English Dub Review: FLCL Progressive “LooPQR”

DC Comics Presents: Haruko-Red & Haruko-Blue

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With the headphones still drilled into her skull, Hidomi has begun acting like a completely different person. She’s painting on walls, talking like she’s on a thousand painkillers, and barking at familiar looking cats. Everyone seems mixed about this, with Haruko being pissed as hell and Jinyu (whose first name is “Julia” apparently?) explaining it’s an emergency measure by Medical Mechanica. Marco seems to take a liking to the new Hidomi, but Ide knows she’s not herself.

Back at Aiko’s home, Masurao and Eye Patch discuss their plans on finding the flowerpot alongside the crucified upper body of Canti. Apparently, the pot can actually reverse N.O. flow and-HOLD THE GOSH DANG PHONE THERE.

CANTI?! How the hell is HE here?! Why’re his legs gone?! What’s this Evangelion deep cut BS?!

Ugh…anyway, Marco arrives at his first day on his new job: being a test subject on the amusement park’s new Viking ship ride and wearing a special helmet. This is apparently a serious deal for Masurao and Eyepatch, but good luck figuring out why.

Now working as a team, Haruko, Jinyu, and Ide kidnap the spastic Hidomi and take her to the MM HQ in order to get rid of the signal controlling her, though the pot ends up sucking the first two inside the building through Ide’s head. The plan seems to go fine at first until Jinyu starts picking at old wounds about Atomsk which finally set Haruko off.

Their fight ends up wrecking the factory, letting Hidomi’s headphones come off, but then has the two of them popping out of her own N.O. Portal while also glowing with energy. Haruko radiates red with Atomsk’s power, and Jinyu burns blue with…Atomsk Berry Flavor, I guess. Also, it seems Marco and Hidomi bumped heads earlier in the episode, so now HE has a robot coming out too that’s tilting the entire factory and then destroyed in two minutes by Haruko while Jinyu saves a falling Ide and Hidomi.

Haruko uses this moment to land the finishing blow. A weakened Jinyu lays out the difference between them: Jinyu wants Atomsk to be free from everyone, including them, while Haruko wants to see him anyway. Haruko grotesquely devours Jinyu, regaining her complete form (and pink hair!). Donning Jinyu’s glasses, she asks Hidomi to come with her. Hidomi says she understands what Haruko wants now, and that’s why she can’t go.

OUR TAKE

WHEW! That took a turn! And another. And another. And another. Basically a lot of spiraling. Sometimes in good ways, and sometimes, well…

First, let’s talk about the massive shift in the status quo here, and it happened right on time. By this point in the original series, Naota started his fourth episode at a baseball game and ended hitting a giant ball into space with a guitar, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised things started pretty humdrum here but ended up having such a massive shakeup. There had been plenty of speculation on Haruko and Jinyu’s split, particularly regarding whether Haruko’s new orange hair was a result of that or the animators simply forgetting how to color her, and it seems at least that theory was on the money. What surprised me personally was how the two are still both able to access Atomsk’s power despite the split (or that Jinyu’s form is blue when green would fit marginally better). It felt similar in a lot of ways to Haruko and Naota’s brief final fight at the end of the last series, but I have a creeping suspicion they may have played a bit too much into that.

We also finally get some insight (and probably as much as we’re going to get) about what exactly is the big issue between the two, and it’s about how to pursue Atomsk. Both seem to agree they want to find him, but for different reasons, with Jinyu simply wanting to help keep him flying free, and Haruko seeming to just want to keep him for herself. How this was the matter to cause a physical psychotic break within her is unclear, as is what they came back to Earth to find in terms of helping their goal (still waiting to hear what happened with all those hypnotized kids), but I guess they’ve reconciled now. The question now is this: With Haruko the winner, what are her plans going forward in these next two episodes?

Though all of this nostalgia bombing and revelations can’t hide at least a couple blatant blemishes in this episodes plotting, both of which make me very wary of how this whole revival was planned. First is this whole deal with Masurao and Eye Patch, who have apparently scrapped beloved vinyl toy model Canti for parts and just have him lying around. To start with, who the hell are these guys? Are they with the same group as Amarao? Are they intended to take his place in the story? What are they researching N.O. for? What the heck do they have to do with anything aside from being connected to Aiko, who barely has any relevance to the plot in the first place? WHY IS CANTI THERE?

And the other is Marco, who is almost given obligatory focus that ends up being completely superfluous. He seems to have a crush on Hidomi when she’s in her loopy state, but it’s clear that’s not how she usually is, so it must be a shallow teenage crush. Then they give him the sort of Ninamori treatment by having him bump heads and form his own robot that adds nothing to the big fight (unless tipping the iron upright ends up being a big deal like that giant hand). He and Mori probably would’ve been better in the background like Naota’s other friends, but someone decided they needed focus and here the show is suffering for it.

The spectacle and huge plot progression already step this episode above last week’s but these other issues can’t get it up much higher. Going by history, however, next week should see a big step in the right direction. Fingers crossed.