Hey everyone~!
FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative, the supposedly "Second" and "Third" seasons of the original anime series, FLCL which was released back in 2000 jointly by Gainax and Production I.G., is scheduled be aired on Toonami starting with FLCL Progressive on June 2 at 11:30PM EST (You can watch the Toonami trailer by clicking on the below picture).
Produced by Production I.G. with former Gainax employees now working for Production I.G. (For more info, watch the following eleven minute video ->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bdiICLSfVo), both "seasons" (Each six episodes long) will feature music by
The Pillows, the band that composed and recorded the music for the original series.
The main protagonist (Anti-Hero?), Haruko Haruhara, will return in both "seasons" though in a slightly different form in each anime (Both seasons are supposed to happen years apart after the timeline of the original series). In addition, the former Gainax employees only worked on the first "season" imparting their knowledge, skills and style to the Production I.G. employees, leaving the production of the "second" season entirely to the Production I.G. regular staff. Thus the finished results of FLCL Alternative may approach its two predecessor series, yet take on a slightly different "Look and feel" that is distinctly its own (For better or for worse). Also, Kari Wahlgren, the voice actress who provided the English dubbed voice of Haruko in the original series will reprise her role. Atomsk will also return (In one form or another) while some of the characters from the original series like Naota Nandaba and Mamimi Samejima will not - There is no information available yet about Canti (Which is why I prefer to view the two new anime as being sequels rather than new "seasons" of the original series). On a positive note, from what I saw in the subbed first episode of FLCL Alternative that was broadcasted on Toonami on April 1, there will be lots of "
Fan service" (e.g. Panty shots) to enjoy~!
If you want to learn more about Production I.G., you can watch an interesting fifteen minute video, "Inside Production I.G (anime studio tour)" ->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ0K2EXjmGY. In that video, you get to see some of the studio Animators draw the key frames of [Computer] animation "cels" and the Ink and Paint artists digitally color in the already scanned animation "cels" (The "cels" are actually drawings as opposed to the actual animation cels once created long ago, prior to 1968, by traditional full animation studios like Disney, Warner Bros. or Don Bluth Studios before the invention of limited computer animation) and check the continuity of the computer interpolated frames in between the hand drawn, scanned key frames of animation (It looks like that the Ink and Paint artists are also the Inbetweeners, a role that used to be given to apprentice animators. Either that or perhaps the apprentice animators also have to take on the roles formally given to the Ink and Paint artists).
Click on the picture to watch the FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative trailer.
