Review: FLCL (Fooly Cooly)

Oh goodness. Well despite the fact that my Fooly Cooly-thon idea being all done in one day was a total flop, I am here today to present the final word!

Oh and also, it turns out that this is post number 100 on the blog!!

If you plan to watch it, there is a lot of this
but mainly in episode 5. The anime isn't tame,
but it isn't necessarily like this all the time xD

I hope to make this review for any newcomers to the show to give them an idea of what it is like before giving it a watch.

I'm back here again to finish this off and finally give my own 10 to 1 evaluating the anime through the categories.

Without further ado, let's do this with as few spoilers as possible!

(Warning: this is a full review and is a bit long. Dip into a font of patience or make a bit of time if you plan to read the whole thing. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy!)



So here we are and the categories that I plan on evaluating the anime and manga on go as follows:

• Manga or anime- My own personal recommendation of which one should be watched or viewed first or if either should be avoided.
• Plot/progression- The set up, a (hopefully) quick summary of the story and how well I think it worked.
• Characters- Well this is obvious. Just a few descriptions of the main and minor characters along with a little summary of them and how I believe they tied into the narrative.
• Sound- This will include both voice acting and soundtrack to the anime.
• Animation/art style- These are both subjective to the viewer, but I will give my take on it from an unbiased perspective and then my own.
• Overall enjoyment- this category is mine and mine alone. You don't have to agree with it but I will be giving my take on the anime and how I... well enjoyed the anime or manga all the way through.

I hope to keep a version of this format for my future review posts but for now, let't try to find out what Fooly Cooly really means!

Manga or Anime?

Surprisingly enough, this is a frame from the anime.

Honestly, this was probably kind of a bad idea for me to do this on the first post...

For one, I have actually not gotten the chance to actually read the manga. I can only really say that I skimmed over it when I went to this one local Comicon thing (my first actual con I went to~).

And from what I could gather from that, all of it looked very similar to the anime. The art style is practically paralleled to the anime (as is expected in most of the cases).

However, it is not as light as the anime is and Haruko's... maneuvers and the violence are escalated a bit here to roughen up the story a little bit.

I speak about the anime as the source because, essentially, it is. The first episode of the anime was aired in August of 2000 when the first volume of the manga was released by the same artist in October of the same year. 

All of the characters and their personalities, however, remain practically the same aside from a little saturation and most, if not all, of the events from the anime are captured in the manga if not slightly altered a bit.

I personally recommend to watch the anime, for it's short length and it's awesome soundtrack, first. The audience get to see how the characters move and act a little better before reading and revel in the hilarious ridiculousness of the animation before getting into the deeper darker stuff that the manga has to offer.

Plus, another thing that I frequently like to do, since I usually watch the anime before reading the manga anyways, is listen to the original soundtrack of the anime that is usually found on YouTube while I read the manga. It's always been a little past-time of mine when reading manga and, for the most part, it works really well when the OST is good.

Overall, despite the fact that I haven't been able to read the manga as thoroughly as I wanted, I don't think I would dissuade anyone from reading it.

Plot & Progression?

The story set up goes like this:

Yea... Sure.
Gonna start re-thinking that when freaking
robots start popping out of your head.

We have a 12 year boy named Naota living with his father and grandfather alone in a newly industrialized town called Mabata (or referred to as Endsville most of the time by the main character). He goes to elementary school and lives his life semi-normally after his older brother, whom he seemed to admire a lot, left his family to play for the Major Leagues in the U.S. with baseball.

A strange iron-shaped factory has since come in to the town that dwarfs all of the surrounding buildings belonging to a cooperation called Medical Mechanica.

While Naota is pretty fed up with most of the things in his town, his personal conditions and possibly the mendacity of it all, a force from practically nowhere shows up in the form of a traveler named Haruko Haruhara.

From then on, things get strange as robots from what we can only guess is Medical Mechanica start literally coming out of the head of Naota. Getting behind the mystery and exploring what exactly is making the events happen is up to Naota. Will he find the source or just have enough to struggle for survival?

Overall, it is a very unique story that is set up, introduced and completed all within the very short runtime of 6 episodes.

Despite the series being so incredibly short (especially for many of the animes introduced to the west around this time) not much of it felt incredibly rushed and the story was paced and divided into very well sanctioned sectors.

And despite all of the action, the fast paced dialogue at times and the insanity happening on the screen, it manages to create an air of mystery as to what Medical Mechanica actually is and what each of the character's are like personality and motive wise.

The idea of the story is beyond strange but it is incredibly relateable in many ways and the story itself is handled, for the most part, very well despite being quite predictable.

