I never thought I’d see more Fooly Cooly, and yet, among the wave of revivals comes more. This isn’t something I’d hoped for, or even wanted. FLCL had had a special place in my life, watched repeatedly while at the cusp of manhood as if there was some deeper lesson it had to impart to me beneath the nonsense and robot fights. The revival excited me, but I had to temper it with the knowledge that it was not going to be the show I remembered it being. Healthy skepticism is a safety net.
Last night however, the first episode of the first of two new series premiered on Adult Swim, and I must say, the wait for the next few weeks is going to be hard.
FLCL: Progressive feels like an unexpected album by one of your favorite bands that broke up a decade ago, but came back together to make something new. From the art, to the narrations, to the narrative style and even the soundtrack, this is distinctly Fooly Cooly. Progressive, at least so far, lacks the frantic pacing of the original, and safely avoids the same beats and takes. Progressive is definitely not a rehash. This is a different story, in a different town, with different characters and it’s still FLCL. There’s still the Plant, there’s still gross Medical Mechancia robots coming out of people’s heads, and there’s definitely still a vespa.
This time around, the story centers around Hidomi, a middle school girl who hardly speaks and is always wearing her cat ear headphones, much to the frustration of her overly cheery mother. We are introduced to her school and her classmates, include a boy named Ide who is boasting to his excited friends how he got the bandage on his head. Eventually, in true FLCL style, Hidomi is hit by a moving vehicle, meets someone who is just too exceptionally cool, and is kidnapped by a gross robot.
I enjoyed this episode a lot. My only complaint is that I can’t binge watch the whole series at once yet. If I had to give it a rating; A
