Product Details

• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Broccoli Int'l
• DVD Release Date: January 23, 2007
• Run Time: 151 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ION2I0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,533 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An outrageous mixture of science-fiction action, mecha misadventures, sinister coporate plots, and broad slapstick comedy, FLCL ("Fooly Cooly") has been a fan favorite since the six-part OAV debuted in 2000. The four-disc Ultimate Edition includes all the episodes, an additional disc with music, a rock video, and poster art, plus a booklet, a rubber bracelet, and a postcard to send in for a free T-shirt.

Things have been going badly for sixth-grader Naota since his older brother Tasuku left to play pro baseball in America. At the opening of the series, he complains, "Nothing amazing happens here. Only the ordinary." Then Haruko, a girl from outer space, charges in on her motor scooter and clobbers him with an electric guitar. Her arrival upsets Tasuku's old girlfriend Mamimi, who regards bugging Naota as her prerogative. The fragmentary plot quickly dissolves into a string of chaotic events involving the main characters, Naota's lecherous father and grandfather, and various mecha (which grow from horns on Naota's head). Looming over the town is the mysterious Medical Mechanica factory, which looks like a giant iron. The freewheeling nuttiness of FLCL helped set the pattern for Dokkoida?!, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and other reflexive comedies. The episodes feature references to everything from Doraemon and Gundam to South Park. The bold graphic style of the animation shifts radically from scene to scene, including two sequences done as manga pages. The extras include commentaries, outtakes, and storyboard comparisons. FLCL is a bizarre series that will delight otaku who value comedy and action over coherency. (Unrated, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, risqué humor, brief nudity. tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Price Is Right!, December 9, 2006

By 

Jason M. Forster "comic book junky" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FLCL - Ultimate Edition DVD Collection (DVD)

Bought the original set of three disks (two episodes each) as they were released for thirty bux each. This set has all three of those discs-a disc of bonus features, a mail in card for a free t-shirt, a sheet of stickers, six postcards, and a bonus book containing notes on the series and translation as well as bonus manga!

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible mini-series, with HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES, January 9, 2007

By 

LOPcagney (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: FLCL - Ultimate Edition DVD Collection (DVD)

At first glance, this box set may seem too expensive. 50 dollars for only six episodes? But there are a few things you have to keep in mind:
Studio Gainax used FLCL as a test subject for various modern and hand-drawn (no CG here) animation techniques. They spent the same ammount of money making these six episodes than they would have spent on an average commercial anime series of 12 Episodes or more. There is very little use of cheap cell-sliding animation and nearly every frame is individually hand-drawn at some level. Besides, the interresting animation style, which varies constantly and includes not only hip, fluid segments but other forays into more and less complex, but equally cutting-edge, graphic styles.
In addition to amazing production values on a per-episode basis, the series really comes together story wise. It's funny, slapstick, and satirical interludes are ballanced by genuinely touching moments. The entire series can be watched over and over again until you understand the intricate pop-sci-fi plot, but what makes the story so beautiful is that at heart, despite all the crazy and often irrelevant action, it is really a coming-of-age story about a frustrated teenager going through puberty. The anime (and the books on which it was based) are loaded with metaphors and symbolism, and the series can be taken either literally or as an abstract portrait of a boy's experience in high school. However, the series still shines with Gainax's tried-and-true ability to manipulate the audience in ways that will have you laughing histerically and suddenly be cought off guard by a surprisingly touching and sometimes heartbreaking moment. Most of the episodes build up to finales that are consistantly serious and powerful and yet never quite kill the playful mood of the entire series.
The incredible score by the Pillows makes this not only my favorite anime, as I'm not a huge fan of the standard 20-minute cartoon format, but one of my favorite films as a whole.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars your head is empty, July 22, 2007

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FLCL - Ultimate Edition DVD Collection (DVD)

Anime can be pretty weird -- just look at series like "Paranoia Agent" and "Boogiepop Phantom." Really weird, sometimes impossible to totally understand.

But for sheer strangeness and kookiness, the winner has got to be "Fooly Cooly (FLCL)." Even as it pokes fun at typical anime, it tells the surrealist story of a very odd coming-of-age, complete with strange plots, oddball characters, and robots sprouting out of a young boy's head.

Naota is a young boy living what he sees as an oppressively dull existance, in a quiet city dominated by the Medical Mechanica building. The closest thing to excitement is fending off the advances of his brother's troubled girlfriend Mamimi.

Then sudenly a girl on a Vespa runs him over, resuscitates him with a smooch, and then bashes him over the head with a bass guitar. That evening, Naota finds that instead of a bump, he has a horn growing out of his head, and no idea what it is or how to get rid of it.

Despite his efforts to avoid her, Naoto's kooky father has hired the crazy Vespa girl, Haruko, as a housekeeper. To make matters worse, his "horn" turns out to be a robot and a giant mechanical hand -- springing out of a channel in his head. And you thought YOU had problems.

The five episodes that follow don't get any more normal, as Naota must deal with the Mayor's daughter getting his strange power, cat ears, more robots, baseball, bombs, the Pirate King Atomsk, seaweed eyebrows, and the interplanetary Medical Mechanica which may or may not be intent on galactic domination. It all clashes in the final episode.

For newbies, "FLCL" is probably the WORST anime to start with. It's a parodic mishmash of anime in-jokes -- giant robots, fanservice, boy falls for kooky abusive alien girl -- and a storyline that is bizarre to the point where you may not be able to understand what's going on. But oh, is it a fun ride.

As if the plot weren't hyperactive enough, the animation is exaggerated and crazy, full of distorted faces and wild robot battles. Lots of action and overdramatic dialogue ("OH NO.... OOOOOOOOO... an American GIRLFRIEND!"). As if it weren't funny enough, the director sprinkles in homages to other shows, ranging from other anime to "South Park."

And the characters are as bizarre as the story itself. Naoto starts off as a typical bored preteen, but slowly gains confidence and guts as he gets immersed in the weirdness. Haruko is a completely off-the-wall kook who is apparently an alien. And there's a bunch of other weird characters -- troubled pyromaniacs, wistful robots, preteen pervs, and a guy from Interstellar Immigration.

"FLCL" is perhaps the strangest anime in existance. It's also enough to blow the top off of your head, with the strange characters and wildly surrealist plot. Fooly Cooly!