Characters:

Main characters:

Naota Nandaba

Age- 12

Occupation- Part time worker at his dad's bread shop, student in 6th grade

Personality- Stubborn, hesitant, big heart, easily swayed by others, sensitive especially to change

Static/Dynamic

Pretty hesitant to act

The protagonist of the story. Like most people around that age, he is really looking for his place in the world and is pretty confused about it. 

His way of dealing with that is believing that this town is his world and that there is nothing beyond it. Life just sort of seems like a vague blot of nothing for him for the most part with little excitement.

It is kind of hard to make a full description about him but he is typically like any other boy around that age, still trying to find his way into the world. 

Despite being overshadowed and practically abandoned by his older brother, he still seems to love him very much and this probably hint's at his need for someone to comfort him in his life and so he looks for that elsewhere outside his practically broken home.

Mamimi Samejima

Age- 16-18

Occupation- High school student

Personality- Drifter, lonely, amorous, dependent, curious, in a world of her own

Static/Dynamic

Mamimi and Takkun (version 2)

Mamimi is probably one of the most important characters in Naota's development in this anime.

She was girlfriend to Naota's older brother and since leaving, she has been looking for something to hold onto and call her own as displayed by her constant need to "release" to Naota and adopt the few pets we see throughout the series.

Mamimi is one of the most integral characters in the story because she practically sees Naota as a replacement for her long-gone boyfriend. 

(As evidenced by the fact that she refers to Naota with the same name she called Tasuku by "Takkun")

As such, she adds a lot of the issues to Naota and subsequently cannot accept him as a separate entity apart from his brother confusing him in the aftermath.

A moment of acceptance with
Takkun (version 3)

She also displays a very hurt side to her as being an outcast (and subsequently becoming a truant/delinquent from her high school) and with good reasons I believe. 

She is tormented by the students at her high school and she was practically abandoned by Naota's brother and left for a new girl in the U.S.

Haruko Haruhara

Age- ???? (She says that she is 19 which is very likely false)

Occupation- That's a secret, can't tell that yet :P 

Personality- Spontaneous, calculating, instinctive, vulgar, energetic, free spirit, manipulative, selfish

Static/Dynamic

Oh Haruko, why is this photo of you SO misleading?

Now THIS character is a real puzzle from the very beginning, but it is made very obvious that there is something suspicious about her from the start.

She arrives on a nice yellow Vespa from out of nowhere and quickly becomes a legend around the town.

Known famously for smashing everything possible with her blue guitar, she almost immediately makes herself a resident within the town of Mabata choosing Naota's place to crash at. (wat)

Immediately taking an interest in Naota, she does what all courtship starts out with, smashing him in the face with a guitar. This creates the bump that turns into the first robot and starts all of the madness. 

And Haruko apparently sees something in Naota that she wants to manipulate so she takes every length to make sure that he stays hers. (Not necessarily in a romantic sense as much as it is a prison sentence)

Minor characters:

Canti - Lovingly referred to as TV boy by some of the residents, he is the first robot to pop out of Naota's cranium and after some... reconfiguration via Haruko and guitar, he becomes a strong ally, a loyal housekeeper and a good friend to Naota and the others throughout the series despite the fact that he cannot speak a word. 

Kamon Nadaba - Naota's father who's wife is absent from the series. At certain points, he acts as Naota's counterpart and enemy and at others he has faith in his now-only-son. When he becomes his enemy, it is frequently the fault of Haruko and her temptation and most of the time, he is on his son's side even though he shows it in very odd and strange ways.

Eri Ninamori - Probably my favorite character from the show despite her technically being a minor character. She is class president of Naota's 6th grade class, daughter to the mayor of Mabata and possibly Naota's childhood friend. She is very mature for her age and put on a very hard exterior shell to protect her from the events of the story and the other residents of the town due to her status as the mayor's daughter. She, like Naota, is 12 and still trying to find where exactly she want's to be, although she has a more maturity and a bit more composure than her male protagonist classmate.

Amarao - A mysterious agent/investigator interested in Haruko and her motives and acts as an opposing force to her plans and actions. 

And there are more minor characters, but the others all act more as objects and elements used to get more of the messages and themes to the audience.

Overall, I think the characters are one of the stronger points of the show because they all help shape a seriously entrancing narrative filled with lessons and themes to think about while being an absolutely over-the-top borderline instutionalized form of insanity at the same time.

They all fulfill the roles they were given, they bring out and strengthen the themes of the narrative and some even left a bit of an impression.

Sound?

While it was quite difficult to get used to the voice acting (both on the English and Japanese sides) the character's voices ended up fitting each character and their personality as time went on and by the second or third episode, it all felt quite natural.

At times the sound of the voices gets REALLY hard to listen to with some of the fast paced nonsensical moments but the emotions and delivery of the lines (more in the Japanese version) are spot on and convincing when it was needed.

