FLCL Season 1 is a cinematic guitar slap on the face...it's like hitting a homerun but instead of a baseball it's a homerun against any and every conventional storyline or a coherent plot ever. Chaotic, melodramatic, a tale so weird and nonsensical on one side and on the other it's a deep intricate story of a boy going through puberty juggling the transformation from childhood to adulthood, FLCL tells the ever-so complex coming of age story that not even 2 watches would be enough to comprehend the sheer amount of layers this anime has.

There's something so relatable to me personally in Naoto's journey, it captures so many emotions, themes of individuality and the never-ending conversation I have with the voices in my head. It's about maturity- being forced to accept, while still grappling with the risky hooks that come along. Always wanting to be unique, be special...having a sense of individuality, trying to accept myself. Then comes the romantic confusion, having the need to be loved, to experience what teenage love is like, satisfying sexual desires. Trying to understand what love is as complexing as what trying to understand FLCL is. It's an everlasting story with more layers than it seems to have. FLCL encapsulates the sense of alienation and loneliness and the rather unorthodox feeling like you're not welcome in this welcome, always anxious about your place in the world...questioning myself "does it really matter?". Then you mature into the late teenage which brings out the rebellious phase within you. Always feeling like you're superior.

"Nothing interesting ever happens here." A literal fucking robot appears out of one's forehead and starts a whole ass war. Escapism. Realism. Overflowing of emotions. The desire to break free from the shackles of the monotonous eat-work-sleep cycle, yearning for adventure to shake up the dullness of the everyday life. FLCL is a chaotic masterpiece that defies any logic known to man, it makes you feel confused, it might be a hot mess, it might be a masterpiece, either way this is a must watch. You'll never understand...and that's the beauty of it. If you've ever felt misunderstood, isolated or even overwhelmed...this shows speaks volumes. If it doesn't work for you in your first watch...watch it again. Because there's so much happening here to just watch it once and complain about why it's so loved.