FLCL Progressive vs Alternative, are they any good? This is my first video of this series, check out my latest video going over Chainsaw Man! Like Comment Subscribe and Ring That Bell Button :)
Considering the original series was a metaphor for growing up I feel like the sequel should have been a metaphor for not losing yourself as an adult not letting the pressures of everyday life keep you down it could have Revisited the main character from the first one is a functioning adult who's losing himself in the monotony of everyday life
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 I watch whatever I feel like at random, not really paying attention to the season unless it's for a manga I really like. But I'll give it go if it's just one episode at the moment.
I think I could put into better words what he was trying to say. It's like someone saw Picasso's paintings, really liked them and then thought "I can do that, I can do better than that". In the process of them trying so hard to make something that it's not it ended up being worse than if they would have just made something original that was inspired by what they were trying to mimic. If you're nostalgic over these I totally get it. I was 11 back in 2003 watching season 1 but to say this is objectively good because it "copied the original" or in your words "It's like what an 8 year-old would draw because they think it looks cool That's precisely why it works". is just wrong.
This video is my thoughts exactly. i think that the original is the best but alternative is not that far behind. i would honestly just skip progressive all together and just watch alternative. alternative was better than progressive because progressive just felt like it was forcing itself and all the characters were simply just there compared to alternative which dedicated every episode to a character. i felt like the writing and the character designs were better in alternative as well and as you said was more fooly cooly-like. great video!
I love FLCL and wanted to give Progressive and Alternative a chance. I definitely liked Alt better, but honestly can't see myself going back to watch either show like I do with FLCl. It was worth watching them at least once.
I agree. They obviously wanted to try something new but I just don't think it hit the mark they were looking for. I haven't had any inkling to go back and watch the new stuff but the OG is still in my yearly rotation.
Wow, stellar videoessay. I was really surprised of your word choice with the "monster of the week-format" because to me, every robot that appeared in the original FLCL had its symbolic relevance, especially in the way they were handled. "Monster of the week" sorta implies that the showrunners just use whatever, which, while reasonably fair in other regards, doesn't apply here
When you hear the story of FLCL's production and the general theme of the anime, you'd realize that a sequel could never work. Every episode in the original anime represented something for a person's adolescence. Different kind of loves a kid can go into with the different characters in the series. An unhealthy love with his brother's ex-girlfriend. An innocent love that could never work out with an older woman. An ambiguous love with a person of the same age. Everything is spontaneous, everything is fleeting, much like real adolescence. Haruko herself is naively chasing her own love as well. Whether or not she finds it should also be left as ambiguous. Even the use of an unheard of indie band is an adolescent choice. A sequel is just an insult to the original. I love The Pillows, but they've become well known after FLCL as well.
OG FLCL is always gonna be my favorite, the other 2 are alright, but what I like about the new ones is that they at least showed Haruko be a little bit more responsible yet still having that fun side of her, and she is still one of my favorite f-male characters of all time
I agree with you that alternative was more enjoyable than progressive. And I kinda think that’s the point of making progressive. Gainax being the production house of the original flcl undoubtedly gave the team making it a good close look at the horror of the evangelion fandom bullying Hideki Anno into making sequels he genuinely didn’t want to make. They know that hard fans of gainax works and of things in general can be pedantic as hell about lack of brand loyalty. As you yourself said, alternative doesn’t feel that much like the original flcl, while progressive feels like a pale imitation of it, replicating references to the original piece seemingly just for the sake of brand continuity. All of the flcl’s have been themed around coming of age, and all of them experimented with unusual styles of animation. While naoto was handling his brother leaving to America through posturing as an adult, and with bad models to do so did some dumb horny shit, as most teens do, Hidomi was mostly depressed, and when she tried to pose as classic hyper flcl style, it was blatant that this posing is inauthentic. She too was surrounded by ridiculous people and tried to adapt some shitty coping mechanisms to handle her loss of role model, trying to escape from her loss. But Kana and the gang don’t take any disfunctional escapes from their future separation, they start with both Naoto’s and Hidomi’s final conclusion-the good things end, denying this uncomfortable fact is denying a part of them and trying to see them as what they are not, growing up is realizing good things end and that doesn’t make them any less good.
