FLCL

Plot synopsis:
FLCL is a coming-of-age story and revolves around Naota Nandaba, a 12-year-old, working-class boy living with his widowed father and grandfather. His life in the city of Mabase is interrupted by the arrival of Haruko Haruhara, who runs over Naota with her yellow Vespa 180 SS scooter, gives him CPR, then hits him on the head with a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 left-handed electric bass guitar. Naota discovers that the blow to his head created an "N.O." portal, from which giant robots produced by a company known as Medical Mechanica emerge periodically.
Naota later finds Haruko working in his house as a live-in maid. It is later discovered that Haruko is an investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. Haruko uses Naota for her search for the Pirate King, Atomsk. She is at odds with Medical Mechanica, a monolithic industrial corporation. Naota is being watched by Commander Amarao, a special agent of the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration, who believes that Medical Mechanica is out to conquer the galaxy. Naota is ultimately drawn into a three-way battle between Haruko, Amarao and Medical Mechanica.

Tags: cult, absurd, psychedelic, action, satire, romantic, entertaining

Review:
this is what dreams are made of.FLCL is a 6-episode japanese anime production that impresses and entertains beyond explanation.
those who find their way through it's layering of bizarre beauty will realize what it truly is: the greatest thing ever.FLCL, also known as Fooly Cooly or Furi-Kuri in Japan, centers around Naota, a Japanese kid whose beloved older brother has recently moved to America to play baseball.
In the midst of it all, Naota (or as Mamimi calls him, ta-kun) finds his already troubled life turned on its side as a strange girl named Haruko rides into town on a Vespa scooter and smacks him on the head with her trusty, electric-blue, motorized Rickenbacker bass guitar.
Indeed, it's impossible to summarize the show without making it sound completely stupid: "It's about an alien woman who hits a boy with a guitar, and robots start popping out of his head." Yeah, that's gonna make people want to see it (not).
It completely departs from the classic realistic anime style, and seems to emulate more American cartoons by not letting the characters show very exaggerated characteristics at times.While it indeed is filled with craziness, there is an obvious and very strong structure to the plot.
I've read someone write that watching FLCL is like falling in love for the first time again, and it's a great description.
After all, as a coming-of-age story, those are the feelings that the main character Naota is going through himself.The music is simply the best in anime, period.
This woman and the main character are somehow tied together through a story that involves sex, baseball, aliens, robots, secret government organizations and an underlying message about growing up and finding who you are.The first time you watch it, you will not get it.
This is one of best ways to show the strides GAINAX is making as well as other greats like Evangelion, Gunbuster, and others.Almost everyone in this series undergoes change especially Naota.
This dull life changes when, for no apparent reason, a pink-haired girl named Haruko shows up on a moped...and proceeds to plow right into Naota, sending headlong into an adventure he would most likely prefer to avoid.
However, the focus seems to be very, VERY far removed from such down-to-earth elements as "Following a steady plot" or "developing characters"; instead, Furi Kuri seems to lampoon anything and everything it can, from basic elements of life and society to American Television (yes, there is a South Park section in the series).
The last episode, while lacking any true "tying up of loose ends" at least brings all events of the past to a pseudo-close, bringing an understanding to the basest wackiness exhibited.Usually, I find myself enjoying shows that are able to combine elements into powerful scenes - Cowboy Bebop is a good example of this, splicing wonderful jazz and rock with the action pacing of each section of the series.
the wonderful mix of characters and weird story, along with a cruel and wicked sense of humour and craziness makes for one outrageous anime which will not disappoint.
I am not a huge fan of anime, as I have only seen this series, Cowboy Bebop, and Trigun, but this is my favorite.Set in an urban, Japanese town called Mabase, FLCL is a zany, frenetic, wild, and hilarious look of the events following the arrival of Haruhara Haruko.
But Haruko is about to shake things up a bit...Story - 9/10 Although some may be confused and bewildered after a first time viewing, the series presents more than what is shown on the surface.
The theme is developed through Naota's experiences with Haruko as he learns what it means to just live life as a kid.Animation - 10/10 Sporting some of the craziest scenes ever, the quality doens't get much better than this.
If you are a fan of anime, or want to take a crazy trip through 6 amazing episodes, this is your series..
Ordinarily I despise anime dubbing, but as I watched the final two hours of FLCL words flew so fast and furious that I had to experiment.
(2) Make a point of switching back to Japanese at regular intervals so as not to lose important rhythms.Other than that, FLCL is superb, wildly Freudian (or something along that line), and, for its electric guitars, one of three great musically based anime I can think of at the moment.
FLCL sounds and looks like a relaxed romance/slice- of-life storyuntil a girl named Haruko crashes into Naota with her moped, knocking him unconscious and shifting the focus of the series (She KOs him again – with a baseball bat – immediately after Naota arises).
This is a basic summary of FLCL (known as "Fooly Coolly"), a highly controversial series among anime fans.
My question is, is this any good?I really like FLCL's stylistic shifts, the series mainly using this great slow-motion effect and a manga look for a couple of scenes.
