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I'm writing this review from the perspective of someone who loved FLCL Progressive. I genuinely think Progressive earns the name FLCL. Alternative needs a rewatch before I give my full thoughts but the point is I'm speaking as someone who doesn't think the existence of these sequels is an abomination upon mankind.


What the fuck is this?


Let's go back a bit. I'm of the firm belief that we were going to get sequels to FLCL no matter what. It's not Adult Swim's fault, it's Gainax's for not selling the rights to Hideaki Anno and/or Kazuya Tsurumaki so they could sit on the rights until they croak. ... I think Adult Swim were the best people to order new FLCL seasons. They're uber fans of the original and understand how inevitable FLCL sequels should be made. The question of whether or not they should exist is an irrelevant one. Ultimately, they exist, and we should judge them on their own merits since they clearly have no intention of surpassing the original. That's why I liked FLCL Progressive.

Then, in March 2022, two more seasons were announced.

ANOTHER batch of FLCL sequels raises several questions. Did Adult Swim consider Progressive/Alternative a success? Were they HAPPY with the middling reception? Do they actually not want these and were forced to make them by either American or Japanese investors? And the elephant in the room, why was one of them animated in CGI?

I've been saying this since the animation style was revealed: it's not that bad. This isn't the worst anime CGI can get, we've got Ex-Arm and Tesla Note to prove that. There's a style to it that makes it shine. But just because the sun shines doesn't mean its heat doesn't piss me off from time to time. The problem lies in how that style clashes with the FLCL style, so it feels like it's struggling to keep it together. But I don't think the animation is the problem. If this was in 2D, I'd might've given this a 5/10 but probably would've kept the score the same.

The animation is not Grunge's problem, it's the writing. People hate Progressive and Alternative because they are named FLCL. But you're supposed to let the FLCL branding become an afterthought while watching it. They aren't meant to be direct sequels, it's just an anthology sort of deal. There's a line you don't cross and FLCL Grunge hopped on a Vespa and blasted through that line: they incorporated characters and locations from the original with NO subtlety towards it. In Progressive, it's a wink to the audience, but in Grunge, it's in your face. The fear of God was felt in my bones when I realized that in the trailer and the show confirmed by suspicions. By including these references in the plot, it's telling the audience that they <i>should</i> be thinking about the original FLCL while they're watching it. Which is the last thing a sequel should be doing? A good sequel's characters, environment and storytelling should be able to stand out on their own without forcing comparisons to the original. This is such a monumental step backwards and I don't know why Adult Swim approved of this.

The characters are uninteresting. Shinpachi is a worse version of Naota, Shonari is part of a clan of rock people that stick out like a sore thumb since they're the only fantasy species in this world, Orinoko doesn't stand out when we've had plenty of other anime girls like her in the past. If the FLCL sequels have done anything, it's bastardize Haruko Haruhara. What once was a mysterious but fascinating character for anime fans has now become an annoyance. These sequels, fortunately, don't explore her backstory, but we now have more Haruko than we ever needed. What I'm trying to say is that it's old.

Finding out that the series was only 3 episodes last week was a shock. I didn't understand why the series was so short or why every episode took place "on the same day from 3 different perspectives". And having seen all of it...NO! IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! There's nothing <i>special</i> about this night, there's nothing <i>special</i> about these characters, there's nothing <i>special</i> about this animation and that's a big problem because FLCL is one of the most special anime ever made.
If you're going to have a <b>THIRD</b> completely unnecessary sequel to one of the most beloved anime of all time, then you goddamn better provide something special. Progressive was special. Alternative was special. People will tell me I'm wrong but I will die on that hill. Grunge THINKS it's special when there is nothing special about it. Anything this provides is something I can find elsewhere in anime. It fails to have a purpose in existing as an anime, don't even get me started on its failure to exist as a sequel to FLCL.
At least FLCL Shoegaze looks good.

