Episode 6: Our Run/Our Running
The titles are weird because in the anime the title is “Our Running” but on TV and on the internet the title is simply “Our Run.” It’s minute, so I’m not going to get hung up on it. The finale of season 2. I was hoping for something really explosive, but it appears as if the budget had been busted in the exploits of episodes 4 and 5 as well as the amazing dream sequences leading up to this finale because where we expected the most action we got the most awful animation. Instead of action, we just got still frames tumbling and moving around, a couple of zoom-in and zoom-outs to recreate the illusion of movement, etc.
However, I don’t think that animation was supposed to be the draw of this episode. I wouldn’t even say that the theme was supposed to be the draw since the plot sort of shrivels up and Hidomi’s ending narration quite literally says
There’s nothing I want to be.
There’s nothing I want to do
and that’s probably not the best way to be.
But, you know what, it probably doesn’t matter.
That’s so lackluster compared to season 1! There was so much subtext and unspoken references to concepts that made you guess what the essential “meaning” was supposed to be, but no, season 2 just flat-out says this is all for nothing and there’s no meaning, no lesson, no moral of the story, it’s just…nothingness, a void, no punch-line, no plot twist.
What’s funny is that season 1 of FLCL didn’t intend to craft a loose narrative about concepts of maturity, sex, puberty, etc, but it still danced around these subjects enough to where you can marvel at the possible statement it could make—enough to lead you down the path but not enough to draw a definite conclusion. But for season 2 it sort of advertised itself as a sort of Hero’s Journey story where Hidomi would start off by saying things like “the world must be destroyed before it can be beautiful” and by reciting the “There’s nothing I want to be. There’s nothing I want to do” but through the episodes we would see some sort of growth or maturity to where Hidomi would change her soliloquy, but no, we just get nothing.
What I will say, however, is that episode 6 pulls all the stops with the best music. The episode only uses 3 songs, spare for the ending theme, but it uses them exceptionally well. I would have a hard time justifying this statement, but this episode used to of the objectively greatest songs in the Fool on Cool Generation album’s arsenal to exemplify this climactic “last hurrah” feeling in the audience because they know this is the final episode and something is supposed to happen.
The beginning of the episode utilizes a lot of the instrumentals and sound-bytes that I said I will not analyze, but the first song we get is none other than:
(1)Thank You, My Twilight (Fool on Cool)
The song strikes on the hilariously constructed apocalyptic scene of the Medical Mechanica plant spraying the town with…mochi…that crystallizes everyone it touches…*sigh*
The electronic beeps strike as Aiko takes back the money she’s been saving up and the opening line makes itself known throughout the transitive scenes where Raharu and Hidomi end up inside of Atomsks’ body.
On this go-‘round I actually noticed that the inside of Atomsk’s body actually bears a lot of similarity to the apocalyptic wasteland in Hidomi’s dreams.
You get to hear the entire song play out throughout the dialogue between Hidomi and her mother. The dialogue tries to land an emotional payoff, but honestly, the build-up wasn’t all the way there to make it work. Since all we know about the relationship between Hidomi and her mother is from a few statements not made in conversation and the lackluster manga scene. It appears to be of little consequence, but I do like how the song Thank You, My Twilight attempts to add more weight to the scene with the electric beeping and Sawao Yamanaka’s wailing grabbing you by the feels and shaking you through the scene as it ends crisply to introduce the transition cut.
I won’t go over the lyrics any more than I have, since I feel like that’d beat a dead horse, and because I think it’s the musical composition that adds more weight than the lyrics in this instance.
(2) Last Dinosaur (Fool on Cool)
There is a decent pause between the first song and the second. Once again you get to hear the song play to completion from the scene where Hidomi transforms until the scene where Hidomi and Haruko…kiss the robot to draw out both Atomsk and Ide…*sigh*
The funny part of this whole exchange is that the song plays during all of the horribly animation portions of this episode. Save for the horrible spinning animation from the beginning, the awful fight scenes where things weren’t even animated all occur while the greatest song in all of FLCL plays. After watching season 1 where you were able to get expert animation AND amazing songs it does feel like an unfair trade-off to hear the great song that is “Last Dinosaur” while watching some pretty bad action sequences.
I admire the effort, though, and it does serve as a nice time-suck to let the time pass until you get to the part where the narrative is supposed to advance beyond the action. Yet again, I won’t belabor the lyrical breakdown because that would be me beating a dead horse.
(3) I Think I Can (Fool on Cool)
There is a subtle irony in this song’s use. Instead of Naota or Ide being the focus of the action in the use of the song, you actually hear this song play over Raharu’s breakdown as she gets within arms reach of Atomsk but still cannot confirm the taking of Atomsk.
What’s ironic is that the developmental scenes for Naota and Ide use the song, but Raharu stubbornly keeps trying to forcefully take Atomsk for herself only to fail and get rejected yet again. This scene cements Raharu as a character who just doesn’t learn her lesson—in season 1 she stubbornly initiated the destruction of Mabase in order to get a shot at Atomsk only to do the same thing in season 2 but still fail.
The song ends naturally upon the scene where Jinyu reappears and Atomsk flees from Raharu once again.
