Hello and welcome to the special one year anniversary of
the ANIME CORNER.
I never expected this to become the dominant feature on
my page as I originally opted to do it as a way to get the writing juices
flowing for short story writing. It’s even harder to believe ive been at it
for a year. Lots of entries, lots of
thoughts, lots of shows and movies. So I
thought long about what Anime I should review for this occasion. I was thinking Akira, because of it’s
benchmark status in the Anime realm. But
then I thought, what is an Anime that really matters to me? Yeah Akira is up there but there’s one other
that I hold in high regard, an Anime that has not been topped even by heavy
contenders like Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist and Kill La Kill. So I decided to go for it, watch all six
episodes and review it as a whole, the Anime that ranks with Gundam Wing as
changing the way I saw Anime forever…I give you FLCL.
Naota lives in a town where nothing amazing ever
happens. He thinks school is lame, has a
father who behaves like a child, and his brother is off playing baseball in
America…while his girlfriend looks to Naota for…comfort. It may be dull but it’s about to get loud and
not so boring. When a girl on a Vespa
bike slams into Naota, then hits him on the head with her electric guitar, Naota’s
life changes forever. Now that same
girl, Haruko, is living with him as a live in housemaid and she’s brought a
defective robot with her to do dishes.
Plus Naota’s head has become a portal across the cosmos for creatures,
cyborgs and aliens of all kinds to just pop on in. Bullets fly, guitars clash and everything
that can go BOOM does. It’s just another
coming of age adolescence story…kind of.
I first caught FLCL on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block
in 2003 and I didn’t know what to quite make of it. By the time I got to understanding it a bit
better…the series was over at just six short episodes. But through an immediate rewatch, I was blown
away. This is a series that stands as a
love letter to fans of Anime, taking dozens of genres and art styles, throwing
them into a blender and then holding your head into that blender (after still
so no death involved) and letting you drink it all in.
Studio Ginax (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Production I.G.
(Ghost in the Shell) and Starchild Productions all lend their creative talents
to this project. So the animation is all
over the map even though it’s main portion is pretty consistent. But there are diversions into water colors,
CG, an excellent Manga portion and even South Park style, yes you read that
right. But unlike most shows that dabble
in crossing 2D and 3D art (Escaflowne, which im reviewing now is a prime
example), the sporadic animation styles fit the looney tunes feel of FLCL. Like the moods of the characters, the
animation can change on the fly and run with it for a little bit of a stretch
and not feel unnatural.
And to complete the atmosphere we’ve got the best Anime
soundtrack since Cowboy Bebop from J-Rock band The Pillows. Easily able to change it up from zany to
action packed to deep and thought provoking, the scenes feel like they revolve
around the guitar and drum laiden tunes.
It’s the perfect soundtrack for a beautiful sunny drive around town,
just look at the end credits (featuring Haruko’s vespa going on a joyride
through town) with the song, “Ride the Shooting Star” playing in the
background. and easily worth a pick up if you can find it somewhere.
The characters are an interesting bunch. Haruko Haruhara, mentioned briefly above, is
the heart of this erratic series. She’s
a pretty girl with hidden agenda after hidden agenda who would rather speak
with her guitar slamming into the heads of anyone rather than dole out sensible
information. But whether she’s being bad
ass or just plain insane, you can’t help but love her and the mayhem she
brings. Even her really random quips are
worth a smile and a chuckle. She’s the
perfect counterpoint to Naota, who starts off pretty dull but grows to like the
world he’s been exposed to even if he doesn’t want to admit it. He’s changing and growing, rapidly since
there is no walk mode when hanging around Haruko just “shut up and hang on for
dear life” mode. It would have been
great to jump a bit ahead at the end of the series to see how Naota has
progressed since the events of the finale.
Mamimi is another enigma who at the end of the day is trying to hide
being lonely by doing the wrong things in life…like successfully hitting on her
boyfriends little brother. But it’s good
to see she seems ready to move on after Naota finally pushes her away,
realizing she’s using him as a substitiute for her brother…a scene which has
one of the best trailer shots ever when Contee lands right behind Naota ready
for battle. Speaking of Contee, not much
to say about the mute but not as useless as you would think when it comes to
combat robot. Still, eating Naota to
power up and then…s***ing him out is both disgusting but also get bonus points
for uniqueness…I guess? The one
character I think steals every scene he’s in is Commander Amarao. The false eyebrowed secret agent head is
hilarious even when he is trying to be serious and dole out exposition. Plus…”those eyebrows” get me everytime. Its pretty certain that he was the Naota of
Haruko’s mission before she met Naota and definitely a possibility of how Naota
could end up down the line but we’ll never know.
The story is incredibly all over the place even though
there is a main plot running through: Haruko searching for the power of someone
she apparently fell in love with and needs Naota’s head to get it. But that plot isn’t even really introduced
until midway through the series.
Everything else is Naota adjusting to his sudden upheaval with Haruko
literally crashing into his life. I will
say that could be a turn off for most people who want a more focused story to
watch. But while it doesn’t have some
strong intelligent points at times, FLCL is a turn your brain off and let the
images fly at you kind of Anime. And
that doesn’t even make it a wasted experience.
Heck you could make a viewing out of it trying to catch all the
references and nods to Anime, films, music and even sports like Gundam, Lupin
III, The Matrix, El Mariachi, Jimi
Hendrix and John Woo just to name a few.
The story is there and can be enjoyed but even if it isn’t clear, it’s
still an experience to be had.
Just watching this series again after some time brings
back memories of the days when I was still getting used to Anime beyond the
muscle bound smack downs of Dragon Ball Z, when Gundam Wing showed me story
matters to the images around it. FLCL
showed me what Anime was really capable of, how far it could stretch and how ridiculous
it can get and still be able to blow me away time and time again. If Gundam Wing opened the door to deeper
Anime, FLCL kicked the door down and took me through at lightspeed telling me,
the journey is just getting started. The
animation, music, characters, references and imagination have stayed with me
for a long time. It’s not for everyone
but for once im not going to dock it points for that. This is my favorite Anime of all time, yet to
be touched, doubt it can be. I hope
anyone who is a fan or is looking to get into Anime can find a show like that,
something special to their hearts. It’ll
make you smile like a Pillows song playing as you drive down the highway on a
nice spring day.
Thank you everyone for one year and hope you can stick around
for more….and keep riding that shooting star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTtOUlhL0WQ
Take care everyone and see you next week for more Anime
Corner. Thanks for stopping by.
(And with that ends the Classic Reviews. Look out for some new weekly material starting tomorrow with a test run on a new Friday feature. New reviews still continue every Monday. Til then, see ya everyone :) )
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