TV - FLCL
 Terry Bartley  rates it:    Community rates it:
   195 of 408 readers found this review helpful.

Okay, there are a few reasons I chose the anime Fooly Cooly, Furi Kuri in Japan, as my first television review. First off, the show is only six episodes long, so I don't have to worry about what should and shouldn't be said, since in some cases, it may affect the series later. The first season of this series, is the series, the end. The second reason, this show is a truly amazing anime. It blends many animation styles to make a great representation of animation as a universal cultural and not so segregated, like most people like to think. It proves that American animation can be integrated into Japanese animation and vice-versa. The final reason, I discovered my name from this show. The entire soundtrack to FLCL is performed by a Japanese punk band known as The Pillows.

Now for the review. To the casual viewer, FLCL will look like a bunch of nonsense, animated. However, with further examination, it is an interesting, yet weird, story about a sixth grade boy, his older brother's ex-girlfriend, and a 19-year-old alien girl. I'll admit that, by no stretch of the imagination, is FLCL normal, but I it is interesting. The star of the series, the young boy, is named Naota. He tries too hard to be like an adult and in doing so hinders himself to grow-up. His brother, Ta-Kun, has left him to play baseball in America. He spends most of his time with the ex-girlfriend of this brother, Mamimi. She is in high school and smokes. She isn't necessarily the best influence on Naota, but she is nice to him, although she refers to him as his brother. You will probably think his name is Ta-Kun through most of the show.

Naota's growing up issues are resolved the fateful day he gets ran over. He is ran over by a girl on a yellow vespa named Haruko. She follows that up by moving in with Naota and his family under the guise of a housekeeper. Naota has no idea how much his life is about to change.

Okay, I think I've given away enough of the story. You can figure out the rest when you watch the show. It is for sure worth the watch. As I said above, this show incorporates all kinds of animation styles. I has any kind of Japanese animation imaginable and a few American styles, there is even a South Park moment. If you are an animation junky, you should pick this up. You can see probably about all the styles you're trying to emulate here in this one six-episode show.

Now for the soundtrack. As I said above, the entire soundtrack is performed by The Pillows. If you haven't figured it out already, I'm a pretty big fan of this band. I haven't heard anything this band has done that is bad. Granted, I know very, very little Japanese and have no clue what the songs are talking about, but they have such an awesome feel about them. I honestly could go on and on about this band and their contributions to this anime, but I won't put you through that. I'll just say that if you're a fan of punk rock at all, you'll love The Pillows. Don't worry about the words, they're not that important anyway.

All in all, FLCL is probably the best anime I have ever watched, and I've watched a lot of anime. They blend so many kind of animation styles together it is beyond amazing. The story, complex and hard to follow as it may be, is really good. It is more of a coming of age story then anything, it just has a few supernatural complications. The soundtrack is performed by the best Japanese punk band I've ever heard, and I've heard maybe two Japanese punk bands. Anyway, it would be hard for any hardcore anime fan to give FLCL anything but 5 out of 5 cans.

Added:  Saturday, April 09, 2005

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