FCLC: PROGRESSIVE & ALTERNATIVE – A Blu-ray and Digital HD Review by John Strange
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-raytm I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.
Do you watch anime or read manga? If so, I think I have something for you! FCLC (also called Fooly Cooly) is, to say the least, a wild visual ride that, frankly, had me shaking my poor aging head occasionally while I tried to keep up! The two seasons presented on the disk (and digitally) are similar but I would not have known they were together if I hadn’t looked at the box! They are similar, with some points of commonality, but could easily be two separate series.
The two seasons have only a few common denominators. The old fashioned iron-looking Medical Mechanica plants that are at the heart of the stories is the one thing that I saw right away. One other is the fact that the population feels they have to migrate to Mars or die. Plus, the way the teenaged protagonists encountered the issues of coming of age was interesting and every bit as disjointed as any normal teenager’s lives would be. Add in their being at odds with Medical Mechanica and eventually have a showdown with the plants.
If you want detailed descriptions of the storylines from the two seasons, I am not going to give them to you. Foremost among my reasons is that I cannot truly be certain that I figured the storylines out. I found myself flowing along with each episode enveloped in the action and visuals that the filmmakers and artists have crafted for us. Did I enjoy them? Not at first, my head was spinning from trying too hard to determine plots and storylines. Once I stopped the playback and relaxed I found that if I simply watched and experienced the shows I found myself enjoying them (though god knows WHAT I was seeing).
True to their roots, the artists have drawn a visually stunning story. The English actors did a great job giving us these stories without the use of captions. In stories like these, I feel that is critical because we would literally miss 90% of the visuals trying to read captions.
The extras bring in an additional dimension to the stories by giving us a backstory to how the seasons came to be some 15-16 years after the original season was made. The five featurettes give us a great foundation to better understand not only the story but how the story came to be. And the music behind the series was by a band called The Pillows. They had been the creators of the music for the first season and were happy to come back for these seasons as well.
But be aware that quite a few of the people talking in the extras do not speak English and so are captioned so we can understand them. To me, this was fine because I could read the captions and catch most of the visuals without getting lost like I would with something as fast-paced as the main stories are.
Wild stories with explosions of visual effects are what anime is all about and these stories are just that. I give this offering 4.5 stars on our scale. And watch out for the woman on a Vespa!
Directed By:
- Kazuto Arai (FCLC: Progressive) and Yutaka Uemura (FLCL: Alternative)
Written By:
- Yōji Enokido
Cast:
- Megan Taylor Harvey, Marieve Herington, Erica Lindbeck, Marianne Miller, Kari Wahlgren, Patrick Seitz, Max Mittelman, Ben Pronsky
Episodes:
FCLC: Progressive (Season 2)
- RE: Start
- Freebie Honey
- Stone Skipping
- LooPQR
- Fool On the Planet
- Our Running
FLCL: Alternative (Season 3)
- Flying Memory
- Grown-up Wannabe
- Freestyle Collection
- Pit-a-Pat
- Shake it Off
- Full Flat
Extras:
Digital:
FCLC: Progressive (Season 2)
- Sneak Peek of FCLC: PROGRESSIVE
- Meet the Creators
FLCL: Alternative (Season 3)
- English Voice Actors
- Sneak Peek of FLCL: ALTERNATIVE
Blu-ray:
- The Making of FLCL: Progressive & Alternative: An in-depth look behind the scenes featuring interviews with cast and crew.
- Meet the Creators
- The Pillows
- English Voice Actors
- Production: Behind the Scenes
Specifications:
Runtime:
Feature:
- 264 Minutes
Enhanced Content:
- 35 Minutes
Studio:
- Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.
Release Date:
- 02/04/2020
Region:
- A/1 (U.S. and Canada only)
MPAA Rating:
Episodes:
- TV-MA (L)
Extras:
- NR
Selig Rating:
Film Rating:
- 5 Stars
Bonus Features Rating:
- 5 Stars
Picture Quality Rating:
- 5 Stars
Audio Quality Rating:
- 5 Stars
Selig Rating Scale:
5 Stars: Should add to your DVD collection at any cost
4 Stars: Worth owning, but try to catch it a sale
3 Stars: Plan to get it, but wait to buy it used
2 Stars: Worth taking a look at, but not owning
1 Star: Pick it up at a garage sale and use it for drinks
0 Stars: Makes a great Trap Shooting target
