FLCL Progressive Episode 5: A Review

Episode 5 of Progressive kind of has the same problem something like Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince did. It's the last chapter before the finale so the major conflict of the climax has already been established and it's too late to bring in anything new. So if you don't spend the chapter as basically just a lengthened first act for the finale, you're mostly just jogging in place. Episode 5 feels like that as the major progression in the story is more emotional than plot-centric. That's not a bad thing for something like FLCL which is more about themes than actual narrative and that emotional progression is important, but in this case it does still have that sense of jogging in place.


The episode opens with a gorgeously animated art style shift to a painted look, showing off what I believe is another one of Hidomi's visions. Unlike all the others though, this one is far more serene and almost melancholic in tone. There's no hint of her cheery dark side or any apocalyptic imagery. It feels much closer to Hidomi's character than any of her previous visions, as though this reflects her true desires outside of what Medical Mechanica were broadcasting into her brain through her headphones. From there, we transition back into normality (relatively speaking) except with a nice thicker line animation to the characters. I like it, gives the proceeding a hand-drawn sketchbook look. Besides that though, we're back in the classroom and Hidomi has resumed her withdrawn, stoic persona, almost making it feel like we've come full circle back to the beginning. But Hidomi has changed though, she just doesn't want admit it.

Hitomi's powers go wild.

This becomes very clear in the episode's second half, where Hidomi has to tackle her insecurities and come to terms with her bottled up feelings. Yes, she's trying to go back to her default after her dark side got unleashed last week but life doesn't work that way. Through a manga-style flashback (a nice callback to the original FLCL), we learn that Hidomi's mom is going to close her cafe and move on. This enrages Hidomi, making her show stronger emotion than we've ever seen from her, because she thought her mom was going to keep the cafe open and stay there until her dad came back. Last time I talked about how the root of Hidomi's self-isolation was her feelings of abandonment by her parents and this just brings those right to the forefront for her. That wall she tried to build around herself starts to crumble because she can't keep her feelings in anymore, that's how reconciling with her dark side last episode changed her. She can't keep the bubble up anymore and her emotions are coming through and she has to deal with that.

This is all made worse when she finds Iide in a compromising position with Haruko. Granted, it was a misunderstanding and he ended up in that position because he was trying to take on Jinyu's role as Hidomi's protector, but it doesn't change the effect. Hitomi sees Iide, the guy who she'd come to trust and was helping take her wall down, with her manipulator Haruko and her feeling of betrayal just comes out. Her powers activate, maybe without even her realizing, and she sucks him into her forehead. All that's left behind of Iide is a weird black balloon silhouette. Look, the logic of it is strange but it works on an emotional level. Hidomi's conflict this episode is that after reconciling with her dark side, she now has to re-learn how to handle all the strong emotions she used to bottle up and pour into her dark side. She has to become emotionally mature.

Iide steps up as protector.

Which ties back into the other theme Progressive has going about teenagers maturing into sexuality. It's no accident that Hidomi's powers activate again when she finds Iide in a position full of innuendo. It goes further than that though. A mysterious organization from the background story offers teenage couples a 99% discount on amusement park tickets to harvest the N.O. power generated by their coupling to fight Medical Mechanica. Iide in his role of protector finally manages to break through Haruko's goofball facade by metaphorically implying that Atomsk doesn't find her sexually satisfying. Hidomi even takes this further when she confronts Haruko at the episode's end, saying that for all her scheming and supervillainy Haruko is basically just another girl in love. She seems to be implying that unlike her, Haruko was never able to become emotionally mature. Which come to think of it ties back in with a lot of what Jinyu said about Haruko's relationship with Atomsk.

One last thing because I have a feeling it will come into play during next week's finale. Before that confrontation with Haruko, Hidomi has a kind of montage where she comes to grips with all the feelings I laid out before and it ends with her unleashing her full power. The next time we see her she's got Jinyu's guitar and has kind of half-transformed into a robot, like she had a couple episodes ago, and shows clear emotion. I think this is meant to show she's come into full control of her powers and will be able to fully transform into the battle robot we saw in her first vision way back in Episode 1. I don't know, we'll see during the finale next week. See you then!