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[[Image:Flcl-1.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Introduction of Haruhara Haruko in the first episode. Left - Samejima Mamimi; Prostrate - Nandaba Naota]]
'''''FLCL''''' ([[Japanese language|Japanese]] フリクリ ''Furi Kuri'', pronounced and officially [[romanization|romanized]] as ''Fooly Cooly'') is a six episode [[Japan | Japanese]] [[anime | animation]] [[Original Video Animation|OVA]] series, the brainchild of [[film director|director]] [[Kazuya Tsurumaki]] of [[Gainax]] and released by Gainax and [[Production I.G.]].
==Style==
''FLCL'' is a unique and somewhat esoteric production whose myriad oddities are frequently bewildering. This is compounded by the suckerpunch pace at which the plot progresses. Its hyperactive, occasionally juvenile, and illogical style can be misinterpreted, generally causing strongly opposing opinions of its value. There are many hidden meanings underneath its surface. ''FLCL'' could be categorized as a comedy, drama, soap opera, science fiction, or horror story. Its comedic side is most noticeable, as it [[satire|satirizes]] [[pop culture]] icons such as [[John Woo]] and ''[[South Park]]'', not to mention other anime such as ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' (which was also produced by Gainax) and ''[[Lupin III]]''. FLCL also brings up minor but notable pop references such as the ''Tomino Hammer'' which is refering to ''[[Yoshiyuki Tomino]]'s'' original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' series including an unrealistic hammer weapon in a relatively plausible ''[[Real Robot]]'' Universe. ''FLCL'' also parodies slightly nostalgic Japanese culture itself, by switching styles to traditional kabuki at one point, presenting now defunct brands of drinks, Japanese style bread, and nostalgic 3-wheeled automobiles that were prominent in Post-war Japan. [[Pun]]s and sexually suggestive [[metaphor]]s fly freely. However, its comedic elements at times overshadow what is, at its core, a [[coming of age]] story. The stranger elements often reflect the confusion and awkwardness of puberty (or possibly of mankind in general).
''FLCL'' is an exercise in unconventional, self-referential anime. It is somewhat inaccessible to most viewers on all but the most superficial level. To appreciate the series, one has to first become acquainted with many anime conventions, and be able to see a second layer in the production. Otherwise, a viewer who is new to anime will simply be overwhelmed with the amount of unfamiliar content that the series presents in the very limited timeframe of three hours.
A significant element of ''FLCL's'' appeal is its music. Most of the background music was written and performed by the band "[[the pillows]],"<!-- All lowercase is correct, please don't change this. --> which has generated mass success and appreciation since the anime's release abroad. [[Shinkichi Mitsumune]] wrote almost all of the rest of the music. Two soundtrack CDs and a one-CD "best-of" compilation were released in Japan and later America. Another interesting note is that the action sequences were chereographed around the individual tracks used and not the other way around. There is also a significant amount of reference to guitars which are used symbolically throughout the series.
==Story==
[[Image:Flcl-2.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The visual style changes with the shot.]]
{{spoiler}}
The series focuses on Nandaba Naota, a twelve-year-old boy just starting puberty, living in the fictional, strange, and yet ordinary Japanese suburb of Mabase. Naota lives with his lecherous father Kamon and his baseball-coaching grandfather Shigekuni at their family bakery. He greatly admired his older brother Tasuku—a baseball phenomenon who has gone to the United States to play the game. Note that Tasuku, though often referenced, never appears in the series. Naota seems to be very frustrated with his life, and in the opening episode is musing about how uneventful and boring Mabase is.
