Running time: Approx 180 minutes spread over 3 discs
Classification : 12
Distributor: MVM
Region: R2 PAL
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English, Signage and on screen text.
Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Naota’s life is peaceful, boring and most of all, dull. He goes to school and hangs with his friends before he heads home where he lives with his father and grandfather. To top it off, since his older brother moved overseas on a baseball scholarship, Naota’s been used as an unwilling substitute by his brother’s girlfriend. But things get even worse when a strange young woman on a scooter runs him over, clouts him in the head with a bass guitar, revives him with CPR and then runs away. Life gets even weirder when, not only does this same strange young woman then turn up at his house as his family’s new live-in maid, but then the head injury she inflicted on him starts spawning strange and disturbing robots which start rampaging throughout the city. Pretty soon Naota’s life becomes so crazy that a return to those peaceful, boring days would be a godsend.
Comments:
Just over ten years ago a small but popular Japanese animation company created a series that would have a bigger impact on the world of anime than that of any other series of it’s time. The company was Gainax and the series was Neon Genesis Evangelion. While NGE was unarguably one of the most groundbreaking and influential series of the late 20th century, and has made enough money to keep its creators in sushi rolls for the rest of their lives, its creation and execution was not an easy one. It both physically and emotionally exhausted many of their staff to near breaking point, and some were pushed beyond even that. In order to destress and unwind, Gainax embarked on a follow-up series which, rumour has it, blew an entire 24 episodes worth of budget in just six episodes and allowed the writers and animators to let loose in the eye popping extravaganza of visual lunacy that would become FLCL. This series is incredibly hard to categorise. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? What the hell’s it all about and does it actually get there? And what on Earth’s a “FLCL” anyway?
Visually FLCL is a bewildering mish-mash of animation methods and techniques with certain shots, or sometimes an entire scene, switching backwards and forwards between styles almost randomly. There’s homage after homage to various genres, tropes and anime shows liberally strewn across the landscape, some obvious, some quite subtle. Along the way we’re treated to Gainax’s take on Hollywood movies (especially bullet time), shoujo anime, semi-animated pages of manga, John Woo / Hong Kong movies and much more. One of the more obvious examples of homage is a hilarious sequence during the penultimate episode which could have been pulled straight out of an episode of South Park, which left a lot of the original unsuspecting Japanese viewers going “Nani?” – a rough Japanese equivalent of the immortal phrase “What the …?”.
As you’re probably getting by now, FLCL is nuts, totally unequivocally 100 per cent nuts and, as such, it requires an equally manic English language dub track to go with it. While it’s impossible for the English translation of any series to please everyone, especially one as deeply steeped in Japanese pop culture, and so full of classic anime references and so heavily littered with Japanese language puns as this one, the translators and dub cast have certainly given it everything they’ve got and then some. Many of the more obscure verbal references to Japanese culture and historical anime have been changed to make it easier for a western audience but there’s still bucket-loads of the original quips left in there for the hardcore fans. Interestingly, the usage of Japanese suffixes after people’s names has been left intact in the dub in order to make it easier for those in the know about their purpose to suss out the unspoken relationship nuances between many of the characters.
The comment I seem to hear most often from people who’ve watched this show for the first time tends to be along the lines of “it made my brain hurt” which, to be honest, is pretty much the effect that Gainax were trying for. Hardcore anime fans will delight in all the pop culture references, in jokes and subtle digs smattered throughout this show, while newcomers or the more casual anime fan will probably be overwhelmed by the sheer visual overload of it all. However, underneath all the madcap action, FLCL is essentially a coming of age story. It’s about learning about finding the right time to let go of your childhood, certain relationships and old obsessions. While it tries to show that you can’t hang on to your childhood forever it also tries to bring over that you shouldn’t try to throw your childhood away too early, or try forcing yourself to be something you’re not yet ready for. Many of the characters, both “kids” and “grown ups” think and act in a manner totally at odds with their apparent age with many of the children being more mature that their so called “elders”.
Bottom line: this anime’s as potent and addictive as Crack-Cocaine for the hardcore fan, but probably confusing as hell for everyone else.
Extras:
Plenty of extras to be found spread over the 3 discs. As, like many other box-sets, this is essentially a repackaging of the original individual DVD releases, all the original extras are still present. These include: A pair of trailers on each disc, The original Japanese closing titles, Japanese and Australian promos, Poster art galleries and Character sketches and profiles. My personal favourite extra to be found on these discs has to be the subtitled Japanese commentary track featuring FLCL series’ Director, Kazuya Tsurumaki, which gives many interesting insights into how this show was put together. Also to be found on the first disc is the music video for “Ride on shooting star” by Japanese alternative rock band, The Pillows, which was used as the series’ end credit music. Also, if you know where to find it, there’s an additional audio track on each disc with all the sound effects, background music etc left in place but all of the dialogue removed. Certainly makes for strange viewing I can tell you.
One negative thing I do have to say about this release is regarding the DVD cover. It’s kind of… well it’s a bit disappointing. Usually when you get box-set re-release of a series like this, you either get a thin-pack case for each of the original disc with a nice sturdy cardboard box around it (hence the name) or all the discs come in a single plastic DVD case with a complete redesign of the case cover. They’ve gone with the second option in this case and the unfortunately the cover looks like it was done in Photoshop about twenty minutes before it all had to go over to the printers.
FLCL Collection is available from Play and most other major retailers now.
Review: Penfold