Fooly Cooly RANT 

I watched fooly cooly for the first time when I was 12 and I saw the plot exactly like naota did. I thought it was a story about unrequited love because it was obvious that haruko was just using him but it didn’t become clear to me that it was a story about abuse until I rewatched as an adult. This made my experience with FLCL such an interesting one. I basically had naota’s immaturity unable to see the abuse and then I was able to watch it again as an adult and realize “Oh shit this is not normal.”

I'm legitimately glad you clipped this for later consumption because it was a good distillation of the story. Watching it when I was young it's obvious that the story is about adolescence and growing up but you never really think about the abuse, neglect or various other weird factors at play. Or at the very least you accept the logic of the show and just sort of shrug about it because you love the characters or identify somehow with the fucked up reflections present in your own life or the romanticization of certain forms of abuse (which all of us do to a certain extent but Japan seems to relish in).

Unironically the best understanding of FLCL on RU-vid. Every other reading of the series claims it’s about puberty, in the same way every other trigger show is. I feel like I missed this since I watched this show when I was a teenager and have been to confident in my reading of the series as what it was to see a new reading like this. I just assumed the weird abuse stuff was anime-isms you had to ignore, and not in there for a reason.

Atomsk was literally a bird to contrast everyone else’s visualization of him as a humanoid man. FLCL has so many levels to it, I lost interest in the sequels the moment they started doing the same thing as the original but with different characters and more forgettable music. Like, the script is written to sound sexual if you close your eyes. Cut off the surreal visuals of knocking a baseball satellite with a electric guitar into space.

It always bugs me when chat gets mean about stunlocks like this. I thought that’s part of what we come to the stream for, right? He goes off on tangents about things he’s passionate about and the passion is what’s interesting to begin with. I don’t really like anime very much, but I still enjoy Vaush’s anime rants because I can still learn from his perspective on media or just enjoy listening to him excitedly talk about something he enjoys. This probably isn’t a huge deal cuz it’s not like we ever stop him from stun locking, but it’s just something I’ve noticed. As someone who goes on ADHD/special interest tangents a lot but sometimes gets the “who cares” comments from friends, it just irritates me to see it happen

A good media take by Vaush? I am in awe! FLCL is really good, it is such a ride. Besides the abuse, the show captures the emotional confusion of adolescence really well. For example the over the top childlike behavior of the adults corresponds to how during adolescence you start to realize how childlike adults actually are all the time, while before you see them as something quite different.

A friend of mine says that it's "just a coming of age story" but like my brother in christ, that's the setting not the theme

The original FLCL was just a VERY Japanese Catcher in the Rye.

Damn Vaush, this really makes me reflect on some past relationships and feel like if I'd gotten the same lessons from this show I could've dodged some real obvious landmines.

My interpretation of the last scene was that by admitting that he had a crush on Haruko, Naota was able to let go of it and his other insecurities (as demonstrated by him letting go of Atomsk), which is why he doesn't go with her and lives a nice, normal life with his friends and family. So as one may imagine, this take on the ending is a bit surprising to me and maybe a bit too cynical.

FLCL changed my life when I was 9-10 years old, absolutely blew my fucking mind. I was obsessed. I'm 29 now, but it was the first real anime I got into. Never watched the sequels because, based on everyone's judgement, I could tell it wasn't necessary for me lol still really happy I never saw it. FLCL will remain my favorite until the end of time - Evangelion being in the top 3 as well. FLCL, Evangelion, Gunbuster, Akira, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, there's a million great shows, but those are some of my faves. Need to get into more new stuff, obviously.

I always saw Haruko as the personification of his adolescent hormones tbh. Some older people were still driven entirely by them while Naota's story is him growing up by learning to live with and let go of those urges.

