Fooly Cooly Fan Game: Firestarter

October 2, 2018 1:45 pm Published by Michael

A new game: a controlled burn.

Furi Kuri, pronounced in English as Fooly Cooly, is an original video animation (OVA) six-episode anime series released in Japan back in 2000, and originally aired in the United States on Adult Swim in 2003. It is the story of Naota, a normal kid who is tired of everything being ordinary around him and finally ends up involved with a much older space alien/housekeeper named Haruko.  FLCL focuses on the growth from youth to adulthood, a story packed with action, comedy and a lot of crazy. This anime has a special place in my heart, and now for Silverware Games too.

In some ways the show uses anime tropes like surgical tools to craft a heartwarming coming of age tale told in the most anime way possible. In other ways its just a mashup of all the best things in anime that almost by definition has to be good. I have been a fan for a long time, and decided to get started in a FLCL fan project, but it wasn’t only until recently that I could put a fan game together like I always wanted.

Introducing Firestarter. Inspired in the original show where one of the characters, Mamimi, is addicted to a little handheld game called Firestarter and gives a compelling description of how the game plays indicating that the game is about burning down Endsville, the city of devils, and that there can be no final victory: all you can do is burn and burn. Recently, FLCL has gotten a reboot in the form of FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative where Haruko is back to prey on the adolescent minds of yet more earthlings. Going back into the show I love, we thought it was a great opportunity to finish and release my concept of Firestarter as a web browser game.

This time around I got Say to help with art, and we also got original music from Marco Iannello doing his best grungy pixelated version of The Pillows, the original band from FLCL. There is not much to be said regarding the game on the show other than Mamimi’s personal take, which means this is my interpretation and take from what the game would be. Avoid the police, burn down everything – well, not everything but almost everything!

The game is designed to be a homage to Fooly Cooly, addictive fun little experience to play for a few minutes or a few hours to receive Cantido’s blessing and make everything alright with the world again.

We are uploading the game for free right here for free on itch.io It’s a browser game so it requires no installation to play, just click and have fun!

-Michael
Señor Sharpie Doodles

Categorised in: Firestarter