Events kick off when a strange and mischievous girl named Haruhara Haruko runs him over with her [[Vespa]] and then whacks him in the forehead with a left-handed [[Rickenbacker]] [[bass guitar]] with a [[pull cord]] start motor. Soon afterwords Naota discovers that being hit with Haruko's bass left more than just a bump, it opened an N.O. portal in his head and things are starting to come out of it. Later that day Naota finds Haruko in his house, hired by his father as a live-in maid. It is gradually revealed that Haruko is in a confrontation with a company named Medical Mechanica (whose factory building looks like a giant clothing iron) located on the outskirts of Mabase which is holding a being named "Atomsk" which she is after, and she's using Naota as a means to her own ends, which are revealed in the final episode.
In addition to being hounded by Haruko, who uses a portal she opened in his head for her own selfish purposes, he is being watched by a man named Commander Amarao. He and his assistant, Lt. Kitsurubami, are monitoring Haruko and Medical Mechanica for intergalactic legal reasons and are attempting to save the Earth as the conflict between Haruko and Medical Mechanica (MM) escalates.
The plot also involves Mamimi, a delinquent girl who used to be Tasuku's girlfriend. Alone and friendless, she leans on other things, such as Naota or her pet cat, both of whom she calls "Ta-kun" (referring to Tasuku), and cigarettes. Japanese adolescents often add the suffix "-kun" to the names of their classmates and friends. There is also a girl named Ninamori who goes to school with Naota and seems to have romantic interests in him.
The power of ''N.O.'' is what lets items be pulled out of characters' foreheads. N.O. comes from the cooperation of the right and left sides of the brain. When it is activated (usually from extreme scenarios including stress and duty) things can be pulled from anywhere in the universe. After the activation of his N.O., an x-ray of Naota's head shows that his brain is seemingly missing, but this is actually due to the [[x-rays]] being pulled into the vortex created by N.O., though Haruko uses it as a joke at Naota's expense. Naota's N.O. is responsible for the appearance of; Canti, Naota's [[Gibson Flying V|Flying V]], Atomsk's [[Gibson EB-0]], three MM robots, and in the end, Atomsk himself.
==Characters==
The English edition of the ''FLCL'' anime uses the Japanese naming order for characters.
*'''Nandaba Naota''' (ナンダバ・ナオ太), 12, is the main character. He believes he is normal, living in a normal town, full of crazy people. Unbeknownst to him, he has huge N.O. powers. Every episode he states that nothing ever happens in his town, even after the unexplainable and amazing happens. He carries his brother's baseball bat with him because he misses his brother. Naota is internally struggling with the recognition of his existence and independence from looking up to his brother, and to himself.
*'''Nandaba Tasuku''' (ナンダバ・助く) is Naota's older brother who moved to America to play baseball. Mamimi believes that, since Tasuku saved her from the fire at their old elementary school, he likes her. From context and the fact that he gets a another girlfriend in America, it is apparent that Tasuku has no real love for her. Although he never actually appears on screen, he is very significant to the storyline. As the former star of the baseball team, Naota idolizes him, but he is afraid of not living up to his brother's legacy, and in turn never even swings the bat when on the plate. In addition, Tasuku's news that he has a girlfriend troubles Naota greatly. In the first episode of the series, Naota realizes for a split second that Haruko looks like Tasuku.
*'''Samejima Mamimi''' (サメジマ・マミ実), 17, was Tasuku's girlfriend, though she dotes on Naota since his brother left Japan. She attends school infrequently, smokes, and has [[pyromaniac]]al tendencies, and spends most of her time under a bridge. It is likely that her parents are separated. She has a rather peculiar tendency to name many things after her personal nickname for Tasuku, "''Ta-kun''." It is originally set forth in the story that she has a fascination with fire after her rescue from the elementary school by Tasuku, though later it is revealed that she herself set the fire. She loves taking care of things that are weak-willed, which she leaves when they show some willpower. She also believes Canti to be a manifestation of a fire-starting fallen angel "Cantido", who is really a character from a videogame she plays.
