This Week in Anime
Is GQuuuuuuX Gundam's FLCL?
by Christopher Farris & Coop Bicknell,
With the announcement of GQuuuuuuX and its creative team, Coop and Chris take a look at FLCL and ponder what the two series might have in common.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
FLCL Progressive and Alternative, SSSS.Dynazenon, and DAN DA DAN are streaming on Crunchyroll, while FLCL and FLCL: Shoegaze are available on Max. Diebuster the Movie is available on Tubi. You can also watch DAN DA DAN on Netflix.
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Chris
You know, Coop, I was thinking things might quiet down, topic-wise, as we settled into the holiday season. I mean, hey, Lynzee just had Lucas and Steve dust off that old Lord of the Rings cartoon to watch. But no, Sunrise just had to go and let us all know it is, once again, Gundam o'clock!
Or should I say, Gundam o'QuuuuuuX?
You know, Coop, I was thinking things might quiet down, topic-wise, as we settled into the holiday season. I mean, hey, Lynzee just had Lucas and Steve dust off that old Lord of the Rings cartoon to watch. But no, Sunrise just had to go and let us all know it is, once again, Gundam o'clock!
Or should I say, Gundam o'QuuuuuuX?
Coop
I've never seen a clock with that many U's before, Chris! But regardless of my cluelessness when it comes to obscure programming terms (in this case, a "qux"), I can tell you what this means.
I've never seen a clock with that many U's before, Chris! But regardless of my cluelessness when it comes to obscure programming terms (in this case, a "qux"), I can tell you what this means.
Aw yeah. If ever our readership doubted our ability to pull a full column out of a single PV, we can absolutely do it with a franchise as wide-reaching as Gundam and a director behind some of my favorite stuff ever!
Failing that, I'll just make up the character count by sneaking some extra u's into "GQuuuuuuX" every time I type it. She'll never notice.
Editor's Note: Am I a joke to you?
Failing that, I'll just make up the character count by sneaking some extra u's into "GQuuuuuuX" every time I type it. She'll never notice.
Editor's Note: Am I a joke to you?
Now, that's a good idea you've got there.
It's really exciting to see Khara's next step after putting Evangelion to bed for a little while at least. But what really got me was my reaction to Kazuya Tsurumaki's role as the series director. I was especially taken with your initial impression that GQuuuuuuuX could be a spiritual successor to Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster, just as the latter had been for FLCL. It's not hard to connect those wires when you consider that Tsurumaki directed both OVAs.
Right, while so many people were heralding that this could already be the second coming of G-Witch, I was out here predicting that we could have a FLCL 3 on our hands!
I mean, they all center on robots and feisty redheads; there's room for crossover.
I mean, they all center on robots and feisty redheads; there's room for crossover.
I won't say no to another helping of "Suletta Forgetta," but I think the FLCL comparisons are rather poignant. Even if we've only seen a minute of actual GQuuuuuuuuX footage, we can both agree that there's always been this desire (at least among a good handful of Western fans) for a series that will scratch that itch. Unfortunately, FLCL's own follow-ups haven't drilled as deeply at that essence as some viewers would've liked.
But maybe it would behoove us to explain that itch we've been trying to find the right scratcher for. How would you describe it for yourself, Chris?
But maybe it would behoove us to explain that itch we've been trying to find the right scratcher for. How would you describe it for yourself, Chris?
Right, I can't just say the phrase "FLCL 3" and expect readers to know the particularly personal point I'm talking about. So one big reason Tsurumaki's name being attached to Gundam GQuuuuuuX attracted so much attention, especially in Western anime fan-spheres, is that he was the director behind the 2000 Gainax/Production I.G OVA FLCL, which had a profound effect on the budding weebs of the era. And there's a very measured, calculable reason for that:
It's because it fucking owns.
It's because it fucking owns.
Hell yeah, it does.
As one of those budding weebs, I vividly remember my first encounter with the series. Back when I was in middle school (2005-ish), I was up late one Saturday night and saw this when I changed the channel to Cartoon Network.
If you know that scene, you can see why my "I'm watching something I shouldn't be" alarm went off immediately.
To be fair, they aired it on something called Adult Swim. You knew if you were supposed to be in the pool or not.
Not me already DVRing episodes of s-CRY-ed and Fullmetal Alchemist at that time...
But I eventually caught the whole thing on one of Adult Swim's many marathons of it, and the series was all I could think about for weeks. Like Naota himself, it was like I had stepped into something extraordinary despite living somewhere where nothing amazing ever happens. Thinking back to it, that time might be a good microcosmic example of that budding weebness you mentioned.
