Genre: good question

Creator: GAINAX

Number of Episodes: 6

Reviewer: StorminNorman

Hmm, where to start on FLCL? Well... hmm. Okay... We start out with a 12 year old boy (Naota) talking to his older brother's girlfriend (Mamimi) before suddenly being attacked by Haruko... a 19 year-old (actually much older, but that's for later) girl with a mean-arse Vespa and a bass guitar with a built in circular saw. This all happens in the town of Mabase, dominated by a the Medichal Mechina factory... which bears an uncanny resemblance to an oversized iron.

After getting whacked on the head by Haruko's bass guitar of extreme violence, Naota develops a rather phallic lump on his head (Sort of gives a new meaning to the word dickhead) which he covers over with a bandage. Anyway, stuff happens, and eventually the lump gets too big for Naota and explodes out of his head into a giant robot. The robot is defeated by a whack of Haruko's guitar, and all is happy again. At least, that's the first episode. It gets weirder. LOTS weirder.

FLCL is a typically GAINAX series... it has action, humour, and that brand of dark emotion that they perfected with Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's funny watching this and thinking it's from the same studio as Evangelion (although NGE's creator, Hideaki Anno, didn't work on FLCL), as much of the same conceptual ground is covered in these series. FLCL is also reminiscent in some ways of an early GAINAX OAV, GunBuster (FLCL is actually the second OAV series that GAINAX have done). Both series (and NGE for that matter) centre around youngish characters with serious emotional problems, and giant robots. There is also the threat of the end of the world if someone doesn't do something about an alien onslaught. Of course, FLCL has far less fan service that GunBuster, but it's also 13 years newer too.

Visually FLCL impresses for the sheer amount of different visual styles that have been packed into each episode... there is a five minute sequence in the first episode that is basically a camera panning across a manga with sound to match. It's worth mentioning that this series must have been a bitch to translate too (As was the last GAINAX series, Kareshi Kanojo No Jijyo) as there is a lot of things happening on screen at the same time, and several sections where people talk over the top of one another. It's obvious that GAINAX have used cel-shaded CG for many parts of the series (including the pseudo-Matrix sequence near the start of the first episode). Despite this, the series doesn't suffer from that obviously-done-on-computer look that plagues many new animated series, especially those from the US.

The FLCL soundtrack is completely appropriate. Instead of going for the stock j-pop/orchestral combination of most anime, GAINAX have chosen to use j-rock instead. (actually the term j-punk is probably more appropriate). Many of the songs used in the series have a very British feel, sort of covering ground from The Who through to The Verve. It's got to rank as one of the best soundtracks to a series of all time... the song `Little Busters' is a great tune (and sung in English too!) as is the closing theme, `Ride On Shooting Star'.

Another thing I noticed while watching FLCL (I should point out that this review is based on the first 5 OAV episodes, the sixth episode wasn't available at the time of writing) is how culturally aware it is. Anime tends to avoid referencing culture, limiting itself to the rare reference to other anime (Sailor Moon has a classic episode about this, and Nadesico is perhaps the best example of anime references within an anime). GAINAX, however, have broken this mould with FLCL, which not only provides several blatant references to Neon Genesis Evangelion (which is also by GAINAX), but contains many references to western popular culture, a rarity in anime. The most blatant reference is in episode 5, where an entire sequences is drawn to look like the US animated series, South Park. Later in the same episode, Naota imitates Kenny, a character from that series. It is worth FLCL for these two sequences alone.

FLCL is the sign of a production studio at the height of its powers. GAINAX have always produced quality anime, and their influence on anime in general can not be understated. When Neon Genesis Evangelion came out, the big question was, how would they top it? The answer was, of course, Kareshi Kanojo No Jijyo. Of course now the question is... what will they do next?

| Anime Reviews | | A - J | | K - P | | Q - Z | | Video Games Reviews |