More Overanalysis of Fooly Cooly

[CaptainRed]

Weeks? I don't need no stinkin' weeks!(just unfashionable lateness)

I never got around to dumping my two cents in on episode six, and there are still a few things I'd like to ponder out loud about in the series.

(plus, I can't let Karl off that easily)

If you missed the FLCL C&C(how could you) and are feeling masochistic(you'd pretty much have to be), I highly recommend(run) checking it out (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=84473&page=1&pp=20).

Things I missed the however many times I watched the first two episodes:

Naota called for his brother in FiSta.

Clouds. More specifically, the fast accumulation or dispersal of clouds. It happened twice, so far as I can remember — once in Fooly Cooly, and the second time in Full Swing.(haven't rewatched Brittle Bullet or FLCLimax in a few days). My best attempt at interpretation is this:

Naota was in control of his life before Haruko showed up(regardless of empowerment or use). When she came into his life, the clouds accumulated, and his future was in Haruko's hands. It was, like the sky, cloudy. When Naota swung the bat in Full Swing, the clouds cleared. Regardless of whether his future was in Haruko's hands or not, he now had the ability to take control of it.


Next I have some equations to set up or question:

Marquis de Carabas. I finally read Puss in Boots(and therefore understand where the title of the episode comes from). However... character equivalences were never really discussed between the two stories. Here's the way I figure it:

(The story, as found by Karl Olson (http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pussboots/))

Naota = the princess(childish giggle)
Ninamori = Marquis de Carabas
Kamon = Puss in Boots
The Press = The King(of Town)
The secretary = the Marquis' brother(s)
The affair = the ogre
The play = the castle
The school = the grounds of the castle
The other students and the teacher = the peasants on the grounds.

I think that works pretty well. Even Naota(participating in the play after all)

Then there's this thing:

EVA = Peanuts = FLCL (http://www.karlrolson.com/bleh/evapeanuts.txt)

Some of these I can see... Charlie Brown equating to Naota, Peppermint Patty to Ninamori, and Lucy to Haruko, but the best fit to me is the matching of Linus to Amarao. It's almost a tautology.

Then there are some character names I don't recognize: Gaku, Masashi(Naota's "other" two friends? but which is which? Gaku the smooch smooch guy?) and Miyaji Junko(who I think is the teacher).

I question equating Franklin with Atomsk, and I'd place the Little Redheaded Girl in pair with Naota's brother as well as where she is now(Mamimi). I'm actually not sure where to place Atomsk... the Great Pumpkin does seem to work, so far as the pursuit angle goes. The Little Redheaded girl is not only some who doesn't recognize Charlie Brown(Mamimi element), she is also an ideal that Chuck aspires to(at least early on, Naota's brother).

Things get shaky, though, with Woodstock. I think that he's more of a post Full Swing Naota than a Canti, and that Snoopy seems a Canti to him at times(Woodstock meets problem, tries to over come it, is able to with asisstance from Snoopy).

And... that's enough for now. Some Job for Karl later.

*honks hugs and whatever else*
Cappy Red

[SSJPabs]

Seems to me that in the final two episodes the clouds come back in the steam from the MM plant, the smoke from the bullets, and even atop the hand where Naota faces Amarao with Haruko in the background there is mist all around them. In the end, it's Atomsk that clears the scene but it's Naota's decision to set him free.

Took me a while to realize that FLCL is not a growing up story for Naota, it's a story about his decision to begin the growing up process and so it's much more will oriented than I thought.

PS: The top 5 posters under the FLCL thread accounted for 30% of total posts.

Do we ever shut up? No. :D

[bojcroc]

I always thought that the steam from the MM plant was Naota's stress. So the clouds would probably be the same thing, if they mean anything.

One cool thing I noticed was that in FLCLimax, when Haruko is gone and and Naota is sitting on his bed, you can hear a plane fly by. Meaning that Haruko has become Naota's brother, Taskun, and Naota has been deserted again.

I don't know how much you can actually relate Puss 'n Boots to the story. I think just the basic idea of the story was meant to be connected to the show, not all the characters. Naota's appearance in the episode implies he should be the cat, but the cat is actually more like Ninamori, I think.

But I'm still wondering why Naota ran water over the dead Kamon.

And I don't still don't know why the robots come out of Naota's head. Is MM sending them through his head to fight Haruko, or is Haruko using Naota's head to transport the robots near her, so she can find Atomsk?

And also, what was Kitsurubami falling in love with in the last episodes? I thought she was impressed with the... size of the giant hand robot (if you connect N.O. to one's manliness) but someone else said it was Canti.

[SSJPabs]

And I don't still don't know why the robots come out of Naota's head. Is MM sending them through his head to fight Haruko, or is Haruko using Naota's head to transport the robots near her, so she can find Atomsk?
Haruko says she's a member of the Galaxy Patrol (or police I forget) but her actions almost explicitly condemn her as a rogue agent. The N/O chamber (the hole in Naota's head) was put there by Haruko when she whacks his head. It transports objects instantenously from one place to another. Atomsk was captured by Medical Meccanica either to help power their operations or to keep his power from being used against MM.

(Haruko who has apparently been tailing him for some time she says she lost him "again," in episode 6.) What Haruko is after is first and foremost Atomsk. After he appears and splits into the Naota-Atomsk and Canti-Atomsk, she is going to keep trying to pull things out of Naota's head until both halves of Atomsk join up, the true form of Atomsk emerges and then Haruko can devour Atomsk's power for herself. Naota is the one who devours Atomsk and she either let's her desires get the better of her (some opinions) or (in my opinion) reveals her TRUE nature and attempts to kill Naota to eat Atomsk herself.
And also, what was Kitsurubami falling in love with in the last episodes? I thought she was impressed with the... size of the giant hand robot (if you connect N.O. to one's manliness) but someone else said it was Canti.
In episode 4, she was amazed at the size of Naota's guitar because he was only 12 years old. In episode 5, it was Canti. Not only did he help her up after she tried to kill him, he has a HUGE REALLY AWESOME GUITAR. :evil:

[Karl Olson]

I always thought that the steam from the MM plant was Naota's stress. So the clouds would probably be the same thing, if they mean anything.

However, if swinging the bat is a sexual release (and that seemed to be the way the metaphor was rolling), then it's also of course a release of stress. Additionally, Haruko in episode 1, was intially coming to release something from Naota as well.

And also, what was Kitsurubami falling in love with in the last episodes? I thought she was impressed with the... size of the giant hand robot (if you connect N.O. to one's manliness) but someone else said it was Canti.

She was lusting after Naota in episode 4, because of his mighty guitar, but in episode 5, she was woo'ed by Canti's kind nature.


Some of these I can see... Charlie Brown equating to Naota, Peppermint Patty to Ninamori, and Lucy to Haruko, but the best fit to me is the matching of Linus to Amarao. It's almost a tautology.

Then there are some character names I don't recognize: Gaku, Masashi(Naota's "other" two friends? but which is which? Gaku the smooch smooch guy?) and Miyaji Junko(who I think is the teacher).

I question equating Franklin with Atomsk, and I'd place the Little Redheaded Girl in pair with Naota's brother as well as where she is now(Mamimi). I'm actually not sure where to place Atomsk... the Great Pumpkin does seem to work, so far as the pursuit angle goes. The Little Redheaded girl is not only some who doesn't recognize Charlie Brown(Mamimi element), she is also an ideal that Chuck aspires to(at least early on, Naota's brother).

Things get shaky, though, with Woodstock. I think that he's more of a post Full Swing Naota than a Canti, and that Snoopy seems a Canti to him at times(Woodstock meets problem, tries to over come it, is able to with asisstance from Snoopy).

And... that's enough for now. Some Job for Karl later

Explanation of verious placements

Noata as Charlie Brown: Well, it's almost obvious. Both are sort of the lovable loser, and both are the hero of their respective universe. Besides Charlie seems to have a lot of Baseball problems too.

Eri as Peppermint Patty: Both Eri and Patty beat their respective male leads at their own game. Eri is much more skilled at deceiving people than Naota, and Patty beats the snot out of Charlie at every sport ever invented. Additionally, both Patty and Eri seem to like their respective male leads, but never really come out and say it. They just hint, nudge and manipulate.

Mamimi as the Little Redheaded Girl: Both are their respective male leads unattainable ideal. As hard as Charlie tries, he can never seem to get any attention from the Little Redheaded Girl, and the second Naota tries to show affective affection towards Mamami, she clams up.

Kitsurubami as Marcie: Kitsurubami sort of plays the mature, knowledgable Marcie to Amarao immaturity. It's a weird connection, but the whole concept is weird.

Franklin as Atomsk: The only time Charlie seems get active helping hand, and the only time he wins at Baseball, is when Franklin is involved. The same can be said for Naota's relationship to Atomsk. Additionally, both Atomsk and Franklin don't turn until later in their respective series.

Lucy as Haruko: This comes out of the fact that both Lucy and Haruko are willing to use their respective male leads, but do not really care for them per se, and are actually interested in something else.

The Off Screen Voice as the Nandaba Adults: Simple. Both are the reprasentation of adulthood in their respective works.

Snoopy as Gaku (the perverted glasses kid): Gaku, like Snoopy, seems to fantasize about being something else other than what he is. Snoopy likes to think of himself as the arch-enemy of the Red Baron. Gaku just seem to think about the world being a lot more sexual than really is. He sort of lives in his fantasy, though Snoopy's done that at times too.

Schroeder as Masashi (the truck drivin' kid): Both Schoeder and Masashi try to be a lot more adult than they really are, and both seem to try to play it cool in their own way.

Sally as Miyaji Junko (the teacher): Both are really sort of naive kids, and they are both kinda bratty at times too.

Canti as Woodstock: I make that placement using sort of an inverse version of your reasoning. Canti is basically harmless without Naota, as Woodstock is without Snoopy. However, Snoopy and Naota can get into all sorts of trouble independent of their counterparts.

Great Pumpkin as Atomsk: You're right, I was basically going the persuit angle. Given that I actually going the comparision route to Charlie Brown X-mas towards the end their, I could probably compare Atomsk to the meaning of X-mas or a X-mas tree.

"That what Atomsk is all about Noata Nandaba." - Amarao

fits somehow.

and finishing one of the metaphors:

Charlie Brown's Luck as Naota's brother: Both are absent, and both would completely alter the course of the story if they were around.