Getting FLCL, an extremely anime anime on English-language TV when you're a teen getting really into anime would pretty well prime anybody for further-reaching weebdom. Not to say that the series wasn't a success that propelled several successors and attached careers (as we'll no doubt mention), but it definitely hit in the west at the prime time for Tsurumaki's only just-barely unified vision of all the show's creatives to be something people got really, really attached to.
That is, there's a reason that the "official" ""sequels"" to FLCL have all since been at the behest of the aforementioned Adult Swim over here.
That is, there's a reason that the "official" ""sequels"" to FLCL have all since been at the behest of the aforementioned Adult Swim over here.
I think that attachment led us to those sequels in some ways. For a while after I first saw the series, I was looking through message boards for anything I could find about a "FLCL 2." I doubt I was alone in that. It took some time for me to realize that there's a beauty in things that just end. Sometimes, life just goes on, and the audience doesn't necessarily need to see that, even if they want to.
It's easy to let yourself slip into simply wanting "more" of something you loved, and that would seem to go for the cable television network that aired the English-dubbed version of FLCL. I don't know how hard I want to litigate the quality of the Adult Swim FLCL sequels. I reviewed Progressive and Alternative when they aired back in the day, started out enjoying them but growing increasingly weary.
It doesn't help that we can still compare their style and substance side-by-side with the original. I.G may still technically be producing the animation, and Tsurumaki himself is credited with supervising it, but artists like Hiroyuki Imaishi or writer Yoji Enokido are long since gone.
Yeah, it's tough. Especially without the original series staffers around. I'm warmer on Alternative and Shoegaze largely because it's trying to grow alongside its audience. By the end of the original, Naota's made peace with the fact that he's just a kid despite all the adult expectations foisted upon him. He wants to enjoy it a little before he actually can't. Alternative's Kana wants her fun days as a high school kid to keep going on and on, unchanging. But eventually, that blows up in her face, and she learns the hard reality of when it's finally time to grow up a little. And when we get to Shoegaze, Kana's trying to discover a new balance in her life because, well, the adult world wanted her to grow up too fast. Classic millennial problems, man. At that point, she's just trying to keep other kids from falling into the same pitfalls that she did.
Meanwhile, Progressive screams "FLCL!" at the audience without fully letting it be its own thing. I've often described it as a The Force Awakens situation. Especially because FLCL has never been about the lore.
Meanwhile, Progressive screams "FLCL!" at the audience without fully letting it be its own thing. I've often described it as a The Force Awakens situation. Especially because FLCL has never been about the lore.
Exactly. The original FLCL, despite its pointedly nonsensical sci-fi background noise, was at its best when it was a sequence of unhinged animated sketches that so accurately captured the feeling of being at your teenage turning point. The important part was the ideas and how they were illustrated. That's why the best possibility for a follow-up to FLCL would be seeing a bunch of that same batch of creatives cut loose on some other new project, disconnected from the original narrative.
The plot twist then is that we did get just that, but it itself as a sequel to an even older, arguably even more storied legend of the medium!
The plot twist then is that we did get just that, but it itself as a sequel to an even older, arguably even more storied legend of the medium!
Oh baby, I love me some of that Groovin' Magic.
Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster is how you grow with your audience. While there are a few major bones thrown to lovers of Gunbuster (another show that I have vividly fond memories of), Diebuster is all about being a little older and coming right up against those adult expectations. But it isn't afraid to show what happens when someone becomes obsessed with delaying the next phase in life for as long as possible.
Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster is how you grow with your audience. While there are a few major bones thrown to lovers of Gunbuster (another show that I have vividly fond memories of), Diebuster is all about being a little older and coming right up against those adult expectations. But it isn't afraid to show what happens when someone becomes obsessed with delaying the next phase in life for as long as possible.
It's very much playing off of similar ideas of adolescence, both literal and allegorical, as FLCL was. And not for nothing, but Tsurumaki and crew shamelessly crib several visual elements from FLCL itself, like robot-sealing head stickers and cats used as communication devices.
I enjoy that kind of referencing here because it helps codify the show's place in the oeuvres of both the Gainax of the time and Tsurukaki himself. Diebuster is both Gunbuster 2 and FLCL 2.
I enjoy that kind of referencing here because it helps codify the show's place in the oeuvres of both the Gainax of the time and Tsurukaki himself. Diebuster is both Gunbuster 2 and FLCL 2.
Same here! These elements make Diebuster feel like a culmination of Gainax and Tsurumaki's work rather than just a simple continuation.
It's much stronger at remixing established iconography for its own purposes than Alternative's attempt.
I gotta say, going back to FLCL Alternative directly alongside Diebuster like this, it's kind of astonishing to see Alternative attempting the same applications of space travel as an allegory for arrested human adolescence. To say nothing of the deployment of Mars colonization as a plot element.
Just, y'know, with a whole fourteen years between the productions.