*[[Image:FuriKuri6.jpg|thumb|310px|right|Haruko, riding her Vespa, preparing to use her guitar.]]'''Haruhara Haruko''' (ハルハラ・ハル子), 19 (or so she claims), is a pinkish-orange haired girl from outer space. She rides a yellow [[Vespa]] (and is also known as ''The Vespa Woman'', a pun on the word Vespa, which means wasp) and wields a left-handed Rickenbacker bass guitar as a bizarre weapon of sorts. She becomes the Nandaba household's maid and plays on a rival team of the Mabase Martians for extra money. She has also apparently had past relations with Amarao, most likely similar to her relationship with Naota. This mysterious character is the catalyst for ''FLCL's'' entire plot. She is called '''Haruha Raharu''' by Amarao; this may be another alias, however.
*'''Nandaba Kamon''' (ナンダバ・カモン) is Naota's father, a former pop culture journalist working as a freelance writer, with his own trashy paper. For a while, Haruko tries to use a copy of the father's body as her plaything, though the body of the real father is eventually found and reanimated by Naota.
*'''Nandaba Shigekuni''' (ナンダバ・シゲクニ) is Naota's grandfather. He owns the family bakery and coaches the local baseball team, the Mabase Martians. Because Mamimi was with Tasuku and refuses to acknowledge the end of their relationship, Shigekuni despises her. In general, a mean old man.
*'''Ninamori Eri''' (ニナモリ・エリ), 12, is Naota's classmate. She is the daughter of the mayor of Mabase and is class president. While she appears to be a very proper, even stuck-up girl, she isn't above breaking the rules to get what she wants. She stuffs the ballot box during the election for the school play in order to get Naota cast opposite her in the lead role, proving her interests in Naota, romantically. Ninamori is also very intelligent, if a little jaded. Though she does not say it, her parents' problems trouble her deeply.
*'''Miyaji Junko''' (ミヤジ・ジュン子) is Naota's eccentric sixth grade teacher. Her students have given her the nickname "Miya-Jun".
*'''Canti''' (カンチ, ''Kanchi'' in Japanese) is a robot with what looks like a television set for a head. He was manufactured by Medical Mechanica, but goes over to Haruko's side after Haruko smashes (and breaks) his TV head with her guitar. It is later revealed that Atomsk can manifest through him, with Naota being the catalyst. Atomsk's symbol appears on Canti's screen when he absorbs Naota; the symbol is a corruption of the [[kanji]] character for "adult."
*'''Commander Amarao''' (アマラオ) works for a secret agency of the Foreign Embassy department of the government. This group knows that aliens exist, and try to keep them from the public. Thus, Haruko/Raharu is a big problem for them. Amarao has fake eyebrows made of [[nori]] which, he believes, serve the dual purpose of making him look macho and protecting him from N.O. Amarao seems to have had a past relationship with Haruko similar to Naota's. It is a likely inference from the story that as a child he was approached by Haruko/Raharu, just like Naota, and she tried using his N.O. to contact/capture Atomsk. However, his N.O.-channeling ability is so weak that he can barely pull something the size of a [[slingshot]] through. Has a love of sickeningly sweet candy and drinks.
*'''Lieutenant Kitsurubami''' (キツルバミ) is an attractive young woman on Amarao's staff. Amarao makes a pass at her in the final episode, but she resists him. She also seems to become smitten with Canti, despite her efforts earlier to snipe him.
*'''Atomsk''' (アトムスク), also known as the "Pirate King" (海賊王), is the most powerful space pirate in the galaxy. His N.O. is great enough to steal planets. He is a bird-like creature, resembling a [[phoenix]]. He has a [[nose piercing|nose ring]] identical to the metal bracket on Haruko's bracelet, which allows her to detect Atomsk's presence or the activation of N.O. in general. Amarao portrays him inaccurately, imagining Atomsk's appearance as humanoid when he describes him to Naota. In an interview, the director clarifies that Atomsk's true form is indeed that of the bird, and Amarao's mental image was of a man because he believed that Atomsk and Haruko were lovers.
==Episodes==
The total run-time for this show is three hours with commercials.
