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Let's Watch FLCL
While I am blatantly stealing this idea from BF, this will be different! I've seen this series many a time, so in addition to commenting on it and summarizing it as I go, I will also be doing some in-depth analysis on the subtler nuances of the series. Of which there are many.
Remember kids, we have two THEMES for this series:
Rock and Roll.
Puberty.
Got that? Good. Let's begin.
OP!
Haha just kidding, FLCL don't have time for that shit.
This is Naota, our strapping young protagonist. Like most 13-ish-year-olds, Naota is a surly teenager who thinks he is three times as mature as he actually is.
UNLIKE most 13-ish-year-olds, Naota is also involved with a girl several years older than he is. This is Mamimi, who may or may not be Naota's girlfriend. More on this later.
She is holding the baseball bat in a left-handed grip. Mamimi is not left-handed. Again, more on this later.
Naota and Mamimi talk about baseball and school and stuff for a bit, before Mamimi is apparently POSSESSED BY SATAN.
"Have you been smoking?"
Oh wait, no, that was foreplay. As a hot high schooler drapes herself all over Naota, he asks her why they're always doing this stuff, because apparently being doted on by older women is only acceptable if they have a reason for it. She says that if she doesn't, she'll overflow. What does that mean?
"I dunno. Probably something amazing."
Thus, two of our three leading actors have been introduced.
Nothing amazing happens here.
Only the ordinary.
Setting time! The suspiciously iron-shaped thing in the backgruond is a factory run by the medical robot company Medical Mechanica. Sometimes white smoke comes out of it.
Again, more on that later.
FLCL
It begins.
Specifically, it begins with a crazy woman.
"But I hate the sour ones."
Meanwhile, thousands of inches away, Naota and Mamimi are off doing Normal Stuff again.
Some awkward sexual tension and secondhand kisses and stuff transpire.
"You know... my brother, overseas..."
Before Naota can finish dropping whatever bomb was on the way to being dropped...
"LUNCHTIME!"
INVASION
SLAPSTICK
"THE NATIVE GIRL MUST STOP."
Thus begins the first of Mysterious Vespa Girl's many high-speed surrealist violence adventures!
Vespa Girl decides that Naota is dead, and rambles on about things that don't make sense, calling him Taro and rotating at random.
But this can only last so long. Time to TAKE ACTION!
"COME BACK TO LIIIIIIIIIFE"
It's hard to convey in still images, but the whole sequence with Vespa Woman's kiss and Mamimi's reaction is in ridiculous, over-the-top Matrix-style rotating CG.
This is interrupted by a behind-the-scenes shot of the girls complaining about how hard it is to do slow motion like that, since you have to hold your breath n' stuff. This is the first time the 4th wall is punctured, but it won't be the last.
Welcome back to consciousness, Naota! You have now made it to first base with two older women in the space of an hour.
Having brought Naota back to life with the power of poorly-executed CPR, our wayward vagabond will now devote her life to the pursuite of goodness and--
Naw.
FATALITY
"Huh? Nothing's coming out. Should I hit him again?"
Fortunately, Mamimi comes to Naota's rescue, possibly almost preventing him from suffering permanent brain damage.
When asked WTF, Vespa Woman does the sensible, mature thing and kareens off into the sunset, without so much as a word of explanation.
"A stupid adult who doesn't know how to grow up..."
And so our scene moves onwards! We meet Naota again back home, in his room, where something very strange is going on.
Specifically, he seems to have grown a horn for some goddamn reason. He goes with the best possible solution: Push it back into his head and hide it under a bandage, then forget it ever happened.
There is a brief scene at school, where Naota talks to his normal person friends! They aren't very important yet, but they are gossiping about a Vespa Woman who stole somebody's lunch and is causing mayhem. Not that we know anyone who fits that description.
After school, Naota decides to head to the hospital to get his forehead looked at. Nothing bad could happen along the way, right?
...right?
A brief and frantic conversation ensues, during which Vespa Woman makes all of the following facial expressions:
All those in the space of, literally, twelve seconds. The animation in this show is insane.
"It's a common condition where boys grow horns due to working too hard."
At the hospital, Naota gets a surreal diagnosis. When he calls it on its bullshit, well.
