Ask John: Will There Be More Kare Kano or FLCL?

Question:
Is there/Will there be anymore His and Her Circumstances anime besides the 26 episodes Right Stuf released in America?

FLCL is an excellent series, but there simply isn’t enough of it. Are there any plans to make any more FLCL? Either in anime or manga form?

Answer:
I’m combining these two questions because they’re both about recent Gainax anime.

The Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo anime TV series broadcast its final episode on March 26, 1999. Since then, Gainax Studios has produced the Anime Ai no Awa Awa Hour TV series, the FLCL OAV series, the Puchi Puri Yushi TV series, the Abenobashi Maho Shotengai TV series, and two Mahoromatic TV series. Although the manga series is still ongoing in Japan, the TV series was not successful enough in Japan to warrant an immediate follow-up, and given how much time has passed, and how many other projects Gainax Studios has moved on to produce since Kare Kano ended, it seems unlikely that the studio will ever decide to revive this older work.

Furthermore, in an interview with Gainax co-founder Hiroyuki Yamaga published by Anime Tourist, Mr. Yamaga states:

While I feel that the ending is unsatisfactory, there is the original comic book. It is rather difficult to work with a series that is based on an original comic book. We were working from the comic book and thinking that if we did it in a particular way, it would be an interesting series. However, the author of the original comic book did not agree.

We would like to continue to work on it but we have upset the author, so it is very unlikely that there will be a continuation of the series. I am very sorry.

The final episode of FLCL was released in Japan back on October 25, 2000. The second and apparently final volume of manga was released in August 2001. Again, Gainax has produced four TV series and a Mahoromatic TV special since FLCL ended, and the studio is now working on the “Kono Miniku mo Utsukushii Sekai” (This Ugly and Beautiful World) anime TV series. So it doesn’t seem likely that there will ever be more FLCL anime or manga. However, if you enjoyed the bizarre, wacky sight gags and humor of FLCL, you may be happy to hear that the same spirit of inexplicable oddity lives on in Production IG’s brand new anime TV series “Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou” (Charge!! Cromartie High School).