is a Japanese anime series created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido, and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which consisted of Gainax, Production I.G, and King Records. The series tells the adventures of the eccentric, hyperactive alien Haruko Haruhara and her various conflicts on Earth against the intergalactic megalomaniacal corporation Medical Mechanica, often wreaking mass destruction in the process and disrupting the lives of the people she encounters.
The original FLCL series was released as an original video animation (OVA) series, and follows Naota Nandaba, a taciturn twelve-year-old boy whose suburban life and obsession with seeming adult is disturbed by Haruko's appearance. The six-episode series was released in Japan from April 2000 to March 2001 alongside a manga and novel adaptation.
In 2016, two new seasons totaling 12 episodes were announced as a co-production between Production I.G, Toho, and Adult Swim. The second season, FLCL Progressive, premiered on June 3, 2018, on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block, while the third season, FLCL Alternative, premiered on September 8, 2018. In Japan, Alternative and Progressive had theatrical screenings as compilation films with Alternative opening on September 7, 2018, and Progressive opening on September 28, 2018. The first episode of FLCL Alternative premiered unannounced on April Fools' Day 2018 at 12 a.m. ET on Toonami in Japanese with English subtitles as part of Adult Swim's annual stunt. Two additional seasons were ordered by Adult Swim in 2022, titled FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze, respectively. Both seasons premiered in Northern America in 2023.
Plot
Season 1
The first season of FLCL is a coming-of-age story that revolves around Naota Nandaba, a 12-year-old, working-class boy living with his widower father and grandfather. His life in the Japanese city of Mabase is interrupted by the arrival of a Vespa-riding maniac named Haruko Haruhara. She runs over Naota then revives him with CPR before hitting him on the head with her left-handed, electric bass guitar (a blue, vintage Rickenbacker 4001) and proceeds to stalk him. Finding Haruko weaseling her way into his life as a live-in maid, Naota discovers that the head injury she caused created an "N.O." portal, from which giant robots produced by a company known as Medical Mechanica emerge periodically. The first of these robots is hit on the head by Haruko and becomes a friendly service robot later named Canti. While fighting robots sent after him, Canti ingests Naota and assumes the reddened form he first had.
Claiming she is an alien investigator from the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood, Haruko's presence places Naota and those around him in danger. The Interstellar Immigration Bureau's Commander Amarao, whom Haruko has a history with, asserts instead that she is an apathetic seductress seeking a space-manipulating being called Atomsk who was partially contained within Canti. Every time Naota is absorbed by Canti, Atomsk is gradually brought to Earth. As Atomsk is held in Medical Mechanica's custody and Haruko ultimately places Earth under threat, the company eventually turns their factory stationed on the planet into a doomsday terraforming device, attempting to have Naota and Canti absorbed by the doomsday device's Terminal Core. Haruko's plan fails as Naota ends up becoming Atomsk's host and then releases him into the universe after a brief battle that ends Medical Mechanica's attack on Earth. Haruko follows after Atomsk, and Mabase returns to some normalcy.
Progressive
Haruko returns to Earth many years after her failed attempt to contain Atomsk in the first season, although she did manage to absorb him sometime in between these events. Placing herself as a middle school homeroom teacher, Haruko targets a 14-year-old girl named Hidomi Hibajiri through her classmate and eventual love interest Ko Ide. Haruko finds opposition in both the headphones Hidomi wears and Julia Jinyu, a more stoic offshoot of Haruko that splintered from her during her initial attempt to control Atomsk's power. Haruko eventually eats Julia to restore herself, and uses Ide to get to Hidomi. Like before, this causes conflict between Medical Mechanica and the Interstellar Immigration Bureau, as the latter was reverse-engineering Canti's technology to utilize the N.O. channel's energies for their own use. Atomsk appears on Earth as planned, but Haruko ends up failing again with a freed Julia taking her leave. Haruko regains her composure and is finally convinced to give up her obsession over Atomsk as completely unrequited, as Hidomi and Ide begin their relationship while Mabase rebuilds after much of it was destroyed by Medical Mechanica.
Alternative
Haruko enters the life of high school student Kana Koumoto and her friends as she became a mentor of sorts to Kana in helping the teen's transition into adulthood as Medical Mechanica begins its assault on Earth. While helping Kana resolve some issues as one of her friends leaves for Mars, Haruko ends up on another planet as a direct result of Kana's reverse N.O. portal that they used to transport Medical Mechanica's plants off the planet. The season is speculated to take place before the events of all the other seasons. This comes from a tweet made by Creative Director at Adult Swim Jason Demarco, who said FLCL Alternative was "designed to be a prequel to the original..."
Grunge
Haruko manipulates the mob-run town of Okura in a scheme to infect Medical Mechanica with a virus and steal Atomsk from them. In the process, she influences the lives of three working kids: Shinpachi, Shonari and Orinoko, before taking off after Atomsk on top of Medical Mechanica's plant. The season takes place between the events of Shoegaze and the first season.