[goat]

I only caught FLCL on the second run, so I didn't reply to the Official Talkback. I'm reading it now though :D Here are some of my thoughts.


I have a theory about the N.O. channel. I think it may link to Medical Meccanica territory, though not necessarily the Mabase branch. MM stored robots and Atomsk there. They knew Haruko was going to look for Atomsk so they made sure she got a bunch of MM robots in the process. I think only the last robot, the poncho clad giant hand, was supposed to activate the Mabase MM factory. The others were supposed to destroy Haru and or people connected with her. I think Canti was built specifically to hold Atomsk and restrain his powers.

Speaking of Canti, where did he get those black wings and halo? Were those red bits he was collecting his former red shell? Why was he collecting them?

I'd like to hear everyone's opinions of Atomsk and Haru's relationship. I kind of wish she's in love with him, I like the image of her as a romantic than a megalomaniac.

Lastly, I found this FLCL research paper and thought it was relevant. I'll quote it so the old thread isn't brought back to life, but if mods want I'll link it instead. Also, full credit for this goes to former member Stanteau. I had no part in writing it. I think it's too long for one post so I'll split it up in two.

Edit: I think I'll have to split it up more than twice, TZ doesn't seem to like super long posts.

[goat]

“In the first half of the 20th Century, a movement arose to overthrow what had up to that time been standard techniques of classical music, to wit, melody, rhythm, and tune, because they were in the way of creating anything new. So what about the field of graphics? What about Japanese animation? Will FLCL become an anime for the 21st Century, one freed from the various conventions of anime?”(Gainax.com 1)
Hiramatsu Tadashi
FLCL Animation Director

“So what about the millennium? I’m not really sure, but writers keep asking about it. Like is there a meaning to releasing this title in 2000? When we were making this, it ended up being made in 2000? No. No, no, no. There must be a wish for everyone to be asking the same thing. Everyone is hoping that this is a Millennium Anime limited to 2000. Wishes and hopes are actually demands. I see. If we say that we weren’t thinking about the millennium, no one would be happy. So it’s been decided. That FLCL would be created as an anime for the year 2000. Does it matter if it’s true or not? FLCL is a Millennium Anime.”(Synch-point 10)
Enokido Yoji
FLCL Script Writer

How do you create a truly original anime for the 21st Century? Gainax believes they have done it by forming an avant garde, postmodern production held together with a classic storyline revolving around well defined characters and created utilizing cutting edge computer generated animation. What do you call an anime this revolutionary? Giving it only one name would not do it justice. It could be FLCL as it is technically referred to throughout Gainax, Furi Kuri for those who prefer the onomatopoeia of Japanese speech, or Fooly Coolly(sic) as it is known in America and as seen in several examples throughout the series.
Strip away the layers of sexual innuendo, parody, alien technology, self-reference, symbolism and so much more and you are left with a strong coming of age story starring a boy struggling with his liminality. Add back those same layers and the result is a manic, carnivalesque anime with a solid core of intertextual personalities performing their unique roles in complete harmony. Details as minute as the handedness of all characters (left-handed people are controlled by the right or creative hemisphere of the brain while right-handed people are controlled by the left or analytical hemisphere) were exploited to subliminally attune the viewer immediately to each character’s base personality. Several unique key animators were utilized to give the series an ever fluctuating art style, while simultaneously, a consistent and vibrant color palette was chosen to give the series a steady feel throughout. Accomplishing all of this within the framework of six 30-minute OVAs is an amazing feat unto itself.
With the recent declaration by the Japanese government of anime as a viable medium for communication and their promotion of it as a cultural export, more than ever people are expecting everything released to live up to that reputation (mike3560 1). FLCL has the pedigree of being produced by Gainax, the makers of critically acclaimed anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. The timing of its release during the turn of the century coupled with Gainax’s reputation for creating deeply thought provoking anime have lead speculators to believe that FLCL is meant to be the anime for the 21st Century. They just might be right. A look at the core characters sheds some light on exactly how Gainax accomplished this triumph in the field of anime.
Character Study: Nandaba Naota
First appearances can be deceiving. Naota is the 12-year-old central character of FLCL and appears, at first glance, to be your typically depressed anime boy. He starts out with what is believed to be a normal life and is then thrust into unusual circumstances where he must defeat or be defeated by the adversities which transpire. This all sounds like standard anime fare and could even be compared to other Gainax characters like Evangelion’s Shinji, until a thorough study is conducted. Naota is a more out going and straightforward boy than Shinji, but still retains a similar air of shyness (Alexa 5)
The right-handed Naota’s family life is disturbingly out of the ordinary. He lives in the fictional Japanese “everytown” of Mabase with only his father and grandfather; there is no mention of his mother throughout the entire series. This lack of a mother figure causes problems for Naota in his personal interaction with all females as he searches for both romantic and motherly love during this liminal time in his life. Not only affecting his interaction with women, Naota’s motherlessness is outwardly expressed as he himself becomes the mother of a robot birthed from his head. In a unique role reversal, Naota is the robot’s male mother while a female alien, in a brutal act of symbolic insemination, becomes its father.
He also has a brother, but the brother no longer lives with their family as he has left Japan for America in search of a career in baseball. Naota both idolizes his brother because of his accomplishments and despises him for the constant reminder that he is not as good. The townspeople of Mabase remember Naota’s brother as a success story produced by this otherwise unimpressive city and even the women in his life become a constant reminder of his brother. He is even asked to break the news to his brother’s “local” girlfriend about the new girl he is dating in America. Naota is almost always seen dragging a baseball bat, reminiscent of the brother he admires, behind him even though he is no good at the game and does not even really like to play.
At this liminal stage, Naota constantly wants to do things he sees as “adult.” He eats spicy food that he normally would not eat, drinks sour drinks when he really likes the sweet ones and even plays baseball even though he is not very athletic and does not reap any enjoyment from the sport. Naota is not only portrayed as liminal because of the stage of life he is currently living through; he also becomes the personified representation of the liminality of modern day Japan. As Dr. Frenchy Lunning said in her paper Cyborgs in Anime: Figures of Pivoting Fortune, Naota “represents the potential of Japan, on the edge of a new period of maturation.”(Lunning 6) Naota as Japan is pulled in many directions by the other characters and the aspects of history, modernity and future that they each represent.

[goat]

