It is sad, but how often do we find ourselves being cheated by an anime? You know, the anime with a plot so basic that you can predict every episode before watching it. It is the anime so random that it insults your intellect for years to come. For a quarter of the first episode, FLCL (Fooly Cooly, Furi Kuri) will make you feel that way. You may feel that way until you watch the short series another four times. Upon watching the series again (a recommended two times), however, you'll run into one exciting and eccentric adventure.
Naota lives in a small and dull city where nothing ever happens. Naota's character, look and environment are strongly reminiscent of Renton Thurston of Eureka 7, and Naoto narrates FLCL and tells us about his drab and quaint city-much like Renton. Naota's sluggish city, however, is soon disturbed by the haunting tale of the 'mad wasp woman'. The pink haired woman is indeed mad after she flattens Naota's head out of nowhere (and if you're wondering why he was fine you'll miss what is coming next). That is they key to watching FLCL: don't pay too much attention to details the first time.
Naota's head undergoes a transformation after his encounter with Haruko, whereafter a retarded bump springs out of his forehead when no pressure is applied to it. Naota's forehead becomes the catalyst of FLCL's 'plot'. After her meeting with the apathetic Naota, crazed Haruko Haruhara utilizes Naota's bewitched forehead for her own personal agenda, and she just likes to he say he has the 'right kind of head'. We soon learn that alien Haruko has some connection to the mysterious factory in Naota's town, which vaguely resembles a steam iron, Medical Mechanica.
Although Naota is initially and consistently suspicious of Haruko's origins and motivation, his family (namely his father who has a growing interest in Haruko) ignores his paranoia. Solemn Naota remains alert to the happenings around Haruko, often criticizing her crude and mysterious behavior. FLCL toys around with the relationship between Naota and Mamimi, Tasuku's (Naoto's brother) old girlfriend, Medical Mechanica, Naota's growth as a character, which is prompted by Haruko, and the origins of alien Haruko Haruhara and her search for Atomsk.
While FLCL is surely an eccentric, face-paced, and frankly an insane anime, it is also intelligent, captivating, and
humorous.
Rating:
FLCL's art is very clean and pleasing. Although it is generally humble, it still manages to keep up with the fast-moving storyline of the anime. On an interesting note, the anime often ushers in the use of manga panels instead of animation, much like in the anime adaption of Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances. Everything is bright and wild, staying very in touch with the audio and story of FLCL. To that end, I find the animation vibrant and satisfying. The feel and overall reception to the art should be nothing but positive, which is just as sarcastic and witty as the anime.
Some viewers may enjoy a South Park parody in episode five.
Rating:
FLCL's innovations go father than an underestimated plot.
FLCL is the first anime I have come across that has used five opening themes in the course of six episodes, all by Japanese band The Pillows.
OP1: One Life
OP2: Instant Music
OP3: Happy Bivouac
OP4: Runners High
OP5: Carnival
ED: Ride on Shooting Star
The ending is likewise by The Pillows and is used for all six episodes. I am personally not a fan of The Pillows but can tolerate the music. The songs used all fit the anime like a glove, namely the ending theme 'Ride on Shooting Star'. The main battle theme 'Little Busters' is my favorite of the series, and is frequently reused throughout FLCL.
Unlike most anime I view, the dub came before the original Japanese audio. As usual, I began watching skeptically. However, I was pleasantly surprised upon hearing the dub. Finally someone had been honest with me when recommending a dub. After hearing the Japanese audio, I do believe that the dub cast is almost as brilliant as the Japanese cast.
The Japanese cast: Mayumi Shintani as Haruko, Jun Mizuki as Naota, Izumi Kisagi as Mamimi and Koichi Okura as Commander Amarao.
Honestly, I was skeptical of Mayumi as Haruko at first. I had heard her as cute and cunning Tsubasa of Kare Kano prior to FLCL. After discovering she was Haruko, I was stunned. Now I cannot imagine who else could have pulled of Haruko so well. Jun Mizuki, though, I was not familiar with before watching FLCL. He, too, gave a stunning performance as Naota, who portrays few emotions at FLCL's start. And while Izumi Kisagi gave a likewise wonderful performance, Koichi Okura was undoubtedly my favorite of the series. He endowed the Commander with all the stupid charm he needed to fit into this series.