Wow the difference in the art and animation is really stark. I just started watching Progressive and I'm really disappointed with how flat and uninteresting it looks compared to FLCL original, but this gives me hope for Alternative!
Progressive was so “meh” and forgettable to me and I couldn’t really explain why. This video sums it up perfectly. Alternative on the other hand, I actually really enjoyed. Also the music for all 3 seasons is top tier lol The Pillows are undefeated.
Nice to see Alternative getting the love it deserves, even if it’s in fringe youtubers. I feel like Alternative is vastly underrated as a sequel and series in general. Also to give Prog some credit, episode 5 has that FLCL soul the whole way imo.
Alternative was SO CLOSE to being good for me but for me the ending completely drops the ball, like I get it, "Gainax LOL" but the original doesn't feel like that at all and I'm really upset we don't see any other characters from the original especially when the ads and previews baited that super hard, even the written text explaining the premise
8:51 this could be a stretch, but i wonder if they went for the generic un-interesting color palette to symbolize what our main character feels. To a person who wants to be left alone, everything around them seems boring and not that interesting. Though thats just my take on it. edit: once the more wacky character design/movement comes into play, it might be to symbolize how shes getting more into that childish zone, having more fun and everything around her seems more interesting. what we see is what she sees sort of vibe once again, its probably a stretch
Damn it man you made one video and disappeared, hope ur ok. Hope you also know how much I enjoyed this and im really greatful. I watched the orignal FLCL in 2019 and I searched and searched to see if there was another season and finnaly found it. Much like your response i felt the same, I just felt like it was dull and imma stop talking so much but man thank you so much for just this video and i hope u make more😁
I really agree with your takes!! I honestly really enjoyed Alternative, and although progressive left some stuff to be desired, it still had some moments that made it definitely worth my time.
I just can't agree. Maybe it's because I've just seen all of them three once, because I'm not much of a rewatch type, but for what I can remember, I just connected with Pro much more than with Alt. And I can't tell you why. Just hearing the synth notes of Thank you, my Twilight, and listening to "My body is rotting here, but maybe it is the way it should be" was just too impactful for me. I remember connecting much more with Hidomi and her feeling of just roll with the punches, not caring for much at all and, in those episodes, trying to be someone that doesn't fit her. I remember alt trying to tell me something, but not reaching at all and feeling akward. And I can't explain why. That's the magic of this series, I think. Everybody just reads something different watching this. But now I want to rewatch all three of them. Maybe something in the original passed through when I was 15. Maybe I don't feel as much as Hidomi as I felt when I was 18. Maybe now at 22 I can relate more with the gang than I did before. Videos that makes you reflect about your own thoughts are just the best. Great job!
I just couldn't get past a single episode of the new version(s). It just didn't have what the original had in any way. It's hard to describe why FLCL works so well, The chaos and confusing events mentally puts you into the perspective of a middle schooler meaning the world does not make sense while you try to act more mature than you are and roll with it. Its such a good representation of possibly the most turbulent, hormonal, and moody time in ones life.
I really think that the writers originally only wanted alternative or something like it, but made progressive as a way to express their concerns with that they may noy be able to live up to the original's reputation, and instead used it as a introduction for the new team to get into the swing of things. Alternative technically aired before Progressive, even if it was only one episode, which makes me believe Progressive was an after thought after they originally announced their plans for a sequel
You convince me to give Alternative second shot. I liked the themes in it and it felt like FLCL but I found some of the characters more annoying than in Progressive. Maybe a second viewing might change that for me.
i was a huge fan of flcl so the sequels were a bit of a letdown but we did get the concert tour in the u.s. because of it so i'm glad for that because those concerts kicked ass
So I just looked it up this is what was said in tweets by the staff. Fooly Cooly alternative was intended to be a stealth prequel, and created a set up for an unused concept from the original FLCL where the small town of Mabase was actually on a colonized Mars the entire time.
