Well folks, its here.
18 years after it’s debut in Japan and 15 years after its legendary
Adult Swim run, FLCL is back with not one but TWO new seasons. FLCL: Progressive, the second season, kicked
off this past Saturday and you can check out my First Impressions of it on
Friday during FIF. FLCL: Alternative,
the third season, is set to air in September, both on Toonami. For those of you who don’t know, FLCL is my
favorite Anime of all time (yes more than Gundam, shocking I know). The thought of a sequel, let alone two, seems
daunting and scary. I mean why tarnish
the legacy of a good thing when it’s just that, a good thing? Well, the trailers have shown promise, both
visually and thanks to some reassuring musical beats from The Pillows (who are
back to do the score for both seasons).
And while I have seen the first episode (seen this Fridays FIF for more
again), I still have overarching thoughts and theories going into this new
adventure with Haruhara Haruko and her Rickenbacker Guitar. DAMN I should have done this last week but
now’s as good a time as any. These are
my Top 5 Thoughts going into FLCL: Progressive (and sort of FLCL: Alternative)
#5-New (kind of
familiar) setting and characters
The teaser trailer for both FLCL: Progressive and FLCL:
Alternative showed off some sights one would consider familiar to FLCL: high
school setting, random streets with trains and distant shots of towns with
giant iron looking buildings on high hills.
It makes me wonder if we’re going back to Mabase City from the first
series or jetting over to a brand new location.
It would stand to reason Medical Mechanica would have other irons in
other parts of the world if they wanted to run them all across the planet. Of the new characters seen so far, the one
who has my eye is the cute girl with the kitty cat headphones (they just seem
cool). And there’s the shades sporting
“other Haruko”, but I’ll get back to her in a little bit.
#4-Where is
Everybody (from Season One)?
This is probably one of the first questions to think of
going into more FLCL. From the trailers
so far, only Haruko has been seen as the chief returning character. Given she’s an alien, I doubt she ages like a
normal human (and judging from Amarao’s reactions in the first series its easy
to think she looked the same when she met him as a kid). Even so, Naota and his family and friends are
nowhere to be seen in any previews. Are
we in a new city and not Mabase? How
about Mamimi? And Canti, when we last
saw Naota’s robot sidekick he was still beating blankets at Naota’s family
bakery.
#3-Nightmarish
Imagery
Though we only see snippets, some of the “End of Eva”
esque sights of desolate, post apocalyptic wastelands and decaying bodyparts
and giant robots cant be ignored. Is
this a potential future the new leads will be striving to prevent in Season 2
(or 3)? Is Haruko possibly the cause of
this? I wouldn’t put it past her since
she was willing to let Naota’s hometown be destroyed to get what she wanted. And speaking of Haruko…
#2-Haruko’s new game (and rival?)
She’s back, with new hair and the same zany attitude that
defined her along with her signature guitar.
When last we saw Haruhara Haruko, she was flying off into space after
Atamusk, who was freed from Naota during FLCL’s “Fooly Climax.” Did she eventually find it and if not, why is
she back? Even more interesting is the
back seat riding “other Haruko” who is sporting shades and a car that drives
itself (that doesn’t seem bothered by running into people either). Are she and Haruko from the same…idk species,
clan (grouping?) and is she here to fight Haruko, help her or something else
altogether? Wherever Haruko goes, chaos
follows and it looks like Progressive and Alternative will continue that happy
trend.
#1-How will
Progressive connect to Alternative?
This question is kind of silly to ask. However, I know there were plenty of Toonami
faithful who saw the April Fools Day airing of FLCL: Alternative’s first
episode so they might already have some inkling of an answer to this one. Still, it’s hard to pick apart from the
trailers which footage will belong to which season. Plus there’s something I heard about how
these sequels were described: Progressive is a direct continuation of FLCL
while Alternative will be something almost totally different…cryptic but I
still have to wonder if one will tie into the other somehow. The only thing I know for certain is that
Haruko will be the only confirmed character appearing in both stories (heck
could Alternative even be a prequel? Hmmm).
However this comes to be, it’ll be a very hard wait between when FLCL:
Progressive ends (in early July) and FLCL: Alternative begins (in September).
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