FLCL Progressive Episode 1: A Review

I doubt that I was the only person shocked and bewildered when [adult swim] announced that they were making not one, but two sequel series to the legendary (and legendarily weird) anime FLCL. Both a distillation and rebuke to its infamous predecessor Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL has become a classic in its own right, thanks in part to being regularly reshown on [adult swim]. But FLCL was so much its own thing and of its time, and the nature of its story so self-contained, that it was very much a question of how you would even begin making one sequel, let alone two.

The answer so far seems to be by not trying to make a sequel. FLCL Progressive, the first of the two sequel series, premiered its first episode on [adult swim]'s Toonami block last night, and it's taking an unexpected but not unwelcome approach to the challenge. In a way, Progressive almost seems like its doing to its predecessor what the original FLCL did to Evangelion.


The question that comes first to mind is likely, is this a direct sequel following the same characters from the original? Thankfully no as the original anime's self-contained nature would make that difficult at best. Indeed, it's not clear from this first episode if Progressive is in the same universe or how it relates to FLCL if all. But given that the "lore" of this series, for lack of a better term, isn't actually important to the actual story, that ambiguity doesn't matter. Especially in this first episode. So instead of following up with original characters, we have a new cast of characters.

Hitomi, our protagonist, with her cool cat ear headphones.

Progressive's protagonist is Hitomi, a stoic 14-year-old girl living with her mom above their cafe, who's symbolically cut herself off from the world via a pair of fancy cat-ear headphones. Hitomi has been having strange dreams of a desolate wasteland, where her body is either slowly decaying into dust or transforming into a mech-suited hero to battle a horde of giant steam irons (a callback to the original FLCL with intriguing implications). These visions have just caused her to withdraw and become even more emotionless. This is all changed when a mysterious woman named Jinyu plows into Hitomi with her car, in a most cartoony fashion, ostensibly to keep Hitomi safe from something. This is followed up later that night when Hitomi is chased from her home by a giant spider robot that her classmate Ida says a woman on a yellow Vespa pulled out of his forehead. Jinyu appears and rescues the two from the robot by hitting it with an electric guitar, while another mysterious woman with salmon pink hair watches on. Jinyu takes a job at Hitomi's mom's cafe to protect the 14-year-old from any future trouble and it's revealed that the pink-haired woman is Haruko Haruhara, the punk-rock villain (?) of the original FLCL.

That basic setup is not too dissimilar from how the first series began and it's a good illustration of how Progressive tackles being a sequel to such a well-known anime. The plot setup, the character dynamics, and even some of the themes are familiar to the original, but shaken up and done from a different angle to make it not just a carbon copy. For instance, the relationship between Hitomi and her mom, stoic and serious child to an upbeat and goofy parent, is almost a gender flip of the relationship between Naota, the first FLCL's protagonist, and his dad. That gender flip though gives this relationship a different context and makes Progressive feel fresh. Jinyu is an even better example of this. So far she's serving much the same role Haruko did in the original, weird stranger who strikes the protagonist with their means of transport and then becomes a domestic in the protagonist's house, but besides that they are total opposites. Where Haruko was manic and animated (no pun intended), Jinyu is deadpan to a fault, uttering complete nonsense with conviction and seriousness. The anime itself is even depicting them as foils. Haruko rides a Vespa, Jinyu rides a vintage car. Haruko uses a bass guitar as a weapon, Jinyu uses a rhythm guitar. This a decision I really like and it should add to the confrontation between the two when their motivations for getting involved in Hitomi's life become clear.

Jinyu, looking badass.

A number of other things have carried over from the original as well. The editing and cinematography are much the same, going from frenetic to laid-back in tune with the characters' emotions to good effect. The tendency for characters to go off on random tangents barely connected to actual advancement of the plot is intact as well. The tone of the series, pitting a more reserved, serious protagonist against a world of weirdos, is almost exactly the same as FLCL. Progressive feels like how FLCL should, which is an impressive achievement for such an iconoclastic anime, but it also highlights Progressive's major fault at the moment. It doesn't quite look like FLCL.

That's not to say the art direction is unrecognizable. The character designs are in line with the original, if streamlined a bit to look more contemporary, and the color palette mostly matches though it's noticeable that the digital coloring is a bit too naturalistic for this property. No, when I say it doesn't quite look like FLCL, I mean in the animation. Not the animation here is bad, some sequences like Hitomi's dreams are very well done, it's just that it's too safe. The original FLCL was known for playing fast and loose with its animation, getting janky and off-model on purpose at times and even changing its entire animation style on a whim. It turned into South Park for a few scenes in one episode mostly because it could. So far Progressive is playing it much safer in that arena, sticking to a much cleaner and straightforward animation style.

Playing it safe is my major criticism of FLCL Progressive for at least this first episode. Nothing about it is bad, but it's also not really taking any risks so far. It's mostly just average which wouldn't matter as much if this were an original property, but as a follow-up to something that was as energetic and unafraid to go off-the-wall as FLCL it hurts a bit more. Another thing I took note of is that unlike the original, which made the subtext of its imagery and its themes clear from the start, that's a bit more muddled here. I must especially question the use of forehead horns. I get that those are a FLCL thing, but that was phallic imagery for a story about male puberty in the original. They seem a bit weird in a story with a female protagonist and different themes. At least for the time being, future episodes will hopefully make that more clear.

Overall, Episode 1 of FLCL Progressive is an average but promising start to this sequel. Hitomi's struggles are much different than Naota's and her visions seem to be hinting at a possible alternative ending to the original. I'm really liking Jinyu so far as the bizarro Haruko. Haruko herself will be moving into the spotlight in Episode 2 from the look of things and I'm interested in seeing what role she'll play in this new story. Hopefully she brings some of the missing energy with her.