FLCL Alternative

Life seems to drift by for Kana Koumoto and her friends in their small Japanese town. Every day is just like the last, and it feels like every new day will be the same. Kana goes to school, hangs out with her friends, and likes to paint her nails and listen to music, but it feels like nothing special is ever going to happen.

As a change of pace, Kana and her friends decide to design a bottle rocket and launch it into space, even though it might not get there at all. However, just when the rocket is completed, a robot suddenly crashes into and destroys it, shortly followed by a pink-haired woman claiming to be a "Galactic Investigator." Kana's life quickly becomes more exciting than she ever imagined, dealing with new feelings, changing friends, and even boy troubles. It turns out life can go by in the blink of an eye, fast enough to even miss it, so what's with these weird robots that seem to show up at the worst times?!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haruhara, Haruko Main

Shintani, Mayumi Japanese

Koumoto, Kana Main

Miyama, Karen Japanese

Hetada, Tomomi Supporting

Yoshida, Yuuri Japanese

Yajima, Hijiri Supporting

Iida, Riho Japanese

Motoyama, Man Supporting

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Aida, Ben Supporting

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Koumoto, Bunta Supporting

Masaka, Miho Japanese

Sudou, Kan Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Koumoto, Shizuka Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Hetada, Mimi Supporting

Matsuoka, Yuki Japanese

Terashima-Furuta, Maki Producer

Kawaguchi, Tooru Producer

Tsunoki, Takuya Producer

Uemura, Yutaka Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Aug 4, 2023

sakaisnow

Recommended

Wow, i wasn't expecting too much from this sequel (don't get me wrong) but damn, its the finest sequel of the series, yeah, for me the original always will be the best, but this one, is good as flcl style. The animation is fine, the songs are fine, and remember a lot of the original, and got the same vibe as the first, if you ask if is worth to watch, YES, if you like the 2000 flcl, you will prob like this one, i really felt a connection between the characters and me, something that progressive didn't make it, and i hope grunge and ... shoegaze be the same vibe, to keep the fooly cooly essence. If you want to spend some afternoon watching some anime to relax, this one, trust me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 25, 2025

SuperSnailien

Mixed Feelings

I wanted to get my thoughts down on FLCL Alternative because it feel so complicated about it.

Unlike FLCL Progressive, which feels like a confused mess that fails even to properly convey its own character motivations (in a show when motivations give the characters superpowers! Come on!), Alternative feels like a series that very well could have been good.
Its characters are charming, and navigate the uncertainty of every day life while providing intelligent insights into the nature of maturity. Kana’s desire to keep everything the same is consistent through every episode and drives her action. The animation is overall is at a much higher level of ... quality than Progressive’s, and this is used to the show’s benefit to amplify its action scenes.

I think all this is meaningful because these are the three things Progressive completely failed at. However, that doesn’t mean Alternative meets the standard set by the original season.

Overall it’s just boring. While I don’t think putting robot fights on the backburner in favor of focusing on character introspection is a bad idea, Alternative still doesn’t navigate those themes as well as season 1 did. The original said so much in so few words. Think of how in Episode 4: Full Swing, Haruko’s relationship with Naota’s dad is alluded to in split-second snippets, but immediately we get the full idea of what their relationship is like and how it affects Naota. Compare that to the basketball scene Alternative’s episode 4, which draws out Haruko coming onto Kana’s crush for several minutes. It’s not failing to make a point or play a theme, but its restrained approach means it takes a lot longer to do so and it’s not using interesting filmmaking or visuals to drive it home.

Most of the wacky robot clashes are over as soon as they begin. Again, I don’t mind this because they aren’t as strong a focus this time around, but why not replace them with something that would more effectively convey the characters’ internal struggles? If I wanted to watch something non-sci-fi about 4 girls struggling with the idea of growing up I would watch Hideaki Anno's Love & Pop (and I will. That movie is excellent)

The show is stylistically boring. Season 1 accentuated its most emotional moments with drastic changes in art style. Actually, its BORING moments got the most love. Think of the manga-panel sequence. Or the random south park art style. There’s nothing like that here.

