Life is weird, life is uncomfortable and messy and crazy when we really dissect what we consider normal. We all have our own normal that we use to traverse everyday life. And that’s what Fooly Cooly does so well, presents a weird ass situation that still has that familiarity of normal everyday struggles that adolescences has to deal with.
Fooly Cooly: Progressive (Season 2) starts out with our protagonist, Hidomi Hibajira. She’s antisocial, standoffish and like Kouta of season 1, believes nothing amazing will ever happen to her. Unlike Kouta, she’s so antisocial that she always wears a pair of cat ear headphones so she doesn’t have to converse with anyone. She barely speaks a word to her cheerful mother and even when she’s shown porn in class in front of everyone, her only reaction is a dismissive “What’s the big deal?”
We are also introduced to Ide, the complete opposite of Hidomi. He’s loud, boisterous and bragging to his friends about spending the night at his teacher’s place. The quick cut to the iconic yellow vespa and the bandage on his forehead hint that he is talking about Haruko. These two are the complete opposite of each other and though Ide shows some romantic interest in Hidomi, they don’t seem to have any relationship at all.
One thing FLCL has always been good at is presenting the themes adolescents deal with in a weird and bizarre way. Young boys bragging about their sexual conquest that is probably overblown and straight up false. I loved the scene of Ide’s friends arguing his unisex skirt is all the rage while spreading his legs so his panties(?) are showing.
We also get introduced to Jinyu, who comes barreling in on a self-driving car and smacks into Hidomi, reminiscent of the first season when Haruko first appeared. While there are a lot of similarities between Jinyu and Haruko at this point, there are a lot of differences shown as well. Jinyu is a lot more stoic of a character, there’s an edge of seriousness in her words, no matter how crazy what she is actually saying sounds. Jinyu and Haruko, like Hidomi and Ide, seem to be two sides of the same coin, which seems like it’s going to be one of the themes throughout this season.
All in all, FLCL is off to a pretty good start, especially for longtime fans. Newcomers may not enjoy it as much as longtime fans but it’s still worth a time. It’s a promising beginning that I hope will continue throughout this season.
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