Moving Passed the Past

What does fooly cooly even mean!?

FLCL (fooly cooly) is a 2000 anime from Gainax (Evangelion), who formed an eventual offshoot of Studio Trigger (Kill la Kill), which shows through clearly in this earlier work. The nonsensical, seemingly random and chaotic “it's about the vibes” style was really carved out in FLCL, where Haruko destroys the peaceful life Naota hates with Mamimi in Mabase, forming the quintessential “coming or age” or “growing up” anime. However, with that there’s also a theme of individuality and originality, expressed most in how Naota and Mamimi live in the shadow of his older brother who left, Tasuku. From baseball to their relationship, each is trying to find something in the memory of someone they loved, holding them both back from growth in various ways. In this shadow, their individuality and originality will never be expressed.

You can see this lesson applied in the real world from FLCL’s sequels, Alternative, Progressive, Gundge, and Shoegaze, which aired 18 to 23 years later to mixed results. Alternative does the most to evolve the series, followed up in Shoegaze, while the others try to follow up on the story in failed ways. They form a case study about past success; no one truly knows why anything, or anyone succeeded. Past success is a mystery which can’t be followed up, only new originality can suffice.

A video essay analyzing and explaining FLCL (Fooly Cooly) and it’s sequels (Alternative, Progressive, Gundge, Shoegaze)

0:00 Introduction
2:22 Part 1 | Shadows in FLCL
27:34 Part 2 | Shadows in Life
43:33 Part 3 | The Shadow of FLCL

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