Character Study: Nandaba Tasuku
Being left-handed definitely has its advantages. Though FLCL’s viewers are never allowed to see Naota’s older brother Tasuku, Gainax’s symbolic characterization of him throughout the series allows him to become as vital as any other member of the cast. References to Tasuku are made in the form of jets flying high overhead, opened letters from America, baseball bats, cel phone numbers and he is even seen from behind in a flashback scene where he is wearing a number three baseball jersey, the number of Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima.
Most importantly, he is represented by the top bunk in the room he once shared with Naota. Through this, we learn that he was not only a brother but also a roommate for Naota. The viewer can connote, through their own personal experiences, how close this type of intimate living situation can bring two people. The top bunk is also above the younger Naota’s bed and therefore symbolizes the superiority of Tasuku as well as their age difference. Naota does not perceive this negatively and symbolically does not change things when Tasuku leaves home. He becomes very protective of this preserved space, not allowing anyone to disturb this “shrine” to his brother.
Everything has always come easier for Tasuku than it has for Naota. His left-handedness is the quick reference to that because as FLCL director Tsurumaki Kazuya explains, “[lefties] are cooler and carefree and can do everything easily and well.”(Synch-Point DVD) On the rare occasions when the townspeople of Mabase notice Naota, they only relate to him as Tasuku’s less able brother.
Tasuku’s act of leaving Japan is seen by Lunning as his having “succumbed to American popular culture and commercialism.”(Lunning 6) Given that Naota admires his brother, he, as liminal Japan, is torn between appreciating his home and wanting more. He has seen both the good and bad which can come from making this decision to fully accept the American ideals. Tasuku’s “local” girlfriend is tossed aside when he finds a blonde-haired, blue-eyed one in the US which Naota does not respect. Naota is also hurt by the fact that Tasuku “left him behind” to deal with things like his girlfriend, the townspeople and growing up without a role model.
Character Study: Samejima Mamimi
The first and only consistent female figure in Naota’s life just happens to be his brother’s girlfriend Mamimi. She has become sexually frustrated and entirely lonely since her one friend and emotional pillar, Tasuku, left for America. Mamimi is poor and possibly lives under a bridge in Mabase. The viewers are never shown or told about her family and it is assumed that she is surviving on her own. She eats day old bread given to her by Naota’s father, smokes far too many cigarettes, plays video games and is an avid photographer, taking pictures even at the most inappropriate times. Mamimi is also a pyromaniac.
It is revealed that, years earlier in a moment reminiscent of the uproar over Dungeons & Dragons, Mamimi was influenced by her favorite video game, “Firestarter,” to set fire to her school. She was found there by Tasuku who helped her find stability. When he left for America, Mamimi fell back into her old routine and mysterious fires began appearing around Mabase. Naota finds her at one point in an occult-looking circle of lit cigarettes in a séance for her god, Cantide. Mamimi is a right-hander who wishes she could have been born a lefty.
Even though Tasuku left Mamimi behind and has found another girlfriend, she holds out hope for his return to her life. In the mean time, she has found a substitute outlet for her sexual urges in the younger Naota. The opening scene shows Mamimi about to “overflow,” nibbling on Naota’s earlobe to quench her desire. He does not like it when she does these things because he still respects the relationship she has with his brother. Naota does find outright sexual advances appealing in his liminal state, but he is unsure of himself and his loyalties (Lunning 7).
Mamimi represents traditional Japan in contrast to Naota’s liminal Japan. She is the complete opposite of Tasuku’s version of Japan which relies heavily on American influence. She is even called “native girl” outright, signifying how she is thought of in this context. Mamimi’s heritage is discredited to the point that Naota’s grandfather becomes infuriated when he finds out that they are friends. In Naota’s mind, the decision of his future, and therefore the future of Japan, is completely tied up in whether he is loyal to his brother or his friend. But things are never as simple as black and white.
Character Study: Haruhara Haruko
Haruko is a 19-year-old alien not just in character, but in how she relates to Naota as liminal Japan as well. Everything she is and everything she has it foreign to Japan. “With her tall stature, her green eyes and pink hair, she rides a Vespa - symbol of Italian domination of Roman streets, and carries an electric bass guitar, symbol of American popular youth culture.”(Lunning 7) With the introduction of Haruko, Naota finds himself pulled in yet another direction. Similar to Tasuku’s influence, and even physically reminding Naota of his brother at one point, Haruko represents not only American influence, but the influence of everything non-Japanese. Tasuku is still a Japanese citizen going out to see what the world has to offer, while Haruko embodies that entire world invading Japan and even Naota’s own bedroom!
The invading influence of Haruko is not always unwanted or unneeded by Naota. His initial impression of her, as she runs him down with her Vespa and follows up with a guitar shot to his head (which produces their robotic offspring), is not a good one. With a little time and interaction, Naota becomes intrigued with what Haruko represents. She is the shining beacon of hope for the world outside his gloomy, muted hometown. Naota is never quite sure how he should feel about Haruko, at varying times despising her, having his first crush and inserting her into the role of surrogate mother.
Haruko also has mixed feelings about Naota during the course of the series. First, he was only supposed to be her means to a crucial goal. Upon realizing that her goal was not going to be met as easily as hitting him in the head, she decides to stick close by and see how things progress. She runs down Naota’s father in effort to gain access to the Nandaba household and ultimately becomes their housekeeper. Haruko eventually ends up sleeping with Naota’s father even though she knows that it hurts Naota. He does eventually grow on her as she does on him and they develop a loving relationship which the audience does not know whether will end sexually or familially.
Though Haruko is the “anime babe” of this series, she is definitely not typical in that characterization. Her voice is harsh and awkward, never sounding remotely like the shojo girls of much anime. Haruko is also not burdened with the large breasted image common in “anime babes” today. She is lean and attractive, but also quite alien in her colorations and ability to fight any adversary who steps in her way. She is Tsurumaki’s ultimate left-hander who has never run across a rival she cannot defeat or a man she cannot seduce.
Character Study: Eri Ninamori
The third of Naota’s trio of women showing interest in him for one reason or another is his classmate Ninamori. The daughter of Mabase’s controversial mayor, Ninamori has a crush on Naota that she is not afraid of showing. As class president, she fixes the voting for roles in their class play to ensure she and Naota play the leads together. Ninamori comes from a higher class family than Mamimi and is therefore more respected in the Nandaba household, even being asked to stay for dinner and sleep over by Naota’s father when things are rough at her own house. She does stay and that night confesses her feelings to Naota only to be interrupted by the seemingly jealous Haruko.
Haruko asserts her influence and sexual control over Naota blatantly in front of Ninamori, completely disrupting any mood that may have been forming between the two classmates. This battle for Naota’s liminal Japan can be seen as the choices between the vast and interesting world outside of Japan and the proper and expected choice of upper class native Japan. There is no risk in choosing Ninamori’s path while nothing but risk is possible through Haruko.
Ninamori also becomes the only person sharing in Naota’s fate of birthing these robots from his head. During the course of one of many times when Haruko runs him down with her Vespa, the now airborne Naota crashes head-to-head into Ninamori, transferring his unique ability temporarily to her. The resulting mecha fight serves to further drive a wedge between the two potential lovers. After OVA 3 tells her story, for the remainder of the series, Ninamori, while still attracted to him, serves only as a supporting character in the story of Naota’s coming of age.
Character Study: Nandaba Kamon
The head of the Nandaba household, independent manga artist Kamon does not present the typical vision of a father figure. He is a selfish slacker with erectile dysfunction who has only two goals; getting his newly hired housekeeper, Haruko, into bed and selling as many copies of his latest manga, Come On, Mabase, as possible. Kamon is very jealous of the relationship that Haruko and Naota are developing, even going so far as to invite Ninamori to sleep over, in hopes of her diverting Naota’s attention. Always with ulterior motives, Kamon also extended the invitation because his manga just happens to be about Mabase’s mayor, Ninamori’s father, having an affair.
The father/son war for Haruko’s affection culminates in Kamon’s challenge to an actual paintball war. His jealousy knows no bounds and he will do anything, even sacrifice his own son for the chance to be with her. Kamon even fantasizes early on about showing Haruko off to coworkers as his new, young wife. Oblivious to the needs of others, he does not consider the fact that Naota also sees her as the mother figure which is missing from his life and would likely relish the idea of Haruko filling this role. Kamon is completely self-centered and cares only for that which gives him pleasure.
Distinctive to FLCL is the fact that Kamon finally does get Haruko into bed only to find that he is unable to perform. Naota walks by as they are in the midst of their affair and cannot resist the urge to peep, not uncommon in Japanese erotic texts. Haruko’s eyes meet Naota’s gaze and their relationship is more confused than ever. Kamon represents everything that Naota does not want to become, while simultaneously he has the one thing that Naota is not able to acquire. Even when Kamon manages to achieve his most valued goal, Naota understands that he should not follow in his father’s footsteps because Kamon is not able to perform at this most crucial moment.

[goat]

