ECP Flash Forward: FLCL Alternative 1 - "Flying Memory" (September 8, 2018)

The second FLCL season starts with Dr. Pepper and the end of adolescence

What I watched: The first episode of FLCL Alternative, an anime series created by Katsuyuki Motohiro and Production I. G., based off the original FLCL created by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Studio Gainax. “Flying Memory” was directed by Yutaka Uemura and written by Hideto Iwai. The episode first aired on adult swim on September 8, 2018 at 11:30pm, with the English dub cast featuring Kari Wahlgren, Megan Harvey, Marianne Miller, Marieve Herington, and Erica Lindbeck. The Japanese version was aired as a compilation movie that first screened on September 7 of the same year, with a voice cast starring Mayumi Shintani, Karen Miyami, Mutsumi Tamura, Yuri Yoshida and Riho Iida. Alternative is currently available for streaming on the adult swim page in the US and on VOD elsewhere.

Starring: Our new lead, Kana Kawamoto, is voiced in Japanese by Karen Miyama. Miyama has a relatively brief list of credits on ANN, with most of them coming in the Precure and Haikyu!! franchises, but the page does note that she is fluent in Korean and likes to hula dance. In English Kana is voiced by Megan Harvey, who has also has a relatively shorts credits list, with her most recurring role being in the sexy-girl-battling Ikki Tousen series.

What happened: Our protagonist Kana starts the day on her scenic walk to school, complete with sketched-in rain clouds. She runs into her friends Pets, a shy freckled girl, snack food-loving Mossan, and model Hijiri. We also see Kana transparently crushing on Sasaki, the manager of the school’s lousy basketball team. They have lunch on the roof of the school, in true anime fashion.

Kana works at a traditional Japanese restaurant after school, where her teacher spills a full canister of spice into his soup. They watch video of a politician campaigning to prohibit space travel, which is promised to solve problems ranging from income inequality to adultery. Into this situation enters Haruko Haruharu, in perhaps her most desultory entrance yet. She asks for Kana’s age (17), and encourages her to more adventurous, saying “seventeen won’t wait for you.” Okay, Stevie Nicks.

I think this lady is the Japanese Prime Minister IRL now.

That night, Kana is hanging out with her friends, looking at a wooden block that reads “Never knows best”, a reference to the original series. Mossan is planning to make bottle rockets with leftover bottles of “Dr. P.” The girls all argue about aerodynamics, annoying her. Haruko is observing them from afar. The teacher asks her what she’s doing there, and seems to know Haruko’s whole deal.

We cut back to the girls having built a truly giant rocket. Mossan points out that the rocket needs more decoration, and everyone agrees. The next day, a newspaper headline tells us that the space travel ban has been made into law. The girls go shopping for decoration, and we get a fun montage. They pass by a giant wedge-shaped building, and comment that it’s ruining the shopping district. They complete the rocket, but their plans are interrupted by a giant missile from space falling into the room. Lousy luck.