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Expect to be bombarded with imagery you'll be scratching your head at, ridiculous plot line, and a style that's pushed to the very limits of animation and visual storytelling.

In the city of Mabase, nothing amazing ever happens. Nothing to interest adolescent Naota Nandaba anyway. Growing weary of the same old routine: school, bizarre family, and his older brother's girlfriend constantly hitting on him while his brother is away in America playing baseball. Nothing at least until Haruko Haruhara runs him over with a Vespa...

Everything about the visual experience is unique; the series really pushes the boundaries of what animation in all styles can ... do. In one moment the scene appears calm, the palette bright but unsaturated, then in an instant the scene changes and the expressions and anatomies are pushed to extreme levels of in-your-face. Each episode is different and plays around with different techniques that make the whole show stylish and cool.

The music in FLCL is spot on perfect, albeit pretty unorthodox. Japanese alternative rock band, The Pillows, is amazing. While only a couple of the songs were composed specifically for the show, all of their music is top quality stuff. The songs are upbeat and mellow and wouldn't be expected to work with the intense visuals and storyline, but somehow, like the rest of FLCL, comes together and just works.

FLCL completely succeeds in using animation as a visual medium for storytelling, but it's not all style over substance. FLCL sports an incredibly real and likable cast of characters. Naota is your average, nothing particularly special, twelve year old boy; the perfect age for just wanting to rush into adulthood and skip all the awful hormonal happenings that occur in between. Naota's brother's girlfriend, Mamimi, is a photographer and pyromaniac projecting her missing baseball player onto the closest replacement. Haruko is loud, flamboyant, and constantly walks the fine line between incredibly annoying and incredibly awesome.

While the character's don't get a whole lot of development through the OVA, they are complex and they do change. All the adolescents deal with real relatable problems and react in ways to the bizarre happenings and difficult emotional issues in ways we would expect them to. With maybe the exception of Haruko, they all hit home in a way that everyone can sympathize with. Everybody has gone through the motions of transitioning between child and adult, first crushes, dealing with annoying parents, second crushes, and so on.

Now it's easy to become overwhelmed with all that goes on. The OVA is first and foremost a roller coaster ride of an experience. Don't go nit picking at every image asking "what does it mean, what does it mean?!" You'll end up buried somewhere in a psych ward that way. But that isn't to say that all of the weird visuals aren't symbolic or allegorical in some form. In addition to telling the loose story, FLCL is full of pop culture references, homages to other anime, and even some American television as well. It is also intensely funny with the jokes and general insanity running alongside at breakneck speed.

It's easy to write off FLCL as a ridiculous anime, no plot, no complex characterization, just visual flair and no depth, and to an extent that's true; but you don't have to look too hard to see that it's not completely random and plotless. It's about simple truths as well as intergalactic space conflict with robots. It strikes an excellent balance between silliness and sincerity. It might not be for everybody, but don't be too quick to judge the series. It's wild and crazy, but you can handle that, it's thought provoking and a lot of fun.