#flcl hidomi

[munamunart]

hidomi (secret santa gift)

originally posted on december 26, 2022

[rosestarreverie]

Decay

I was peering through my huge old ass sketchbook, and I had a picture of Hidomi, which I ddin't even post until just recently.

I was inspired by all her dream sequences which involved themes of decay (and zombies)

[furtbert]

Hidomi from flcl prog

June 2019

[sweetlittlebrie]

okay! so i finished FLCL Progressive sometime back but procrastinated on writing my thoughts. Here they are now though! (ill probably ramble, so sorry)

This season is definitely the weakest in, well, a lot of things. First and foremost, i think there was like one writer who skimmed the OG FLCL and all of that will be explained with what i will write/ramble about.

Haruko felt like such a parody and very shallow. That one person who saw the OG made a huge note stating "She talks in gibberish and riddles like this example and this other one." Because what the hell! Why was she just constantly saying actual dumb things. And her role with Ide was just vague yet with that lame climax fight that she had with Ide, that we can just assume that he went through a similar situation like Naota. Except, it wasn't interesting due to lack of actual building tension between her and Ide.

I'm already talking about Ide, so might as well continue with him. But his role for the entire show was....idk .... lame....? I think his set-up in episode 2 lead to nowhere. Like he works hard at inventions (the only time we see it the whole show) because he's poor :(....anyways! that's all about that and doesn't affect him anywhere else in the show :).... okay cool.....? I think his budding relationship with Hidomi was the more interesting aspect of the show. They could have had something more going on that helped moved the story along instead of everything else that was forcing it move.

Now onto Hidomi.....BORING! Sorry... :( But she was so...boring. Her whole thing is that she is recluse and quiet and is implied to not be close to anyone (even tho the first ep has her being greeted by like two-three of her classmates(never addressed as to who they are btw)) But the reason she is like that is because her father left her family for work. That whole plot was kind of more of a reminder rather than a motivation. Again, the one writer saw that Naota had a weird father/son relationship and a missing family member and decided to bring that to her. But had no real idea on how to make it an actual part of the show (naota felt like he was in his brother's shadow but also looked up to him like a lot and the way his father acted what he deemed immature made him not have a ton of respect so that had an actual strain esp in like ep 4 and 5) so like i said, they would just make reminders of this mother/daughter relationship rather than show anything. Hidomi was quiet and then her mom's like hey dont forget to say i love you (hazy about dialogue) then......Ide is like hey you miss your dad, huh :( and Hidomi is like yeah :( along with all the exposition by Jinyu and Haruko :eyeroll: then that manga confrontation about her mom wanting to close the restaurant. But like i said we never see much about the actual relationship that Hidomi had with her father. So it just feels so shallooowww. This could have been resolved somewhat if it got rid of so many characters.

Speaking of! Jinyu, hate her design (sorry not sorry) but she served no real purpose other than explicit exposition. So there was just so little reason to include her in the show. Then there was the two friends... idk their names, but they just took up too much space. Again, the one writer saw the two friends in the OG and was like yeah that needs to happen too....Let's not forget the old guy and Eyebrow's son! There could have been something better with them if there wasn't so many characters and unnecessary dawdling, so in the end of it, Eyebrow's son felt more like fanservice (of somekind). Then the flower robot girl?? she does the fake dating thing...but again she served so little use to the show other than to eat up time. Just so many characters taking up too much time and plot that it felt so rushed when it came to Hidomi and Ide's arc.

Then the fanservice! Why do they say "I'm gonna overflow" once again the one writer was like yeah they say that :) When no! it's just mamimi that one time! But it happens so much! Then there was Canti! Why? Idk because cool robot that people can point and say "Canti!" The fights with the guitars...mostly Ide's fight against Haruko was just so out of left field it was like huh? why is this happening? like i know why but also why?

I'm gonna end my thoughts here. I feel like I've said enough tbh. Even if it's not well thought out hahah, sorry sorry.

