FLCL

FLCL is some important shit to me. i finished re-watching it today and found more in it than i ever have before, so now i am writing about it. most people who have heard of FLCL will know it for its craziness and chaos, with the series destroying basically any logical storytelling or consistency that it might have, instead going for pure emotional expression over anything else. every episode is an onslaught of bizarre imagery and haphazard, ridiculous plotting, with consistently more energy and excitement than most blockbusters. the show got turned into one of anime's biggest cult classics through much airing and promotion on [adult swim] and it'll often be one of the first shows that entry-level weebs find out about. while FLCL undeniably functions extremely well on the pure entertainment level it's also one of the best renderings of a coming of age experience in fiction because of its ultra chaotic haphazard nature. that chaos is an inherent part of the coming of age experience whether we like it or not.

with each new viewing the show goes from feeling like the writers were just throwing whatever they could think of at the wall to something where every aspect was carefully designed to create the reflection of that experience - a type of controlled chaos. maybe the writers were just throwing shit at the wall for all i know, but it doesn't matter because FLCL just fuckin gets it! it knows the discomfort, anxieties, excitement and melancholy of a time where your body and emotions are rapidly changing and becoming uncontrollable and you just don't understand it. while i think there's a lot of reward to be found in navigating FLCL's Confusing Horny Puberty Nightmare Labyrinth and creating interpretations of what the symbolism means, the show is so effective on the pure emotional level that there's no need to do that. it works whether you want to decipher every piece of imagery or if you don't try to interpret even the most obvious symbolism. i first watched this shit when i was 12 years old and my dumb 12 year old ass def wasn't up for making any complex interpretations, but the show still HIT, especially since i was watching it at the same age as the main character and experiencing many of his feelings.

my interpretation prob isn't gonna break any new ground but i think it's worth sharing because it might bring something new to someone who loves this show or might be helpful for someone who the show doesn't really "click" with. i don't think it's anything definitive but it's what i personally get out of the show. i think the most important thing to consider is that the show is from the perspective of naota, a shithead 12 year old who desperately wants to be mature and likes to think of himself as such. this perspective is not very reliable. i think the show's world lives somewhere within naota's headspace. i wouldn't call the entire show his fantasy - more an extremely exaggerated version of his real life combined with some fantasies, with the occasional crack of truth coming through. for example, naota projects onto his father by turning him into an absolute buffoon who is more childish than he is. naota clearly feels some kind of resentment for his father and takes pleasure over feeling more mature than others, so why not extend that to his own father? despite this resentment, naota can't always keep up this projection, which is why his father will sometimes say something that actually sounds like it came from an adult's mouth amongst all his perverted rambling and anime references. this type of projection and uncharitable fantasizing about being more mature than others is actually immature as all hell because that's what naota is: immature. he loves the idea of maturity, but he actually has a deep anxiety of the process of maturing. he wants a "skip to the end" button basically where he can be grown up without needing to actually reflect on himself in meaningful ways, because doing that is incredibly scary and difficult when you're 12 years old.

when he starts to experience the other scary and difficult part of growing up, his anxieties over puberty become part of his projection. this is where the character of haruko comes in - unlike his father i don't think haruko exists in the "real world" of the story. i think haruko is how naota has processed his newfound primal and sexual desires and changes in the body. rather than accepting these changes as a natural part of growing up, he projects them in the form of a crazy alien woman from outer space who harrasses him and forces giant robots to come out of his head. the rapid changes of his body need to be explained away as part of an intergalactic conspiracy, which both "rationalizes" these unexplained changes and gets naota to put himself on a pedestal and think of himself as being more important than he really is, as boys going through puberty quite like to do. he goes from disgust at haruko's sexual advances to attraction to them, representing his own increasing acceptance towards his desires - an acceptance that doesn't automatically grant maturity and actually leads to more chaos. the show goes into a very interesting direction in its final two episodes with this idea and i think it's better to not spoil it for anyone reading this who hasn't seen the show yet - tho i will (hopefully!) talk about those episodes in a spoiler review for people who have.

while i have spent two paragraphs trying to unpack some of the show's metaphors and symbolism which emphasizes the more serious aspects, it's also worth mentioning that a good chunk of all this is shown through slapstick comedy and dick jokes. FLCL doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest and is probably all the better for it - i like surrealist art that lets itself have some fun with its lack of limitations. it only adds to the delightful chaos and excess and doesn't take away from any of the emotional moments. i also need to stress how fuckin amazing the soundtrack for this show is - it's pretty much all some of the best alt rock tunes ever written, being key to why the show is as emotionally successful as it is despite its density and goofiness. FLCL was pretty formative to me while i was going through the feelings that it covers and it still holds a lot of emotional weight on this re-watch as i transition from teenager to adult. i do have a lot of bias clouding my view on it and i don't think it's a show everyone will enjoy, but it's def going to be a memorable experience for anyone who sees it at the very least. okay bye!!!