List of FLCL episodes
The episodes of the Japanese original video animation series FLCL were directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which included Gainax, Production I.G,[1] and Starchild Records.[2] The English adaptation was licensed by Synch-Point,[3] which released the DVDs and soundtrack.[4] After Synch-Point went out of business, FUNimation licensed and re-released the series on Blu-ray and DVD.[5][6] The story follows Haruko Haruhara, a sociopathic alien drawn to the fictional Japanese suburb of Mabase by the Medical Meccanica building while weaseling in the lives of twelve-year-old Naota Nandaba in the first season and fourteen-year-old Hidomi Hibajiri in the second season as pawns in her agenda to acquire the being called Atomsk.
The first-season episodes aired in North America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from August 4[7] to August 13, 2003.[8]
Six pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; five opening themes and one closing theme. All the theme songs are by Japanese rock band The pillows. The opening themes are: "One Life", used in episode one, "Instant Music" in episode two and three, "Happy Bivouac" for episode four, "Runners High", utilized in episode five, and "Carnival" in episode six. The closing theme is "Ride on Shooting Star", used for all episodes. Geneon Entertainment has released three original soundtracks encompassing the aforementioned songs, with soundtracks titled Addict, released on January 20, 2004, King of Pirates, released on September 7, 2004, and FLCL No. 3, released on June 7, 2005.[9][10][11]
Six DVD compilations, each containing one episode, were released in Japan by Gainax.[12] In addition, a DVD collection box, containing all six DVD compilations, was released in Japan on August 13, 2005.[13] Three compilations were released by Synch-Point in North America. A DVD collection, containing all six was released on January 23, 2007.[14][15] The series was re-picked up for distribution by Funimation in 2010 and released again on DVD and on Blu-ray in February 2011.[16]
In 2016, two new seasons totaling 12 episodes were announced as a co-production between Production I.G, Toho and Adult Swim.[17][18] The second season, FLCL Progressive, premiered on June 2, 2018 on Adult Swim's Toonami block, while the third and final season, FLCL Alternative, premiered on September 8, 2018. In Japan, Alternative and Progressive had theatrical screenings in September 2018. The first episode of FLCL Alternative unexpectedly premiered on April Fool's Day 2018 at midnight on Toonami in Japanese with English subtitles.
Episode list
FLCL
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Japanese release date | English air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Fooly Cooly" Transcription: "Furi Kuri" (Japanese: フリクリ) | Masahiko Ōtsuka | Yōji Enokido | April 26, 2000 | August 5, 2003 | |
| Naota Nandaba is a twelve-year-old boy in the city of Mabase, which he describes as being "ordinary" and that "nothing ever happens there." But while hanging out with a high school student named Mamimi Samejima, the girlfriend of his older brother, Naota was using a vending machine when he was run over by a pink-haired woman's Vespa scooter. The pink-haired woman, panicking over killing Naota, proceeds to revive him with CPR and then hits him on the head with a bass guitar. The blow leaves a really large horn-like bump which Naota covers with a bandage, learning of the "Vespa Woman" from rumors told by classmates before being stalked by her to the point of her posing as a nurse when he attempts to get his bump examined at the hospital. It was only when Naota got home that, played out in manga-like scenario, he learns that pink-haired woman, Haruko Haruhara, is now working in his house as a live-in maid. His father asks him if he was "fooly coolying" with Mamimi and then Haruko after learning of the CPR. Find Haruko settling in his room while talking to the cat, Naota argues with the stalker over where she will sleep tells her she should stay with his father. He goes downstairs, where his father says that Mamimi came by to get the day old bread from their bakery and asks if Mamimi's family is poor. When Naota goes to find her, she tells him how much she likes his brother, who lives in America due to being a great baseball athlete. Naota tells her he has an American girlfriend. Mamimi suddenly says she's overflowing before she collapses. Naota tries to help her when a red TV-headed robot and the severed hand of giant robot emerge from the bump on head and begin fighting, only to have the battle end with Haruko hitting the TV-headed robot with her guitar after the robot hand is destroyed. The robot's head is damaged while losing its reddened appearance, ending up living in the Nandaba residence. | ||||||
| 2 | "Fire Starter" Transcription: "Faisuta" (Japanese: ファイスタ) | Ken Andō | Yōji Enokido | June 21, 2000 | August 6, 2003 | |
