FLCL Alternative

*Potential Spoilers You know the one thing I wanted in an FLCL sequel? A Kardashian reference because that will surely age well. FLCL Progressive and Alternative tell the familiar story of being a teen and the all the troubles that come along with it… except without any of the subtly or charm of the original. Sequels are usually a bad idea to begin with, but sometimes they are tragedies with both Progressive and Alternative unsurprisingly falling head first into the latter. It is not so much because they are outright terrible, but how heartless they and mediocre they are as they go through the motions. I know itis not completely fair to judge things by comparison, but I’m about to do a lot of judgement by comparison. The original FLCL is truly one of a kind. It balanced over the top wackiness with heart felt drama making for an entertaining and surprisingly touching coming of age story. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did but here we are with FLCL cemented as a cult classic which is impressive in its own right. It was unique and refreshing, even if flawed, and it’s hard to argue it didn’t stand out regardless of how one felt about it. FLCL Progressive(ly Shit) and Alternative(ly Shit) on the other hand soullessly copy certain aspects from the original in an attempt to recreate the magic and fail grandly, ending up with no identity or personality of their own and worse yet forgetting basic elements of storytelling in the process. There are no interesting characters in either Progressive or Alternative. Hidomi, the main character of Progressive, seems to have the most interesting if not familiar story out of all the new cast yet this is blundered by lack of focus making for a less than satisfying ending. Instead, focus is shifted to Haruko who has now been reduced to nothing but a prop with her crazy antics taken to an obnoxious level as if that was what made her interesting in the original series and not her interactions with Naota. Worse is Kana, the main character of Alternative, who is so generic and uninspired in every way it makes one appreciate Progressive’s characters. While Hidomi’s story of an absent father at least had potential Kana’s story resorts to your typical power of friendship clichés which feel so forced I wanted to throw up. The other issue Nu-FLCL suffers from is the terrible pacing. The original FLCL was quite effective at conveying a lot of information succinctly and by the end of the first episode we understand Naota’s troubles and motivations. By comparison Progressive opens with nonsensical dream sequences while Alternative opens with narrations similar to the original except without the nuance. From there both are so disjointed and poorly structured that only the last two episodes seem to matter. While Progressive’s ending is serviceable at best Alternative’s ending is so contrived and out of left field that it works against it. If there is one thing Nu-FLCL is guilty of it is being absolutely forgettable, which despite its flaws, the original wasn’t. Equal in mediocrity I can’t say Progressive is ultimately better than Alternative or vice versa. I guess if I had to choose I would choose Progressive because it wasn't as on the nose as Alternative and Hidomi is cute, but neither cute hime cut grils nor The Pillows could save either of these two messes in the end. So, unsurprisingly, another unplanned sequel that never needed to exist to begin with flops and everyone moves on with their lives. I guess the only thing to do now is to wait for when they announce the timed Toonami exclusive sequel to Cowboy Bebop featuring a new multicultural cast of all female characters so I can finally hang myself.

"One of the hardest things in life is to be average." - The MC who blushes a lot Conveniently - or was it ironically - the easiest thing in the anime industry is to be average, but that is not what FLCL Alternative is. After the disaster that Progressive was, no one could have expected this, but Alternative manages to leave the common mediocrity level and surprise with its quality positively. As an FLCL sequel, this series is still a shameful and embarrassing piece, but when viewed as a franchise reboot / spinoff starred by Haruhara Haruko's downgraded clone, we can't complain too much. In fact, wecan go praising it for its achievements. Our story centers around a group of 4 girl friends called blushes a lot, kinda fatso, really normal and the pretty one. This is unarguably what every female friend group looks like except on average there are only 3 of them - needless to say the normal one is missing. Their outlook is not the only painfully accurate thing about these girls. They are also living pretty much the most normal and assumably well-adjusted life of a teenage girl, fitting the mold, being like everyone else. That kind of awesomely average stuff, hence the quote seen in the beginning. However!!! Pretty much exaggerating up there in the end with that last word and the !!!^, but there is a catch to it, which pretty much everyone who has seen the original FLCL could have come up with whilst writing fanfiction. Work, date, school, boys and hanging out with the sis sets its sails towards real space ships, robots, brain flowers and more abstract coming of age stuff because aliens and chainsaw-guitars. Logic can't be found from this narrative, but it does contain beauty, and at the end of the day, any reasonable person can be logical, but it takes much more to be beautiful, so it is easy to appreciate what FLCL Alternative does. "The days flew by even though nothing took off." -One character, probably really normal or blushes a lot (forgot) To talk about the production, we have 3 directors here who all are doing their best. Some shots are polished with some creativity and effort was put in the editing and making department. Stuff such as live action on-stage type of music video playing while the life and important events from the cast's daily life is told in the forms of fast-paced visuals, is unarguably a decent idea and well-executed scene as a whole. It would be fair to say that lots of love is put in the making of this 3rd part, and this time around, it feels much more like a tribute to FLCL than an insult which the 2nd part represents. Not to be confused with "a good sequel" which I still think this isn't, but a successful tribute it is. The animation and overall style in art is bit closer to the original FLCL than last time around. It gets a plus mark if not two in today's industry for sure. It managed to occasionally even remind me of the coolio that Punch Line was with its amount of animation detail, which I guess is explained by one of the directors directing that series. Either way FLCL Alternative has style and it deserves credit for it. The OST is extra neato, but I am still not completely satisfied with the sounds, mainly because the English voice acting sounded rather monotonous and bland at times, even out of place occasionally. This is a downgrade from Progressive (the downgrade actually since it's the one and only) where the seiyuu work was decent as a whole. Perhaps the Japanese version will be superior this time around(?). As a conclusion: I genuinely enjoyed watching this one. While it was mainly just a momentary experience with no long-lasting impact, and its biggest achievement is lessening the negative after taste caused by Progressive, it surely is a noteworthy piece from its production year if not all that much more. I wholeheartedly recommend this to people who hated Progressive because this one is a major improvement. As for die-hard FLCL fans, I can't promise you will like what you see. As an anime, Alternative achieves more in 6 episodes than most shows from currently industry achieve with 12. I hear people like numbers so here are some, Story 5/10 Characters 6/10 Voice acting 5/10 (English) Art and animation 7/10 Directing 7/10 OST 8/10 Enjoyment 5-9/10 Besto curl: 3 (I said numbers) Overall 6/10 As a bottom line, judging this based to Progressive and prejudices caused by it, is not cool, nibbas. This better by a landslide or two. *Please note that I saw the 6 episode long OVA series that was broadcasted on Adultswim, and not the original Japanese full length movie. In case this entry will be changed from Movie to OVA in the future claiming I only saw part 1 of 6, that is not correct: I saw all the parts*

