We open on a field where a young woman named Mamimi is swinging a bat on a field by the river, while a young man named Naota looks on. He's a rather sullen individual for an 11-year-old, his attitude not helped by his mother being away on business and his brother playing baseball in America. Mamimi is a rather eccentric young woman, given how she reacts to his brother's absence.
It's also shown that she's a chain smoker, and given how she was in a relationship with his brother; she tries to use Naota as an outlet for her feelings, much to his (understandable) chagrin. Naota also exposits about the Medical Mechanical plant that was built in his town, and how everything changed when it came.
We then see a young woman named Haruko overlooking the bridge, as she bites into a spicy curry roll (that we find out later she stole from someone else) while sitting on the back of her Vespa. Even though it's going to be hard to illustrate this in still screencaps, the animation is just fantastic. GAINAX put a lot of work into making this series, and even though my favorite anime is Gurren Lagann, this is very high on the list of my favorite productions by them.
After that, we see Mamimi getting a drink; and Naota is understandably weirded out by Mamimi trying to court him. A previous scene showed her nibbling Naota's ear, and now he's noticing a strange spot on his neck; which Mamimi says will keep her from "overflowing." I'm not going to question anything, but I am going to make this joke.
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| Is this legal, man? "Only here, and in Mississippi." |
After that, Haruko comes crashing into Naota on her Vespa, and also hits him with the bass guitar on her back!
I also really like this bit with Mamimi in the background taking pictures of the unconscious Naota. It's many of the little quirks that make this anime so fun.
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| Sweet! Fangoria will give me $50 for this shot! |
As Haruko tries to give Naota CPR, I just have to love how crazy a lot of the faces and how unique the visuals are here. I even get a kick of this Picture-in-picture gag lampshading the bullet time effects on the mouth-to-mouth scene.
After Naota is revived, here is the actual dialogue from Mamimi after the fact: "Did she put her tongue inside?"
One of the after-effects is a big horn, and after hilarity ensues in school the next day, it turns out that Haruko is also a nurse at the Medical Mechanical hospital!
After Naota narrowly avoids more injuries at Haruko's hands, he decides to head home; where more craziness plays out in the second half.
In a manga-styled sequence after Naota gets home, it's revealed that Naota's father also had a run-in with Haruko on her bike, which somehow led to her becoming their new housekeeper!
As for anything about what the term "Fooly Cooly" actually means, I suggest that like many works I've seen from GAINAX, I could take it as an allegory for coming of age; and I will offer more on that idea as I continue this marathon. Definitely makes the lyrics to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" make sense.
After dinner, Naota decides to go take a bath and wash his hands of his experiences that day in more ways than one.
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| "Character in midst of a personal crisis takes a bath or shower" cliché. |
Naota then goes into his room to find Haruko strumming her bass in one of his brother's outfits. I really appreciate how this anime uses the format in how this shot is framed. It's the simple things that make this anime sometimes.
After his father says they need to talk about Haruko, he gives Naota a bag of day-old bread to take to Mamimi, who is shown smoking a cigarette with the words "never knows best" written on it on the bridge.
As the two embrace in the cold night over the hard bread, even though their relationship may not be a conventional one; it's a good indicator of how this anime is actually a more earnest look at relationships than many ones that are outright romantic in genre and tone. I never really went for the more standard ideas anyway, I usually preferred takes like this. I could never identify with how people behaved in Oreshura, so sometimes it's better to have Mamimi tell Naota, "I like you more than hard bread."
However, when Naota tells Mamimi his brother is seeing someone in America, Mamimi replies, and I quote: "I'm gonna overflow!" The horn on Naota's forehead then has not only a massive robotic arm, but also a giant robot with a TV for a head emerge from it!
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| I want my MTV! |
However, it turns out that the robot wants to help Naota defeat the arm, and I especially like this shot of it standing on the bridge amid the city lights. Its name is Canti, and we will talk in the next part of this marathon.
Naota, much like the audience (in a good way), shouts "what's going on?!" as Haruko speeds to the scene on her Vespa!
The robotic arm is driven back, and Haruko is able to stop Canti from going haywire by hitting with her bass; turning its paint scheme from red to blue in the process!
So, we end the first episode on Naota going back to school; Canti helping out at their bakery, and Mamimi getting another sour drink (I forgot to mention how Naota doesn't like them earlier) as the Pillows' soundtrack blares in the background.
I normally don't address next episode previews, but I rather like all the jokes about the Game Boy and its variants in the narration of the next episode, which I will address next time, "Fire Starter!" No relation to that Stephen King book and its rather underwhelming Drew Barrymore film adaptation. Somebody remake that, please: Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things is my first choice for the title role.
As a start to my marathon for this month, "Fooly Cooly" hits all the right notes to draw me into the world they've built. I've seen this anime many times since I was 11, and it still resonates with me a a coming of age story in a similar vein to films such as Dazed and Confused or Superbad. The animation is very impressive, and despite the oddity of the series; the characters and storytelling are very endearing in their quirkiness. I will continue to marathon this series as September begins, so check back next time for my look at the second episode: "Fire Starter!"
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