When I first saw this show on [adult swim] I thought it was called "Moral Foley"

You are 100% right, as a woman flcl fan I never had the weird tsundere lust for her like a lot of weeb guys I knew did. I always read her as like sort of the idea of what a "manic pixie dream girl" really is. Like, she's not quirky she's abusive with a host of mental issues. But I feel like a ton of the guy friends I had when it was on TV were basically just full tilt coomer brain about it and it sucks hugely that the new stuff was clearly written by people that spent more time looking at haruko 4chan hentai than actually watching the show.

I take issue with this characterization of Naota at the end of his fight with Haruko. I agree with everything else here about his progression, but I think he pretty clearly has learned something by the time he chooses to absorb Atomsk instead of helping Haruko with the World-Flattening scheme. To me, when Naota fights Haruko but kisses her instead of killing her, he's telling her that he recognizes that she's hurting and abusing him, but he still loves her anyway. He can't help himself. He knows it's not right but he can't help but love her. Even so, that doesn't mean that he'll let her continue to manipulate and abuse him.This is Naota growing up, and in this moment he acts like more of an adult than anyone else in the show. He's recognizing the way he feels but doing the right thing despite that. And Haruko also gets a moment of growth here. Naota's maturity shows her that her manipulations have failed this time, and as her dreams of power soar away from her, Haruko does the only decent thing she ever does in the entire show: she leaves Naota alone. We never see if Haruko continues to abuse young men to get what she wants, the show leaves that ambiguous on purpose. But she's out of Naota's life and he can move forward in his journey of growing up with a greater understanding of the dangers and tragedies of the adult world. If Naota only understands any of this in retrospect, in undermines his journey as a character, and it also undermines the overarching meta-themes of Eva, FLCL, and Gurren Lagann as a trilogy, where we see the same character go through similar stories, until we actually see our main guy grow up to be a well-adjusted adult

That phantom guitar string pluck at the end of the final episode still haunts me.

Has anyone noticed that pink haired older sister that grooms and manipulates young boy is its own trope? It happened with Adventure Time. Also, the author has confirmed Chainsaw Man is inspired by FLCL. I find it curious that in all the stories I can think of where abusing a young boy is depicted as fucked up the woman always has pink hair.

I half remember watching this when I was younger on adult swim and I vividly remember not knowing what the f*** was going on the entire time. I guess I'll have to rewatch it

In retrospect this analysis makes perfect sense, even though I didn't see any of it back when I watched FLCL on adult swim every night as a middle schooler. I guess that means I was too young for it at the time, because I definitely didn't pick up on any of the abuse themes (although I do remember hating Haruko for reasons I couldn't entirely understand or articulate), but now I want to go back and rewatch it with this new perspective in mind.

I feel like Xanderhal would have benefited from this analysis of it had come last year

I love that I found your channel after your debate with the Alt History guy. I love your takes in general, but the fact that you are an FLCL fan and actually understand it is just amazing! Keep up the good work!

Thank you for defying chat and talking about this. I whole heartedly agree with your analysis.

I can't remember if I actively understood all that when coming back to the sequels, but do thinking that any positive views of Haruko as sympathetic or desirable, is a really weird take to have. Seeing her being made as a cool mascot of the series, is really missing a point.

An actually good and based Vaush media take. First.

I wondered what you thought of the new FLCL. I finished them both... it was painful outside of the opening scene where Thank You, My Twilight plays. I am probably going to watch Grunge when it drops but i am flinching...

Thank you, Zombiemantis, for doubling the size of this rant

FLCL is basically welcome to adulthood, where everyone is chaotic and selfish, and seeing it in 5 min spurts after waking up at midnight as an 8 yr old changed me.

Lmao, this explain perfectly why I was not able to understand the point when I was the same age as Naoto.

Ahh, so it's like that, huh. I understand everything now.

This is a verrrrry solid reading of the story imo

Dude, I don't know if you read old comments but ive been meaning to try to paint the scene near the end of Brittle Bullet where Naota calls his bro and says "My name is Naota! Don't ever call me Takun again!"

Well now I need to watch this show! Unlike chat, I for one appreciate Vaush’s anime rants.. because it’s done so through a western leftist lens, which is really unusual.

