The third and final season of FLCL was finally released in 2018, and, just like its predecessors, it has many variations between the Japanese and American/English versions. Styled as FLCL Alternative, the third season premiered on Adult Swim three months after season two (titled FLCL Progressive) and 18 years after the original anime's debut in Japan.
Alternative follows 17-year-old Kana and her three best friends as she struggles with accepting that all of them are growing up and changing. Like Progressive, the Japanese version of Alternative premiered after the English version, making the differences all the more interesting.
10 The Kardashian Of Japan
Early on in the first episode, "Flying Memory," Kana and her friends Hijiri, Pets, and Mossan, are talking about their future, and there's a difference in what's Hijiri's ambitions. In Japanese, she says that she wants to marry a pro baseball player, prompting Mossan to compare her to Saeko, the famous Japanese actress who is now divorced from a pro baseball player. In the U.S. version, Hijiri says she wants to marry a basketball player or a famous rapper and is compared to a Kardashian.
9 Only The 1% Can Go To Space
In that same first episode, before Haruko is introduced, a news broadcast shows the Prime Minister has announced that all travel to outer space is officially banned. A patron at the restaurant Kana works at says that it's not like people can easily get to space.
When Kana points out recent commercial flights to space, the patron's response, in Japanese, is that those flights are only for "the rich and powerful." The English version's changed specifically to "the 1%" for American audiences.
8 Mama Like Haruko's English
After the four friends work painstakingly to design, build, and decorate a homemade rocket, their efforts are thwarted when an enormous pin drops on them from the sky. This prompts a robot attack and Haruko to spring into action. At this point, Kana has a horn/flower coming out of her forehead, which Haruko pulls out to reveal a 1967 series Mustang guitar. In the original Japanese, Haruko yells out an informal "all right!" In the colloquial English version, she yells out, "mama like!" instead.
7 Making Kana Look Like She's Flirting (Badly)
Episode 2 is all about Hijiri having a college boyfriend named Toshio, a photographer. When Toshio meets Hijiri's friends, he gives Kana his business card, and it's all in English, with "Photographer" at the top. In the Japanese version, Kana doesn't know how to pronounce it and says, "Photo...photo-photo?" to explain the meaning. In the English version, she reads it just fine, but they still include the "photo-photo?" line, making Kana seem like she's trying to be cute with him.
6 An English Idiom To Get Hijiri's Attention
Later on in episode 2, called "Grown-Up Wannabe," Hijiri's college boyfriend breaks up with her and acts very maturely and level-headed about it. She's obviously upset about it, though, and the next day at school, Hijiri is zoned out at her desk, prompting her friends to try and get her attention. In the Japanese version, they repeat her name until she responds. Still, in English, they say, "Hijiri. Earth to Hijiri!" which is a precise localization for American English-speaking audiences.
5 When In Doubt, Make Haruko's Pun Filthy
In episode 2, Kana becomes so upset that a truck pops out of her head. Haruko needs the truck to fight off Toshio's car, which has somehow turned into Bumblebee from Transformers. In Japanese, she gives a pun that is translated to "guys have charm, girls have guts, and Nasser's the UAE president," which actually rhymes in Japanese. The English dub changes it to "men are from Mars, women are from Venus, I don't know about you, but I've got a giant penis!"
4 Do They Make Weed Jokes In Japan?
Kana and her friends are eating at the soba restaurant she works in. They're all talking to her boss, whose name is Dennis Yoga. Dennis tells them about how he had met the god of soba and how the god's hair was dreadlocks made of soba noodles as he points to his own dreads. The girls are laughing and making jokes, ending with "he's out of his mind." In the English version, this was changed to "too much ganja," another name for marijuana.
3 It's Hot As What?!
In episode 4, "Pit-A-Pat," the town that Kana lives in is going through an intense heatwave. At the high school boys' basketball game, everyone is standing in the gym watching, and Mossan comments on the heat as she fans herself.
In the Japanese version, she uses really casual Japanese to says that it's hot and that they're getting "steamed," but in the English version, her line is a bit more like an American teenager. Instead, Mossan says, "oh man, it's hot as balls in here."
2 Bengay VS MUHI
In episode 5, "Shake It Off," the planet is getting hotter, and the richest people in the world are migrating to Mars to escape. Kana and her friends spend some time in the school pool to escape the heat when they realize that Pets has disappeared. One of the obnoxious boys in their class tells them that she probably went since her family is super-rich. The girls get angry at him, and Mossan threatens to rub an ointment on his face. In Japanese, it's MUHI, which is used for bug bites. The English version is Bengay, a popular creme used for sore muscles.
1 Add An Idiom To Spice Up Your Dialogue
In the last episode of Alternative, titled "Full Flat," Kana fully unleashes her N.O. channel, and suddenly, a robot similar to Canti from seasons one and two appears and is ready to fight. In the original Japanese, Haruko comments like, "you showed up," and prepares to fight the robot until the rest of its buddies arrive, too. This line was apparently not cool enough in the English dub, so it was changed to the common English idiom, "look what the cat dragged in."
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