FLCL by The Macaque

 

Japanese Title: Furi Kuri
Also Known As: Fooly Coolly
Genre: Action/Comedy
Format: 6 OVA
Allegiance: Gainax
Director: Tsurumaki Kazuya
Vintage: 2000-2001
Intelligence Agency Report by: Djudge
Naota’s life in Mabase is the epitome of drab. Nothing exciting ever happens there, period. His family is about as immature as one can get and now his brother’s just left to play baseball in America. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, he gets run over by a beautiful, if psychotic, girl who, after a strange exchange of words (and guitar blows) speeds off. In the wake of this strange meeting, Naota then sees his world turned upside-down as robots start spontaneously popping out of his head and wreaking havoc on the town. It seems that the scooter-riding stranger is back and she has answers to what’s happening to Naota. So much for boring days…

Field Agent Report by: The Macaque
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
3.00
4.25
4.00
9.00
5.50
Overall 4.25

 

FLCLFooly CoolyFuri Kuri. A dear child has many names, but sometimes even the dearest of children can make a big mess, causing frustration and nervous breakdowns to the entire family.

When I first heard about FLCL, it claimed to be everything Neon Genesis Evangelion was, and then some. So, when I’d finally came around to seeing this OVA, I was stunned. Stunned to the bone as to how a talented crew of GAINAX employees could end up making this horrid piece of dung.

The inconsistencies in FLCL would surely outnumber the mistakes made by the US government in Iraq, but since we’re not talking politics over anime, it’s not such a well founded argument. FLCL just happens to be cluttered with surprise plot changes which often surpass reason and logic, thus leading the viewer into disbelief from the very beginning. Some argue that this is where FLCL hits a home run, but to others like me, it’s more a matter of losing sight of the ball altogether.

When GAINAX sat down to design this project, they sure had a blast. Apparently they threw their brains out the window, and concentrated on having fun at the viewer’s expense. Everything in Furi Kuri seems randomized. Events do not carry on to a logical follow up, nor do any past events have any significance in the future. Even as the animation is nicely executed, the lack of a storyline makes it way too messy to watch. Allegely Anno left the production (resigning as one of the lead animators) half-way through, due to disagreements over the plot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true. Robots jumping out of a young boy’s head in a random fashion has never been this confusingly presented.

Smart people will by now know that I’m not fond of this OVA at all, but there is one aspect of this anime which I actually did enjoy. The animation is in my opinion very refreshing and extremely inventive at times. It’s as if the entire show was based on a few sketchy drawings by the directors, and then a bunch of high-school kids produced a story out of them, while stumbling upon a few very taleted artists along the way. Randomness to the second degree.FLCL is not about thinking outside the box, it’s more about thinking inside the can. Toilet humor to the third degree. The downfall of dadaistic poetry if you ask me.