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EP. REVIEW: FLCL Progressive

To sum up my feelings about Progressive, I would say that it’s a real mixed bag with occasional flashes of brilliance. I think episodes 1, 4, and 5 are fairly solid episodes. The rest of the series is really all over the place and unfortunately “Our Running” isn’t just my least favorite episode, I think it’s really bad. To me this episode was just a bunch of rushed nonsense that felt like it had to tie up a bunch of stuff that was set up earlier. The other thing that bothers me is that this episode might be the least visually stunning. This is the series finale and they couldn’t have invested some time and money into making it look good? While the animation is all over the place throughout the series, there’s a lot of nice looking stuff to like in Progressive. For example, the fight between Jinyu and Haruko at the end of episode 4 is awesome and probably the best animated thing in this series besides the end credits. I just find it ironic that the last episode is probably the most important and they botched the visuals and the narrative. How frustrating.


I think the biggest problem story wise is that the main character, while somewhat likeable, isn’t that interesting. The writers set themselves up with a lot problems when a quiet character that keeps to herself is the protagonist. And what is her deal? Naota from the original series learned a lot of lessons in FLCLassic, but to boil it down he learned that he needed to “swing the bat” to get anywhere. Part of growing up is failing and you fail 100% of the time if you don’t try. What is Hidomi’s character arc? The series explores Hidomi’s fetish to violence, the idea that everything must be destroyed in order to start over, the fact that she doesn’t interact with other people and that she should probably make friends, a father who left, etc. All of these things are brought up, but not really explored. So, what’s her story? To be honest, she's a rather passive character and her best moment in the series is when she refuses to be exploited by Haruko at the end of episode 4 and puts her headphones back on.


To me Progressive’s real story is about Haruko. Jinyu wasn’t just a great new character but the idea of splitting apart Haruko’s chaotic and caring attributes into two separate entities was a great idea. If we go back to FLCL, one of my favorite things about Haruko is that her character is a lot more complex than just an insane personality. As that series progressed, even though her intentions were always pragmatic and manipulative, she did come to care about Naota and his overall well-being enough that she was willing to take him with her after her mission was completed. To explore this further in this new series was fascinating. The end of episode 4 in Progressive with the standoff between Haruko and Jinyu was very well done. That last few words between them were also really heartfelt. The battle between Haruko’s soul was interesting, but the way they resolved everything with the Jinyu story arc in this last episode left more to be desired. So there you go. FLCL Progressive was only decent at best in the end.

No i hear ya; really passionate flcl fans feel the same way you do; that just having a average sequel follow up one of the most quintessential anime experiences of all time is an insult to the flcl legacy. While i don't necessarily see it that way (well, not to the same intensity anyway; I do share those thoughts on some level), I do understand the sentiment. Like i told you before, if a creator has a passion to honor a well-regarded work, they should be given the freedom and opportunity to take that risk. I'd rather someone try to reinterpret a work that inspired them than not do it at all. Progressive at times captured some of the flcl magic, but it wasn't consistent. As of now, my hopes for a GOOD flcl follow-up are all on alternative. I'm not satisfied with getting such a non-descript, average, follow-up to one of my favorite anime of all time

To me Progressive’s real story is about Haruko. Jinyu wasn’t just a great new character but the idea of splitting apart Haruko’s chaotic and caring attributes into two separate entities was a great idea. If we go back to FLCL, one of my favorite things about Haruko is that her character is a lot more complex than just an insane personality. As that series progressed, even though her intentions were always pragmatic and manipulative, she did come to care about Naota and his overall well-being enough that she was willing to take him with her after her mission was completed. To explore this further in this new series was fascinating. The end of episode 4 in Progressive with the standoff between Haruko and Jinyu was very well done. That last few words between them were also really heartfelt. The battle between Haruko’s soul was interesting, but the way they resolved everything with the Jinyu story arc in this last episode left more to be desired. So there you go. FLCL Progressive was only decent at best in the end.

