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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 03 August 2008 16:00 |
 And FLCL reaches the end of its short run, with a conclusion that won't disappoint on the action side of things but may leave you wondering just what the hell it was all about. For this series, though, that probably constitutes "mission accomplished"...
5 - Bura Bure
After catching Naota in some illcit nookie with Haruko, his dad has challenged him to a little duel over her affections - well, not so much a duel, as a no-holds-barred gunfight (with pellets, not bullets) on some wasteland outside town. The battle soon draws the attention of the military's Mr Eyebrows, Commander Amarao, though, and he's more interested in using proper heavy weaponry. Meanwhile, rumour around town is that it was Naota who saved the place from the falling satellite incident - meaning his social standing has just taken a giant leap forwards. Well, with everyone bar Mamimi, anyway, who's not liking the way her little plaything has become all grown up. Maybe saving her from the latest creature to emerge from his head will change her mind..?
6 - Furi Kura
Since Naota's last battle, the city has been blanketed in the mist thrown out by the Medical Mechanica factory - no sky, no sun, no stars can be seen, and it's causing a really oppresive atmosphere around the place. The factory - or the giant hand that's now in place beside it - seems to be waiting for something to happen. Amarao believes that it needs a Terminal Core to become active - and it just so happens that, unwittingly, Mamimi seems to have found it. Meanwhile, the true reason behind Haruko's visit is revealed: she's trying to rescue the legendary space pirate Atomsk from the clutches of Medical Mechanica - and the Terminal Core could give her the means to do that...
Episode 5 has the feel of an episode that was just done for fun, with the opening gunfight (and the Naota / Haruka scenes that precipitate it) being great fun to watch. As with pretty much everything FLCL does. it's all hugely over-the-top and frenetically paced, both of which are good things - I neither want nor expect this series to take anything too seriously, and on that level this volume certainly won't disappoint.
This being a GAINAX series, though, there was some understandable concern come the final ending: will they be able to give the series a decent ending, or while we get the usual GAINAX trash copout that fails to explain anything? That the company has become so famous for getting things so horrendously wrong is a real shame, given the standard of work they can produce when they put their minds to it - and fortunately, FLCL caught them on a good day and gets an ending that both entertains and, up to a point at least, explains. Sure, the mention of Pirate King Atomsk and the planet-levelling antics of Medical Mechanica were both thrown in at the last moment to provide some reasons for Haruka and Amarao respectively to be the way they are, but both a brought into the story fairly neatly, in ways that won't get any complaints from me. Naota's coming-of-age arc also gets a look in, with it being fairly clear who he ends up with. There's even a short "what happened next" epilogue to cover some of the aftermath to the closing battle.
Ah, the battle. It's actually a bit of a let-down in some ways, if you compare it too closely to some of Naota and Canti's other outings - since the main focus of the story at that point was on the characters, the action going on around them is a little understated so as not to draw that focus away - but with the show's soundtrack blaring away throughout, it's still easy to get into the feel of it and just sit back and enjoy it all.
I've seen it I think 4 or 5 times though now, and I still love FLCL - it's almost unique in its style and appeal (and in being a GAINAX show with a proper ending), and even some 8 years after its first appearance it still looks and sounds fresh. It's also one of the few shows that deserves a place in any collection, as there's just so much going on that repeat viewing is rewarded by all the little details you keep spotting that you missed the last time around. Well worth the money.
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