FLCL. Just your average Slice Of Life.

I can't believe how packed each episode is.

Aiko, fittingly, resembled Squid Girl, because of the beach setting. Also, getting the same English dub actor of Squid G Irl to voice Aiko may have just been a happy coincidence, but it's fun to imagine the casting director being a fan of her.

Hidomi is fucked up, Iide better watch out.

And Mori is pathetic.

Welp, I'm totally lost. It only took three episodes.

tldr, Haruko and Jinyu are both after Medical Mechanica, though for different reasons. Hidomi seems to be the most powerful NO user available, but she's somehow blocked and not readily usable. Ide is another NO user, less powerful but more easily accessible. Haruko is trying to "unlock" Hidomi, while Jinyu and Ide are trying to protect her from Haruko's influence. Hidomi and Ide are into each other, but Ide is too cool and Hidomi too shy to admit it.

"Shy" may not be the right read for Hidomi, though. She definitely reads as depressed to me, and the dreams (particularly the one in the third episode, where she was excited and cheerful about the thought of being eaten) kinda feel like self-harm fantasies, but I'm not sure on that. But her emotional responses to basically everything are really muted, and the only thing she's reacted strongly to at all is Ide, but she seems unwilling to actually express interest in him (even though he's definitely interested in her). This may be less "shyness" and more a consequence of her depression.

It's a good thing your brain disappears when your NO channel is opened, otherwise Hidomi's head would look like scrambled eggs right now.

I'm liking this series so far. It doesn't have the immediate oomph of the original, but it's taking a different approach with the characters.

As expected, this show does an excellent job of hiding all of the useful information in cryptic dream sequences, zany characters, and outrageous action scenes.

Hidomi's apathy is strange to me; I'm used to "apathetic" anime characters being emotionally dead to the point where nothing phases them, like flying through the air or transforming into a robot.

I keep trying to trace everything back to Naota since he's in the ending credits, but this show seems determined to distance itself from the first season as much as possible. I was content with that right until Haruko had to bring up "overflowing" and "Medical Mechanica." As if to spit in my face and go, "wait, did you think this was standalone? Why, because none of the former characters besides Haruko have made appearances and the town looks different? Shame on you."

Haruko's chest seems larger and her methods a lot rapey-er than they were in the first season. Assuming I heard her right during the beach episode, she's come onto Jin-yu more than once last episode. furi-kuri-furi-kuru

I was amused at first to see Haruko "repeating Season 1's plot with Ide" while we were focusing on Jin-yu and Hidomi, but the focus isn't even.

Hidomi is supposed to be the protagonist but Ide feels more suited to the role: he's the one summoning monsters, asking questions, confronting Haruko, and his personality is much easier to latch onto. Heck, he's the one Haruko approached first. We had an inkling of Hidden Depths from him in the first episode but I didn't expect his personality change to be this potent - there's no trace of the perverted class clown from the first episode.

I can't say I enjoy the pairings this time around. Hidomi and Jin-yu don't have much interaction, and Haruko and Ide's interaction is largely off-screen. It feels like they're all fighting for screen time but never getting quite enough. Somehow I feel like I've spent more time with Ide's skirt-wearing friend than anybody else.

I want to know more about Jin-yu but Haruko steals the scene whenever they're together.

Where Haruko is this fun, exciting, cryptic force of evil, Jin-yu is a stoic, boring third wheel who keeps trying to provide exposition only to get shut down every time. Just when you think it's comforting to have a character who seems to have a grip on reality, a character who's wise to Haruko's games and can actually fight back against all of her crazy - and the plot shuts her down every time she tries to explain something, and only lets her talk when she's being metaphorical. Right now, she feels like a waste of space.

Someone mentioned Haruko "splitting herself" before and after watching Episodes 2 and 3 I get it now. I suppose it was pretty obvious the way she and Jin-yu appear in the credits. I wonder what the story behind that was. I was also surprised to hear Jin-yu's admit she and Haruko have the same objective - I thought her motive was taking down Haruko, but it seems like Jin-yu might pull a Face–Heel Turn of her own.

