FLCL

• 1. Introduction

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  FLCL begins with a Vespa, a twelve-year-old boy, and a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar. The boy is Naota Nandaba. The woman swinging a left-handed bass at his head is Haruko Haruhara, an alien who has just run him over. She revives him with CPR first, and then she hits him anyway. That scene opens a six-episode Japanese anime series, created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and written by Yōji Enokido. Once it starts, it rarely pauses to explain itself. Who is Haruko, and why is she so interested in a quiet boy from a suburb? What is Medical Mechanica, the corporation whose giant machines keep arriving? And how did a short, bizarre series end up shaping other creators, from American animation to Japanese manga?

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• 2. Naota's Mabase

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  Mabase, a Japanese city, is home to Naota Nandaba, his widower father, and his grandfather. The family is working-class. Naota is taciturn and obsessed with seeming grown up, and that posture does not survive Haruko. She moves into his household as a live-in maid and keeps stalking him.

  The blow to his head does more than hurt. It opens an "N.O." portal, and out of it come giant robots built by a company called Medical Mechanica. Haruko hits the first robot on the head as well, and it turns into a friendly service robot later named Canti. When Canti fights the machines sent after Naota, it swallows him and takes back the reddened form it first had.

  Two rival accounts of Haruko surface along the way. She claims to be an alien investigator from the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. Commander Amarao of the Interstellar Immigration Bureau has a history with her. He insists she is an apathetic seductress hunting a space-manipulating being called Atomsk. Atomsk was partly contained within Canti, and each time Canti absorbs Naota, Atomsk is drawn a little closer to Earth.

  Medical Mechanica holds Atomsk in custody, and Haruko's actions ultimately put the whole planet at risk. The company converts its factory on Earth into a doomsday terraforming device. Its plan is to have Naota and Canti absorbed by the device's Terminal Core. Instead, Naota becomes Atomsk's host and, after a brief battle, releases him into the universe. That ends the attack. Haruko chases after Atomsk, and Mabase drifts back toward normal. How all of this reached the screen was shaped by a director who wanted to ignore the usual anime formulas.

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• 3. Breaking the Rules

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  Kazuya Tsurumaki has said he tried to "break the rules" of anime. He chose a contemporary Japanese band to provide the soundtrack. He also patterned the style on "a Japanese TV commercial or promotional video". The goal was a work he described as "short, but dense-packed". Gainax and Production I.G were among the companies in the production committee behind the first season.

  The experiments are visible on screen. One entire scene imitates the cutout animation of the American series South Park. Elsewhere, the camera spins in tricks reminiscent of The Matrix. When critics complained that the series was hard to follow, Tsurumaki answered, "comprehension should not be an important factor in FLCL".

  Medical Mechanica's factory on Earth is shaped like a large iron, and the shape is symbolic. Amarao describes the company's goal as the destruction of all thought. An iron smooths out wrinkles, and the series equates that with smoothing the wrinkles of the brain. A direct translation of the script did not carry this idea, so the Japanese team had to explain it to the people preparing the English version.

  Marc Handler, the localization director and script writer for that English version, called localization the hardest part of the show. The in-jokes leaned on obscure pop culture references that first had to be decoded. One joke referred to Cheerio, a soft drink discontinued in Japan. For English audiences, the team swapped in Crystal Pepsi, a soft drink that had also been discontinued in America by then. The band Tsurumaki picked for the music was the Pillows, and their songs run through every episode.

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• 4. The Pillows' Sound

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  The Japanese rock band the Pillows supplied the theme music for all six episodes. Each episode has its own opening theme. "One Life" plays in episode one and "Instant Music" in episodes two and three. "Happy Bivouac" plays in episode four, "Runners High" in episode five, and "Carnival" in episode six. Battle scenes use "Advice", "Little Busters", and "I Think I Can". The closing theme of every episode is "Ride on Shooting Star", the series' main theme song. Its ending sequences feature Yukiko Motoya and a Vespa.

  Geneon Entertainment released three original soundtracks that combine the Pillows' songs with the score by composer Shinkichi Mitsumune. The first, covering the opening three episodes, came out in Japan on the 4th of October 2000 and in the United States on the 20th of January 2004. The second covers the last three episodes. It reached Japan on the 25th of July 2001 and the United States on the 7th of September 2004.

  The second album also carries several audio dramas in which the cast plays the characters, so it works as a sort of sequel to the anime. The third album, from June 2005, is a compilation of music by the Pillows alone. Unlike the earlier two, it uses the original vocal versions from the band's LPs. A fourth album followed in September 2018, gathering music used in two later seasons. Printed versions of the story, however, began before the first episode aired.