The music is also an A-plus, a rock-oriented soundtrack that strangely fits FLCL, but what I appreciate most is this anime's character portrayal.
Mamimi evokes an unprecedented level of pity from the other characters and the audience, a confused young girl trapped inside a very confusing anime.Most renowned anime have a few undesirable traits, like a random plot twist or a terrible acting performance from a character, but I don't know where to start with FLCL.
Finally, it's FLCL's attempt at comedy, everything from the character's fast-paced talking (particularly Naota and Haruko) to the awkward South Park look in one scene and, perhaps worst of all, the lame running gag of focusing on Commander Amarao's tremendously thick eyebrows.
It was fun to learn things I (really) didn't need to know about the characters, to watch as FLCL shoved another crappy moment in my face when I assumed there were no more, and to joyfully look forward to FLCL's conclusion.
"People love robots so let's add a bunch into FLCL!" "Those otaku can't get enough of fan service so let's try to make every other scene a suggestive scene." Everybody loves South Park so we should turn a random FLCL scene into a South Park scene!" Throughout the 6-episode series, a lot of characters took a look at Naota's horn and said it was Fooly Coolly (the title of the series), but it's never explained what it means.
I've tried to like this 6 episode series, I've tried to link the beginning to end, I've tried to like the characters, the WAY overthetop animation, the erraticism, the niche, the "Fooly Coolly" too Coolly for Schooly everything.
They explain JUST WHAT I TOLD you in a little more detail by episode 5, but it's about four more words than what I just said to avoid spoilers.Along with these two is a couple more of said manipulative girls, an apathetic horny father, full on uzzi battles where people don't get completely blown to shreds, a creepy chain smoking school girl, a REALLY weird spider-mech battle with a young girls legs, forehead, crotch and panties turning into weapons (again, not making this up), I don't know how many hand motifs.
Perhaps it is for the better that the story is pushed to the background by a constant stream of mostly inexplicable madness, with the leitmotivs of guitars, robots, cats, cars, curry bread, eyebrows and buttocks.The best thing that can be said about "FLCL" is that it is good at what it does.
Besides the elasticity of space, time and consequence, the audience is bombarded with everything the animators could come up with: sudden switches to manga style, a South Park parody, sudden fourth-wall breaking - why the hell not?The consequence of no consequences is, however, that the audience threatens to lose its involvement in the events.
In the sixth episode, the creators seem to plainly have run out of ideas, having the characters interrupt another manga-styled sequence, and saying they are glad they can be a normal anime again, once again demonstrating what place fourth-wall breaking takes in the barrel of screenwriting.There can be a certain charm to the non-stop madhouse action and comedy; especially notable is the meticulous animation of hundreds of frames that are lost in the spitfire editing, yet are portraits of hilarity individually.
The only anime television show I've come to really love is Cowboy Bebop because there isn't any of what FLCL has.First, the good points.
FLCL is an anime series that consists of 6 episodes.
But the problem is this non coherent anime got only one thing that makes sense to everyone, it's about how a 12 year old boy is manipulated and used by 3 girls among them 2 older girls and one of them adult, along with a horny father in the house it's always about sex.
And the characters are great...I've got their pictures on my desktop (very well-animated, by they way); they all change, all have personalities...if you thought every story has flat characters in some way or another, you're wrong.And the parodies are awesome - they have parts of the movie where it's entirely still manga with chaos for audio.
As it has been stated before, the story line will be hard to understand before watching it a few times, but having to think about what you saw kind of allows you to set your imagination to what you want the story to be.
It's deceptively deep and subtle, and it still has the ability to blow me away, despite the fact that I've seen it over ten times.Unlike some popular anime, FLCL's English dub is high quality.
As Gainax (The Production Company) says a few times in the insert booklets with the DVDs. I swear this has got to be one of the best animes ever,even if you don't like anime that much,you'll at least watch this one!
FLCL is, by far, one of the craziest animes I have ever had the insane pleasure of watching.I couldn't even begin to summarize it for you,(Not because I have a lot to say about it, it's just I don't understand half of what happened myself.)But if I had to, I would tell you that there's alot of robots, guitar smashing (Mainly over people's heads), and lots of main character Naota getting run over by a Vespa.
Fast-paced isn't the word.FLCL will leave you breathless and floating in the air, the way you get when you know you've just had a life-changing experience.You'll wonder what the hell is going on, and you won't want to stop watching, so you can find out what's going on.
And you'll finish watching it again, and then you'll start again, because it is right, and it's so, so cool.Manga-style, bullet-time, construction paper animation.
It has a wonderful sense of humor, you immediately like all people on their first appearance and most of all, the music (The Pillows) is the best for this 6-episodes.
