Anime Review: Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018)

Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro
Distributor: AdultSwim
Runtime: 150 minutes
Released: February 4th, 2020
Availability: Available on blu-ray, streaming English dubbed on AdultSwim, subbed on Crunchyroll

In a town where nothing exciting happens, Kana Koumuto and her friends, Tomomi "Pets" Hetada, Hijiri Yajima, and Man "Mossan" Motoyama are dragged into odd situations by Haruhara Haruko. What will happen to Kana and her friends when mysterious giant irons appear all around the world and what are they going to do when everything they know and love is threatened by the mysterious power of Atomsk?

I have watched all three entries in the Fooly Cooly franchise so far, and I still think that the original Fooly Cooly (2000) is the best entry in the series as it’s still unique and fun and can’t be duplicated by the sequels, Fooly Cooly: Progressive (2018) and Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018).

I did enjoy the interesting take being an all-girls group of teenagers. They were all interesting characters with their own unique personality and quirks that make them interesting and entertaining to watch on screen.

The writing is still good, but not the most amazing writing in an anime I’ve ever seen, but I did enjoy the comedic jokes and gags in this anime.

Production I.G.’s animation looks nice and it has an interesting art style that’s not exactly the same as the original Fooly Cooly (2000), but it’s still similar to it.

I also like the character designs for all the girls and they’re all unique and memorable. The animation is also fluid and the fight scenes when they happen, look fluid and they’re entertaining to watch.

Production I.G. did a great job with the animation and it looks good, not the most amazing animation from them, but it still looks good. Between the series Fooly Cooly: Progressive (2018) and Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018), Progressive does look better, but Alternative is still good.

Megan Taylor Harvey did a great job as Kana Noumoto. I liked her work in this anime and I think she made her character interesting and played her character differently than Xanthe Huynh’s Hidomi. They are two different characters and both voice actresses made their characters unique and distinctive.

Marieve Herington did a great job as Tomomi "Pets" Hetada. I have heard her in another anime I reviewed, the former Netflix exclusive Knights of Sidonia (2014) as Yuhata Midorikawa. She did a great job in this anime, especially when her character has to have a very emotional moment.

Erica Lindbeck did a good job as Hijiri Yajima. Her character was interesting and she gave a good vocal performance although she didn’t really stand out to me as she has in other voice acting roles.

Marianne Miller did a fantastic job as Man "Mossan" Motoyama. Her performance was funny and interesting and she brought a lot of life to her character. I liked her voice work in this anime and I think she was great for this character.

Max Mittelman did a good job as Mon Sasaki. He was great at portraying the awkward scenes and showing how his character is trying to figure out what’s going on around him when he’s been dragged into shenanigans without knowing what’s going on.

Kari Wahlgren once again reprises her role as Haruhara Haruko. Her character is more interesting because she’s more laid back in this series than the other entries in Fooly Cooly. This series could be seen as a prequel to Fooly Cooly (2000) and Fooly Cooly: Progressive (2018) make Haruko’s character arc interesting.

Kari Wahlgren also had some hilarious line delivery that I enjoyed in this anime.

I do have to mention Steve Blum as Dennis Yoga. I love his voice work and I haven’t heard him in an anime in a while because he usually does videogames and cartoons now. I enjoyed him in a lowkey role and it was fun to hear him voice acting in anime again.

Overall, the English dub is solid and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s not my favorite English dub. It’s a very well done dub with a solid voice cast that I enjoyed a lot. It’s a lot of fun and it’s worth it to stream on AdulSwin’s website.

R.O.N did a good job on the soundtrack and I like the music for this anime. The music fit the scenes it was used for and it set the emotional mood for the anime.

The insert songs by the band The Pillows is also a nice touch. This isn’t the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard, but it is one that does everything right and it’s very well done.

While the focus of this series is mainly on the four teenage girls, I miss the recurring action scenes that happened throughout both Fooly Cooly (2000) and Fooly Cooly: Progressive (2018). It kept everything from getting too bogged down in too much character drama.

I binge-watched this in a few days and it’s not that interesting if you aren’t watching it weekly. It just seems that there isn’t much that happens in this anime series compared to the other entries in this franchise.

Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018) is rated TV-14 for suggestive content, language and violence.

Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018) is an enjoyable series, it’s not my favorite but I did enjoy watching it on AdultSwim’s website. I missed it when it aired on the Toonami block.

I did enjoy it, even if it’s not my favorite. It’s fun, but it can’t surpass the first Fooly Cooly anime.

It had a good story and interesting characters, and it was fun. I enjoyed the jokes they had and it made some really funny references that you’ll catch if you’ve seen Star Wars and Transformers movies.

It was a nice and enjoyable anime that was a nice change compared to all the longer anime I usually watch.

It is worth your time to watch, but it didn’t impress me enough for me to want to own it on disc.

Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018) is an anime that I enjoyed but I won’t be buying for my own collection. It wasn’t bad, but I prefer to stream anime over buying it unless it’s something I really feel I have to have.

This anime was a lot of fun, but it’s one of those you’ll watch once and then move on. It is worth your time and I enjoyed it, but if you’re going to buy Fooly Cooly on disc, you should get the first season Fooly Cooly (2000) instead of Fooly Cooly: Alternative (2018). However, there are legal places to watch the anime dubbed or subbed if you live in the U.S., AdultSwim’s website has the English dub while Crunchyroll has the Japanese with English subtitles.

It’s worth your time to watch it, I enjoyed it, but only buy it if you really loved it. I watched it once and that was enough for me. It is a good anime, but not nearly as great as its predecessor. I still enjoyed it more than I did for Fooly Cooly Progressive (2018) as I like the characters more in this entry than the second series.

The anime is good, but it can surpass the original Fooly Cooly (2000), it’s still a nice way to kill time if you want a short anime to watch. It’s not perfect, but I liked it and it’s one that you’ll enjoy if you already watched Fooly Cooly (2000). Give it a shot on AdultSwim or Crunchyroll if you want to watch it, but you should watch the original first even if this can be seen as a prequel to the first series.