I grew up with a certain amount of respect for cartoons.  Never were they dismissible pieces of trash, they were useful additions to the world of media just like television, film and music.  My father could reenact every 15 minute segment of Loony Tunes and my mother could explain the subtext behind every little music queue.  Because of this upbringing, I maintained a watchful eye throughout the remainder of my childhood, ever watchful for more animated bliss.  Batman: the Animated Series was a staple, Swat Kats was pretty much the coolest Hanna-Barbera cartoon ever, and Ren and Stimpy was disgusting brilliance in a bottle.  Everything changed one Saturday afternoon when, for whatever reason, the Sci-Fi channel was actually showing a copy of Otomo’s 1988 classic, Akira.  I was young, 8 or 9, and I was absolutely enthralled… and terrified.  I somehow, without the use of the internet, figured out what it was and secretly coveted this secret of “Japanimation” that I had discovered.  My love remained hidden until the big anime resurgence in the early 2000’s and a couple of my friends roped me into Dragonball Z and I remembered that I had seen something much like this in my past, but much cooler, and far more graphic.  Thus began my nerdy anime phase.  For a while in middle and high school all my friends did was watch Japanese animation, play Japanese video games, read Japanese comic books and watch Japanese video games.  Many hours and hundreds of dollars were lost during these years, but much was also gained.  I discovered some of the greats: Miyazaki, Kon, and Anno, but nothing has ever impacted my life as much as the short six episode run of Tsurumaki’s FLCL.

                It’s not that it was cancelled or anything, there are ONLY six episodes of FLCL.  The first question everybody asks is, “what does FLCL stand for/ mean?”  The only help I can give you is, “exactly”.  This show is incredibly random, brilliantly written, and more or less the greatest anime of all time.  The show stars 12-year-old Naota, whose older baseball playing brother has moved to America and left him alone with his father and grandpa.  Naota’s life is boring, as he states it, “nothing amazing happens here”.  All he does is go to school, do his homework, and tolerate the strange affectionate advances of his brother’s ex-girlfriend.  One day, seemingly without reason, a strange pink-haired girl called Haruko riding a Vespa smacks Naota in the head with her bright blue guitar.  A large unsightly and irregular bump appears on Naota’s forehead… and eventually a robot comes out.  This provides FLCL’s “monster of the week”; a robot of sorts pops out of Naota’s head every episode and must be dealt with. 

                Sure, the show has some great action set-pieces and the hilarious dialogue is certainly key, but the greatness of FLCL comes from its amazing storytelling.  This is basically the same-old same-old coming-of-age story we’ve all seen at least a thousand times.  Except this time, robots are coming out of the protagonist’s head.  This changes everything.  Naota is 12, quite possibly the most awkward time in a boy’s life.  No longer a child, yet not quite a man.  He has no idea what to do or how to feel, and all of a sudden there are these two strange women in his life… AND ROBOTS.  One of the greatest moments of the show happens in episode 4, my favorite, and features a giant satellite with a bomb in it falling towards Naota’s small town.  Earlier in the episode, Naota participated in a baseball game in which he never once actually swung his bat.  The entire episode centers around Naota and how he has never been a doer; he always goes with the flow and never really asserts himself.  Haruko says he could “really be something” if only he could swing the bat.  Finally at the climax of the episode with a newly obtained guitar at hand and a speeding projectile heading his way, Naota must decide whether or not to swing the bat.

                Now, of course, this has NOTHING to do with the imminent doom of the town, it has EVERYTHING to do with the act of growing up and maturing.  Can Naota finally stand up for himself and stop living in his brother’s shadow?  Can he be his own man? The entire series is full of similar quandaries throughout its 150 minute runtime.  Today is February 22, 2011 and this amazing series has finally come out in a near-perfect and much more affordable edition on blu ray.  I just finished watching it and had to write about it.  Like I said, this is pretty much the greatest anime every committed to film (video?) and must not be missed by anyone: otaku, casual anime watcher, and anime hater alike.  Go buy this now. 97