Anime / FLCL Grunge & Shoegaze

Madness returned again in 2023. LUNCH TIIIIIMMEEEE!!

FLCL: Grunge and Shoegaze are the fourth and fifth installments of the FLCL franchise. The new seasons were first announced by [adult swim] in March 2022 in celebration of Toonami's 25th Anniversary. FLCL: Grunge is directed by Hitoshi Takekiyo (Appleseed XIII) and produced by MontBlanc Pictures, while FLCL: Shoegaze will be directed by Yutaka Uemura (FLCL Alternative) and be co-produced by Production I.G, Studio NUT and Akatsuki. The Pillows return once again to score the soundtracks for both series, with vocalist Sawao Yamanaka hinting that the songs will focus on the characters.

FLCL: Grunge focuses on the mob-run town of Okura that is home to trio of students: Shinpachi, a cynical youth who helps out at father's sushi restaurant, a rock-skinned alien named Shonari whose older brother is an mob enforcers, and Orinoko as she struggles to help her ailing father while their robot is acting motherly. The town is so apathetic that most do not care about the giant iron-shaped factory on the hill, with Shin and Shonari both wanting to leave. But the trio's lives change when they cross paths with the mysterious Haruko, who plays the two yakuza groups and a corrupt mayor against each other in one of her schemes to sabotage Medical Mechanica and find Atomsk.

FLCL: Shoegaze is a Distant Sequel that, much like Grunge, takes place after Alternative (10 years in this case), with grown-up Kana and Tsukata returning. The story focuses around highschool student Masaki Oufuji and Harumi Oraisho as they investigate a mysterious tower. What connections does the tower have with Medical Mechanica, and just who is Harumi?

Grunge began airing on the Toonami block on September 9th and will run for three episodes instead of the usual six. Shoegaze, which will begin airing on September 30th, will also have three episodes. According to Jason DeMarco on his Twitter, Grunge and Shoegaze are the final seasons of FLCL they will produce, as [adult swim] has no further interest in producing future installments of the franchise.

And, once again, it's pronounced "Fooly Cooly", not "Eff-ell-see-ell" or "Flee Klee".

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Tropes include:

Both series

• Musical Theme Naming: Following after FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative's precedent, the two forms of rock music presented here are Grunge and Shoegazing.
• Short-Runners: Unlike the previous three seasons, both Grunge and Shoegaze only last 3 episodes each.

