FLCL: Progressive Episode 5 “Fool On The Planet” Recap

Season 1 / Episode 5, “Fool On The Planet” / Cartoon Network FLCL: Progressive reaches its penultimate episode with its most stylistic showing yet. Fooly Cooly has been known to change its art style from installment to installment; but in episode 5, “Fool On The Planet,” we get art changes from scene to scene. Remarkably, it fits perfectly.

The show opens up with a gorgeous dream sequence from Hidomi, as a chalk or charcoal-style painting. Hidomi then wakes up, and the bulk of the episode continues in this rough sketch / low frame-per-second style. When I saw the preview for this episode, I didn’t think it looked too good. In action, however, it was a much better fit for the show. Haruko, red-eyed and stomach bulging from consuming Jinyu in the last episode, proclaims to her class that she is getting married. She tells them all to enjoy life by going to the amusement park. Hidomi, however, couldn’t be less interested. As Haruko pokes and prods at Hidomi, Ide steps up and tells Haruko to leave her alone. He takes Haruko to the empty school pool, where he tries his best to defeat her. In response, Haruko toys around with him. When she straddles Ide, he proclaims Haruko doesn’t satisfy him — which clearly strikes a nerve. Haruko is used to getting her way when it comes to flirting with the opposite sex, so it was interesting seeing her buttons getting pushed for once. Hidomi catches them in this awkward position. The stress causes her to suck up Ide, or at least a portion of h…