When is a Reboot Necessary?

When is it okay to make a reboot/remake/revival of a pre-existing work?

For many of those familiar with the anime “FLCL,” they’ve been asking others (and even themselves) this question a lot over the past couple of days.

Just recently (on March 24, 2016 to be exact), it was announced the adult swim anime block Toonami will be co-producing two new “FLCL” seasons, bringing the total new content to 12 episodes.

I, like many others, think “FLCL” is a near-perfect masterpiece: after all, it’s got one of the best soundtracks of all time, killer animation, and, most importantly, a fantastic, knock-out-of-the-park message and heart.

This begs the question: is this reboot really even necessary?

Here’s where it gets a little bit tricky: the story.

What’s arguably the most intriguing thing about these two new seasons is that, according to Toonami’s official plot description, it doesn’t feature the main character of the previous season, Natao (although, the first season did end his arc very conclusively).

Instead, this new reboot features a brand new character, and while it does bring back some old faces, brings along with it a whole new journey.

And that is precisely where I think these new seasons deserve a chance: it’s trying something new.

Many of the crew members on Toonami have voiced many positive things about the original (long before this was announced), so it could seem that these new projects will be driven purely be passion.

And that’s the answer.

Passion. If your project does not have passion, then it becomes almost meaningless (that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but still); it will forever exist as an empty shell. But, when you add passion into the mix, you get a whole, very different story. What you get is determination, excitement, and hard work; the drive to do something new, heart, and soul. Only when you are truly driven for the sake of telling a story is when a remake is justified. Maybe not entirely necessary, but justified.