FLCL (Foolie-Coolie): WTF?
- Thread starter DM_Matt
- Start date
Shalimar
First Post
I don't know that its actually possible to understand, I have watched the entire series through, in order twice, perhaps 3 times, on adult swim, and I still have no clue. Other then the school girl who shows off her panties a lot was Takune's brother's girlfriend who now is crushing on him since big bro is off on an adventure to America. The Alien chick is a some kind of space bandit who infected Takune with FLCL in the hopes that the FLCL would produce the Uber Guitar of Might. Before the guitar was produced all kinds of evil robots were produced and the kid along with his one good robot had to fight and destroy the evil ones. Eventualy Uber Guitar gets made so Alien chick tries to steal it, but The kid and his Good Robot merge and become someone called Ademus the Pirate King, and they use the Uber Guitar to Kill the biggest baddest robot of the series. Then the Alien chick gets pissy and leaves.DM_Matt said:
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I believe hong is basically right. When I first saw FLCL I asked a friend who I knew was knowledgable in anime. If I remember what he told me correctly, FLCL is drawn/written/worked on? by the same guy who did Neon Evangelisis. I've only watched a few of the Neon Evang stuff, it didn't hold my attention, but apparently, toward the end of the series, it gets crappy and stops making sense. People accused the creator of being crazy or being lazy or just basically screwing it up.
His responce? "Oh yeah? I'll show you something really whack!" Thus, FLCL was born.
His responce? "Oh yeah? I'll show you something really whack!" Thus, FLCL was born.
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Also, it REALLY helps to either know a good amount about the many many cultural jokes that are everywhere and/or watch a subtitled version that at least explains a few of them. i.e. Words that can mean two or four different things.
Hong prety much nailed it on the head. 
Er, bad choice of words.
But if you ask me, and you did, the real beauty of FLCL isn't that it has enough metophorical subtext to keep my comparative lit professor up nights. No the real genius behind the show is the the timming and pacing of its emotional content which so perfectly mirrors content from everybody's shared human experiences. When you watch the show for the second or third time (yes it takes that long for it to come together, luckily it is only 6 eipsodes) try to ignore all the slapstick humor (which is hilarious) and the cool action set pieces (which rock) and the music (which is awsome) and all the panty shots (which I can never get enough of) and try to pay attention to the tone of the characters involved and realize that you have expirenced the same situation yourself, sans cool robot.
To illustrate: one of my favorite moments is in eipsode 3 when Ta-kun and Ninamori are arguing in class. The night before they had just shared an intimate moment where each found out an embarrasing secret about the other that they wanted kept hidden from all their friends. Now they are fighting, perhaps because they both realized that they had just grown closer and are now irrationally afraid of the reprcussions of that, or perhaps simply because Ta-kun is resisting taking part in the school play out of misguided adolecent bravado and is too dense to realize that Ninamori is indulging in a self-delusional fantasy that her stelar performance on stage will save her parent's marriage. The point is they are fighting over nothing, nothing important, nothing that really matters. But they both get stubborn and the tension builds and builds until in a stunning moment of mutual violence they both reveal the other's shamefull secret. Now try to forget for a moment that Ta-kun's secret is that he has cat ears and in a few moments a giant robot is going to burst out of Ninamori's forehead and run amok. Just think for a moment about that buildup of passion and emotion culmuniating in a senseless and pointless act of emotional violence, and that brief shamefull moment of silence afterward where each looks at the other and realizes that they have just hurt a person they care for and that they can't take it back no matter how much they want to and how are they ever going to fix it and make things right again? How can they even admit that they were wrong?
Now tell me you have never experienced the exact same thing.
That is why I like the show so much. It engages me on such a raw emotional level. And I dont' just mean emotion like "old yeller dying makes you cry" emotion. I mean that I can connect with the characters so fully that I can project onto them and share the expierence of the scene with them. Try it yourself. You have to get over your first instinctive reaction of "what the heck is this nonsense" and stop worrying about what the "point" and the "plot" are which is why you have to watch the series two or three times but it is totally worth it.
Or maybe I'm just crazy.
And if all that doesn't do it for you I can always give the stock answer: "The point of the show is that sex changes everything."
Er, bad choice of words.
But if you ask me, and you did, the real beauty of FLCL isn't that it has enough metophorical subtext to keep my comparative lit professor up nights. No the real genius behind the show is the the timming and pacing of its emotional content which so perfectly mirrors content from everybody's shared human experiences. When you watch the show for the second or third time (yes it takes that long for it to come together, luckily it is only 6 eipsodes) try to ignore all the slapstick humor (which is hilarious) and the cool action set pieces (which rock) and the music (which is awsome) and all the panty shots (which I can never get enough of) and try to pay attention to the tone of the characters involved and realize that you have expirenced the same situation yourself, sans cool robot.
