FLCL

FLCL
Genre	Drama, Mecha, Comedy, Action, Science Fiction , Romance
Anime
Directed by	Kazuya Tsurumaki, Masahiko Otsuka, Shouji Saeki, Takeshi Ando
Studio	Gainax, Production I.G. (Japan) Synch-Point (United States)
Manga
FLCL
Written by	Hajime Ueda
Published by	Kodansha

FLCL (フリクリ, Furi Kuri, romanized as Fooly Cooly) is a six episode Japanese OVA series, created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and co-produced by Gainax and Production I.G..

The series focuses on Nandaba Naota, a twelve-year-old boy living in the fictional and initially tranquil Japanese suburb of Mabase. Naota lives with his lecherous, perverted father Kamon and his baseball-coaching grandfather Shigekuni at the family bakery and home. He greatly admires his older brother Tasuku (an unseen character), a baseball phenomenon who has gone to the United States to play the game.

Mabase (Mah-bah-seh) is an industrial town physically dominated by the mysterious Medical Mechanica building, which, in the second episode of the series, is shown to have no doors leading in or out. Medical Mechanica is eventually shown to be an interplanetary organization, and it is because of them that Haruhara Haruko, investigator for the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood/Stellar Fraternity, comes to Mabase.

Story

The series opens with Naota's daily routine, which involves going to school, dealing with the unwanted affections of his brother's troubled ex-girlfriend Samejima Mamimi, and going home. Naota seems to be very frustrated with his life, and in the opening episode is musing about how constrictive and boring Mabase is. This complaint is borne through to the final episode, despite many examples to the contrary.

Early in the first episode (after the bland town of Mabase has been introduced by a monologue from Naota) events kick off when a strange and mischievous girl named Haruhara Haruko arrives suddenly in town and runs Naota over with her Vespa motor scooter and then, for no obvious reason, smacks him upside the head with her Rickenbacker bass guitar. Soon afterwards, Naota discovers that being hit with Haruko's bass left more than just a bump - it created a large horn that is actually an early manifestation of a robot. By hitting him in the head, Haruko activated Naota's latent N.O. portal, which allows him to pass physical objects from one astronomically distant point to another by way of his head. This is not immediately obvious, however.

File:Mamimi.JPG

Mamimi, with Naota's baseball bat.

Later that day Naota finds Haruko in his house, hired by his father as a live-in maid. It is gradually revealed that Haruko is in a confrontation with a company named Medical Mechanica (the name is debated to be Medical Meccanica as shown in one episode) (whose clothing iron-shaped factory building dominates the Mabase skyline) about recovering a powerful being named "Atomsk".

In addition to being hounded by Haruko, who uses the portal she opened in his head for her own selfish purposes, Naota must also face (and occasionally grapple with) the other characters of FLCL. He is being watched by a man named Commander Amarao. As the series progresses, an ideological tug of war emerges between Amarao and Haruko for Naota, whose powers Haruko needs to regain Atomsk. Amarao (whose beliefs are suspect for accuracy) views Atomsk (incorrectly) as a humanoid Haruko is in love with, and believes Medical Mechanica to be bent on a goal of interplanetary conquest. Amarao and his assistant, Lt. Kitsurubami, are monitoring Haruko and Medical Mechanica for intergalactic legal reasons and are attempting to save the Earth as the conflict between Haruko and Medical Mechanica escalates.

The total run-time for this show is 134 minutes and 19 seconds, without commercials or credits. The episodes run as follows (times for individual episodes are with credits):

1. Fooly Cooly (Furi Kuri - フリクリ) 24:36
2. FireStarter (FiSta - ファイスタ) 23:27
3. Marquis de Carabas (Maru-Raba - マルラバ) 23:25
4. Full Swing (Furi Kiri - フリキリ) 24:53
5. Brittle Bullet (Bura-Bure - ブラブレ) 23:25
6. FLCLimax (Furi Kura - フリクラ) 28:36

Characters

List of FLCL characters

Style

FLCL is an esoteric production whose odd style, hyperactive pace, convoluted plot logic and tendency to break the fourth wall set it apart from other contemporary anime. FLCL can be categorized as a work of comedy, drama, and/or science fiction, and a parody of contemporary culture in general.

Visual

Although most of the series is done in the standard "anime" style, the animation frequently veers off into other realms, including bullet time, black and white, stills, two elaborate sequences drawn as semi-animated manga and a couple of shots in episode five that recreate the look of South Park.

Cultural Context

Haruko flying on her Bass Guitar in bunny outfit is a reference to the promotional video of Daicon IV (an anime convention that took place in Osaka in the 80's). Haruko announces, "Daicon five!" as she rides in, in a satirical reference to the show. This animation, along with the promo video for Daicon III, were some of Gainax's very first works.

The series also references such pop culture icons as John Woo and South Park, not to mention Neon Genesis Evangelion (Gainax's most famous production), Lupin III, Gundam, Tank Girl and Hamtaro.

Language

There are some places where dialogue is different from the Japanese version, an attempt to make the dialogue easier to understand in the English translation. (Example: Haruko uses the term "mouth to mouth" repeatedly throughout the series, though the "th" sound does not exist in Japanese, making it sound like "mouse to mouse". This is used in a pun in "Full Swing," when she crawls out of the Kamon puppet's mouth wearing a mouse suit.)

