FLCL

It’s been a while since I last watched any anime. I hit a couple stinkers and lost interest I guess. So it took a friendly gathering to get me to try it back on again. Half of us in the group had seen this before, and it seems that they had all liked it a lot, but couldn’t really describe it. After watching it with them I think I’m in pretty much the same boat. Still, I’m going to write what little I can about it.

I don’t think the title is really an acronym, it’s just an approximation of “Furi-kuri,” which is said a number of times in the series but never really defined. It has something to do with the powers of an alien-girl which turn your body into a sort of inter-spatial hub for transportation of magical bass-guitars and giant robots, or perhaps it’s just puberty. Puberty does seem to be one of the major themes in a very off-kilter/metaphorical sort of way. The main character has two love interests but isn’t at the point where he really knows what love is, and in generic anime fashion he can’t handle their advances, although it’s forgivable since he’s only twelve years old. Aside from these two points, there doesn’t seem to be much at all holding this show together.

It’s probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, up there with Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and Paprika. I was told there’s a lot of symbolism but all I really saw was a bunch of crazy crap. There’s a factory in the shape of a giant clothes-iron, the aforementioned forehead-spewed robots, astral pirate gods, loads of panty-shots, hectic manga interludes, water-based reanimation, pyromaniacs, spontaneous disappearances, and much, much more. It makes no sense at all until maybe half-way through the three hour run, and even then it’s pretty much indecipherable.

Still, it’s entertaining. I assume a few metric tons of hallucinogens went into its production costs.