I don’t like anime.
Actually, FLCL is a joint production from Gainax and Studio I.G. (who did Ghost in the Shell, etc etc).
My particular love of FuriKuri is the fact the director didn’t mind straying off model in the pursuit of damn groovy images. (off-model means the animators didn’t refer to the model sheets created to standardise the character design throughout the episode -in FuriKuri, the animation only losely follows those model sheets, instead it adheres to the artistic styles of the individual lead animators. So if one animator draws a certain way, then the section he or she storyboarded and possibly keyed will follow his or her artistic style).
Was that confused enough?
I love it!
I’ve seen it all, but I’ve yet to procure vol2 of the DVDs (with excellent commentary tracks by the director- IN JAPANESE- and subtitled over the action. Very odd, but wonderfully involved and intriguing explanation of the storytelling and animation AND INSPIRATIONAL process).
The animated manga sequence in episode one blows me away every time! much sweetness!
Gene-u!
You asked for it, dude! :eek:
[spoiler]Haruko (the crazy girl on the Vespa scooter) is an alien.
The big iron-looking thing in town? Well, it’s not really a factory like they say it is. It’s part of an alien device that terraforms (not really, but for lack of a better word) planets that are to be conquered.
Haruko’s lover is an enigmatic alien force arrayed against the aliens that are planning to conquer Earth. She’s not there for Naota - she’s there for her lover, hoping that the presence of the enemy will attract him.
At the end, Naota drives the aliens away with the help of a suped-up guitar, but at the same time drives off Haruko’s lover, and she has to take off to get another opportunity to be with him.[/spoiler]
It all kinda comes together in episodes five and six. Besides, IIRC, episode 5 takes off on Lupin III and South Park - can’t miss that!
Furi-Kuri, is it a shape? maybe a mecha? or just a really cool guitar that shoots gigamegainstadeathbeam? (I think it’s a color, slightly yellowish with off-red tints). Maybe if I watch it just one more time I’ll figure it out…
Actually, I think Furi-Kuri is a an onomotapoeia - a word that is derived from a sound (like “boom” or “moo”). Naota’s relatives make lots of references to it as such.
On a related note, for those of you that have seen Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, we thought pretty much the same way on that, too, although the typical pronunciation of the expression we had in mind was more like “nugu-nugu.”
It’s the sound effect when people are having sex… kinda like the cliche of having creaky bed springs in American movies.
Thank you! I will call off my horrible puchu armies now!
According to the fansub, it’s a slang term for making out (or possibly gropage, I forget) - probably onomatopeoic (sp?) all the same. Thus the embarassment on Naota’s face when it comes up.
Here’s something I think all you FLCL fans will enjoy. It’s an anime music video by Aaron Novak. For those that don’t know, an anime music video is a set of anime clips spliced together and set to a song by a fan. This one happens to be one of the good ones. I really like that song he uses too. Let me know what you think of it.
P.S. In case it wasn’t apparent in my earlier post, I LOVE this anime. It’s one of my favorites along with Excel Saga and Serial Experiment Lain.
I’m not sure you can really ‘spoil’ FLCL, because it doesn’t really have a plot in the conventional sense.
It’s essentially a very clever, on-target-to-the-point-of-cruelty satire of anime in general, and ‘deep and meaningful’ anime, like Gainax’s own Eva, in specific.
Big, over-the-top religious/mythological symbolism that doesn’t mean anything. Supporting characters that only make sense in support, and whose backstory and personalities change to fit whatever the theme of the day is. Giant, city destroying disasters that exist only to teach characters important lessons about trying their best. Monsters who act like cute girls acting like monsters. Big parts of the environment that make no sense beyond ‘they look cool.’ Ancient super-powerful megaweapons that look, by staggering coincidence, like classic guitars. Spectacularly well animated fight-scenes, followed up by five minutes of scribble drawings or manga panels.
And it’s so well produced and directed, you don’t care. It’s like a magician telling you outright how he does his tricks, and then doing them . . . but so well you believe them anyway, at least till he’s done.
–
‘Hmm. A movie that likes to show people watching other people.’
FLCL has the ELEMENTS of a coherent plot, therefore it MUST have a coherent plot 
.
Doesn’t it?
Ah, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand that sentence. Are you arguing with me or not?
Your post made me laugh Ura-Maru :).
I guess I should have said FLCL is done so well that I don’t care if it has a coherent plot or not. So yeah, umm… pretty much what you had said. You said it much better then I could have anyway.
BTW Ura-Maru, what’d you think of that anime music video I linked?