My god.... I hadn't heard. So, I'm obviously not thrilled, but hopefully lessons have been learned and now it doesn't feel quite so tied down to the original. I, at least, won't have any expectations of it living up to Classic (like I did when watching Prog) so I'm tepidly optimistic. Grunge at least has a unique and cartoony art style that could benefit a more wacky tone (but the brand new studio and inexperienced director has me skeptical) and Shoegaze is directed by Uemura who made Alt which I clearly liked a lot more, so these could be okay! You can bet I'll make some more follow-up retrospectives once they release next year!
Ya know, I was 17 turning 18 year old girl when I finally watched Alternative and I resonated with it more than the original FLCL. I never realized how immature I was growing up until I realized I was just like Kana, even now that I'm 20 I still find myself acting like her sometimes, I'm glad that others can appreciate Alternative even though Progressive was definitely a letdown, thank you so much for this critic It's such a wonderful video
Alternative is just the best one out of the revivals. It doesn't try to be like the original but it has enough familiarity. Like the original, it isn't perfect, but it's execution in action segments feel unrivaled. The animation is outstanding. The plot is the best part though.
amazing video, you really nailed the shock from pet's reveal of hatred, i honestly was expecting to see pets saying "oh im not leaving you're my best friend" (some slice of life type thing) but it just ends in pets yelling at kana for each major thing we saw in the past episodes that we thought were positive endings to youthful mistakes since kana is the protagonist, and hearing pets yell at her for how dumb and selfish she really was just hits, and then she leaves with no resolution, just nothing, it really destroyed me and took the show from B to an A for me, after finishing the season, i went back to go and watch to see if there were any hints and there isn't much besides pets being almost a "background" character, i feel like kana really had good intentions but she was too immature in her approach as she felt like her friends were slowly fading away, something that even i could relate to, honestly great video, put my thoughts into video format and enjoyed the comparison with the original too, insightful parallels between the two
I thought to bull robot came from Sazakis head off screen and represented his conflict with basketball. A sport he loves and wants to play but cant due to health issues. It ends up on the opposing team to symbolize the conflict and need to overcome it. To prove he can still be an important part of something he loves without risking his health and have that be enough. Something he needed help with (the others getting involved ) because no one can face that alone. Sometimes growing up you see your crush go through things you want to support them in but cant because you dont have all the details or arnt able to get close enough to help so you end up an observer. Would make sense. Haruko's always looking for N.O portals (something big enough to summon Atomisk through) and she was messing around with him. Probably trying to trigger something and when this didnt work the way she needed, used him to make Kana jelouse to try and trigger her instead.
I just re-watched Alternative, only my 2nd time doing so, and was pleasantly surprised it held up better than I thought. Going in this time I knew more about how the gang turns out, and I was able to pick up on some really nice setup-and-payoff moments. This show is just all around solidly written. It has a setup that's different from classic, gives those particular main characters top billing in everything, and it pays off. I'm glad someone else sees it the way I do, that this was definitely the way to go over an approach like Progressive. We also share a respect for what the show does with Pets because MAN did that exchange drop like a bomb and I have so much respect for the writers turning Kana's world on it's head like that- there's really no twist in Classic that's so impactful on a purely emotional level. And that revelation even has a layer of depth to it. See, we kinda disagree. Pets' animosity toward Kana can be interpreted as her forcing herself to let go of Kana. I think the thing that's telling is that Pets has nothing of note in her room- no pictures, trinkets, posters, etc...EXCEPT a picture of her and Kana. If Pets really detested her, I don't think she'd make the only personal item in her room be that picture. There are a few other details that support this, like the facts that she initially runs away to avoid going to Mars, cries the same kind of tears that Kana cries and she tries to save her after she falls off of the hand monster. Pets doesn't let others in. She doesn't talk about her troubling home life. She doesn't express herself and she does nothing to stand out. She's good at hiding her feelings. Even after everything goes down, she trades hairpins with Kana so she can keep a memento of her when she leaves the planet. She could have otherwise just let her be. What takes this bit of writing from great to awesome, though, is that Pets never talks about it. Even after a nudge from Haruko, she doesn't say anything. We're left to interpret for ourselves whether or not she meant what she said. I personally think she doesn't hate Kana and the only reason she kept sane was due to their friendship. But the pressure from her parents was too great and she couldn't throw everything away to stay with her friends. In a show about friendship that seems weak, but that's life. That's reality when you're a teenager- if your parents move, so do you. Even if it's to Mars.
