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Once, when I was four years old, I was head-butted by
a bull calf.
No, hear me out.
I had known the calf, Bud, since he was born, and, in
my child-like innocence, I thought of him as a friend, rather than the
beef we'd be dining on eventually. I talked to him, played with
him, and would even feed him by hand sometimes. Now, you can
believe I was surprised when I found out (though I didn't understand
for a while after) that he, apparently, saw me as a brother.
This meant he wanted to play with me... and for those of you who do
not know, bull calves play by head-butting. Practice for
adulthood. At least, that's the only explanation I have on why
Bud suddenly charged up to me, and slammed his much-denser skull
against my own. I woke up a few minutes later, laying on |
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the ground, unable to remember what had just happened,
or why it happened. All I had was a vague impression of a
charging Bud, and a very fuzzy vision of him walking away.
Never in my entire life did I think this experience
was going to prepare me for the mind-numbing, perhaps mind altering,
vision that is Kazuya Tsurumaki's FLCL, or "Foolie Coolie."
This DVD has but one thing I complain about. It
only has two episodes. I am able to overlook that, of course, by
simply focusing on the financial side; in a six episode series, that
makes three DVDs, and that makes a lot of money for all involved.
Other than that, I can think of nothing to complain about.
First, the synopsis. A young boy named Naota, just a grade
school kid, has quite the interesting life. His father owns a
bread store, and once wrote a book on the deep mysteries of Eva (AKA
Neon Genesis Evangelion). His grandfather lives with
them, and is your stereotypical Japanese old pervert, except with only
half the energy. His older brother is a professional baseball
player in America, with a girlfriend back home. A girlfriend...
Samajima Mamimi... who seems to have the hots for her boyfriend's
pre-teen brother. So it's probably no surprise to anyone that he
is meant for greater things. Until, at least, he's run over by
an insane, pink-haired woman on a Vespa motor-scooter, then hammered
in the head with her bass guitar.
Then the bruise on his head turns into a large,
square-shaped horn, and things start to get a little weird.
And then the woman, one Haruhara Haruko, starts trying
to track him down and beat him up some more... for no given reason...
and things get confusing.
And then the robots start coming out of his head and
doing battle with each other... and I'm wondering, personally, who
slipped what into my drink.
I had to watch both episodes a grand total of four
times before I began to put any sense to them. And, somewhere
along that path, I fell in love with the series. The animation
is incredibly well done, the voice acting (both Japanese and English)
sets a new standard for all Anime everywhere, and the inner themes it
discusses, hidden behind insanity, lust, greed, and just plain
weirdness, are very thought provoking. You just have to get past
the utter confusion to see it.
The first episode is pretty much the setup. How
Naota met Haruko, the discovery of Mamimi, and the explanation of his
father's world of perversions and metaphor through robot Anime,
Haruko's arrival as Naota's housekeeper, and the dark secret Naota's
older brother is keeping. Oh, and it explains the arrival of "TV
Boy," the first robot who comes out of Naota's head, and ends up
living with them all. The second episode concentrates more on
the relationship between Naota and Mamimi, as well as her own life,
and the sudden pattern of arson cases around town. That, and we
begin to learn more about TV Boy, even to the point of understanding,
possibly, some of the relationship between him and Naota.
Overall, this is one of the best Animes ever.
Just be prepared not to understand it, even after you view all six
episodes, which you can now do on DVD, and not just the fan-subs.
You bet your butt there's more to come on this series from me!
Stay tuned! |