I really like this breakdown of the show. It's my favorite anime by far. I've never watched the sequels. They don't exist. Good show Mr. Vaoooosh. Politics is stressful and palate cleansers like this are necessary.

I had seen FLCL dozens of times on AS when I was a pre-teen. I haven't seen it since, but I'm curious about seeing it again now.

Maaaaaan, this was such a good analysis of the show! Saving it to share to my fellow weebs when FLCL comes up in convo.

I agree with most of your analysis of the show, except for a couple points. Firstly, I don't think the main point of the show is just to show a story of abuse; it's part of it, but it's much more complicated than that. Naota: I think at the end of the show, Naota DID realize that he was being used and abused, but he didn't care. His love for Haruko overpowered that. Instead of killing her, he kissed her, and told her he loved her regardless of how she has treated him. In doing so, he also discovered his own self-worth; this is why he rejects Haruko's offer to come with her (with his silence), and after Haruko leaves Naota moves on with his life and seems to grow as a person. Haruko: When Naota kisses Haruko, she is truly flustered for the first time (as seen by her reaction). Haruko treats human emotions as trivial things, running from her own emotions and telling herself that the power of Atomsk is all that matters, but I think Naota has shown her what human emotions and love truly are, and she recognizes that just for a moment, before deciding to run away from her emotions yet again and continue chasing Atomsk -- she even leaves Naota her guitar and takes his instead, showing that she had a soft spot for him and was not just using him and nothing more. Mamimi: personally, I don't think Mamimi was abused by Naota's brother. I don't remember there being evidence for that, but I could be wrong. He saved Mamimi, and she viewed him as her savior. After he left for America, she was left alone, and looked to Naota to be his 'replacement'. This is obviously a form of abuse/using him, and it is evident when Naota "swings the bat" and gets a huge ego, trying to pursue Mamimi romantically- she does not like that Naota is no longer fitting the role of what she wants, and cries for Naota's brother instead of him. In the end, Mamimi sees Naota come to terms with who he is, and this lets her do the same. After this point, she finds her own identity within her photography, breaking free from her chains of dependence on Naota's brother there's also a lot of other important characters that fit into these themes of love, abuse, self-worth, and childhood/adulthood (such as Ninamori, Naota's dad, Amarao, etc), but it's too much to type for probably no one to read.

There’s just one thing I disagree with on vaushs breakdown. Naotas brother didn’t abuse mamimi , he was only a couple years older then her. They attended elementary school at the same time and at the time of the first season mamimi is 17 (almost out of high school) and naotas brother is in college playing baseball. Mamimis abuse comes from home and bullies at school , she is “abusing” naota to replace his brother and because she views him as the only good thing left in her life , that’s why she attaches to kanti as easily as she does, because she’s looking for some kind of savior. It is also heavily implied throughout the show that naota is ACTUALLY in love with her (ep 2 being the biggest example). It doesn’t make what she is doing right but he def got that part of the shows message wrong

I'll never understand why the sequels didn't come back to Naota.

Holy SHIT! A media take that isn't TOTAL dogshit, and about an anime no less! Never thought I'd see the day.

Bro I didn't realize that anime had a plot I thought it was just edgy jokes with cool visuals

cant believe its only 12mins long when is the 1 hour extended cut coming out?

I will say Haruko is one of the better female villains in media. Her motivations are all her own and not motivated by men or romance, you'd be surprise how rare that is. Shame the sequal ruins her character.

So glad you said what I’ve been thinking in a more cogent manner.

I watched FLCL after Vaush mentioned it on stream and… I am so confused how you got any meaning out of the story besides “growing up is hard”. Also at what point is it said that Miami (whatever her name is) was abused by “Ta-kun”?

Haruko and Naota's relationship is really interesting. Despite her using him for her own ends if it wasn't for Haruko, Naoto and even Mamimi would have changed into better people.

I actually gave the anime a chance after watching this on stream and wow, I have no idea what I watched. I can't believe he compared chainsaw man to that.