| X-rays taken by the TV-Headed robot reveal that Naota's head is empty, due to an N.O. Portal that cannot be easily detected on the X-rays. Haruko reveals the robot to be from Medical Mechanica, who own the iron-shaped factory in Mabase, while introducing herself as a First Class Space Patrol Officer. Haruko later attempts to break into the Medical Mechanica plant, only to return that there is no conventional way in to the assigned security guards as Naota retrieves her. Meanwhile, allowed to act on his own in retrieving his fragments of his head when not doing errands for the Nandabas, the TV-headed robot is seen by Mamimi who thinks he is a god due to the black wings and halo he is wearing and names him "Canti" after a character in a hand-held video game called Fire Starter where the player commits arson to please the game's deity. This goes hand-in-hand with a series of fires erupting around the city, Naota visiting the remains of a burnt elementary school with his friends while learning that Mamimi is being bullied at her school. Naota eventually realizes Mamimi is the arsonist and that she caused the school fire where she had met his brother. Naota soon finds Mamimi performing a 'fire ritual' by the water bank, the girl revealing she hated her old school and fell in love with Naota's brother when he saved her. Mamimi is revealed to have been acting out her video game then attempts to kiss Canti for his blessing, but the rest of the robot Canti battled when he first arrived emerges from Naota's and proceeds to attack him and Haruko. In the heat of the moment, Canti eats Naota and assumes his reddened state while transforming into a large weapon to damage the robot enough for Haruko to destroy. At the end of the episode Naota wonders what he can do for Mamimi, and promises to always be by her side. | ||||||
| 3 | "Marquis de Carabas" Transcription: "Maru Raba" (Japanese: マルラバ) | Shōji Saeki | Yōji Enokido | August 23, 2000 | August 7, 2003 | |
| The father of Naota's classmate Eri Ninamori, as well as the mayor of Mabase, is caught up in a scandal involving an alleged separation with her mother. Ninamori is more focused on the class' upcoming play, Puss in Boots. She plays the lead opposite Naota, who was voted to play the cat. Naota is unenthusiastic about his role and skips rehearsal. Upon meeting Mamimi, she discovers that he now has cat ears growing from his head. Ninamori retreats to a train station to get away from the media circus that has developed outside her home when her father the mayor was caught in a relationship with his secretary. When Naota finds Ninamori, Haruko comes racing down the street, and loses her Vespa when she tries to avoid hitting a cat. The Vespa slams into Naota and sending him flying into Ninamori, causing them to hit heads while exposing his N.O. manifestation. Curious, she touches them, and passes out due to exposure to N.O. Kamon invites her to spend the night at the Nandaba residence due to the current turmoil at her home. She reveals that she rigged the class votes to have him cast as the cat. The next day, the two get into an argument over the play with Ninamori wanting everything to be perfect for her parents to see. After Ninamori angrily reveals Naota's cat ears, he retaliates by revealing her vote rigging. This triggers the partial emergence of Medical Mechanica robot from her head, a result of his head hitting Naota's from the robot transferred to her N.O. channel, using her body to attack before Haruko forced it to let go by accidentally feeding it curry before Canti destroys it. The class goes through with the play, Ninamori's parents appearing to not to go through with their divorce. | ||||||
| 4 | "Full Swing" Transcription: "Furi Kiri" (Japanese: フリキリ) | Masahiko Ōtsuka | Yōji Enokido | October 25, 2000 | August 8, 2003 | |
| Haruko proves to be a star baseball player with phenomenal hitting and pitching skills, nearly singlehandedly defeating the Mabase Martians, who are coached by Naota's grandfather Shigekuni. Naota, however, refuses to swing when he is at bat (it is implied that he does not want to be compared to his brother, who is a professional baseball player) and gets hit by one of Haruko's pitches. At home, Kamon and Haruko indulge in odd behavior that inflames Naota's jealousy. He meets he red-haired man who warns him to stay away from Haruko, later revealed to be Commander Amarao of the Interstellar Immigration Department. Returning to his base, he and his subordinate Lieutenant Kitsurubami learn that one of their satellites has been damaged by one of Haruko's hit baseballs and is descending towards Mabase as part of its programming. Naota confronts Kamon and hits him in the head with a baseball bat, only to discover from Amarao that it was robot duplicate. Naota finds his real father in a death-like state and revives him with hot water, learning that Haruko disposed of Kamon after deeming him useless for her ends after he could not produce a N.O. Channel. After receiving a message that Amarao asked Naota to give her, Haruko takes Naota to the top of the Medical Mechanica plant and extracts a Gibson Flying V guitar from Naota's head to serve as his "bat". She then leaves as the falling satellite heads straight for Naota, which unfolds into the shape of a baseball glove while launching a baseball-shaped bomb. Naota swings his "bat" and manages to halt the bomb, which begins to detonate. Haruko returns to rescue him by swinging her guitar and knocking it back into space. | ||||||