At the end of the day, I don’t think Alternative is bad, but it is bland and forgettable. I’m not sure it would have any reason to exist if it didn’t bear the FLCL name. It’s a perfectly watchable season of anime, but it just falls short, and that’s tough when you’re wearing the name of absolute perfection.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 24, 2024

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

You know those, like, sequels to shows that nobody asked for and it ends up sucking and we're like "great, thanks, Big Corpo"

This is that

In the first seven minutes or so, the main girl pulls out a Jenga block that says "Never Knows Best" and I think that's a perfect representation of this series (as in Alternative, not FLCL as a whole).

It pulls stuff from FLCL OG just because Adult Swim really really liked FLCL OG back in the day. Haruko is back because people liked her in FLCL OG. She fights with a guitar because FLCL OG. Never Knows Best, LAST DINOSAUR, hell, The ... Pillows' involvement in general (I'm genuinely surprised they never used Ride On, Shooting Star but for what it's worth, I did like the new ED song. It's not as good as Ride On but it's solid), it's all to service the masterpiece before it. In the last episode at the end, we even see a blink-and-you'll-miss-it clip from FLCL OG.

It feels cheap and pandering. I love love love LAST DINOSAUR but I was actively dreading it being played by the time it did because I didn't want them to trot it out so FLCL OG fans could clap and point at the thing they know.

FLCL OG was a lightning bolt you couldn't help but catch with your hands and Alternative does not have that same aura.

This is the corporate-mandated belated sequel that can't let go of the thing that people loved.

Other than Haruko, the only really notable characters are the 4 girls in the main friend group.

They're just ~so quirky~, the first episode just shows them goofing off and building a bottle rocket because ~adolescence~ and it just felt artificial to me. We do sort of get an episode to show off each character but I never got attached to any of them. Kana (the main girl) is mentioned to have been sickly as a child a couple of times but it just kind of feels shoved in. It feels like I genuinely know almost nothing about Pets except her family is rich and she likes taking pictures with her friends, I guess? There's also The Pretty One and The Fat One (who, to be fair, does get some good character development at least, she works really hard and has a goal for her future) and, like, who cares

Kana's not as interesting a protagonist as Naota, none of the side characters are as interesting as Samejima, the animation isn't as off-the-wall as the original, it's Adult Swim going "hey, we liked FLCL back in the day, let's do it again, we've got money!"

Which is weird when in this very show, they're going "oh, nothing lasts forever, even precious things will disappear".

Let the past die. If you want to use your Adult Swim money to make new shows, that's fine, but digging up the corpse of FLCL is not the way to do it.

Alternative feels like if you ripped the soul out of FLCL OG. The only reason I gave it a 3 is because the production still looks pretty good and tbh, I'm hedging my bets that Progressive and Grunge are even worse because apparently Alternative is supposed to be the BEST FLCL sequel (although I've genuinely heard nothing about Shoegaze so that'll be a surprise for me).

Jury's out on if it's better than Progressive/Grunge/Shoegaze in my eyes but if that's true, you're better off acting like these shows don't exist.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 2 Discussion Vysarine - Sep 15, 2018	20 replies	by Spirelord »» Aug 25, 6:29 PM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 5 Discussion Vysarine - Oct 6, 2018	16 replies	by Spirelord »» Aug 25, 6:27 PM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Vysarine - Oct 13, 2018	59 replies	by llcrazyacell »» Jul 3, 6:00 PM
	The Show is Ruined Because of Haruko GennosukeKouga - Jul 3, 2020	3 replies	by Berry-Vodka »» Sep 16, 2024 10:47 PM
	Poll: FLCL Alternative Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) removed-user - Mar 31, 2018	80 replies	by Alkimia »» Sep 5, 2024 6:28 AM