Ask John: How is FLCL Pronounced?

Question:
I’m a huge fan of FLCL. I was first exposed to it when I worked at Nickelodeon back in 2000. Our boss hooked up his Japanese DVD player and the whole crew proceeded to watch this amazing anime. He pronounced it Furi Kuri. But since then I’ve seen it pronounced Fooly Cooly. Even on the DVD packaging itself, they refer to it as both Furi Kuri and Fooly Cooly? What’s up? How do you properly pronounce it?

Answer:
Since Japanese is a phonetic language, the only consonant in the Japanese alphabet that can stand on its own is “N.” All other consonant sounds in the Japanese alphabet must be followed by a vowel. In written katakana, FLCL is literally spelled “Fu-Ri-Ku-Ri” because it’s not grammatically possible to spell “FLCL” in Japanese since the letters “F,” “L,” and “C” cannot be written in Japanese without a vowel attached to each. The title “FLCL” is supposed to be pronounced phonetically, in Japanese” as the letters “F-L-C-L.” But there is no “F” or “L” or “C” sound in Japanese. The closest Japanese equivalents are “Fu” and “Li” and “Ku.” The romanji spellings “Furi Kuri” and “Fooly Cooly” are both ways of expressing the distinct sound of spoken Japanese with the English alphabet. Both spellings are technically accurate because both recreate the sound of “FLCL” spoken with a Japanese accent; however, “Furi Kuri” is a little more effective since “Fooly Cooly” lends itself to a the very inaccurate and English pronunciation “Fool-ee Cool-ee.” The best way to determine how to pronounce “FLCL” is to watch the DVDs with the Japanese language track. Many of the characters vocalize the word frequently throughout the anime.