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REVIEW: FLCL: Grunge - Episode 1


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cookiemanstah



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 546
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 4:10 pm Reply with quote
This genuinely makes me mad. Like why do they keep milking FLCL? It doesn't seem profitable seeing how it only makes people mad. Just leave it be.
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1586
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 4:51 pm Reply with quote
[still waiting on that episode count confirmation]

[even though it's probably most definitely going to be 6 again]
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4830
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 6:57 pm Reply with quote
Unfortunately this isn't much of a surprise. I think even calling Progressive "fine" is being incredibly charitable. I rewatched part of it when it got a rerun a couple of weeks ago, and I still have no idea what the hell the staff was thinking with most of it. (spoiler[Haruko forcing porn on middle-schoolers, the weird sadism fetish, pregnant Haruko...what the hell?]) Even at its best moments it felt like a pale imitation of the original. At least Alternative felt like its own work, with some genuinely good character interactions, though from what I remember its ending was profoundly stupid. I think by far the biggest failing of both is that they were overly concerned with the "lore" of the FLCL universe, when that was never the point in the first place.

At the end of the day you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice. The original FLCL was a seminal work, a 6-episode explosion of energy and wit and music and general insanity that still managed to tell a simple heartfelt story about a boy growing up. Instead of continuously trying and failing to go back to that same well, why not make something new?
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Glordit



Joined: 11 Sep 2020
Posts: 688
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 9:58 pm Reply with quote
FLCL sequels are still terrible? Imagine my lack of surprise.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8503
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 10:38 pm Reply with quote
They're not going to succeed in recapturing the lightning in the bottle that was the original FLCL. Right now, FLCL exists as a work program for Kari Wahlgren.

Which I guess is fine, since she's a great VA, but it's not good anime.
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BluesPro



Joined: 09 May 2023
Posts: 99
PostPosted: Thu Sep 07, 2023 11:51 pm Reply with quote
cookiemanstah wrote:
This genuinely makes me mad. Like why do they keep milking FLCL? It doesn't seem profitable seeing how it only makes people mad. Just leave it be.


The head of Adult Swim is obsessed with it, in part because it's pretty much the only iconic part of their early identity left.
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CatSword



Joined: 01 Jul 2014
Posts: 1489
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 12:09 am Reply with quote
I am begging WB to give Toonami money. They barely let them get new shows and the originals look like...well, this.
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Dop.L



Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 725
Location: London
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 5:14 am Reply with quote
Given I bounced off the first of the superfluous sequels I'm not touching this with a bargepole.
The analogy I came up with then was that imagine this band you used to really like is playing in your town, so you buy a ticket and go to see them. But then you realise the only original member is the drummer, but now he can't keep time well, and the rest are just a bunch of cheap session musicians and a singer who's the drummer's grandson and can't really sing in key. So it's all a bit sad and pathetic.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4631
Location: New York
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 6:19 am Reply with quote
While we all have certain properties that we would want to remake or make sequels to if we had the capital (Armored Trooper VOTOMS remake on Netflix!) the FLCL sequels descending into bad, nihilistic fan fiction on Jason DeMarco’s insistence to increasingly diminishing returns shows why that is generally a really bad idea.

It also does the original series a disservice, essentially turning Haruko from a symbol for puberty and maturity into what can only be described as someone with an incredibly unhealthy fixation on the pre-pubescent.

Look, Toonami’s not in a great place right now, forced to rely on Y7 shows Cartoon Network didn’t want to air as Crunchyroll and Netflix control roughly 90% of the marketplace (and given the considerable success of Live Action One Piece, the anime may not be on the block much longer). But this is not helping one bit.
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Glordit



Joined: 11 Sep 2020
Posts: 688
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 7:41 am Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
While we all have certain properties that we would want to remake or make sequels to if we had the capital (Armored Trooper VOTOMS remake on Netflix!) the FLCL sequels descending into bad, nihilistic fan fiction on Jason DeMarco’s insistence to increasingly diminishing returns shows why that is generally a really bad idea.

It also does the original series a disservice, essentially turning Haruko from a symbol for puberty and maturity into what can only be described as someone with an incredibly unhealthy fixation on the pre-pubescent.

Look, Toonami’s not in a great place right now, forced to rely on Y7 shows Cartoon Network didn’t want to air as Crunchyroll and Netflix control roughly 90% of the marketplace (and given the considerable success of Live Action One Piece, the anime may not be on the block much longer). But this is not helping one bit.


Adding to that almost all of their previous anime projects were met with lukewarm reception or laughed at.

C Danchi was a meme.
Pirate Princess Fina fell a third of the way through.
Shenmue was terribly boring and constantly stayed in the games shadow.
FLCL Alternative/Progressive where mediocre and back then didn't capture the magic of the original.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus CG could not save its lack of an interesting plot.

I am hoping Uzumaki is a success but alas I cannot watch it legally due to AS not licensing it globally.
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Matros



Joined: 22 Feb 2021
Posts: 335
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 8:58 am Reply with quote
DeMarco will go down as that guy who ran a cult series into the ground.
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moozooh



Joined: 30 Sep 2022
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 9:04 am Reply with quote
Top Gun wrote:
I think even calling Progressive "fine" is being incredibly charitable.

This, many times. All of these horrible attempts to resurrect what didn't need to be all share one thing in common: they miss the point of the original work and try to reconstruct it by imitating the surface appearance. But since they never know what to do with it, everything falls apart immediately.
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XaelOstigian



Joined: 25 Oct 2019
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 9:14 am Reply with quote
If people are looking for something that feels more like a true spiritual successor, the visual novel "Marco and the Galaxy Dragon" comes pretty close.
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Stelman257



Joined: 26 Jul 2013
Posts: 315
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 11:02 am Reply with quote
Glordit wrote:
Shenmue was terribly boring and constantly stayed in the games shadow.

I don't know about that one, I thought they did really well with the episodes they had! I didn't think it did the source material an injustice that's for sure, and it could only have done it more justice if it HAD been more "boring" or slow paced. Which could've been fine if it was longer, but for the episode count they had, they made it all count.
The biggest problems with the adaptation come from the general issues with the source material itself, in that it's very old and will likely never be completed.

I don't think all their efforts have been for naught, even if this fixation on FLCL is a bit misguided.
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fathomlessblue



Joined: 28 Mar 2012
Posts: 391
Location: Manchester, UK
PostPosted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 11:20 am Reply with quote
I still maintain that Alternative worked pretty well as an earnest coming-of-age story. It just didn't work as a FLCL sequel. Haruko I could deal with, but the endless, nonsensical lore dumps really bogged down a story that would have been hugely improved by having zero association with the franchise.

As for Grunge... lol.
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