Episode 4: Pit-a-Pat

My favorite episode, episode 4! This is without a doubt Kana’s episode, and the only reason I prefer this episode to episode 3 is because of some of the music, the funny animation moments, and the basketball scene. While there is only one song by The Pillows, the lesser instrumentals actually help set up the scenes very well.

The gist of it is there is a boy from episode 2 that serves as Kana’s love interest for episode 4, and in typical FLCL fashion, Haruko gets involved to mess with the main characters’ heads, only to end with a quick action scene before resolving. Some of the animation techniques made some of the scenes really funny with certain characters having their faces stretched in odd proportions or a quick change in art style for a visual gag. Also, Kari Wahlgren’s voice absolutely tortured me while she curated some of the silly moments. Plus, the voice acting was generally good in this episode; it was cheesy enough to sell the scenes without appearing to be either overperformed or undersold. Finally, I thought the basketball scene was cool, even if it was random and made absolutely no sense, it was kinda funny to watch.

(1)Little Busters (Fool on Cool)
In typical FLCL fashion, “Little Busters” ends the episode right before the ending theme. In some way the song still served the same purpose in season 1. Since Kana is the main character of all main characters in season 3, her entire growth in the episode resolves with her not trying to run into something that she’s not emotionally ready for. At the very least, the episode outright states it for you in dialogue and in narration as opposed to it being left up for interpretation. Since this is an alternative, slice-of-life take on FLCL, I feel as a narrative tool, having the point be spelled out for you in a concise manner, especially after a whacky off-the-wall action scene, is the best choice.