Shoegaze
Masaki is a teenager who sees ghosts that nobody else can see, including a large ghost bird perched atop a tower. Harumi joins him in exploring the tower after it is locked down by the Bureau of Interstellar Immigration. Kana Koumoto (from the third season) is now a 27-year-old adult working for the bureau and is called in to assist in getting the teenagers out. After setting off an explosion, the teenagers find that the tower extends into N.O. space. The bureau chief admits that the purpose of the tower is to reconnect the dimension they are currently in with a separate one that split away 10 years ago and he hopes that with enough emotional turmoil he can get Masaki to trigger the N.O. device and merge them back together. After Harumi is shot and Masaki realizes that he loves her, his N.O. field begins the merger in which Harumi realizes that she is actually from the other dimension, a colony on Mars. As Masaki calms, the merger fails, and a large snake-like entity appears. In the closing credits, Masaki is able to jump dimensions through N.O. space to visit the Mars colony. He explains that the worm-creature helps him do so and its name is Atomsk.
Production The first season of FLCL was directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G, and Starchild Records.
Tsurumaki has said that he tried to "break the rules" of anime when making FLCL, for example, by choosing a contemporary Japanese band to provide the soundtrack, and patterning the style more after "a Japanese TV commercial or promotional video", creating a work that is "short, but dense-packed".
FLCLs localization director and script writer Marc Handler stated that localization of the script was the hardest part of the show. The in-jokes in the show included obscure pop culture references that had to be decoded and transferred to English audiences. One example was a reference to Cheerio, a discontinued soft drink in Japan, for the English release the choice was made to use a discontinued American soft drink at the time, Crystal Pepsi. Director Kazuya Tsurumaki responded to criticism of FLCL, stating "comprehension should not be an important factor in FLCL".
The Medical Mechanica building featured is in the shape of a large iron. The character Amarao describes Medical Mechanica's goal as the destruction of all thought. FLCL uses the iron as a symbolic breakdown of "thought" by smoothing out the wrinkles as equated to the removing of the brain's wrinkles. For English localization, the Japanese team had to explain the concept because a direct translation of script did not convey the ideology.
Media Original video animation
The six-episode series was released in Japan from April 26, 2000 – March 16, 2001. It originally debuted in the United States on Adult Swim in August 2003, where it managed to gain a significant cult following and was widely acclaimed, despite its short length. The series would continue to air on the network in the following years, including reruns on the network's Toonami programming block from October 2013 to January 2014, and in April 2018 (to promote the then-upcoming release of Progressive and Alternative). The series is also available via iTunes, adultswim.com and Funimation's website.
Six DVD compilations, each containing one episode, have been released in Japan by Gainax. In addition, a DVD collection box, containing all six DVD compilations, was released in Japan on August 13, 2005. Three DVD compilations were released by Synch-Point in North America. A DVD collection box, containing all the DVD compilations of the English episodes, was released on January 23, 2007, but have since gone out of print. In January 2010, Funimation announced that they had acquired the license for the series and would be releasing it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in February 2011. Shortly after, it has been released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment on a 3-disc DVD set and on Blu-ray Disc. It is also licensed in the United Kingdom by MVM Films. The series also aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from August 4 to August 13, 2003.
Novels A three-volume novel series adaptation was written by the anime's screenwriter, Yoji Enokido, illustrated by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Hiroyuki Imaishi, and published by Kadokawa Shoten. The novels were released in Japan in June 2000, October 2000, and March 2001 respectively. The English-language versions were published by Tokyopop and were released in North America on March 11, 2008; September 9, 2008; and March 10, 2009, respectively. The novels cover all 6 episodes of the anime, introducing elements that were not present in the original production.
Manga A two-volume manga adaptation was created by artist Hajime Ueda. The manga interprets the series with certain elements altered and removed, and tells the events of the anime using a reductive art style and unsteady pacing. Jack Kotin defended the unique artstyle of the manga, saying "It can be crudely drawn at times, but this style fits in well with the overall story and atmosphere...".
The manga was published by Kodansha and serialized in monthly Magazine Z from December 25, 1999, to March 26, 2001. The two volumes were released on October 23, 2000, and August 23, 2001, respectively. The manga was re-released in bunkoban format with the two volumes labeled and in two individual box sets titled "Kodansha Box". Jō volume was on May 7, 2007, and the Ge volume was released on June 4, 2007. An edited tankōbon version of the manga that was released in box sets, were released on January 10, 2012, and February 9, 2012, respectively.
The English-language editions of the manga was released by Tokyopop on September 16, 2003, and on November 4, 2003, respectively. In March 2011, Dark Horse Comics announced to re-release the manga in omnibus edition. The omnibus edition was released on May 16, 2012, and includes remastered story pages, a remastered script, and bonus color pages.
Soundtracks