Adult Swim announces two more seasons of FLCL to celebrate Toonami’s anniversary

FLCL Shoegaze and FLCL Grunge are coming at some point

By Sam Barsanti | March 17, 2022 | 6:27pm

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Adult Swim announces two more seasons of FLCL to celebrate Toonami’s anniversary

FLCL Grunge Screenshot: YouTube/Adult Swim

If you have fond memories of running home from school to catch new episodes of Dragon Ball Z or Gundam Wing, prepare to feel like you’ve just realized you’re living in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber (where time passes much more quickly inside than on the outside): Today is the 25th anniversary of when Cartoon Network debuted its anime-centric Toonami programming block, meaning—if you do have those fond memories—you are an Old Person now. Luckily, Toonami (which has since grown up along with you to be an Adult Swim programming block) has a little gift for you in the form of brand new anime, including two new seasons of one of the all-time greats of the medium.

This comes from Variety, which says Toonami has ordered two new seasons of iconic coming-of-age sci-fi comedy/drama/action show/anime parody series FLCL titled FLCL Grunge and FLCL Shoegaze. This will make it five seasons for a show that seemed to have landed on a pretty definitive and touching conclusion after just one, with Adult Swim previously ordering two new installments—FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative—in 2016. One of the hooks for those two seasons was that they were animated by different creative teams, and Toonami is keeping that going for these two as well. Director Yutaka Uemura and studio team-up Production I.G x NUT, who also made FLCL Alternative, are turning for Shoegaze, while Grunge will be directed by Hitoshi Takekiyo and produced by MontBlanc Pictures.

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As for what FLCL is about, the first (and best) season focused on a 12-year-old boy named Naota who develops a weird portal in his head that releases giant robots after he meets an aggressively cool and confident alien woman named Haruko. (She drives a retro Vespa! She carries around a bass guitar!) There are wacky hijinks and sci-fi action, but the real draw is the thoughtful metaphor for growing up and having a frustrating crush on someone and realizing that even the confident adults who seem to have it all figured out are as full of shit as everybody else.

Oh, and FLCL has one of the sickest soundtracks in anime history, courtesy of J-pop band The Pillows. The Variety story doesn’t say if they’re coming back, but since they reunited for Progressive and Alternative, it would be very strange to replace them now.

That’s all pretty exciting, give or take how you felt about Progressive and Alternative, but it’s not even the extent of Adult Swim’s Toonami news. Variety says that it has also picked up an anime series called Housing Complex C from Yuji Nara and animation studio Akatsuki. All Variety says is that it’s about someone named Kimi who lives in a low-income housing complex where “an ancient evil” has begun stalking the residents. It sounds spooky, which reminds us that Adult Swim’s Uzumaki anime is supposed to premiere this year as well.