Similar anime

if you really like haruko's character, especially her ability to contort her body and limbs (i.e. a snake in episode 5), then you might like the protagonist, Vash, from the trigun series. In the first half of that show, he's a goofball but later on in the series, he shows his serious side.

Then there's Cowboy bebop. Ed's a silly character... but she's more autistic and less haruko. However, Bebop is a really solid anime that has such a large following for a reason.

Neither Trigun or Cowboy Bebop are anything like the FLCL series as wholes. However, when I try to coax a friend of mine to start watching anime, I'll start them off on one of those two series. To me, they're the "portal drugs" for anime.


While I LOVE FLCL I tend to like my anime with as little cheese as possible. Right now I'm in the middle of Ergo Proxy, a suspense thriller, sci-fi, philosophy series that has a dash of dystopia (ok... alot of dystopia). There's no BS in that series. Same scenario for a series called Texhnolyze. Those two series have a sense of realism (as opposed to something like pokemon) and pretty mature complex characters. oh, and robots.

Speaking of realism The only series that i've seen so far that portrays space realistically is a wonderful (yet somewhat under the radar) anime series called planetes. It's less ufo kind of space, and more like nasa space shuttle kind of space.

Oh, back to robots... the animatrix has superb animation quality. It's a compilation of short stories based in the matrix universe (which was heavily influenced by the original "ghost in the shell" film). Since it's a compilation, you can see which style of animation and story telling you like the most and you can see other works by each director. possibly narrowing down your particular tastes.

Although there's no companion show that emulate's FLCLs feel, I can give you the very little insite I have with the anime I own on DVD. There's alot of good stuff out there.

Excel Saga is just as mental as FLCL. In a good way.

"I believe in the authority of a ruling class, especially since I rule."
-Randal Graves

There are just as many anime as there are live action films. It really all depends on what you are into. That being said, someone mentioned a few Miyazaki films. If you like movies and fantasy, these might intrigue you. John Lacedor (spelling?) of Pixar Animation openly admits his admiration of this director as well as the fact that much of the ideas and imagination stemming from Pixar Studios is of direct influence from these films.

There are MANY good movies such as Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, just check out a top 20 anime film list.

BUT for SERIES, this is where it gets tricky... They have everything from pokemon to DBZ and Bleach out there. And each of them depends on a keen interest in a specific taste. For someone JUST getting into anime, I think there are 4 in specific that I would recommend to you. Reason being- style, direction, character development, overall story telling.

They are as follows

1)Cowboy Bebop- Hajime Yatate directs this as well as my second choice....
2)Samuria Champloo
3)Trigun- A comedy, very funny and entertaining
4)Kenshin- My absolute favorite anime of all time (at least the movies and first two seasons)

The first 3 are your basic sci fi thrillers, some more dramatic, others more comic or action oriented. But Kenshin is something else entirely... A period drama incorporating factual documentation about several eras of Japan and Japanese history through the use of a fictional character based on several legendary men. If you never see another anime series or film again, please watch "TRUST AND BETRAYAL" the opening film developing the main character from childhood to about the age of 16 as one of the most deadly assasins in Japan. Following this the series begins and at its conclusion (or at least after season two ends) "Reflections" can be watched- another beautiful movie showing the final days and death of the protagonist character as well as distant memories more skillfully drawn and explained from the series seasons.

Yeah - I'd agree with the guys above that mention Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. It's the only anime I've seen that comes pretty close to the fantastic random and dreamlike flavour flavour of FLCL. Plenty of other excellent anime out there but Abenobashi is the only one I've seen that comes close to FLCL in mood and delivery.

FLCL - it's definately in a class of it's own. Awsome animation, great themes, and as hard as it can be to follow what's going on - it all makes sense in it's own terms in the end.

It's a work of Fooly Cooly art!

for everyone who liked FLCL check out Dead Leaves

Paranoia Agent Mousou