   
In this section, I'll recommend some animes, cartoons or movies (one at a time) that I have in my collection or have enjoyed watching. I'll provide some informations, summary, personal (controversial) opinions and any other nonsense that I can think of. I will also give an overall rating for each item reviewed.
Perfect 5 stars ( ) = Excellent! ----- To ----- Pathetic 1 star () = Don't Bother.
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12th Jan. 2001: FLCL (Furi Kuri)
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:::::: Furly Curly - Furry Curry - Furi Kuri?
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A quiet, peaceful town with a giant iron-shaped factory at the edge. A steel bridge where local kids hang out and do homework. Its just like any normal day in any small Japanese town, until a raving lady on a yellow Vespa (scooter) waving a loud guitar came to town. A boy's life changes dramatically in a matter of a few seconds. Ran over by the scooter, revived, then hit on the head with a guitar... starts growing odd-shaped horns from the head, an overflowing brother's girlfriend, an alien housemaid? a horny geeky dad, an equally weird grampa, a depressed class president, a guy with fake huge eyebrows, a tanned bazooka girl... baddest of all- mechas starts to spout out from the head (an empty head?), and the addition of a super-robot to the family... all to the beat of some seriously cool BGM... such is the nature of FLCL - in a nutshell. Things are much more complicated and at the same time insanely nonsensical. Gainax and Production I.G. have pulled another one off again successfully. Although this time its not Hideaki Anno in charge of the project, Sensei Tsurumaki did an exceptional job. The FLCL series is divided up into six distinct episodes, in DVD and VHS formats, and five had already been released so far. Although all tied together, the episodes were made in such a way that viwers can enjoy it on its own, but of course that only leave fans craving for more!
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Ep 1: Kanchi goes head to hand with an Arm Mech as the Medical Mechanica building looms in the night horizon.
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Sorting out the mess: FLCL revolves around the world of a 6th Grade schoolboy called Naota Nandaba, a kid who somehow always thinks he's more 'grown-up' and mature than other kids his age, or for that matter of fact even the adults (and some of that is justified, I suppose! ^_^). He has a big brother who is in the States (US) playing pro-baseball and because of that bond, is spending a lot of time with Samejima Mamimi the bro's somewhat absent-minded, flirty(?) and really weird girlfriend. Enter Haruko Haruhara, the most chaoticly cool personality in FLCL! Claiming to be 19 years old (eh?) and an alien (eh?) Haruko is on a mission related to the huge Medical Mechanica corporation with the big factory at the town edge. Things started to go nuts after Haruko's appearance. Her extremely rough first contact with Naota somehow results in strange horns growing on the boy's head from time to time. Things get even more complicated when Haruko ran over Kamon Nandaba (the dad) (eh?) and he hired her as a 'housekeeper' (supposedly) for the Nandaba family. As the mystery of the horn grows, it finally exploded... in the form of mechas ripping themselves out from Naota's forehead... in the first episode, we were introduced to Kanchi (nickname given by Mamimi as she thought the robot is the God of Fire, Cantide from a hand-held video game she was playing all the time). Kanchi settled in with the Nandaba family and is reduced to doing menial housework and odd-jobs e.g. buying pop star magazines for grampa... The trend continues with one cool Medical Mechanica enemy mecha spouting out of Naota's head per episode. It seems that for some reason, they wanted to destroy Kanchi and as the episodes progress more characters were introduced and things get more out of control! This is complicated enough already, so I won't elaborate any further and besides, its better to watch it without knowing much at first. ^_^
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Ep1: 'Overflowing' Mamimi flirts with 'mature' Ta-Kun (Naota) at the bridge
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Ep1: Loud, overspeeding, guitar freak, alien-lady Haruko Haruhara approaching!
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Ep1: First hints of cool! The 360 degrees rotating shocked / SD Mamimi!
