C&C - FLCL: Shoegaze - "Gene-Bato" [10/7]

[Kitschensyngk]

Dare I say, this new Haruko is a bit steamier than the first one.

FLCL: Shoegaze
Episode 2
"Gene-Bato"
(Generational Battle)
[episode description pending]​

I can't comment on an episode I haven't seen or one my usual sources won't give me a description of, so...watch it tonight at midnight ET only Toonami etc. etc.

 

[Nobodyman]

FLCL Jukebox

​

 

[Kitschensyngk]

Yeah, we know she's a girl. We don't need proof.

Where are they now?

 

[Nobodyman]

Previously on FLCL: Haruko's replacement is younger, hotter, and crazier.

Also, Atomsk has put on weight.

The big mouth of metal? I think that would be Ozzy Osbourne.

Hey, it's all her friends!

Oh, Pets. Why you gotta be like that?

 

[Kitschensyngk]

Okay, are you all on Mars? That ending needed explaining.

Harumi doesn't strike me as a Medical Mechanica operative.
MM represents rules and order. She's a little bombastic for them.

Chirpiest terrorist I ever saw.

First tell her what "umeebo" is.

 

[Nobodyman]

"I want a million yen in unmarked bills, the release of two dozen political prisoners, an escape helicopter, and a Big Mac with large fries and a shake."

Apparently Cerebro is on loan from Professor X.

Enough with the panty shots!

Imaginary time? What's this Doctor Who nonsense?

 

[Kitschensyngk]

Why be a nurse when you can embark on an exciting career a human lab rat?

FLCL Alternative: The New Class!

Okay, she's a babe, we get it.

This is your brain on FLCL. Any questions?

 

[zoombie]

So the whole band aid was for nothing.

You think Haruka shows up in this episode, or we are waiting till next week?

 

[Kitschensyngk]

1 yen, 2 yen, 3 yen, 4 yen...

Everything is a flashback today.

This Die Hard sequel is getting weirder and weirder.

A sky fish! This is how Eureka Seven started!

KISS HER, YOU BLOCKHEAD!

 

[Nobodyman]

Friends. They'll always let you down and move to Mars.

Masaki is such a simp.

Return of the baseball metaphors!

Candy. As if this girl wasn't hyperactive enough.

 

[Kitschensyngk]

You say she's a Medical Mechanica spy, yet you want her to succeed?

Now he's training her to be a Beast Titan?

Now we're shooting a kid.

 

[Nobodyman]

Clothes. Who needs 'em?!

Yeah, love, sure.

Aww, and we were just getting to know her.

 

[Kitschensyngk]

All this just to give him a boner?

Tell me that red stuff is strawberry filling.

 

[zoombie]

Now that took a drastic turn.

 

[Yojimbo]

So it was a tower and Masaki makes the imaginary space at the top real and it's a brain atop the tower like a spine. Hmm, so it's gonna change into Atomsk then rise out of the ground next week isn't it?

Geez, sniping a kid?

Nice to see the rest of the Alt. cast. So Kana to just decide not to go to a celebration even though she's all decked out.

EDIT: A post-ep. 2 message from the director.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

She is probably just Haruko in disguise. I doubt she is really dead. I bet she’s some sort of immortal unaging alien. I thought the scenes with her and the boy in the tower were really repetitive and bad. It’s just one upskirt shot after another and endless demands for more candy. I liked the Kana plot a bit more though. It’s nice to see anything outside of the usual FLCL hormones awakening plot that has been reiterated so many times now. Having Kana be 27 was a nice change of pace from the pubescent angst that has been done to death. It’s rare to even see a character in anime who is older than a teenager, let alone dealing with the issues of loneliness and inadequacy a lot of people feel as they are in their mid to late 20s.

 

[Yojimbo]

She is probably just Haruko in disguise. I doubt she is really dead. I bet she’s some sort of immortal unaging alien.

True, they've done that before with Haruko. They could go with something left field. Like Haruko manipulated N.O. or this imaginary space thing, and Harumi is just an aspect of Haru's personality made manifest. And Harumi's role is to manipulate another child with N.O. to open another focal point but in reverse so Haru can escape where she was put at the end of Alternative (did they ever confirm where that is?).

Having Kana be 27 was a nice change of pace from the pubescent angst that has been done to death. It’s rare to even see a character in anime who is older than a teenager, let alone dealing with the issues of loneliness and inadequacy a lot of people feel as they are in their mid to late 20s.

Agreed. Having what seems to be the final series/season of FLCL, it is a fitting conclusion to bringing it full circle with one of the previous protagonists older and commenting on their life. Just the scenes of her looking at the towns teens and seeing herself and her friends was a nice touch.

 

[Grenzer]

I have been very pleased with Shoegaze so far and looking forward to how it ends next week. This is the direction a FLCL sequel should have been taking from the very start. Exploring the lack of life direction Kana has experienced since meeting Haruko ten years earlier fits into the theme of the original OVA: What does it mean to grow up? To be an adult? And how to avoid becoming jaded and complacent?

On some level I find it a shame that this is going to be the franchise's last hurrah, but here is hoping it will end on a high note.