FLCL. Just your average Slice Of Life.

I didn't recognize the voice until the second classroom scene. Didn't know what Kari Wahlgren sounded like and it seemed a little too obvious, especially when Doppelganger Woman appeared. I figured it was probably her.

Then she started talking faster and I was like :)

edited 3rd Jun '18 12:14:48 PM by Soble

The "doppelganger" looks and acts nothing like her, though. The impression I'm getting is that she and Haruko used to be a By-the-Book Cop / Cowboy Cop buddy duo, and that she's come to rein Haruko in.

Also, has time actually passed? Is Naota an adult now?

I guess so. Hidomi's mom seemed to be lost in thought over a missing husband and people think it's Naota.

Yet, it feels wrong somehow, a little too disconnected from the original for Naota to be a Missing Dad now. I mean I like how there's another "Space Pahtrol Offasir" around and Haruko seems to be the Hero of Another Story, getting into her usual antics with Ide off-screen - but I expected Naota to be in Amaro's role, not Ta-kun's.

Or maybe it's fitting since his brother was missing and FLCL was ostensibly all about him learning to deal with that and grow out of his brother's shadow. But then I don't know how to connect that to the opening scene of Hidomi rotting away in that weird other dimension.

Anyway, I guess since Hidomi said the "nothing ever happens here" line then Naota must be her dad. Though how Naota both A) failed to shack up with Ninamori, and B) managed to pass on his ho-hum personality to his daughter is just amazing to me.

edited 3rd Jun '18 12:59:14 PM by Soble

I thought Hidomi said "Nothing ever happens here" not to indicate that she's Naota's daughter, but to indicate that she has his existential ennui. That she's the same kind of kid—the kind Haruko needs for some reason. Then again, the latter could easily be an indication of the former.

I'd be surprised if it's the latter. That would probably help for people who want this to be something largely different from the original.

I'd considered Haruko just looking for another kid going through 'existential ennui' but then you look at Ide - evidently his NO channel still lets him summon robots that proceed to go on rampages, but personality-wise he's an extroverted pervert - so that can't be it.

edited 3rd Jun '18 1:10:59 PM by Soble

What is it with Haruko and depressed kids, anyway?

They give the best shit.

Haruko's baaaack!

.... how would Mamimi go from a psychotic homeless bum to a loving providing mother?

edited 3rd Jun '18 3:53:32 PM by kyun

I didn't even notice the teacher's voice turning into Haruko's. I was kind of tuning her out because I was trying to catch all the text messages.

She put her life together after she became a photographer?

edited 3rd Jun '18 4:28:38 PM by Cross

Haruko is like a punk rock Mary Poppins and/or fairy godmother. She visits sad children and injects their life with madcap insanity.

edited 3rd Jun '18 7:52:49 PM by ThriceCharming

Good and hilarious point. XD

So everyone saw the credits sequence, right? Because no one is talking about that trippy stuff with Atomsk or probably!Naota watching the Atomsk(?) lights fall back to Earth.

I think I saw Mamimi's silhouette in there too actually.

edited 5th Jun '18 6:46:28 AM by Soble

Wait, people see Haruko as the good guy in the original FLCL? I always read her as Affably Evil. She's using Naota as a means to get to Atomsk so she can eat his power, and doesn't really care about anything else. (She presumably had a similar relationship with Amarao in the past, as well.) She's shamelessly manipulative and self-centered. Everything she does, she does because it benefits her, not to save the world from Medical Mechanica or help Naota grow up or anything like that. The impression I get from the first episode of Progressive is that Haruko is back for round two (or three, if you count Amarao). Another person with massive N.O. potential has shown up and she's there to take advantage of it.

The thing that was most striking to me about the new episode was the differences rather than the similarities, though. Neither Hidomi nor Ide fit the same mold as Amarao and Naota. They were both immature people trying really hard to be seen as mature (and revealing their immaturity in the process). Naota also had a cynical streak a mile wide, mostly caused by his insane family. Meanwhile, Ide seems like a relatively normal middle school kid (neither more nor less mature than you'd expect from his age), while Hidomi seems to be seriously depressed. She's profoundly apathetic about life, not due to cynicism like Naota, but because she just doesn't seem to have the energy to care. That reads like clinical depression to me.

There's also the fact that Hidomi and Ide are in middle school rather than grade school like Naota was. Not sure how significant that will actually (they may only be a year older than he is, after all — I didn't actually catch what grade they're in), but the transition at he very end of FLCL where Naota is now wearing a middle school uniform was pretty significant, it's worth mentioning. The fact that there are two of them is also pretty obviously significant, though howso isn't clear to me yet. Ide seems to be doing the classic Naota "robots pop out of his head" thing, while Hidomi (based on the dream sequence in the beginning) seems to summon some sort of power armor to herself. Could be a sexual reference (the boy "pushing something out" vs the girl "pulling something in"), but it may be more than that. We'll see.

Jinyu is pretty mysterious at this point, but my best guess is that she's an anti-Haruko. Instead of trying to open the kids' N.O. channels, she's trying to keep them closed. She may be an actual Space Patrol officer (which Haruko claimed to be at one point in the original OVA, but was lying about) or she may be a Medical Mechanica employee. She's certainly a foil for Haruko, having a lot of the same plot beats but with something reversed (she has an actual cool car instead of a dinky scooter, when she runs over Hidomi she says that she's fine when Haruko declared Naota "completely dead", etc).

All in all, a pretty solid showing. It's got the same style without being a complete rehash, and the combination of familiar and unfamiliar things makes me more confident that this is going to be something legitimately interesting rather than just a nostalgia cash grab. Looking forward to the rest of it.

I currentky have only watched four episodes of the original OVA. Pretty good so far!

Was she? The talk about "normally, she and the King of the Pirates would have been mortal enemies" made me think she actually was a Space Cop who went rogue.

I thought she was Chaotic Neutral.

I read that as "because they were rival pirates".

I'm sad that we're going to have to wait until November to get the rest of the series apparently. Started off so well too. Though can we not have any lingering crotch shots of that guy in the miniskirt?

... well you know we're getting the next five episodes weekly until like mid-July.

x2: Yeah, only sub watchers/Japanese viewers have to wait until November for FLCL Progressive and Alternative to be available in its original language. Toonami directly advertised Episode 2 premiering this coming Saturday, contrary to the misconception.

Ihope so.

Oh god that's hilarious.

Bringing the Pillows back is the smartest thing they could have done.