FLCL (Fooly Cooly)

Reviewed By: Carla Land

Synch-Point/ Anime Gamers USA DVD

Review based on volume 1 (episodes 1-2)

Rating NR

What it’s (basically) all about: Naota is a twelve year old living in a town where nothing extraordinary happens. His older brother has gone to America to play baseball, and his brother’s girlfriend, Mamimi, who sees black winged gods down by the river and is totally obsessed with a violent video game, is now vying for his attention. One afternoon he gets run over by a scooter driven by an alien girl named Haruko. She hits him over the head with a guitar, and a horn starts to grow right out of the middle of his forehead, which turns out to be a robot. Then things start to get weird.

Nitty Gritty: Extras include commentary on both episodes by the director (in Japanese with subtitles), an image gallery, and out-takes (of the voice actors).

Naota seems to take having robots come out of his head and having an alien move into his house in stride. As weird things start happening, he just deals with them as best as he can. Mamimi is a little off- she’s obsessed with a  game called Firestarter (which doesn’t actually exist, in case you’re interested) and doesn’t act like a normal high schooler, which gets her teased a lot. Haruko talks with her superiors through the cat and uses her guitar as a weapon of mass destruction against evil robots. Naota really has his work cut out for him

“Dammit” and “suck”/ “sucks” are the only forays into foul language (used in both subbed and dubbed versions), but there is a lot of sexual innuendo (which is confirmed by the director in the episode one commentary). Haruko and Mamimi have a few panty shots and are a little amorous towards the younger Naota. In the first episode there is a brief moment in the bathroom, where we see Naota from the back, sitting on a seat in the tub washing his hair. There is also a split second of stylized nudity in the end credits.

Other things to watch out for- Naota gets “eaten” by a robot and is “pooped” out, and Naota’s father is a little lecherous.

One final note- the entire series is available as an "Ultimate Edition DVD Collection" that was released in January 2007.

Survey says: This isn’t as bad as it sounds, and could probably be placed in a Young Adult collection without mishap. If you’re not sure though, it’s always better to err on the safe side and put it in adult collections.

Personal Ad: Usually I get peeved at only two episodes on a disk, but I didn’t enjoy this enough to want to watch more. I watch a lot of anime, and this isn’t one of my faves.