Character Study: Canti
What kind of offspring can be produced through a violently sexual act of head bashing conception between a 12-year-old, morose Japanese boy mother and a female, bass wielding, Vespa driving, alien father? None other than Canti, the robot with a Sony television for a head. When the N.O. Channel is opened through Haruko’s insemination of Naota’s head, she expects to instantly receive Atomsk the Pirate King for her efforts. Though slightly delayed, Atomsk does come through, hitching a ride in Canti to escape the Medical Mechanica’s terminal core where he is a vital part of its operations. Unfortunately for Haruko, she does not realize this and with one swing of her bass, Canti’s head is busted and he loses his connection with Atomsk.
During the brief time that Canti/Atomsk was gestating in Naota’s head, they made a connection with him. Realizing the great loss Naota feels with his brother gone, Canti/Atomsk elect to fill that void as best they can, thus becoming yet another way in which Tasuku is symbolically viewed in FLCL. When Haruko’s swing sends Atomsk back through the N.O. Channel, Canti is left in Mabase and becomes a part of the Nandaba family. Atomsk still has the connection with Naota, and anytime he is needed, Canti can access his power by eating Naota.
When Atomsk’s power is not required, Canti is a peaceful part of the Nandaba household, willing to run errands and do the dishes whenever necessary. Mamimi through her love for Tasuku, sees Canti as very similar and he becomes nothing less than a god to her. He is very influential in Naota’s life also, and Naota becomes protective of him, not wanting the others to use him for their own benefit. Naota is both mother and brother to Canti and also has to join with him to activate the power of Atomsk, needless to say, their relationship is very complex.
Those are just a few of the ways that the characters of FLCL intertwine to create the atmosphere for the first 21st Century anime. Many additional supporting characters are also included to form a deeply detailed network of citizens living in Mabase. The pace is very quick throughout this six OVA series, but if you take the time to see them, the characters more defined than those of much larger anime project. As crucial as the characters, themselves, are to the success of FLCL as the Millennium Anime, there are many equally important elements which all contribute to its triumph.
Symbolism in FLCL
FLCL contains an endless assortment of symbolic elements strung perfectly throughout each OVA. The main symbols in each episode serve not only as a reference to what is being symbolized but also to tie characters and story components together into a tight, seamless unit. Much of FLCL’s symbolism is based on sexual innuendo, but there are many examples which are included for more puritan reasons.
The idea of never physically seeing Tasuku over the course of the entire FLCL series creates the need for a running set of symbols representing him to the other characters. The reason he has left Japan is because of his skill at baseball, therefore many of the symbols used relate to that talent. Naota is regularly seen dragging a rarely used baseball bat behind him representing his need to stay in contact with this part of his brother. The opened airmail letter with an included photo of Tasuku and his new American girlfriend also becomes an often used symbol of him in FLCL. Every time Naota mentions Tasuku, the audience is shown an airplane flying high overhead symbolizing his leaving Japan for foreign lands. Less obvious is the symbol of Canti as a substitute brother for Naota. He takes care of Mamimi and she in turn treats him like a god, similar to the way the actual relationship likely played out. Also, Canti plays a part in the Nandaba family similar to any typical sibling. Finally, he is very skilled at baseball, much more so than Naota and even more than Haruko who proves herself to be quite adept at the sport.
Mamimi’s video game is an interesting symbol of both her pyromaniac tendencies and her reliance on Tasuku for mental stability. She seems to have finally outgrown her phase of starting fires, but the viewers learn that the game is actually just a substitute for the real thing. When Mamimi learns that Tasuku has a new girlfriend in America, she gives up this electronic crutch and begins again with the real thing. When Naota brings the game back to her, there are no further fires started.
Guitars are seen as a symbol of the soul or internal strength of each character. Haruko has a 1961 Gibson bass guitar, relating her again to the foreignness of the world outside of Japan. When she reaches into Naota’s head and pulls out a guitar for him, he was housing one similar to hers but more modern. Haruko also attempts to pull a guitar out of the head of an adult man and instead receives a tiny abstract guitar shaped, fleshy object obviously referring to his lack of internal strength. When Naota and Atomsk merge before the final battle in FLCL, he is able to pull two guitars and even merges them into one, ultimately powerful guitar with two necks for the grand finale, symbolizing the awesome will of Atomsk.
The Vespa that Haruko drives is not only a symbol of Italian craftsmanship, but also of the chic attitude that goes along with the typical buyers of these vehicles. Author Umberto Eco explained this relationship best when he said, “…the Vespa came to be linked in my eyes with transgression, sin, and even temptation - not the temptation to possess the object, but the subtle seduction of faraway places where the Vespa was that only means of transport. And it entered into my imagination not as an object of desire, but as a symbol of an unfulfilled desire.”(Eco 59) In this interpretation, the Vespa also symbolizes Haruko’s never ending search and unyielding desire for Atomsk the Pirate King. It also relates her to the “British Mod” subculture and their use of scooters similar to and including the Vespa.
The “alien technology” of FLCL is symbolic of the need for commercial possessions found not only in Japan, but throughout the world. The Medical Mechanica factory just appeared in Mabase one day and is formed like a giant clothes iron. This also correlates the iron’s ability to smooth out wrinkles with Medical Mechanica’s desire to smooth out the wrinkles of everyone’s brain, thus rendering them mindless slaves. Canti is born with a head shaped like a Sony television set. Sony is representative of one of the first Japanese companies to become successful outside of Japan after World War II. The second robot, and first evil one, to come from Naota’s head is in the stylized shape of a teapot representing the traditions of Japan, including tea ceremonies, which became a popular cultural export during the early part of the 20th Century.
As stated previously, much of FLCL’s symbolism is based on sexual innuendo. Most of this is due to the influence of screenplay writer Enomoto Yooji, who was also a screenwriter for the sexually charged anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena. As with that series, FLCL’s sexuality is not there for mere titillation, every sexualized scene serves a key function in advancing the storyline.
Sexuality in FLCL
The crucial running sexual symbols of FLCL are Naota’s ever-returning “horns.” These phallic protuberances are the cause of much anxiety for young Naota who knows that any difference from the norm will end in ridicule when he goes to school. Fortunately, the horns can be pushed back into his head and held there with a bandage or hat, but those resolutions are not permanent and require obvious changes in appearance. Naota’s horns are also linked to sexuality through his emotions. Sexually charged situations cause the horns to grow in a way very relatable to an erection. During one dramatic example, a scantily clad Haruko straddles Naota, who currently has a small horn growing from the back of his head. As she speaks seductively to him, the horn grows forcing his face up into hers for their first kiss. Very highly charged sexual or emotional situations are also the cause of the horn growing too large to be contained and bursting from Naota’s head to form more robots.
The female lap is used often to suggest sexuality. This is achieved both in the typical anime “panty shot” way as well as in a way much more unique to FLCL. In one scene, Naota is riding with Haruko on her Vespa and as they talk, she decides to attempt to scare him by driving crazily. He ends up face first in her lap for moments in a very sexual scene between the two who have by this point become friends. Naota appears flustered by this turn of events while Haruko does not seem to mind as much. Similarly, when Ninamori sprouts her first robot after the transfer of Naota’s ability to her, the still attached robot drags her around by her head. With her legs freed from the necessity of walking, she wraps her legs around Naota’s head and carries him along as well, with his face firmly planted in her lap. The dire circumstances do not allow time for much concerned reaction to this situation, but it is highly sexual nonetheless.The relationship of the “Furi Kuri” version of this anime’s title to the Japanese onomatopoeia “kuri kuri” which refers to the noise made when fondling breasts is used often in the series. Kamon is often shown asking Naota what Furi Kuri means, a question which Naota cannot answer. His grandfather assumes that it relates to the sexual actions of fondling and in typical anime fashion, plays the role of “dirty old man” in this regard. Therefore the title itself can be seen as a symbol to the sexual innuendo found throughout FLCL.
Naota at one crucial moment also becomes the sexual symbol which every man fears. He has learned that when Canti eats him, they join to activate the power of Atomsk. This knowledge leads to an overly ambitious sequence where, determined to prove to Mamimi that he is always the one to save her, not Tasuku, he jumps inside Canti, hurrying him to convert into his alternate form of a very phallic cannon and fire the Atomsk “bullet” which is made up of an energized Naota. Unfortunately for all concerned, Naota allowed his ego to take control and in his haste, he misses the targeted enemy robot and falls prematurely impotent to the city street below.
Fortunately for Naota, he proves himself worthy in a situation where no one ever expected him to excel. Haruko had previously been teaching him how to bat in yet another sexually stimulating scene and now it was up to Naota to save Mabase from an incoming meteor. His “bat” of Haruko’s choice is a bass guitar which she pulled painfully from his head. Female agents watching on monitors have explosive nosebleeds due to the extremely erotic nature of this violently sexual act. Then Naota’s powerful swing, aided by channeling Atomsk and assisted by a second swing from Haruko, sends the “baseball” back deep into space in an apocalyptically orgasmic vision of the beautiful destruction of much of Mabase.
Postmodernism in FLCL
Postmodernism in media studies is often seen as a reaction against the elitism of the modernists. When the Japanese government recognized anime as a cultural export, they opened the doors for more companies to produce anime that goes against the grain. There are two major elements of postmodernism utilized extensively in FLCL, self-reference/self-reflection and parody. These will likely become more common in anime produced in the future, but FLCL includes more in its limited framework than most directors would hazard to include.
Self-reference and self-reflection can be a delicate subject if attempted by someone without the sensibilities of Gainax. In their case, they have learned exactly how much they can include and still produce meaningful anime. The ability to draw elements from previous work into current projects and to allow characters to step out of their roles while still part of the final product can be risky, but when done properly, adds an element previously unseen in more typical style anime.
At the very beginning of FLCL, upon the first meeting of Naota, Mamimi and Haruko, they set the stage of what the audience should expect by stepping outside of their roles and being shown “behind the scenes” during the CPR/kiss scene. Haruko explains to Mamimi that this scene was not as hard as it looked because she just had to hold her breath during the slow motion moment where she kisses Naota. Naota then pops in and responds furiously to this just being slow motion and not something more technically produced. This moment of self-reflection sets the stage for the anime to be allowed to break the fourth wall throughout the rest of the series.
There are two scenes with artistic style vastly different from the rest in FLCL, one in the first OVA and one in the fifth. They consist of manga style black and white panels where the camera “reads” through them like the human eye would read standard manga. These segments were said to have been very trying for the animation crew and they requested that no other ones like it be added after they finished the first one. Tsurumaki had only written them in this unique format because the scene would have been a boring discussion between four people sitting at the dinner table otherwise. He assumed that it would be a simple process since all of FLCL was being produced digitally. Of course, Tsurumaki could not let an opportunity for self-reflection this unique pass him by. Instead, at the end of the second manga scene, he has Kamon break out of it and return to the “normal” FLCL world. He states outright that these scenes were too expensive and the animators had told them not to include any more. Kamon goes on to tell Naota that the audience was feeling slighted by them anyway because they were not fully animated and were just in black and white, so why go to all the trouble. This type of self-reference in the middle of a very technologically advanced form of animation only possible with the most sophisticated CG artists and equipment was a very bold move for Gainax.
Gainax was not shy about including both obvious and more obscure forms of self-reflection into FLCL as well. First, Kamon is depicted as an independent manga artist who has worked on large scale projects in the past. At one point, Naota is talking about Kamon and mentions the fact that he has written extensively about the intricacies of Eva, an apparent reference to the most well known and respect series Evangelion. The amount of academic research into the philosophical nuances of Eva is staggering and to have a character in their latest production be one of those researchers both gives a nod to Eva’s success and pokes fun at the immense amount of study of that one series.
In possibly a more obscure moment of self-reflection, during one battle scene, Haruko flies in on her Gibson bass guitar wearing a bunny suit. This could be seen as both a symbol of the Playboy Bunny image of America and a reflection of an early Gainax production for the Daicon IV opening ceremonies. It is a parody of that scene and anyone who has seen either the original short or the brief clip of it shown during another Gainax production, Otaku No Video, it should be recognizable. Also, the fact that Haruko shouts “Daicon V” as she flies in implies that this is the latest version of that original idea.
Parody is another staple of postmodernism which Gainax did not shy away from when producing FLCL. Because of the generally over-the-top and fast paced atmosphere of FLCL, the parodies are quick and often missed upon first viewing. Repeat viewings allow more time for these elements to be noticed and often allow important scenes to take on even more importance when related to the original media they are parodying.
One parody that nearly every American viewer responds to is the oft used “bullet time” slow motion made famous by its use in The Matrix. In that live action motion picture, the technique was mostly utilized to show action sequences in greater detail than ever before. Gainax decided to take that idea and do the complete opposite with the same technology. The nature of FLCL as a “coming of age” story allowed bullet time to be used to increase the drama and tension when Naota is about to kiss one of his female co-stars for the first time. It is employed originally in the opening scene after Haruko has delivered her Vespa attack and is then attempting to revive him with the kiss of life. The style is parodied further by overemphasizing the camera’s ability to shoot 360 degrees around its subject. The shot comes quickly from behind them and flies several times around the scene as Mamimi looks on in horror and finally zooms in close to focus on the act of Haruko reviving Naota. This same style is also used when Naota has been run down by Haruko’s Vespa once more and is this time airborne and headed directly toward an impact with Ninamori. When the footage is slowed down to bullet time, the moment between moments is shown as a very beautiful approach to a kiss. Right before their lips make contact, true time is restored and Naota slams head first into Ninamori leaving them both the worse for wear and ruining, yet again, what could have been a special situation between two potential future lovers.
In a less widely recognized parody to those not well versed in the history of anime, the act, from Revolutionary Girl Utena, of pulling a weapon from someone’s body is incorporated into FLCL. This is not a surprising parody considering the screenwriter for both of these anime was Enomoto Yooji. The startling twist is that unlike in Utena where the sword was given willingly from the body of the Rose Bride, FLCL’s parody has Haruko violently digging around in Naota’s skull and finally finding the guitar. The violence does not stop as she has to forcefully remove it from his head, at one point stepping on the back of his skull for leverage, while he screams out in pain. When she finally has removed the weapon she was searching for, she hands it to Naota and we are shown that this violation was seen as incredibly erotic by the female onlookers as they are seen with explosive nosebleeds. This is also a parody of the traditional anime convention of giving male characters a nosebleed to represent an orgasm. The role reversal of women having nosebleeds is intriguing enough, but add to that the volatility of this orgasmic event and you can understand just how erotic the scene was meant to be.
In a unique parody of what must now be considered a piece of global pop culture, there are multiple fast paced scenes where the animation style switches to one similar to the American animated series South Park. The FLCL characters depicted in this style can been viewed as childlike and at times obnoxious in relation to the South Park character they are parodying. This was an unexpected twist as most of the parodies are either anime or science fiction related, while this was parodying an American television show which had gained popularity in Japan at the time of this production.
The most obscure parody of FLCL is in the name of the one Haruko is endlessly searching for. Atomsk is the name of a book written by little known American science fiction writer Cordwainer Smith. He was more universally known for being an Army Colonel, a professor of Asiatic Politics at Johns Hopkins University and he served in China, Korea and Malaysia during his military days. Smith “is still considered the godfather of study and practice of psychological warfare.”(corneredangel.com 1) To name the character of Atomsk the Pirate King after Smith’s book is a unique twist on his work in the military throughout the region.
Coming of Age in FLCL
Underneath all of the complex and intertwining layers of uniquely converging and intertextual media styles, the basic story of FLCL is that of Naota coming of age. No matter what happens in his secluded world of Mabase, Japan, he is still a liminal 12-year-old boy looking for answers in a world filled with questions. Should he follow his brother’s lead and accept an American influence or go even farther and be swayed by the alienness of Haruko? Or should he perhaps stick to one of the more native tracks like the traditional Japan personified by Mamimi or the upper class of Ninamori? Many events during the course of the series show Naota as taking those steps necessary to break through his liminality and finally be able to make the decision which will affect the rest of his life as well as the direction of liminal Japan.
Naota has saved Mabase from a rapidly approaching meteor through the use of his newly acquired baseball skills which finally caused the townspeople to notice him for who he is instead of as Tasuku’s brother. He learned to force himself to drink sour drinks even though he hates the way they taste and even is able to eat super spicy noodles, the likes of which most adults cannot handle. Naota has dealt with his feelings for Mamimi, and even tried to initiate a kiss with her, only to be turned down, but he learned from this event. He freed Atomsk from the trappings of Medical Mechanica and in the process saved Mabase a second time, here from the fate of enslavement due to ironing out the wrinkles of their brains. Naota has made peace with his mother figure even though she left him alone again, and even managed to tug the heartstrings of an alien. In the ultimate act of putting himself out on a limb, he tells Haruko he loves her and gives her a kiss.
In the end, after overcoming all of the traumas he has been forced to deal with and even the ones that he created for himself, Naota realizes that he does not have to decide just yet. There is still time and he chooses not to choose. He will remain a kid for a little while longer and let the events of the future help him decide what kind of person he truly is to become. He is seen in the last moments of FLCL wearing his new middle school uniform and deciding definitively that he does not like sour drinks, and is not ready to force himself to drink them. In much the same way, Japan itself has no real need to make a decision immediately on its place in the world of the 21st Century. It can remain content in its current place in the world stage. Its time will come.
FLCL As The 21st Century Anime
Through the use of layers of sexual innuendo, parody, alien technology, self-reference and symbolism added in with the unique scripting of Enomoto Yooji and direction of Tsurumaki Kazuya and produced utilizing the latest in CG technologies and highly skilled animators, FLCL has truly become the first anime of the 21st Century. The boldness of Gainax to create a piece of work so deeply layered while also giving it a carnivalesque atmosphere full of whimsy was only acceptable in this postmodern age of anime history.
Future studies into the way FLCL relates to its manga counterpart, produced at the same time as the anime version could reveal even more ways in which this groundbreaking example of Japan’s newest cultural export is an evolutionary step forward for this media. Typically either manga is produced and then anime is created from that base material or the anime comes first and a manga adaptation is released shortly thereafter. FLCL breaks those boundaries and has come up with an exciting new way to produce two simultaneous yet unique versions of a single story idea.
Additionally, a look into the music of FLCL produced by relatively unknown Japanese rock group The Pillows would explain more of the unique “rock and roll” vibe felt through the entire series. Some reviewers have explained this as the idea that it is not necessary to understand the FLCL, it is meant just to be viewed and felt as an intensely complete sensual experience.
The fact that a series as tied to Japanese culture as FLCL is could be appreciated as far away as America amazes even its director, but the statistics cannot be denied. In a quick and easily analysis of reviews, out of 45 posted on Amazon.com, FLCL has received a perfect five out of five star rating. It has the look and feel of a highest possible quality video on MTV with a depth as yet unseen in American popular media. It is the Millennium Anime in Japan, and has the legs to become the same in countries around the world if given the chance.
Even after a complete analysis and understanding of its importance to the field of anime, it always comes back to one question. What does FLCL mean? “I don’t know…Stop asking me!"

