We study flows of \(G_2\) -structures guided by the principle of dimensional reduction: natural geometric flows in \(G_2\) -geometry reduce to natural flows in complex geometry. Our main examples are the \(G_2\) -Laplacian coflow, which lifts the Kähler–Ricci flow, and a 7-dimensional lift of the anomaly flow on complex threefolds. The \(G_2\) -lift of the anomaly flow deforms conformally coclosed \(G_2\) -structures. We compare the \(G_2\) -anomaly flow to the \(G_2\) -Laplacian coflow, and investigate short-time existence and fixed points.