| 5 | "Brittle Bullet" Transcription: "Burabure" (Japanese: ブラブレ) | Shōji Saeki | Yōji Enokido | December 21, 2000 | August 9, 2003 | |
| Taken offense of Haruko giving Naota her undivided attention, a jealous Kamon challenges his son to a "duel" for Haruko: Amounting to an insanely intense airsoft firefight with Canti supporting Kamon. During the fight, Kitsurubami tries unsuccessfully to destroy Canti on Amarao's orders, with her and Kamon ending up being carried off in the river current. Mamimi, observing Naota's intimate relationship with Haruko, questions how much he really likes her, leading him to confront her about their relationship. At the same time, revealed to have a history and seeing her as threat to Earth, Commander Amarao ends up in a gunfight against Haruko over the attempt on Canti with Haruko taking out his subordinates and overpowering him after he mentions Atomsk. Haruko was about to kill Amarao when a giant Medical Mechanica robot emerges from Naota and makes its way to the Medical Mechanica plant to activate it, opening Amarao's N.O. Channel to arm herself with a guitar slingshot as she goes after the robot. Trapped on top of the robot and getting upset that Mamimi is calling his brother for help, Naota lets himself be eaten by Canti to fight the robot. But the robot proves too powerful for Canti, losing Naota during a failed attack, and Haruko to destroy until the former produces Atomsk's EB-0 1961 Gibson bass guitar, ripping out the robot's core as it crashes over to the Medical Mechanica plant in the form of a giant hand presiding over it. | ||||||
| 6 | "FLCLimax" Transcription: "Furi Kura[a]" (Japanese: フリクラ) | Masahiko Ōtsuka | Yōji Enokido | March 16, 2001 | August 13, 2003 | |
| Weeks past since Haruko and Canti have disappeared from Mabase as the town is endlessly shrouded in the smoke pouring out of the Medical Mechanica plant. While advised by Amarao to forget about Haruko and resume his normal life, Naota finds Haruko returned to the Nandaba residence (repeating episode 1's manga dinner scene), causing Naota to later ask her in tears why she left. It was then that Haruko reveals that Atomsk is someone that Medical Mechanica took from her and she needs Naota's help to get him back. At the same time, Amarao seeing the recovery of the giant hand's "terminal core" to be vital, Mamimi finds the dog-like core and starts feeding it cellphones and vehicles before it goes berserk and assimilates Canti while reaching the Medical Mechanica plant. Despite Amarao trying to convince Naota that she is only using him, Haruko feeds the boy to the core as it enters the giant hand to commence Medical Mechanica's order to terraform the planet and purge humanity of independent thought. While Haruko intended for Atomsk to fully manifest this time compared to the previous partial manifestations, she is livid to find Naota as the being's host after emerging from Canti who separated from the giant hand to prevent the Medical Mechanica plant's activation. Creating a fused Gibson Flying V/EB-0 1961 Gibson bass guitar, Naota overpowers Haruko in an epic battle before he stops short and declare his love for her, kissing her while allowing Atomsk to fully emerge from his N.O. channel. Atomsk consumes the terminal core and blasts into space, Haruko taking the fused guitar while chasing after Atomsk. Naota finds Haruko's previous guitar lying amongst the rubble, which Mamimi takes a picture of, inspiring her to leave Mabase and pursue a photography career. In the epilogue, life slightly returns to normal in Mabase with Canti still living with the Nandaba Family as Naota and his friends begin middle school. But the final scene of Haruko's guitar string being plucked on its own hints at the possibility of her return. | ||||||
FLCL 2: Progressive
| Ep. | Title | Episode Director | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "RE: Start" Transcription: "Saisuta" (Japanese: サイスタ) | Kazuto Arai | Hideto Iwai | June 2, 2018 | |
| Hidomi Hibajiri, a middle school student living in Mabase, has a dream about rotting away in a destroyed world, turning into a robot at the gaze of a large eye, and fighting giant irons. She heads to her class with barely any emotion as a white-haired woman with a Fender Jazzmaster guitar watches her from afar. Meanwhile, Ko Ide brags to his friends about his relationship with the homeroom teacher, but leaves the details vague. After their homeroom teacher performs a strange lesson, Hidomi later returns to help her mother with their family's cafe. As Hidomi's mother talks about her missing father and possibly "moving on," the white-haired woman from before smashes a vintage Chevy Bel-Air into Hidomi's head, which "unfortunately" leaves her alive. The woman remarks that Hidomi keeps her unique cat ear-shaped headphones on to drown out the world, warning Hidomi that her body will rot as a result, and telling her to be careful of "the woman on the Vespa." That night, as Hidomi ponders what she meant, a large mechanical creature tries to attack her in her room. As Hidomi runs from the creature, it suddenly throws Ide at her. As the two run away from the creature, Ide explains that it came from his head. The two then run into a junkyard and are cornered by the creature. As Hidomi begins to "overflow," the white-haired woman appears again in her Chevy and destroys the creature before carrying off a wounded Ide; an orange-haired Haruko Haruhara secretly watches from afar. The next morning, the white-haired woman introduces herself as Julia Jinyu, a new worker at the cafe. At school, the homeroom teacher goes on a rant about "being adults" and "having only two wheels" that seems to brainwash the whole class, save for Hidomi and Ide, revealing herself as Haruko. | |||||
| 2 | "Freebie Honey" Transcription: "Furihani" (Japanese: フリハニ) | Toshihisa Kaiya | Hideto Iwai | June 9, 2018 | |
| Hidomi wakes up from a nightmare about being in a gory zombie movie and heads to school, where Haruko delivers a cult-like speech over the flawed nature of adults while giving the class their yearbooks: revealed from Hidomi's perspective to be crude stick-figure drawings despite the rest of the class being deluded in fabricated memories of events that never occurred. Later, Haruko asks Hidomi to give Ide, who was absent, his classwork. Hidomi heads to a slum on the outskirts of town, where Goro reveals that Ide has been hard at work making and selling machinery and getting beaten in the process. Watching Ko being beaten by some shady customers causes Hidomi to get a nosebleed, and she starts to overflow, but she faints before anything happens. She later wakes up in Ide's room; after an awkward moment, Haruko appears with a video camera, and Jinyu crashes the scene with her Chevy Bel-Air, which has transformed into a humanoid mech. Haruko counters by attaching a leash to Ko and summoning the same mechanical creature from the first episode through Hidomi's N.O. portal. As the two women fight each other, Jinyu revealing herself to be an off-shoot of Haruko while attempting to convince her to stop chasing Atomsk down after the first attempt which created her, Hidomi overcomes her inhibitor and transforms into a tiny mechanical doll, blowing Haruko away with tremendous force before returning to human form. Jinyu then converts her Chevy into a medical device and places both Hidomi and Ide into it, Haruko now knowing Hidomi is her target. Hidomi comes to and, finally remembering to give Ide his classwork, the two begin to laugh together. | |||||
| 3 | "Stone Skipping" Transcription: "Mizukiri" (Japanese: ミズキリ) | Yuki Ogawa | Hideto Iwai | June 16, 2018 | |
| About three months after the last incident, Haruko takes some of her class to the beach. Hidomi finds herself dragged along with Jinyu, who insists on keeping her from Haruko. Meanwhile, calling Goro's bluff of having a girlfriend, Ide and Marco meet a shy girl with flowerpot named Aiko. As Jinyu and Haruko talk about their goals, the kids enjoy their time on the beach, playing volleyball and building a sandcastle. Despite agreeing to a momentarily ceasefire with Jinyu, Haruko buries her under sand and cement before abducting Hidomi before anyone can notice they are missing. As Marco uncovers that Goro is actually paying Aiko and is given her potted plant, Ide, having realized Hidomi is gone, finds her in a crumbling, dilapidated Medical Mechanica factory on an operating table, where Haruko is trying to make her overflow. Seeing Hidomi's half-naked body causes Ide to overflow instead, and a giant blob monster erupts from his forehead. During the ensuing battle, Hidomi accidentally kisses Ide's chest, causing a large floating junk pile to emerge from her body. With Jinyu's help, Ide frees Hidomi, but Haruko convinces him to try to remove Hidomi's headphones. When he touches them, the headphones' security protocol activates, screwing them into the sides of Hidomi's head as the pile of junk falls back to Earth. Reluctantly, Haruko opts to team up with Jinyu to take the fight to the headphones' creators: Medical Mechanica. | |||||
| 4 | "LooPQR" Transcription: "Rarirure" (Japanese: ラリルレ) | Yoshihide Ibata | Hideto Iwai | June 23, 2018 | |
| Following her headphones locking on her head, Hidomi's personality completely flips, her upbeat yet eccentric subconsciousness manifesting itself, which concerns most of the people around her. Jinyu formulates a plan to attack the active Medical Mechanica plant in town to destroy the signal keeping the headphones in security mode. Meanwhile, Eye Patch and Masurao are shown to possess the remains of an inactive Canti which they have been using to develop N.O.