I like this interpretation a lot and I'm disappointed the thought hadn't occurred to me. It's certainly important that the childhood picture of Kana is the only real sentimental object in Pets' room and she seems to have mentioned Kana a lot to her mother for her to reach out to her out of the blue when Pets goes missing. While I think the twist would be more powerful if Pets had actually hated Kana on some level for her naivety and pushy personality, I can totally buy that Pets wouldn't be equipped to express her feelings truthfully and choose to run or push Kana away since she still has no control over her life. The looming planet could be a more positive symbol that Pets isn't really as far away as she feels and maybe Kana's message reached her after all. It really is a sweet show regardless, so I'm glad you enjoyed it on rewatch and thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I completely agree with everything you said about Alternative, you can tell they tried to take an “alternative” spin on things while Progressive was just a surface-level attempt to copy the original. Although certain episodes of Prog (like Ep 5) had cool and creative imagery, I ultimately wish they poured all their efforts into Alternative instead of making two separate seasons.
I found your channel pretty recently (maybe a month or two ago?) and I really liked your old commentary videos. I'm so glad to see you uploading again, and a 20+ minute video too!! Keep up the great work! :D
Haha, I mean, check the upload dates, but I'm glad you stuck around! This particular video was a long time in the making, so I hope to be a bit more regular in the future. My next plans are to make gaming related videos similar to my shorter AniMay reviews, so look forward to more soon.
I've been a a subscriber since your last FLCL video many years ago (feels like an age ago since covid). I'm sort of shocked you still have the passion to video edit another video so many years later off of a similar subject, but I also have some aching ebbs over continuation of shows that I wished were never continued too. So I get the energy. Hope these essays help you cope and move on!
Thanks for your patience! I haven't stopped thinking about this show since I made that video almost 3 years ago, so it feels great to finally close this chapter. It's not as fun or easy to write about stuff that I have nice things to say about, so it took me years to finally put my feelings into words. Now I can move on to other projects, so I hope you'll keep sticking around!
I just watched the last night for the first time and I LOVED it 🥰 The ending speech was a Lil corny for me but I Loved the music and the animation overall, it felt nostalgic and it helped me to reflect on a current situation that I'm going through. I tried watching the Progressive one but lost interest after the first episode, I will definitely check out the other one though. But I Loved Alternative, a great show indeed and! I Loved your thoughts and interpretation of it, this video was done Beautifully 😊 Thank you ❤
I watched this first thinking it was Season 2. I really enjoyed it. It's another story in the FLCL world. It subverts anime norms and the ending is genuinely heartbreaking.
I feel like flcl alt is a good slice of life anime but a bad continuation of flcl. I feel like if it wasn't connected to flcl it would be better overall
You might already be aware but incase you don't know. FLCL is pronounced as a single word rather than individual letters, but with a japanese dialect which, because they don't have an L sound and substitute it with an R sound, and have a syllable based letter system, comes out as "fu-ri-ku-ri" and often romanized as fooly cooly even if it doesn't sound exactly like that. So basically the shows name is Furikuri, but usually written as fooly cooly or FLCL.
I know the original is better but I watched all three series when I was a senior in high school and the original themes and messages was stuff that I already over came but alternative hit me like a truck.
Hell yeah! That's awesome. Even as a late 20-something, Alternative still really resonated with me even though it's mostly told from a female perspective. The themes of avoiding the traps of false machismo and wanting to be seen as cool and adult are still things I'm constantly reminded of from the original and I never get tired of stories about awkward adolescence, so it'll always have that special place in my heart. Thanks for checking out the channel!
