home     news     bio     gallery     interesting     links       interesting: Furi Kuri! Go back to "interesting" section.   FLCL a.k.a. Fooly Cooly   I first saw the commercials for Fooly Cooly  a few week prior to it premier on Cartoon Network. It was really weird and goofy with a definite anime flair (100% authentic Japanese brand Super #1). The image that stuck out to me most was a scene that showed a girl with big pink hair jamming out in an Elvis costume. The story revolves around a Japanese boy named Naota, who is 12 years old. His older brother went away to the United States to play professional baseball and left his girlfriend, Mamimi in Japan. Naota is a very realistic character and he deals with issues that many prepubescent kids confront. His life is normal and rather miserable until the day he gets run over by a lady on a Vespa... I like FLCL, because of two reasons: 1) Zany parodies of both Japanese and American culture. When you watch it, you will see overt references to Gundam, Hamtaro, and South Park. I think the creators did a great job in showing how American and Japanese humor and sensibility are sometimes intertwined. The fact that Naota's brother goes away to the United States to play baseball is a great way to connect ideas to American culture, but the parodies make it even funnier. 2) Teen sexuality abound! Although sexuality is definitely played around with in anime, this is perhaps one of the first cartoons that I've seen on American television that discusses teen sexuality in such a humorous and sex-positive way. Not only that, it shows that teens do want to get sex over with - it's exciting, scary, and another stage toward adulthood. Although Naota may not want to feel lust or sexual attraction, he has to confront them in order to feel more mature emotions. Besides, you can't avoid it when your big brother's forsaken girlfriend always make it her job to sex you up whenever possible. Moreover, I think it definitely plays with relationship dynamics when they introduce the character, Haruko. An 198yo space pirate and a 12yo boy...can we find a better "Odd Couple"? Beyond the character development and plotlines, the music for FLCL is awesome! It's all performed by a Japanese rock band called the pillows (yes, no capitalization!). Their music is pretty much traditional rock music, although I honestly don't know what the lyrics are about since I don't understand Japanese. However, it's catchy and a great tune to jam to. Worth a good look? Of course! Check it out on Cartoon Network whenever they have it showing on their Adult Swim lineup. Otherwise, you can go out and purchase or rent DVD copies of each episodes. Sadly, it's just a miniseries with six episodes, but at least that keeps the rental fees down. Oh yeah, my favorite scene is the big battle in episode 5 where Haruko faces off with a giant MM monster. Won't spoil it for you, but you'll understand why I like it when actually see that episode.

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