Comedy, the Anime Way #3 – FLCL

Comedy, The Anime Way...

Many people tend to think that Japanese anime, and indeed quite a lot of Japanese culture, is rather bonkers. While this isn’t true in most cases, there are some things which can be rather weird.

Perhaps this may explain that some of the more successful anime comedy series are surreal shows. It’s one of these more surreal comedies which are the subject of this month’s column. It’s a series which is bizarre and wacky, bright and colourful, short and sweet. It’s also one of the most critically acclaimed anime ever made. It’s FLCL.

The Basic Plot

Naota Nandaba is a pretty average working class 12-year-old boy, who comes from the pretty average (fictional) town of Mabase, which he claims is dull and uninteresting. The town’s dominated by one single building, a factory owned by the Medical Mechanica company, which is shaped like a steam iron and blows out white smoke every day. Then it gets weird.

Naota spends most of his time with Mamimi Samejima, a high school truant who spends her time chain-smoking and committing arson. Naota is slightly in love with her but the relationship’s complex, and gets a bit more complex when another girl called Haruko Haruhara introduces herself in spectacular fashion. Her introduction consists of Haruko riding a Vespa scooter, hitting Naota in the head with a left-handed Rickenbacker 4001 electric bass guitar and then giving him importune CPR. Then it gets weirder.

Haruko moves into Naota’s house where she gets a job working as a maid to Naota’s father, a wannabe manga editor. Naota himself meanwhile spends his time nursing the rather large bump on his head that Haruko has given him. But things then spiral out of control when all of a sudden a giant robot spurts out of his bump. Similar robots emerge from elsewhere which Naota’s robot (named Canti) fights against. Canti can also gain extra powers by eating Naota. Then it gets weirder still.

Haruko reveals that she’s an alien working for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. She is searching for the Atmosk, the Pirate King, who has enormous power. Haruko is fighting against Medical Mechanica’s numerous robots. She reveals that Naota has no brain in his head and his empty skull is now a channel for Medical Mechanica’s robots. The series sees Haruko and Canti fighting against the robots coming out of Naota’s head.

Some Anime Explanations

It should be pointed out that the series title isn’t pronounced in the way we would in English. It’s pronounced “Fooly Cooly”.

Also, this isn’t a TV series. It’s what is referred to as an “Original Video Animation” (OVA), which is a “straight-to-video” release. The series didn’t start as a TV programme, but simply a release on video. Although it has been broadcast on TV elsewhere, including in the USA.

Creating a Reputation

It may be something of a surprise that what some might call a cult show became such a big hit. For one thing it was made just for video. Not only that, but FLCL’s only six episodes long. This is rather pleasing, especially if you end up in a conversation with a comedy buff who goes on and on about how brilliant some comedy shows are because they only lasted two series, like Fawlty Towers and The Office. If you ever talk to someone who says, “Well the quality of the comedy was kept so high because the series was only 12 episodes long”, you can hit back with, “Yes, but this series was half that.”

Perhaps the reason why the series is looked at so highly is because it was partly made by one of the most respected anime studios around: Gainax. This studio is responsible for making some of the most critically acclaimed anime series ever produced, comedy and non-comedy, with FLCL being one of their earlier successes. One of their first his was Neon Genesis Evangelion a mecha series (for more on mecha see my earlier article on Martian Successor Nadesico) which wasn’t a comedy, but is widely regarded for being one of the most controversial anime around, noted for its religious imagery and psychology.

Then years later, after FLCL, Gainax took the mickey out of the mecha genre altogether with Gurren Lagann, a comedy which could be widely regarded for being the biggest, loudest, and most over-the-top animated series ever. The best way to talk about the series and its impact is to shout out loud about it, preferably into someone’s ear and using a megaphone.

Not only does Gainax do surreal comedy and parody, but it covers other genres too. One of the most recent successes was a gross-out comedy, the provocatively titled Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which is noted not only for its adult content, but also for its more western style of animation.

FLCL and Gainax’s other comedies seem to contain many recurring features, brightness, wackiness, and not afraid to push the boundaries of what you can do on screen. In terms of FLCL it’s the surrealness of the humour which is the attraction.

Oddity upon Oddity

The style of humour in FLCL is made pretty clear from the outset. In the opening scene you see the iron-shaped base of Medical Mechanica, blowing its smoke that covers the town. Then we have Haruko arrive, in what is possibly the most famous introduction in an anime.

Her introduction appears as something that you know you couldn’t do as well in live action. No doubt you could try and have a go, with someone riding a Vespa while wielding a bass guitar, trying to hit a boy on the head with it, but it comes across much better, with the use of cartoonish violence. What’s even funnier through is the CPR after the guitar-head-impact. The animation’s done so it looks as if the camera’s zooming in, out and around the action. It puts me in mind of the camerawork in other surreal comedies such as Green Wing.

However, this is just the start. There are other touches too, such as after one fight during which Canti has swallowed Naota and at the end of it Naota’s defecated out. We don’t see him come out of the robot’s buttocks, but we do see him landing on the ground, brown, coiled like a turd.

There are also other characters introduced later on in the series. One is Amarao, a government agent who claims to know Haruko’s true intentions. His most notable characteristic is his method of preventing Haruko from using his head as a robotic channel. He wears fake eyebrows made up of huge strips of edible seaweed (nori, which is the same stuff used in Welsh laverbread).

Final Round-Up

Like all surrealist comedy, FLCL’s something that you’ll get or you won’t. Luckily, as it’s only six episodes long it doesn’t matter too much if you don’t like it, as it’s over quickly.

FLCL’s an anime which tried to break with convention. There’s not only the surreal humour, but there’s also the soundtrack. The main music from the series came from a contemporary band called The Pillows, which was new at the time. Now many anime use modern tracks in their titles.

The series is also widely respected in the west. In 2007 the American Anime Insider magazine voted FLCL the 4th best anime licensed in the English-speaking market of all time. There are also reports of people making western animation being told to watch FLCL as a reference for future work. Similarly, FLCL was inspired by western animation. There’s one sequence which is filmed in the style of South Park.

After the anime there was a manga adaptation. The manga also makes for an interesting read. The art is very different, being rougher in its style, and there are some differences with the plot. The story was also adapted into a trilogy of short novels.

It’s hard to sum up FLCL because it’s such a unique take. In the end, it’s probably best to make up your own opinion and to take the time to watch this short but influential series.

Funniest Moment

The swinging “camerawork”. Not only in the CPR scene, but also in another scene in the third episode in which two of the characters accidentally knock into each others heads.

How You Can Get It

The entire anime series is available to buy from MVM Entertainment.

The manga adaptation’s published in a single omnibus volume by Dark Horse.

The novels were translated into English by TokyoPop, but the company no longer works in the English market and the books are now out of print.

The soundtrack hasn’t been released in the UK, but it was distributed in the US on CD. Three CDs of the soundtrack were released. You can also import the CDs from Japan.

The Vital Statistics

English name: FLCL

Japanese name: Furi Kuri /フリクリ

Anime length: 6 episodes released individually between 26 April, 2000 and 16 March, 2001.

Manga length: 2-part adaptation between 2000-2001.

Novel length: 3-part adaptation between 2000-2001.

Creators: Anime studios Gainax and Production I.G.