Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Did FLCL Progressive Live Up to its Predecessor?
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Lann
 Posts: 274 |
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No. And quite frankly spoken, this is thew worst sequel I have ever seen to anything. Ever. Period. Including all types of media. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2586 |
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Could you be more specific, preferably without spoiling it? What didn't you like about it? I have yet to watch FLCL Prog, and am wondering if I should pick it up. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1591 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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I still have my disappointments about Progressive, but after reading this, I no longer feel the same level of worry as I did when it ended last week. So yeah, great job with this article.
Three words: Eureka seveN AO. |
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Lann
Posts: 274 |
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Art, story, direction, characters (including an out of character Haruko). The pillows was under used (using the same songs too often, including the voice track in places where it shouldnt be used). Zero high jinks. You name it, the sequel doesn't deliver.
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jdnation
Posts: 2135 |
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I have mixed feelings about the show too.
One thing that I felt odd about was that despite all the zany wackiness of the original, the lore/stuff that occurred in the show still felt... more grounded??? Or more consistent in a way where things occurring in Progressive just feel too random. The colour palette of the original also knew how to set mood and tone specific to every scene while still having a consistent art direction even when it jumps styles and does so specific to the feeling it is conveying from surprise to comedy to emotional. But Progressive just feels like it's all over the place. The original FLCL felt like there was a logic to the world. Progressive just kind of does whatever the heck it wants. Sure one might argue that's exactly the conclusion Himeji comes to at the end and precisely how Haruko behaves by just doing whatever the heck they want, but it just feels odd throughout the season. The supporting cast also aren't as memorable, in fact they're downright boring and seem to only exist to move the plot along. Compare this to Naota's dad and granpa, Canti and Mamimi... heck even Naoto's never-seen older brother leaves more of a lasting impression. Having the Pillows music is great and there are some excellent moments. But it does seem as though the original FLCL already picked through the best tracks and left Progressive to settle for a few stand-outs that were left and reused. Would be nice to have gotten both vocal and instrumental versions like the original one had. Overall Progressive is missing a certain 'oomph' or 'je ne sais quoi' that the original had, but that could just be something long after the fact that it could never have lived up to and thus there was a need to differentiate itself. Which is fine... but the end product leaves much to be desired. Still, I did enjoy parts of it, that matched to certain Pillows tracks will remain with me. Having also checked out the first episode of Alternative, I think I'm liking that approach better. it so far has that 'grounded' feel I want where things are crazy, but yet crazy consistent with the original and in terms of not going too far out there. Granted in Progressive, most of the things we see are in Himeji's head, but all the amusement park stuff an the anti-Mechanica brigade and what looked like feeding off teenage emotions got a bit too out there for my liking. And by the latter, where obviously Haru is naturally also using the same thing to draw power or weapons out from individuals, the visual depiction of the theme park really didn't match up and kind of broke what made sense in the original - that the stuff popping out of people's heads was both metaphorical, as well as contained an in-world explanation (being used as a means of teleporting/transporting items across space, bizarre as that may be, I could dig it). Subsequently, so too could we go into Himeji's head and see all the junk in there. But what was the amusement park doing? Just sucking up emotions and pent up energy? It's not that I can't buy the concept, it's just that the way it was depicted and conveyed was kind of lacking... Heck, I don't even know if I know what I'm talking about... And if that's the way the show is supposed to make me feel, much like Himeji's conclusion, then mission accomplished in a subtle genius sort of way... But what I do know that I just don't like Progressive as much as I wanted to... But if you're on the fence, I think it's worth watching, if only just because the show has conversation value. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4636 Location: New York |
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It was a pointless sequel no one asked for and was just as good as you would expect given that description.
I’ve disparagingly called it FLCL fan fiction given its origins and the level of involvement Williams Street had, and I stand by that. |
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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Beatdigga nailed it in calling this "FLCL fan fiction." I knew what the original FLCL was trying to say and had a good time with it. This felt like a cryptic mess, with an occasional good scene in a flood of half-baked ideas.