The episodes are:
# Fooly Cooly (Japanese title: Furi Kuri (フリクリ))
# FireStarter (Japanese title: FiSta (ファイスタ))
# [[Marquis de Carabas]] (Japanese title: Maru-Raba (マルラバ))
# Full Swing (Japanese title: Furi Kiri (フリキリ))
# Brittle Bullet (Japanese title: Bura-Bure (ブラブレ))
# FLCLimax (Japanese title: Furi Kura (フリクラ))
==Releases==
The episodes were originally released in Japan on six DVDs. It was also released as a two-volume [[manga]] by artist [[Hajime Ueda]], and a three-volume novel serialization by [[Yoji Enokido]], who also wrote the script for the show. All were released in Japan starting in 2000. The anime has subsequently been released on DVD in North America in three volumes by [[Synch-Point]], while the manga was released by [[TokyoPop]] in two volumes (ISBN 159182396X and ISBN 1591823978). All soundtrack discs, ''[[Addict (soundtrack)|Addict]]'', ''[[King of Pirates (soundtrack)|King of Pirates]]'' and ''[[FLCL No. 3]]'' were released by [[Geneon]]. ''FLCL'' has also been seen on [[Cartoon Network]]'s [[Adult Swim]] block in North America, starting in August 2003 and occasionally airing throughout 2003 through the present. It is currently on Adult Swim again during its Saturday night "ACTN" (action) lineup.
==Notes/Trivia==
*There are examples of scenes in which Naota yells out "Tasuk--"; the Japanese audience, at first assuming that he will exclaim "Tasukete" (help!), may be surprised when he instead says "Tasuku," the name of Naota's older brother.
*The name of the company Haruko is fighting is spelled ''Medical Mechanica''. It was misspelled in a scene in episode 2 as ''Medical Meccanica''.
*Most of the vehicles in the series (such as Haruko's [[Vespa]], Miya-Jun's [[Volkswagen Beetle]] and Amarao's [[Volkswagen]] Rabbit) are European.
*Many of the important characters are [[left-handed]] due to the director's belief that southpaws have more outgoing personalities and are cooler than right-handed individuals. The same distinction is shown in the difference between those characters who enjoy spicy food or sour drinks, and those who don't, as well as those who swing the bat or don't.
*To try to make the dialogue easier to understand in the English translation, there are some places where dialogue is different from the Japanese version. For example, in the Japanese third episode, a boy dressed like a mouse keeps asking Naota about the "''chu''-lady"; in Japanese, ''chu'' is the [[onomatopoeia]] for both a kiss and a mouse's squeak. (This is translated to English by having the character repeatedly yelling "Smooch!" while practicing for the play.) Also, in episode 5, Kitsurubami yells about the similarity between the kanji for Mackerel and Blue in the Japanese version, rather than Cyborg and Robot as in the English version. Additionally a reference to a Japanese swimsuit idol was replaced by a reference to [[Anna Nicole Smith]] in episode 2.
*It was rumored that the whole series was merely an experiment by [[Gainax]] to test out new techniques, and they used a 26-episodes worth of budget to produce the high quality animation. The [[The Internet Movie Database|IMDb]] says the series was created as a break from regular anime. More information can be found on the Director's Cut audio track and subtitles on the DVDs.
*[[the pillows]] <!--Please leave lower case -->did much of the soundtrack, with [[Shinkichi Mitsumune]] doing the remaining tracks.
*The show contains numerous sexual innuendoes which were the lead artist's ideas, contrary to that of the director.
*The [[Vespa]] shown in the ending credits actually belongs to the director and at the time of the Japanese DVD release was not in working condition.
*During episodes 1 and 6 the show temporarily uses a unique [[manga]]-like animation style. Due to uniqueness of the style, it required much time and effort to create. An inside joke in episode 6 is that Naota's dad says that they were told to never do that again, which is true - the CG artist had complained to the director about the complexity of the first "manga" scene, and initially refused to believe it could be done at all.
