Copyright © GAINAX / KGI

GAINAX has done it again. And by "done it," I mean "made a really weird show that people will probably be talking about for a long time." But does that really mean that FLCL is good?
This six-volume OVA series began release a few months ago, with the first episode coming out on one volume at the unheard-of price of ¥2700. Clearly, GAINAX was trying to hook people with the first episode.
A young boy named Naota is hanging out with Mamimi, the girlfriend of Naota's absentee brother. Their relationship is an uneasy one, since Mamimi seems to enjoy teasing Naota quite a bit. Suddenly, their time together is interrupted by the arrival of a seemingly insane girl on a motorscooter. She runs over Naota and then whacks him in the head with her guitar...
If this doesn't make sense so far, you're not alone. But then again, GAINAX seems to be moving towards the weird and the nigh-incomprehensible. EVANGELION was complex and layered; KARESHI KANOJO NO JIJO was just plain weird; and FLCL seems to want to be a combination of both.
Clearly, the relationships are the key here. But there's a problem... The show gets too caught up in itself. The styles switch often. The main style uses a subdued color palette and some rather interesting and semi-realistic character designs, but this changes rapidly and often. When, for example, Naota goes to the hospital for a checkup and runs into Haruko (the scooter girl), she chases him around the hospital, with disastrous results. The animation switches to the exterior of the hospital, in a very cartoony fashion, as it bends and twists and contorts during their ongoing escapades.
I have no problem with changing styles to suit scenes, or even to keep the viewer off-balance, but sometimes FLCL seems to do it "just because." In one scene in episode one, there is a scene where Naota is talking with the other members of his family. This is rendered manga-style. By that, I mean as black and white line drawings complete with word balloons that the camera pans around. What's the point? I thought this was overdone in KAREKANO and here it is again. And it wasn't just a brief five-second thing, this went on for quite a while. I started to get seriously bored, although the Gundam jokes were funny.
The birth of Kanchi, the robot, is interesting too. I don't want to give anything away here, but just think Greek myths and a certain goddess of wisdom. This also leads to the best scene in the first episode, which is the robot battle. This is where the animation and the direction truly shine.
And FLCL does not suffer in the area of animation, since the animation chores have been handed to Production I.G., one of the top studios in Japan. It's smooth and very well-done, especially the fight scenes and the fast action scenes. I also liked their adaptation of the 360-degree pan around that was clearly intended to remind people of THE MATRIX.
Character designs are by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, and they are nice, but they get contorted, twisted, and otherwise altered a lot, so it takes a couple of episodes before one gets to see how nice the designs really are.
FLCL is going to be a tough sell to the casual anime fans. Fans of GAINAX who are used to the general weirdness and things not making sense for a while will probably not be bothered by this, but the less specialized viewer may find themselves put off by the frenetic pace, constant style-switching, and general lack of available information. So, for all these reasons, FLCL will probably succeed with a select few, but the general public will most likely move on to something that is more accessible.

Released by King Records
Website: http://www.gainax.co.jp/flcl/
VHS/DVD, 25 minutes each
Volume 1 - VHS: KICA 515 / DVD: KIBA 478 / ¥2700
Volume 2 - VHS: KICA 516 / DVD: KIBA 479 / ¥3700
Volume 3 - VHS: KICA 517 / DVD: KIBA 480 / ¥3700
Available now in Japan
Where to buy