FLCL is probably the most memorable anime I have ever seen. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine, guilty only because this is not a series that I would recommend to anyone whose tastes I didn’t know well. At the heart of it is a boy’s experience of growing up, but it’s not exactly family friendly. To those who assume that all anime is either giant fighting robots or raunchy jokes, FLCL will only prove them right because it has both of those things in spades. The emergence of one of the giant fighting robots is a raunchy joke. The title, Fooly Cooly, is kind of a raunchy joke. But let’s not talk about that right now.

One of the things I love about FLCL is the steady stream of references to other animations. Character costumes, jokes, visual dynamics, and animation style all in turn make reference to a number of shows and films. Even South Park gets a shout out.

In other episodes, the characters break the fourth wall to acknowledge how hard it is for them to do slow motion or manga scenes (I can’t even count all the pop culture references in that clip).

FLCL manages to include winks at pop culture in every episode while still being original and creative.