-powered technology. They attempt to find the missing flowerpot that Masurao's daughter Aiko gave to Goro, revealed to have the ability to reverse N.O. Channel polarity. Jinyu, Haruko, and Ide snatch Hidomi off the street in Jinyu's car and fly her to the top of the Medical Mechanica plant, only to reach a dead end when they realize they have no way to enter the plant. While Haruko and Jinyu argue, Hidomi begins playing with Aiko's flowerpot and accidentally drops it on Ide's head, reversing his portal's polarity and sucking Jinyu and Haruko into the factory's interior. Inside the plant, Jinyu, wanting nothing more than to allow Atomsk to remain free, attempts to reason with Haruko before unintentionally provoking her, sparking a fight. The damage they cause to the factory's interior deactivates the headphones, allow them to use Hidomi's N.O. Channel to continue their fight outside. Meanwhile, having manifested a N.O. Channel from an earlier encounter with Hidomi, Marco is testing a Viking Cruise ship ride at a nearby theme park when it suddenly launches him at the plant; a giant bamboo shoot sprouts from his portal, and a small robot puppet climbs up it, getting involved in the fight against Haruko. Ide tries to rescue Hidomi as the car begins rolling off the side of the plant, and Jinyu catches them, only to be fatally wounded by Haruko. Haruko destroys the bamboo shoot and then devours Jinyu, the latter act restoring Haruko to her original pink-haired self. She then asks for Hidomi's help in absorbing Atomsk once more, but Hidomi, having caught glimpses of Haruko's previous attempt and understanding her intentions with regard to Atomsk's power, puts her headphones back on and refuses. | |||||
| 5 | "Fool on the Planet" Transcription: "Furupura" (Japanese: フルプラ) | Kei Suezawa | Hideto Iwai | June 30, 2018 | |
| A smiling Hidomi awakens from a dream of a colorless, devastated world overrun by Medical Mechanica factories that ended with her running down a beach. However, in a flashback shown in manga style, Hidomi becomes upset when she learns her mother intends to close the café. Meanwhile, Eye Patch and Masurao travel to Oozu City so they can use the Immigration Center Orbit Elevator to dispose of Canti's remains. Later at school, a seemingly pregnant Haruko (actually full from eating Jinyu) announces her retirement from teaching to marry her beloved. After giving the class a false anecdote about how she met Atomsk, she sends them off to the amusement park to find love. Only Ide and Hidomi remain, with the former using Jinyu's guitar to confront Haruko in the school's empty swimming pool while demanding that she stop dragging Hidomi into her plans. Haruko easily overpowers Ide in the duel, expressing disappointment that he has failed to learn anything. As she tries to seduce him, he retorts that she doesn't satisfy him. When Hidomi finds Haruko on top of Ide, she overflows with her power reducing Ide to a featureless husk while Haruko halfheartedly apologizes and leaves. At the husk's gasping request, Hidomi takes it in her arms and stands under the pool shower with it before it inflates like a balloon and floats up into the stratosphere. In orbit, Ide's husk is picked up by the Immigration Center's Lost-and-found satellite and grounded before an elderly woman who feeds it to Canti's head after it suddenly whirls to life. At the theme park, revealed to be a front for the Interstellar Immigration Department, Tonkichi begins the operation of collecting N.O. energy from the high concentration of adolescents present while combining the park's rides into a large mecha to attack the Medical Mechanica factory. Meanwhile, having regained her figure once she finished absorbing Jinyu, Haruko finds herself being attacked by a furious Hidomi after she used her power to augment herself into a cyborg. As they duel, Hidomi asserts that Haruko's obsession with Atomsk makes her "no different from the rest of them" and that she is "just a girl in love". Their fight is interrupted by a bright red light in the sky, as Haruko whispers that Atomsk has arrived on Earth. | |||||
| 6 | "Our Running" Transcription: "Awaran" (Japanese: アワラン) | Hiroshi Ikehata | Hideto Iwai | July 7, 2018 | |
| The battle between the Interstellar Immigration Bureau and Medical Mechanica reaches its climax while Haruko baits Hidomi into using her N.O. energy to trap Atomsk, only for them to be sucked into the being's own N.O. channel with Haruko regaining her original guitar. The Medical Mechanica factory makes it attempts to capture Atomsk by firing mochi-like projectiles across Mabase, trapping most of the populace in a petrified state. Eye Patch and Masurao are hit by one of the mochi projectiles, and Masurao tells Aiko that he doesn't intend to activate her since he knew she was gathering money to buy her own freedom from the Immigration Bureau and pleads for her to flee. A guilt-ridden Aiko recruits Goro and Hidomi's mother to recover the flowerpot, which activates her hidden functions and opens up a direct line of communication to Hidomi through Canti's head. Hidomi takes the opportunity to make amends with her mother, telling her that they don't have to keep the cafe open to wait for her father, but simply so they can continue living together. As Aiko proceeds to take out the Medical Mechanica factory while returning Goro's feelings, Hidomi hesitates in removing her limiter before a fully restored Canti removes the earphones for her. This causes Hidomi to turn into the Canti-like robot from her dream as she, Haruko, and Canti return to Earth where the robot is revealed to have both Ide and Atomsk inside him. Both Hidomi and Haruko battle to reach Canti, culminating in them kissing the robot at the same time to suck out their respective quarry from him. Hidomi is able to rescue a fully restored Ide while Haruko has seemingly absorbed Atomsk, only for the entity for force himself out and fly back into space, leaving Jinyu in its place to console Haruko. As Haruko and Jinyu part ways, Haruko quickly recovers from her setback and resumes her hunt for Atomsk, while the restored citizens proceed to rebuild Mabase. Hidomi, having finally shed her insecurity, begins a relationship with Ide. | |||||
