About the FLCL Comic

In 2000, around the time the animated FLCL series was first released in Japan, a comic version was produced and released in two volumes by Kodansha. It may have also been "serialized" in one of Kodansha's periodical comic magazines; I'm unable to find definite info on this. In Japan, comics are often published in large magazines which contain short "episodes" of several different comic series in one issue. Just as Japanese animation is often referred to by the Japanese word for animation, anime, Japanese comics are often referred to by the Japanese word for comics, manga.

The series was drawn by Hajime Ueda, and is her first major production. Artistically, the comic is drawn in a sketchy, surreal style, using a lot of straight lines. The end result looks quite different from its animated counterpart. Sample her artwork at Gainax Pages.

Plotwise, things are somewhat different. A few scenes which aren't in the toon are in the comic, and vice versa; one example is a scene in which Shigekuni is playing croquet with some senior-citizen friends as a robot attacks. The attitudes of the characters are somewhat different, especially Haruko; and Naota and Ninamori's relationship is explored a little more. On the whole, I think I like the animated series better than the comic; there's more mysteries to explore, and things are a bit more subtle than they are in the comic. But the comic is still worth checking out if you're an FLCL fan.

The comic's NA release

In North America, the comic was licensed for distribution by TokyoPop. Whereas Synch-Point, the toon's distributor, is a new, small company, TokyoPop is one of the largest players in the field of Japanese comics in America. They released the FLCL comic in two volumes. In my opinion, their handling of the release was somewhat botched. On the one hand, the books are attractively made, with nice covers (though very different from their Japanese equivalents) and color pages in the front with FLCL imagery. On the other hand, I have a couple grievances…

For one, TokyoPop tries too hard to pander to otaku (something they are notorious for) in this release, and gets away with some egregious low-budget shortcuts at the same time. For one, the translation is incomplete; many sound effects and even some of the more off-hand dialogue is untranslated. That's right, some of the text is still in the original Japanese. I assume that, if I were a hopeless otaku, I would have memorized enough Japanese characters and vocabulary to be able to "read" these untranslated bits, but that is not the case. Fortunately, it's not prevalent enough to prevent enjoyment of the series; it's just really annoying.

However, even more annoying is the fact that the pages are printed backwards. Yes, backwards. You see, Japanese comics — and writing, when written vertically — are read from right to left. The pages are also in reverse order compared to English books, so comics are actually read from the "back" of the book (with the spine on the right) to the "front." Know what I'm saying? Most publishers of Japanese comics will make their books more legible to readers of other languages by "flipping" the pages, so they can be read from left to right. The publisher will then go through and fix any visual irregularities this flipping might cause; cars driving on the wrong side of the street, for example.

Unfortunately, TokyoPop, under the guise of being "100% Authentic," does not flip almost all of their releases, and FLCL is not immune. So in order to read FLCL, you will have to completely change the way you have read comic books before; starting in the upper-right corner of the page and working your way down to the lower-left; then flipping the page "backwards" and starting again. Needless to say, for non-otaku like me, it is very very difficult to re-train one's self to read comics in a different manner; when reading such unflipped comics I often find myself reading the panels out of order or flipping the page backwards instead of "backwards," if you know what I mean.

Again, TokyoPop, the most notorious offender of such annoying tactics (though other companies do it too to a lesser extent), claims it makes their books more "authentic," and they're somewhat right; really, when you read a flipped Japanese comic, you are looking at all the art backwards from how it was originally drawn. On the other hand, at what cost is this "authenticity?" The cost is legibility; it's frankly very presumptuous to insist I change the way I've been reading comics all my life just so I can buy and read your product, and you expect me to be able to read parts of it in a foreign language too?

I suspect there is another reason besides "authenticity" that TokyoPop does this; the almighty dollar. The company saves money and time (and time is money) by not translating every little sound effect and dialogue line and by not having to flip and adjust pages. Yet TokyoPop still charges US$10 a book, "full price" for Japanese comic volumes nowadays. On the other hand, Viz publishes The All-New Tenchi Muyo! with flipped pages (it reads "normally") and completely translated sound effects and dialogue for $9 an issue. I think you can guess which one I believe is the better deal.
Page Update History
8 Mar 04: Initial creation
4 Mar 04: Link to Gainax Pages' page