FIF#54-FLCL: Progressive

Hidomi is a girl who walks around trying to ignore the world around her, at home and in the classroom.  But the world isn’t going to ignore Hidomi much longer.  In a town overshadowed by an ominous, and familiar structure, the quiet life is about to be upheaved by two very different women with similar goals. The first is Jinyu: who takes her job very seriously.  Then there’s Haruko: a girl who’s crazier than ever.  Hidomi might not know it yet but she’s about to become caught up in the next phase of the ultimate battle for the fate of…something.  She may not be able to understand it…but Hidomi is in for one helluva ride.

 

Oh Haruko Haruhara, how ive missed thee.  Up until the first trailers for the 2 sequel seasons for FLCL dropped, I stood firm by my stance that FLCL needed no sequel, that it was perfect all on its own and didn’t need to be continued.  The trailers made me soften that opinion…and by the end of FLCL: Progressive EP1, that opinion has all but faded.  FLCL is back and it looks ready to rock the Anime world one more time (twice sort of since Season 3, FLCL: Alternative, doesn’t drop until September).

 

First, the big question on everyone mind, one of many im sure, is this a carbon copy retread of Season 1 (wow ive gotta start calling the first arc that now don’t i?)?  The answer is a definite NO but the first episode isn’t without some nice callbacks to the old adventures of Naota and Haruko.  From Hidomi’s introductory thoughts of nothing being special or extraordinary to Juinyu running into Hidomi in the same manner Haruko plowed into Naota when they first met, these little winks are more than enough to assure you Progressive is connected to FLCL, while also working to forge its own path. 

 

This does feel like a different beast of an FLCL.  The opening sequence was enough to send chills down my spine while also playing a brand spanking new track from The Pillows to lay my fears to rest.  Hidomi’s dream of a desolate landscape where she is literally rotting away feels very reminiscent of the tone of FLCL’s 4th episode, which saw Naota dealing with his own inner darkness (it’s def the most serious of the original six episodes).  Could this be a future Hidomi is destined to try and prevent, along with her classmate Ide and Haruko and Jinyu?  That’s just the first in a string of questions that will lead to a tone of theories about where FLCL: Progressive will take us and it has my attention.

 

Hidomi is a nice successor to Naota (is she is kid I wonder?  He could also very well be Ide’s dad too but jumping ahead).  Unlike Naota, Hidomi is not embarrassed by her mothers crazy antics or the wild and wacky lessons of her teacher in disguise (it’s Haruko, it’s hardly a spoiler, you can see it as soon as she enters the room).  In fact, very little phases her until the robots start crashing into her house.  She’ll be a tough nut to crack but between Haruko, Ide and Jinyu, Hidomi’s outlook on life is definitely going to change.  Ide is the more energetic of this new lead pair and not afraid of bragging about his “special relationship” with his teacher.  It’s a good balance.

 

And what about our resident crazy lady, Haruko Haruhara?  Well we don’t see too much of her in the first episode but her presence is there and anytime she does appear is reason to cheer.  Then there’s Jinyu, whose origin I think is glimpsed in the end credits sequence (along with a hint or two about where FLCL: Alternative fits into all of this).  Jinyu got some of the best laughs of the premiere, especially when she apologized to Hidomi’s mom for not killing Hidomi when she ran into her…just so calm and mater of factly.  Jinyu’s going to fit right in with all this crazy.

 

Real quick on the production value front: I am buying that Pillows CD (or another trilogy of CDs) as soon as it becomes available.  Ive forgotten just how much of an impact their songs can have on an Anime, especially FLCL (and ill have more about that next week actually…hint: T5W).  Animation wise, Progressive still looks like its predecessor, even if almost two decades have passed and new techniques in drawing Anime have been discovered.  I’m wondering if we’re going to see more nods and homages to other Anime artstyles, same as Season 1 did.  But this looks like FLCL, it feels like FLCL…THIS IS FLCL!!!

 

Yep, Haruko rides again and she’s got a new pair of kids to terrorize.  Factor in some End of Evangelion style apocalyptic visions, a new serious Haruko type, and oh yeah Hidomi might be able to transform into a sleek robot warrior of her own, and you’ve got the makings of a sequel that, by all rights, doesn’t need to happen but it’s here and its going to revel in its chaos and insantity.  Yeah…it’s good to be back in this world (except now I have to wait week to week for new eps instead of watching weeknights like I did when I first saw the series).  Who else is ready to ride that shooting star one more time?