[CaptainRed]

I had another thought(well, I think one a day isn't all that bad...). There are two roads for this thought, however:

Canti is, throughout the whole series after the fight in episode one, incomplete(the back of his noggin is a bit smashified... but not by motorbike). So I came up with two thoughts about this. Canti represents Naota's adulthood. The adult part of Naota is only at half power at best without the child part(Canti in fights before merging with Naota). What about the question of how Canti became incomplete? Apart from one biblical route, I have no idea. The biblical route follows Eve's creation from Adam(sort of), in that woman(Harkuko) removes something from man(Canti). Back of the head in stead of rib, in this case. So if that idea has any semblence of accuracy, are the writers saying that Naota's new interest in girls stems from a need to get back something that was taken away from him?

Oh, and anybody here have a passable knowledge of Kant? I'm curious if there's an influence there... but my brain turned to mush faster and faster as I got further and further into my research.

Seems to me that in the final two episodes the clouds come back in the steam from the MM plant, the smoke from the bullets, and even atop the hand where Naota faces Amarao with Haruko in the background there is mist all around them. In the end, it's Atomsk that clears the scene but it's Naota's decision to set him free.

That is a possible(probable?) flaw in my reasoning of before. I was refering to the sky's clouds only(which I still think were only featured twice), but the steam clouds might be serving the same purpose, only closer to the ground(and characters).

Took me a while to realize that FLCL is not a growing up story for Naota, it's a story about his decision to begin the growing up process and so it's much more will oriented than I thought.

Well, part of walking is deciding to walk, and part of growing up is deciding to grow up. You can be forced through sobering or traumatic situations, and though you may outwardly "mature", you're more likely to end up like Amarao— protecting yourself in a role many steps ahead of where you actually stand.

Do we ever shut up? No. :D

There is no shut up.

Nevermind, that sucked. But I'm not shutting up either. :p

I always thought that the steam from the MM plant was Naota's stress. So the clouds would probably be the same thing, if they mean anything.

However, if swinging the bat is a sexual release (and that seemed to be the way the metaphor was rolling), then it's also of course a release of stress. Additionally, Haruko in episode 1, was intially coming to release something from Naota as well.

Not the guitar battles, actually. The steam releases happened when a robot was popping out of Naota's head. I'd go for the release of stress as well, though.

I don't know how much you can actually relate Puss 'n Boots to the story. I think just the basic idea of the story was meant to be connected to the show, not all the characters. Naota's appearance in the episode implies he should be the cat, but the cat is actually more like Ninamori, I think.

Puss in Boots is a short story whose characters are rather broad, mostly being defined by the jobs they serve within the story. Since the story elements are so similar, parallels can be drawn between the characters. I really think that Ninamori is the Marquis, as she is the one becoming the lie. It could be argued that she's also the cat, as she sets up most of her lies, but if you look at the cat another way, as the catalyst(cat > catalyst... oy) that sets the Marquis on his way to getting what he wants, Kamon more aptly fits the role.(his story leads to the exposure of her father, the expulsion of his secretary, and the staying together of her parents(more or less)) Naota has little to do in the episode, and very cleanly parallels the role of the princess.(in the story, initial like ramping up to love as the Marquis becomes the Marquis; in FLCL, initial friendship ramping up to cooperation in the play when Ninamori gets her "kingdom")

But I'm still wondering why Naota ran water over the dead Kamon.

If you weren't here to be dissatisfied by the literary symbolism answer, then: one of water's most popular meanings in literature is life. Bread, too, has this meaning.

That brings up a thought: if water's literary meaning was used to bring Kamon back to life, then was he killed in a literary way, as well? All I'm coming up with on that road is "orgasm"(which, I believe... well, actually I can't remember the exact association, but in some way "orgasm" means "little death").

And I don't still don't know why the robots come out of Naota's head. Is MM sending them through his head to fight Haruko, or is Haruko using Naota's head to transport the robots near her, so she can find Atomsk?

I think SSJPabs answered you... but I think he used it for a Haruko tangent(not a bad thing). So far as I'm concerned, you pretty much hit the answer on the head at the end of that paragraph. MM(according to seemingly everyone else around here... and me too, I guess) has, inside their iron, a bunch of robots. Somewhere in there, they also have Atomsk. Or maybe they don't have Atomsk, and he is in there running around(or at least hiding) free. The N/O channel in Naota's head pulls stuff out of the iron. Haruko activated the channel so that she could get Atomsk.

I'm kind of leaning towards the running around free, idea. My head hurts(idea):

Though Medical Mechanica's motives are a known evil, they're a bit much to wipe off the face of the galaxy, so a sort of detente ensues, and MM becomes an organization that can be wronged. Atomsk is a pirate king(for he is the pirate king!). But what is he pirating at? Perhaps he's working somewhat like a Sir Francis Drake, pirating at a certain target(though minus the knighthood and plus an outlaw status). Atomsk is the pirate king(and it is it is a glorious thing to be the pirate king) and earns his title by fighting Medical Mechanica.

His full-blown form is a bit overkill, and rather disruptive to the wrinkled folks around the irons, so he fights by proxy(using Canti as his avatar within the MM plant). Or maybe he's just so big and powerful that it's hard to pull himself through most N/O channels.(I lean towards this, either alone or in conjunction with the first part) Anyway, MM was making robots within the plant to activate the iron(I have no explanation for the bot that came out of Ninamori... except maybe an assassinbot to take out Atomsk/Canti), and Atomsk was fighting their efforts from the inside. Meanwhile, Haruko comes along and wants Atomsk, so she activates the N/O channel in Naota. Atomsk does come, but Canti's N/O bandwidth got crunched significantly by Haruko's hit, so Atomsk was either a) stuck in N/O space, or b) shoved back to his original location.

I think Haruko didn't quite understand the idea behind N/O bandwidth. Guitars are relatively low bandwidth N/O objects(and apparently come from a personal N/O space), and so, since she was able to extract those quickly, she assumed that she'd be able to extract Atomsk quickly as well. When she finally figured it out, she went about the job of expanding Naota's N/O bandwidth.

If I had anything else down that road, I forgot it.

(Haruko who has apparently been tailing him for some time she says she lost him "again," in episode 6.) What Haruko is after is first and foremost Atomsk. After he appears and splits into the Naota-Atomsk and Canti-Atomsk, she is going to keep trying to pull things out of Naota's head until both halves of Atomsk join up, the true form of Atomsk emerges and then Haruko can devour Atomsk's power for herself. Naota is the one who devours Atomsk and she either let's her desires get the better of her (some opinions) or (in my opinion) reveals her TRUE nature and attempts to kill Naota to eat Atomsk herself.

I don't think it's a half and half thing. I think that neither Naota nor Canti initially have enough N/O bandwidth to pull Atomsk through nor(after the episode one hit) even channel him.

I think the other stuff coming out of Naota's head comes from one of two motivations: either it is purely Haruko trying to widen his N/O channel, or it is MM sending out activation units in a way that keeps suspicion off of them.

I'm more into the "heat of the moment" theory, myself. More on that when I get to goat's post later, though.

