Anime Reviews

FLCL

In the boring, fictional Japanese town of Mabase, a pre-teen boy named Naota (the main character) struggles with young love. More specifically, with resisting the advances of Mamimi, the girlfriend of his older brother (his older brother moved to America before this series started). FLCL sounds and looks like a relaxed romance/slice-of-life story...until a girl named Haruko crashes into Naota with her moped, knocking him unconscious and shifting the focus of the series (She KOs him again – with a baseball bat – immediately after Naota arises). After the incident, Haruko stays at Naota's house as a maid and a horn pops out of Naota's forehead every time he's horny (Double meaning?), occasionally conjuring robots from his forehead as well. This is a basic summary of FLCL (known as "Fooly Cooly"), a highly controversial series among anime fans. My question is, is this any good?

I really like FLCL's stylistic shifts, the series mainly using this great slow-motion effect and a manga look for a couple of scenes. The music is also an A-plus, a rock-oriented soundtrack that strangely fits FLCL, but what I appreciate most is this anime's character portrayal. Naota's the narrator who is at times reflective and emotional, Haruko's the mean-spirited, slightly insane prankster who's a bit of a showoff, but Mamimi is on a different level from them. A desperately lonely wanderer accompanied by a schoolgirl skirt and a lit cigarette, Mamimi is obsessively attached to anything or anyone she likes, worshipping the robots from Naota's head and even burning down a school in the name of love. Mamimi evokes an unprecedented level of pity from the other characters and the audience, a confused young girl trapped inside a very confusing anime.

Most renowned anime have a few undesirable traits, like a random plot twist or a terrible acting performance from a character, but I don't know where to start with FLCL. First, there's no semblance of a plot, the show lagging around here and there to the point where effort is seriously questioned. Then, there's the weird subplot midway through FLCL, the subplot being a (really) eyebrow-raising relationship between Haruko and Naota's pervert of a dad. The site I watched FLCL on had lengthy periods of delayed audio so that was another deciding factor for me. Finally, it's FLCL's attempt at comedy, everything from the character's fast-paced talking (particularly Naota and Haruko) to the awkward SouthPark look in one scene and, perhaps worst of all, the lame running gag of focusing on Commander Amarao's tremendously thick eyebrows. Say what you want about FLCL but it is certainly unique.

During FLCL's last episode, Haruko said "Eating ramen that taste really bad can also be kinda fun too." For me, FLCL was fun. It was fun to learn things I (really) didn't need to know about the characters, to watch as FLCL shoved another crappy moment in my face when I assumed there were no more, and to joyfully look forward to FLCL's conclusion. People label FLCL a clever coming-of-age classic while I think of FLCL as the overrated culmination of whatever the production company thought would attract the most viewers. "People love robots so let's add a bunch into FLCL!" "Those otaku can't get enough of fan service so let's try to make every other scene a suggestive scene." Everybody loves South Park so we should turn a random FLCL scene into a South Park scene!" Throughout the 6-episode series, a lot of characters took a look at Naota's horn and said it was Fooly Cooly (the title of the series), but it's never explained what it means. During FLCL's last episode, Naota's father and grandfather requested Naota to explain what the term meant, naturally assuming Naota had the answer since he's the main character and everything, and Naota didn't know either. While trekking through the mess that FLCL is, I asked myself "What am I watching?" Not even the characters have a clue.

Rating: 4 out of 10