To sum up my feelings about Progressive, I would say that it’s a real mixed bag with occasional flashes of brilliance. I think episodes 1, 4, and 5 are fairly solid episodes. The rest of the series is really all over the place and unfortunately “Our Running” isn’t just my least favorite episode, I think it’s really bad. To me this episode was just a bunch of rushed nonsense that felt like it had to tie up a bunch of stuff that was set up earlier. The other thing that bothers me is that this episode might be the least visually stunning. This is the series finale and they couldn’t have invested some time and money into making it look good? While the animation is all over the place throughout the series, there’s a lot of nice looking stuff to like in Progressive. For example, the fight between Jinyu and Haruko at the end of episode 4 is awesome and probably the best animated thing in this series besides the end credits. I just find it ironic that the last episode is probably the most important and they botched the visuals and the narrative. How frustrating.


I think the biggest problem story wise is that the main character, while somewhat likeable, isn’t that interesting. The writers set themselves up with a lot problems when a quiet character that keeps to herself is the protagonist. And what is her deal? Naota from the original series learned a lot of lessons in FLCLassic, but to boil it down he learned that he needed to “swing the bat” to get anywhere. Part of growing up is failing and you fail 100% of the time if you don’t try. What is Hidomi’s character arc? The series explores Hidomi’s fetish to violence, the idea that everything must be destroyed in order to start over, the fact that she doesn’t interact with other people and that she should probably make friends, a father who left, etc. All of these things are brought up, but not really explored. So, what’s her story? To be honest, she's a rather passive character and her best moment in the series is when she refuses to be exploited by Haruko at the end of episode 4 and puts her headphones back on.


To me Progressive’s real story is about Haruko. Jinyu wasn’t just a great new character but the idea of splitting apart Haruko’s chaotic and caring attributes into two separate entities was a great idea. If we go back to FLCL, one of my favorite things about Haruko is that her character is a lot more complex than just an insane personality. As that series progressed, even though her intentions were always pragmatic and manipulative, she did come to care about Naota and his overall well-being enough that she was willing to take him with her after her mission was completed. To explore this further in this new series was fascinating. The end of episode 4 in Progressive with the standoff between Haruko and Jinyu was very well done. That last few words between them were also really heartfelt. The battle between Haruko’s soul was interesting, but the way they resolved everything with the Jinyu story arc in this last episode left more to be desired. So there you go. FLCL Progressive was only decent at best in the end.

Oh boy we finally did it. I told you they'd do it and the retcon has finally arrived. Haruko was actually in love with Atomsk the whole time. Amarao was right! Should listen to him more often.

Jinyu: I was once with someone amazing. He was big, strong, and simply amazing. With him, one could fly around space forever. But then... he suddenly disappeared. He abandoned me. Turns out in the end, I just wasn't his equal. I'm not enough for him--not by myself--and yet we still continue to look for him.

Hidomi: Miss Haruko's searching too?

Jinyu: You chase something simply because you can't catch it, want to touch it because you know you can't.

Having Atomsk just fly in for a random visit instead of being called there is pretty lame.

DreamedLint wrote:

Oh boy we finally did it. I told you they'd do it and the retcon has finally arrived. Haruko was actually in love with Atomsk the whole time. Amarao was right! Should listen to him more often.

Oh, DreamedLint. For six weeks I've been lurking this thread, mildly irritated by your constant negativity dominating the conversation, but finally I just have to respond to you. Maybe it's because this time your gripe isn't vague (e.g. Progressive doesn't have the same "feel" as the first season) or undeniably valid (the animation is a huge step backwards), but something I can absolutely refute.

There is no retcon. Though Haruko loving Atomsk isn't explicitly hammered home in FLCL (but what is?), it should take no true FLCL fan by surprise.

Remember this?

Or the director's commentary where Tsuramaki explained that Haruko's bracelet was originally part of her backstory, which they chose to omit from the OVA for the sake of brevity, a story about Atomsk being her prisoner (she's a space patrol officer, remember?) and her falling in love with him?

Or the OVA's novelization, written and illustrated by Yojo Enokido and Kazuya Tsuramaki themselves, which does include the above story?

She's in love with Atomsk. She wants to absorb his power and claim it as her own. These two ideas aren't mutually exclusive, and if we take her looking all lovey-dovey at Atomsk Canti at face value, then both sides of her personality are shown in the original work.

