FLCL

Naota is an ordinary boy who says about his life that "nothing amazing happens here, everything is ordinary". He lives in a small town whose biggest "attraction" is a huge factory in the shape of a steam-iron, whose smoke covers the entire city every day. He's got a slight "problem" with Mamimi, his older brother's girlfriend. His brother just went to America to pursue a career in baseball, and Mamimi seems to seek a replacement in Naota and hangs on to him all the time.

One day while they're walking home, Naota is run over by a girl on a Vespa ("The Vespa woman!" "A wasp woman?") and as if that's not enough, she smashes his head with her bass guitar. The resulting bump grows in a weird shape, and turns out to be a robot (with a tv set as a head) growing out of Naota's head ("Hey, TV-boy, did you record the Thursday night special?" / "It's a TV set." "So, why does it walk?" "It's a TV walkman!"). Meanwhile, Haruko (the Vespa girl) finds accommodation at Naota's home, where his slightly crazy father employs her as a housekeeper. And that's only the beginning of the troubles that are about to rise up.

FLCL (Fooly Cooly) is a 6-part OVA (original video animation) released in 2000 in Japan. It was created at and produced by Studio Gainax, who are famous for "Neon Genesis Evangelion", among others. And the connection to NGE is very present. Many characters bear references to those from NGE, there are robots here as well, and some of the scenes are surprisingly similar. FLCL is parodying not only NGE, but also other films and anime. There are typical Matrix-style slow-motion-camera-movements ("Those slow motion scenes are really though, huh?" "Yeah, you have to hold your breath until they cut." "What? I thought it was a special effect! You're doing the slow motion?") and a scene made in the style of South Park. Furthermore many scenes employ various unusual styles of presentation, like a scene drawn as a manga.

Many situations are simply hilarious, you just can't stop laughing at the weird stuff that's happening all the time. Like when Naota and his father fight for Haruko in military suits and with airsoft guns. And everything that's shown is slightly (well...) exaggerated so there are a lot of slapstick actions. Also, there seem to be many crazy puns in the series, but I guess those don't really work in other languages than Japanese. Despite all this fun, especially the first three episodes have some very emotional scenes too. No scenes where big emotional things would happen actually, but the way they're presented is just beautiful.

And the music plays a big part in this. The soundtrack was composed by the Japanese rockband "The Pillows" and the songs fit the scenes perfectly. Take for example the scene where Conti (the robot, who attached a halo and wings to his body for whatever reason) climbs the ruins of a burnt-down building and starts flying to heaven, watched by Mamimi who believes he's a God. The music in this whole scene is so strong it sends the tears straight into your eyes.

All in all, this series, although a little short, is great fun to watch, although I found the first three episodes the best. If you're into weird and really funny stuff, you might want to give this a try. It's definitely good for both a few laughs and some intense emotions. Good game, Gainax!

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Anime