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• 5. Page and Print

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  On the 25th of December 1999, a manga adaptation by the artist Hajime Ueda began serialization in the monthly Magazine Z, months before the anime reached Japanese viewers. Kodansha published it, and it ran until the 26th of March 2001. The two volumes were released on the 23rd of October 2000 and the 23rd of August 2001. The manga alters and removes certain elements of the story, and it tells events in a reductive art style with unsteady pacing. Reviewer Jack Kotin defended that look, writing, "It can be crudely drawn at times, but this style fits in well with the overall story and atmosphere..."

  The manga returned in several editions. Kodansha issued bunkoban volumes labeled Jō and Ge in May and June 2007, and an edited tankōbon version in January and February 2012. Tokyopop released the English-language volumes on the 16th of September 2003 and the 4th of November 2003. In March 2011, Dark Horse Comics announced an omnibus edition. It arrived on the 16th of May 2012 with remastered story pages, a remastered script, and bonus color pages.

  A three-volume novel series by the anime's screenwriter, Yoji Enokido, appeared from Kadokawa Shoten in June 2000, October 2000, and March 2001. Tsurumaki and Hiroyuki Imaishi illustrated it. The novels cover all six episodes and introduce elements that were not in the original production. Tokyopop published the English editions on the 11th of March 2008, the 9th of September 2008, and the 10th of March 2009. Meanwhile, an American television broadcast in August 2003 would put the story itself in front of viewers abroad.

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• 6. Cult Following

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  From the 4th of August to the 13th of August 2003, FLCL aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in the United States. Despite its short length, it gained a significant cult following and wide acclaim. On the 12th of August 2003, a Time Warner press release noted that it ranked No. 42 among all shows on ad-supported cable among adults 18-34. Reruns followed on Toonami from October 2013 to January 2014, and again in April 2018. The series also became available through iTunes, adultswim.com, and Funimation's website.

  Home video had a longer road. Gainax released six single-episode DVDs in Japan, then a collection box on the 13th of August 2005. In North America, Synch-Point released three DVD compilations and a box set on the 23rd of January 2007, which later went out of print. In January 2010, Funimation announced it had acquired the license, with a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release planned for February 2011. Madman Entertainment handled Australia and New Zealand, and MVM Films the United Kingdom.

  Reviewers reached for superlatives. Christopher McDonald of Anime News Network called the series "downright hilarious" and "visually superb". His only complaint was the packaging of two episodes per disc in the original release. Robert Nelson of THEM Anime Reviews gave it 4 out of 5 stars. He conceded that "it may not have any meaning", yet judged that it succeeds in its true objective: "It is fun to watch!" Chris Beveridge of Mania gave it an A-, praising "three hours of nearly break neck speed action, comedy and commentary on modern life". Brian Ruh said it "kept pushing the envelope on what was possible in Japanese animation."

  IGN columnist David Smith scored it 9 out of 10 shortly after the English premiere. He wrote, "Logic dictates that FLCL should be an undisciplined and unaffecting mess." Yet it made him laugh, left him a little misty-eyed, and made him want to "maybe even buy a Vespa". His verdict was, "That's the kind of success that you just can't argue with."

  In 2003, FLCL took third place for Best Animation Film at the Fantasia Festival. On the 24th of February 2007, at the first American Anime Awards show, it was nominated for Best Cast. It won Best Comedy Series and Best Short Series. In November 2007, Anime Insider ranked it 4th among the best English-licensed anime of all time.

  From the 3rd of January to the 7th of February 2012, Hayden Childs of the online magazine The A.V. Club wrote a six-part weekly analysis of the episodes. He timed it to the then-upcoming third season of The Legend of Korra, a series heavily influenced by FLCL's animation style. Childs read the series as a surrealist-inspired coming-of-age story whose major purpose is "the impressionistic and often naturalistic documentation of Naota's passage into maturity." Avatar: The Last Airbender director Giancarlo Volpe said members of his staff "were all ordered to buy FLCL and watch every single episode of it." And when Chainsaw Man reached 3 million copies sold, creator Tatsuki Fujimoto called it a "wicked version of FLCL" in his thank-you letter to fans.

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• 7. Haruko Returns

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  On the 31st of August 2015, Anime News Network reported that Production I.G might be planning a continuation or remake. The studio had just announced that it had acquired the rights to FLCL from Gainax. According to Hideaki Anno, his studio Khara was originally set to buy those rights first. Before the deal was finalized, Gainax suddenly raised the asking price, and the deal with Khara fell through.

