Fooly Cooly (FLCL)

Length: 6 Episodes

Episode Length: approximately 25 minutes.

I decided that Fooly Cooly would be the most appropriate anime for me to start off with. The series is based mostly around a boy, Naoto Nandaba. He is a grade schooler who is very closed off and is always down. He spends most of his time out of school by himself thinking of his brother, who is playing baseball in America, or with Mamimi Samejima. It starts by introducing you to both Naoto & Mamimi while talking to each other. Mamimi is explaining how to hit a baseball in context to hitting a person with the bat. This is a good example of their relationship with each other. It shows how Mamimi tries to treat Naoto, and how he shows no caring towards anything. Shortly after, you meet another character important to the story, Haruko Haruhara. Haruhara bursts onto the scene and runs Naoto over with her scooter.

Firstly, I shall rate it on its visual effects. Now you may assume that most anime is going to be similar in rating on this scale, because most anime use the same style. However, in this case I will say that Fooly Cooly has a great style of visual effects. They have very cool looking robots, and the characters are very well drawn. Also, they avoid showing too much detail around the city, and even show exactly what is needed in the foreground. When they do manga scenes, they have good drawing style and they can show characters in extreme personality. My main complaint is Eyebrows… Those Eyebrows! Overall, I cannot complain about the drawing of this anime.

The plot line may not be truly obvious to those who are watching it for the first time, for even those who have just not watched it in many years. I am the latter of the two. The plot line does get explained near the end of the series, however, it id not too apparent for the first half. They left you thinking a lot on concepts and what it was based on. They even had an ending which could lead to a sequel, which, I am happy to say, was not created. They kept along the same story line for the entire series and didn’t have off shoots. While I have heard many arguments that the second episode is nothing but filler, it ties the story line nice together. If you think the first episode as pure introduction, and the second as a bridge to the series, then it fits in nicely. Overall, Fooly Cooly has a very good plotline.

The voices of these characters are nearly perfect. The Sound effects are also great. The only character that didn’t have a voice that fit with the character is the main character. While when they have a situation where emotions flow the voicing is perfect. However, when the main character is talking because he is bored or depressed, he sounds like a teenager. The sounds of things crashing together and explosions are perfect. This anime has a full range of sounds and nearly all fit the situation nicely.

Follow through is based on if the anime follows its main genre type throughout. Since Fooly Cooly is mostly robot action Scifi, it is pretty simple to say that it does follow its main genre. However, Fooly Cooly is part Insanity, and you need to know if it follows its partial genre. I don’t think I need to explain this thoroughly, but just simply say that OMG WTF?!?!

This anime is full of fun, hilarity, stupidity, “WTF?!” moments, action, and as most great anime have: perverted moments. After watching this anime I have to say that it is mostly likely to be in the top 10 anime for anyone I know. While this anime is amazing, I must say it is not an anime that you should watch over and over again. It should be watched every once in a while.

Fooly Cooly gets an A.