FLCL (Fooly Cooly)

[Last Exile]

Giant anime robots sprouting from peoples' heads?! Your brother's ex-girfriend intimately hitting on you yet wagging school like crazy and gradually becoming more disconnected from reality?! A crazy alien woman smashing your head in with a guitar?! Paying out South Park, Playboy bunnies, manga, Evangelion, sex, love, rock music, bunk beds, cosplay, school, class presidents, school plays and a load of other things?! Oh, and there's a fact that there's a 2000-metre high iron in the middle of town and no one knows the hell why?! And the fact this series only goes for 6 episodes?!

SWEET! :D

Years before Excel Saga, Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh and Full Metal Panic? (Fumoffu) explored the endless depths of the 'anything goes' anime genre, GAINAX decided to stop living off of Evangelion's glories and make something else that was good.

Lord knows how they came up with FLCL (Fooly Cooly) [Furi Kuri]! And what the hell was Furi Kuri supposed to eman anyway?! Did we ever figure that out?! (I think it's referring to stroking someone) But bloody hell, thank god this anime was made!

If there was to be one law in anime, it should be that: There are no rules in anime.

Fooly Cooly breaks all the rules and then some. There is a plot amongst all the pandemonium, although it's not revealed until the last 2 minutes of the last episodes! :D Simply, Naota live sin a country/city place somewhere in Japan. He's been feeling down since his legendary brother went to play Major League Baseball in the USA, and his ex-girlfriend is pretty hung up on him to. She's even taken to getting intimate with Naota to take her mind off of reality. Until the day that Haruko rides up her Vespa and smashes Naota's face in with a guitar. Things then get really nutty when Naota starts sprouting robots from his head, Haruko messes up his home life, Marinin gradually lsoes her mind even more and an endless stream of crazy events rock Naota's hometown.

If you were told about this simply in words, you'd probably doubt this anime would be worth it. Suprisingly, it's quite the little beauty! Simply put, Haruko steals the show with her endless bizarre behaviour, and definitely deserves the position of most power female character in anime, after you see her potent guitar swings in action! The rock soundtrack is sweet to hear while watching this or on its own. The 40+ guitars-like sound reminds you of American rock in the early-mid 90s like the Smashing Pumpkins at their rawest in Siamese Dream and just makes this anime even more kick-butt. And when you really think about it, as Naota says, life in the end was fairly normal for him. Life really is a series of events with the odd moments of insanity everyday. It just happened that for a while, Naota's moments of insanity were far more extreme.

Simply, this anime is plain good fun. Amongst fodder and clones of other animes and sequels and excessive fanservice, it's a relief to know that someone got it right back then in 1999. It's nice to know that anime can pay itself out, its makers out and life in general.

Rating: 9.7/10. Such a cool series.

[Razola]

Best. Anime. Ever.

I love it so much I even understand the plot. And the soundtrack is just awesome.

[The Muffin Man]

It's times like this I really wonder why we don't have some sort of official anime/manga review topic stickied by a mod. It'd make alot of sense, so that people could post reviews there. (http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7597)

[Razola]

Originally posted by The Muffin Man
It's times like this I really wonder why we don't have some sort of official anime/manga review topic stickied by a mod. It'd make alot of sense, so that people could post reviews there. (http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7597)
Are you trying to tell him something?

[BlueEyesPikachu]

I love this anime! It's so random! HUZZAH FOR RANDOMNESS!

Too bad it was so short...

[EVme15]

If they made it any longer, they'd have messed it up. FLCL was meant to totally be short.

But, oh man, that series is AWESOME!!! Too bad I only saw half it. (Episodes 6, 1, 2. In that order). There was a plot? Gee, too bad I missed it among all my confusion. The last time I saw the final episode(s) of a series first was Cowboy Bebop. That didn't make much sense either. Note to self: stop doing that. --;

[BlueEyesPikachu]

I got some of the storyline.

The manga totally made it random, I had no clue what was going to happen next. Also, they had it different. Two novels!

[Last Exile]

Mike, cool it. I know that topic exists. But don't you think more people actually interact this way?! Don't you think this way that more people find out who likes what?! No one posts in that sticky anymore anyway!

This way, I found out that Raz, Evme15 and BlueEyesPikachu like it as well. Thus my respect for Raz continues to grow, as does my respect for Evme15.

PS. How do YOU fell about this series, Mike? Come to think of it, how do you feel about any anime?! It would be nice if you actually posted something about the topic and stated your point of view in something longer than 3 lines.