I’ll give you props for being able to find the good points in Alt with the character dynamics and how it shines versus Prog but the last ten minutes of the video where you detail how divorced all that is from the action and how the “FLCL DNA” is a complete side story… man they really butchered this series even when they had gold in their hands.
Thanks man, I really went on an emotional rollercoaster watching the show and writing this video. It really touched me, but then I had to look back and be like, why was this even FLCL in the first place? I'm scared to even give Grunge and Shoegaze a shot, but if that's something people even care to hear about I may talk about it. Thanks for checking out the channel!
Watched both Prog and Alt back to back while I was at work a few years back and while neither lived up to my expectations, as just a casual watch, I enjoyed Prog more. I guess I just ultimately wasn’t as bother by the fact that it retreads the original story as much as others. As for alternative, I really, really disliked Kana and that ultimately soured me a lot on the series.
Totally fair. I think because Alt scratched a totally different itch I was willing to engage with it more, but I get the Kana hate. Curious to see how Shoegaze builds off the show whereas Grunge simultaneously is doing it's own thing but also remakes the original story... again. Thanks for checking out the channel and I should have more FLCL vids this month.
would it be fine If I just watch alternative without watching progressive? I kinda have high expectations for it since a lot of ppl say it’s actually good
Yes! They have absolutely no connection to one another besides Haruko being in them. Same goes for the original series too, you can totally enjoy Alternative as a stand-alone show. Hope you like it
Thoughts on the two more series announcement today?
My god.... I hadn't heard. So, I'm obviously not thrilled, but hopefully lessons have been learned and now it doesn't feel quite so tied down to the original. I, at least, won't have any expectations of it living up to Classic (like I did when watching Prog) so I'm tepidly optimistic. Grunge at least has a unique and cartoony art style that could benefit a more wacky tone (but the brand new studio and inexperienced director has me skeptical) and Shoegaze is directed by Uemura who made Alt which I clearly liked a lot more, so these could be okay!
You can bet I'll make some more follow-up retrospectives once they release next year!
@@JanitorJoey This aged well
Ya know, I was 17 turning 18 year old girl when I finally watched Alternative and I resonated with it more than the original FLCL. I never realized how immature I was growing up until I realized I was just like Kana, even now that I'm 20 I still find myself acting like her sometimes, I'm glad that others can appreciate Alternative even though Progressive was definitely a letdown, thank you so much for this critic It's such a wonderful video
Even though the original is still the best out of the three seasons, I really enjoyed Alternative. Good video btw
Completely agree. Thanks for checking out the channel!
Alternative is just the best one out of the revivals. It doesn't try to be like the original but it has enough familiarity. Like the original, it isn't perfect, but it's execution in action segments feel unrivaled. The animation is outstanding. The plot is the best part though.
amazing video, you really nailed the shock from pet's reveal of hatred, i honestly was expecting to see pets saying "oh im not leaving you're my best friend" (some slice of life type thing) but it just ends in pets yelling at kana for each major thing we saw in the past episodes that we thought were positive endings to youthful mistakes since kana is the protagonist, and hearing pets yell at her for how dumb and selfish she really was just hits, and then she leaves with no resolution, just nothing, it really destroyed me and took the show from B to an A for me, after finishing the season, i went back to go and watch to see if there were any hints and there isn't much besides pets being almost a "background" character, i feel like kana really had good intentions but she was too immature in her approach as she felt like her friends were slowly fading away, something that even i could relate to, honestly great video, put my thoughts into video format and enjoyed the comparison with the original too, insightful parallels between the two
I thought to bull robot came from Sazakis head off screen and represented his conflict with basketball. A sport he loves and wants to play but cant due to health issues. It ends up on the opposing team to symbolize the conflict and need to overcome it. To prove he can still be an important part of something he loves without risking his health and have that be enough. Something he needed help with (the others getting involved ) because no one can face that alone. Sometimes growing up you see your crush go through things you want to support them in but cant because you dont have all the details or arnt able to get close enough to help so you end up an observer. Would make sense. Haruko's always looking for N.O portals (something big enough to summon Atomisk through) and she was messing around with him. Probably trying to trigger something and when this didnt work the way she needed, used him to make Kana jelouse to try and trigger her instead.