This latest incarnation in the FLCL franchise is a significant improvement over its immediate predecessor, Progressive, in virtually all aspects, with vastly superior writing, art, animation, editing and even sound mixing. It also manages to deliver on its "Alternative" namesake, taking a significant departure from the stylistic choices hitherto established by the franchise. Make no mistake, this is not "Furi Kuri", and fans expecting to see more of the wildly experimental animation and frenetic pacing of the legendary Gainax OVA are bound to be disappointed. Instead, Uemura Yutaka and his team at Production IG have created a solid, slow-burn, slice-of-life melodrama featuringfour female leads, which is only occasionally intruded upon by the irreverent chaos and destruction that accompanies Huruhara Haruko. The choice to try something different within the established tropes and parameters of the franchise was a smart move, and allows the story to focus on substantive characterization and thematic development, which is what was really at the core of the original story to begin with. In contrast, Progressive's choice to double down on the lore of the series' universe felt pastiche and uninspired, and resulted in something of an aping fanfiction that wasn't quite sure what it wanted to say. The relationship between the four friends is interesting enough to watch, if a bit tedious, the humor and pop-culture references are funny enough to laugh at, and Kana, the lead, is a surprisingly compelling protagonist with a highly satisfying character arc. The thematic elements of the show, with an emphasis on the uncertainty and change that accompanies late adolescence, aren't handled with quite as much nuance as the original but are still presented very well, in a sometimes moralistic way that remains resonant nevertheless. The art direction stands out as one of the show's high points. Sadamoto Yoshiyuki's character designs shine here, and the backgrounds display strong composition and color choices that are immersive and serve to recreate an aesthetic of magic realism that FLCL is known for. The ED, animated by Uekusa Wataru, and set to The Pillow's "Star Overhead" stands out in particular for its fun and dynamism. The Pillows' soundtrack is used to much greater effect in this season, though it remains perhaps a bit too sparse and subdued. Without spoiling anything, the ending to this season is something that has to be mentioned, and will undoubtedly divide fans of the series for years to come as a point of contention. The finale resolves itself in the last few minutes of runtime in an out-of-left-field, bizarre fashion that is sure to leave heads scratching. It is a classic Gainax ending that outdoes the original FLCL in both scope and absurdity, that plot-wise, it is incredibly open ended and leaves room for a variety of theories. In short, Alternative is an entertaining show and a solid entry in the FLCL franchise that deserves at least one viewing. It will make you laugh, it will make you think, it will make you feel things, and most importantly it will leave you confused, which is pretty much anyone could ask from FLCL.

Turning fooly cooly into a slice of life disney channel movie is baffling to me. This one missed every mark of flcl more than progressive did. everything inventive or creative about the original was lost on the people working on this. And the themes in this movie, they are the most dumbed down, milk toast, spoonfed morals ive ever been subjected to. the story is basically non existent when its not ripping off the original. it basically takes all of the major plot points from flcl but forgets all of the good character writing and development of the original, even thinking about this movie is aggravatingto me. the art is your standard slice of life anime rom-com type thing, but most of the framing and shot composition just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. creating tonal whiplash between "funny high school drama baka" and the dare i say "intense" moments (that are carbon copied from the original.) The reason why my score is poor, instead of average, is because if you are going to follow up flcl, and just have some bland generic animation, you deserve lower than a 4. the sound i will brush past because i dont even want to think about how they heard the originals bombastic, punked out rock soundtrack, and turned it into this 2009 alternative nickelback background music. the characters are awful. The original's characters were charming, selfish, relatable, dynamic, complex, and most people didnt even understand mamimi or haruko on first watch-and the more you watch, the more amarao comes off as a loser who's trying to act like spike spiegel all the time. But everything i've said of the original was lost on the writer of alternate, these characters are unforgivable. They are generic, snobby, and act exactly like how a 31 year old with kids in elementary school think highschoolers act, although they often come off as preschoolers with more responsibility. how bad i felt for mamimi is only rivaled for how bad i feel for anyone watching this who can see or hear. flcl was never really about narrative. And although it definitely had it, the show was never explaining itself, or trying to tell you whats what, or what was even happening, it was riding on feelings. its the type of thing where explaining flcl would never capture the experience of watching it. But watching this movie, and writing this review, the only thing i feel is complete disgust at how people were duped into watching this monstrosity since it had the flcl name on it. 1/10