Next will be FLCL Alternative!

[andrewmoocow]

The aftermath of FLCL Shoegaze be like.

Also, be on the lookout for a postmortem on all the FLCL sequels I've been writing for a while where I look at the overarching themes encompassing them all and compare them to my crossover fanfiction.

[cutepicsfrommytablet]

Since FLCL Grunge is only a few weeks away, I just want to come out and declare that I honestly had a soft spot for Progressive and Alternative. Nothing could ever hold a candle to FLCL Classic, but they were enjoyable enough followups and I’m intrigued on how Grunge and Shoegaze will add to this strange little world.

[thousandhandbrightskycannon]

Hidomi you should tell your mother things

[xx-obliviousfantasy-xx]

"I live in blissful ignorance about whatever the fuck This is about" is me bc wtf is this??? 😅

Honestly, I've had more damage done to me by the alarms my parents/family had over the years I grew up than what I chose.

Like why the fuck did I have an awful reaction the Seinfeld theme the first time I heard it outside of the alarm?!! 😭

Why can't I listen to my brother okay Yonkers anymore???

(There's so many others I can't recall until it happens)

(I mean I won't lie, I've had mistakes before but none with too bad of consequences)

My MISTAKE was definitely actually my RINGTONE AND NOTIFICATION SOUNDS!!!!

I should not be sitting down to watch my favorite show/movie only to pause it, frantically pull out my phone and then realize "O h"

AND I SHOULD NOT BE GETTING TRICKED BY TIK TOKS USING THE SAME SOUND BITES!!!!

Hey kids here's a piece of actual for real experienced adult advice: don't make songs you like your alarm. Ever. You're gonna Pavlov yourself into hating it or sleep through it and have weird dreams. Don't do that to yourself. Seriously.

[palepeacepeace]

[they-have-the-same-va]

Kimi Shirokado from Housing Complex C shares a voice actress with Hidomi Hibajiri from FLCL Progressive.

Voiced by Xanthe Huynh

[casliveblog]

So here's my best shot at tying the FLCL series' together:

FLCL Progressive takes place in a world where Earth has burgeoning inter-solar system space travel and has had limited contact with alien life unknown to the public, drawing in Medical Mechanica and its plans to flatten the world, causing the rich to flee to Mars to escape the impending destruction, though Kana's NO power summons and utilizes Atomsk's powerto stop Medical Mechanica and inadvertently split reality in two separate dimensions, with half of humanity and all of the people that escaped to Mars being drawn into the other reality while the display of Atomsk's power drives anti-MM terrorist Haruko to become obsessed with obtaining the power for herself.

Classic FLCL takes place on Mars in the parallel universe and involves Haruko's initial attempts to trap Atomsk after he was captured by Medical Mechanica, using Naota's NO ability to pull Medical Mechanica guards and eventually Atomsk himself out, once again foiling MM's attempt to activate their dormant plant, though Haruko's own plan is foiled by Naota's character growth drawing Atomsk into him instead of her and letting him get off scott free.

FLCL Progressive takes place after classic, still in the parallel universe on Mars but after an attempt to obtain Atomsk actually succeeded for Haruko and she was split into her main body and Jinyu due to the fallout of containing the massive wellspring of NO power. From here Hidomi's arc and Haruko's general back and forth with Jinyu lead to an even more massive Medical Mechanica plot being foiled and Jinyu and Haruko remaining as separate individuals and trying to form some sort of character development from reconciling the loss of Atomsk's power versus the freedom he represents.