To quote Jinyu,

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Jinyu: I was once with someone amazing. He was big, strong, and simply amazing. With him, one could fly around space forever. But then... he suddenly disappeared. He abandoned me. Turns out in the end, I just wasn't his equal. I'm not enough for him--not by myself--and yet we still continue to look for him. Hidomi: Miss Haruko's searching too? Jinyu: You chase something simply because you can't catch it, want to touch it because you know you can't.

And that perfectly describes Haruko. Just because her greedy desire to possess him takes front and center 99% of the time doesn't mean that power is her only motivation.

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Having Atomsk just fly in for a random visit instead of being called there is pretty lame.

Did he? Or was he drawn there by all the N.O. activity happening between the amusement park and M.M.? Or did he come looking for his red 1961 Gibson bass guitar, as suggested by the old woman at the Immigration Bureau's satellite? You only assumed that he came for no reason and didn't consider either of those possibilities, did you?

And that's basically the crux of my beef with just about everyone who's been giving this show a bad rap. This isn't necessarily directed at you, but I just need to vent about the FLCL fandom at large who have been burying this show in criticism. It's one thing to say you dislike the animation, or the music, or that character development seems to take a backseat to the story, but too many of the criticisms are based on either misinformation or just a general lack of thought. If you don't like a certain plot point or you think it's confusing, don't assume the writers don't understand FLCL; give them the benefit of the doubt and see if there's something you missed before you go on MAL or IMDB and give this show a poor rating--some of us actually would like to see more FLCL after Alternative.

I'm sorry me not liking this show... irritates you? For some reason?

A fitting lesson for a pointless sequel like this one. It rewrites recurring characters, doesn't enrich an ongoing story over the two series, and fails to create a unique and interesting story of its own.

Yes, I think I even mentioned it? I called it a misdirection because Haruko making lovey dovey eyes wasn't for Atomsk's rippling pecs but for his virulent N.O.

I didn't read the novelization, so I'm only asking now, but should we really consider that canon? I honestly hate to start debating canon with FLCL because this never should have been a franchise but adult swim decided otherwise so here we are...

In another time, a better time, we could have had a nuanced discussion about what Haruko's true feelings about Atomsk were, kinda like I mentioned about how her feelings toward Naota are mixed and unclear in a neat way.

I reeeaally don't like the idea that Haruko has feelings for this giant bird. It ruins the entire subversion (OOOHH I said it!) from episode 6 where we realize how immature Amarao's perspective is and get a frightening look at Haruko's selfishness. Telling me that deep down she really just wanted Atomsk to acknowledge her?

She seems like she wants acknowledgement from him, to become his equal.

She doesn't even recognize his personhood (or... birdhood) because he's an object to her.

Like I guess now that Progressive has told us she just wanted his recognition all this time, it describes her, but is there anything from og FLCL specifically that this quote lines up with? Maybe an example from the OVA... since that's what I watched. (Though I did read the manga but that's noncannon AF)

If he was drawn by the activity between the bureau of immigration and M.M. then she had almost nothing to do with that.

She's pining for Atomsk but that takes a backseat to messing with Teenagers part 2?

Ya feel me?

You want MORE?! How much? Are we talking full on multiple seasons now? The FLCL megaseries? I mean, why not? Let's get a thousand episodes like One Piece. Throw in some movies! Why stop there? Stage plays, drama cds, video games. FLCL lunchboxes! FLCL the breakfast cereal!

”Tsurumaki might be done with his Evangelion movie in the next couple years, and then maybe I can finally convince him to come back and let him take another crack at what he worked on when he was young and come at it from the point of view of being older and wiser,” DeMarco said. “Obviously there are some people who disagree with me, but I think there’s aspects of this world to continue exploring through different lenses that would make more FLCLs worthwhile. But it all depends on the creative team and what ideas they came up with.” https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/7/17540394/flcl-progressive-alternative-episodes-characters-behind-the-scenes

I would be delighted if Progressive somehow got enough backlash to just cancel Alternative before it even airs.

DreamedLint wrote:

I'm sorry me not liking this show... irritates you? For some reason?

It'd be one thing if you disliked it, but you appear to actively loathe it to a seemingly irrational degree, making bold proclamations like:

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A fitting lesson for a pointless sequel like this one. It rewrites recurring characters, doesn't enrich an ongoing story over the two series, and fails to create a unique and interesting story of its own.