FLCL 3: Alternative
| Ep. | Title | Episode Director | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Flying Memory" Transcription: "Fura Memo" (Japanese: フラメモ) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | March 31, 2018 (April Fools, Japanese) September 8, 2018 (English) | |
| Kana Koumoto heads to her high school and meets up with her friends: "Pets," Hijiri, and "Mossan." When their class is instructed to fill out surveys for their potential careers after graduation, Kana admits to the group she has no clue what she wants to do. While at her after-school job as a ramen shop, Kana meets a couple of odd customers: a man named Tsukata Kanda who bravely downs his ramen in one gulp despite accidentally spilling a ton of spice into his bowl, and strange pink-haired woman staring at Kana while eliciting a fearful reaction from Kanda. Kana meets with her friends the next day, their discussion about the news of potentially restricted space travel inspiring Mossan to convince the others they should start building a large bottle rocket out of discarded Dr Pepper bottles. The next day, they take a shopping trip to decorate their new bottle rocket, with Kana remarking that the shops are surprisingly uncrowded ever since a large mall went up in the middle of town and sucked away all the customers. Finally, the girls finish decorating their bottle rocket, when a large pin crashes through the roof of the house and somehow possesses a humanoid model in the house and turns it into a giant monster. The strange woman from before, Haruhara Haruko, suddenly appears and kicks Kana in the head before fighting the monster on her own. As Kana's friends try to revive her, a strange, glowing four-leaf clover grows out of Kana's forehead. Haruko then yanks the object out of Kana to reveal a guitar, and uses it to destroy the beast. After the incident, Haruko convinces Kana to rebuild the bottle rocket, which she does with her friends as they launch it at the beach days later. Tsukata Kanda, revealed to be a member of Department of Interstellar Immigration, later confronts Haruko over her appearance on Earth. | |||||
| 2 | "Grown-Up Wannabe" Transcription: "Tonaburi" (Japanese: トナブリ) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | September 15, 2018 | |
| Hijiri is driven to school in a yellow car after a photo shoot, kissing a college-aged photographer as her friends watch from afar. The rumors about her new boyfriend spread to her highschool, where the boys in class beg her to date one of them instead. Hijiri turns them all down, brushing off their pleas. While Kana tries to look more mature, Hijiri offers to take them with her on her next shoot over the weekend. The photographer, Toshio Shioya, takes some pictures of the girls at the park, but then becomes infatuated after watching Haruko while she works in a kebab truck. Hijiri drags Toshio away while the girls enjoy their lunch, but Toshio breaks up with Hijiri. Later that night, Kana keeps hearing various people talk about growing up, from Tsukata trying again to consume his ramen with a large amount of spice, to her brother talking about his new girlfriend. The next day, Hijiri appears colder and more irritable, even lashing out at her friends while they sing karaoke. While Kana tries to figure out the cause, she spots Haruko in the same car with Toshio. Kana decides to gather Pets and Mossan to confront Toshio in the mall parking lot, but are confused when Toshio asks for a necklace as Hijiri appears. Kana refuses to accept that Toshio broke up with Hijiri. Suddenly, Toshio's car begins transforming into a mech while horns are growing out of Kana's head during her rant. Haruko escapes the car before it transforms and hits Kana in the head with her guitar, drawing out the kebab truck from earlier. Letting Kana steer the truck, Haruko tries to destroy the bipedal car mech. During the fight, Toshiro tries to take pictures, but is nearly crushed by a falling pole. Hijiri risks her life to save Toshio, but is disappointed to see Toshio more concerned about the loss of his camera. Haruko finally manages to destroy the mech with a large kebab skewer. Afterwards, Toshio tries to selfishly restart his relationship with Hijiri, but she declines, realizing she was equally selfish by dating him to improve her own image. Toshio tries to protest, when Haruko smashes his head with her guitar, only to draw out a tiny version of his car. Haruko then gives the girls a free round of sandwiches before leaving in her truck. | |||||
