{"id":267,"date":"2018-07-23T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/?p=267"},"modified":"2018-07-25T15:17:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T06:17:40","slug":"whats-great-and-not-so-great-about-flcl-progressive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/23\/whats-great-and-not-so-great-about-flcl-progressive\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Great (And Not So Great) About <i>FLCL Progressive<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second season of 90s classic anime <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> FLCL Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, recently finished its run on Cartoon Network in the US. But while it has the same villain and is set in the same over-the-top crazy world, it\u2019s missing the beautifully tight exploration of the main theme that made the first series so great.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FLCL- Official English Clip - Haruko arrives with a BANG! on DVD &amp; BD 2.22.11\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hNBBY8JWWkw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For an in-depth look at the original <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, check out the article I wrote a few weeks back. But if you want the TL;DR, the original <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an anime with four levels:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Random slapstick comedy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weird plot about robots coming out of people\u2019s heads, guitar weapons, and giant irons<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trials of growing up<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lies we tell ourselves<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is still about these things, but with a far heavier focus on the first two. It\u2019s as wacky as the original&#8211;like Looney Tunes but with a bigger budget and a Japanese sense of humor&#8211;and it looks great to boot. The real stand out visually is the highly stylized opening scenes of each episode that show one of Hidomi&#8217;s dreams up close. In fact, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is one of those shows you could watch for the eye candy alone and come away feeling pretty satisfied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Heads up. New FLCL : Progressive this Saturday at midnight. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Wz0y9Zzhwk\">pic.twitter.com\/Wz0y9Zzhwk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; [adult swim] (@adultswim) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1009103670707924992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The actual plot of the show is likewise more than a little nonsensical&#8211;though this is obviously by design. One of the best aspects of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i>,<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in general, is how the setting tricks the viewer. From the start you see normal kids having a relatively normal school life&#8211;at least until Haruko shows up anyway. \u00a0Thus, you naturally assume that, despite the occasional odd occurrences, we are seeing a modern day story set in a world much like our own. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear&#8211;especially in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211;that the world of our heroes is as different from our world as it is similar. Robots living in town, giant world-killing irons masquerading as buildings, cars that can fly, and the existence of aliens are all treated as relatively normal&#8211;if inconvenient. \u00a0No one really bats an eye at anything that happens. To the characters, this isn\u2019t a surreal adventure: it&#8217;s an everyday one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DgYZOylX0AATfEM.jpg?w=700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"  \/><em>Image source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1010522910673592320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only main cast member to return in a lead role for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the antagonist, the moped-riding, guitar-wielding, alien woman Haruko. What\u2019s so interesting about her return is how she has changed since the events of the first series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be frank, she is much more blatantly evil in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In the original, much of what she does is subtle&#8211;and perhaps even caring in her own twisted way. Little by little, she makes Naota emotionally dependent on her, becoming the female influence he\u2019s been lacking in his life. Granted she does it so that she can break him that way&#8211;but it\u2019s a far cry from the of constant stream big, flashy shocks she unleashes on Hidomi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/Df04bCpW0AU5VJY.jpg?w=700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"  \/><em>Image source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1008023931050225664\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is likely because of Jinyu. After the events of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Haruko caught, but failed to contain, Atomsk: the object of her desire. As a result, she split into two people, Haruko and Jinyu. Jinyu seems to contain all of the positive aspects of Haruko (no matter how small they might have been within the original). She is serious, kind, trusting, and protective. She\u2019s even willing and able to put others\u2019 needs before her own. To put it another way, Jinyu is Haruko\u2019s conscience, the part of her that kept her from dragging Naota into space at the end of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to continue to use as her tool. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, that means the Haruko in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> doesn\u2019t have anything to hold back her previous (albeit rarely manifest) inhibitions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/Dexzq3eV4AAg1Ok.jpg?w=700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"  \/><em>Image source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1003304214825766912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This newer, eviler Haruko, is unable to even understand the hypocrisy of her base nature. She wants to be free to do whatever she wants. And what she wants is to steal the very freedom she enjoys away from Atomsk. She likewise has no qualms at sacrificing anyone and everyone she meets to achieve her goal&#8211;including Jinyu. But in the end, she is able to contain neither Jinyu nor Atomsk&#8211;and it is in that moment of tears that we see her true self shine through.