Sunday, July 8, 2018

FLCL Progressive Episode 6: A Review


In a way, the finale of FLCL Progressive kind of sums up FLCL as a whole. The emotional and thematic arc of the story comes to its logical conclusion, while the actual events of the plot are oblique and confusing. Which is just a fancy way of saying I had no idea what was actually happening and why it mattered. But this is FLCL, so the plot doesn't matter. The characters reaching emotional maturity is, and that's what happens here. I'm getting ahead of myself though.


Things pick up right where Episode 5 left off. Hidomi, partially transformed into a robot, faces down Haruko to save Iide from... whatever she did to him. The battle against Medical Mechanica is raging as Atomsk descends from the sky. Quickly, here's a rundown of the important things that happen plot wise in this episode. Atomsk's enormous N.O. power sucks Haruko and Hidomi into space. They board a weird space station where they find the remains of Canti, Haruko's robot partner from FLCL Classic. Meanwhile, Aiko the rent-a-girlfriend turns out to be a robot transmitter (I think?) which Hidomi's mom uses to have a heart-to-heart with Hidomi on the space station. This inspires Hidomi to unleash her full powers for the first time. Doing so turns her completely into her robot form and Iide's soul (?) inhabit's Canti's body along with Atomsk. From there, she and Haruko return to Earth and battle each other over who's beloved will be freed from Canti. They both seem to succeed. Iide is returned to normal after... whatever happened to him and Atomsk tries to give Haruko a moment of closure before he heads back out into space. Also, Aiko destroyed Medical Mechanica. At least, that's my interpretation of what happened.

Haruko watches the arrival of Atomsk with glee.
Again, what happens plot wise doesn't matter though. I've only illustrated all that to show how it relates to what does matter, Hidomi's emotional arc. Remember, Progressive has had two themes running throughout it from the beginning; Hidomi getting back in touch with her feelings and her budding romance with Iide. Both are based on her reaching emotional maturity and both come to a climax here. For the first, it's during Hidomi's talk with her mom. She confronts her mom about closing their cafe, which she had such a problem with last episode, and about how pushed away her mother made her feel. Hidomi's mom apologizes and says she felt many of the same things Hidomi felt when her father left them. They were both stuck in stasis. When they come to that understanding, by deciding to keep their cafe open for themselves and not just as something to do until Hidomi's dad comes back, that Hidomi reaches emotional maturity. She's finally broken down the emotional wall she's built and come to terms with the feelings of abandonment she had. She's given herself permission to feel strong feelings again.

As for the theme of teenage sexuality, I don't think it's a coincidence that both Iide and Hidomi turn into robots this episode. Indeed, Hidomi's resolve to use her full powers also comes from Iide in Canti breaking her headphones, which have been established as a metaphor for virginity. Or that she "beats" Haruko by getting a kiss from her perspective boyfriend. This kind of goes hand in hand with emotional maturity though. It's only because Hidomi has opened herself up to her feelings and the chance of being hurt again that she can even pursue this relationship. Turning into robots is an odd choice to symbolize becoming sexually active, mature adults, but given that both partners in the relationship do so may be taken to mean they're both ready to try taking things to the next level. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into it.

Hitomi's full henshin-style robot transformation.
I do like how the anime follows up on Hidomi positing herself and Haruko as foils at the end of Episode 5, saying they're both just girls in love. When Haruko finally has Atomsk cornered at the end of this episode, she can't break through his forcefield and ends up crying about how she's never enough for him. I read this as Haruko, unlike Hidomi, being unable to reach emotional maturity. Her view of Atomsk is one of childish infatuation and she just can't accept that he's just not that into her. His hugging her and leaving a reborn Jinyu for her before leaving might be Atomsk's way of letting her down easy. Not that it takes though, as Haruko cheerfully proclaims that she's going to chase after Atomsk again even though she knows she'll never catch him. So she actually acknowledges her own arrested emotional development, whether that's better or worse I don't know.

And those are my thoughts on FLCL Progressive after a first watch-through. I'm sure I'll dig up even more after I've watched it as many times as the original. Over all, I think it's a worthy successor. It doesn't reach the zany heights of FLCL Classic but thematically I think it was more consistent. Hidomi's journey was a really interesting one to watch and it was a smart move to not try and do a direct continuation of the original. I wish we had gotten a bit more from Jinyu but like Haruko it might be better the less we know about their backstory. Not the instant masterpiece FLCL Classic was, but a damn good six episodes of anime. Now let's see how FLCL Alternative turns out...

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