@@obiwonjacobi well what we know about Shoegaze is that it takes place 10 years after Alternative, and since Haruko hasn't been shown in the footage at San Diego Comic Con it makes sense she got stuck in the wormhole and shot to Mars, she'd probably still be in Mabase. We also know Shoegaze will be on the same world as Alternative (the smoothed out earth) As far as Grunge goes we know it's a prequel from the first episode that released on the 9th we just don't know how its going to set up the original flcl. I believe that the rock creatures will end up leaving bc they aren't in the original, but thats my guess
Am I the only one who watched the original in 2003 and the sequels were actually pretty good. Like yeah it's not the first 6 episodes value but they were still good and to me at least better then most anime coming out now a days. Pillows still show up. Original writing and again great artwork.
I dont remember the show but the ending video I remember so much. After watching the first episode a few weeks ago I was surprised I didn't know this was that show
Recently watched FLCL and once I finished it I was so excited to see there were sequels and spin offs. I was so upset that progressive was so wonky. I haven't watched Alternate but I'm excited tho I'm still grieving the original
I am a younger watcher if the FLCL series (17) and I remember liking progressive more than the original when I was younger because I didnt understand the original and progressive was epic
As far as my first time watching through, I enjoyed Progressive more simply because I wasn't prepared for slice of life in FLCL, but I did really like the return to stop motion animation during the ending song that Alternative used, which is one of my favorite parts from the original series.
that’s part of the artistic appeal of FLCL tho. there are plenty of frames and scenes where the backgrounds are left completely blank and things are animated strangely and rough on purpose.
Was that CGI really that bad? It looked smooth to me, and surprisingly not out of place for that scene. Regardless, I haven't seen either yet and am still looking forward to watching them at some point. It sounds like you had some good thoughts on it though.
With FLCL Grunge and Shoegaze coming out, I really think they should try to use some new music instead of playing The Pillows for the 10,000th time. Especially with Shoegaze, there's a BUNCH of awesome shoegaze music they can use from a band like My Dead Girlfriend.
спасибо мужик, до твоего видео я бегом просмотрел Progressive и Alternative, и я жёско сгорел, но после твоего видео я готов дать второй шанс. Почти со всеми тезисами я согласен, хорошее видео, хорошая работ мужик
just finished the show and came across wondering if these other 2 seasons were worth the watch. loving the video so far i’m lowkey disappointed you done have more videos :/
I think the sequels completely miss the concept of FLCL and Haruko. The idea of Haruko being in love with Atomsk was originally Amarao projecting his jealousy onto Atomsk, the canonization of that concept in the sequels ruins the series IMO.
I thought Alternative was the worst one by quite a margin. Don't know why exactly, but I think it has to do with the fact no one seems happy in that show? Like, it's a "monster of the week" kind of anime where they focus on one character and their issues, but they don't get resolved at the end. Also, I like the continuous story that Progressive and especially Original has. Alternative just felt like six completely unrelated episodes
I just watched alternative because to be honest I just wanted to see the robot with wings. I know nothing about this anime btw, so I go to crunchyroll and and I see these two I watched the first two ep of progressive and I’m like I don’t think this is the right one. I start watching alternative and I’m fucking like oh cool friendship when does robot guy come by, and I’m wrong dead wrong the robot guy I wanna see appears in the last ep and he’s a guy that gets destroy in two seconds plus the colors of what I’ve seen on the guy are way off so I’m sitting here pissed and I go to yt and turns out I missed a completely different season thing. Turns out what I needed to watch was the original and I watched this other one so I’m pissed Bc all I wanted was robot guy not some girl gonna turn into a zombie or a girl talk about friendship and I didn’t watch a yt video explaining what each one were Bc I didn’t wanna be spoiled. So thanks for reading me complain in a video that is very old and I’m still confused. I’ll come back and reply to this comment and you guys can see my reaction of this original one
@@Wolfenrahd tbh I still haven’t watched it but since it’s so old It’s not as pleasing to the eye and I only watched the first ep but the part where they go to the manga instead of animating it is kinda funny but idk not as enjoyable if it was animated
I started FLCL Progressive a bit over a year ago made it three episodes in and stopped not really feeling it at the time. I picked it back up recently and watched it all the way through feeling super mixed feelings. Alternative I thoroughly loved through and through though (even the gainax ending) and frankly while I can't say it's objectively better than the original I related to the themes and characters in this so much more personally it might be my favorite now. As far as specifics of what I thought though, your video nailed my opinions on both shows perfectly and I'm glad I found it. Ive seen so much hate for both series and particulary with Alternative it's refreshing to see praise for it
I think that in a way the look of the show is more on the safe side and not as weird or experimental as the original I think studio trigger would be an amazing option if they do anything more with flcl
personally i didn’t like alternative as a flcl sequel because it felt so held back and the parts of it which were adapted from the original didn’t really do anything for the plot and it felt more like a slice-of-life anime that was forced to become a flcl sequel. in my opinion it would have worked better if it was just an anime about a friend group battling adolescence, with some sci-fi side plot maybe. but as a flcl it felt way too shallow for its own good, heavily centering the main character when it wasn’t required and completely forgetting about her friends once they’ve had their episodes that didn’t really require any deeper thinking. plus i found it really horrible how the series treated mossan, making constant jokes about her weight, such as calling her a walrus and making her only activity eating snacks and talking about food, even when she had her own episode about her interests. alternative really wasn’t as good as it made itself to be, it didn’t make me think and it wasn’t as carefully crafted as the original flcl.
