About one week ago, a party of 13 people piled into my apartment’s tiny living room just shy of 11 P.M. and gathered around the TV. It was my 29th birthday party, so the remote was handed off to me with the express promise that I could play anything I wanted. There were plenty of new and exciting anime to pick from – Zom 100, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, Reborn as a Vending Machine – but my mind was already made up. I had timed the arrival of my party to just before the start of Adult Swim’s Saturday night programming block, Toonami. I was going to celebrate the last birthday of my twenties with the latest entry in a series that defined my childhood – FLCL: Grunge.
The opening scene displayed a young man lying on his bedroom floor listening to guitar melodies through his headphones, and I immediately felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. It reminded me of my high school days, where every album I heard was new, and I desperately longed for the world beyond my small suburban town. It was in that moment, as I drunkenly headbanged to “One Life” by The Pillows, that I knew Grunge would carry the spirit of its predecessors.
Welcome to Okura, a living garbage dump of a town. The air is infested with flies, the fish appear to be poisonous, and its residents have given up all hope for a better life. There’s only one ticket out of this hellhole, and that’s the daily shuttle that takes off at midnight to whereabouts unknown. But the few remaining people who live in Okura can’t afford to ride it. It seems that if the adults can’t clean up the mess they’ve made, then they can at least ignore it by making a mess on some other planet. How very mature.
But all Shinpachi wants is to live life his own way, rather than how his father – an artisan sushi chef – dictates it to be. The family business is running out of customers and has to settle for serving the yakuza, yet Shin’s father refuses to move from where he stands. His schoolteachers have all but abandoned him and his friends, Shonari and Orinoko, to a life with no future. But on the night of the last daily shuttle, a seductive woman named Haruko arrives at Miyabi Sushi to throw the entire town into chaos.
The very first plot thread I took note of was the daily shuttle. This is something that carries over from FLCL: Alternative, where that series’ protagonist has to grapple with one of her best friends also leaving on a rocket, to never be seen again. The next thing that came to mind was the concept of Grunge’s protagonist working for a family business. It seems like that’s becoming a common theme within this series – whether it’s FLCL: Progressive’s Hidomi serving at her mother’s cafe, or the original FLCL’s Naota being stuck in his father’s bakery. Parents sure love using their kids for free labor, and if it’s a family business, then how can the kids say no?
As per tradition, there’s plenty of callbacks to the original FLCL in Grunge’s dialogue. Haruko mistakenly calls Shinpachi “Taro-chan” during their first interaction, which is what she calls Naota the first time she runs him over with her signature yellow Vespa. And then there’s the visual callbacks, like the object burrowing out of Shin’s forehead resembling Naota’s first N.O. experience, or the mayor spinning through the air in black and white speed lines after getting walloped in the face by Haruko. If you’re a longtime FLCL fan, then these callbacks are fun little easter eggs that add some nostalgia.
The pacing is incredibly FLCL, where it starts off slow and somber while depicting the harsh reality that Shin lives in. However, once Haruko arrives, the daily monotony goes out the window and life begins to get a little weird. Suddenly Medical Mechanica’s plant is going berserk, the city is under martial law, and the local police and yakuza break out into an all-out war on the night of the last daily shuttle. The climax of this episode is just a constant barrage of action, hilarity and confusion. And that’s exactly how it should be.
I want to address the most divisive aspect of Grunge so far: the use of CG visuals. I will be entirely honest – when the first trailer dropped in late July, I was not enthusiastic about the look. The body animations appeared stilted, and I couldn’t see how CG would channel the expressive art style that the original is so well known for. But after having watched episode 1 several times over, I can confidently confirm that Grunge is the most visually expressive FLCL sequel yet. The characters are constantly moving, and the production studio has taken liberties with how they portray what the characters feel. There’s a particular scene where Haruko takes note of Shin’s N.O. potential, and goes in for a kiss when they’re alone. The animators perform a 360-degree tracking shot where Haruko is floating mid-air, and hearts fly as Shin’s face gets appropriately more and more flustered. The director has also cleverly paired this scene with spinning roulette noises, as if to signal that Shin’s won the lottery.
And it’s not just the animations that stand out. The character designs themselves feel very symbolic and tongue-in-cheek. During Shin’s delivery to the yakuza, he discovers that every member shares the same face, which actually isn’t even a human face. It’s just an arrangement of kanji letters! Then there’s the Rockiens, an alien species that coexists with humans on this planet. Their size and facial expressions hilariously contrast those of their human counterparts. And we can’t forget the mayor of Okura himself, who is essentially this world’s equivalent to Boss Baby. But none stand out more than the red alien bombshell herself, who this time around sports a gradient-colored hairstyle that fades from neon pink to sunset orange and yellow. Her hair also has a more wavy texture this time, compared to the straight spiky look of the original. I absolutely love how we receive a slightly different Haruko every season, both in looks and personality.
As with every FLCL story before it, we’ll have to wait and see how Grunge turns out as a whole before making any overall judgment calls. But it’s safe to say that the first episode was a bonafide home run. Even the several friends at my party who were desperately confused by Grunge’s breakneck pace had a hell of a good time with it. If episode 1 is just the tip of the iceberg, then I can’t wait to see what this crazy moped ride has in store.
SCORE: 10/10
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