Just, y'know, with a whole fourteen years between the productions.
You start noticing a connection or two when you see two different all-powerful redheads create their own black holes....
Again, Tsurumaki did supervise on Alternative, so he was evidently chill enough with all the similarities to the real FLCL sequel he'd made a decade and a half earlier. It is funny, though.
Obviously, Tsurumaki has no problem with direct follow-ups. Over those same decades, he kept busy at Khara shouldering a whole bunch of the directorial duties of the studio's Rebuild of Evangelion films with Hideaki Anno, which themselves manage to be reboots, spiritual revisits, and arguably direct sequels to the original Evangelion.
Obviously, Tsurumaki has no problem with direct follow-ups. Over those same decades, he kept busy at Khara shouldering a whole bunch of the directorial duties of the studio's Rebuild of Evangelion films with Hideaki Anno, which themselves manage to be reboots, spiritual revisits, and arguably direct sequels to the original Evangelion.
And while Tsurumaki seemed to be recuperating after Thrice Upon a Time's release, his old colleagues over at Studio Trigger also tackled those similar themes with SSSS.Dynazenon. When you swap out Gunbuster's iconography for Gridman's, Dynazenon becomes something of a spiritual sister to Diebuster.
Man, you want to compare approaches, don't get me started on how wildly disparate the success level is between SSSS.Dynazenon's framing of budding teen romance against space-robot adventures and FLCL Progressive.
Damn, I want a churro now.
Anyway, Dynazenon excels at not just that excellent teen romance, but it hammers home what it's like growing up at any age. Whether you're a pair of high school kids, a reclusive middle schooler, a down-on-your-luck 30-something, or a hot-blooded, 5,000-year-old mummy.
Growing up is a necessarily universal human experience. It's also well-suited to being seen through the lens of toyetic robot fights and dynamically animated cartoons. It marks a real irony for those who are still trying to go home again with Official Brand FLCL™, when a series carrying its spirit is coming out in anime all over the place, both from within and without collectives that succeeded the Gainax credited with creating the original.
Speaking of series without those creators, we can't forget DAN DA DAN either. I can't think of another series that balances the beautifully mundane parts of falling in love with spurts of nigh-incomprehensible insanity so well. It kinda gets back to that earlier idea of something extraordinary happening in a town where "nothing amazing ever happens."
I see DAN DA DAN clicking with a modern anime audience here today the same way FLCL did with us back when we were teens—to say nothing of the way it's clicking with all of us crotchety old folks as well. We all deserve unhinged, horny sci-fi adventures.
All these rounds back to last week's announcement from Gundam, a franchise that's always had quite a bit to do with sci-fi teens having traumatizing tribulations growing up, and the overall excitement at Tsurumaki on GQuuuuuuuX.
I gotta say, I think it's cool that so much of the early buzz here is predicated on the creative team involved, including Tsurumaki being reunited with FLCL and Diebuster writer Yuji Enokido, beyond being hyped that they're making another Gundam series.
All these rounds back to last week's announcement from Gundam, a franchise that's always had quite a bit to do with sci-fi teens having traumatizing tribulations growing up, and the overall excitement at Tsurumaki on GQuuuuuu
I gotta say, I think it's cool that so much of the early buzz here is predicated on the creative team involved, including Tsurumaki being reunited with FLCL and Diebuster writer Yuji Enokido, beyond being hyped that they're making another Gundam series.
It's great to see mechanical designer Ikuto Yamashita making it clear that GQuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuX is Tsurumaki's baby and not the "Anno Gundam" some proclaimed it to be out of the gate.
It's neat that Anno is contributing in some form, but he's done plenty. He can rest a bit.
The guy just spent the last 20 years making peace with his demons, let him play with his favorite toys for once.
But I am curious to see how the response to The Witch from Mercury has shaped the new series. I'd imagine the production timelines had some crossover, but I wonder if that affected any decisions made up top. If Suletta did leave a mark, I'm glad to hear that our favorite tomato girl set a precedent for Gundam going forward.
As we've covered, Tsurumaki has no problem borrowing and building on what came before for his material, and now he has the whole of the Gundam franchise to play around with. For all my excited speculation about what previous projects this might resemble, I genuinely believe that the best version of GQuuuuuuX will be one that's freshly unique, instead of being entirely focused on being another FLCL or Diebuster or G-Witch.
A show with this many u's in the title should know all about being true to 'yourself.'
A show with this many u's in the title should know all about being true to 'yourself.'
On that topic, do you think she's noticed the extra u's yet?
Editor's Note: What do you think?
Editor's Note: What do you think?
Just in case, I say we get out while we're ahead before she can assign us to review something like Cool World next week. Dripped-out Haro, you distract her while we sneak out the back!
See youuuuuuuu later!
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