FLCL Grunge takes place in the parallel universe but on Earth or a similar planet which in this timeline has been destroyed either by the events of the split in Alternative or by general Medical Mechanica shenanigans and humanity's growing connection with alien life has expanded to form a tenuous bond with the Rockian species and a somewhat more active interplanetary travel network, involving Haruko's insurrection against a much more visible Medical Mechanica presence on the world which leads to another failed attempt to scoop up Atomsk though she does defeat Medical Mechanica and help Orinoko and her friends make peace with their lives. (Note this one's kind of the hardest to place, for all I know this could be an alien planet and take place before Alternative but this is my personal theory)

FLCL Shoegaze takes place ten years after Alternative in the original timeline and involves the proposal to merge both universes back together in Kanda's attempt to bring Haruko back to the original universe and resolve the rift between worlds that causes mild disruptions. The original Atomsk seems to be in the parallel world but a new version or echo of him still exists in the original and is able to connect with Masaki through his extreme NO power and stop the widespread destruction the merging of the worlds would cause while only taking less than 1% of the original world to merge with the parallel one. Though the cast is still able to make peace with the world being their own and the remnants of Atomsk left in the original world befriend Masaki and allow him to change worlds as well so the Pirate King and the boy that found the NO power beyond teenage lust find their place on the new Mars colony of the parallel world.

[medea10]

My Review of My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999

Humor me. Who else thought this was going to be a sequel to Ore Monogatari (My Love Story) where Takeo and Yamada go all the way? I can’t be the only one with that sick thought. Okay completely unrelated anime, let’s see what you got.

Akane Kinoshita is out with her boyfriend Takuma…and she gets dumped. Yep, not even 30 seconds into the first episode and she gets dumped. He’s leaving Akane for a girl he met in an online game that he and Akane were playing together. After the breakup, Akane went on the game she got into because of her ex and went on a killing-spree of monsters. Just then, she meets another player named Yamada who looks like Saitama if he had a weird afro on. It takes him two minutes just for a simple reply. Akane gets annoyed and basically tells him off. After some time from the breakup, Akane decides to go to this on-site event for the game she was playing. Never mind getting freebies for the game, she’s going merely for the fact her ex might be there and wants to flaunt the goods to make him regret leaving her.

Things did not go according to plan. Akane trips and falls down on her way to stalk her ex. The person she bumped into is a handsome young man of few words. Akane realized that this mysterious boy is that Yamada she met in her game prior to this event. Well, Akane is face-to-face with her ex. What does she do? Lies and says Yamada is her boyfriend and even bribes him to keep up the farce. Yamada is quite aloof and can be blunt with the things he says…if he says anything. But what Akane doesn’t know is that Yamada is a pro-gamer.

While the boyfriend lie is merely for whenever Akane’s ex is around, Akane has a nice friendship with not only Yamada, but his inner circle as well.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Even though this was a Crunchyroll exclusive (in association with Aniplex of America), this didn’t see a dub until a good six months after the series had started. Normally, I’d be concerned. But this did happen during the actor’s strike, so I’ll think no more on the matter. And that’s all I’ve got here. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Akane is played by Inori Minase (known for Rem on Re:Zero, Prushka on Made in Abyss, Makinohara on Bunny Girl Senpai, Ruruka on Danganronpa 3, and Hidomi on FLCL: Progressive)

*Yamada is played by Kouki Uchiyama (known for Soul on Soul Eater, Yurio on Yuri on Ice, Rui on Demon Slayer, Shigaraki on My Hero Academia, Ikuya on Free!, Ichijou on Nisekoi, and Yuuki on Shiki)

ENGLISH CAST: *Akane is played by Abby Trott (known for Nezuko on Demon Slayer, Shizuka on Zom 100, Machi on Hunter x Hunter, Veronica on Seven Deadly Sins, Inui on Aggretsuko, and Fou on Fate/Grand Order)

*Yamada is played by Stephen Fu (known for Weather Report on Jojo’s Pt. 6, Naofumi on Shield Hero [season 2+], Douma on Demon Slayer, Henry on Black Clover, Kaname on Darwin’s Game, and Pax on Mushoku Tensei)

DISLIKED CHARACTER: No, it’s not Runa. As much as I love to dunk on those little girls who latch onto the hot character and glare at the obvious main attraction, I actually hate jerky ex-boyfriends who quickly dump their girlfriends over trivial shit more. Yeah, Akane’s ex can kick rocks for all I care. While we only see him two times in the whole show, his breakup with Akane really messed her up.