I'm kind of bummed that the parents don't seem to be as wacky this season. Heck, there's not been a blatant fourth wall break or a "furikuri" scene.

I'm really curious what the connection is between Jin-yu, Hidomi, Haruko, Medical Mechanica, and Ide. Why did Haruko have to come back to Earth to find "Atomsk" or whatever it is that she's looking for? What do the credits mean - we see Haruko smiling and reaching for Atomsk, and her and Jin-yu passing by familiar characters, Mamimi smoking on what appears to be a Vespa, and I think a shot of Naota in his powered-up state. If he's there, what role does he play here? And what's with the old man with the eyepatch and the red-haired dude?

I get the feeling that none of this will be answered and while we'll see the "timeline of events" on Earth, everything about Haruko's past, why she's doing what she's doing, what became of the original cast, and Atomsk will all be left up to interpretation.

edited 21st Jun '18 4:20:59 PM by Soble

Maybe my brain automatically puts blinders on me in these situations, but I do not EVER seen Haruko flirt with Jinyu.

Haruko has broken the fourth wall a few times so far actually, though they're mostly relegated to dialogue (she says she's the real main character after she takes off her teacher disguise), and also seems to have newfound reality-warping powers (the class immediately praises her existence seemingly out of nowhere like a cult without any reason, and she controlled part of the dialogue between Hidomi and Ide before breaking it up like a director yelling cut).

edited 21st Jun '18 9:57:54 AM by kyun

• Haruko: The blue spring of adolescence. Perhaps this is an extension of our friendship - delayed adolescence if you will.
• Jin-yu: I'm content with you changing your mind about our relationship, but that still doesn't mean you can have Hidomi.

-insert picture of George Takei-

To be honest I misheard that part and thought Jin-yu had said something more blunt. Maybe she only meant that Haruko had switched from "serious threat" to "nuisance."

But also consider:

• Haruko mentions Jin-yu is holding a grudge against her
• She says she's "fine with Jin-yu doing it [giving Haruko a rubdown]" when Jin-yu blocks her from Hidomi. This moments after she was teasing the guys into putting sunscreen on her.

Haruko's pervertedness is pretty overt, but she didn't act this way around Mammimi or Kitsurubami. This the first time we've seen her act this way with another woman. And with this being a Beach Episode and all, everything is even more sexually-charged than usual.

We've also got Haruko stripping Hidomi down with the intention of activating her NO channel. I don't know if that's just the way she likes to operate or what, but it struck me that if she's willing to swing that way then the come-ons with Jin-yu might not have been so innocent.

Also, Jin-yu's the first person that Haruko has dropped her playful act this time around - the last person that happened with was Amarao. Of course, we could already figure out they had a deeper history from the first episode, but I wouldn't see Haruko dropping her Obfuscating Stupidity around anyone who hasn't already seen through it.

I might just be reading too much into it. It was just the suntan lotion bit that got my yuri wheels rolling. I admit I'd also found it kind of weird she'd have sexual tension with someone I suspect is a doppelganger of sorts.

It seemed like a fourth wall break, but I wrote it off when Haruko dropped from the ceiling.

Can't explain the classroom cult. That part was kind of weird. So was the 3 month timeskip. I can't believe it's taken her three months to try anything with Hidomi... though the three months might explain Ide's personality switch now that I think about it.

All in all, as I said, this show baffles me. I don't know where anybody stands. For all I know the mom is going to turn into a robot soon.

edited 21st Jun '18 4:18:42 PM by Soble

Then maybe I don't around hunting down scandalous yuri in anime shows that aren't know to have them.

If this show baffles you, that's good. It means this is FLCL in form.

Three months. that's how dedicated Haruko plays her games.