PSS. Want a cookie to make up? How about a banaa cookie? A GREEN banana cookie! :D

[classy_cat18]

I loved the references to Lupin III and Blue Gender (took me a long time to remember that one). And Kanti (sp?) is the coolest robot. I would say that my favorite episode was the third one.

Haruko: Bathroom? Over there.

[Razola]

Originally posted by Citrus Crush Chikorita
This way, I found out that Raz, Evme15 and BlueEyesPikachu like it as well. Thus my respect for Raz continues to grow, as does my respect for Evme15.
If you had read the Review Thread, you would have known this already.

FLCL is my favorite anime, hands down. It's got style and a killer soundtrack to boot.

[Powarun]

Ah, FLCL is an awsome anime. SOmethign I really liked was the music and how well it played into the storyline. Like right after a fight they play Little Busters. And each boss scene was orginal to a certain point, although almost, actually I want to say, all bosses/enemies were just gigantic hands. It was an awsome anime, glad I got the DVD's, to see all the guitar smashing and everything again and again.

The city they live in is Mabase
And the music is mainly the Pillows, which I listen to and a lot of people thinK i am crazy for listening to J-music. A great anime, I would recomeend it to anybody whom wants to see something outrageous. And CCC. I would disagree with you on something, FLCL doesn't really have a plot, at all. Just some thoughts that are in a thing story line.

[Razola]

Originally posted by Powarun
And each boss scene was orginal to a certain point, although almost, actually I want to say, all bosses/enemies were just gigantic hands.
There's a reason for that.


And CCC. I would disagree with you on something, FLCL doesn't really have a plot, at all. Just some thoughts that are in a thing story line.
It does; it just doesn't explain everything a million times like a lot of animes do.

[BlueEyesPikachu]

I don't know why they called it FLCL. They just could've called it Fooly Cooly. In the manga, Naota's "disease" is called the Flictonic Klipple Waver Syndrome. FLKL? Maybe American dubbers dubbed it wrong. It would make more sense. I'd rather say Fooly Cooly though. ^^

[MToolen]

There are many different titles for this anime (making searching for it on engines extremely stupid), including FLCL, Fooly Cooly, and Furi Kuri.

Anyway, this is an awesome anime, stopping just when it needed to. Everything was just perfect- the comedies, the parodies, the action, the overly-long-and-drawn-out-semimonologues-about-life- everything. T'was awexome.

[RedStarWarrior]

Although it was a bit confusing and random to me at first, after sitting down and rewatching the first couple of episodes I have grown to love FLCL. I admit that some of it is still hard to follow for me, as I don't know/understand all of the parodies, but I guess that is what rewatching and researching is for.

[The Muffin Man]

I hardly understand a damn bit of the plot. But that doesn't stop it from kicking Neon Genesis in the crotch and usurping the spot as my #2 favorite anime.

Spike, Faye, Ed, Jet and Ein aren't gonna be moving anytime soon. Cowboy Bebop is firmly #1

[Razola]

Originally posted by The Muffin Man
Spike, Faye, Ed, Jet and Ein aren't gonna be moving anytime soon. Cowboy Bebop is firmly #1
Bebop has the style, but it gets slighty edged out by the big K.

Damn...now I want DVDs for both series. I haven't seen either in months. Damn the cursed marketing scheme that makes the complete FLCL cost $90!

[BlueEyesPikachu]

Yes! $30 for just two episodes! What a ripoff...

[The_Missing_Link]

6 episodes cost $90? The bastards...

Yeah, I first saw FLCL last summer while I was waiting for new episodes of Conan O'Brien to come on. Made no sense to me whatsoever but I was hooked. After everything aired, I was thinking to myself, "how in the h*ll can this be so good at 6 epi's?". The last episode will always remain my favorite and I'm kicking myself for not taping them --;

[Powarun]

The episodes are so expesive because the company isn't finacially good. That is what I heard, Gainix I think, didn't do so well with their money and make us pay heavily for it. And I know that they could make the whole season of 2 episodes on two discs, or even one, depends on the disc. because I made a some cough back up copies cough of my dvd's. But I do think this anime did change my life.

[Last Exile]

Yes, the 6 episodes were split over 3 DVDs which was very annoying. Things like that are one of the reasons I ahven't gotten into DVDs yet.

