The anime studio Production I.G announced on Friday that it acquired the rights to the 2000-2001 original video anime FLCL from Gainax, with whom I.G co-produced the anime. It added that it will take advantage of those rights for a "new anime remake" and other ventures.

Synch-Point and later Funimation have released the anime in North America. Funimation describes the story:

Naota is a detached sixth-grader afflicted by the pangs of puberty. He's fooling around with his brother's ex-girlfriend when a crazed girl on a motor scooter runs him over, brains him with a bass guitar, and moves into his house. She says she's an alien, and hurls Naota into the middle of a mega-corporation's secret agenda. And now giant battling robots shoot from his skull when he has naughty thoughts.

The anime is the first directorial effort from Kazuya Tsurumaki, who served as assistant director on the Neon Genesis Evangelion television anime and would go on to direct the new Evangelion films. Production I.G. notes that the dubbed versions of the anime have been popular overseas, particularly in North America where it ran on television. Kadokawa Shoten's Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko novelized the story, and Kodansha's Monthly Magazine Z adapted the story into manga as the anime was being released. It won the third place in Canada's Fantasia Film Festival in 2003.

[Via Geijin, Brian Ruh]