FLCL

AzureEclipse★ 10

FLCL is as close to a piece of literature as you're ever going to get with an anime series. Fast paced as it may be, the story beautifully presents a theme of growing into maturity, and accompanies it with stunning visuals I've yet to see surpassed. Many comments have been made on how plot is very difficult to follow due to both its speed, and also because of all the symbols, motifs, and dialogue that doesn't reveal its meaning until the very end. Never in any anime have I seen foil characters like Amarao and Ninamori played as such a beautiful literarysupplement to the main character Naota's journey into adulthood. To me, this series is the perfect balance of seriousness and humour. It makes you laugh, it makes you think, it pumps you up, its aesthetics impress you, it tells an eloquent story with a great mixture of science fiction and real life, it does everything a good story should do. Add to the mixture a soundtrack comprised almost entirely of music by The Pillows, and you have yourself and incredible piece of film work. I highly recommend watching this series multiple times (it is short enough for sure - about the length of a movie all together). Each time I watch it, I start to pick up more subtleties, like pieces of foreshadowing dialogue, thematic development between characters and their foils, and witty humour. The director's commentary is also extremely insightful to the themes of the story, and I would definitely spend time watching that as well. Most importantly, I can't stress enough to not be quick to judge this work. If you don't understand everything (and you undoubtedly won't after the first viewing), it certainly does not mean FLCL is "random" or "plotless". It is in my opinion WELL worth a second and third watch in order to pick up as much as you can. I can't sing enough praise about FLCL. It holds a dear place in my heart, and I hope everyone that reads this can find a great enjoyment in it as well.

sasloom★ 2

Oh, the highly acclaimed Fooly Cooly. It's been labeled as a "masterpiece", something "special" "unique" "pleasantly different" yada yada yada. For an anime to have gotten this much praise then it should have been extremely enjoyable and in particular funny as it is supposedly meant to be a comedy(primarily). Sadly, FLCL did not offer any but was a one way trip to hell the moment a certain character made a flashy appearance in the first episode. STORY: There is absolutely no story behind this anime. It is just six episodes of disjointed scripts that attempt to fuse together as much genres as possible then injected withpointless crude sexual humor. It is as confusing as reading a Chemistry textbook upside down and going to write a Biology exam. It is not anything overly intelligent that one wouldn't understand but a very sorry attempt for a plot. ART: A rather welcome aspect of FLCL. The art is unique and very neat while the animation is decent but nothing breathtaking. SOUND: Another redeeming feature of the show.The music, as a standalone is nothing special but mixed with FLCL actually makes sense. It blends perfectly with the animation and just about managed to keep my sanity while being subject to the torture that was Fooly Cooly. CHARACTER: This is perhaps the aspect of FLCL that is worse than the Story. A good anime has characters that you can connect to, ones you feel an attachment to, ones you root for, likable characters. The only half decent character in FLCL is Naota. The lot of em are either disgusting or detestable and very easily forgettable. Now welcome to Haruko, my no. 3 most hated character in anime history only behind Shin in Gundam Seed Destiny and Roshio in TTGL. The introduction of Haruko marked the end of FLCL for me. A good description of her would be spontaneously annoying. ENJOYMENT: I did not enjoy FLCL plain and simple. I have watched this anime an unbelievable 3 times because I kept telling myself maybe just maybe I missed something or there's is an underlying essence but NO, I only hated it more each time. CONCLUSION: When there is a subject of controversy, you find things like -Opinions differ -One man's meat is another man's poison -it is hit or miss -People have different tastes etc In this regard, FLCL is as polarizing as they come. It will be a love/hate relationship if you decide to brave the show. The good thing is you'll know which category you belong very early on.