Manga Review

by m maldonado

Manga title: FLCL (Fooly Cooly/Furi Kuri), Volume 1

Favorite quote: "Good girls wouldn't touch that!"

Robots warring with giant hands. A boy with a horn. A massive building shaped like a steam iron.

A guitar-wielding, Vespa-driving maniac. A lewd girl who smokes. A brother whose presence is felt even

in his absence.

Humor. Conflict. Drama. Tragedy. Violence.

Welcome to the world of FLCL, brought to you by the good people at Gainax (creators of "Neon

Genesis Evangelion"). Prepare for wackiness.

The tale begins with Naota ("Takkun" to his brother's girlfriend, Mamimi), a 12-year-old boy

who strives to be more mature than his pervert father and grumpy grandpa. As he sits beneath a bridge,

doing his homework, Mamimi lays around, doing nothing but savoring the company of another (she has so

very few others in her life), as well as bothering Naota while he works. Everything is fine. Everything is

normal.

Enter the Vespa Girl, stage right. Charging in on her Vespa motorscooter, she charges Naota, and

smacks him dead-on with her guitar, bruising his forehead and sending him hurtling across the ground.

Mamimi tries to protect him, while the Vespa Girl screams and shouts at her, trying to hit the boy with the

guitar again. When an opening is finally found, they both discover that Naota has died. And the story goes

on from there.

This manga was an out-of-the-blue purchase, spurred by the absence of the manga I really wanted

("Excel Saga", volume 3). It was only supposed to provide a mere hour of distraction from the outside

world, but instead I read it once, then twice, then thrice, then four times, and then I was hooked. It takes a

good dozen readings to really wrap your head around it, but once you've got it, you want more. The story is

primarily comedy, but sometimes there are hints of seriousness. You just have to look for them. Naota

plays the somber side for the most part, and the Vespa Girl provides some of the most humorous dialog

ever seen in manga ("Good girls' wouldn't touch that!" "You got a video? Lucky! All I got was a

slideshow."); Mamimi is the mystery; everyone else just plays to these three's personalities.

Putting the characters aside, let us discuss the story. In concordance with Gainax Rule Number

One, the story is immensely confusing from the get-go. Volume one alone has 192 pages, and in those the

reader is only provided with the most rudimentary of glances at the real meat of the story. This style of

storytelling is one that Gainax is VERY familiar with (Neon Genesis Evangelion is an enigma wrapped in a

mystery wrapped in utter insanity). Their tendency to leave questions unanswered is one that can either

intrigue you immensely or irritate you to no end. While they are having a lot more fun with FLCL than they

did with NGE, they haven't seemed to have disposed of their old tricks, and I, for one, am most

appreciative.

The art of Hajime Ueda is like none other that I've encountered. It is very raw, and seems to have

been hastily drawn with a ballpoint pen. There are (usually) no shadows or highlights on the characters, and

sometimes the lines are unconnected and disjointed. Hajime zips through styles page by page, one with

scrambled, chaotic art, another with more traditional drawings, and the next a mass of black scribbles.

While it seems very random at times, it's the kind of style that can grow on you, if you let it. If you don't,

you may end up throwing the book down in disgust and walking away.

A good manga overall, the only improvement possible would be the second volume, and more information to fuel a better understanding of the story.

Rating: A+