I'm fairly generous towards Adult Swim originals. I'm a long time fan of the block and I want to see them succeed in these final years of cable. Overall, I love FLCL Progressive even though no one else does, FLCL Alternative was alright, Fena: Pirate Princess started off strong but didn't go anywhere, and I watched one episode of Blade Runner: Black Lotus before deciding "yeah I'm not interested in this one". Finally there's Shenmue, which as someone who's never played the games, I really enjoyed. And now we have Housing Complex C, which can only be described as Adult Swim's plan B if Uzumaki ... wasn't ready in time. I applaud that we got a new horror anime but this was way too short.

God, what was the plot? A bunch of middle easterners move into a seaside housing complex, the old Japanese residents are racist, there's a mystery going on underneath the housing complex, and also one of the residents is really into the Cthulhu mythos. This is 4 episodes long and that is all I could remember about the plot. This is written by amphibian, a visual novel writer, and you can REALLY tell. Most of the dialogue is expository, which for a visual novel that goes on for several hours is fine to have. But for a 4 episode anime, essentially a 90 minute movie? Yeah it comes off more as wasted time. 80-85% of this show is exposition, let that sink in.

The first thing I noticed when watching the credits is that the character designs are by the great Yoshitoshi ABe. His designs are far closer to that of RErideD (a hilariously bad sci-fi romp that goes on for far too long) than any of his late 90s/early 2000s works, but his presence is a welcome surprise and one that I think would have generated more interest in the series had it, or for that matter any of the Japanese crew besides the director/writer/producer/studio, been revealed prior to episode 1's drop. Honestly while we're on that subject, it IS kind of weird that they bothered to reveal the director and studio since both are pretty unknown. The director is a complete mystery, so much so that it could be a psuedonym, and the studio is mostly known for in-between animation. I don't mind them being unknowns, I appreciate new faces, though the direction is pretty meh. The use of negative space was probably to build suspense but it comes off as really lame shot composition. Can't say I cared for any of the storyboarding, but the animation itself is fine.

In the sound department, I have nothing to say about the music because there is nothing noteworthy or memorable about the music. That's perfectly fine, not all scores need to be bombastic and catchy. In the case of Housing Complex C, being atmospheric and lowkey is fine. To address the elephant in the room, the series is currently only available in the English dub. It releases on HBO Max three hours after broadcast but the HBO Max version only includes the English dub, which is strange but not surprising. Part of the reason Adult Swim partnered with Crunchyroll for their last three shows was because Adult Swim is incompetent with providing the Japanese sub. Nevertheless, the dub is good and is only going to piss off the die-hard sub elitists who would probably never give this show the time of day.

A lot of my criticisms with Housing Complex C are negated by how short it is. If this were 12 episodes long and none of the problems fixed itself this would be an easy 5/10. But it's 4 episodes! I have to give this anime props for not wasting my time. There's no sunk cost to be had, it's the length of a movie. That being said, if this were a movie it wouldn't be that good of a movie. It's over an hour of exposition followed by a really anticlimactic (but fun) last 15 minutes. Do I recommend it? Well, it's 4 episodes long, you likely decided if you were going to watch it before you read this review. It's alright, there's significantly worse horror anime out there. One thing I will give Housing Complex C is that it didn't anger me, it did not make me despise the choices that are made. This is not a bad anime, it just also does not have anything exemplary either. The last episode is neat but didn't build up to it very well. I would love to see these guys make another Adult Swim anime. Just one that's either longer or makes better use of the 4 episodes.

Back Arrow always sounded like pure fire to me. The director of s-CRY-ed/Gun x Sword/Code Geass with the writer of Gurren Lagann/Kill la Kill/Promare. The plot description was cryptic, the character designs showed cowboys AND samurai, it had mechs because why the hell not. I was immediately excited to watch it!

