Retroactively known as the first season of the ''

FLCL is an anime created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido, and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which consisted of Gainax, Production I.G, and King Records. The series tells the adventures of the ...

'' series, all episodes of the 2000 Japanese

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

series were directed by

Kazuya Tsurumaki Kazuya Tsurumaki (鶴巻和哉 ''Tsurumaki Kazuya'') is a Japanese anime director. He was born on February 2, 1966, in the city of Gosen, located in Niigata Prefecture. He is the protégé of Hideaki Anno, and a longtime animator at Gainax. T ...

and produced by the ''FLCL'' Production Committee, which included

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; , Hepburn: ) was a Japanese anime studio famous for original productions such as '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'', '' Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise'', '' Gunbuster'', '' Nadia: The Secret of Blue ...

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio. Headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Production I.G was founded on December 15, 1987, by producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character designer Takayuki Goto as I.G Tatsunoko, a branch studio of the animation giant Ta ...

, and Starchild Records. The English adaptation was licensed by Synch-Point, which released the DVDs and soundtrack. After Synch-Point went out of business,

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

licensed and re-released the series on Blu-ray and DVD. The story follows

Haruko Haruhara The central characters in ''FLCL'' (also known as ''Fooly Cooly''), a 2000 Japanese anime produced by Gainax and Production I.G, with two additional seasons released in 2018, followed by two more seasons in 2023. The first season covers the sto ...

, a sociopathic alien drawn to the fictional Japanese suburb of Mabase by the Medical Meccanica building while weaseling in the lives of twelve-year-old Naota Nandaba in the first season and fourteen-year-old Hidomi Hibajiri in the second season as pawns in her agenda to acquire the being called Atomsk. The first-season episodes aired in North America on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

programming block from August 4 to August 13, 2003. Six pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

are used for the episodes; five opening themes and one closing theme. All the theme songs are by Japanese

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

the Pillows. The opening themes are: " One Life", used in episode one, "Instant Music" in episode two and three, "

Happy Bivouac ''Happy Bivouac'' (named as ''Happy Bivouac on the Hillari Step'' on album sleeve, booklet and CD art) is an album released by Japanese band the pillows on December 2, 1999. It marks the band's first record with Jun Suzuki from The Chewinggum Wee ...

" for episode four, "

Runners High ''Runners High'' is an album released by the Pillows on January 22, 1999. It was the last album to feature guest bassist, Tatsuya Kashima. Several songs from the record were later featured in the anime OVA series FLCL by Gainax. The album was ...

", utilized in episode five, and "Carnival" in episode six. The closing theme is "Ride on Shooting Star", used for all episodes.

Geneon Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owned by American telecommunications/media company Comcast headquartered in Akasaka, Min ...

has released three

original soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

s encompassing the aforementioned songs, with soundtracks titled '' Addict'', released on January 20, 2004, ''

King of Pirates Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery (20 August 1659Disappeared: June 1696), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used s ...

'', released on September 7, 2004, and '' FLCL No. 3'', released on June 7, 2005. Six DVD compilations, each containing one episode, were released in Japan by

. In addition, a DVD collection box, containing all six DVD compilations, was released in Japan on August 13, 2005. Three compilations were released by Synch-Point in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. A DVD collection, containing all six was released on January 23, 2007. The series was re-picked up for distribution by

in 2010 and released again on DVD and on Blu-ray in February 2011. __TOC__

Episodes

Notes

References

External links

Official Gainax website

Official Adult Swim website
{{Production I.G OVAs FLCL episode lists 2003 American animated television seasons