There were Fooley Cooley sequels?

god I hope someday you and destiny are able to settle the beef. With his based political takes and your based media takes you guys would be unstoppable

This is legit your only good media take 😂 I love Flcl and I’m glad you had a good take

I really need to watch this show again. I love it so much and can hardly even remember it, it's been so long.

Was Mamimi abused by Naota's brother? I didn't catch that...

I didn't even know FLCL had sequels and holy shit do they sound bad.

As a note, theres little to no indication of Naota's brother Tasuke abusing mamimi. She had a crush on him that we dont actually know if he even understood was a crush. We just know he saved her life from a fire. Mamimi doesnt take his leaving well and moved that crush over to naota in ways that are deeply unhealthy for both of them. Which she realizes further into the story when he tries to reciprocate in typical idiotic teenager ways. The rest of this is fairly accurate though

i liked this a lot, good go

Madoka does something similar. Like as a teenager you think that certain characters self sacrifice is justified, but nope. Watch it as an adult and almost all of them are actively self destructing.

I really like the end of the bit here. Nicely done.

This is a GREAT rant. You need to make this a video essay I mean no one is talking about this.

I've never even seen the show and I watched the stream vod, but here I am just because I like Vaush's voice as background noise

I watched a few episodes of this when I was in high school. I just thought it was a free wheeling comedy. I just remember the dad episode and the ending theme with the scooter

I started on board but I think this take is way more meanspirited than it was intended. My takeaway wasn't that Haruko was terrible, but that the lesson was that all the adults have their own ambitions and are selfish towards their own ends. Yes she was manipulating him, but so was everyone else. Naota is obsessed with notion that being an adult means being this well adjusted person, when the truth is that adults aren't well adjusted people. And the ending he accepts that she is using him but he still likes her despite it. I don't think he ended not recognizing her motives, but that he didn't hate her for her ambitions.

I’m trying to say like naota should be traumatized for the things he seen like being eating by canti so he can gain atomsk powers or the robots coming out of his head, or being hitting by a guitar so many times like. Think about someone asking about how was it childhood and he just said it was crazy but I love it all because of a crazy woman who use me to get what she wants by hitting me on the head with guitars making robots coming out of my head from a portal. I cause chaos around the town by the robots destroying half the city wish haruko should pay for.

I think a lot of these points are indirectly highlighted through chainsaw man and makima’s abuse since the first part was heavily inspired by flcl

... I also imposed my youthful lens over Haruko, and never understood this aspect of the show despite for 20 years saying it is my favorite anime.

Vaush should’ve watched the second sequel. It’s much better than the first, which was, let’s be clear, dogshit

ngl, all these deep takes on FLCL went over my head. I watched the show and just thought it was weird.

It's unbelievable how difficult it is to find Canti helmets

I watched the Anime and still don't really understand what was being communicated. I thought Naotas brother was dead or something...

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is a better sequel to FLCL than anything official. Its anime just started airing.

One thing about this show that would be in the mental satte of a regular 12 year old or coming of age male is that if you were to experience the chaos things you have been through with a crazy woman who use you for a powerful being, would you not be traumatized instead of just falling for her because you think she loves you

Makes sense, never thought it in that way.

Vaush. Didn’t Atomsk save the planet by destroying the medical mechanica hand? Naota didn’t do that, Atomsk came out of him to do it himself and then to take off into space.

Alternative is worth a watch

Got to love the anime rants

Watch alternative. It does its own thing. It's a fun watch imo. It doesn't try to copy what flcl and miss the mark, if it wasn't a sequel, It could be it's own stand alone anime. And my take away from mamimi isn't that his brother abused her, it's that she's poor, abused by her family and peers (hence never wanting to go home) and that when naotas brother saved him, she developed an extremely unhealthy attachment to him.

