English Dub Review: FLCL – Grunge “Orinoko”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Orinoko is a soft-spoken girl looking for iron and steel to make metalwork with her elderly father and his assistant robot. One day, she comes across Haruko, who’s looking for parts for her Vespa. They strike up an odd deal where Orinoko will give Haruko any unusable steel she finds, and Haruko finds some material for her as well. Soon she’s able to find enough to help her father make a sword, but he dies soon after. Orinoko gives the sword to Shonari, as seen last episode, and then returns to her father’s robot, who is revealed to have her late mother’s memories that she backs up on a floppy.

As the Medical Mechanica giant iron begins to move, Haruko drives toward it to confront Atomsk, but is attacked by one of their robots (the one from the second episode of the first series, in fact). When Shinpachi arrives, Haruko uses Orinoko’s katana to pull out her classic Rickenbacker, but gives Orinoko a ticket to Earth in exchange. Atomsk emerges from the MM base, which flies off in pursuit, along with Haruko. Shonari sacrifices himself so Shinpachi can get Orinoko to the last spaceflight to Earth, along with Amarao. She also uploads her mother’s memories and reconnects with her.

OUR TAKE

That’s another season of FLCL in the books, much quicker than I think a lot of people expected. Since the last two were a full six episodes like the original, it was probably expected by the public that these other two would be as well, but it seems we’re actually getting two three episode seasons, with this one, Grunge, having all three of its episodes taking place around the same time and being about different vantage points of the same events. When Shinpachi’s episode first aired, I honestly just thought we were in for what at this point seemed like the FLCL formula, just speeding things up to when all the action would occur and maybe spending the rest of the season going into that more. Turns out the reason we were getting so early is because we would be getting the climax three separate times, except Shinpachi wouldn’t exactly be the focus for the rest of it. I wouldn’t exactly say that Orinoko is a secret main character either though, just another part of the bigger picture that this story as a whole presents itself. I’m sure there’s gonna be an edit tying all of these scenes together at some point and that’ll be fun to see.

However, this last episode is the one that takes a LOT from the first season, with some shot for shot recreations of the finale of FLCL Classic. And yet, as revealed when Haruko first pulls out her blue Rickenbacker, this whole thing has actually been a prequel and origin story for that guitar. So it’s repeating things that are actually the first instance, or at least earliest that we’re seeing chronologically, of those things. I’m not exactly sure how to feel about all of that and I don’t want to spoil the good feelings I have by thinking this was ultimately just nostalgia baiting, but it does leave a weird taste in my mouth about the whole thing at the end of the day. I’ll look over the season as a whole next, which will certain be easy since it’s only three episodes, but I think I’ll appreciate what this season did different as opposed to the times it made me point at the screen and make me say “hey I remember that, do you remember that?” And with Shoegaze (is that even a genre of rock?) coming next week, here’s hoping that has its own things to say that aren’t just reminding us of the good old days.