I don't like to rank my favorite things, but if I had to, I would say FLCL has to fall among my top 5 animes of all time, but I prefer to put my most favorite things on the same pedestal, so I would say FLCL is tied as my #1 favorite anime with 4 or so other shows.Someone once said "FLCL is a metaphor for growing up", I really liked that description.BUT there is always the chance that you will not like it, nothing is universally accepted, no matter how good it is in the majority's opinion, I introduced FLCL to many people, and while most people loved it, many of them simply did not "get it", I guess they were trying too hard to make sense of it on their first viewing, you shouldn't do that, just go with the flow and let is sink in slowly, you'll never really "get it" on your first viewing anyway.The region 1 DVDs are very high quality, from the stylish packaging (transparent cases and reversible covers), a perfect direct digital video transfer, the only English dub I actually like, DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY, booklet inserts (containing explanations of the Japanese-centric jokes in the episodes, interviews with the staff), and more.
I ranted on and on and I'm sorry but this is the bottom line.It's wacky it's crazy, it's manic, this is a show that works on every level no matter how deep, it's a show with good lessons on life, it's about growing up.I'm fourteen, and I've seen people my age who are forces to read certain things, or watch certain things because they want their child to be a better person.
Heck you see even bit of South Park parody in one the episodes.This really down right funny anime, however if there was anything wrong with it, its for people who understand popculture, Mainly Japanese Popculture.
Haruko is the wildest girl since Excel to ever appear on Anime, Mayumi Shintani voice acting is pretty damn good (even when she turns into a serpent and starts licking Naota).In the series you'll be able to see the most stupid thing ever: GIANT ROBOTS COMING OUT OF PEOPLE'S HEAD!!!!
FLCL is was great anime show on Adult Swim in 2004 and come back in 2018 on Toonami.
It's not about some kind of weirdness value like you're maybe thinking, it's a unique work of art that just might click with you.FLCL is a coming of age story that immerses us in the topsy turvy world of a teenage lad.
Let's see what we can find.Visuals: This is some of the best animation that you are likely to see in a TV series.
There's a clear plot about Naota and Haruko that we are following, but there are things going on the background that are barely explained, and even the final episode, which makes few things clear, still opens the show up to a lot of questions.
I honestly don't know I watched All six episodes and I still have no idea what's going on here but I'll try to explain it the best I can.Some random kid 12 year old kid named Naota Nandaba has some kinda puberty thing going and one day this crazy b*tch with pink hair on a motorcycle hits him with a guitar and a giant computer robot comes out of his forehead....I am not making any of this up folks a Giant robot climbs out of a 12 year-old boys forehead.
One such WTF moment follows the other in breathtaking speed, underlined by an awesome soundtrack from the Japanese rock band "The Pillows".Therefore, when watching FLCL for the first time, you will most probably understand only a tiny bit (if anything) of the storyline.
And I am quite sure that the (few) negative reviews found here come from narrow-minded people who watched only one maybe two episodes, and then decided that FLCL is too random and whacky.
Shame on them.But many others will be fascinated (like I was) by the beautifully psychedelic scenes and continue watching, if only to find out if it can get any weirder (believe me, it can!).And those who watch the whole series open minded and pay attention to the story will be rewarded by far more than having experienced an one- of-its-kind anime LSD trip - suddenly it will all make sense.
FLCL is so dense and fast-paced that you might have to watch it multiple times to discover all the hidden puzzle pieces you need to understand it.In conclusion and retrospective, I still have a place in my heart for the above mentioned Elfenlied, and other great animes (like Mononoke, Nausicaä, Spirited Away to mention just some few), of course.
Not to mention some great music by the Pillows.Indeed, Fooly Coolly (FuriCuri)(FLCL)(whichever you want to call it) will leave you saying "And then I watched FLCL and was like WTF was THAT??!!" (but in a good way) XP.
These episodes are great if you have not seen FLCL i would have to say that you are missing out on viewing one of the best anime productions ever.If you would like to read up on his production of FLCL I would suggest the viewer to go to the website www.flclw.com a website constructed for FLCL fans..
Usually I'll seek out a subtitled version of all my anime but I was impressed with the quality of the English voice-work on this one.If you do decide to watch FLCL you should accept going into it that IT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE.
I don't know why some people criticize this anime mini-series for being absurd and random: While it is true that "FLCL" is completely absurd and random, those are the main reasons of why this is so entertaining to watch, being a completely unpredictable animation that is also very funny and well done.I liked very much the characters of this series, which were very likable, strange and interesting: The contrast of the "sanity" of more "down to earth" characters as Naota, with the craziness of characters as Haruko, combined with the many eccentric events that take place in the course of this story results in something very original and fascinating, which never fails to entertain.It also helps the fact that this incredibly well animated and has nice music.Also, the little South Park homage in one of the episodes was simply awesome."FLCL" is something crazy and wonderful at the same time: I'm not sure if this is supposed to be something "deep" or "symbolic", but personally I enjoyed it very much..
The ending, to me, gave off a feeling of a Mandarin Chinese movie.Anyway, if you watch it for the first time, don't give up after the first episode, the LEAST you can get out of it is some good music..
However I hope they bring back some characters from season.If you want an anime which is really mature and is robot associated I would recommend FLCL..