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Episode by Episode: The OAV format is split into six 25-minute episodes released one at a time on a 2-month interval. What's cool about FLCL is that it is done on a 'rotational' basis among a team of different directors and supervisors who takes on the job for each episode. Hence while keeping to some basic elements and same animation team, each episode of FLCL has its own unique flair, theme and style. What's more, from Ep #2 onwards, the Japanese DVDs come with English subbed versions! Ep #1 Furi-Kuri: Release: 26/4/2000. Storyboard: Kazuya Tsurumaki, Directed by Masahiko Otsuka, Key Animation Supervisor: Tadafumi Hiramatsu. Introduction to the main cast - Naota, Mamimi, Haruko, classmates, Nandaba family, Kanchi. Fast-paced, action packed and the mood of the anime is established. Its quite complicated, and I think takes more than one viewing to understand what's happening. Things make a LOT more sense if re-watched again after the 3rd episode or so. Ep #2 Fista (Fire-Starter): Release: 21/6/2000. Storyboard: Masayuki, Animation Director: Ken Ando, Key Animation Supervisor: Hiroyuki Imaishi. A series of bizarre fires started all over the town and the authorities suspect its the work of an arsonist.  Naota realizes that Mamimi seems obsessed with a fire video game, worships Cantide the fictional Fire-God (she insisted its 'Kanchi' our robot-hero after some angelic-like encounters), smokes, and the mysterious school fire many years ago. Of course, another Medical Mechanica (MM) baddie mecha, this time the missing 'body' of the arm that attacked Kanchi-Naota in Ep #1. Ep #3 Maru-Raba: Release: 23/8/2000. Storyboard/Animation Director: Aki Satake, Key Animation Supervisor: Tadafumi Hiramatsu. Another depressed soul enters the scene- in the form of Naota's classmate (class-president) and secret admirer (I think so!) Eri Ninamori. She's the mayor's daughter and is forcing Naota to take part in the school play where he plays the cat in 'Puss in Boots'. Only problem, Ta-Kun is now growing real cat ears...! Chaos at school as the MM mecha triggered attaches itself to Eri's head. More clues revealed as to why and how the mechs. emerge from people's heads, especially Naota's. Ep #4 Furi-Kiri: Release: 25/10/2000. Animation Director: Masahiko Otsuka, Storyboard/Key Animation Supervisor: Ogura. Let's play - baseball! Surprisingly Haruko is an expert ballplayer and she somehow seems to be determined to teach Naota the right way to bat a ball. Naota is in a serious dillema as he seems to be jealous of Haruko and his dad's supposed 'relationship' and his inability to be as good as his brother at baseball to impress anyone. This episode introduces the big eyebrow man, Amarao and his sidekick the tanned lovely Kitsurubami. Somehow, they seem to know what's going on and is deeply involved in Haruko's past... Amarao that is. I think Kitsurubami is quite new to the whole thing. The batting practices helps a lot in the end. Ep #5 Bura-Bure: Release: 21/12/2000. Staff: To be added. In a crazy rubber-bullet 'gunfight' duel between Naota and his dad for Haruko's affection, it all seems a big joke, complete with a sniper on the battlefield. But she carries a long-range anti-tank gun! All the praises are getting into Naota's 'empty' head, actually now with a pistol trigger shaped horn which cocks back dangerously every time Naota gets full of himself. As Naota gets confused and frustrated with Mamimi, Haruko is busy fixing up monkey boy Amarao as some light is shed on the history between the two. Here features one of the most insanely cool gunfight scenes ever in anime, but a guitar that spews bullets? It doesn't matter! ^_^ The MM mecha this time is a 5-storey high hand-shaped fiend with a mexican outlaw style, packing an arsenal of shotguns and firearms. As usual, Naota makes a fool of himself trying to act mature and cool, and we finally get to see the legendary Red Atomsk, Haruko's dream come true. What exactly is it? Watch and find out! ^_^ Ep #6 - To be Released, March 2001.
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Ep1: Another Furikuri moment as we go manga-style in the OAV with Haruko!
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Ep2: Kanchi turns into red super-hero battle mode after 'swallowing' Naota.
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Ep5: A Medical Mechanica baddie. Yup. From Naota's head too. Its that crazy.
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The Furi-Kuri style: I like! Despite my preference for the sci-fi and mecha genre, I was never an Evangelion or Gunbuster fan. Somehow, it is the more 'subtle' title of Gainax that impressed me a lot- Karekano. This time I must say Gainax totally tipped off my scale with Furi Kuri. Initially skeptical, as FLCL is very popular among Japanese fans, I had my reservations before watching the series. After the first episode, 'impressed' is an understatement to describe the show. I'm hooked. This is about the coolest anime I've seen so far. While not everyone's cup of coffee, I admit, FLCL has the exact right ingredients to trigger my fancy. A unique concept, underlying science fiction, fabulous character / mecha design, fast-paced action, complex plot, loads of nonsense and damned funny, cool direction and visual techniques, parodies, the funky mood and the attitude. Despite the weird look, Kanchi is actually quite a brilliant design. I never thought someone could dump a monitor as a robot's head and pull it off succesfully. The crazy transformation from friendly Kanchi to the red battle mode after swallowing Naota is also very nice. I never expected that. It came from nowhere. Kudos to Sensei Yoshiyuki Sadomoto for the great mecha designs. Naota, despite being the main character is not a goody-two-shoes kinda kid. He has an attitude problem actually and always seems to think too highly of himself. The empty head doesn't help much too. Haruko... what can I say? A yellow Vespa? Costume play? Violent... destructive, confident, but above all just plain crazy! ^_^ Mamimi, well, she's always overflowing and moody. Personally, my favourite episodes so far are #2 and #5. In #2, its mainly cool because its the first time we get to see Kanchi's potential and that is too amazing for words. Ep #5 is great mainly because of its nonsense contents. I also really liked the gunfight scenes between Haruko and Amarao. That is some piece of direction! A must have in any anime collectors' list, and get the original as English subs were brilliantly included from Ep #2 onwards! Can't wait to see Ep #6, and how the FLCL team tie up this wild, crazy story and still end up sane. ^_^
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Ep5: Sniper girl Kitsurubami. But with an anti-tank gun? That's too much! ^_^
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Ep5: 'Big Eyebrows' Amarao vs Haruko. Prelude to INSANE gunfight action!
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Ep5: Naota's pissed with Mamimi as he summons Kanchi to prove his manhood.
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Yeah! Watch the FLCL OAV! Its incredible!
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All Characters / Anime / Games / Manga series are copyright of their respective authors, publishers and owners.
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