However, I will still go into Alternative with an open mind. |
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Arale Kurashiki
Posts: 781 |
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"Did FLCL Progressive live up to its predecessor?" is a stupid question to ask because the answer was never going to be yes. And that's okay. Not living up to perfection doesn't make something bad. It's an impossible height to reach.
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5252 |
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I only first watched the original FLCL earlier this year so I don't have any nostalgic attachment to it and I personally enjoyed the sequel a lot. I really liked Hidomi as the MC and I thought her relationship was well done and I enjoyed Jinyu and her rivalry with Haruko. I personally liked the side characters well enough and I liked they had a crossdressing guy that didn't fit any stereotypes and wasn't treated as just a punching bag for some homophobic jokes like a lot of anime does. The original was more over the top but I felt like it started getting back the classic feeling of the original around the beach episode. My only real criticism is I still feel a bit confused about what Haruko's overall goal was and why she switched to being an antagonist. I don't think it needs to be as good as the original to be entertaining and I think it's hyperbolic to call it the worst sequel of any medium ever. There are far worse anime sequels like Psycho Pass 2, Eureka Seven AO, and Dragonball GT.
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curtisd88
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My take on it:
After watching Progressive I thought it was good but not great. I give an A for effort but frankly it just does not have the impact the original FLCL had (and Alternative probably won't either). I get that this is a modern take on FLCL but the original FLCL is just damn near flawless with everything that it does that it's hard for anything else to come after it and meet its standards. Despite this I'm still looking forward to Alternative. If I had to give Progressive a score, it'd be a 7.5/10. |
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Lactobacillus yogurti
 Posts: 859 Location: Latin America |
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Considering that it was basically commissioned by a North American company, it IS fanfiction, or more like a vanity anime project. |
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WatcherZer
Posts: 322 |
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Its worth noting that part of the reason the original FLCL was so zany and outlandish with multiple visual styles and nonsensical plot was because it was primarily a research project to develop digital animation tools for the studio rather than with an eye to an end product. Because it was such expensive R&D it was a financial bomb even despite its popular success.
They did capture some of that fluidity and varying visual styles in this sequel but it was always going to be next to impossible to truly replicate its spirit (and why those Daicon 3 and 4 convention videos still stand up today, because of the spirit and love put in to them). |
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RangerDanger
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*Looks at pretentious meter* Man, it’s off the charts right now. Perfection? That implies that it doesn’t have any flaws whatsoever and that is just plain false. Nothing is perfect and nothing will ever live up to perfection because it flat out doesn’t exist. |
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Mugen1style
Posts: 281 Location: North of the wall |
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Wow lots of disappointment seen above. I guess for me I did not really expect it to be the original FLCL so I was not really disappointed. I still have to watch the last two episodes , from what I have seen I would say that over all it is just a bit more abstract than its predecessor. For instance one of the underlying themes of the first was Nothing ever happens in this town IE boring where as in my opinion we have a bit of the opposite here like everything is happening in this town but yet still boring. My point being what is going on outside the mind is not really connected to what is going on inside the mind. Its when the two collide that life happens. Of course the sexual tension is expressed pretty much the same as the original. I was struck and happy to see the expansion of Haruko's character was a lot of fun and was something I had always yearned for after the original had finished.
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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No. But it didn't need to. It was still interesting and provided some more food for thought about similar themes and the continuing story of Haruko's pursuit of Atomsk. The original was a perfect moment in time, a pitch-perfect, high octane treatise on the pitfalls of adolescence. This is more of an addendum or postscript, a small addition or footnote that takes some of the concepts of the original and tweaks them a little. I honestly can't even see it trying to be the original too much. It's not a necessity at all, but there was enough there that I don't resent its existence, because it doesn't defame FLCL, even as it doesn't quite live up to it. |
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