Stuck in Your Head

If you were to ask any fan of Gainax’s FlCl (short for Fooly Cooly or Furi Kuri in Japan) they would say such things as “mind trip,” “hilarious” and “I have no idea what’s going on, but I love it.” They’ll also tell you that the early DVD releases were one of the biggest rip-offs ever. One volume contained only two episodes and barely any extras for $35. Thankfully, Funimation has heard the cries of the fans and released all six episodes, plus loads of extras on one special edition DVD and Blu-Ray at a very reasonable cost.

The story of FlCl is about a young boy named Naota living in a made up Japanese town called Mabase. According to Naota, “nothing amazing happens here. Only the ordinary.” That is until Haruko, who claims to be an alien and is called by the locals “the Vespa Woman,” runs him over with her Vespa (and then hits him with her guitar). Now he has no brain, horns (cat ears in one episode) growing out of his head and robots jumping out of his head. On top of that, Haruko has now moved in with him and his lecherous dad as their “maid.”

Because of this, you could find the show a little hard to follow. It is not, it just requires a second viewing to fully understand everything. When you do, you’ll be treated to one hilarious wild ride, worth every penny. The best part is Haruko. Everything she says and does, not to mention her facial expressions, will leave you in stitches. She is one of the main reasons people have fallen in love with this series and is a fan favorite.

The other main reason to watch is for the awesome soundtrack by Japanese rock band The Pillows. Their style of blaring guitar rock, smooth jamming rock, and Foo Fighters-esque sound give the series its distinct style and feel. With such tracks as Blues Drive Monster, Little Busters, and the show’s ending theme, Ride on Shooting Star, will make you an instant fan.

Unlike the early DVD releases, this has everything FlCl fans wanted in terms of extras. These extras include director commentaries of each episode; outtakes by the English voice cast, textless closing, five videos with songs by The Pillows including Come Down, Little Busters, and Last Dinosaur and the official music video of Ride on Shooting Star. Those extras alone will make anyone fall in love with Funimation.

If you’re an anime fan and can look past the hard to follow story, you’ll see a show filled with great humor, great battles, great characters, and great music. Watch it and you too will say you “can’t get her out of your head.”