When Production I.G. revealed that they had acquired the rights to FLCL in 2015 with the intention to produce more episodes, I didn’t care. I watched the original FLCL on Adult Swim when it first aired. This was during the Golden Age of Anime on TV. Cowboy Bebop was only on it’s 80th run. Inuyasha hadn’t been completed. Trigun was only a few months old to American fans. Serial Experiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom were playing on Tech TV. I was more susceptible to liking anime than I have ever been, so when I saw the commercial for FLCL I was very excited.
Despite this excitement, FLCL didn’t leave an impression on me. I thought it was cool that Adult Swim was experimenting with airing shorter shows, but that was the extent of my feelings. The animation was beautiful and the music was superb, but the story didn’t grab me. It was just too wacky and random for my taste. Maybe I was too young to understand what it was about.
It wasn’t until Funimation released the series on Blu-ray that I watched it a second time. My opinion had changed, but FLCL still wasn’t special to me. I didn’t NOT like FLCL; I just didn’t love it the way everyone else did.
News of the sequels left a bad taste in my mouth. FLCL may not have a special place in my heart, but I was concerned for everyone else. The 6-episode OVA was lightning in a bottle. The story started and it ended. We didn’t need more. It came off as an unapologetic cash grab, playing off the nostalgia of fans that are now in their 30s with grown-up jobs.
Cut to three years later and we have a trailer and a release date for the first new series. FLCL Progressive will air on the Toonami block on June 2, 2018 at 11:30pm EST. FLCL Alternative will air sometime in September. After watching the trailer, I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to it. I don’t expect it to change my mind on the series as a whole, but it’s clear that the people working on the sequel are doing their best to capture the spirit the original series.