The English cast: Kari Wahlgren as Haruko, Barbara Goodson as Naota, Stephanie Sheh as Mamimi and Dave Mallow as Commander Amarao.
Like the Japanese cast, Kari and Barbara provided nothing but excellence as Haruko and Naota. Frankly, with Naota's sarcastic character Barbara was better than any male voice I could have seen as Naota. Stephanie gave an admirable performance, but it lacked a bit for me. Mamimi, in general, did not stick to me as much as the other FLCL characters which could be why she is not as noticeable. Dave Mallow as Commander Amarao also proved to be my favorite character of the English-speaking cast, and Kari too.
The point is, in either languages FLCL is worth the listening to.
Rating:
While it is true that I really do love FLCL, nothing deserves a perfect ten. FLCL is still far from perfect. Even though sound, animation, characterization and story are all there, it is hard to ignore how long they take to discover. Excuse the lame analogy, but FLCL is like a beautiful painting. If you have all the elements to a timeless painting, never showing it longer than a few seconds, is it really a beautiful painting? FLCL has all it needed, but its creators were too excited by it and needlessly rushed through. Still, I recommend FLCL to anyone with the patience to stumble upon something unexpected. Even though it may not be beautiful at first, good art takes time to appreciate. It really is worth the time.
It very difficult to find an anime that is not afraid to be bold, and, let's face it-just a little insane.
Rating:
6.50 (above average)
Reviewed by xxKurumi, Sep 06, 2008
I still see the same problem with this review that I've made mention of before. You have serious sentence flow issues. Your verbage is typically pretty good overall and it's evident you are intelligent enough to get a valid point across, but you still rely heavily on that comma. 75 of those suckers to be exact. Most of them just prove to be flow breakers as opposed to necessary.
I'm sure other comments will follow. We will see how they feel on the matter.
Quote by shoujoboyI still see the same problem with this review that I've made mention of before. You have serious sentence flow issues. Your verbage is typically pretty good overall and it's evident you are intelligent enough to get a valid point across, but you still rely heavily on that comma. 75 of those suckers to be exact. Most of them just prove to be flow breakers as opposed to necessary.
I'm sure other comments will follow. We will see how they feel on the matter.
Ah, well I always keep your advice in mind when writing reviews. I will go over this again some time tomorrow and try and correct as many claring comma/sentence flow issues as I can. Thanks again for the comment + critique.
This is a good review content-wise; flow issues aside (and I needn't reiterate Shoujoboy's prior comments). I have been hesitant to check out FLCL - it looked far too weird for my liking on the basis of the trailers. However, you've put across some very astute and compelling observations that have really made me sit up and re-think my position. Maybe I should give this one the benefit of the doubt and take the time to watch it, I may be pleasantly surprised. Well done, and I'll look forward to seeing the revised product once you've gone over it again.
Quote by davidh01This is a good review content-wise; flow issues aside (and I needn't reiterate Shoujoboy's prior comments). I have been hesitant to check out FLCL - it looked far too weird for my liking on the basis of the trailers. However, you've put across some very astute and compelling observations that have really made me sit up and re-think my position. Maybe I should give this one the benefit of the doubt and take the time to watch it, I may be pleasantly surprised. Well done, and I'll look forward to seeing the revised product once you've gone over it again.
Sentence flow noted. If you do end up giving the series a try, drop me a line about your thoughts.
I'm with dave on this one. Good review.
About the show though, I know this is a six episode show but I felt it had so many things happening in such short time that 25 minutes felt like 2 hours. I completed watching this one after putting 2 month interval on each episodes just to give me the sense of "I wanna know what goes on next..." yet only curiosity rather than urge pushed me to finish it.
And to be honest... I remember nothing of this show. :sweat:
I gave up on caring about grammar problems, this is online not english class ^_^ but all in all I thought the review was good
cool review
woah! cool review! :D
Good review. One of my personal favorite shows.
Good review of this great amazing anime, I advise her OST, an electro-rock mix that I always listen to some times.
little bit confused
I don't understand what you are talking about...sorry
FLCL is great!
i like the character design
The weirdest anime I've ever seen, yes! Though its short but its actually good and worth watching, the sound tracks are awesome too!
Thanks for the review!
This anime was strange yet funny and entertaining!
Thanks for the review!
Thanks
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