Flcl evangelion and Pink Floyd’s the wall all exist in the same weird corner in my brain, so the sequels of the prior two have always disgusted me in principle. Could you imagine if they made “Pink Floyd’s the wall 3.0: you can not build a damn in this area?” Could you imagine if they added a character who’s only distinguished characteristic is she’s supposed to be “the best girl in Pink Floyd’s the wall?” If the plot of that sequel included pink getting into some super long anime fight with his mom? Maybe this is just how my mind works but It’s fucking bullshit that the few anime that do something interesting artistically speaking are completely ruined by the anime industry itself

Still my favorite anime

Your not the first person I saw sat thus, but the thing is Haruko doesn't have an entirely negative impact on him. She is a fucked up manipulator, but still helped in episode 4. It actually touches on a more uncomfortable truth. That even abusive ppl can affect you in a positive way. Even then Haruko and Mamimi's sexual harrassment is not called out by the text, only they how they used him. I will say though the best part of a FLCL is how it does have a variety of interpretations.

Dear journal: today I found out how genuinely fucked up I am due to this show.

sorry vaush, but i just have to disagree with you here. When i was 17, i got into a throuple relationship with a 22 and a 26 yo woman. It was amazing, such good sex, balancing their emotions, drinking myself blackout drunk and crying. Its hard to believe it only happened 6 years ago. haha im 23 now, been single for thge past 4 years, something about me displaying love too soon scaring people away. I want to feel loved again. Please. /s, very good segment vaush. thank you, im gonna give this anime a watch

Remember chat, you can watch FLCL right here on RU-vid in HD 🐻

The second FLCL spinoff wasn't as garbage was the first, but I did kinda like the ending of the first

I didn't know flcl had sequels I thought it only had the one which I haven't seen either

I know I watched FLCL, but I watched it at a time where I was not old or mature enough to get anything about it. I barely remember anything about it past itbbeing a very weird show.

wow is that chat so annoying???

Why is it so hard for studios to get sequels right? That's something the anime and gaming industry struggle with constantly

honest to god i watched this show one time and zero percent of it made any sense

I don't always agree with Vaush when it comes to his anime takes, but this analysis of FLCL is spot on.

Holy fuck dude why do these chatters watch the stream just to type "we dont care please move on" "end the stunlock" Youre here to watch vaush not 'current events guy' if hes interested in the topic let him talk about it

I read the ending a bit differently than Vaush. To me in the end Naota went with Haruko not because he made the wrong choice but because he wanted to take Atomsk's power from her. And after merging with Atomsk he bested Haruko in combat and finally got to assert himself. He kissed her and then willingly let Atomsk leave depriving Haruko of the thing she used Naota for. To me fooly cooly wasn't primarily a story of abuse (although abuse is a big part of it) but a coming of age story. Throughout the whole show he shifted through all the abuse and exploitation (mamimi's and haruko's sexual abuse, amarao's selfish and immature exploitation) and looked for a mature way to deal with all that shit (Ninamori's cynical distancing from all the filth? His father's participation in it? Amarao MGTOWism?) In the end he chose to go his own way by embracing his feelings (kissing Haruko) but also rejecting the abuse (depriving her of Atomsk and ultimately casting her away). In episode 5 he rejected Mamimi but telling her that he will never be a substitute for his brother, in episode 6 he rejected Amarao by ignoring his plans to kill Haruko and finally in the very end he rejected Haruko by taking away Atomsk. To me the ending is not bleak, it is beautiful. Vaush's read is also interesting though, which shows how fucking amazing Fooly Cooly is. (Also yeah fuck the sequels I also didn't bother)

I've come to realise that the more I like a show the more I get annoyed at chat xD

Only the original fooly cooly is worth watching

More anime explanations please.

Fooly cooly is about cool shit bashed together vague storyline allowing subjective interpretation. I think the baseline is not that important. It's a song.

Underrated comment from your livestream chat: [Happynaughr] how does a non-binary samurai kill people vaush? They/Them

So it's NGE but JUST the sex parts? Neat.

My only complaint was the Anime was to short

Yes... a very good take about that Anime which we have all seen.

Can someone explain the ending of the manga?

ya it really killed the whole series for me after that

Vaush's best media take