Production Studio: Studio Gainax, Production I.G
Director: Kazuya Tsurumaki, Shouji Saeki
Composer: The Pillows
Release Date: April 2000
Episode Count: 6 + English Dub
Genres: Action, Comedy, Dementia, Mecha, Parody, Sci-Fi
Have you ever seen a show in which it is so off the walls crazy that you have no possible idea on how to explain it to anyone? Well the show ova series FLCL can be nothing short of the very definition of this question that I have brought forward.
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~Story ?/10~
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. As much as I would love to give the story category a score, I can’t muster up myself to even comprehend a score. Unlike most reviews that I have written I usually would write a short summary of the show’s plot. However due to the pure insanity and 4th wall breaking series that is this show I really have no idea on what exactly occurred in the show story wise. But what I can write about is how the show tackles a multitude of different themes over the duration of just six episodes and those themes include the following: maturity, coming of age, sex, masterbation, prostotution, divorce, family values, suicide, heaven, god, religious cults, drugs, addiction, and the list goes on. A majority of these themes were subtly shown, but was never directly mentioned in the show.
Each episode of the show tends to be split into two halfs. The first half being mostly exposition and tackles the different themes that I mentioned above, all while being set up for the second half. As for the second half of the episodes, this can be nothing short of being described of action, action, action, the writers of this show are on acid, and action.
I personally have no idea of how to describe the plot line of this show, but hopefully you (whoever is reading this) will be able to form your own idea on to what this show is truly about.
~Characters 8/10~
Naota “Takkun” Nandaba is an twelve year old boy who is the main character of the series. Naota is an angsty kid who claims that “nothing amazing happens here” whenever describing his town even tho it is complete and utter chaos. Naota practically practically worships his older brother Tasuku, and he does this by talking to his older brother’s ex-girlfriend all while also being obsessed with his brother’s baseball bat. Over the course of the series you see Naota break out of his shell and learns to grow up… mostly.
Mamimi Samejima is an seventeen year old girl who is the ex-girlfriend to Tasuku. She loves to skip class, sexually arouse Naota, smokes constantly and a cigarette saying “never knows best” on it, she is a pyromaniac and loves to worship some god named “Cantido” (which is actually just a robot thing…). Mamimi is the epitome of teenage rebellion.
Haruko “Haru” Haruhara is an nineteen year old alien girl. Haru is loud, bombastic, energetic, and unpredictable at times. She is the very reason as to why this show is so off the walls crazy. This character love to play the bass guitar and ride a yellow Vespa. I swear this girl is on acid or some really powerful substance… I just have no idea how to describe her...
There is more that I could talk about characters wise, but I have decided to leave the rest for you… the reader to discover more about these characters on your own.
~Music 10/10~
Unlike most anime having a composer and an orchestral soundtrack, this show decided to toss all of that out of the window and decided to have a rock band by the name of “The Pillows” to write and compose the entirety of the OST. This choice of having a band do everything works effectively for the show. Each of the songs never overpower the scene, but instead elevates them to a memorable level.
As for the Ending Theme, all I can say is that it random, filled with bizarreness, yet still melds together to make a song that just works well… and that is exactly how the show is.
My favorite tracks from the show are as follows: Little Busters, Last Dinosaur, I Think I Can, Runners High, Advice, and the ending theme Ride On Shooting Star.
I can fully say that this show’s OST is one that has shot up into my list of favorite Anime Soundtracks.
~Art/Animation 10/10~
First off, the show’s “regular” art style is so beautiful that it still holds up today. The art style fits perfectly for the show’s outlandish nature. The animation of the series holds up very well and there is no animation errors that can be spotted.
But the main focus of this category is not about the “regular” art style, instead it is about how at certain points in the series the artstyle changes suddenly. Whether it be by purposely being made to look sloppy, showing manga panels as a form of the animation and tweaking them slightly so they might move back and forth, or by having the art style change to that of South Park… yeah I’m not joking. No matter what style they choose, it all works perfectly and is one extra reason as to why this show is bizarre.
~Final Thoughts~
I decided on choosing this show to review by having a poll in one of the facebook groups that I’m in by choosing whether I should watch and review FLCL or Golden Boy. For all three of the groups that I posted the poll in, FLCL ended up being the overwhelming winner. So I decided to sit down finally and watch this show for the first time this week meanwhile knowing absolutely nothing about the show, you could say I was in for a giant surprise. I took notes for each episode as I do for nearly every review I do nowadays, some of them are serious and some are silly like “Dem eyebrows tho” and “Sporks > Chopsticks” or “this episode talked about family values and divorce”. Nevertheless no matter how many notes I took on this show there still would be so many things about this show that I didn’t understand, therefore I took to youtube in search for some reviews on there to take inspiration from. These videos included GRArkada, Gigguk, HollowOfDawn, and GoatJesus. By taking what I learned from those videos I decided to incorporate some of the ideas into this review.
I think you guys get the gist at how bizarre and out there that this show is, so taking that into account and my own enjoyment for the show and mixing it with the amount of laughs that it gave me, I have decided to give this show an 8/10. FLCL is a series that I believe everyone should watch at some point in time in their anime watching career, so go ahead and throw it onto your Plan To Watch list. And the best comparison for this show that I saw someone mention was how it is the grandchild of if you mixed Neon Genesis Evangelion with Gurren Lagann.
Now for the final question of the entire show… What exactly is a Fooly Cooly?
Well the best answer that I have found is this quote stated by HollowOfDawn.
“I guess, Fooly Cooly is what we choose to make of it” - Hollow Of Dawn
~Similar Anime Recommendations~
Excel Saga, Kill La Kill, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Panty & Stocking, Punchline, Space Dandy, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