...Which all completely depends on your understanding of the story. See, we both watched the same show, but somehow I did not see recurring characters being rewritten, though I did see a sequel that enriched the ongoing story of Haruko and created a unique and interesting story of its own. I can elaborate on the latter if you'd like, but the remainder of this post mainly deals with my takeaways concerning Haruko.

And I'd accept that interpretation if it wasn't for the simple fact that Tsuramaki said they were going to implement a Haruko x Atomsk backstory, and that the bracelet was a remnant of that idea. If the bracelet is a remnant, so could Haruko's lovey dovey eyes also be a remnant of that idea.

I hate how this show has divided FLCL fans into two camps: Camp A (you) that loves how deliberately vague the original FLCL was and sees that as an integral to the FLCL experience, and Camp B (me) that enjoyed FLCL just as much, but honestly loves the lore and couldn't be happier to get more of it.

I mean, I get it. Coming up with and exchanging theories is fun.

But you have to decide whether you think getting more lore about Haruko and Atomsk is a good thing or not, as obviously any decent FLCL sequel would entail just that. Do you really want a FLCL 2 that "enriches the ongoing story over the two series", when that could involve developing established characters in ways that you didn't expect? Simply put, is there a way that they could developed Haruko's character that wouldn't have upset you, or are she the other original FLCL characters simply too sacred, too precious to be moved any way but laterally?

Well first off, it's not as though Haruko isn't being selfish here. In addition to using Hidomi, Ide, and a class full of teenagers for her own selfish gain...

Jinyu's conversation with her on the staircase inside Medical Mechanica was chilling, and quite telling of how Haruko views Atomsk (God, I keep thinking back to scenes like this and wonder how anyone could think this show was poorly written)--as something to be "possessed".

But that being said... can't you see what a near-impossible, catch-22 situation the Progressive writers are placed in if they can't make any forward movements with Haruko without slavishly adhering to the OVA? But then if they do slavishly adhere to the OVA and never do anything *new*, fans complain about that, too.

Haruko, a character defined only by 6 brief episodes of an all-too brief OVA (and an official novelization that apparently hardly anyone read).

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If he was drawn by the activity between the bureau of immigration and M.M. then she had almost nothing to do with that.

Sure she did! We see her on top of the roller coaster at the beginning of episode 5, a jumper cable and a box of tools right beside her, implying she was working on it. Either she was working with Bureau via the old man at the amusement park, or she was unbeknownst to them tinkering with their rides. Either way, the fact that she sent the whole class there means that she knew damn well they were doing N.O. harvesting experiments there, and so deliberately sent them there to cause trouble for M.M. She even looks in M.M.'s direction and says "Oh, they've started!", like she knew this battle was coming.

Yeah it's vague, but so are a dozen plot points in the original show. It's just one of those you could easily miss the first time and then pick up on a rewatch.

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She's pining for Atomsk but that takes a backseat to messing with Teenagers part 2?

Well, she's not messing with them for no reason. Her methods, and even her purpose for being there is just as vague as it was in the original, but it's at least clear that she A) still wants Atomsk and B) wants to take down M.M. But she needs N.O. and it's not enough to use her own, so she'll once again need to mess with kids' heads in order to achieve her goals.

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You want MORE?! How much? Are we talking full on multiple seasons now? The FLCL megaseries? I mean, why not? Let's get a thousand episodes like One Piece. Throw in some movies! Why stop there? Stage plays, drama cds, video games. FLCL lunchboxes! FLCL the breakfast cereal!

*Ahem*

Quote:

”Tsurumaki..."

I'd just like a fourth season, man.

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I would be delighted if Progressive somehow got enough backlash to just cancel Alternative before it even airs.

Well, no offense but unless FLCL Progressive, with its self-contained story, actually dampens your enjoyment of the original series... then I think that's a bit of a selfish attitude. Other people enjoyed the show immensely and would be only be too happy to get more Haruko, more Pillows, and to potentially see Naota, Mamimi, or Ninamori again.

The biggest problem with your review, DreamedLint, is that as you've said, you never wanted it. You're like a person who hates pizza writing your thoughts about Domino's.