Explanation of verious placements

Mamimi as the Little Redheaded Girl: Both are their respective male leads unattainable ideal. As hard as Charlie tries, he can never seem to get any attention from the Little Redheaded Girl, and the second Naota tries to show affective affection towards Mamami, she clams up.

Franklin as Atomsk: The only time Charlie seems get active helping hand, and the only time he wins at Baseball, is when Franklin is involved. The same can be said for Naota's relationship to Atomsk. Additionally, both Atomsk and Franklin don't turn until later in their respective series.

Snoopy as Gaku (the perverted glasses kid): Gaku, like Snoopy, seems to fantasize about being something else other than what he is. Snoopy likes to think of himself as the arch-enemy of the Red Baron. Gaku just seem to think about the world being a lot more sexual than really is. He sort of lives in his fantasy, though Snoopy's done that at times too.

Canti as Woodstock: I make that placement using sort of an inverse version of your reasoning. Canti is basically harmless without Naota, as Woodstock is without Snoopy. However, Snoopy and Naota can get into all sorts of trouble independent of their counterparts.

Great Pumpkin as Atomsk: You're right, I was basically going the persuit angle. Given that I actually going the comparision route to Charlie Brown X-mas towards the end their, I could probably compare Atomsk to the meaning of X-mas or a X-mas tree.

"That what Atomsk is all about Noata Nandaba." - Amarao

fits somehow.

and finishing one of the metaphors:

Charlie Brown's Luck as Naota's brother: Both are absent, and both would completely alter the course of the story if they were around.

I can kind of see the Mamimi comparison... and I guess the real differences are not in the result, but in the method by which the results are achieved.(in comparisons, it's generally the causes, or the effects, and not both)

None of the Peanuts stuff I saw ever featured Franklin prominently. :¬(

I suppose I could go with Snoopy/Gaku(with some sideways looks :sweat: )

Canti, though, isn't totally harmless without Naota. Canti did do some light fighting early on, and compared to pre-swing Naota, he was definately the stronger, protector character. However, together, the two could do great things. Such is often the relationship between Snoopy and Woodstock. Snoopy hunts the Red Baron, and Woodstock works against odds in his more important pursuits, ultimately knocked back and looking to be struck down by those odds, until Woodstock's cause becomes Snoopy's, and working together, they overcome the problem.

That "That's what Atomsk is all about" quote is funny. :¬) Maybe also accurate, but foremost funny.

Mmmm... I think I see what you mean with the luck comparison now. Both in their respective stories would be both hero and champion for our main characters.

Hello goat. :¬) Welcome to the wild and wooly world of FLCL demi-pseudo-talkback. That research paper scared me when I saw it before, and it scares me now. I might get to talking about that later... but I might not. That's a really big time sink... maybe bigger than I'll consciously allow myself to get into. :¬)
(and I will respond to your points, just not this minute)

My fingers hurt.

*honks hugs and whatever else*
Cappy "Do your eyes hurt?" Red

[SSJPabs]

Oh, and anybody here have a passable knowledge of Kant? I'm curious if there's an influence there... but my brain turned to mush faster and faster as I got further and further into my research.
I do, but predominantly in his refutation of Hume's cause and effect theories, and his theories on studies and ethics.

Kant's ethics theories might apply in regards to Haruko's actions. "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will and general natural law." So you see, Haruko could be seen as an immoral influence on Naota because of the way she reasons (or doesn't reason) her actions. But Kant believes in more moral absolutes than I do and you could make an arguement for any of her less.... mmm... "appropriate" actions.

Oh and hey Goat, in the first drafts of the script, Haruko was supposed to be in love with Atomsk. Later, that angle was dropped so now she's not in love with him, she just lusts after his power.

Source: Director's commentaries posted by Ferquin in the FLCL thread.

[goat]

Gah. Thought I was the first to post that report, but apparently Karl Olsen beat me to it in the talkback (which I just finished reading by the way). :) I may as well just leave it there. It's really interesting how everyone has there own interpretation of FLCL; you guys have been comparing it more to literature while stanteau saw it as a metaphore about modern Japan.

If Haru really just wanted Atomsk's power, why was she so admiring of him at the end of the fifth episode? It didn't seem like she was in a real rush to eat him up then. Could it just be a plothole?

[SSJPabs]

If Haru really just wanted Atomsk's power, why was she so admiring of him at the end of the fifth episode? It didn't seem like she was in a real rush to eat him up then. Could it just be a plothole?

Why do some women like powerful men? Lust for his power it seems, plus he had just revealed his "guitar" after all. You'll notice that earlier in episode 5, Kitsurubame (sp?) Amarao's assitant had fallen for Canti when he helped her up even after she tried to kill him. Canti's really getting the girls in this episode.

Why didn't she eat him? Because Naota who had 1/2 of Atomsk inside him wasn't a part of him then (she's actually standing on Naota in that scene) and only when they both come together can she eat the real Atomsk.

[bojcroc]

I really think that Ninamori is the Marquis, as she is the one becoming the lie. It could be argued that she's also the cat, as she sets up most of her lies, but if you look at the cat another way, as the catalyst(cat > catalyst... oy) that sets the Marquis on his way to getting what he wants, Kamon more aptly fits the role.(his story leads to the exposure of her father, the expulsion of his secretary, and the staying together of her parents(more or less)) Naota has little to do in the episode, and very cleanly parallels the role of the princess.(in the story, initial like ramping up to love as the Marquis becomes the Marquis; in FLCL, initial friendship ramping up to cooperation in the play when Ninamori gets her "kingdom")

That makes sense. Kamon being the cat also nicely explains Naota's hatred toward the cat.

The steam releases happened when a robot was popping out of Naota's head.

And the robots come out of Naota's head when he's under a lot of stress, right? Also, that's not the only time they happen. For instance, it happens when Naota sees Mamimi by the river and finds out she's being bullied.

If you weren't here to be dissatisfied by the literary symbolism answer, then: one of water's most popular meanings in literature is life. Bread, too, has this meaning.

That brings up a thought: if water's literary meaning was used to bring Kamon back to life, then was he killed in a literary way, as well? All I'm coming up with on that road is "orgasm"(which, I believe... well, actually I can't remember the exact association, but in some way "orgasm" means "little death").

I was here to be dissatisfied by the figurative answer. But you can't just throw random symbols into a show; they have to make sense literally as well. That's what I was trying to ask about.

I figured Haruko hit him too hard with the guitar. Kamon said that Haruko discarded him because his head didn't work, not his... other stuff. I don't see anything in the episode that suggests Haruko was having fun with the real Kamon.

Some more questions I have: What is the deal with Amarao when he is asking if it's red or blue? And why does Kitsurubami say blue, blue, cobalt blue? Just a pun that didn't translate? And call me stupid, but I don't know where the "borg" part comes from in the seven of nine pun. I get the "sigh=cy" though.

And what's with Miyajou? She is the only adult that acts like a kid. Do you think she's just there for comic relief, or she represents something? I kind of get the feeling that Naota doesn't like her because she acts like a kid. And shouldn't the students be calling her "sempai" or "-san"? They only call her by her first name, perhaps because they think she is a kid or they have a lack of respect for her. Perhaps she just shows another character of a foolish adult.

[Karl Olson]

None of the Peanuts stuff I saw ever featured Franklin prominently. :¬(

Atomsk doesn't turn up in corporeal form often either ;) However, I was thinking more towards the comic strips with the Franklin comparison rather than Peanuts specials or TV series.

That "That's what Atomsk is all about" quote is funny. :¬) Maybe also accurate, but foremost funny.

maybe it'd be better if we borrowed some of the main speech and filled in the blanks:

2:8
And there were in the same country parents working in the businesses, keeping watch over their children by night.

2:9
And, lo, Haruko came upon them, and the glory of the Galaxy Police shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

2:10
And Haruko said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

2:11
For unto you is born this day in the city of Mabase a Saviour, which is Atomsk the Space Pirate.

2:12
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find Atomsk wrapped in Canti, inside Naota.

Noata = the manger.

I think I've now made the most bizarre connection ever.

Mmmm... I think I see what you mean with the luck comparison now. Both in their respective stories would be both hero and champion for our main characters.

Yeah. Why have Naota's N/O channel, when you could have his brother's, unless he's useless, as Haruko might say. Additionally I'm sure Chuck would like to kick that football sometimes.

btw:

Bass to the head = Football pulled out mid-kick.

[lostrune]

Some more questions I have: What is the deal with Amarao when he is asking if it's red or blue?

I think it's a homage to Evangelion - if the analysis is blue, it's an angel.

And why does Kitsurubami say blue, blue, cobalt blue? Just a pun that didn't translate?

Yes.

And call me stupid, but I don't know where the "borg" part comes from in the seven of nine pun. I get the "sigh=cy" though.

In Star Trek, Seven of Nine is a borg ("Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.")

And what's with Miyajou? She is the only adult that acts like a kid. Do you think she's just there for comic relief, or she represents something? I kind of get the feeling that Naota doesn't like her because she acts like a kid. And shouldn't the students be calling her "sempai" or "-san"? They only call her by her first name, perhaps because they think she is a kid or they have a lack of respect for her. Perhaps she just shows another character of a foolish adult.

Who's Miyajou again? The sensei?

[bojcroc]

She's the teacher at the school. She has her cars destroyed, teaches the kids how to use chopsticks, and talks to Kamon about Naota's absence.

[CaptainRed]

School and a family emergency slowed me down a bit... in reverse order. More school to take care of, but since one of goat's posts was short, and I promised him. :¬)
(HER! Promised HER! Check profile for gender, THEN activate pronoun use!)

I only caught FLCL on the second run, so I didn't reply to the Official Talkback. I'm reading it now though :D Here are some of my thoughts.

I have a theory about the N.O. channel. I think it may link to Medical Meccanica territory, though not necessarily the Mabase branch. MM stored robots and Atomsk there. They knew Haruko was going to look for Atomsk so they made sure she got a bunch of MM robots in the process. I think only the last robot, the poncho clad giant hand, was supposed to activate the Mabase MM factory. The others were supposed to destroy Haru and or people connected with her. I think Canti was built specifically to hold Atomsk and restrain his powers.

Playing around with some more of the theorizing from my last post...

I'm leaning towards the link being (at least predominantly) to the Mabase plant. Why? Because Haruko went to the site of that plant, rather than any other.(The giant last robot being the only possible(probable) exception)

That could just be because humans have a greater disposition for N/O compatibility... but there's no evidence either way on that one.