Yeah, there was basically no way that nurse wasn't Vespa Woman again.
TO BE CONTINUED
Remember kids, we have two THEMES for this series:
Rock and Roll.
Puberty.
Got that? Good. Let's begin.
OP!
Haha just kidding, FLCL don't have time for that shit.
This is Naota, our strapping young protagonist. Like most 13-ish-year-olds, Naota is a surly teenager who thinks he is three times as mature as he actually is.
UNLIKE most 13-ish-year-olds, Naota is also involved with a girl several years older than he is. This is Mamimi, who may or may not be Naota's girlfriend. More on this later.
She is holding the baseball bat in a left-handed grip. Mamimi is not left-handed. Again, more on this later.
Naota and Mamimi talk about baseball and school and stuff for a bit, before Mamimi is apparently POSSESSED BY SATAN.
"Have you been smoking?"
Oh wait, no, that was foreplay. As a hot high schooler drapes herself all over Naota, he asks her why they're always doing this stuff, because apparently being doted on by older women is only acceptable if they have a reason for it. She says that if she doesn't, she'll overflow. What does that mean?
"I dunno. Probably something amazing."
Thus, two of our three leading actors have been introduced.
Nothing amazing happens here.
Only the ordinary.
Setting time! The suspiciously iron-shaped thing in the backgruond is a factory run by the medical robot company Medical Mechanica. Sometimes white smoke comes out of it.
Again, more on that later.
FLCL
It begins.
Specifically, it begins with a crazy woman.
"But I hate the sour ones."
Meanwhile, thousands of inches away, Naota and Mamimi are off doing Normal Stuff again.
Some awkward sexual tension and secondhand kisses and stuff transpire.
"You know... my brother, overseas..."
Before Naota can finish dropping whatever bomb was on the way to being dropped...
"LUNCHTIME!"
INVASION
SLAPSTICK
"THE NATIVE GIRL MUST STOP."
Thus begins the first of Mysterious Vespa Girl's many high-speed surrealist violence adventures!
Vespa Girl decides that Naota is dead, and rambles on about things that don't make sense, calling him Taro and rotating at random.
But this can only last so long. Time to TAKE ACTION!
"COME BACK TO LIIIIIIIIIFE"
It's hard to convey in still images, but the whole sequence with Vespa Woman's kiss and Mamimi's reaction is in ridiculous, over-the-top Matrix-style rotating CG.
This is interrupted by a behind-the-scenes shot of the girls complaining about how hard it is to do slow motion like that, since you have to hold your breath n' stuff. This is the first time the 4th wall is punctured, but it won't be the last.
Welcome back to consciousness, Naota! You have now made it to first base with two older women in the space of an hour.
Having brought Naota back to life with the power of poorly-executed CPR, our wayward vagabond will now devote her life to the pursuite of goodness and--
Naw.
FATALITY
"Huh? Nothing's coming out. Should I hit him again?"
Fortunately, Mamimi comes to Naota's rescue, possibly almost preventing him from suffering permanent brain damage.
When asked WTF, Vespa Woman does the sensible, mature thing and kareens off into the sunset, without so much as a word of explanation.
"A stupid adult who doesn't know how to grow up..."
And so our scene moves onwards! We meet Naota again back home, in his room, where something very strange is going on.
Specifically, he seems to have grown a horn for some goddamn reason. He goes with the best possible solution: Push it back into his head and hide it under a bandage, then forget it ever happened.
There is a brief scene at school, where Naota talks to his normal person friends! They aren't very important yet, but they are gossiping about a Vespa Woman who stole somebody's lunch and is causing mayhem. Not that we know anyone who fits that description.
After school, Naota decides to head to the hospital to get his forehead looked at. Nothing bad could happen along the way, right?
...right?
A brief and frantic conversation ensues, during which Vespa Woman makes all of the following facial expressions:
All those in the space of, literally, twelve seconds. The animation in this show is insane.
"It's a common condition where boys grow horns due to working too hard."
At the hospital, Naota gets a surreal diagnosis. When he calls it on its bullshit, well.
Yeah, there was basically no way that nurse wasn't Vespa Woman again.
TO BE CONTINUED