FLCL: Alternative Musical Breakdown

Last but not least we have FLCL: Alternative, season 3 of the series. While I will state that season 3 still pales in comparison to season 1, I think in some ways it is better than season 2. While season 3 still suffers from having lackluster animation and having unsuccessful story-telling, I believe that season 3 shines in creating a decent slice-of-life epic where each character gets an episode to shine and the character dynamics paint a story of the final weeks of adolescence breaching into high school graduation.

While I can’t relate with the feeling the series is trying to replicate, considering I was elated to get the hell out of high school, I was surprised to find a slice-of-life spin on FLCL. What it sacrificed, however, was the interesting story elements that FLCL has offered so far. The giant robots, the presence of Haruko, and all of the symbolic imagery in Medical Mechanica had a very subdued presence in season 3, and it almost appeared to betray the “FLCL Formula” by separating the combinations of characters and story elements that the former seasons made to be about necessary.

Like season 2, the presence of full songs by The Pillows is drastically reduced, and instead, relies heavily on the other sound-bytes. There were some episodes that had really cool alternative music in it, but I won’t focus on that until I get to that episode. Overall, I liked season 3 as its own alternative take on FLCL, but I think it should be considered that…an alternative take on FLCL, as opposed to some type of sequel since it doesn’t really do anything to make any significant advancements in the story or anything like that.

It does have some good gems, but nothing to the degree of season 2 or season 1, and it doesn’t have as many of them, and a majority of the songs fill up as background noise. Nevertheless, we’ll still break everything down.