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General
- Adored by the Network: [adult swim] has stated numerous times that of all the anime the network has ever aired, FLCL is their favorite, to the point that they commissioned four more seasons specifically to air on the Toonami block''.
- Anime First: The series was later adapted into a two volume manga, which was less comedic and even more of a Mind Screw than the original series. An omnibus edition of the manga was released in 2012, featuring an additional story and lots of artwork and character designs.
- Channel Hop: While the original series is licensed to Funimation, Progressive and Alternative are owned outright by Warner Home Video.
- Colbert Bump: The Pillows received this thanks to the series.
- DVD Commentary: There are Japanese commentaries for all six episodes with the director Kazuya Tsurumaki.
- Franchise Ownership Acquisition: The rights to the series was sold by Gainax, by then a troubled company, to Production I.G in 2015. I.G would produce Progressive and Alternative without Gainax's involvement.
- Inspiration for the Work: Tsurumaki stated that the reason why the series exists was because he and his staff had become burnt out from making End of Evangelion, so they wanted to do something to help them blow off steam.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Not the case anymore, but the series fell into this in North America for a few years due to a combination of its continuing popularity and the licensor, Synch-Point, folding not long after releasing a complete box set with additional extras. In the months before Funimation rescued the license, copies of the original DVDs, to say nothing of the box set, were going on eBay for ridiculously high prices.
- Network to the Rescue: Synch-Point went out of business, and for years there were no DVDs after the initial print run of the box set. Luckily, Funimation decided to re-release the series on a single DVD and give it its first ever (American) Blu-ray release. Similarly, after Tokyopop shut down its American division, Dark Horse Comics released an omnibus edition of the manga.
- Portmanteau Series Nickname: A rare case in which the nickname is essentially the primary official name.
- Referenced by...:
- Upon getting signed on for Avatar: The Last Airbender, Giancarlo Volpe made the rest of the crew watch FLCL. This influence is especially obvious in the series' early run with the goofy tone and animation.
- There's a emo band called Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly
. In addition to being named after the anime, they also use a sample from the dub in one of their songs.
- Star-Making Role:
- Haruko Haruhara for Kari Wahlgren. She was completely new to voice acting when she was cast.
- To a lesser extent, Mamimi for Stephanie Sheh. Prior to this role, her only voice acting credits were bit parts.
- Uncredited Role: In the Japanese version, the voice actor of Naota's cat (Miyu Miyu) is credited as "?". Tsurumaki revealed that Hideaki Anno himself provided the cat's voice.
- Vindicated by Reruns: The series was adored enough from its constant repeats on Adult Swim in the U.S. that they decided to collaborate with Production I.G over fifteen years later to produce a second and third season of the series (Progressive and Alternative). And then they did it again to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Toonami in 2022, ordering another two seasons of the series (Grunge and Shoegaze).
- What Could Have Been:
- The original idea for the story revolved around Haruko (a space officer) and Atomsk (her prisoner) falling in love. While this idea was scrapped, a few discreet references to Haruko's past were kept.
- [adult swim] tried to have a second season made in the 2000s, similarly to what they did with The Big O. They didn't succeed in doing so until the following decade, when they were able to commission two additional seasons.
- The Pillows were very close in denying working to make music for the series because it felt weird to them to do music for anime outside their comfort zone as a typical music band.
- Hideaki Anno revealed in a 2019 interview that he had tried to get Gainax to sign over the rights to the FLCL IP (as well as the GunBuster IP) to him and Studio Khara in exchange for a million-class loan to help the struggling studio away from the edge of bankruptcy. Anno's plans were to let his protégé, Kazuya Tsurumaki, develop new installments for both shows, but much to his outspoken annoyance, Gainax instead straight up duped him and moved the rights to a shell company simply to avoid upholding their end of the bargain.
Other
- The English dub for this series may be the only one not set in pre-Meiji times to keep characters' names in Eastern style. This threw off the voice actors a lot, as shown in the outtakes. The manga flips their names to Western style, as does this site.
- There was one animation director at Gainax who, for whatever reason, absolutely loved Eri Ninamori. He insisted he be allowed to helm every scene where Ninamori appears. This is why the times she's onscreen look and feel similar to each other, even if the entire rest of an episode is made in a completely different style.
- Haruko is left-handed because the director isn't. Tsurumaki believes left-handed people are more interesting and fun.
- Amarao's eyebrows are scanned seaweed.
- The anime short I Can Friday By Day!, created by the anime director/manga author Hajime Ueda, seems to take place in the same universe.
