FLCL Review (Anime)

FLCL, also known as Fooly Cooly, is an anime series that combines all the best parts of anime in general into one six episode series.  It is a mix of giant robots, sci-fi, slice of life, comedy, and rock and roll and is just plain crazy.  The story is a bit of a confusing mess, but it is absolutely entertaining from start to finish and features great artwork and some of the best music of any anime yet.


You know what, I'm not going to try and describe the story of FLCL.  It is too goddamn confusing and convoluted.  It involves aliens, inter-dimensional rifts, space pirate kings, evil intergalactic corporations, and a bunch of other weird crap.  They crammed a full 13-episode series (at least) worth of story into a mere 6 episodes, and it makes it hard to follow.  But it is entertaining.

There are giant robots and epic battles.  There are electric guitars with built in chainsaws.  There is a bit of slice of life thrown in.  And baseball.  And rock music.  And a love story.  And it is genuinely laugh out loud funny a lot of the time.  It is one of those series that leave you breathless afterward even if you didn't fully comprehend what was going on.

It also has, arguably, the best soundtrack of any anime series ever.  It is catchy, memorable rock that fits absolutely perfectly with everything the series is about.

My only real complaint with it is that it has been released in a ton of different variations and finding an inexpensive set is pretty difficult.  This is one of those series that kind of defines what is wrong with anime in the U.S. in that it is way too expensive.  It is just six episodes, but it is available in variations of six volumes (one episode each), three volumes (two episodes each), and an "Ultimate Edition" with 4 discs.  All of these sets are expensive.  Or you can do what I did - buy a bootleg with all six episodes on one disc for cheap (honestly can't remember what I paid ... it was a few years ago). 

Funimation has picked up the rights to re-release FLCL in the U.S. in the future, so maybe they'll actually put out a normal set at a realistic price.

At any rate, FLCL is a fun series that is definitely worth watching no matter how you get your hands on it.  I give FLCL a 9/10 or one lazy polar bear (cuz I'm too lazy to look up something better).