5:04 probably the point though just maybe So much of the original FLCL’s contents is just there or the way it is because the creators thought it’d be neat, or was nostalgic to them, or cool to them: it was stuffed with the things that they as kids liked or didn’t understand at the time, as well as things they found cool from when they were teens through young adults, like vintage scooters and guitars If an FLCL show isn’t about pandering to its creators’ likes and loves-not its audience’s but the people making the show-then it’s not really an FLCL show If Jinyu looks like what an 8 y/o would think of as a “cool anime girl,” and that was what the creator wanted to evoke, I’d say that seems pretty fitting
I remmber watching these series after taking the flcl plunge a year or two ago and felt progressive lacked a distinct soul that the original and alternative seems to capture
Late to the party but somehow I never heard of either of these sequel series until just the other day...having just binged both in a row, I genuinely do not understand the praise for Alternative over Progressive. To be honest, neither are as good as the original show(though I hardly think most are saying that either) but Alternative to me feels like just your below average slice of life with a brand name slapped on it in hopes that more people would watch it. It hardly has anything to do with FLCL, and what it does have seems way toned down for the kids. Progressive gets too bogged down in the details and lore and such when it would have been better focusing more on the feeling of dread, but at least it had some mild connections and subversions to its predecessor.
I did prefer Alternative to Progressive as well. I didn't really care for the remakes of older songs though, especially "The Sun That Won't Rise" because the original is my favorite Pillows song.
great review felt the same with alternative it was good but drifferent which was a good thing progressive was okay but too constrained by the original legacy of FLCL. The sequels on thier own are fine but don't really hold up if you compared them to the first series. I like to think of them as a retelling using similar visual elements from the original while still being thier own thing.
i actually loved progressive. ede and hidomi were really good characters imo. the ending was good, the soundtrack was good, and i dont think anything was 'bad' about the show. i do wish the animation was more unique and creative like the original FLCL, tho. i dont like alternative, tho.
I went from a progressive fan because they keep referencing the original with nostalgia bait but now I'm willing to watch alternative for the first time ever wish me luck
Basically when the Fooly Cooly producer made a return for the show Progressive takes place in a different time era like years later after the original flcl finished. Honestly they should make a season 4 finale to show what happened to naota cuz I really wanna know
I just think Progressive and Alternative should never have happened. FLCL was a show to enjoy, not take seriously or speculate so much about. You want to know what happened to Naota? He just grew up. Just you did, just like I did. Naota is us, and the rest of life since that crazy coming of age has been mundane. That's what the show is about. That's what life is about. Living in the moment.
I like this video, but I'd have to passively disagree with a point or two. feel free to judge, but I think Progressive is better than you think and supposed to take a more mature take on the FLCL format, and as evident when Hidomi becomes more energetic in ep. 4, she brings back that nostalgic energy that season 1 had too. I don't think Progressive is supposed to be an insult to FLCL, rather an aging of the format to fit it's theme.
Hell yah, now a days I don't think they are insults to the original series just kind of missed the mark in my opinion. I'm glad that enjoyed Progressive :)
I think alternative was more interesting overall, over the two that still doesn't mean its good sadly. But the dynamic of the friendship of alternative worked better. Wish it was less obvious with its "metaphors" though.