Yeah, GAINAX still has reputation because of Evangelion and stuff they did before it, but after that, Fooly Cooly was their only real success. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi did okay, but that's about it. I don't see why they should still finish so high in studio polls just because of Evangelion. Ghibli owns the movie scene, while the series area is up for grabs, at the moment with GONZO, J. C. Staff, Sunrise, Bandai, Studio Deen, XEBEC, Madhouse and Toei Animation being the main players.

[Azura Stardust]

Evangelion was so unimaginably amazing in Japan: not only because it was very very groundbreaking and appealing. I know this person from Japan... he's the REAL anime otaku kind of person, but very knowledgeable... Evangelion was the anime that started a NEW phase in anime history because of loads of reasons: and many anime copied it after that.... etc.... so I suppose it isn't easily erased from many anime fan's minds. Especially the Gundam fans who <3 mecha anime :p (there must be a lot of them if Newtype bothers to be biased towards them)

Gainax is putting out 2 new series close to each other this year: Melody of Oblivion (Boukyaku no Senritsu) and This Ugly and Beautiful World (Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai). They, unfortunately, do not look like awesome-things-in-the-making...

J.C. Staff is putting out the series too, but they haven't been particulalry successful either...
Studio Deen... that I don't know. But I've always had a grudge against Studio Deen ^_^
Toei and Pierrot, while they're still lagging behind in terms of technology and sometimes quality, they're old studios and they're big studios: who else gets the big-name things like Naruto? And previously Dragonball Z etc.?
XEBEC: I dunno if they've released anything recently...
Bandai: no clue :o
Sunrise: I know they're coming out with a new film Steamboy and doing some other stuff. They're ok...
Madhouse: This is the real 'competitor' - it seems to be steadily gaining popularity and recognition after series of well-produced shows like Gunslinger Girl and Paranoia Agent.

Gainax still seems to have enough clout to make people want to watch Melody of Oblivion (MoO!) and This Ugly and Beautiful World before watching the trailers...

(and omg, $90 for 6 eps is a complete ripoff. I suppose production costs were very high. and Gainax has had problems managing their $, haven't they... like the very odd endings of, eh, CERTAIN shows ^_^)

[Last Exile]

Madhouse has gotten better, but I wouldn't go far to say that Gunslinger Girl was that great. I thought the storyline/plot was pretty sub-standard. Animation and sound wise it was great, but this series seemed to rushed. Would've been better as a 26 ep series, near impossible to feel or care about characters, spends too much time on introducing characters, not enough on action. It made out like it was an action series but it's a storyline series.

Paranoia Agent looks promising though. And of course, they did Chobits and Trigun as well, both staples for anime fans.

Really, J. C. Staff aren't that successful? I would've thought Azumanga Daioh would've made them a mint! Excel Saga's popular in English-speaking countries, R.O.D. TV is going well for recent stuff. Oh well.

XEBEC - Well, they did Stellvia which was so so, and Bottle Fairy, which was just messed up.

Deen's only big thing so far has been Fruits Basket. Demon Detective Loki Ragnarok is their most recent decent work i think.

Surnise released Planetes, but I hate that series so much. I really do. It is so poor.

Bandai, I can't remember. Bah, they made .hack, so I don't like them much anyway. Then again, they did Please Teacher.

GONZO seem to be breaking a few traditions/manga things of late. Obviously they're trying to be innovative, but hopefully that won't bite them back. I'll not judge Samurai 7 until I see stuff for it.

EDIT: Basically Azura, these are the series on DVD that are popular in Australia:

Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Chobits
Last Exile
Excel Saga
Evangelion
Please Teacher
Fruits Basket

That's a pretty even spread studio wise. I'd say it'd be fairly similar in the US but that you'd add Gundam for them, since they get it and we don't.

[Azura Stardust]

Well, I'm basing it entirely on the recent quasi-global anime scene... (stupid way to say it, yeah)

Deen is currently doing Diamond Dust Drops FYI, and I'm not sure if they're doing Mari-mite because I can't read the last character clearly - I'm sure it says "Studio Deere" but it looks like "Studio Deen"...

I have evil plans for them because they made the wonderful Violinist of Hameln... have pretty x_o;;; animation... well at least the story and stuff was great, just that because (I assume) they were so poor them there were uncovered plot holes due to budget limitations. However, I can't believe they animated Groove Adventure Rave... no, actually what I want to kill them for is what they (and the producing company) did to the last arc of Rurouni Kenshin and Seisouhen. Oh man...

Excel Saga and Azumanga Daioh were good and popular, but I suppose people are more likely to remember their "failiures" (Daphne in the Brilliant Blue <so far at least>, Spiral, etc...)...

