English Dub Review: FLCL Progressive “Our Running”

Never thought a giant sucking bird would be so fitting an image.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

An all-out war rages as the Immigration Forces and their amusement park rides battle the laser firing iron of Medical Mechanica. On top of a roller coaster, Haruko uses her guitar to turn it into a bird cage for Atomsk, whose arrival turns the skies deep red. The massive being circles the Earth, sucking in all surrounding satellites with his NO. Hidomi manages to make it to the top with Haruko and begs her to give Ide back and leave once this business is all done. Haruko reveals that she needs Hidomi’s power to do this, but she refuses, leading to a fight as the cage starts sucking up NO. This doesn’t last long as Atomsk’s pull ends up being stronger, yanking Haruko and Hidomi into his feathery void. Once inside, the two find the old lady from the last episode talking to the now inactive head of Canti.

In response, the MM iron starts shooting out globs of mochi, crushing buildings and turning anyone who touches it into statues. Among them are Masurao and Eye Patch, who give a tearful goodbye to Aiko. Realizing they need the flowerpot, she gets Mori to take her to Ide’s house, meeting Hidomi’s mother there as well. Upon touching the flowerpot, a plant rises from Aiko’s head, somehow allowing a radio connection between her and Canti’s head. This gives Hidomi and her mother a chance to have a heart to heart about the closing café and Hidomi’s dad, eventually ending with them determining to be there for each other once this is over.

Then a robot attacks from nowhere, Haruko uses her old Rickenbacker that comes from nowhere, Canti regrows his limbs from nowhere and removes Hidomi’s headphones so that she can somehow become the robot version of herself from the first episode’s dream with her own guitar, they all escape while being chased by more robots, Canti gets possessed by both Atomsk AND Ide so Haruko and Hidomi fight over who gets to kiss him, Haruko gets Atomsk’s power briefly but barfs it up while Canti barfs up Ide, Atomsk hugs Haruko before flying off and leaving Jinyu, and Aiko merges with the plant to turn into tree roots around the iron but then hatches naked out of a pumpkin.

Haruko flies away, Hidomi and Ide kiss, Canti’s in a dress, Masurao is Amarao’s son??? WHATEVER, ROLL CREDITS. See ya in Alternative!

OUR TAKE

If those last couple paragraphs seemed a bit spastic and all over the place, TRY WATCHING THE DANG THING. The first FLCL series prided itself on being pretty random and quick paced but boy does this take it to a whole new level. I don’t even know where to begin with all of these swiss cheese of a story, let alone just this episode, but going by alphabetical order, we’ll start with…

Aiko! The character that walked in from a different show altogether and somehow ended up being the key to making tons of substantial things happen when she could’ve been replaced by a lamp. She started as a way of developing Mori’s character, then turned out to be the extended link to all of the Medical Mechanica stuff they never thought to tie directly to anyone important, and now ends up being a possible robot made from stolen Canti parts who is also the machine that allows our main character to get the last necessary pep talk needed to save the day…and then turns into tree roots to somehow stop the giant iron. What? Huh? How? WHY???

Next is Atomsk, who I guess came back to pick up his guitar and maybe console his ex about their bad break up? I mean, who HASN’T been there at one point, am I right?

Then there’s Canti, who was broken in Ep 4, a dog in Ep 5, then broken again here only to become completely whole and be more expressive than he’s EVER been in the old show, and now he’s back to being a maid without any explanation as to how he or Haruko’s old Bass Guitar made it there.

Speaking of Haruko, while her section of the story felt like a neat little follow up to how she reacted to the previous finale, it basically amounted to the exact same conclusion with nothing to show for it except now Jinyu’s a free agent. And don’t get me started on HER (until next week).

I can’t properly describe this episode in any clear terms as it’s still settling in my head, but I suppose the closest would be a visually spectacular plane crash. It threw in a LOT of callbacks to the previous season that I appreciated on a superficial level, but cannot come up with ANY justification for beyond that (including playing “Last Dinosaur” and “I Think I Can” in an only SLIGHTLY more appropriate situation than last week), and pretty much all of the new stuff and attempted resolutions to this season’s cast rang shockingly hollow, and that includes our leads. I’ll get into all of that in gritty detail with the Season Review, but regarding this episode on its own, I’m calling it a FLCLusterfuck.