  On the 24th of March 2016, Toonami's official Facebook and Tumblr pages announced that Adult Swim would produce 12 new episodes with Production I.G. They were split into two seasons, FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative. The first sequel's synopsis, published by Adult Swim, asked, "But why did Haruko return to Earth?" It also asked what became of the Rickenbacker 4001 she left with Naota, and where the human-type robot Canti went.

  Original character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto returned for Progressive, and Tsurumaki supervised. Hideto Iwai wrote the scripts, and Katsuyuki Motohiro served as chief director. Each episode had a different director: Kazuto Arai, Toshihisa Kaiya, Yuki Ogawa, Yoshihide Ibata, Kei Suezawa, and Hiroshi Ikehata. Production I.G did most of the animation, while Production GoodBook handled episode 2 and Signal.MD handled episode 5. The Pillows contributed songs, but the score came mainly from R・O・N of the music production company VERYGOO.

  Alternative brought back Sadamoto, R・O・N with tracks by the Pillows, Iwai, Tsurumaki, and Motohiro. Yutaka Uemara was its only director, and Kiyotaka Suzuki served as assistant director. Production I.G, Revoroot, and NUT produced the animation.

  The broadcasts began with a prank. At midnight on April Fools' Day 2018, the first episode of Alternative aired unannounced on Toonami, in Japanese with English subtitles. Progressive premiered on the 3rd of June 2018 and concluded on the 7th of July. Alternative premiered on the 8th of September and concluded on the 13th of October. In Japan, Alternative opened in theaters on the 7th of September 2018 and Progressive on the 28th of September. Toonami delayed the English-subtitled versions until November 2018, out of respect for the Japanese film releases.

  Warner Bros. Home Entertainment put Progressive on DVD on the 1st of October 2019. Alternative followed on DVD on the 4th of February 2020, alongside a Blu-ray combo pack of both sequels. By then, Adult Swim had ordered two more seasons in 2022.

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• 8. New Seasons, Old Obsession

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  In Progressive, Haruko comes back to Earth many years after her failed attempt to contain Atomsk, although she did manage to absorb him in between. She poses as a middle school homeroom teacher. Her target is a 14-year-old girl named Hidomi Hibajiri, whom she reaches through Hidomi's classmate and eventual love interest, Ko Ide. Hidomi's headphones oppose Haruko, and so does Julia Jinyu, a more stoic offshoot that split from Haruko during her first attempt to control Atomsk's power. Haruko eats Julia to restore herself. Atomsk appears as planned, but Haruko fails again, and a freed Julia leaves. Haruko is finally convinced that her obsession is completely unrequited. Hidomi and Ide begin a relationship while Mabase rebuilds.

  Alternative follows Kana Koumoto, a high school student whom Haruko mentors through the transition into adulthood. Medical Mechanica begins its assault on Earth, and one of Kana's friends leaves for Mars. Kana's reverse N.O. portal carries Medical Mechanica's plants off the planet. As a direct result, Haruko ends up on another planet. The season is speculated to come before all the others. That idea comes from a tweet by Jason Demarco, Creative Director at adult swim, who said it was "designed to be a prequel to the original..."

  Grunge, the fourth season, takes place in Okura, a mob-run town. Haruko manipulates its residents in a scheme to infect Medical Mechanica with a virus and steal Atomsk. In the process she influences three working kids named Shinpachi, Shonari, and Orinoko. Then she takes off after Atomsk on top of Medical Mechanica's plant. The season is set between the events of Shoegaze and the first season.

  Shoegaze centers on Masaki, a teenager who sees ghosts nobody else can see, including a large ghost bird perched atop a tower. Harumi joins him in exploring the tower after the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration locks it down. Kana Koumoto is now a 27-year-old working for the bureau, and she is called in to help. The tower turns out to extend into N.O. space. The bureau chief admits its purpose is to reconnect their dimension with one that split away 10 years ago. He hopes enough emotional turmoil will make Masaki trigger the N.O. device.

  Harumi is shot, and Masaki realizes he loves her. His N.O. field starts the merger, and Harumi learns she is actually from the other dimension, a colony on Mars. The merger fails as Masaki calms, and a large snake-like entity appears. In the closing credits, Masaki jumps dimensions through N.O. space to visit the Mars colony. He explains that a worm-creature helps him do it, and its name is Atomsk. Both seasons premiered in 2023. On the 7th of October 2023, it was announced that there were no plans for further FLCL seasons.

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