I also don't(as stated before) believe that Atomsk was being held by Medical Mechanica— but that thought requires a bit of a lead in.

People from places away from Earth, and those who work with them, know about N/O. It isn't anything special to them(it's like a really really high tech fax machine... that transports the original instead of making a copy at the receiving end). Medical Mechanica, being from off Earth, also knows about it, and amongst the myriad robots they produce for fighting, construction, and whatnot, they also produce some robots with N/O channels for transporting materials. Canti is one such robot... though it could be theorized that he is a relative oddity so far as his make goes. Before he got conked on the noggin, he had enough N/O bandwidth to channel Atomsk(channel, not transport).

Maybe they used robots like Canti to transport stuff from place to place. Maybe they used them to channel people in places they were needed. Maybe both.

So MM had Canti, and a bunch of fighter robots in their Mabase plant. I might agree with you on the point that only the last robot was meant to activate the plant, but not the others(Haruko wasn't considered that much of a threat). Atomsk went about his business of being the pirate king, and invaded the Mabase plant via Canti's N/O channel. Cantomsk started busting up the joint, and some of the security bots started fighting him. Then Naota's N/O channel opened the first time, and we saw Cantomsk fighting the robot hand(end of episode one).

So my theory is that the smaller robots were designed to destroy the invader(Atomsk), so that the MM plant at Mabase could construct an N/O channel with a large enough bandwidth to pull the giant hand through. They just got lucky when Naota's grew big enough.

Speaking of Canti, where did he get those black wings and halo? Were those red bits he was collecting his former red shell? Why was he collecting them?

I have no theories about the wings and halo that are grounded in any sort of... I have none that I'd stand strongly behind. My best guess is, if it is anything(and I'll bet dollars to donuts that it is something— it's too prominent not to be), it is a sign that he is a "fallen angel" from MM. He fell from grace and now fights them.

But minus some actual thinking placed behind that, I deny any responsibility. ;¬}

The red bits were(as I had pointed out to me) the pieces of the back of his head, as broken by Haruko. I think it might have been for vanity/modesty's sake(thus the cardboard box on the back of his head after Haruko finds him gluing the pieces back together).

I'd like to hear everyone's opinions of Atomsk and Haru's relationship. I kind of wish she's in love with him, I like the image of her as a romantic than a megalomaniac.

I can see it as being romantic. My brainpower is at a low ebb right now... so I'll need one of the smart people to confirm or deny, but I believe the devouring of a loved one is not all that uncommon in mythology.(I can think of Chronos only offhand, but a correllation to him is inaccurate)

Lastly, I found this FLCL research paper and thought it was relevant. I'll quote it so the old thread isn't brought back to life, but if mods want I'll link it instead. Also, full credit for this goes to former member Stanteau. I had no part in writing it. I think it's too long for one post so I'll split it up in two.

Edit: I think I'll have to split it up more than twice, TZ doesn't seem to like super long posts.

Yup, I'm definately not replying to that thing as a whole; these smaller posts take enough time as it is. I will reply to any segments of it brought into discussion as I can(which is the basis for all my replying in this thread, actually :anime: ).

*honks hugs and whatever else*
Cappy "should I post another subject for eyebrow transplant in the big o thread?" Red, who leaves some all mistakes in for comedy's sake. Reallyy

[goat]

and I promised him. :¬)
(HER! Promised HER! Check profile for gender, THEN activate pronoun use!)

No problem. Just part of having an androgynous screen name ^_^



Playing around with some more of the theorizing from my last post...

I'm leaning towards the link being (at least predominantly) to the Mabase plant. Why? Because Haruko went to the site of that plant, rather than any other.(The giant last robot being the only possible(probable) exception)

That could just be because humans have a greater disposition for N/O compatibility... but there's no evidence either way on that one.

I also don't(as stated before) believe that Atomsk was being held by Medical Mechanica— but that thought requires a bit of a lead in.

People from places away from Earth, and those who work with them, know about N/O. It isn't anything special to them(it's like a really really high tech fax machine... that transports the original instead of making a copy at the receiving end). Medical Mechanica, being from off Earth, also knows about it, and amongst the myriad robots they produce for fighting, construction, and whatnot, they also produce some robots with N/O channels for transporting materials. Canti is one such robot... though it could be theorized that he is a relative oddity so far as his make goes. Before he got conked on the noggin, he had enough N/O bandwidth to channel Atomsk(channel, not transport).

Maybe they used robots like Canti to transport stuff from place to place. Maybe they used them to channel people in places they were needed. Maybe both.

So MM had Canti, and a bunch of fighter robots in their Mabase plant. I might agree with you on the point that only the last robot was meant to activate the plant, but not the others(Haruko wasn't considered that much of a threat). Atomsk went about his business of being the pirate king, and invaded the Mabase plant via Canti's N/O channel. Cantomsk started busting up the joint, and some of the security bots started fighting him. Then Naota's N/O channel opened the first time, and we saw Cantomsk fighting the robot hand(end of episode one).

So my theory is that the smaller robots were designed to destroy the invader(Atomsk), so that the MM plant at Mabase could construct an N/O channel with a large enough bandwidth to pull the giant hand through. They just got lucky when Naota's grew big enough.


That makes way too much sense :sweat: You have some sort of gift for putting stuff together.


I have no theories about the wings and halo that are grounded in any sort of... I have none that I'd stand strongly behind. My best guess is, if it is anything(and I'll bet dollars to donuts that it is something— it's too prominent not to be), it is a sign that he is a "fallen angel" from MM. He fell from grace and now fights them.

But minus some actual thinking placed behind that, I deny any responsibility. ;¬}

Also makes sense. God, I think that was my favorite scene in the series, and now I'm gonna like it more, knowing he really is (as far as we can tell) an angel.

Thanks for your ideas Cappy! A couple less FLCL puzzle pieces missing :)

[lostrune]

She's the teacher at the school. She has her cars destroyed, teaches the kids how to use chopsticks, and talks to Kamon about Naota's absence.

Well then, they should call her sensei, not sempai nor -san.

And goat, what's that post about?

[bojcroc]

Ok, sensei. So then why do they call her Miyajou and not sensei?

[Karl Olson]

Ok, sensei. So then why do they call her Miyajou and not sensei?

They have no respect for her, or so that would imply.

[goat]

I don't know. I had posted it with my replies last night and it looked fine in the preview, but apparently I did something wrong? I'll edit it right now though.

Edit- Fixed.

[SSJPabs]

They have no respect for her, or so that would imply.

Well she does seem to dress like a little kid and act like it in episode 3 at least, always carrying on and over-acting. Still, I wish my 6th grade teacher had looked like her.

[Kinel Ozoa]

Weeks? I don't need no stinkin' weeks!(just unfashionable lateness)

I never got around to dumping my two cents in on episode six, and there are still a few things I'd like to ponder out loud about in the series.

(plus, I can't let Karl off that easily)

If you missed the FLCL C&C(how could you) and are feeling masochistic(you'd pretty much have to be), I highly recommend(run) checking it out (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=84473&page=1&pp=20).

*honks hugs and whatever else*
Cappy Red

I missed the talkback for FLCL because I missed some of the eps first time around, second time around I managed to catch the rest and I thought "hey, I'll go find that talkback" storms and problems with the internet later I find this thread and read the first post and click the like to the talkback thread..... O_O I figure this is going to take awile, maybe I'll be back in a few days. :sweat: I appriciate the link to the talkback though

[Karl Olson]

Well she does seem to dress like a little kid and act like it in episode 3 at least, always carrying on and over-acting. Still, I wish my 6th grade teacher had looked like her.

Not to mention her inability to use chopsticks and the Kenny figure in her car, Gainax really paints her character as a child who never grew up. I mean she mentions cartoon cats like Doraemon when talking about cats in class in episode 3.

[Nftnat]

Hm, a FLCL thread. Well, I did decide to give the series a chance, so why not.
(after the viewings)
Whoa, that was... there are no words to describe it, although that's not stopping some people. (on the 3 dozenth page of the thread)
(more time later)
Wow. 68 pages. Well, I finally finished the thread, time to get in on it.
Oh. Locked. Nuts.
Wait, here's another thread. A sequel, I guess. That'll do. Better get ready, go re-watch my copies of the series and all.
Coming soon: my long-overdue comments, pretty much in stream of consciousness order. People are dissecting every scene, every word. I can do that. Just ask around at other fora (Hey Arnold, Tiny Toons, Road Rovers, etc.).
More on this later, after I've re-reviewed it again. It'll be worth it, I hope.
Any similarity to AS cards strictly intentional.
Cy'all then.

[Nftnat]