SHIPPING: Yamada is oblivious when it comes to females. He didn’t even know a girl was confessing to him in the second episode. There’s no way in hell he’s going to fall for Akane. Never mind, dragging her drunk ass to his home in the first episode. As it turns out, Akane and Yamada had quite the cute friendship for the greater majority of this season. And as the series progressed, several of their friends were all for them getting together (even if the two characters aren’t going to do so). But we have to remember that Yamada is going to do what Yamada does. He can be blunt and slow to respond. Yet he somehow acts differently when it comes to Akane. The blunt and slow responses are still there, but he almost acts on a weird impulse at times with her.

Elsewhere, Yamada is quite the favorite around school and elsewhere. There are so many girls at his school that think he’s cute. And then there’s Runa! A lot of insecurities to unpack with this little one. But the fact that she at first wanted to keep Yamada all to herself and push Akane on some rando guy really speaks volumes. That action of Runa’s almost landed her on my dislike category. But I left her off because I grew to like her throughout the rest of the series. She even became a Akane x Yamada shipper. I thought it was adorable when she tried to have Akane bump into Yamada while eating a piece of toast.

But what about Yamada’s silent classmate, Yukari? And what of the girl from Yamada’s past that liked him? The girl from Yamada’s past is someone we’ll never see again. Yukari on the other hand…well, that’s a topic for the ending.

ENDING: Does Akane like Yamada for real? That’s a pretty big question for her as she kinda sees him in a new light after Yamada took care of her when she was sick. There is one big thing that seems to be holding her down and that’s the way things were left off between Akane and her ex. As most people do when they’re dumped, they go through a myriad of thoughts to narrow down what they did wrong. However, she still wants to tell Yamada how she feels. It’s just that the timing never seemed right with the two of them.

Meanwhile, let’s move onto Yamada’s silent classmate, Yukari. We see her a few episodes towards the end of the season. She’s on speaking terms with Yamada in class. And she recently joined the FOS guild that Akane, Eita, and Yamada are in. Her reasons for joining the video game guild were to of course get closer to Yamada. And in the second to last episode, Yukari let it slip out to Yamada that she likes him. Oooooh, right before Akane got the chance to. I sure hope the hint Eita dropped about Yamada about to get confessed to will make a dent. I think it did!

Yamada meets up with Yukari after the confession. Yukari spills everything out and admits how long she’s liked him and every reason in the world she likes him. And Yamada still rejects her! It wasn’t like those airhead replies he gave to the other girls that used to confess to him. This was genuine as he even says that there’s another. Yukari knows it’s Akane and he confirms. Called it!

The guild met up for a dinner with special food and drinks. Eita thought it’d be perfect for Akane and Yamada to have some alone time during the dinner. Things didn’t go according to plan. Yamada was late to arrive. And by the time he showed up, Akane was drunk. Déjà vu from the first episode. Yamada drags her to her home and that’s when Akane asks if he likes her. Yamada says yes. And to make sure that this is real, he promises to remind her when she sobers up that this is true.

Yamada x Akane is official!

This was a cute story despite how things started. It’s not like we haven’t seen similar things happen in other animes. Akane wasn’t even trying to become Yamada’s girlfriend after that time in front of her ex. It was just a sweet friendship that eventually blossomed into a relationship in the end. I always respect a story like that. One has to wonder if the anime will continue with a second season or if it will stay as is with the happy ending given in the 12th episode. By the looks of things, the manga is still on-going with at least 100+ chapters at the moment. I honestly think that the anime will stay with just this season. Well, if you’re looking for a cute slice of life, romcom, maybe check this out. It’s a short series.

Crunchyroll has every episode for streaming.

