When the three powerhouse creators of Eden of the East, Gurren Lagann and Neon Genesis Evangelion bumped heads, they spawned the series that broke all the rules-then broke the mold.
Naota is a detached sixth-grader afflicted by the pangs of puberty. He's fooling around with his brother's ex-girlfriend when a crazed girl on a motor scooter runs him over, brains him with a bass guitar, and moves into his house. This pink-haired girl, Haruko - who claims she's an alien - hurls Naota into the middle of a mega-corporation's secret agenda. Oh, and now giant battling robots shoot from his skull. Mix in mind-bending animation and tunes that echo through your cerebellum to top off the trip that will have you falling hard for FLCL.
An outrageous mixture of science-fiction action,
mecha misadventures, sinister coporate plots, and broad slapstick comedy,
FLCL ("Fooly Cooly") has been a fan favorite since the six-part OAV debuted in 2000. Things have been going badly for sixth-grader Naota since his older brother Tasuku left to play pro baseball in America. At the opening of the series, he complains, "Nothing amazing happens here. Only the ordinary." Then Haruko, a girl from outer space, charges in on her motor scooter and clobbers him with an electric guitar. Her arrival upsets Tasuku's old girlfriend Mamimi, who regards bugging Naota as her prerogative. The fragmentary plot quickly dissolves into a string of chaotic events involving the main characters, Naota's lecherous father and grandfather, and various
mecha (which grow from horns on Naota's head). Looming over the town is the mysterious Medical Mechanica factory, which looks like a giant iron--and is part of a sinister plot "to smooth whole worlds." The freewheeling nuttiness of
FLCL helped set the pattern for
Dokkoida?!,
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and other self-reflexive comedies. The episodes feature references to everything from
Doraemon and
Gundam to
South Park. The bold graphic style of the animation shifts radically from scene to scene (including two sequences done as manga pages) and anticipates the look of
Gurren Lagnann.
FLCL is an off- the-wall series that will delight
otaku who value comedy and action over coherency. (Unrated, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, risqué humor, brief nudity. tobacco use)
--Charles Solomon (1. Fooly Cooly, 2. Fire Starter, 3. Marquis de Carabas, 4. Full Swing, 5. Brittle Ballet, 6. FLCLimax)
