Previously, I described FLCL Progressive as being everything FLCL is – only less. Much less. Well, FLCL Alternative is everything FLCL Progressive is – and you guessed it. Less. Much less.

The pace of FLCL Alternative is not so slow when compared to your average anime series. But there is nothing average about the original FLCL. FLCL was one fistful of madness to the face after another. In FLCL Alternative, normality is the norm. The madness is rather rare.

There was not much of a plot to the original FLCL. But the fast paced insanity and satire more than made up for it. Nothing makes up for the lack of a FLCL Alternative plot. This is supposed to be a coming of age story for a quartet of 17-year-old high school girls, centering on Kana. Kana is an unremarkable character with only one negative trait. She often imposes herself on her friend’s problems. This would be an interesting aspect to get into with more detail, but with only six episodes, that does not happen.

Then there is Haruko, back again and still 19. Or so she says. Actually, Haruko seems to have slowed down a bit since her FLCL days. She shows up in every episode for some reason. My guess Is it is just to remind us the series is somehow connected to FLCL. Anyway, she is fighting against Medical Mecanica, which has an evil plot to do something. It is no spoiler to say that at the end of the series, we still do not know what their plan is. We only know it has nothing to do with Kana and her friends. There is some talk about destroying the world, but why and how? With a giant steam iron? Why bother?

I would love to rewatch FLCL again – and again and again. But neither FLCL Progressive nor FLCL Alternative comes anywhere near capturing the magic of the original. The series just finished its first run on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim/Toonami. If you missed it, you are fortunate.