[aparticularbandit]

fubuki's va also had a part in the higurashi sequel series - she was hanyuu, which is cool!

...there is a character in yasahima with the literal last name higurashi and she voiced her and i'm laughing a little bit at that (maybe i should go back to the inuyasha sequel series that's hilarious).

she voiced hidomi, the protagonist in flcl progressive, which is probably where i know her voice from, because i primarily dub flcl. (that said, i have not seen either of the sequel series since they were airing, and liked the third series significantly better than the second one. neither of them hold a candle to the original, but the third one was pretty good.)

MORE IMPORTANTLY SHE'S MY GIRL MENMA. MENMA WHO I HAVE USED AS MY PERSONAL FC FOR OVER A DECADE NOW. MENMA PRECIOUS ANGEL LOVE OF MY LIFE MENMA

halara i love you.

....

you're furina's va. that's cool.

also you're toy chica? in multiple fnaf games? and clara from sister location?

i'm entertained. XD

[tokimeki-bizarre-adventure]

Wait a Minute, This isn’t Flying, This is Falling with(out) Style!

[andrewmoocow]

A Postmortem on the FLCL Sequels

So, with the end of FLCL Shoegaze comes the end of the FLCL series. Or at least, the end until Production I.G. decides to dig it back up and see what they can do with it now that they're no longer co-producing new seasons with Adult Swim. Whether or not they were good will be a debate that'll be as endless as who would win between Goku and Superman, but that's why I'm here to give my thoughts on all four of them, my history with the series, and do my best to analyze the themes encompassing this era of FLCL. So you all better pack your bags, ladies, gentlemen, germs, and every other gender in-between, because you're about to go on a trip.

As far as I can remember, I was relatively new to the FLCL fandom when Progressive first aired in 2018. I was introduced to the original series by my art therapist in 2016, I got the complete series DVD by Funimation for my birthday (along with the first two seasons of Rick and Morty on Blu-Ray), and my life was possibly changed forever. After watching the first episode, I told my art therapist how I thought it was a mix of Rick and Morty and Star vs the Forces of Evil in how they both centered on an average awkward boy (Naota, Morty, Marco) being taken on bizarre adventures by some lunatic from beyond the stars (Haruko, Rick, Star) and learning valuable lessons from having his life repeatedly put at risk.

At first, I didn't entirely pay attention to the messages because I was more distracted by the fun animation, giant robots, excellent dialogue (Kari Wahlgren and Barbara Goodson have such great chemistry together, by the way), and Haruko herself, who quickly became one of my top waifus and comfort characters. A few months later, one Tuesday evening in April 2017, I came up with the idea to have Haruko hang out with Dipper and Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls, wrote it down on the notes app of my phone, and so began my fanfic-writing career. I just thought that FLCL's off-the-wall humor would fit pretty well with the weirdness of Gravity Falls, and I also believed that Haruko and Grunkle Stan would make a great duo. And sure enough, the resulting story I called Fooly Falls was successful, and I've been writing crossovers ever since.

Now that we have my humble beginnings as a fanfiction writer out of the way, let's move on to talking about Progressive already. As the only true sequel to FLCL out of this bunch, it naturally had much to live up to, like most sequels. Studio Gainax was practically a walking corpse with most of its big franchises going elsewhere with Studio Khara making the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, Panty and Stocking being put in hibernation before it was announced Studio Trigger would pick up its long-awaited second season years later (by the way, FLCL animated by Trigger. Just imagine the possibilities), there was an entirely new cast of characters for Haruko to mess with so she can have some of that sweet Atomsk pie, and most famously, they had a completely new creative team since most of them were off at Trigger. I remember all the theories about what Naota and Mamimi were up to around this time. While they were all proven false, it was interesting to see so many different ideas.