*The hand shown in episodes 5 and 6 is actually the hand of the director. The movement was captured on film and then spliced digitally into the animation.
*In episode 4 the original idea was for Naota to hit his father in the head with the bat instead of the TV. But due to a string of kids beating their parents to death with metal baseball bats hitting Japanese news around production time, Naota attacks the TV instead.
*In episode 5, a ''[[South Park]]'' animation style is used. The decision to do so was made once again by the art team. Much of the Japanese audience, according to the director, was unable to understand the reference; ''South Park'' never caught on in Japan due to too many American [[pop culture]] references. In the American release of ''FLCL'', however, it was easily recognized and greeted with both applause and groans. Also in Episode 3 Miyaji Junko’s car has a Kenny key chain in it.
*Episode 5 contains a reference to the opening credits of [[Lupin III]], as Naota's dad pounces out of his red suit and into Haruko's bed (who pulls a blanket over her chest as a spring-loaded boxing glove flies out and hits him). Lupin III started its run on Adult Swim around the same time.
*In late 2003, one of the Adult Swim [[commercial bumper|bumper sequences]] listed some of the favorite shows of Adult Swim's staff. ''FLCL'' was among them.
*While the sour drink in the black can that appears in the series seems to be a drink called "Lemon Squash" (レモンスカッシュ), an actual lemon-flavored brand of soft drink in Japan, the pamphlet accompanying the third DVD of the series explains that the drink is named "KaraC" as a pun on the Japanese word "karashi", which means "mustard" or something spicy, and juices that end in "C", like [[Hi-C]].
*Naota and Ninamori drink "Vitamin In" in Episode 3 because of proposed product placement. However, the scenes with the drinks were completed before negotiations finished, and the deal never went through. The studio decided to keep the beverages in the scene anyway.
*The true definition of "Fooly cooly" is not known nor made clear throughout the series, but one theory maintains it to be a Japanese shortening of "Flictonic Cliple Weber Syndrome," a fictional medical condition used as a plot device in the show. However, considering the phonetic structure of the Japanese language, it is far more logical to assume that "Flictonic Cliple Weber Syndrome" (pronounced "Furikutoniku Kuripure Ueba Shindoromu" in Japanese) is actually born from the term FuriKuri/Fooly Cooly, rather than vice versa. The unknown origin of the title is one of many quirks pointed out by even the characters, who frequently use the term, but never explain its meaning.
*Upon initially airing FLCL Adult Swim announced that, of all six episodes, only one edit was made in episode 6. In fact, episode 6 contained two edits (a penis, which was blurred in the original footage, was further blurred for TV, and the credits, which contained a short extra scene, was cut), and a spoken obscenity was blanked out of the soundtrack in episode 1.
==External links==
*{{imdb title|id=0279077|title=FLCL}}
*[http://www.production-ig.com/project.php?id=23 Production I.G.], co-producers of FLCL
*[http://www.gainax.co.jp/flcl/index-e.html Gainax], co-producers of FLCL
*[http://synch-point.com/production/flcl/index.html Synch-Point], North American distributors of FLCL
*[http://www.foolycooly.net FoolyCooly.net], fan site with [http://s11.invisionfree.com/foolycooly_net_forum forum]
*[http://j-revolution.com/?page=anime/flcl/index J-Revolution], FLCL section
*[http://www.emgmonthly.com/v7/page.php?p=ani/flcl.txt Sexual metaphor in FLCL], analysis with extensive screenshots
*[http://nandaba.net/flcl/ Easy Target @ Nandaba.net], FLCL fan site
*[http://oaf.anre.org Over-Analyzing FLCL], "the site that thinks ''way'' too much about FLCL"
*[http://www.melodysoft.com/foros/flcl/ FLCL Discussion Forum], bi-lingual (English/Spanish) forum
[[Category:Absurdist fiction]]
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