Adult Swim Reveals The Fate Of Hit Anime FLCL
Adult Swim’s FLCL, pronounced in English as Fooly Cooly, won’t continue, according to ComicBook.com. The original run was initially planned as a six-episode Original Video Animation (OVA) series from the beginning, and while it eventually spawned additional seasons, Adult Swim decided that it was time to put an end to the whole series.
Adult Swim didn’t really disclose any particular reason for dropping FLCL, apart from its plans to cease production of further seasons. This is curious especially since it prides itself on FLCL: Grudge and FLCL Shoegaze‘s successful ratings among the audiences.
Adult Swim is bringing the anime series FLCL to an end
Instead of providing an explanation, the company expressed gratitude towards everyone who helped make and lead the franchise to success, as well as the viewers for taking the time to watch FLCL.
There’s a lot to uncover here. The original FLCL was intentionally designed to be a short series with a complete story arc within those episodes. Still, the unique approach to storytelling and great animation earned the series its cult following, and its rising popularity gave birth to additional seasons, including FLCL: Progressive, FLCL: Alternative, FLCL: Grudge, and FLCL Shoegaze—the latter of which premiered less than two weeks ago to stellar reviews.
FLCL isn’t exactly yesterday’s release. In fact, the original FLCL first debuted in 2000, introducing the audiences to an energetic and utterly wild universe that followed a young protagonist, Naota, encountering a woman who would change his life.
The original FLCL first debuted in 2000
As mentioned, despite its short length, the series was a massive success, and it gave birth to spin-offs that didn’t focus on the original protagonist specifically, but each subsequent release integrated bits and pieces from the previous one into its own narrative.
Admittedly, Adult Swim has a lot on its plate at the moment, including a slew of original anime adaptations currently underway. These include the highly anticipated Rick and Morty: The Anime, Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, and Lazarus, among a few others.
The latter is an anime project that gives us a partnership between John Wick’s Chad Stahelski, Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe, and Attack on Titan’s MAPPA—a team-up we didn’t expect. Don’t get us wrong; we’re not saying that these are congesting Adult Swim’s production schedule, thus leaving nothing for FLCL.
The original FLCL was intentionally designed to be a short series with a complete story arc within those episodes
All we’re trying to say is that Adult Swim has kept a rather transparent relationship with the fandom throughout the years, and the company simply has no future plans to expand the FLCL universe. The original FLCL was intentionally designed to be a short series with a complete story arc within those episodes, and we’re quite lucky that we received additional spin-offs.
Perhaps it’s better to stop while FLCL still retains its charm rather than prolonging its life artificially up to the point at which it actually deserves to die and be forgotten.
There are plenty of OVA out there that were adapted from their respective manga but haven’t encapsulated the entire narrative—just look at 1995’s Golden Boy—it was charming, and we’re quite happy that the adaptation of the manga stopped with that particular OVA. So, perhaps dropping FLCL in time wasn’t such a bad call after all.