The soundtrack also has a similar story to it. At times, it accompanies the visuals and the dialogue of the moment as well as a cat using a blackboard as a scratching post during a live rendition of Beethoven's 9th symphony. While at others, the soundtrack gave me songs to images that I will probably need an ice pick lobotomy to forget about (in a good way of course).

The soundtrack for the first few episodes hardly made an impression on my while subtly remaining in the background providing a small beat to accompany the images while at other points it pounces out blaring loud and attacking as aggressively as a tiger when the action really kicks up.

Reserved for AvatarHippo

And the soundtrack itself is a very interesting pick of music. I don't want to be crucified for naming the genres wrong... But I think it is a mix of Japanese rock and pop. 

It honestly contributes a lot to the series when necessary and it overall creates great sound.

Now the quality of all this is nothing special nor spectacular given it's age but it's originality and how well it does work at times really makes up for it.

Animation & Art style?

Well I have to say that from a totally not biased perspective (seriously) the anime's animation style is incredibly inconsistent. 

Though, when it is like this,
it fits in with the quirky moments of the series

The animation can literally go from frame to frame scratchy animation at one moment to a practically cinematic three-dimensional hand drawn art-style in the very next.

This is all due to the low budget the anime actually had at the time and I have to say that, despite using a lot of time and effort on those moments, they did do a lot for what they apparently worked with. 

Oh Eri... I am so sorry they didn't give you more
time with Naota... ;_

Although this effort sort of falls slightly flat in my opinion when the animation turns really jumpy in the few moments it does. 

It is nothing unwatchable, but it is a very noticeable change and it is probably one of the lowest things the anime has to offer in my opinion.

But in spite of this, the animation is done VERY well at the moments it needs to be good. The art-style, while being nothing exceptional for the time, does have it's moments.

Overall, not the greatest point in the evaluation but it is definitely solid still.

Overall enjoyment?

As is probably evident from my Fooly Cooly-thon posts, I was quite moved by how the characters and the everything else is portrayed and hinted at to create mystery and provide insight as to the character's motives and personalities and I very much enjoyed that.

Oh you know I did.

Although at moments, the anime just made me question what was I watching and why. The confusion and the nonsensicalness for the sake of being either out of the box or just out of the sane zone definitely did offset the good things in the anime for me, but only to a certain degree.

I definitely cannot judge the entire anime from just the moments that pissed me off in terms of jumpy animation style, nonsensical and impossible-to-follow dialogue and the rapid expulsion of things happening at once. There are a lot of things that should be looked at, considered thoughtfully and things to be reflected upon because we were all kids at one point.

Not an actual screenshot from the anime
but rather a recreation of one of the frames.

Despite how ridiculous the anime was at moments and how unpossible the story is, I actually found it very relateable. 

Even if you don't identify with Naota and his struggles, there are many more characters and situations that are pretty common and familiar, emotion and logic wise.

And to think that I was able to reflect on something like this in such a manner sort of shocks me a little bit considering the story one more time.

I should actually very much dislike this anime but overall, it was one heck of a ride and it did give me a lot to think about and learn after the action was over.

So after all of the elaborations are done,  let's look at the tally:

Plot/Progression - 9

Characters - 9

Sound - 8

Animation/Art style - 7

Overall enjoyment - 9

In total, that will bring us to a surprising 8.4 this time!

In conclusion, no, this anime won't make it to my top 10 list anytime soon but it is definitely up there with some of my favorites now. And for being an anime that probably gave me one of the worst first impressions on anime as a child, it looks like it really came back to impress and I am very glad that it did.

It captures what we are, at the core, inspired by in anime: larger than life tales that are seemingly out of this world or impossible but that still have a human core in the middle and something to relate to in the very end.

Sometimes we wouldn't want to be that guy or sometimes we would but overall, it relates the issues and happenings in the real world to a world so unlike anything that we have ever seen or will ever get to see. And I think we all think that is some kind of magic when we find that one anime or manga that makes us feel something like that.

I would definitely recommend the anime for anyone looking for a quick joyride on the crazy rocket to space. But when you are up there traveling, you will be able to see our world and the stars from a new perspective and get a new idea as to your place in life with your friends, your family and what your accomplishments in life make you.

Just remember, you are likely still a kid and you can make the world yours is what the anime and manga say to the audience for the most part.

It has been a good first weekend posting and exploring this little trip of an anime I think every otaku should experience and have an opinion on whether it be good or bad.

I hope this weekend gave you an idea of the diversity I plan to bring to the table here on Anime/Manga Addicts and I hope you enjoy the future posts!

Thanks for following and enjoy the show everyone!

-AvatarHippo