Yes, it really happened, no this isn’t a joke.
As part of their annual April Fool’s Joke, Adult Swim’s Toonami block aired the first episode of FLCL: Alternative in Japanese with English subtitles. The title is still slated to to hit the block in dubbed format this September.
Kazuya Tsurumaki (FLCL, Gunbuster) is supervising the project, with Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass, Atom The Beginning) working at Chief Director at Production I.G. Yūichi Takahashi (Gatchaman Crowds insight, Macross Frontier) is in charge of character designs for the project, while Hideto Iwai writes the scripts.
The Pillows scored the show’s soundtrack, and performs opening theme song Star Overhead.
Other confirmed crew members include:
- Director: Yutaka Uemura
- Director: Kiyotaka Suzuki
- Original Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
- Mechanical Design: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- Animation Production: Production I.G, NUT, REVOROOT
- Costume Design: Hiromi Taniguchi
- Prop Design: Yuji Hosogoe
- Prop Design: Hiyori Denforword Akishino (Aki Production)
- Background Art Director: Ayaka Fujii
- Color Design: Chiho Nakamura
- Director of Photography: Shinji Tonsho
- CG Director: Tsukasa Saitō
- Music Director/Composer: R.O.N
- Sound Director: Toru Nakano
- Supervisor: Kazuya Tsurumaki
The series stars the following:
- Haruko Harahara: Mayumi Shintani
- Kana Kawamoto: Karen Miyama
- Tomomi Heta (Pez): Yuri Yoshida
- Sei Yajima (Hijiri): Riho Iida
- Mitsuru Motoyama (Mossan): Mutsumi Tamura
- Sudō Kan: Katsuyuki Konishi
- Mon Sasaki: Takuma Nagatsuka
- Aida-ben: Ryouta Suzuki
- Shizuka Kōmoto : Miki Itou
- Bunta Kōmoto: Maho Masaka (真坂真帆)
- Yōga Denisu: Katsuji Mori
- Maki Kitaki: Kaya Matsutani
- Taichi Kanda: Yutaka Aoyama
Adult Swim describes FLCL: Alternative as:
The series centers on the misadventures of 17-year-old Kana, a high school junior who spends her days hanging out with her besties, Mossan, Hijiri, and Pets. They live unremarkable lives, until the day a Mecha falls out of the sky, along with a strange woman named “Haruko.” Her plans for Kana and her friends involve the force known as “ATOMSK.” Kana will have to risk everything to decide whether or not to help… like she really has a choice!
Sources: Twitter (GWOTaku)
Update 4/1/2018 at 12:45AM EDT: Apparently, Toonami only showed the first episode as part of the gag. The block is also airing 2004 classic Mind Game, which was directed by Masaaki Yuasa.
