AnimeNfo

[simon (#39337)]

 FLCL and it's road map to understanding (SPOILERS)

[JoSh (#51202)]

i really liked your analysis of it. it took me a few watchings of it, japanese aaand english of course, to finally start getting a lot out of it. i think the main theme that's trying to be conveyed is the importance of accepting your own age, instead of mainly being a love story. i love how spicy and bitter foods are used to symbolize the age you're desiring to act. for example, the class rep, she eats the spizzzicy foods and comments that it's an adult taste. well, she was forced to act like an adult, because she was forced to deal with her father's secret affair. no one her age should have to deal with that! and then she finally confronts her age in the end of episode 5 (such a good part!) when she finally wears her glasses in public, but then right at the end she says "no lenses!" and pokes her finger through them. heheee i think it's supposed to be like the first childish thing she does, wearing fake glasses. it shows she's finally going to act like a kid instead of forcing herself to deal with the crazy adults' issues surrounding her.
i also don't think the anime is supposed to be viewed as "through naota's eyes". meaning i don't think we ever see things that aren't actually there or that isn't what it actually looks like. i think it's all supposed to be accurate and as it actually happened; it's just one crazy ass town!
one more thing...about spicy/bitter/sour. miamimi always drinks the sour drinks...a.k.a. the childish ones. she acts like a child in that she doesn't accept the reality around her. she doesn't accept that naota's brother is gone for good...or that her video game is just a video game...she's like a kid in a fantasy world so she drinks the sour drinks. i think she chooses to act like a kid because it makes the harsh reality of her life easier to bare. there's some sad scenes with her
everyone post your analysises of the anime!!

[slippy (#46880)]

Simon has a good take on FLCL. His theory is considered the "Portrait of a Young Artist / Finnegan's Wake" theory (after the James Joyce novels), essentially a memoir and surreal dream poem, about a boy coming of age, who is in love with his brother's girlfriend (who really wasn't his brother's girlfriend, sort of a criminal, and very unhappy) misses his brother, and is bored out of his mind in a small town. It's also about a young, awkward otaku who loves mecha and anime and understands the world through mecha archetypes and robot-fight choreography. And so, as the artist, his imagination takes control and he figuratively speaks through all of the situations through the mecha fights and weird characters. He creates a female heroine who's essentially a female, alien version of his brother. TV becomes literally their best companion. What happens in front of you is pure abstract expressionism. While it all makes literal sense (there's one website that gives a stunning, air-tight explanation of the FLCL plot . . . did you know Haruko smacked that ball to bring down the satellite?!?), FLCL as an aesthetic strives to transcend literality for a psychosexual, subconscious, stream-of-conscious abstract expression of heady youth, in all its longing, violent silliness, and dramatic self-perception. It succeeds in capturing the essence of the "rock and roll feeling", where each absurd chord becomes an emancipatory gesture out of traditional narrative's mundane literal biography into a completely aestheticized romance of one's youth. Poetry over plot telling you what it really felt like for him, rather than what it really was.

It's not really the postmodern grabbag Abenobashi or Excel Saga are, and it only deconstructs the mecha genre to build a sufficient semantic structure for the boy. But nothing else in anime really gets to why kids loved robot anime, for nothing else takes that form and speaks almost entirely in "mecha-nese"

[Nos (#35530)]

I've been searching for a good description of what I should have gotten out of this anime after just being left really confused. From the first time I watched an episode I loved it, but I wasn't sure why. It just felt like a rock and roll blast of adrenaline straight to the brain. I hope someone else out there feels the same way.

In my mind, Josh's original description seemed FAR oversimplified. This anime seems far too cerebral in delivery for that to be the long and short of it. I think slippy's interpretation, however, used just enough big words to really capture the confusing and highly intellectual nature of the thing. It was definately poetic, but I don't think it was entirely abstract and meant to only convey an overall feeling. I get the feeling that, given enough time and brain power, one could go through it episode by episode and find meaning and suggestion to each line. For a while I operated under the idea that the whole town existed only as a metaphor. Naota was the only real person, and each of the characters was only there to represent different aspects of life in summary. I never got very far with this, but it's definately something to consider.

Anyway, all the thoughts so far are very interesting, and it's just more for me to mentally digest!

[Last Exile (#35342)]

Yeah, I like Simon's comments.

Here's some of my musings:

I personally think FLCL also focused on a few other issues.

1. Where reality/truth ends and the lie begins.

Reality is a mixture of truth and lies. Naota encounters a lot of lies in his time in FLCL.

Firstly, Mamimi is never honest about her feeligns towards him. She's simply obsessed with his brother and uses Naota as a substitue for her heurt and lust for revenge. It took Naota until ep6 to finally get that though.

Secondly, there's the issue of that girl at school. She has to live within the lies fed to the media and the ones the media circulaate about her father. She practially is living a lie. She's also looking for release and change...whcih she eventually gets after the end of ep 3, which can be noted by the fact she starts wearing glasses and acts less snide.

Third, there's Haruko. Haruko is equally a mixture of truth and lies. It takes until the end to finally understand what Haruko is really up to, but in retrospect, she was the one that was most honest/caring towards him, and that's why Naota stuck with her until she left. Even if Haruko was selfish and a liar at times,s he was the only one that didn't treat Naota like an immature brat or a plaything. In the end, Haruko was the most honest to Naota.