| 3 | "Freestyle Collection" Transcription: "Furikore" (Japanese: フリコレ) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | September 22, 2018 | |
| At school, Kana is reminded by her teacher to turn in her college planning sheet, much to her dismay. However, she realizes Mossan has already turned hers in, and she reveals she dreams of becoming a fashion designer, having already qualified in a design contest. Meanwhile, the government denies rumors that a rocket launch base off the coast is secretly being prepared to evacuate government officials from Earth. At the soba shop, Kana, Pets, and Hijiri are still uncertain about what to do, and Hijiri points out that Mossan is the most motivated and hardest working out of all of them. However, Mossan suffers a sudden eating fit due to stress from her part-time construction job, prompting the girls to take her to the school nurse, who turns out to be Haruko. After inspecting all the girls, Haruko concludes Mossan is overworked and overeating. The girls find out from Mossan's mother that Mossan is working so hard in order to earn the tuition for fashion design school. The girls also take up part-time construction jobs to help Mossan, but this only angers her, as she feels her dream won't be worth anything if she can't achieve it herself. Mossan's outburst leaves Kana depressed uncertain about her own future, but she is cheered up by a rap song from Haruko. Kana approaches Mossan again and convinces her to let her help her for the contest as an assistant. They manage to finish the dress in time for the contest, but Mossan does not end up being the winner. Regardless, Haruko crashes the contest and appears on stage wearing Mossan's dress, stunning the audience. After Haruko evades security, Mossan takes pride in her work and declares she'll become the world's next top model. | |||||
| 4 | "Pit-a-Pat" Transcription: "Pitapato" (Japanese: ピタパト) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | September 29, 2018 | |
| Kanda continues to monitor the pins appearing all over the planet, knowing that they are a part of Medical Mechanica's latest plan. Kana arrives at school to see Haruko, now the school's new basketball coach, flirting with fellow student Sasaki, who Kana has a crush on. Kana immediately becomes jealous of the affection Haruko is showing to Sasaki and grows increasingly frustrated as she is both jealous yet denies her feelings for Sasaki. The Prime Minister secretly meets with Kanda, who warns her that Medical Mechanica may start its plan to flatten the Earth in four weeks. It is also revealed that Kanda was one of the many men Haruko seduced and later dumped in the past. Sasaki meets Kana in the park to assure her he doesn't have feelings for Haruko. Kana can't bring herself to confess her feelings to Sasaki, and the stress triggers a headache and she flees. The next day, Kana confides to her friends that Sasaki suffers from a rare nerve condition that prevents him from playing basketball, and as a child that got sick often, she found herself relating closely to his situation. Haruko then arrives and taunts Kana that she's too immature to have a relationship with Sasaki. Kana meets privately with Sasaki and almost kiss, but Kana realizes she's suddenly lost her passion. Suddenly, a robotic basketball player appears and eats Sasaki. Haruko engages in a basketball match against the robot and destroys it, releasing Sasaki. Later, Kana admits to Sasaki that she isn't ready for a relationship yet, and reflects that Haruko was correct in that she is still too immature for love. That night, the outer skin of the mall is blown away to reveal a Medical Mechanica plant. | |||||
| 5 | "Shake It Off" Transcription: "Furisute" (Japanese: フリステ) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | October 6, 2018 | |
| Sudden global warming and the appearance of Medical Mechanica plants around the world begin to stoke concerns that the Earth will become extinct. The Prime Minister suspects that Medical Mechanica's movements are due to Haruko's presence on Earth, and she orders Kanda to deal with her. Meanwhile, Kana and her friends spend the day in the school pool, but Pets disappears. A classmate deduces that since Pets' father is an important government official, she will be taken to Mars as part of the government's migration plan to escape Earth's destruction. Kanda confronts Haruko and prevents her from attempting to destroy the Medical Mechanica plant, pointing how it is useless to resist Medical Mechanica. Kana is picked up by Pets' mother, who tells her that Pets has apparently run away from home. Kana realizes that Pets' home life has been extremely difficult due to her domineering father and she flees and is subsequently picked up by Haruko. Pets returns to the ruined community center, where she runs into the first machine that appeared. It reactivates and transforms into the Terminal Core, swallowing up Pets in the process as it advances towards the Medical Mechanica plant. Haruko engages the Terminal Core while Kana tries to free Pets. Kanda also arrives with the army to try and slow down the Terminal Core. Kana continues to try and free Pets, but Pets reveals that she never liked Kana and doesn't know why she was friends with her in the first place, considering all her actions to help others being selfish to soothe her own ego. Kana is shocked by these words, but her desire to save Pets regardless triggers her N.O. channel, sucking up the Terminal Core before falling to the ground. Unconscious, Kana has a dream that she's reunited with her friends and Pets decided not to go to Mars. In reality, Pets silently trades her and Kana's hair pins and walks off, leaving Kana behind. | |||||
