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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Analysis of anime: FLCL



To properly analyze FLCL, we must first consider the theme of the series: coming-of-age. This is demonstrated through Naota’s pursuit of maturity, the idiocracy of adults, and Naota’s personal development throughout each episode.

Naota is going through puberty. His life is rapidly changing and he is experiencing all kinds of new and confusing emotions.

There are many different parallels between FLCL and society. The foremost is the innuendo of a young male’s sexual awakening. People are quick to defend the series — “Naota is only 12 though! Why would they make a whole series about sex?” The truth is, many people find FLCL curiously amusing and engulf themselves in the crazy series with out considering the obvious sexual tension and metaphors.


The creation itself is an amazing work of art that draws techniques from classic American literature and modernist ideas. To fully understand the depth you must be familiar with literary techniques and purposes. The characters, social interactions, and plot elements are all metaphors overlapping each other to cross-hatch the bigger picture that is, coming of age. The finer pieces are up for interpretation. FLCL creates analogies on a variety of social fronts. The series uses sexually ambiguous imagery similar to create humorous themes as Ren & Stimpy did in America during the early 90′s (FLCL draws reference to a variety of television shows).

Animation
The animation style drastically changes throughout the series. In the first episode, precise detail and traditional Japanese animation style is used. By the sixth episode the show is using relaxed slapstick artwork typical of Children’s cartoons. This change is often excused as a test of Gainax‘s new development studio. While this is partly true, the style was also an intentional mood set by the director. It exemplifies Naota’s exploration of sexuality and what it means to bee an adult.

Dialogue
You were probably confused when you watched FLCL for the first time. The dialogue is very confusing and seemingly random. This is because the story was written promiscuously, fixed around implications about sex. I challenge you to try listening to a few minutes of the show with your eyes closed. It can actually help to paint a picture of what is being discussed.

Haruko
Haruko enters the story when she hits Naota on her Vespa, traveling at 400 MPH. The context of this scene is more than ironic; Mamimi starts kissing Naota under the bridge, they cross the bridge on their walk home, Naota is hit by the alien girl and the insanity of FLCL begins. This is even clearer in the manga; Naota is hit by Haruko while he is making out with Mamimi. Haruko‘s entrance symbolizes the the confusingness of puberty – hitting Naota out of the blue like an alien on a Vespa (foreign and unknown).

Naota’s Horns
Naota’s horns and bumps are an obvious metaphor for an erection. The horn stiffly sprouts from his forehead during intense situations; or more specifically, sexually arousing situations. Embarrassed, Naota tries to hide them with hats and bandages.

Other Theories
Sexual awakening is not the only theme in FLCL. In general, the series is about Naota’s coming of age. Other common themes include social anxiety, religion, and pop culture.

21 comments:

  1. Tbh as for me it's one of the most valuable things I've seen. Rewatched it scores of times.

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  2. it is said, that the creators of FLCL smoked some good weed before they made it.
    Awsome, yes.

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  3. In furikuri pretty good humor and animation, but is's very hard to understand about what this anime

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  4. There are awesome animation and pretty good humor, but very hard to understand about what FLCL

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  5. Liked the anime!
    Following for sure!

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  6. Great anime. Thanks for reminding me of it. I should watch this again.

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  7. I absolutely adore the 5th episode and Jun Mizuki (Naota) has got to be one of my favorite voice actors.

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  8. I love FLCL. Thanks for this analysis!

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  9. почему энглиш контент?

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  10. Have never seen it. Wanna do it but have no time at all =( Thanks for analysis

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  11. Tod, потому что международный блог.

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  12. dude I like your blog very much! supporting!

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  13. i love this anime. i tried to push my brother onto it, but he said it was too weird for him, haha.

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  14. FLCL was awesome, thanks for the synopses!

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  15. It was my first and best anime.
    Perfect animation, great scenario

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  16. I dont love anime in all, but FLCL was funny )

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  17. Havent watched it yet, in the middle of watching Code Geass (again lol) will try and get round to watching it as I have heard alot of good things about it.

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