I would LOVE if this season ended with a reveal that Haruko actually did obtain reality-warping powers upon getting a hold of Atomsk's power.

edited 21st Jun '18 12:07:44 PM by kyun

Glad I wasn't the only one sensing some sexual tension between Haruko and Jinyu.

I wouldn't say I was intentionally looking for yuri in shows that lack them. The suntan lotion bit would be pretty telling in any other kind of show. I'd have ignored it if not for the other things. And let's be frank, this season is called "progressive" and I somehow doubt Jinyu has car insurance.

I like baffling, convoluted time travel stories and animes that try to drown the audience with metaphors sure enough. But I've always been able to binge them and put everything into context later on most of the time. Sitting on FLCL week to week is... unsettling. I could fix that by waiting for the season to end but screw that I need my furi kuri fix.

The time jump was sudden. I forget how much time passed in the first season but it took me a minute to catch up with the classroom.

Sexual tension's a better word for it.

Also, Hidomi's dreams are freaking me out. Just when I thought I'd seen the most twisted dream sequences television could offer I see some girl fall out of the sky and get eaten alive by zombies, all the while raving about how much she enjoys getting eaten.

Like, what the f'ck.

edited 21st Jun '18 4:39:26 PM by Soble

Haruko seems like the kind of girl who's into herself.

Hidomi is one messed up chick.

edited 21st Jun '18 4:36:19 PM by slimcoder

She's really not, though. Like Naota, she's almost aggressively normal — she's just put in staggeringly abnormal situations. What I find interesting about Hidomi as compared to Naota (or Ide, for that matter) is that she's more passive... but she's also very clearly depressed, so that's not exactly surprising. One of the clearest symptoms of depression is that it's hard to get the motivation to do anything.

The zombie thing is the part I have the hardest time getting a read on, but I think it's still about depression. The thing about rotting from the inside out? To put it another way, she feels dead inside, and in her dreams this manifests itself physically. My best guess about the "wanting to be eaten" thing is that it's a reference to self-harm. One of the reasons people self-harm is that at least feeling pain means feeling something — it's a relief from the sense of numbness or disassociation that can come with severe depression. The fact that dream-Hidomi is clearly excited about being eaten when she hasn't shown a strong emotional reaction to anything else seems to support that idea.

edited 22nd Jun '18 3:58:51 AM by NativeJovian

That, and the fact that endorphins give you the same kind of high as morphine. Matter of fact, that's where the name comes from: it's a contraction of endogenous morphine.

RIP Jinyu, you were delicious.

Well, that happened.

In an unexpected twist this episode doesn't have a dream sequence of happy, kinky Hidomi. She's real this time around.

Still not sure who the two old guys are, if they're meant to be anyone. Are they Medical Mechanica, or are they fighting Medical Mechanica? I keep wanting to say that Red-Haired Guy is Amarao, but that doesn't match up.

I don't know what was going on in the family restaurant at the start of the episode.

A lot's been said about Hidomi's depression this episode and I couldn't follow any of it beyond Missing Dad. Started getting Serial Experiments Lain vibes whenever her happy face broke and her voice went all monotone.

Maybe it's because I'm watching it early in the morning but the zaniness kind of irritated me this episode. It's got that casual craziness hiding all of the important details underneath guitars and battling robots - but this time they were really throwing it in my face with, "yup, we're telling you exactly what's going on but you're still not getting it." And then Jinyu dies and I feel like they've said everything they wanted to say with this character, even though I didn't hear or understand anything. Maybe she's just Put on a Bus. I hope this isn't the last we see of her.

I like the shot where Ide was running after Jinyu's car. The animation of that was neat.

How did Hidomi lose the headset? I'm assuming Haruko and Jinyu's fight is what loosened the uh... "screws" that were inside of the headset? Did Hidomi's mom ever ask why she wearing those things? What did Hidomi mean by "she doesn't have a mother either?" Is that the extent of her depression? Because from what we've seen her mother cares for her very much - she's delusional and hyper, sure. but she doesn't seem like a bad parent necessarily.