Well anyway, enough on that: I suppose the main people in terms of animating studios right now would be Madhouse, Studio Deen, maybe Toei Animation, and GONZO.

Though I believe I'm talking out of my rear...

[Max Blaze aka AT#2]

I cannot believe some people actually liked this! I did not like this at all! There were some parts I did like but I completely got lost in dialogue they were just talking and talking, not making sense at all!Sorry if you like this a lot,but I don't. This smiley sums it up for how I feel about thishttp://mysmilies.ipbfree.com/s/contrib/lilly/aha1blue.gif

[Razola]

Originally posted by Max Blaze aka AT#2
I cannot believe some people actually liked this! I did not like this at all! There were some parts I did like but I completely got lost in dialogue they were just talking and talking, not making sense at all!Sorry if you like this a lot,but I don't. This smiley sums it up for how I feel about this [stupid smiley]The only thing I can suggest is to take your ritalin and listen closely next time.

And FLCL still features plenty of cool visuals to make up for your lack of comprehension.

[Last Exile]

Raz, if you make him take Ritalin, he'll die once he sees Shingetsutan Tsukihime. ;)

[pokemasterfrank]

FLCL truely is the best anime ever. I was in one of my late night stay ups for Adult Swim. CN had the funky commercial that I didn't pay attention to, so I didn't really know about FLCL. So I was waiting for Inuyasha, but found that something called "Fooly Cooly" replaced its slot. After watching the whole episode (this was the third epi, btw, didn't notice it till then >_>), I thought, this is awesome. The music was practially made for the anime...or maybe the anime was crafted around the music, but either way, the music had fit perfectally with the mood of the scenes (whether it be Canti soaring through the air while "Hybrid Rainbow" plays in the background, or when Amarao makes his entrance on his Vespa with "White Ash" blaring). After FLCL, "The Pillows" became my favorite band, lol. The animation was quite well done, a very good blend of CG and...well...CG o_O (Good luck searching for FLCL cels, lol). The sheer randomness of FLCL is probably the most appealing part of it.

btw, the plot doesn't just pop up in the last two minutes, it gets culminated starting from Episode 4. The first three epi kinda introduce you to the characters while giving you the base for the plot to build up.

*listens to "White Ash"*

[Razola]

But hey do u expect every damn human to like this show while there are about 6 trillion((being blunt)) of them existing?
Let's play "Hey, Remember Saying that?" Here's what you said:


I cannot believe some people actually liked this!
So while you cannot believe people like it, I am not allow to believe people don't like? Double standards are a fun thing, aren't they?


Well pardon me,because I'm one that dosen't like, this show,sorry ITS THE WAY I AM.
What a crappy excuse. At least defend yourself using examples from the show.


Also pardon my little temper there but sometimes I can eaisly get ticked off when people have remarks on me,
It's an internet message board. Do you really care about what some stranger thinks about you?


and for your information I do take something like ritalin and in fact somebody else on this board could be taking it and not like this show,now excuse me. I have to hang my self.http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contrib/anym/hanged.gif
This post was lacking, but I shouldn't expect much more from someone who dislikes the kinetic joy that is FLCL.

[Sir Chris]

...FLCL... I saw all 6 episodes in 3 straight hours in the middle of the night one time.

I was shocked, amazed, hooked, in awe and found myself laughing and gawking many a time.

Greay anime series... probably... my second favorite. behind bebop.

[Ali]

Saw first episode and about ten minutes of second episode in anime club at school. Went "WTF? O_O" and thought it was a weird show. Now I wished I could've seen all of it. And I keep on replaying in my mind Haruko running over Naota, giving him "MOUTH TO MOUTH", and then whacking him with a guitar.

And 'Furi Kuri' means breast fondling I believe. There's a scene where the grand dad's wiggling his fingers and going "Furi kuri, furi kuri!"

[Razola]

In terms of the show, nobody knows what furi kuri means exactly. It's a running joke that give the phrase various meanings.

[Sir Chris]

whats her name.. the purple haired one... oh well... she was my fav, I have a god awful memory...

[Totodilemew]

whats her name.. the purple haired one... oh well... she was my fav, I have a god awful memory...
Ninamori Eri.

Yeah, Furi Kuri is great...I just need to find more of the DVDs. Everywhere I've been to only carries the last one, which I already have.

[Razola]

The DVDs are a grave injustice...I refuse to buy them. I want all six episodes in a nice boxed set for about 50 bucks. Not three seperate DVDs featuring two episodes for 30 bucks a piece.