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FLCL
Furi Kuri
To be released by Synch-Point
When I went into my local fansubbers, and asked what new titles had come in, I have to say, I had no strong desire to see FLCL. The description that the lady behind the counter gave me was "It's by the people who made Evangelion... its about the making of a band." Wow... anime... about make a band... can't say that I was ready to delve into the japanesse version of "Making the Band" so very several weeks, I passed on the title.
As time went by and I slowly sucked the resources of the fansubber dry, I reluctantly picked up FLCL, volume 1 and a bunch of Lupin the 3rd movies (if you've seen Castle of Caligiestro, do not expect the same quality in other Lupin movies). After sitting through 10 minutes of one of the Lupin movies, I grew tired of it and decided "What the hell, making the band wasn't that bad... was it?" Under the pretense that I had actually watched more then 5 minutes of making the band and enjoyed it, I popped in FLCL and turned down the lights.
After the first 5 minutes or so, I decided I would never take the advice of my local fansub retailor again. With a combinaiton of humor, drama, and some of the best CG ever done in anime, FLCL has that special something that Gainax has become famous for.
For a brief overview, FLCL starts out normally enough, the main character, Naota, is your typical Gainax hero. His big brother has gone off to America to play pro baseball, and his big brothers ex-girlfriend now uses him as her own personal play toy. In an accident, or perhaps not, Haruko appears on a mini-motorbike and crashes into his forehead, causing a huge lump to occur. Why do I bring up the lump? You'll have to watch to find out.
What makes FLCL so amusing is the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously. There is always the basic plot-line, however, the show allows itself enough freedom for random things like pyromaniac video game freaks, politicial liasons, and the housemaid from hell. Of course, though, it wouldn't be Gainax without a robot which goes from normal to pissed!
The animation quality of FLCL is way about par for most of what's currently available. Though Gonzo does an amazing job, Production IG is definetly #1 in my view. With a combinatin of seemingly 2-d animation as well as seamless integration of Matrix-esq camera tricks, hi-res excerpts from the original manga, and fluid animation, FLCL is a work of art. At certain points, such as one the giant kettle (yes, I said giant kettle) lets out its daily steam, its so life like that you'd be hard not to believe that someone in your house didn't just walk out of a sauna.
As well, the music in FLCL is actually universally good, and not the typical J-Pop many people have come to expect in anime. Though the lyrics are frequently non-sensical with random English phrases sprinkled through-out, the basic guitar rifts and melody lend themselves nicely to the tone and mood of every scene. The opening theme itself is incredibly catchy and will have you trying to sing it long after your viewing of FLCL has passed.
So, in short, this is definetly an anime worth checking out. I'm curious to see what Synch-Point will offer in the way of extras and I'm just praying they choose a very good dub cast since given the shows visually quick pace, I missed a lot of the on-screen humor reading subtitles.
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