When did Hidomi figure out what Haruko and Jinyu were doing? I guess she overheard Jinyu talking to Haruko?

Does Haruko have Atomsk/Canti's powers? The last time we saw that berserk form was when Naota allegedly absorbed Atomsk's power. So when did Haruko obtain it?

If "Jinyu is some kind of clone or doppelganger" of Haruko then how was she made? Why would Haruko have split herself? I was thinking maybe Haruko split herself from Jinyu so that she could focus solely on Atomsk... Jinyu was the part of her conscience that made her not want to "capture" Atomsk, but then, what were the circumstances behind the splitting, and then why would Haruko re-assimilate her? Is Jinyu suppressed now? It seems like Haruko putting on her glasses (which moments ago she'd made fun of) is meant to symbolize the two being merged, but what does that mean going forward? Does Haruko want Atomsk less now?

Hey, Canti's around... well he's in pieces, but he's there!

Seems like next episode is trying to parody the original show's visual style. The outlines on the characters look, I don't know, fuzzier? Different at least. The way Ide and Haruko were drawn seemed like an older, rougher style.

edited 24th Jun '18 6:26:41 AM by Soble

I got a chuckle from Canti appearing strung up like Lilith from Evangelion.

Wooooof. A LOT to unpack today.

So ... let's call her Moedomi. So Moedomi's presence in the second ep wasn't just random- she actually gets to come out of her dreams and take over her body a la Monkeybone style after Hidomi gets knocked out unconscious and something screws with her brain. ... or it could've just been Haruko literally screwing her brain. .. Moedomi gets annoying fast though.

It looks like Hidomi's friend is also getting some NO powers. I suppose it's like reistu from Bleach: the closer to someone with NO power you get, the more it rubs off onto you.

The loli returns! Yes! I knew it!

We get to see the inside of Medical Mechanica, though there's... not much to go on. Just a bunch of white, CGI walls and a another CGI tower that resembles a human spine. Metaphorical for something.

JIRYU DIES!?!? What??? We're only in Episode 4! What the hell! You mean to tell me Haruko could just devour her all this time and only just got around to doing it?? Sucks. ;_; Who's going to be the sane man now? Probably Ide, who in the preview appears to face Haruko in her stead. At least now we know why Haruko's hair was orange before transforming back to pink.

It seems Episode 5, mirroring the fifth ep from the 1st OVA, is going to have another animation director.

There is no way Haruko is 16 years old! Obviously it's a mistake from whatever 4-year-old was hired $5 to write those subtitles.

Conti appearing is a welcome surprise! He didn't appear in any of the promo materials! And him mimicking the angel from EVA is hilarious!

edited 24th Jun '18 9:30:04 AM by kyun

Remember Episode 3 of the original series? Eri started manifesting NO powers after getting headbutted by Naota.

Shit's getting real now. How long is this supposed to be, anyway? Just six episodes like the original, or are they doing something longer?

So the headphones seem to be a way for Medical Mechanica to control NO channels. That's why Harko wanted them off — because she wants Hidomi's NO channel open so she can use it to get access to Atomsk again.

I'm honestly more confused about Jinyu than ever. Was all the "we're the same" stuff literal or not? Was she actually a portion of Haruko that was split off somehow, or were they just "the same" in the sense of both coming from similar situations (ie, space pirate types who had dealings with Atomsk)? If they were originally the same person, then what part of Haruko was Jinyu? Who split them and why?

That aside, I don't think that Haruko eating Jinyu necessarily means that they were originally the same person. We've seen this sort of fusion before — it's how Naota combed with Canti, and when Haruko was angry at Naota for getting Atomsk's power before she could, one of the things she said was "I was gonna be the one to eat him!" or something to that effect. So I think this is more of an "absorbing another's power" thing in general. As an aside: who wants to bet that the formless eldritch horror that Haruko briefly turns into while eating Jinyu is her real form, and the whole spunky human girl thing is somewhere between Sleep-Mode Size and A Form You Are Comfortable With?

