A lot of people my age happened to catch an episode of this weird little hyperactive coming of age story called FLCL (Furi Kuri in Japan) during the late night hours of their teenage years and like many things that happened to be considered good during my teenage years FLCL is getting an entirely unexpected and yet astoundingly welcomed sequel.
Announced March 24th this revival will come in the form of two new seasons, comprised of twelve new episodes total. The production is a collaboration between Cartoon Network and anime studio Production I.G. It is set to premiere on Cartoon Network during Adult Swim’s Toonami block of shows sometime in late 2017, early 2018.
The official synopsis of the new seasons is as follows:
In the new seasons of FLCL, many years have passed since Naota and Haruhara Haruko shared their adventure together. Meanwhile, the war between the two entities known as Medical Mechanica and Fraternity rages across the galaxy. Enter Hidomi, a young teenaged girl who believes there is nothing amazing to expect from her average life, until one day when a new teacher named Haruko arrives at her school. Soon enough, Medical Mechanica is attacking her town and Hidomi discovers a secret within her that could save everyone, a secret that only Haruko can unlock.
For those unfamiliar with Production I.G., it turns out that they are the company responsible for Attack on Titan, Psycho Pass, and the anime sequence in Kill Bill Vol. 1. While they were not the original studio doing the animation for FLCL things do still seem promising for the shows return. Not only does Production I.G. have a wonderful and varied background but they are bringing back as much of what made the original series great as possible. Kazuya Tsurumaki, FLCL’s creator, will be the supervisor for the sequel with Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass) serving as the director, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion) coming on as character designer, and Hideto Iwai (Last Dinner) being brought in to write.
While not confirmed to be currently working on the project at this time it has been revealed via the twitter account of Jason DeMarco, senior vice president & creative director at Adult Swim On-Air, that it is Cartoon Networks current intention to include both the original voice cast as well as The Pillows (the band who provided the shows excellent soundtrack) in the creation of these new seasons.
Jokes aside this is a legitimate reason to get excited. Are you excited? I am tentatively excited myself. Do you think I am a fool and should break down my door so that I can shout the news into the streets? Or do you think I should take the opposite approach and cry because sequels and remakes always ruin everything? Is this actually your first time ever hearing about FLCL? Please let us know. If you start a lively conversation in the comments section below, who knows what could happen? If you make a wish as you type it might just come true.
Trent Katzenberger is a writer, youtuber, gamer, nerd, and just all around a strange sort of guy. He loves trying new stuff and creating odd things.
