Kazuya Tsurumaki and Yoji Enokido's Surreal, Anti-Coming-of-Age Anime FLCL: An Allegory for Puberty and Adolescence Written in the Mecha Genre in the Context of Japan's Post-Economic Boom

Abstract

FLCL is a surreal anime written in the mecha genre—pilotable robots—that allegorizes puberty and adolescence in the context of Japan's post-economic boom. Body horror, sexual imagery, and action scenes in the anime are paired with a hyper satirization of the mecha and coming-of-age genre to relatability and accurately convey the experience of unfamiliarity in life's most transitional period—puberty. In the anime's discussion, FLCL unorthodoxly questions what it means to be an adult, in which the coming-of-age genre morphs into an anti-coming-of-age telling, where despite the specific Japanese post-economic boom context FLCL has, it still globally manages to reach an audience due to its ingenuity in showing the process of growing up concerning technology.