Nostalgia as Crazy as I Remember! FLCL Blu-ray Review
US Release: February 22, 2011 by Funimation
Format: Blu-ray Disc
Ride on, shooting star.
If you’ve been around awhile and loved the days when Adult Swim was chock-full of anime, chances are you’ve already seen FLCL. Chances are you’ve already said to yourself “What the hell am I watching?” Chances are, you’ve already shook your head and wondered if what was going on in this anime was even legal. If you haven’t, you should. It makes no sense, but it doesn’t need to. FLCL is fun, sexy, short, has an amazing soundtrack, and has incredibly fluid animation.
All this is dramatically increased 100% by the Blu-ray re-release of the series. (Yes, even the sexiness.)
...Yeah, it's kinda like that.
For those who have lived under a rock for the past 11 years (Wow, seriously? I feel old), FLCL is about a kid named Naota who lives in a town where nothing ever happens. One day, he gets hit by a crazy chick on a motorcycle who probably isn’t from this planet, and things start coming out of his forehead… Yeah, I don’t really get it either, but trust me when I say it’s fun as hell. It’s actually one of the few anime where I think the English dub is quite good, but since the story and jokes are so “out there” to begin with, a lot of the jokes and puns get lost in translation or don’t even make it through the localizing process. It’s not the translators’ fault in this case!
Anyway, since this is an old anime, this review is primarily about the Blu-ray re-release, so we should get into it. The packaging is fine, not much to speak of; It’s a standard Blu-ray clamshell with a cardboard sleeve over it. The same artwork is on both, which always feels like a wasted opportunity to me, but what do I know?
…But none of this is important compared to the beauty of Blu-ray-quality hi-def anime! I’d never seen such a thing, this series was the first time I’d watched anime on Blu-ray. I wish I could show you all how wonderful this looks on our television. You can clearly see every line and detail, without so much as a pixel of MPEG-compression artifacts around anything. As a result of the sharp picture, the already-fantastic animation in FLCL is enhanced ten-fold. It’s some of the smoothest I’ve seen! There is some minor anti-aliasing I noticed, but this seems to be unavoidable when it comes to upscaling, so it’s forgivable. It’s hardly enough to detract from the experience.
Haruko can be pretty evil...
Since the series is just six episodes long, they all fit on the Blu-ray with plenty of room to spare for extras. The extras include director commentaries, The Pillows’ music video for the iconic theme song “Ride on Shooting Star,” a textless version of the ending animation, trailers, outtakes, and some AMVs set to various songs by The Pillows.
If you’ve already got the series on DVD, this re-release may not be worth investing the MSRP of $44.99 in. The upscaling & extras are great, but if you aren’t a diehard fan I’d probably hold out for a price drop or a sale before picking it up to add to your collection. If you don’t have FLCL at all though and have been thinking about picking it up, it’s definitely worth it to spring for the Blu-ray in this case. If you’re one of the few who haven’t even seen FLCL before… go buy this now! This is definitely the best way for you to experience it. You won’t be disappointed!