I just re-watched Alternative, only my 2nd time doing so, and was pleasantly surprised it held up better than I thought. Going in this time I knew more about how the gang turns out, and I was able to pick up on some really nice setup-and-payoff moments. This show is just all around solidly written. It has a setup that's different from classic, gives those particular main characters top billing in everything, and it pays off. I'm glad someone else sees it the way I do, that this was definitely the way to go over an approach like Progressive.
We also share a respect for what the show does with Pets because MAN did that exchange drop like a bomb and I have so much respect for the writers turning Kana's world on it's head like that- there's really no twist in Classic that's so impactful on a purely emotional level. And that revelation even has a layer of depth to it. See, we kinda disagree. Pets' animosity toward Kana can be interpreted as her forcing herself to let go of Kana. I think the thing that's telling is that Pets has nothing of note in her room- no pictures, trinkets, posters, etc...EXCEPT a picture of her and Kana. If Pets really detested her, I don't think she'd make the only personal item in her room be that picture. There are a few other details that support this, like the facts that she initially runs away to avoid going to Mars, cries the same kind of tears that Kana cries and she tries to save her after she falls off of the hand monster. Pets doesn't let others in. She doesn't talk about her troubling home life. She doesn't express herself and she does nothing to stand out. She's good at hiding her feelings. Even after everything goes down, she trades hairpins with Kana so she can keep a memento of her when she leaves the planet. She could have otherwise just let her be.
What takes this bit of writing from great to awesome, though, is that Pets never talks about it. Even after a nudge from Haruko, she doesn't say anything. We're left to interpret for ourselves whether or not she meant what she said. I personally think she doesn't hate Kana and the only reason she kept sane was due to their friendship. But the pressure from her parents was too great and she couldn't throw everything away to stay with her friends. In a show about friendship that seems weak, but that's life. That's reality when you're a teenager- if your parents move, so do you. Even if it's to Mars.
I like this interpretation a lot and I'm disappointed the thought hadn't occurred to me. It's certainly important that the childhood picture of Kana is the only real sentimental object in Pets' room and she seems to have mentioned Kana a lot to her mother for her to reach out to her out of the blue when Pets goes missing. While I think the twist would be more powerful if Pets had actually hated Kana on some level for her naivety and pushy personality, I can totally buy that Pets wouldn't be equipped to express her feelings truthfully and choose to run or push Kana away since she still has no control over her life. The looming planet could be a more positive symbol that Pets isn't really as far away as she feels and maybe Kana's message reached her after all.
It really is a sweet show regardless, so I'm glad you enjoyed it on rewatch and thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I completely agree with everything you said about Alternative, you can tell they tried to take an “alternative” spin on things while Progressive was just a surface-level attempt to copy the original. Although certain episodes of Prog (like Ep 5) had cool and creative imagery, I ultimately wish they poured all their efforts into Alternative instead of making two separate seasons.
I found your channel pretty recently (maybe a month or two ago?) and I really liked your old commentary videos. I'm so glad to see you uploading again, and a 20+ minute video too!! Keep up the great work! :D
Haha, I mean, check the upload dates, but I'm glad you stuck around! This particular video was a long time in the making, so I hope to be a bit more regular in the future. My next plans are to make gaming related videos similar to my shorter AniMay reviews, so look forward to more soon.
I've been a a subscriber since your last FLCL video many years ago (feels like an age ago since covid). I'm sort of shocked you still have the passion to video edit another video so many years later off of a similar subject, but I also have some aching ebbs over continuation of shows that I wished were never continued too. So I get the energy. Hope these essays help you cope and move on!