To give a brief rundown, our favorite answer to the question "What happens when you stick Rick Sanchez, Star Butterfly, Deadpool, and The Doctor in a crack den together and made them lick from the same frog?" has returned to Earth in search of another troubled kid to sexually harass so she can get her hands on Atomsk, this time it's Hidomi Hibajiri, an aloof girl who has bizarre dreams of everybody dying and tearing each other apart. But also along for the ride is Julia Jinyu, a very Haruko-like woman (and also one of the most underrated anime characters in recent memory) who also pursues Atomsk and later turns out to be Haruko's more moral other half. Think of it like Kami and King Piccolo from Dragon Ball being the good and evil halves of the same Namekian, Stripe and Gizmo from Gremlins, the Skesis and the Mystics from The Dark Crystal, Scott Pilgrim and Nega-Scott, Urizen and V from Devil May Cry 5 both coming from Vergil, Ansem and Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts being the Heartless and Nobody of Xehanort, etc. Jinyu was probably my favorite character from the sequels overall. I liked her design, her voice by the excellent Allegra Clark, her interactions with Hidomi, and the dynamic she had with Haruko, which gave me a ton of Stan and Ford vibes. And it's through that dynamic that I present to you what I believe to be the overall message of the sequels, that being to let go of the past so you can embrace the future.

Throughout the entire season, Haruko is even more obsessed with Atomsk than ever after a near-successful attempt at capturing the Pirate King that resulted in the creation of Jinyu, who wants Atomsk to remain free, which causes the two to argue in pretty much every scene they appear together in. Meanwhile, Hidomi's mother says that at some point, they should stop waiting for the absent Mr. Hibajiri, but Hidomi still thinks he's out there, which creates some drama in the climax of the season. Ultimately, Hidomi's arc comes full circle once she ditches the headphones she wears to shut out the world around her and accepts everything for what it is. At the same time, when it seems like Haruko will finally get her hands on Atomsk, the normally bold and brash biker babe starts crying over how the Pirate King doesn't want to accept her feelings. However, Atomsk decides to throw Haruko a bone and hug her before returning Jinyu to life and giving the Vespa Woman the comfort she needed at the moment. To quote Ide in that exact scene, all beautiful things eventually fade away.

When I turned FLCL Progressive into Fooly Falls 2: Ride on Shooting Star, I made this message about letting go of the past much more obvious through the plotline involving Grunkle Stan's grudge against Haruko. Twenty years after the events of Fooly Falls, Stan never forgave Haruko for betraying his trust by nearly getting Dipper and Mabel killed in her quest for Atomsk, and he still holds that grudge even at the ripe old age of 79. Naturally, Dipper, Mabel, and Ford aren't very trusting of Haruko either, as the three thought she was just an awkward memory they'd soon forget over time. Since then, Dipper moved to Gravity Falls after finishing college to take up Ford's apprenticeship, Mabel followed behind to continue a romantic relationship with Pacifica, and Ford soon formed a friendship with Jinyu like the one Stan and Haruko had in the past.

Meanwhile, Gwen Pines, the daughter of Dipper and Wendy, has nightmares like Hidomi's that usually involve the destruction of the world because she fears a future where she could lose her family, her friends, her home, and eventually herself. Similarly, though not as apparent as Gwen, her little brother Tyrone, and three of Soos & Melody's children, Leia, Juan, and Joseph "Jorgé" Ramirez, all fear growing up while Ian and Imelda Ramirez act too mature for their age. And finally, there's Mabel and Pacifica's adopted son Arnold, who is a constant nervous wreck as a result of Pacifica dedicating her life to being a superior parent to her own parents and smothering Arnold with as much love as possible, making Arnold a very timid mama's boy who's not too keen on breaking out of his comfort zone. Whenever he is forced to try new things, hilarity usually ensues, and something bad happens as a result. By the end of the story, however, Stan lets go of his feud with Haruko as he dies, all the kids have grown as people from their adventures together, and Haruko learns from Dipper that she can't force someone to love her, as Dipper has tons of experience in that regard with his childhood crush on Wendy, before accepting Jinyu as like a sister to her and the two of them ride off into the sunset to stop Medical Mechanica.