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haruko is a paradox. She wants Atomsk&#8211;likely only because he is the one thing she can\u2019t have. But, that doesn\u2019t make her wanting him&#8211;nor the pain she feels at his rejections&#8211;any less real. That is why Haruko is, at her core, pitiable. If she wins and gains Atomsk, she won\u2019t be happy. But at the same time, neither is she truly happy chasing him. Her own selfish nature has cast her in a role where suffering is the only outcome. And unlike the other characters, she is unable&#8211;or at least, unwilling&#8211;to change and move on with her life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8230;Which in turn brings us to the thematic side of the anime. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is, like the original, a coming of age story focused on the lies we tell ourselves. However, this time, instead of focusing on the various lies of a core group&#8211;unveiling one per episode&#8211;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is centered around one person, Hidomi, and the lie that lurks at the very core of her being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FLCL Progressive Trailer | Toonami | adult swim\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MqDlfqmUlcg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hidomi is a girl intent on shutting herself out of the world at large&#8211;so much so that she wears a pair of headphones literally all the time. This, of course, keeps her socially isolated (as we have been conditioned to think that it\u2019s rude to talk to a person wearing headphones) and largely detached from everything in her everyday life. She is invested in nothing&#8211;not her school work, her Mom\u2019s cafe, or even her classmates. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it\u2019s not that she\u2019s antisocial&#8211;not really. Rather, Hidomi is trying desperately to live in the past&#8211;to keep everything the same as it was the day her father walked out on her mother and her. As long as she stays the same, she can wait forever. Her father can walk back into her life and they can pick up right where they left off. She doesn\u2019t have to deal with all the feelings of loss and abandonment&#8211;and her rage about the whole unfairness of the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deep down Hidomi knows this is futile, that her father is never coming back. Her dreams tend to focus on this theme. In one, she\u2019s the only one left in a decaying world&#8211;i.e., the past. In another, zombies devour her&#8211;a symbol of her newfound friends dragging her into their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, it\u2019s easier to just wear the headphones (a gift from her father, of course) and keep both the truth and her feelings bottled up inside. That\u2019s the real threat she faces over the course of the series. If she \u201ctakes the headphones off\u201d in both the literal and proverbial sense, it\u2019s likely that her emotions will overflow and come rushing out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DfRKW8aU0AACTrm.jpg?w=700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"  \/><em>Image source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1005510377814228992\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haruko, of course, wants Hidomi to do just that so she can achieve her own ends. That\u2019s why Haruko constantly tries to make Hidomi face the real world through various shocks&#8211;be that making her watch porn in class or throwing her into life-or-death situations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the real threat to Hidomi is making<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> her<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> want to move on with her life. This is why Haruko keeps pushing Hidomi and Ide together. By kindling a romance between the two, Hidomi&#8211;now an adolescent with all those bubbling hormones&#8211;will start to want to move forward with her life even as another part of her desperately clings to the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Hidomi\u2019s internal struggle and daddy issues are undoubtedly the most interesting aspect of the series, they are also handled rather poorly within the structure of the story. It\u2019s not until the final episode that Hidomi\u2019s situation and mindset are revealed. In a lot of ways, this feels too little too late. When watching for the first time, there are few to no hints about what\u2019s really going on&#8211;Hidomi\u2019s actions only make sense in retrospect. And rather than a massive info dump at the end, it would have been much better to feed the information to us in bite-sized chunks over the anime\u2019s run&#8211;doling out hints a piece at a time to the mystery that is Hidomi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/Dg8-rDjX4AAZew1.jpg?w=700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"  \/><em>Image source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1013097354310901760\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, while the original <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> investigated a character along with a different \u201clie we tell ourselves\u201d in each episode, in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Hidomi\u2019s lie is diluted across six episodes. With less focus on the main theme, the series feels a lot less tightly written than the original. Much of the runtime is instead spent on the nonsensical world&#8211;being random for random\u2019s sake. In the original, even the silly scenes mattered thematically; they often dispensed important theme and character information in such a way that you didn\u2019t even realize it had been done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, in the end, just because <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a step down from the original, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s terrible. Quite the opposite actually. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a solidly above average anime that uses both strong themes and visuals to build a world that\u2019s simply a joy to lose yourself in. Regardless of if you enjoyed the humor and insanity of the original anime or have never seen <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is certainly worth your time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FLCL Progressive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> aired on Cartoon Network and is available for streaming on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adultswim.com\/videos\/flcl\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AdultSwim.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;\"><em>Top Image Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adultswim\/status\/1015634066052403203\">[adult swim]<\/a> on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/23\/whats-great-and-not-so-great-about-flcl-progressive\/\">Click to Read<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What\u2019s Great (And Not So Great) About &lt;i&gt;FLCL Progressive&lt;\/i&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-flcl","excerpt","zoom","full-without-featured","even","excerpt-0"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biggestinjapan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhhBzL8W0AE36yr.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biggestinjapan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}