CLX: "FLCL"

Another one that qualifies as one of the shortest anime out there to date, FLCL, or Fooly Cooly, is a sleeper that was surprisingly eyecatching. A comedy dealing with a kid acting too mature for his own age, a space pirate that rides a Vespa scooter, and a robot praised as some form of God... this anime was surreal, but worth the buzz.

FLCL revolves around Naota Nandaba, who acts all nonchalant and mature, despite being only 12 years old. His mundane life in Masabe comes to a halt when a woman riding a yellow Vespa scooter runs him over, on top of performing CPR and hitting him AGAIN with a vintage guitar. Nicknamed the Vespa Woman, Haruhara Haruko is a space pirate, who decides to move in as their house maid. Though typical of space pirates, she has another motive, for she seeks Atomsk. To fulfill her duty, she uses Naota in a bizarre way: despite having a small head, he has this uncanny trait of having anything pulled from it, be it a guitar, a robot, or whatever it may be. His seemingly uninteresting life will be taken for a ride.

Again, a short anime, this one lasts only 6 episodes, and was shown on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. Funimation licensed this rather brief anime series for the US, and generally, the music score  of the series is pretty much centered on rock from start to finish (not that I have anything against it, it's kinda pleasing to hear, imo.) Every episode seems to have a certain mechanical menace emerging, with Naota serving as a portal for them to come through. Aside from this, there are random scenes involved as well, some of which taking a comic element. Much like Evangelion, FLCL was done in part with Star Child Records, and was made in the studios of Gainax and Production I.G., both of which having a hand in Neon Genesis Evangelion as well: Gainax behind the series, and Production I.G. with the film Evangelion: Death and Rebirth. Naota is voiced by Barbara Goodson, and Haruko is voiced by Kari Wahlgren in the dub.

FLCL is, like I said before, one of the shortest series around, but entertaining nonetheless. I say a solid 7 of 10 in my book goes to this title.