FIF#191-FLCL Grunge

In a dingy, dirty town, the hopelessness of the last generation has passed onto the youth of today.  Among those youths is Shinpachi, a young man working with his no nonsense father at a Sushi Restaurant.  Life is going nowhere.  But then a beautiful girl named Haruko walks into his restaurant and Shinpachi’s world changes forever.  When Haruko starts a war in the streets, Shin is excited to aid her however he can.  To Shinpachi, Haruko’s arrival is a sign of hope…little does he realize the true havoc Haruko can bring down in her quest for the all powerful being known as Atamusk.

 
FLCL is a one of a kind Anime experience.  When I first saw the original back in 2003, it quickly became my all time favorite Anime (yes even more beloved to me than Gundam) because of its colorful and varied animation styles, references to all of Anime’s history and commitment to its insane, off the wall action and humor (the soundtrack still slaps too).  It cant be and shouldn’t be replicated, no matter how successful.  FLCL needs no sequel…and now we have three with a fourth on the way.  Neither FLCL Progressive or FLCL: Alternative managed to even match the quality of the first FLCL, in fact save for the music of The Pillows, they bombed pretty hard.  That hasn’t stopped Adult Swim from teaming up with Production I.G. to make and see how much they can truly get away with.  Which brings us, at last, to FLCL Grunge…is the first episode any good?
 
In a way, the writing staff mustve taken a good long look at Progressive and Alternative and are trying their best not to steer in either of those directions (yet).  And yet Grunge’s premiere has a strange familiarity running through.  From the Medical Mechanica Plant to a robot with a TV for a head to even the appearance of Commander Amarao, this debut feels like its trying to apologize by showing fans familiar cues and even using Naota style narraration for Shin for the bulk of the episode (Shin’s design even looks a little Naota ish).  To me, this is playing things way too safe for FLCL.  Progressive and Alternative swung for the fences and missed but at least they were different (not good but still).  Most wince inducing is the usage of the Pillows, back once again to do the OST.  Many of the tracks in Grunge’s premiere are all rerecordings of songs from FLCL’s original season with barely any new tracks.  That just feels like a desperate ploy to draw viewers in, kind of like how Netflix randomly used Yoko Kanno’s classic tracks randomly to mask how terrible their Cowboy Bebop Series was.
 
The biggest sign of trouble, however, is the animation.  This is a CG Season for FLCL and yeah…it doesn’t work.  Now, I’m not gonna say Haruko doesn’t look sexy as hell in her little red dress or her iconic main outfit.  But the greatest strength of FLCL is its hand drawn animation.  The fact that you could pull off all of those insane visuals with pencils is the stuff of legends and the CG that was used was used sparingly.  The all CG style just looks weird from how everyone moves to the eyes bulging out of everyones head, especially Shin.  Also why are there rock creatures who look like Ben Grimm from Marvels’ Fantastic Four running around? One look at them and I swear they don’t belong in FLCL but rather Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.  In their attempt to make Grunge feel like classic FLCL, the animation team instead feels like theyre trying to jump on a trend that, in my opinion, has rarely ever worked.  Now if FLCL were parodying CG Anime, that’s one thing.  But trying to commit to this style for a whole season?  Seriously, CG Anime has never been a thing and I doubt FLCL Grunge will buck that trend.
 
While I’m sure I’ll watch and review this one in full in time (probably Early 2024), I’m not looking forward to more FLCL Grunge.  You’d think after two failed attempts to match the majesty and mayhem of the original, Adult Swim would be content to let the first season remain the definitive FLCL viewing experience.  But no, now they’re gonna give us an attempted rehash of said original with reused music, ugly animation and as many blatant nods to the OG as possibly can to try and convince fans this is worth their time.  And jeez, there’s a fifth season after this.  Why…just…why?