DVD Reviews: FLCL Volume 1

Alright this a an extremely quirky release and I haven't seen anything like it for a while. I must admit that I have been looking forward to it for some time and especially when I read that the team working on it were responsible for two wonderful anime; Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion. So despite the fact that I believed I was about to take a ride off the deep end of common sense, I was prepared to go along for the ride.

The story, wacky as it is, goes something like this. Naota (which means truth) lives in a town dominated by a huge medical research facility that pumps smoke all over the place. He spends time down by the river with a girl that went to his older brother's school called Mamimi. She seems to be homeless and spends a lot of time by herself playing video games.

All this changes one day when a crazy girl runs him over with her Vespa scooter and then smacks him in the head with her bass guitar. It's all carried out in a crazed frenetic way that at first you wonder if you should bother with it all. The anime style jumps from traditional to the recently popular style where true animation is replaced by a lot of blurring and crazed looks are depicted by swirling eyes. Things go from bad to worse when it turns out that Naota's father has hired this crazy girl to be their housekeeper! Not to mention the fact that robots have started jumping out of his head!

This is one of those titles that you will have to follow your heart with as I strongly believe that if you are not prepared for absolute crazy times, this disc is not for you. It doesn't make sense at the start of the feature and only just starts to piece together at the very end of the second feature, which is torture as you are really left wanting more. The characters are all showing great growth potential that you just know is going to be explored in greater depth and they all have their own special story.

The extras on the disc are nicely placed as well with there being a music video and also a number of character sketches and looks at the Japanese versions of these programs.

I do recommend this DVD and look forward to seeing the rest of the series.