Was the hype deserved? Overall, I’d say it was! It’s not the director’s or the writer’s best work but I expected dumb fun and got exactly that. There was never a moment when "the hype died" for me. It lessened, for sure, but I never got sick and tired of Back Arrow.

The characters are the ... backbone of this series. If you hate all of the characters and think they’re annoying, you’re probably not going to like this show. Fortunately, I liked all of the characters in Back Arrow. They’re all memorable and fun to watch. From the naïve but likable MC that the show is named after, the cartoonish comic relief cowboys & cowgirls, and the always mysterious Shu Bi. Each character gave me a different reason to like and remember them. Single best part of the show: Demyne Shaft's choir. They show up like three times in total but every time they do it brings a smile to my face.

However, Back Arrow is not flawless. Goro Taniguchi hasn't really been relevant for the last 10 years and it shows here. Anyone could have directed this. Nevertheless, he did a good job. I hate to admit it, but Kazuki Nakashima's writing absolutely fits Hiroyuki Imaishi's manic style more than Goro Taniguchi's. It was dumb fun but it could have been more. The plot could have been far wilder. It's diet Nakashima, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. My biggest problem was the music. It's all forgettable, from the OPs/EDs to the actual OST.

Honestly, those are my only problems with Back Arrow. I like the story, it constantly kept my attention through a couple twists and turns to spice things up, and the world-building, albeit underdeveloped, was also pretty good. The animation isn't Trigger but I expected worse. It's clean and inoffensive, and the CGI mechs mesh pretty well with the 2D animation.

Back Arrow is fun. It is a fun 24 episode action show. It’s no masterpiece but for what it is it’s enjoyable. Very underrated and recommended from me.

18if might be the most underrated anime I’ve seen so far in my life.

I didn’t think that when I first started, I doubt anyone did. The first two episodes are trashy and edgy but I enjoyed them as dumb fun. Then the show kept going. And eventually I realized that 18if wasn’t trying to be edgy, at least not anymore. I started to understand what it was trying to do, and that's look into the mental state of these "witches" through their dreams.

18if follows an episodic narrative structure for the first 10 of its 13 episodes. There’s no real connected plot between these 10 episodes ... (the last 3 are connected and I like them too, I’m just ignoring them for the review to avoid spoilers). Like real dreams, there are no rules. Anything can and will happen.

The best way to categorize 18if is as an anthology series. But in the way that Space Dandy and Paranoia Agent are anthology series. The main characters stay the same but the situations and the people they meet are all up to whatever that episode’s director feels like doing. Which makes sense when you consider that Koji Morimoto is the chief director. This is currently the only TV series that he’s ever done, what he’s known for is making short segments apart of anthology movies. That should give you an idea that this is not about continuity. It’s about giving directors money and a 22 minute runtime to do whatever the hell they feel like.

So it should come to no surprise that a chief director who doesn’t care about continuity making a show about dreams based on a mobile game with no real story results in one of the most insane anime that I’ve ever watched.

THIS. SHOW. IS. FUN. If you take anything away from this review, it’s that this show is fun. Episode 3 is the only one that I would say has any semblance of normality. The rest are just crazy. Either the episode at its core is bizarre or it’ll be a heartwarming story with the most bonkers ending! There is more than one episode like that! 18if gives me the feeling of a hypnotic fever dream that so many anime try to succeed at but end up failing somewhere down the road.

Rating 18if on its individual technicalities is tough since the series is an anthology. Sometimes the art in one episode is standard when the next episode’s is beautiful. Same goes for the stories and characters (though I do like most of the characters throughout the show). If you’re only interested in watching “the best episodes” then episodes 5-8 represent what I consider the series at its peak. Though I obviously think all 13 are worth seeing.

18if is not perfect, but it took me on a journey that I’ll never forget. People say it’s hit or miss but the hits vastly outweigh the misses for me. If you want something different in your anime, well there’s nothing here that you’d be able to predict. When it wasn't dumb, it was gorgeous. Above all else, I had fun with 18if.