ECP Flash Forward: FLCL Progressive 2 - "Freebie Honey" (June 9, 2018)

Hidomi pays a house call as Jinyu's past gets a little clearer

What I watched: The second episode of FLCL Progressive, an anime series created by Katsuyuki Motohiro and Production I. G., based off the original FLCL created by Kazuya Tsurumaki and Studio Gainax. “Freebie Honey” was directed by Kazuto Arai and written by Hideto Iwai. The episode first aired on adult swim on June 9, 2018 at midnight (or June 10, if you will), with the English dub cast featuring Kari Wahlgren, Allegra Clark, Xanthe Huynh, and Robbie Draymond. The Japanese version was aired as a compilation movie that first screened on September 28 of the same year, with a voice cast starring Mayumi Shintani, Miyuki Sawashiro, Inori Minase and Jun Fukuyama. Progressive is currently available for streaming on the adult swim page in the US and on VOD elsewhere.

Starring: Inori Manase stars as Hidomi in the Japanese audio version of FLCL Progressive. Manase is a young but prolific voice actor, appearing in the many seasons of isekai shows like Re: ZERO (as audience girlfriend and similarly kuudere Rem), My Next Life as a Villainess, and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. Anime News Network lists her hobbies as games, “net surfing”, and “Nico Nico Douga.”

In the English dub (and arguably the primary version of the series), Hidomi is voiced by Xanthe Huynh, who started out in the English-language anime industry before becoming a pretty prominent voice actress, including leading roles in Kimi ni Todoke, where she plays a similarly spooky girl, and Yuki Yuna is a Hero. I think she does a pretty good job playing a withdrawn character without ever getting too monotonous.

What I watched: We open with black-and-white footage from some sort of zombie films, with excited female narration. Amidst the wreckage is a zombified version of Hidomi, with the red horn growing out of her head. She attacks another set of zombies, only to quickly get dismembered and eaten. This is, of course, another one of her dreams. There’s also a zombie version of Ide.

Me when there’s a new episode of anime to watch

At home the next morning, Hidomi’s mom is trying to instruct the clusmy Jinyu on running the cafe. Haruko returns to the classroom, to rapturous applause. She apologizes on behalf of all adults for despoiling the world, and then assigns everyone to self-study because she’s hungry. I think a few of my teachers did that in high school. She gives the class a photo album full of pictures that suggest Haruko has been around for a long time at the school and had a lot of wacky adventures, but Hidomi only sees crayon drawings.

Hidomi leaves, and Haruko hands her a sheet of paper to give to the absent Ide, as she rides her Vespa through the halls of the school. When Hidomi goes to Ide’s house, she finds herself wandering through a set of very decrepit slums. The guy with an eyepatch from the restaurant offers to make Hidomi a “pro”, before Ide’s two friends intervene and save her from harassment.

When they find Ide, he’s selling makeshift weapons out of a garage to a set of gangsters. The crooks, speaking broken English in the Japanese audio track, laugh at his pebble guns and beat him up. Seeing this, Hidomi’s headphone light turns red and she screams and keels over. Ide princess carries her into his house.

After the break, there’s some porno sax and moaning to try to convince us that they’re banging, but it’s just Ide trying to stuff a bit of tissue up her nose to stop a nosebleed. He seems to live alone in a barebones apartment, although an older woman comes in to imply that he’s a horndog. Ide offers Hidomi the art gallery tickets he was talking about in the last episode, and the camera zooms in on her bare thighs, mimicking his gaze. Hidomi says she’s not interested in art, but wouldn’t mind being in a relationship with Ide. He tries to literally jump on her, but Haruko, hiding on the ceiling with a camera and pencil moustache, intervenes to spike him to the ground.