FLCL: Grunge

• All-CGI Cartoon: This season, FLCL goes computer-animated, barring the occasional Art Shift.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Medical Mechanica plant takes off from the planet and leaves Okura in pursuit of Atomsk, Haruko hitching a ride as the plant is approaching Earth. Orinoko is given a space shuttle ticket by Haruko and leaves the planet as well to pursue a new future with the backup disk holding her mother's consciousness, though Shin and Shonari remain behind, promising to stay in touch with Orinoko and believing that there is a future in Okura for them.
• Brain Uploading: Orinoko's father did this to his dying wife by uploading her consciousness into the house robot. Orinoko managing to transfer the consciousness in a back-up disk.
• The Bus Came Back: Commander Amarao returns from the original series after having not been present in Progressive and Alternative.
• Crapsack World: The town of Okura - and perhaps the rest of the planet itself - has faced a lot of destruction that it caused people to lose any hope in having a future. It's so bad that Shin's middle school stopped having classes because even the teachers got dissatisfied with how things were.
• Corrupt Politician: Mayor Kuroiwa, having a corrupt police force at his command and has dealings with both Yakuza and Medical Mechanica.
• Darker and Edgier: The first episode already has a fight where multiple people are bloodily cut in half, with the mayor losing his head.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each episode details the same series of events from the titular character's perspective.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Haruko, though her over-the-top sexuality and undeniable charisma overwhelm just about everybody's better judgment.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • While posing as the Mayor's personal harlot, Haruko gets a chance to plant a kiss on Shinpachi and activate the N.O. portal in his forehead. The protrusion extends significantly the next time he sees her at the sushi restaurant, and has to take a moment to push it back into his head.
  • Haruko exploits Shin's presence in her time of need by planting a kiss and reaching into his N.O portal to reforge Shonari's katana into her signature blue Rickenbacker 4001. Orinoko and Shonari are both surprised, and Shin is left completely drained like Naota was when she did the same to him.
• Doomed by Canon: Played for laughs. Amarao had eyebrows at the start of each episode, ending with him replacing them with nori. The second episode reveals they were sliced off by Shonari's katana.
• Faceless Goons: Played for laughs. Not only do all the yakuza members of each gang have the same hair and clothes, they have blank faces with the names of their respective gangs written on them. Shinpachi even lampshades it.
• Fun with Subtitles: During Haruko's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Mayor, her entire dialogue flashes across the screen in highly stylized kanji. Part of the writing doesn't properly translate into English, so the subtitles state as much.
  This part doesn't make sense when we translate it, so just forget it!
• Homeworld Evacuation:
  • There are shuttles constantly leaving the planet, but only for those rich enough to afford tickets.
  • Shonari's freak-out reaction to Medical Mechanica showing up in Okura indicates that they had already destroyed his own Rockian homeworld, and him and his brother had to flee for their own survival.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: The climax of the final episode has Haruko acquire her signature Rickenbacker from Shin's head. Earlier in the episode, we see her rebuilding her Vespa scooter as well after finding it in Okura's junkyard.
• Landfill Beyond the Stars: Amurao's complaining about the massive swarms of flies and the overwhelming stench in the air indicates that more of the planet outside of the town of Okuro is pretty much one giant garbage dump. Orinoko often scrounges around a massive junkyard on the outskirts of the city as well.
• Mob War: Okura is run by two Yakuza families, with Haruko causing a series of conflicts between them before erupting into all-out war.
• Only Six Faces: Played for laughs in the Yakuza groups. Shin even lampshades this in the first episode.
• Organ Theft: Played for Laughs when Haruko gives Orinoko a pretty rock that she thinks might be a whetstone. Cut to Dainari casually wondering if anyone had seen where part of his stomach had gone off to.
• Prequel: Confirmed as such by it's description on Max. It takes place after Alternative but right before FLCL.
• "Rashomon"-Style: All three episodes feature differing perspectives of its leads on Haruko's arrival in Okura.
• Red Shirt Army: Both Yakuza group flunkies.
• Robotic Reveal: Inverted. In episode 3 it’s revealed that the household robot in Orinoko’s house contains her mother’s consciousness on a CD. At the end of the episode Orinoko takes the CD with her into space.
• Shout-Out: Shonari resembles Ben Grimm in appearance.
• Silicon-Based Life: Shonari and his brother are Rockians— a race of rock people from another planet. They have no need to eat, as they only drink liquids like juice and alcohol for nutrients. They do get drunk off alcohol and throw up if they get sick from it. Their bodies also don't break down postmortem at the same rate compared to humans.
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: Invoked by Haruko when she goes off on a tangent during her scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Mayor by bringing up this comparison.
  Haruko: YOU ARE SO CREEPY, I'M LITERALLY SCREAMING RIGHT NOW! If there was a Guinness Record for creepy, you would hold it! So go on with your "Me Too" jokes, and your egotistical lamesplaining. It just proves you're one of the lunatic cringe! This part doesn't make sense when we translate it, so just forget it! You know what this is like? When you're watching something subtitled because dubs suck? And the only people who laugh are the native speakers!
• Whole-Plot Reference: A town controlled by two feuding gangs before a traveler arrives and plays both sides out of self-interest, causing a mob war to break out.

