The actual plot of the story pales in comparison to the way it is presented. Broadly speaking, Naota resides in the seemingly mundane town of Mabase—until one day when he gets hit by Haruko Haruhara on a scooter, and a robot bursts out of a bump on his head.

Haruko turns out to be an alien who’s hunting something extremely powerful and deeply enigmatic, and both Naota and the robot Canti are clearly connected to this mystery.

I recall watching FLCL when it first came out over two decades ago. I was still in college at the time, and I was blown away by just how bizarre and hilarious this anime was.

It was also meant to represent Gainax’s “second wave,” created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, who had worked his way up through the ranks. With FLCL, Tsurumaki definitely left his mark.

This is especially true because in the years since, we've seen various sequels and spin-offs that are intriguing in their own right, but I still believe the original series stands far above the rest and was really meant as a self-contained experience.

What makes FLCL unique is the way it deconstructs how anime is typically consumed. It includes segments drawn in manga style, sequences in different visual formats, and plenty of absurd humor just for the sake of it.

Honestly, a lot of today's "wacky" anime owes its structure and presentation style to the original FLCL. Watching it again recently only reinforced how ahead of its time it truly was.

As for this particular release, it's pretty minimal in terms of special features. The video transfer is decent, though not immaculate. I suspect this has to do with the original digital masters being produced at a lower resolution, which means the upscale isn’t perfect.

That said, it’s still a major improvement over the old DVD versions, and having everything neatly packed onto a single disc is very convenient.

The audio, however, is fantastic. My long-standing admiration for The Pillows remains strong even after all these years. Having seen them live in Nagoya many years ago, hearing their songs once more within the anime that first introduced me to the band feels genuinely nostalgic.

All things considered, FLCL Season 1 is a landmark anime that demonstrated the direction Gainax was heading—and where studios like Khara and Trigger would eventually follow. It’s almost unbelievable that this anime is over twenty years old, because it still feels so fresh and amusing, and I can still feel that Hybrid Rainbow.

You can purchase FLCL Season 1 on Blu-ray from the Crunchyroll online store for $31.98.

Disclosure: Crunchyroll provided me with this Blu-ray for review purposes.

Follow me on X, Facebook, and YouTube. I also run Mecha Damashii and am currently part of the Giant Robots exhibition touring across Japan.

The above is the detailed content of 'FLCL' Season 1 Blu-Ray Review: Surrealism With A Banging Soundtrack. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!