Why FLCL's Story Doesn't Really Matter

gamerant.com:

At the risk of sounding like a bait-and-switch, FLCL's story does matter, but for very different reasons than people often discuss when the show comes up. It isn't a show that's always easy to follow, making some people label it as something that has some merit but is utterly nonsensical without a lot of a point.

Kazuya Tsurumaki's FLCL, or Fooly Cooly, is about a young boy named Naota living in a town where «nothing amazing happens.» That is, until a woman on a Vespa bashes him in the head with a base guitar, uprooting his everyday life and causing robots to spawn out of his forehead, making his already confusing adolescence all the more complicated. Even the above paragraph is only a fraction of the experience over six short-but-sweet episodes stripped down to avoid an unnecessary presumption or over-encumbrance of detail. By the end of FLCL, a lot has happened, and many viewers will miss stuff the first time, and this can lead to all sorts of assumptions.

The Weirdest Moments In FLCL

Broad reactions to FLCL fall into two categories: those that think of it as an incredibly deep and rich narrative experience and those who think of it as just a ride. There are few who are likely to have seen it who won't heap it with some praise, namely regarding its music by The Pillows, as would anyone. Even so, consider the school of thought that FLCL doesn't have a real story. What might support that?

Perhaps it's how many questions the viewers have throughout the first viewing and maybe even at the end. Things like «what's Atomisk?», «what is Medical Mechanica?», or «what exactly is Haruko's goal?» And a lot of these questions have answers, but not all are apparent or without some room for interpretation.

Stories — especially in visual