FLCL (Vol. 1)

Some fans place a hallmark on Gainax's works. While ranging from quotes like "[insert Gainax work here] changed anime forever" to blatant generalizations such as "Everything except [insert Gainax work here, except in initials] is horrible," Gainax is certainly revered in the anime industry. I now present to you Gainax's finest work. Do you like drugs? Good, because the visuals in FLCL are comparable to a hallucinogenic trip.

FLCL (pronounced either "Furi Kuri" or "Fooly Cooly") is unique in its off-the-wall humor, as well as its constant change of animation styles (one part in Episode One is actually an animated manga complete with margins containing title "Young FLCL" (young, of course, referring to shonen manga)). The series is fast-paced at times, and has its slow moments as well.

Story: The characters Naota, Mamimi and Haruko seem to counterbalance each other; Naota is just a boring boy going about his normal life in a small town with a medical factory, Mamimi is Naota's brother's girlfriend who continues to hit on Naota because Naota's brother is in the US playing baseball, and because she has some sort of overflow complex, and Haruko is an alien girl who is also hitting on Naota. Except with a bass guitar.

"Caution 2: A dazzlingly pretty alien girl on a Vespa 180SS. Violent."

And she hits hard.

Animation: It doesn't get much better than this, folks. 10. I noticed that the character designs were a bit sketchy. Had I not known that Sadamoto was the character designer, I might have attributed it as a fault, but with Sadamoto at the helm of character designer, I feel that the sketchiness was deliberate. =)

Soundtrack: The Pillows are shaping up to be one of my favorite J-rock bands. However, I like the ending song better than the OP. It almost sounds like eighties' rock... 10.

Subtitle Voice Track: I felt the seiyuu in this volume of FLCL sounded a bit flat, but it is still a very good voice job nonetheless. References to Gundam and Eva abound. 9.

English Dub: The English voice track suffered the same problem with the voices sounding flat, but it's above-average for English dubs. 9.

Extras: As far as extras go, Volume 1 is packed full. It comes with a number of extras, including clean OP and ED (however, I think that should come with every anime DVD), a translation of the manga part of the anime that I mentioned above, and a reversible cover featuring both the front and back of the Japanese version as well as the English version. 10.

If Volumes Two and Three are to be as good as Volume One was, I'll probably be buying the whole collection (of which there are only six episodes; but great episodes nonetheless), and I suggest those of you who like off-the-wall stuff do so as well. If you don't feel like buying DVDs, just watch it on Adult Swim (it airs sometime in August). Hey, any anime with two robots springing out of a guy's head and duking it out is boss by me. 9.

Diero

Added: July 6th 2003
Reviewer: Diero
Score:
Related Link: Gainax official website (English version)
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