English Dub Review: FLCL: Grunge “Shonari”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

We wind back the clock a bit to find out how Shonari, Shinpachi’s big rock monster friend, made friends with him and Orinoko, another kid, as well as growing up in a world where his race are used as disposable slaves by gangs. Haruko gets in good graces with one of these gangs and takes over once its leader dies, but Shonari knows something must be up with her. The events of last week’s episode occur and Shonari’s brother is killed, so he’s given a sword by Orinoko and tries to make things right, but ends up riding Shinpachi as the Medical Mechanica anvil activates, all according to Haruko’s plan.

OUR TAKE

Hm, seems we’re getting a pretty different approach to Grunge than previous seasons besides the animation style. It was definitely looking like Shinpachi was gonna be basically a new Naota and events would basically focus on him, but now we’re getting a different perspective on the events of the first episode from the Ben Grimm looking kid Shonari. Aliens aren’t exactly new to FLCL; Haruko was already confirmed to be one who just happened to look human and Medical Mechanica is all alien robots from what we can tell, but Rockians (holy creative name, batman) are probably the first ones that have actually looked alien…or at least like a Marvel character. And through them, we’re getting a much less sanitized view of life going on than the last two seasons, which is definitely a relief. It feels like Progressive and Alternative forgot this, but the first season was full of a lot of awful people and complicated situations. Mamimi was a disturbed arsonist, Kamon was a neglectful father and gossip publisher, and Haruko was essentially a child groomer. So, getting back to having adults who are real pieces of crap, including Haruko, surrounding the kids who want to do the right thing, is actually pretty refreshing if that makes sense.

Really, this whole setting feels much more fleshed out and layered by seeing how corrupt and on the brink of disaster its setting is, as well as how Haruko is making larger plans to manipulate things, and once again to get ahold of Atomsk’s power. Also, Amarao is back for some reason that will hopefully make sense next week. We also seem to be jumping ahead of things and getting the iron going early…which turns out to be because this season is only three episodes?! Yeah, apparently Grunge ends next week, followed by the fifth series, Shoegaze, which is also three episodes and returns to a two dimensional artstyle. While I have mixed feelings about both of those aspects, maybe having a more compact storytelling structure will be better for FLCL than forcing it into six episodes just because that’s what they did in the first season. I’m kinda over references and following the pattern just for its own sake, and if there’s one thing FLCL should never be, it’s following a pattern. Well, see you next week for what I guess is the conclusion to Grunge! Maybe we’ll find Nirvana!