After ranting about Louis CK doing a “get off my lawn” bit, thought I’d do my own. One of the guys over on the Cracked site was going on and on about a Japanese anime called FLCL (pronounced as Fooly Cooly). He pumped it as his favorite movie and living in Japan I thought I might as well check it out … just for pure cultural reasons of course … and maybe some sweet, sweet Japanese WTF.

Dear. God. Watching FLCL was like being strapped down and then repeatedly kicked in the face by some sort of burly, tentacled, anime god. Talk about sensory overload.
This movie is why Spinal Tap talks about noise boxes that have dials that go up to 11. Studies have shown that fast paced, fast edited scenes cause at least ADHD and at most seizures.
Well it’s a miracle that half way through this mini-series I wasn’t convulsing on the floor in a pile of vomit and blood. Don’t get me wrong I like anime, Perfect Blue (Which some claim is what Black Swan is based on) is one of my favorite movies and its opening sequence of merging frames had me in total absolute awe.

But FLCL was just too much. Is this how the kids are doing it these days? Is this what it takes to keep a teenager’s attention? During FLCL when things calmed down to the point I was able to concentrate on what was going on, I caught that some sort of plant was causing crazy things to happen to a small Japanese town and its residents. It was up to an elementary school student to solve just why strange forces were attacking his sleepy little hamlet through, admittedly, amusing adventures. But did it make up for being pressed against my seat by 10G strength of the blazing soundtrack and flashing lights? No.
So kids … Get the Hell off of my lawn.
If this wasn’t good enough for you, try these:
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You took the hits so others don’t have to. I’m not down for any of it but Spinal Tap got my attention and the post title was like honey to a bear..I had to get some 🙂
The mister recommended FLCL to me and I watched it. Twice, because I felt that by blinking I lost half the movie… but I realized unless I was on meth I was going to miss half the movie regardless. I saw it, mission accomplished. I will have to side with you and yell at the kids to get off my lawn and stop taking ecstasy.
I did however take the time to watch the special features (Netflix) and I enjoyed the special features more so than the movie. I will have to admit the soundtrack is awesome but then again I like The Pillows.
Much like you I am more a fan of anime like Perfect Blue. Pretty much anything Satoshi Kon had his hands on is pretty rad in my book, Paprika especially.
Dude, FLCL is bad ass. Maybe that’s where my adhd stems from. or it could be my overactive imagination that tends to bleed into real life.
I didn’t think they’d made it into a movie. It’s actually a six episode miniseries. As a movie everything would have been so condensed, it’s no wonder that it’s so fast paced.
Well it’s actually a mini-series … not sure how long the episodes were though. You lose track of time watching them.
Grrrr… stupid anime. I research ONE stinking Cracked article on the subject and ever since it’s been constant ads for it.
FLCL is a thinly veiled story of one kids journey through puberty. Everything is symbalism for some awkward moment of pubescence. The pace and crazy ADHD feel fits perfect with what teenage hormones put us through. If you relax for a second and look at the real message behind it, its a damn good anime. I generally hate anime, but FLCL is one of the few I liked enough to buy.
Shigurui: Death frenzy is really good too, but if you don’t understand a bit of oldschool Japanese story telling then you might get the impression that it doesn’t have an ending. If you find yourself with that feeling then you missed the point. Its not about the duel, it is about the KEY events that lead to the duel. As for how the duel ends…well if you’ve read enough oldschool samurai stories it is so easy to figure out how the duel ends.