Now we move onto FLCL Alternative, which I plan on turning into a prequel to Fooly Falls/Rick and Morty crossover titled Rick and Haruko. In this season, we focus on 17-year-old Kana Koumoto and her friends as they await the impending awkwardness of adulthood until Haruko and Medical Mechanica crash into their lives. As I stated earlier, Rick and Haruko will be a prequel to Fooly Falls, expanding on revelations in Fooly Falls 2 that Haruko came from a dystopian hellhole that was about to be destroyed by the Cromulons and Atomsk until she found herself entangled in the adventures of Rick Sanchez, Birdperson, and Squanchy. However, if you've read Fooly Falls 2, you'd know that eventually, Haruko would betray Rick and become the Vespa Woman we all know her as through a combination of her growing lust for Atomsk and having a toxic role model in Rick. How all that goes down, you'll have to wait and see.

Similarly, Kana's friendship with Pets starts to come crashing down when she discovers Pets' crummy home life and tries to help her, but this, unfortunately, goes poorly when Kana realizes that she was taking her friendship with Pets for granted, forcing her to accept that adulthood isn't as bad as she thinks she is. Correlating to the theme of accepting the future I brought up earlier and will become even stronger once I talk about Alternative's follow-up Shoegaze, Kana still has much growing up to do.

And now we move on to Shoegaze, quite possibly the most controversial sequel season since Progressive. No joke, when I first saw the trailer, I thought we were getting a FLCL video game that wasn't Hi-Fi Rush or Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Yeah, the switch to CGI definitely took some getting used to, and the fact that the season was only three episodes long for reasons that will forever elude me certainly didn't help me and other viewers adjust to the change.

Anyways, in what is apparently a prequel to the original series, though I don't see it outside of Haruko searching for Atomsk again, what seems to be the origins of the Rickenbacker, and the presence of our favorite sopping wet cat with eyebrows that are definitely compensating for something, Commander Amarao, Grunge takes place in a wretched hive of scum and villainy called Okura where we focus on three of its young residents getting caught up in some classic FLCL shenanigans. Shinpachi is tired of how ambivalent his sushi chef father is towards the state of their world. Shonari is a rock man who had to flee his home planet with his brother after Medical Mechanica took it over, only to become a victim of bullying as a result while said brother fell in with one of the local yakuza gangs. Finally, Orinoko is raised by her single father and their family's robot. Rather than easing us into this new world before it all goes to hell, we begin with getting straight into the action as Haruko kills an important member of Medical Mechanica with tainted sushi, makes Shinpachi her new Naota, and kills the mayor before turning all the yakuza against each other while she hacks into Medical Mechanica to release Atomsk. Yeah, it's definitely a lot to take in for just the first episode.

To put it in Layman's terms, Shinpachi believes he has no future in Okura, Shonari is disappointed with his brother becoming a drunkard doing the yakuza's dirty work, and Orinoko has mommy issues that she vents on the robot, who later turns out to have her mother's consciousness uploaded into it upon her death. As Shin narrates in the first episode, nobody in his world has any hope left except for the chance to get the hell out of dodge by rocket. He, Shonari, and Orinoko dream of one of them finding a way out of Okura to a better life, but then in comes Haruko to cause her usual brand of chaos in search of Atomsk.

I want to bring up Orinoko in particular because while she does dream of a better future, she also has trouble letting go of the past by refusing to accept the house robot as like a mother to her, only for her to change her mind when she learns that the robot houses her mother's mind, so she's still alive in a sense. Afterward, Haruko gives the three kids a ticket off of Okura, but Orinoko is the only one to use the ticket to leave and pursue the future she wants, while Shin and Shonari have their hopes for their futures restored.

