"Every day in this town is like a whole lifetime of dying slowly..."

So says 12-year-old Naota in the final episode of FLCL, which Genie got me for my birthday (the whole freaking thing, and the two mangas!). I just finished watching the whole program, which at a whopping 3 hours is not the longest of all animes, but definitely it is the best I've ever seen. Actually it's one of the best anythings I've ever seen.

Everyone can immediately recognize the visual aspect of the show. It's as beautiful as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I will admit, with utterly no shame, that in Sunshine, when the rain starts falling in the living room, I choked up. There were tears forming. It was that breathtakingly beautiful.

Pretty much all of FLCL is like that one moment, stretched over three hours, until you get to the final episode (wonderfully titled FLClimax). This episode is surreal, haunting, yearning, hopeful. All the wonder and energy and furor and pain and love of childhood distilled into visuals and music and streaming experience that is so wonderful it hurts. To watch it is to realize again and again those things you strive for in life are worth something.

"Nothing interesting ever happens in this town. Now the smoke pours out all the time from the Medical Mechanica plant. It's easy to forget there's a world outside.

"Everyday in this town is like a whole lifetime of dying slowly."