| 6 | "Full Flat" Transcription: "Furufura" (Japanese: フルフラ) | Yutaka Uemura | Hideto Iwai | October 13, 2018 | |
| Haruko destroys a dark Canti-like robot as she tries to break into the Medical Mechanica plant, but another Terminal Core arrives and activates the plant. All over the world, Medical Mechanica plants begin activating and Kanda estimates that they will begin flattening the Earth in less than two days. Meanwhile, Kana remains depressed at Pets leaving her. She goes back to work at the soba shop, where she meets Kanda again. She vents her frustration at how she wants to keep things the same as they used to be. Leaving work, she runs into Hijiri and Mossan. The next day, they ditch school and head for the beach, which is the closest they can get to the island space launch base where they say their goodbyes to Pets. Haruko then arrives and picks them up, telling them that she and Kanda have come up with a plan to stop Medical Mechanica as the plants begin to start moving. Kanda tells Kana that only her N.O. channel can stop the plants, and that she must accept that things change. An army of dark Cantis arrive and attack, forcing Haruko, Kanda, Hijiri, and Mossan to fight them off. Kana loudly declares that she loves everybody and admits that she knew things would change but stayed in denial, and that she had a deep seated fear of what others thought of her, which was why she always acted so selfishly to try to appeal to them. She also voices her desire to apologize to Pets and loudly declares her love for her. This triggers a massive N.O. reaction that sucks away the Terminal Core and Medical Mechanica plant and pulls Mars adjacent to Earth. Haruko ends up being sucked into the portal as well and ends up on Mars. Afterwards, life returns to normal, with Kana continuing to live on with Hijiri and Mossan while wearing Pets' hairpin. | |||||
Notes and references
Notes
References
- "List of FLCL episode titles" (in Japanese). Gainax. Archived from the original on 2015-05-06. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "FLCL - Full Episodes and Clips streaming online". Hulu. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
- FLCL: Groundworks (in Japanese). − An official artbook.
Footnotes
- "FLCL". Work List. Production I.G. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- "FLCL". Starchild. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- "FLCL". Production. Synch-Point. Archived from the original on 2005-01-01. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- "Geneon announces new soundtracks". News. Anime News Network. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- "Funimation Adds Gainax, I.G's FLCL Anime on Blu-ray/DVD (Updated)". News. Anime News Network. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
- "Watch FLCL - Watch Anime & Live Action Streaming Episodes & Video Online". Funimation. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
- "Cartoon Network Takes Prime, Total Day Crown for Kids 2-11, Kids 6-11". Time Warner (Time Warner). Retrieved August 1, 2006.
- "FLCL on Cartoon Network in August". Anime News Network. 2003-06-29. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "Fooly Cooly OST 1: Addict". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "Fooly Cooly OST 2: King of Pirates". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "FLCL (Fooly Cooly) OST 3". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "FLCL - Goods" (in Japanese). Gainax. Archived from the original on 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "フリクリ DVD-BOX" (in Japanese). Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "FLCL Ultimate Edition Details". Anime News Network. 2006-09-05. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "FLCL - Ultimate Edition DVD Collection". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- "North American Anime, Manga Releases for February 2011". Anime News Network. 2011-01-15. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
- "Toonami to Co-Produce 2 New FLCL Seasons". Anime News Network. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- "ANIME EXPO 2017: FLCL 2 AND 3 FIRST DETAILS, RELEASE WINDOW ANNOUNCED". IGN. July 2, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- "Director's comment" FLCL: Groundworks, pg.19
External links
- Official Gainax website (in Japanese)
- Official Adult Swim website
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