbage compared to these masterpieces I speak of... but I'd feel bad giving it a one because the sounds (voices/music/etc...) were actually pretty good, and the art wasn't half bad either. So I'll stick it with a two and get over my guilt eventually.

The story was a train wreck, the humor was mostly sex-based, and got old really quickly, my primary enjoyment of the series consisted of "ooh, pretty music", and, on top of all this, I hated the characters more than I've hated in most series. While the show did have its redeeming qualities, the fact remains that I didn't watch this show because I heard it had good artwork, nor did I watch it because I heard it had good sounds...I watched it because I heard that it was a good story with good characters, and that it was off-the-wall hilarious with all sorts of intellectualism going on.

I got the opposite of all that. Hence, my low score.

I hope you all found this review helpful, and I'm hoping you won't give me a "not helpful" simply because I spoke my mind about the show.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni has received much praise from the anime community in general, which hails it as the mystery to end all mysteries. Everybody loves it and chances are that, if you're reading this now, you've heard good news!

However, upon my completion of the anime and the 2 subsequent seasons that followed, I came to the conclusion that this praise was COMPLETELY undeserved by the anime, which is mediocre in the intellectual department, and is much less a mystery story than it is an action/adventure story with a lot of secrets. Furthermore, any actual "mystery" behind the story is made impossible to solve ... by the introduction of unnecessary paranormal elements and fictional diseases.

Overall, I was very disappointed by this anime, and it is not worth the hype.

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Story: The first part of the first season I found to be very interesting indeed. Everything was confined within the laws of physics, and I was constantly on my toes trying to solve the mystery of Hinamizawa. Sadly, the story floundered from the last arc of the first season up to halfway through the second season, and it became a chore to watch. The introduction of unnecessary paranormal elements and fictional diseases did not help either, and only served to further complicate the plot while not adding much value to the story. In any case, we certainly could have done without them. Luckily, the story picks back up during the second half of the second season, which greatly makes up for the absolute failure of a first half, and you'll probably find yourself pleased with the ending.

Overall I would say that the story lowered itself from what it could be (an awesome mystery story) to what it is now... a confusing action adventure story for people that like to pretend they know what's going on from the very first episode.

Score - 6; Completely overrated. So much wasted potential...


Art: I wouldn't say that the art is completely terrible, but it certainly could've been better. The artist uses gradeschool techniques of using unusual hair to differentiate the characters. Okay. The little girls are anorexic and have square-shaped heads. Alright. Mion and Shion have stereotypical oversized breasts. I'm losing my patience...

Then I figured out that Teppei Houjou is a recolor of Ooishi.

Now I'm just angry.

The blood and gore portrayed in the anime does help alleviate the pains of this travesty though, and the general art style isn't atrocious like in some other anime I know, so I can't give it a 0.

Score - 3; Everything you would expect to see in an anime, with added blood. I don't see why everyone thinks it's so special.


Sound: I found that the voice actors fit the characters well, and I was also impressed by the ending and opening themes for each series. However, I found some of the character dialogue cheesy, and some of the children's speech patterns were annoying (okay Satoko, you miss your brother, we get it.)

Score - 7; The VA's were good, the soundtrack is nothing to scoff at, but the dialogue is not without its flaws.


Characters: You know, I must admit that the character development was pretty "good". In fact, it was so "good", that I was bored by it. I found Rika's long tangents later in the series to be uninformative, uninteresting, and unimportant. But it's okay because "it helps build her character!" right?

Wrong!

Furthermore, I don't see why the hell the older characters would even bother to hang around with the younger ones, aside from Shion that is. And, more importantly, why the devil does someone like Satoko know guerrilla warfare!? Humorous as it may be, I don't believe it is ever explained.

(and even if it is, that doesn't explain why she can knock Keiichi flat across the room without batting an eyelash!)

Score - 4; I was sarcastic when I said that the character development was good.


Enjoyment: Despite being highly disappointed by the anime as a whole, the ending was cute and the beginning does get you hooked pretty quickly, so I did moderately enjoy it.

I think my favorite arc was when Keiichi threw the ohagi at the wall. I lol'd pretty hard.

Score - 7; Maybe I'm being generous, but I had a few good laughs and there was nothing better than seeing the look on Keiichi's face when that ohagi went splat.


Overall - 6; Although I was highly disappointed by it, the anime did have its good points. My advice to you is don't listen to the hype and don't bother with it unless you like shoddy, confusing storylines.