A common mistake by English-speaking fans is to say that the meaning of "Furi Kuri" in Japanese is "Breast Fondling." This mistake arises from the fact that "kuri kuri" is occasionally used by manga artists as a sound effect for breast fondling. In the anime itself, they make references to "kuri kuri" during the first manga scene, when Shigekuni describes kneading bread by making hand gestures that unmistakably resemble groping motions. Due to incredibly fast pacing of the scene, many fans mistake his statement as referring to "furi kuri" instead of "kuri kuri." Much Japanese onomatopoeia follows a pattern of being four kana long and having a sound repeated twice. "Furi furi" is also used as a sound effect in a later episode when Haruko is petting Naota's cat ears.

Regarding the Japanese that is left in and often misunderstood, the above case is further clarified by referring to the translation notes for episode one from the 25 page book with DVD one released by Synch-Point:

9. Chi-chi o kuri-kuri - Chi-chi means "breasts" or "boobs" in Japanese. Kuri-kuri is a twisting noise. Chi-chi also means "father."

12. Kuri - A homonym for a twisting noise and "chestnut". Kamon says "Like twisting..." Haruko hears, "like chestnuts".

Further comments in the booklets discuss the severe loss in translation of the plays made in Japanese via homonyms, synonyms, and so on. One example of trying to preserve this in English is the "empty", "MTV" and various homonyms in English during the Kamon/Haruko manga sequence.

(translations by Agnes Yoshida in the insert, as noted in the insert)

Synch-Point and Production I.G. decided to subtitle FLCL as "Fooly Cooly" in the US. They wanted to make sure fans knew how to read FLCL. The producer says he still has people come up to him and say how much they like "eff-el-see-el." [1]

Music

File:FLCL album cover.png

The cover for both King of Pirates and Addict

A significant element of FLCL's appeal is its music. Most of the background music was written and performed by the band the pillows, which has generated mass success and appreciation since the anime's release abroad. In fact, each episode of the series ends with the song Ride on Shooting Star. Shinkichi Mitsumune wrote the rest of the music; one track was used for the dinner scene in Episode 3, and the others are on the soundtracks. Two soundtrack CDs — Addict and King of Pirates — and a one-CD "best-of" compilation (FLCL No. 3) were released in Japan and later in America.

Another interesting note is that the action sequences were choreographed around the individual tracks used, and not the other way around. The song Little Busters plays when Canti taps into Atomsk's power. There are also many references to guitars, which are used symbolically and physically (though rarely musically) throughout the series.

Releases

FLCL was originally released in Japan as an OVA anime on six DVDs. The story was also released as a two-volume manga by artist Hajime Ueda, and a three-volume novel serialization by Yoji Enokido, who also wrote the script for the show. The first of the three novels will be released in America on March 11, 2008. All were released in Japan starting in 2000, and in 2003 in the United States. The series is sporadically run on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

The manga is a much darker and more violent take on the story (Naota purposely kills his actual father with the baseball bat in a rather grisly scene because he thought Haruko and his father were sleeping together; Shinguki and an unnamed war buddy later suicide-bomb the Medical Mechanica building).

The anime has subsequently been released on DVD in North America in three volumes by Synch-Point which feature exclusive extras not on the original Japanese DVDs, of which were six volumes containing one episode each. The manga was released by TOKYOPOP in two volumes (ISBN 1-59182-396-X and ISBN 1-59182-397-8). All soundtrack discs - Addict, King of Pirates and FLCL No. 3 - were released by Geneon. The CD for King of Pirates also contains 'drama tracks', which continue the story in the usual joking manner, such as one segment that has Naota meeting girls with similar names to Haruko and Mamimi.

FLCL has also been seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block in North America, starting in August 2003. Starting on August 5 (as part of the late night line-up for the 4th) and continuing on four days a week for three weeks, the entire series aired twice.

The original releases of the Region 1 FLCL DVDs contained booklets with interviews and insight into the series. Later releases of these DVDs did not include the booklets. On January 24, 2007, Synch-Point re-released the series in an Ultimate Edition DVD box set. The box includes all 6 episodes on 3 discs, a bonus disc containing music and extras, sticker sheet, 6 postcards, and an Ultimate Edition Collector's booklet.

Critical reception in America

The American reception for the series, although not widespread, has been enthusiastic following its release on Adult Swim in the summer of 2003. As of June 2007, the show has a rating of 8.7 out of 10 on the IMDb, and a rating of 8.5 out of 10 at AnimeNfo.com. Anime.com also gave the series an enthusiastic review in October of that year, although there was also a minor reference to it in the September "issue". In 2003, it also went on to win third place for Best Animation Film at the Fant-Asia Film Festival.

It was also a success from a corporate standpoint. A Time Warner press release from August 12, 2003 lauds the success of Cartoon Network, and mentions FLCL:

Animé series FLCL (Monday-Thursday, 12 a.m.) premiered with impressive numbers. [...] The Monday, Aug. 4 telecast of FLCL ranked #42 among all shows on ad-supported cable among adults 18-34.

A substantially less formal press release was issued at about the same time during Adult Swim by the cartoon character Brak, who gives the audience a run-down on the status of the lineup.

On February 24, 2007, FLCL was nominated for "Best Cast", and won "Best Comedy Series" and "Best Short Series" at the first American Anime Awards show.

External links

• FLCL at IMDb
• Synch-Point, North American distributors of FLCL
• Open Directory links for FLCL
• FLCL ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• FLCL World, a FLCL fan site

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