William French
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Fooly Cooly Episode 6 Part 2!
🕑 Added 2023-03-23 16:45:08 +0000 UTCClick here for the full episode.
Click here for just this half.
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And that’s...Fooly Cooly.
What an interesting show. I find myself wishing that it was longer; there’s so much worldbuilding that would’ve been cool to see fleshed out. On the other hand, the brevity and mystery of the show really helps drive home Naota’s perspective--all of this is happening so swiftly in his life and so confusingly on top of that that he gets overwhelmed and latches on to the one constant in all of it.
The show is a very interesting metaphor for the changes that come during your teenage years--the new experiences, feelings, responsibilities...all the strange and wonderful and terrifying things that are happening to you as you hit puberty and transition into being a proper teenager. I’m a little embarrassed that it took me as long as it did (the end of episode 4, if I recall correctly) to realize that, but the show IS very fast-paced, and I found myself a little overwhelmed as a result.
Naota’s a very good protagonist (and I’m always a sucker for Barbara Goodson), but I again found myself wishing we’d gotten to see more of him interacting with his classmates and friends. Those were some entertaining side characters, but I feel like they could have done more with them. I wonder what the reason for making it a six-episode show was; was that the way the story was originally written? Was that all they could get approval for? Was this show based on the manga, or was the manga based on the show?
I keep talking about my desire for there to be more show, to delve more deeply into the characters and worldbuilding, but thinking about it, that might have been a detriment to the character of Raharu. She benefits greatly from remaining unexplained until the final episode, and I think revealing more about her would have taken that away. And Naota and Raharu are the important bits of the show, after all, so I guess the short episode count is a good thing.
You may have noticed me complaining incessantly about Raharu and Mamimi romancing a twelve-year-old, but that’s from an adult perspective--they’re perfect to illustrate the awakening feelings of a kid going through puberty, and as gross as it is to me, they’re used very effectively to that end.
The soundtrack is also very interesting, incidentally--I don’t think I’d listen to any of it independently of the series (it’s just not my genre) but it sets the tone and mood of the show VERY well. I don’t think the show would be the same with a more traditional soundtrack, and I really should give it a proper listen without the distraction of the dialogue and visuals.
Anyways, that’s Fooly Cooly! What an excellent show. Give it a watch, I liked it a lot.
That’s all the liveblog for today! Tomorrow we’ll be continuing Kino’s Journey, so tune in for that! Or you can tune in in twenty minutes on my Twitch channel for Ib!
Thank you all for tuning in, and thank you to my 47 blog patrons, who make it so I can do this for a living! I’ll see you later!
