FLCL Alternative

Life seems to drift by for Kana Koumoto and her friends in their small Japanese town. Every day is just like the last, and it feels like every new day will be the same. Kana goes to school, hangs out with her friends, and likes to paint her nails and listen to music, but it feels like nothing special is ever going to happen.

As a change of pace, Kana and her friends decide to design a bottle rocket and launch it into space, even though it might not get there at all. However, just when the rocket is completed, a robot suddenly crashes into and destroys it, shortly followed by a pink-haired woman claiming to be a "Galactic Investigator." Kana's life quickly becomes more exciting than she ever imagined, dealing with new feelings, changing friends, and even boy troubles. It turns out life can go by in the blink of an eye, fast enough to even miss it, so what's with these weird robots that seem to show up at the worst times?!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haruhara, Haruko Main

Shintani, Mayumi Japanese

Koumoto, Kana Main

Miyama, Karen Japanese

Hetada, Tomomi Supporting

Yoshida, Yuuri Japanese

Yajima, Hijiri Supporting

Iida, Riho Japanese

Motoyama, Man Supporting

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Aida, Ben Supporting

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Koumoto, Bunta Supporting

Masaka, Miho Japanese

Sudou, Kan Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Koumoto, Shizuka Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Hetada, Mimi Supporting

Matsuoka, Yuki Japanese

Terashima-Furuta, Maki Producer

Kawaguchi, Tooru Producer

Tsunoki, Takuya Producer

Uemura, Yutaka Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Aug 4, 2023

sakaisnow

Recommended

Wow, i wasn't expecting too much from this sequel (don't get me wrong) but damn, its the finest sequel of the series, yeah, for me the original always will be the best, but this one, is good as flcl style. The animation is fine, the songs are fine, and remember a lot of the original, and got the same vibe as the first, if you ask if is worth to watch, YES, if you like the 2000 flcl, you will prob like this one, i really felt a connection between the characters and me, something that progressive didn't make it, and i hope grunge and ... shoegaze be the same vibe, to keep the fooly cooly essence. If you want to spend some afternoon watching some anime to relax, this one, trust me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 4, 2022

Magipika

Mixed Feelings

I normally don't write reviews for anime like this, but I felt like this one deserved at least a few words.
After finishing Progressive, I was expecting the worst, but Alternative ended up being a pretty smooth ride. It's nothing particularly special, but sometimes an ordinary adolescent life viewed through an extraordinary lens can resonate when watched at the right time.

Probably the series' flaw, but an inescapable one, is how superficial the ties to the original FLCL are. The original story more closely tied the ridiculous robot scenes, Miss Haruko Haruhara, and the main characters together in a symbolic fashion that earned it its cult following. ... Both Progressive and Alternative attempt to tread new ground, while also bringing in the old elements, and ends up massively convoluted. Haruko's role is ambiguous at best, and contradictory at worst- I've seen people argue that that is the point, that she can do "whatever she wants", but even in the original she did have a goal, and she needed Naota for it. Medical Mechanica is thrown around as a buzzword, and bizarre robots seem to come from everywhere, just for the action, but there is no clear point to it.

On the other hand, as a modern take on the old FLCL story, the character writing and the outcomes aren't too bad. It may have been done before in other shows, but as a coming-of-age story that parallels the old one, it does a good job. The four girls that Alternative follows all have their struggles, passions, secrets, disagreements that make seeing them interact worth watching, definitely more so than the characters in its sister series Progressive. FLCL is also an opportunity for the new studio to flex their animating muscles, and work on scenes from drastically different genres and themes all in one spot, and that definitely comes through as well.

Overall, far from perfect, and perhaps juxtaposed with FLCL Progressive, it just seems good in comparison. I don't think that they had to rely on FLCL in order to justify creating something like this, and I'm sure that long-time fans might hate the new series cheapen the original by association, but as someone who only saw FLCL several years ago, I managed to get through it pretty easily. It was also nice to hear the pillows again as well, although the way songs were recycled both between the series and across episodes was kind of strange. It would definitely be easier to recommend to someone who hasn't seen the original, but either audience might get a little fun out of this sequel.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 24, 2024

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

You know those, like, sequels to shows that nobody asked for and it ends up sucking and we're like "great, thanks, Big Corpo"

This is that

In the first seven minutes or so, the main girl pulls out a Jenga block that says "Never Knows Best" and I think that's a perfect representation of this series (as in Alternative, not FLCL as a whole).

It pulls stuff from FLCL OG just because Adult Swim really really liked FLCL OG back in the day. Haruko is back because people liked her in FLCL OG. She fights with a guitar because FLCL OG. Never Knows Best, LAST DINOSAUR, hell, The ... Pillows' involvement in general (I'm genuinely surprised they never used Ride On, Shooting Star but for what it's worth, I did like the new ED song. It's not as good as Ride On but it's solid), it's all to service the masterpiece before it. In the last episode at the end, we even see a blink-and-you'll-miss-it clip from FLCL OG.

It feels cheap and pandering. I love love love LAST DINOSAUR but I was actively dreading it being played by the time it did because I didn't want them to trot it out so FLCL OG fans could clap and point at the thing they know.

FLCL OG was a lightning bolt you couldn't help but catch with your hands and Alternative does not have that same aura.

This is the corporate-mandated belated sequel that can't let go of the thing that people loved.

Other than Haruko, the only really notable characters are the 4 girls in the main friend group.

They're just ~so quirky~, the first episode just shows them goofing off and building a bottle rocket because ~adolescence~ and it just felt artificial to me. We do sort of get an episode to show off each character but I never got attached to any of them. Kana (the main girl) is mentioned to have been sickly as a child a couple of times but it just kind of feels shoved in. It feels like I genuinely know almost nothing about Pets except her family is rich and she likes taking pictures with her friends, I guess? There's also The Pretty One and The Fat One (who, to be fair, does get some good character development at least, she works really hard and has a goal for her future) and, like, who cares

Kana's not as interesting a protagonist as Naota, none of the side characters are as interesting as Samejima, the animation isn't as off-the-wall as the original, it's Adult Swim going "hey, we liked FLCL back in the day, let's do it again, we've got money!"

Which is weird when in this very show, they're going "oh, nothing lasts forever, even precious things will disappear".

Let the past die. If you want to use your Adult Swim money to make new shows, that's fine, but digging up the corpse of FLCL is not the way to do it.

Alternative feels like if you ripped the soul out of FLCL OG. The only reason I gave it a 3 is because the production still looks pretty good and tbh, I'm hedging my bets that Progressive and Grunge are even worse because apparently Alternative is supposed to be the BEST FLCL sequel (although I've genuinely heard nothing about Shoegaze so that'll be a surprise for me).

Jury's out on if it's better than Progressive/Grunge/Shoegaze in my eyes but if that's true, you're better off acting like these shows don't exist.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	The Show is Ruined Because of Haruko GennosukeKouga - Jul 3, 2020	3 replies	by Berry-Vodka »» Sep 16, 10:47 PM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) removed-user - Mar 31, 2018	80 replies	by Alkimia »» Sep 5, 6:28 AM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 2 Discussion Vysarine - Sep 15, 2018	19 replies	by Berry-Vodka »» Sep 4, 12:03 AM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 5 Discussion Vysarine - Oct 6, 2018	15 replies	by NothingFound »» Aug 19, 10:34 PM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Vysarine - Oct 13, 2018	58 replies	by TheSelleri »» Jun 5, 10:33 PM