I find it interesting that Jinyu's motivation appears to be genuine selfless love for Atomsk. She just wants to set him free, as he presumably wants to be. But I kind of get the impression that Atomsk is less a person and more of a force of nature — Medical Mechanica may well be justified in wanting to keep him sealed. Meanwhile, Haruko does seem to love him in her own way as well — or at least hold such profound respect for him (and/or his power) that it amounts to something similar.

It's interesting how they're handling Hidomi and Ide here. Neither of them have much in the way of character agency — Ide has the motivation but not the power to follow through, while Hidomi has the power but is consistently robbed of the motivation. It was a lot of fun watching Ide in this last episode — the poor kid is doing his damnedest to help, even though he knows absolutely nothing about what the hell's going on except that he's way out of his league. But that doesn't stop him from trying.

In response to some of the comments above:

The two bystander guys (the redhead and the old man) seem to be taking on the role Amarao played, except without the benefit of Amarao's personal experience with Haruko. Which would make them the representatives of humanity at large — just trying to make sure that Earth makes it out of the conflict intact — but without the support base Amarao had. Ironically, given FLCL's attitude toward such things, I suspect this will make them more effective rather than less.

I'm not sure that Hidomi's depression is meant to be directly linked to her family issues — it seems rather the other way around to me. No idea what the deal with her dad is yet, but her mom seems to have trouble connecting with her because of her depression, rather than being depressed because she can't connect with her mother. One of the things her mom said this episode was that she feels like she's really Hidomi's mother for the first time now that she's being Moedomi... which is actually pretty sad, considering.

I don't think that this episode was supposed to be "we're telling you everything but you still don't get it" — it's not really FLCL's style to tell the audience everything. It's more like "here's another piece or two of the puzzle, make of it what you will". If you understand everything with 100% clarity and no ambiguity at the end of the show, then FLCL has failed. A big part of the fun is filling in those gaps yourself.

As for why Hidomi's headset came off, I don't think it was anything specific that Haruko or Jinyu did. I suspect they came off because Hidomi wanted them to. She uses the headphones as a sort of crutch — an Enforced Trope of Headphones Equal Isolation, basically. She keeps them on because she doesn't want to be interacting with the rest of the world... until she does. It was a sort of security blanket until she was ready. If anyone made her want to take them off, it was probably Ide — he's still the only person she's had a strong positive reaction to. It's a bit early to tell, but I'd guess that her putting them back on again is a sort of shift in her attitude — yes, she's still isolating herself, but now it's on her terms. Before she was passively hiding from the world hoping it will ignore her if she ignores it, but now she's actively rejecting outside influences, saying "you can't affect me because I do not choose to allow you to". I suspect he series climax will be her taking them off on her own, then unleashing her full powers of NO for the first time, similar to when Naota started channeling the full power of Atomsk. But that's pretty speculative on my part.

As far as Haruko being 16, while that's clearly not true, that definitely seems to be what was written — you can see the "(16)" in the original Japanese text. She claims to be 19 in the original FLCL (but is probably lying). At first I thought it was a meta thing, but the original FLCL came out in 2000, so if that's what they were doing she'd be 18, not 16. So I don't really know what's going on with that.

edited 25th Jun '18 11:36:23 AM by NativeJovian

I think I get why people are confusing Jinyu's origin now. This was the first time I've been able to catch the show live on Toonami, so I never knew they chopped up the ED sequence. I'd recommend going to one of the usual places and watching just the end sequence there. There is a clear narrative to how Jinyu came to be. Or as clear as FLCL gets on its cosmic stuff.

edited 25th Jun '18 11:43:02 AM by Zeromaeus

Holy shit Haruko was terrifying this episode. I want her to step on me.

(3) Now see it's interesting you mention that because I think...

...what?

Evil Is Sexy

Well, I can't necessarily disagree.

Just, with Haruko, I'm afraid she would bash my skull in with a Richenbacker before I gained even the slightest sense of pleasure from it.