To illustrate: one of my favorite moments is in eipsode 3 when Ta-kun and Ninamori are arguing in class. The night before they had just shared an intimate moment where each found out an embarrasing secret about the other that they wanted kept hidden from all their friends. Now they are fighting, perhaps because they both realized that they had just grown closer and are now irrationally afraid of the reprcussions of that, or perhaps simply because Ta-kun is resisting taking part in the school play out of misguided adolecent bravado and is too dense to realize that Ninamori is indulging in a self-delusional fantasy that her stelar performance on stage will save her parent's marriage. The point is they are fighting over nothing, nothing important, nothing that really matters. But they both get stubborn and the tension builds and builds until in a stunning moment of mutual violence they both reveal the other's shamefull secret. Now try to forget for a moment that Ta-kun's secret is that he has cat ears and in a few moments a giant robot is going to burst out of Ninamori's forehead and run amok. Just think for a moment about that buildup of passion and emotion culmuniating in a senseless and pointless act of emotional violence, and that brief shamefull moment of silence afterward where each looks at the other and realizes that they have just hurt a person they care for and that they can't take it back no matter how much they want to and how are they ever going to fix it and make things right again? How can they even admit that they were wrong?
Now tell me you have never experienced the exact same thing.
That is why I like the show so much. It engages me on such a raw emotional level. And I dont' just mean emotion like "old yeller dying makes you cry" emotion. I mean that I can connect with the characters so fully that I can project onto them and share the expierence of the scene with them. Try it yourself. You have to get over your first instinctive reaction of "what the heck is this nonsense" and stop worrying about what the "point" and the "plot" are which is why you have to watch the series two or three times but it is totally worth it.
Or maybe I'm just crazy.
And if all that doesn't do it for you I can always give the stock answer: "The point of the show is that sex changes everything."
Squire James
Explorer
The simple explanation: Let's see... about 15 minutes of sexual innuendo... a crisis point... then a 5-minute fight of some sort. Repeat 5 times.
The complex explanation: There are 3 basic alien power groups acting on Earth - (1) an alien-based corporation on Earth that had been there a while and basically wanted Total Order, (2) an alien girl that basically who came in and wanted Total Chaos for her own benefit, and (3) a neutral (?) organization that wanted to stop both of them from gaining the upper hand.
The alien girl was able to give people the power to literally pull stuff out of their heads, the results of which generally depended on how much imagination the person had. She wanted to give it someone, become intimate with him, and encourage the imagining of her Ultimate Boyfriend (apparently a being of near-limitless power).
Unfortunately for the alien girl, the most suitable subject was "Taco", a boy that was too young to understand what the girl wanted. Over the course of the episodes, he "grows up" enough to finally summon her U.B. However, the U.B. ultimately supports "Taco" and the Earth people more than he does the alien girl, and the alien girl finally leaves in a huff.
At least, that's what I understood of what went on.
The complex explanation: There are 3 basic alien power groups acting on Earth - (1) an alien-based corporation on Earth that had been there a while and basically wanted Total Order, (2) an alien girl that basically who came in and wanted Total Chaos for her own benefit, and (3) a neutral (?) organization that wanted to stop both of them from gaining the upper hand.
The alien girl was able to give people the power to literally pull stuff out of their heads, the results of which generally depended on how much imagination the person had. She wanted to give it someone, become intimate with him, and encourage the imagining of her Ultimate Boyfriend (apparently a being of near-limitless power).
Unfortunately for the alien girl, the most suitable subject was "Taco", a boy that was too young to understand what the girl wanted. Over the course of the episodes, he "grows up" enough to finally summon her U.B. However, the U.B. ultimately supports "Taco" and the Earth people more than he does the alien girl, and the alien girl finally leaves in a huff.
At least, that's what I understood of what went on.
Thanks for the explanation all!
My wife and I just caught the first 2 episodes on DVD and what a ride. It's crazy the first time you see it!! But I love the animation, music, and style enough that I'll make sure to watch the rest of the series... it sounds like I'll have to watch it a couple of times
Honestly, I think that the "WTF" factor is part of the draw of anime. I love that feeling of all out confusion the first time you see a strange anime -- my favorite example (I know it's old) is the openning episode to Ranma 1/2. When you see a young girl fighting a panda because she doesn't want to marry a different girl !! I still laugh when I think about the first time I saw that one!
My wife and I just caught the first 2 episodes on DVD and what a ride. It's crazy the first time you see it!! But I love the animation, music, and style enough that I'll make sure to watch the rest of the series... it sounds like I'll have to watch it a couple of times
Honestly, I think that the "WTF" factor is part of the draw of anime. I love that feeling of all out confusion the first time you see a strange anime -- my favorite example (I know it's old) is the openning episode to Ranma 1/2. When you see a young girl fighting a panda because she doesn't want to marry a different girl !! I still laugh when I think about the first time I saw that one!
BuddhasFist
First Post
The music is done by a band called The Pillows. I've ripped most of it.
But as far as the story is concerned, it's by far the #1 thing you should not watch while Sober/Not Stoned. My RP group and I (well the ones that watch Anime anyway) have a theory: FLCL was made to be the best thing for an Acid Trip. Or the best thing to make your face explode in a fit of confusion. Either way...
But as far as the story is concerned, it's by far the #1 thing you should not watch while Sober/Not Stoned. My RP group and I (well the ones that watch Anime anyway) have a theory: FLCL was made to be the best thing for an Acid Trip. Or the best thing to make your face explode in a fit of confusion. Either way...
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