Lastly, there's Shoegaze, the current final season of FLCL, or at least the last season Production I.G. will co-produce with Adult Swim, according to Jason DeMarco on his Twitter. Ten years after the bizarre end of FLCL Alternative, we pick up with Masaki Aofuji, who can see weird ghost-like creatures who project screenshots of the previous seasons on his body. Joining him are Kana and Tsukata Kanda, returning from Alternative, along with another very Haruko-like girl named Harumi Araisho. I'll admit I was one of the few speculating heavily on whether Harumi and Haruko were somehow connected. Maybe Harumi was actually Haruko in disguise, another part of her like Jinyu was, or even an evil clone created by Medical Mechanica. But in actuality, Harumi was a completely separate character, and Haruko didn't even show up at all. But I'll get further into that later.

The premise of this season is Masaki and Harumi adventuring into a mysterious tower, and it's up to Kanda and a grown-up Kana to stop whatever Harumi has planned because it turns out she's a Medical Mechanica sympathizer. However, it turns out that there is far more to Harumi than we're led to believe. As it turns out, Harumi is actually from another dimension where she was actually a boy and was displaced into Masaki and Kana's dimension due to the end of Alternative that caused the universe to split into two. The now female Harumi is left lost in this strange new world, wondering if they really belong, which causes them to become kindred spirits with the equally isolated Masaki.

Now let's get into the real meat and potatoes of this section and what I believe shall validate my point made here. In the ten years that passed since Alternative, Kana never quite got over her breakup with Pets and was experimented on by the government to try and reawaken her N.O. powers in the hopes that she would be able to restore the universe to normal, slowly separating Kana from her remaining friends in the process and generally ruining her life in general. In episode 2, as she confronts Masaki and Harumi on top of the tower, Kana pours her heart out in an impassioned speech about how people had high expectations for her and that she wasn't prepared for the responsibilities thrust upon her. But despite everything she went through and all of her regrets, Kana just kept rolling with life's punches, displaying how while she's trying to live in the now, she remains stuck in the past.

By contrast, Harumi gives their own speech about how they'd rather live in the now and live their life to the fullest. Or at least what life they did have before it was almost cut short by an easily scared sniper, and the resulting burst of N.O. energy from Masaki nearly joins the two universes together again, just as Kanda planned. However, in the chaos, Harumi is returned to their original dimension and gender, while Masaki's life is returned to normal once the dust settles. However, he gets to see Harumi again thanks to Atomsk allowing him to cross dimensions and visit the Mars colony Harumi and their sister live on while also making sure to deliver Pets a letter from Kana.

In conclusion, the FLCL sequels may seem incredibly disjointed at first. Still, through my best attempt at analyzing them all, I can conclude that while they have differing messages and themes, they are ultimately carried by the overarching theme of the past versus the future that also connects to the classic series's message of the weirdness of growing up and how you should just live in the now instead of acting more mature than you actually are. As a wise woman once said, "You're still just a kid, Takkun."

Oh boy, this took me a while! I've just been in such a FLCL mood for a while now and I just needed to get this off my chest, but I simply had trouble how. Anyways, now that this analysis is finally done, be sure to keep an eye out for the following stories in the Fooly Falls universe!

Fooly Falls: A FLCL Christmas in Gravity Falls (a Christmas special born from watching Dragon Ball Z Abridged's Christmas Tree of Might and Plan to Eradicate Christmas, coming as soon as I finish Steven Universe Snake Eyes)

Rick and Haruko (tying into Grunge & Shoegaze and Rick and Morty season 7, to be released hopefully in 2024)

FLCL on Infinite Earths (the epic grand finale of the Fooly Falls timeline crossing the cast over with characters from the original FLCL, Progressive, and Alternative, along with tons of other series due to cameo in Rick and Haruko in a multiversal crisis taking cues from Super Robot Wars and the various DC Comics crisis events. Possibly coming in 2024, or maybe even 2025 to tie in with FLCL's 25th anniversary)

Until we can swing the bat again FLCL, ride on.

[gwendalfthesmolart]

m lov these kids