Fourth, Naota himself. Initially, due to immaturity and angst, Naota lies about how he feels and thinks about other people. But as the saga continues, he begins to admit what he really feels and begins to act them out. Admitting he really likes Haruko is a big step for him.

2. Change.

All the characters want change. Naota is sick of the everyday life where nothing happens. Mamimi is stuck in a self-destreuctive rut, that schoolgirl is stuck in a lie and hates herself, Haruko is after what she wants...they're all screaming for change.

Change is a part of life and happens no matter what. It's a big aprt of growing up. We have to change to mature. And though Naota isn't fully mature at the end, he's more mature and generally mroe accepting of those around him. Mamimi ends up finding inspiration, class president ends up being honest to herself. Change happened. Change made Naota's lfie more interesting. Change is essential.

As Haruko says: "If you want soemthing to happen, you have to swing the bat first"

3. Relationships.

There's a simple lot of fooling around and slight love here. COnsidering FUrki Kuri does mean sex in some way and Kuri Kuri is stroking/cuddling, no surprise. There's moments where Haruko is caught with almost everyone. Mamimi puts advances on Noata.

Most importantly is how Noata reacts. Intially, he's not interested in any of it. He's too young and imamture too, even though he has some sort of sexual desires.

Then Haruko comes. Even though she's selfish and reckless, she's exciting. By ep3, Naota is bragging about being associatged with her. By ep 6, he confesses. Another part of growing up is the whole hormaonal/desire/love/sex thing. That we desire people we can't be with, that love ain't easy, that we have crushes that might not amount to anything. All the same, there was something between Naota and Haruko, depsite the age gap. The moemnt in ep6 where Haruko hugs a sobbing Naota is pretty touching. It's one fo the few moments without chaos and where both peopel are truly honest.

Well, that's me.

[simon (#39337)]

thanks people for coming here..lol
and thanks for comments....
i may be not able to answer your all posts especially when they are all quite logical and there is nothing to add...
but thanks one more time...

ok enough of this thanking is there a word like that? anyway enough of the thankfulness...

let me tell you just why i love this anime so much...yes it's deeper then most thinks and yes it is full of symbolism (huge jointer in the middle of the city), expressionism and so on...
but i value this anime mostly by animation...BUT i'm not talking or writing about animation in it's standard meaning...
i love the sequences, i love the way the action is shown...
each frame...for their artistry...atmosphere they make...
they are like photos on a wordpress photographs exhibition
lol..
but truly moments when tv-walkman (i have forgotten his name) is standing on a old wooden building and ravens are in fly next to him or sequence when Naota is back from somwhere and he finds out that his dad is dead are JUST GREAT!

[slippy (#46880)]

If you're interested in an explanation of the FLCL plot, go here:

http://mabase.agefive.com/html/episode_guide.html

(Took me almost two days to find this site again)

[slippy (#46880)]

[Last Exile (#35342)]

That site explains the events and maybe the relationships, but the symbolism and the reality vs lies themes go deeper than that. I think this discussion was beneficial for the depeer meanings. Too many people simply think it's drug-induced mayhem.

[DorkintheCorner (#68851)]

lies and truth

[andy (#32885)]

I think FLCL is less about explanations than it is about comparisons. There are lots of themes in FLCL that the different characters embody. There's maturity vs. childishness, which both Naota and Ninamori deal with, the normal vs. the wacky, being outgoing/active vs being introverted/inactive (swinging the bat, but i think it's also similar to revealing your feelings). Aside from the last one, FLCL doesn't really ever give a clear answer, or philosophy on any of these subjects.

In maturity vs childishness, never is it expressed that "a child should be a child." Neither immaturity or maturity is portrayed in an overwhelmingly positive way. When Naota decides to be a little more mature, and be more active in his relationship with mamimi in the end of ep1, that's portrayed as progress. At the same time, in episode 6, he decides to act his age, be dependent and lead around by haruko, and that too is something like progress (i mean he's being more honest w/ himself).

Ninamori was obssessed with the play, and went on about if she kept up the lie, it would eventually become the truth. Even if she kept saying "i don't care either way," i think it's clear from the begining of the episode and when she revealed that she rigged the results that she is portrayed as very immature. She wanted her parents to see the play together which is why she wanted the star role. In essence, she was sitll very needy of attention of her parents, a sign of immaturity. At the same time, in the last episode, she says that she cried when she talked to them about their divorce, another sign of immaturity (albeit this time more honest) yet this act is portrayed as progress whereas her immaturity earlier was portrayed as a problem.

As for normal vs crazy, you can tell that naota is depressed when he mentions how nothing interesting happens in ep1. All his crap w/ Haruko would be the wacky stuff he's experienced, and in the end, he finds himself back in his bleh life, yet this time, he has plenty of normal friends, and he seems to be happy and fine. Yet he still says, nothing interesting happens. I don't think the boring and mundane is necessarily portrayed as a problem in FLCL.

Most of these issues are kind of brought up in episodes, but if you think about it, there's really no conclusion to most of them.

[Genetic (#174241)]

Okay this is what I got out of it. It's basically about ironing out your personality.