FLCL

Ja kanji	フリクリ
Ja romaji	Furi Kuri
Genre	Science fiction, action, surreal comedy, romance

Type	ova
Director	Kazuya Tsurumaki
Producer	Hiroki Sato, Nishizawa Masatomo
Writer	Yōji Enokido
Music	The Pillows
Studio	Gainax, Production I.G
Licensor	Madman Entertainment Funimation Entertainment
First	April 26, 2000
Last	March 16, 2001
Episodes	6
Episode list	List of FLCL episodes

Type	serial novel
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko
First	June 2000
Last	March 2001
Volumes	3

Type	manga
Author	Hajime Ueda
Publisher	Kodansha
Publisher en	Tokyopop
Publisher other	Pika Édition
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Magazine Z
First	October 23, 2000
Last	August 23, 2001
Volumes	2

is an original video animation series written by Yōji Enokido, directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G, and Starchild Records.

FLCL follows Naota Nandaba, a twelve-year-old boy living in the fictional Japanese suburb of Mabase, and his interactions with Haruko Haruhara, who arrives in the quiet suburb, drawn by the industrial town houses and the Medical Mechanica building.

The English adaptation of the series was first licensed by Synch-Point and Geneon Entertainment, which released the DVDs and soundtrack respectively, but then went out of print in 2006. In January 2010, however, Funimation Entertainment announced that they would be re-releasing the series on DVD and releasing for the first time on Blu-ray. In addition, the series aired on TV in America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim several times.

Plot

FLCL revolves around Naota. His life is interrupted by the arrival of Haruko Haruhara, who bursts on the scene by running Naota over with her Vespa scooter, then giving him CPR and hitting him on the head with a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 left-handed electric bass guitar. Later, Naota is shocked to find Haruko working in his house as a live-in maid.

Since then, Giant Robots from Medical Mechanica have been coming out of Naota's head and cause more problems for Naota and Haruko. Haruko is using Naota for her search for the Pirate King, Atomsk, which puts her at odds with Medical Mechanica, the monolithic industrial corporation. At the same time, Naota is being watched by Commander Amarao, who believes that Medical Mechanica is out to conquer the galaxy. The combination of circumstances gets Naota involved in a three-way battle between Haruko, Amarao and Medical Mechanica. The underlying theme is Naota's coming of age as he becomes more mature and learns to express his feelings.

Characters

; : :The protagonist of the series, obsessed with appearing mature and nonchalant. He idolizes his older brother Tasuku, who represents for Naota what it means to be an "adult". He also has a crush on Haruko but tries never to admit it.

; : :Mabase's newest resident, an extraterrestrial investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. She becomes the Nandaba household maid while working to find Atomsk, the most powerful space pirate in the galaxy. She uses her bass guitar

Language

There are some places where dialogue of the English translation is different from the Japanese version, an attempt to make the dialogue easier to understand in the English translation. (Example: Haruko uses the term "mouth to mouth" repeatedly throughout the series, though the "th" sound does not exist in Japanese, making it sound like "mouse to mouse". This is used in a pun in "Full Swing", when she crawls out of the Kamon puppet's mouth wearing a mouse suit.).

Further comments in the booklets discuss the severe loss in translation of the plays made in Japanese via homonyms, synonyms, and so on. One example of trying to preserve this in English is the "empty", "MTV" and various homonyms in English during the Kamon/Haruko manga sequence.

Media

FLCL has been released as a two-volume manga by artist Hajime Ueda, and a three-volume novel serialization by screenwriter Yoji Enokido.

Manga

The manga interprets the series with all of the key elements intact, but loses some details and changes the dialogue. It is a much darker and more graphic take on the story, highlighting the sex and violence (Naota intentionally kills his father with the baseball bat in a grisly scene because he thought Haruko and his father were sleeping together; Shigekuni and an unnamed war buddy later suicide-bomb the Medical Mechanica building).

The manga is stylistically unique due to its use of ink to roughly outline objects and shade areas. Volume 1 is more like the first two episodes while Volume 2 is more like episodes 3 through 6. One major change to a character is Ninamori, as her robot becomes an ally and is not destroyed. Its design is also different, being a large octopus-like robot attached to her head that enables her to fly. The ending is also quite different from the anime.

The English language edition of the manga was released by TOKYOPOP in two volumes (ISBN 978-1-59182-396-4 and ISBN 978-1-59182-397-1).

Novels

The first of the three novels was released in America on March 11, 2008, the second on September 9, 2008, and the final on March 10, 2009. All were released in Japan starting in 2000, and in 2008 in the United States.

Distribution

Six DVD compilations, each containing one episode, have been released in Japan by Gainax. In addition, a DVD collection box, containing all six DVD compilations, was released in Japan on August 13, 2005. Three DVD compilations were released by Synch-Point in North America. A DVD collection box, containing all the DVD compilations of the English episodes, was released on January 23, 2007, but have since gone out of print. In January 2010, Funimation Entertainment announced that they had acquired the license for the series and would be releasing it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in February 2011. although there was also a minor reference to it in the September "issue". In 2003, it also went on to win third place for Best Animation Film at the Fantasia Festival.

FLCL has garnered mostly positive reception among reviewers; Adult Swim occasionally refers to FLCL as "The greatest show we have ever aired." Christopher McDonald of Anime News Network called it "downright hilarious" and "visually superb" with great music, citing the packaging of 2 episodes per DVD as the only weakness of Synch-Point's original release.

It was also a success from a corporate standpoint. A Time Warner press release from August 12, 2003 lauds the success of Cartoon Network, and mentions FLCL:

: series FLCL (Monday-Thursday, 12 a.m.) premiered with impressive numbers. [...] The Monday, Aug. 4 telecast of FLCL'' ranked #42 among all shows on ad-supported cable among adults 18-34.

On February 24, 2007, FLCL was nominated for "Best Cast", and won "Best Comedy Series" and "Best Short Series" at the first American Anime Awards show.

In the November 2007 issue of Anime Insider, FLCL was ranked 4th in their list of the best English-licensed anime of all time.

The directors of , an American animated television series, claim inspiration from FLCL. Avatar director Giancarlo Volpe says the staff "were all ordered to buy FLCL and watch every single episode of it."

References

External links

FLCL Synch-Point's official site

FLCL Funimation's Teaser Site

http://web.archive.org/web/20060822225929/www.pulp-mag.com/archives/6.03/flcl.shtml

http://web.archive.org/web/20060509084839/www.pulp-mag.com/archives/6.03/flcl_02.shtml

http://web.archive.org/web/20060509084945/www.pulp-mag.com/archives/6.03/flcl_03.shtml

http://web.archive.org/web/20060509084759/www.pulp-mag.com/archives/6.03/flcl_04.shtml

http://web.archive.org/web/20060819130501/www.pulp-mag.com/archives/6.03/flcl_05.shtml

Category:Anime of 2000 Category:Anime of 2001 Category:Anime with original screenplays Category:Comedy anime and manga Category:Gainax Category:Manga of 2000 Category:Production I.G Category:Science fiction anime and manga Category:Seinen manga Category:Funimation Entertainment Category:Parody anime and manga Category:Anime OVAs