...I'm sure it'll come as no surprise when I say that Grunge is utter dogshit and the most worthless anime I've seen.
FLCL has never been One Piece in terms of length but Grunge takes the piss by taking the already breezy, movie-sized 6 episode runtime of OG, Progressive, and Alternative and cutting that in half.
Additionally, it repeats a lot of the mistakes of Alternative and adds new ones on top.
First, let's talk about a couple I didn't talk about that have stuck around from Alternative (between that and forgetting to mention the Haruko rap scene... I should've been a bit more thorough in my Alternative review but whatever).
First, the general idea of "fuck this planet, we're heading to Mars". I probably mentioned this in passing but the Earth (or at least the city that Grunge takes place in) is an absolute shithole now. It's so gross that they show a bunch of flies buzzing around and eating stuff like the termites from SpongeBob and honestly, I don't want to see that? It's kind of nasty? Why would you do this to me, Adult Swim?
Anyway, I didn't like that plotline in Alternative and I don't like it in Grunge. Sure, a world where giant irons can just live in your world and maybe smush you isn't ideal but I never got the sense that it was a worthless planet and we gotta start over.
The other one is just... why is Haruko here?
Grunge at least makes a couple references to Atomsk so it's not like it ignores it completely but like Alternative, it just kind of pays lip service to the idea and Haruko is just fucking with these kids because she's bored, I guess?
Why is she playing the role of the mayor's girl? Why is she working with the yakuza? Only one of the three protagonists even has an overflow, she's just kind of there.
That last line has two big problems with Grunge hidden in it but let me take a little detour first.
Why the fuck is The Thing here
I'm sorry, it's been a couple years since I've last seen the original FLCL but when were there big rockmen in my FLCL
In fact, why is the yakuza here?
It feels like they're throwing shit in here to be throwing shit in here because this is the fourth season of FLCL, quick, come up with anything so we don't have to bring back Naota and Samejima!
Speaking of The Thing, let's talk about the fact that there are THREE protagonists in a THREE-episode series.
It's the same problem Alternative had but worse because Grunge decides to focus on each protagonist for an episode but, like, the other two are still kinda there, it's not like an anthology. And this results in protagonists so forgettable that it takes all my brainpower not to call the girl "Oshi no Ko" and I genuinely can't remember The Thing's name and I just watched it (I just checked, it's Shonari... I thought it was Shotaro/Shutaro).
I probably only remember Not Naota's because it's literally Shin.
And here's the thing (as opposed to The Thing, haha), right
It's not just not an anthology, it's kind of sort of one of those stories where the episodes tie into each other. Girl makes The Thing a katana and The Thing uses katana in Not Naota's story, stuff like that.
Which would theoretically be fine but that means in this THREE EPISODE story, they reuse a decent amount of footage.
This THREE EPISODE story, mind you, that looks godawful because they decided to do it in shitty 3D. I couldn't tell if my computer was crashing out or if it was just the awful animation sometimes. For whatever bad things I have said about Alternative, it is at least decently produced. It looks fine, it's not as hyper as OG or Progressive but what is there is well-made.
Grunge doesn't even have that going for it.
Speaking of the OG, as per usual, you've got your fanservice. The usual suspects are here (including LAST DINOSAUR, which I audibly groaned when I heard it) but this time, we've got an unpleasant surprise. Commander Amarao is back! I mean, I guess he's fine for what he does in the story but this is "Never Knows Best on a jenga block" levels of fanservice that didn't need to be here.
The music sure is. *nods*
Moving on.
I did mention that only one of the three protagonists has an overflow, right? And I do mean AN overflow. One.
That wouldn't be so bad but it's a symptom of the bigger problem. There are basically no mech fights, we get like one or two fights against faceless yakuza thugs (literally, I'm pretty sure they have the same face canonically) and then a short fight between Haruko and a mech.
This series has bad animation, characters you'll forget the second after you watch them, it continues to actively ruin the world of FLCL, it is just a godawful series with nothing worthy of note.
I've said for series I've found godawful before that AT LEAST it's useful for completionists who are fans of the author (usually because at least there's a much better source material that it's adapting so you can see what it was MEANT to be after). This isn't even that. If you like FLCL, hell, even if you liked Progressive or Alternative, DO NOT WATCH THIS!!!
Only watch it if you are a masochist and you truly want to see how bad it is for yourself.
The only saving grace is that at least Shoegaze can't be worse, right?
Right?
Hey, wait... no, no, no, wait, wait, wait-
