Number of Volumes in Manga: 2

Story by: Gainax

Art by: Hajime Ueda

Characters:

• Haruko
• Naota
• Mamimi
• Kanchi
• Kamon
• Ninamori

Summary: FLCL is the story of a boy named Naota, a boy with a boring, ordinary life. All of this changes one day when a guitar-toting, Vespa-riding alien crashes into his life. After that, robots pop out of his head, things don't seem to make sense, and his sense of reality seems to be altered.

Commentary: I'm sure I'm not only person who does this, but if I find out about an anime that I think looks interesting, I do one of two things: I either A)try to watch on TV or borrow it from a friend, or B)buy the manga (if there is one) and see if I like it before investing in the DVD. I'm really glad that I was able to do A in the case of FLCL, because if I had read the manga first, I would probably have never watched the anime. The manga was very odd (even compared to the anime), because it jumped around a lot, and didn't have any sense of continuity. It did give a little information that you wouldn't have gotten in the anime, but really, the anime made more sense (if that's possible). I would recommend reading the manga AFTER watching the anime.

Rating: 7/10
Reasons for Rating: Same oddness found in the anime but more confusing, probably won't be enjoyed by someone who hasn't already seen the anime.