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“FLCL” doesn’t always make sense, and that is kind of the point. Once, at an anime convention, creator Kazuya Tsurumaki explained that he wanted the show to be a counterpoint to the notion that you needed to be smart to understand “Evangelion.” The same wasn’t true of “FLCL.” “I want to say that it’s okay to feel stupid,” he said.
Indeed, “FLCL” is the anime equivalent of a vibes movie, a story densely packed with information, worldbuilding, and symbolism. Meanwhile, the tone, the joke-a-minute pace, deep-cut references, and the eclectic visuals make it extremely easy to just go along for the ride and laugh with the ludicrous and exhilarating things on the screen.
In many ways, “FLCL” is the closest to an MTV anime, a show that shares the iconic network’s sense of punk rock rebellion, and its penchant for fast editing, everything-goes attitude and disregard for rules, and a killer soundtrack filled with guitar riffs. The visuals break apart constantly, and the show changes visual styles in every other scene — including a cut-out scene animated in the style of “South Park.”
When it comes to anime, “FLCL” is closer to a full-length Daicon anime, referring to the Daicon III and Daicon IV opening animation short film, produced by amateur animators who would later found Gainax (the studio behind “FLCL”). That animated short not only looks stunning but contains more references per second than you can count, just as “FLCL.” The OVA pays homage to everything from John Woo, “The Matrix,” “Gundam,” and “Evangelion” (including a fantastic cameo from Hideaki Anno). Like classic MTV shows, it feels like an anime made for its specific time, for people deeply invested in the culture, aware of the classics and the newcomers, and that rules.
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