Thanks for your patience! I haven't stopped thinking about this show since I made that video almost 3 years ago, so it feels great to finally close this chapter. It's not as fun or easy to write about stuff that I have nice things to say about, so it took me years to finally put my feelings into words. Now I can move on to other projects, so I hope you'll keep sticking around!
I just watched the last night for the first time and I LOVED it 🥰
The ending speech was a Lil corny for me but I Loved the music and the animation overall, it felt nostalgic and it helped me to reflect on a current situation that I'm going through.
I tried watching the Progressive one but lost interest after the first episode, I will definitely check out the other one though.
But I Loved Alternative, a great show indeed and! I Loved your thoughts and interpretation of it, this video was done Beautifully 😊
Thank you ❤
Wow, what a great video, it really deserves a lot more of views and likes
Good Video! Great to know I wasn't the only Alt fan
I watched this first thinking it was Season 2. I really enjoyed it. It's another story in the FLCL world. It subverts anime norms and the ending is genuinely heartbreaking.
I feel like flcl alt is a good slice of life anime but a bad continuation of flcl. I feel like if it wasn't connected to flcl it would be better overall
Agreed, but unfortunately I probably wouldn't have cared enough to watch it.
Loved the video, thank you
very very gud video 👍
You might already be aware but incase you don't know. FLCL is pronounced as a single word rather than individual letters, but with a japanese dialect which, because they don't have an L sound and substitute it with an R sound, and have a syllable based letter system, comes out as "fu-ri-ku-ri" and often romanized as fooly cooly even if it doesn't sound exactly like that. So basically the shows name is Furikuri, but usually written as fooly cooly or FLCL.
I know the original is better but I watched all three series when I was a senior in high school and the original themes and messages was stuff that I already over came but alternative hit me like a truck.
Hell yeah! That's awesome. Even as a late 20-something, Alternative still really resonated with me even though it's mostly told from a female perspective. The themes of avoiding the traps of false machismo and wanting to be seen as cool and adult are still things I'm constantly reminded of from the original and I never get tired of stories about awkward adolescence, so it'll always have that special place in my heart. Thanks for checking out the channel!
This was a wonderful video mate
It was a labor of love, thanks so much for checking out the channel.
😅
The real flcl sequel is just watching the original again
Yeah, it's watching it as a teenager and then watching it again as an adult and YOU were the sequel the whole time!
I’ll give you props for being able to find the good points in Alt with the character dynamics and how it shines versus Prog but the last ten minutes of the video where you detail how divorced all that is from the action and how the “FLCL DNA” is a complete side story… man they really butchered this series even when they had gold in their hands.
Thanks man, I really went on an emotional rollercoaster watching the show and writing this video. It really touched me, but then I had to look back and be like, why was this even FLCL in the first place? I'm scared to even give Grunge and Shoegaze a shot, but if that's something people even care to hear about I may talk about it. Thanks for checking out the channel!
Watched both Prog and Alt back to back while I was at work a few years back and while neither lived up to my expectations, as just a casual watch, I enjoyed Prog more. I guess I just ultimately wasn’t as bother by the fact that it retreads the original story as much as others.
As for alternative, I really, really disliked Kana and that ultimately soured me a lot on the series.
Totally fair. I think because Alt scratched a totally different itch I was willing to engage with it more, but I get the Kana hate. Curious to see how Shoegaze builds off the show whereas Grunge simultaneously is doing it's own thing but also remakes the original story... again. Thanks for checking out the channel and I should have more FLCL vids this month.
would it be fine If I just watch alternative without watching progressive? I kinda have high expectations for it since a lot of ppl say it’s actually good
Yes! They have absolutely no connection to one another besides Haruko being in them. Same goes for the original series too, you can totally enjoy Alternative as a stand-alone show. Hope you like it
Man I feel like i'm the only one who prefers progressive over alternative..