FLCL: Shoegaze

• Almost Kiss: Happens in episode 2 between Masaki and Harumi.
• Alternate Universe: The events at the end of Alternative ended up creating a parallel dimension. Every now and then, objects from the other dimension crosses over (such as Haruko's red guitar at the start of the first episode.) Tsukata's experiments with Tsuganei Tower was intended to bring the dimensions back together, but Kana grew up and grew too mature to utilize N.O. power anymore, so Tsukata needed to find someone younger who might be able to activate it.
• Applied Phlebotinum: N.O. portals can only be accessed by the mentally immature. Kana grew too old to continue utilizing her own portal, so Tsukata intended on exploiting Masaki's own N.O. portal to activate the tower.
• Big Damn Kiss: In episode 3 Masaki and Harumi finally kiss.
• Bittersweet Ending: The parallel worlds remain separated from each other, meaning Kanda's plan to merge the worlds fails and Kana can't see Pets again. Harumi goes back to his world where he was forcefully taken away to reunite with his family and friends, leaving Masaki alone, who goes back to being the only one to see the apparitions. However, Kana makes with peace with not being able to see Pets again and tries to comfort and heartbroken Kanda, who secretly wished to see Haruko despite his denial. As for Masaki, he's able to cross the worlds and meet up with Harumi again thanks to Atomsk granting him the ability to do so, and moreover, he's helping Kana by sending a letter to Pets.
• Bizarrchitecture: Tsuganei Tower’s design resembles a spinal cord. The big pink bird sitting on top resembles a brain. In episode 2 an enormous brain-shaped machine appears at the top of the tower.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first FLCL season that doesn't feature Haruko as a character. As far as we get, Kanda denies the fact that he wanted to see her again when trying to cause the split dimensions to unite again.
  • This is also the first FLCL season that does feature a returning character or two (Kana and Kanda) without vaguely implying if it's connected to prior seasons or not.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Kana Koumoto and Tsukata Kanda return from Alternative, now ten years older.
  • Briefly, Hijiri and Mossan appear slightly grown up, but only as account avatars 7 years prior.
  • A grown-up non-speaking Pets briefly appears as an apparition in episode 3.
• Call-Back: The purple creature at the top of the tower displays images from the previous seasons, mainly Alternative.
• Deus ex Machina: Atomsk itself manifests from Masaki's N.O. portal and removes the manifold that was about to overload.
• Dimensional Traveler: Masaki is able to cross over to the alternate dimension with the direct assistance of Atomsk itself. Episode 3 ends with him finding Harumi again with the intention of meeting up with him as well as delivering a message from Kana to Pets.
• Distant Sequel: Takes place ten years after the events of Alternative. As such, Kana Koumoto is shown as an adult woman working alongside Tsukata Kanda.
• Fairytale Motifs: Masaki compares himself to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling.
• Fantastic Terrorists: Harumi is a Medical Mechanica sympathizer, deemed an actual terrorist by Tsukata. She doesn't care if Earth is ultimately destroyed by her actions.
• Foreshadowing: Early in episode 1, a red guitar falls out of the sky. Though it doesn't mean anything regarding Haruko, it is connected to the fact that random junk keeps falling down from the other dimension.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The weird ghostly creatures only Masaki can see have scenes from past seasons of FLCL appearing in their bodies.
• Growing Up Sucks: Whereas Pets never came back from Mars and Kana's friends moved on with their lives, Kana spent her next three years after high school just doing whatever she felt like — and was left behind by everyone as a result. Tsukata recruited her to his bureau, only to be a poor excuse of a Parental Substitute wannabe that mostly just orders her around and tried to exploit her for her N.O. portal, which is now all but shut due to becoming emotionally stunted as a working class adult with nothing to show for it at twenty-seven years old.
• Indirect Kiss: In episode 1 Harumi does this to Masaki. She shoves a lollipop she was sucking on into his mouth, saying she hates cherry flavor. Masaki is understandably flustered about this.
• Invisible to Normals: Masaki has been seeing strange Slimer-like spirits for most of his life, but nobody ever believes him until Harumi came along. Whether these things are actually spirits or something else is not yet known. By the end of episode 2, they’ve become visible to everyone due to the phenomenon happening with the tower. By the end of episode 3, they go back to being invisible to everyone except Masaki.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a result of Harumi going back to their own dimension, everyone save for Masaki forgets about them.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The main female character Harumi fills virtually the same role that Haruko usually occupies.
• Merged Reality: This was what Kanda was trying to achieve, but it's ultimately stopped.
• Red Herring: In episode 3, Harumi sees her past when she was a little kid with her sibling. Though the focus is initially on the girl, it's the boy who turns out to be the real Harumi before being warped into Masaki's dimension as a girl in a different family.
• Rule of Three: Harumi has a warped belief that everything happens in threes— namely that humans will die without 3 minutes of oxygen, 3 days without water, or 3 weeks without food.
• Shout-Out:
  • Kana pulls a sharp turn in her car in episode 2, mimicking the trailing brake lights from the iconic motorbike gang scene from AKIRA.
  • Harumi’s hairstyle gives her a strong resemblance to Panty Anarchy from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
• Suddenly Voiced: According to the closed captions, Masaki hears the voice of none other than Atomsk in his earbuds.
• Void Between the Worlds: Masaki's interaction with a strange black field leads to Imaginary Time becoming real, and a massive brain-like structure materializes from Imaginary Space.
• Wham Episode: Episode 2 ends with Harumi getting shot and possibly killed right in front of Masaki and Kana.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • At some point over the last ten years, Pets ended up crossing over to the other dimension that was created at the end of Alternative. She just continued to live her own life.
  • Haruko is a complete no-show outside of being mentioned by Kana, despite having appeared in every prior season including Alternative.