And so, as advertised, here I start my attempt to dissect FLCL. I feel like Paul before Mars Hill; 'what will this babbler say?' I'm a noob when it comes to anime, kind of, so please be gentle.
We open on what looks like a videocam shot? Is she talking about baseball or golf? Baseball, it looks like, but it could be either one. The pinky finger, Cap King, I don't understand, but there's going to be a lot I don't understand.
He who conquers the left side conquers the world. Well, left-handed is right-brained, and that's the creative side. He who conquers the left side conquers creation? And she kept calling him 'Chief'.
Ooh, a skirt peek. Better get used to that too; I've heard about these Gainax people.
We don't see until later that he is doing his homework; could have been video games. Didn't know at the time.
Is she ever pouty, but that's been discussed. I'm going to mention much that's been discussed.
They both know baseball, no doubt the result of working out with the brother. He knows more, though.
He's concerned with what's not cool? And the 'upside-down' thing occasions the first bit of tooniness. Well, if this has some touches of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett thrown in, I don't mind. I don't mind at all.
Her eyes are glowing, she smells like cigarettes but she hasn't been smoking (do we believe her?), and she talks about overflowing. Is she creepy, or is it just me? And then she... whoa! And he has no reaction to that?
Nice setup. And we're introduced to Medical Mechanica, and the steam. Well, steam from an iron... And the mystery person there.
She likes sour drinks, he doesn't. A metaphor for stages of life, as has been discussed to death here, well, there. So, she left a hickey.
The drink, 'Chief', a registered letter, a plane is seen. All must be quite significant.
Knowing what we know now, we know that she's his brother's girlfriend. And from hindsight, we know that he's trying to tell her about, well, you know. But, 'my brother, in the US?' How many brothers does he have? Why does he have to establish which brother he's talking about? Anyway, the clouds clear, and...
GUITAR! Bass guitar, but still. why does she scream 'lunchtime'? And who says 'already?', and why? And who's Taro-kun? Other than Tenchi's baby cousin. Hmm, now I think of it, is there a resemblance between Naota and Tenchi? Probably not, just free association at work.
And, in the proud Warner tradition, TWO VOICES AT ONCE! This girl (we see that she's a girl when she takes off her helmet and goggles) says that she killed him completely dead, she'd been looking for Taro-kun and she killed him, although it was an accident, kind of, but who's she kidding. And that girl is saying but he's not Taro-kun, like she said before. He's Naota (she knows who he is), a guy at school, pretty popular, and kind of cute don't you think?
And then whatshername really gets Tex Avery weird, rotating in every direction, driving without a vehicle...
Then we have the obligatory Matrix thing, and metahumor, another Warner-MGM tradition, I love it! Even Naota knows it's not for real. Uh-oh, better not let this make it into the final cut. Whoops, too late.
And then, KA-BONG! And then she holds him upside down, shakes him, 'It's not coming out', what-ever. (I know she's talking about Atomsk through the NO channel, but at the time...)
And finally, after clicking away at her camera (where was it earlier?), Mamimi lets loose with a long-overdue 'STOOOOOOOOPPP!!!!'
After pronouncing him useless, the mystery woman flips him the bird and rides off. She is fast, in more ways than one.
Next act, at the school. A certain attractive brunette seems to like him, and the word 'bizarre'. There are two male friends of his, too, one of whom is into perversion. Sigmund Freud would have field day with you. And what's with the super spicy curry bread? We'll find that out later too, I think.
Seeing Samejima Mamimi is punishment? He said that, in so many words.
Mystery woman is on the case, like she's a private eye er sum junk.
The name plate on the hospital, was it built in 2000-something, or is it the hospital for Medical Mechanica, of Medical Mechanica, for Medical Mechanica? I'd say the latter.
'phlictonic papillar wavy symptom' wha?
What's she doing in a hospital, indeed. Some would say that she belongs in a hospital, of the mental variety. And more tooniness ensues, and it's all good.
'Do something with your friends', he says. Then we see it's Mamimi, what friends does she have?
Again, the mention of the brother, the letter, the plane (sound).
And then, the manga segment.
'Dad' in bandages; he was run over too. Why's Naota asking his grandpa if he's all right; he wasn't hit? He was the only one who wasn't.
Then the hostility toward Mamimi, and the attack on Naota. This is one weird family. And finally, someone mentions fooly cooly, and... Haruharu Haruko whatever (that's her name) calls him 'little bro'. Hmm.
They really don't like Mamimi, do they? Was there this kind of hostility when she was dating the brother, one might wonder. And how do weasels do it? (and do I really want to know)
Misinterpretations ensue: cooly-kool aid-curry, desk-death, new modality (new morality?)-noodle, MTV-empty (and her speech balloon is) (empty, that is)
So he was former assistant editor-in-chief of something or other, or was this just his imagination? Speaking of imagination, he definitely has designs on her. (duh!)
Grandpa explained fooly cooly, and she takes it in like 'Oh, I see.', and then she says she's in 'that kind of relationship with Naota'. With that in mind, why would they need to ask her what she means? It's already been explained.
I suppose I'd have gotten a lot more out of the conversation if I'd ever watched any of the Gundam series; been a Transformers fan from the beginning (1983) and watched the old Voltron too, but I gave up on mech after a few seasons of Robotech.
"They're in a good mood". Remember that.
Who's she talking to? Well, of course we know now, but she wasn't apparently speaking into anything.
"You're the one I saw first, Ta-kun." And yes, she is playing with his head, very much so.
Nandaba gets all hentai when Naota gives his permission to 'do what you want'.
The family just might be discriminating against her being from a poor family. First we've heard of her family, and almost the last.
"He's all right", Haruko says to the cat, which agrees.
'Never knows best' on the cigarette. Yeah, I know.
Day old bread. Um, bread hangs around here for weeks, and it molds before it gets hard.
So he got a letter from his brother, and he's surprised that she didn't; here's where it is confirmed that she is his brother's girlfriend, or was, now. Oh, right, the manga scene.
Haruko's bracelet rattles right after Naota tells Mamimi of the brother's American girlfriend. And then Mamimi's 'going to overflow'. We'll see more of that later, of course.
The sirens and lights then go off at the MM plant (heralding Atomsk's attempted escape), and here Haruko comes.
The first thing out of Naota's head is the tv-head we will come to know as Canti. He's red, symbolizing Atomsk's presence inside him. Um, anyone know what it was doing before that NO channel was opened? Canti, I mean.
Oh, there's also the left arm.
So Haruko comes on the scene, makes the mistake of beaning Canti which damages the NO channel in it, accidentally sends Atomsk into stasis or suspended animation or a duality or whatever he's in, appears - briefly - like Naota's brother (and don't think I've not noticed the significance of that) and goes back to looking for 'Taro'. What, is that Atomsk's first name, perhaps?
And now, without explanation, the Nandaba house gains a houseboy or whatever.
I was wondering if soft drinks in Japan had names or if they were just called by their taste - sweet, sour, bitter, pulpy, carbonated. But this drink apparently does have a name: Lime Squash. Is that squash the vegetable, or is it like a knock-off of Crush? I remember on an episode of Andy Griffith they mentioned soft drinks including raspberry smash and huckleberry crush; wondered if they were talking about the brand name, and no I've never heard of Crush having a huckleberry flavor.
So he takes the drink, accepting the indirect kiss, and starts his journey to manhood. Could it be Haruko already trying to expand his NO channel? *shrugs*
And that's where I leave off for now. I'll be back later with more.

[Nftnat]

Folks, it’s been a while since the poor attempt to further comment on FLCL has seen any action - and then it was from me. Be that as it may, it’s running again, and I’m going to do what I failed to do on the monster FLCL thread (How many pages? 68?) "…and if you don’t like it, there’s always talk radio." --- Lionel Carrotte, Bloomin’ Loonies by Rottin-Furr Productions.

When I left off, I was about to comment on the second episode. First, I’m glad that the title, ‘Fista’, - short for ‘Firestarter’, which is not to be confused with the Stephen King work of that name - apparently has nothing to do with ‘fisting’. If you don’t know what that is don’t worry; there are probably people here who know more about it than I do. For sure there are those less reluctant to explain than I. Anyway I only know about it what I read in Sean Hannity’s book so there you go.

It seems that Mamimi is even more troubled than I thought from Episode 1. Talking about ‘gods’ - not of the divine sort - playing video games, ditching high school to hang out at her boyfriend’s little brother’s elementary school.

And there’s the chorus, Ninamori and those two guys. The guys are already calling Mamimi Naota’s ‘wife’. I wonder how long they’ve known, since last year, when it started? And Ninamori says it’s not cool, like she cares about being cool herself. I think she’s jealous.

Haruko grills Naota, like the space cop she claims to be. (wonder if she ever hangs out with Mihoshi and Kiyone? I know, different continuity) So now the robot’s living there too, and working there. And we get her name: Haruhara Haruko. She’s 19? Wasn’t that Mamimi’s estimate earlier? ‘At least 19’, I think she said.

And she’s a space patrol officer, although right now it looks like she’s trying to be a rock star. And the robot is helping. Naota’s had enough and he turns on the lights, which kind of wrecks the mood. Suddenly Naota’s in front of the robot.

And Haruko mentions Star Search, well, American Idol hadn’t quite made it to Japan at the time. I would have preferred Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, but that’s just me.

Apparently the cat, the name of which is Miyu-Miyu, got on Haruko’s case yesterday. And the robot’s from Medical Meccanica.

About the bike. It’s a Vespa, but one of Naota’s friends called it ‘a cool Yusako bike’ Is Yusako a model of Vespa? Or is it the other way around? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with bikes. I know of a few brands - Harley Davidson and those brands that also put out cars - but other than that…

He’s talking about lies, Haruhara Haruko’s, and Sameji Mamimi’s.

So now the robot has a name: TV Boy. When did he get the halo? "You want it all to yourself because you brought it home. Aren’t we being a bit SELFISH?" That doesn’t only apply to TV Boy, although technically Haruko came home with Kamon.

And now Naota and Haruko are just hanging out on the balcony, shooting the breeze like there are no issues between them; while Kamon talks, and talks, and talks. Something tells me I really missed something when I missed ‘Eva’, or Eve of Evengelion, or whatever.

‘Mayima’ brand binoculars. How long has Haruko been there to know that there have been a lot of fires recently? And why does she tense up right then?

We cut to Mamimi playing with the black cat. Kind of a theme, this cat, kind of like Trigun.

Her clogs had floated off, but Naota brought them back. And she calls the cat ‘Ta-kun’ too. ‘Ta’ as in ‘Naota’, with the ‘kun’ ending, makes sense; but this? Like I said, she has problems.

At least she admits one of those problems, her addiction to that ‘Canti’ game. And she knows not to feed gum to a cat. But again with the ‘god’ thing.

And she admits that she likes to play games, maybe including mental games, psychological games, sexual games.

And again we have the youngest in the family being the most responsible one, like Tenchi, or Arnold from Hey Arnold!.

Now where’s Haruko going? Apparently to the MM building to scout the enemy er sum junk? Well, she gets in, the hard way. And the man says she has no brains, the same thing she keeps saying about Naota, kind of.

It seems there was a fire there the day before, and the day before that was the nurse tied up… wait a minute! Haruko did that, so this is taking place two days later? And Mamimi started to ‘overflow’ that same day, so she’s set all of these fires within 48 hours?

‘There’s a lot of depraved people.’ And he would know; it takes one to know one. I’m reminded of the words of the Red Guy from Cow & Chicken: "‘Corn Cob Man’? There’s a lot of sick people around."

And Naota clocks the perv with a box of Vesla parts. Wait, Vesla, with an ‘l’? I thought it was Vespa, with a ‘p’. They look like Gundam parts anyway, and that’s from someone who’s never seen any Gundam but the commercials. Yeah, I know. No Gundam, no Eva, I have been so uneducated.

Anyway, he apparently admits that she’s an alien, although he was probably being sarcastic.

If there’s no door to the place, how did she get in? How did those security guys get in?

And Naota is her guardian, he has custody of her; I love it. She’s going to give him a reward? Better than CPR? Just what sort of depravity does she have in mind?!?

And now Mamimi, Olympus camera in hand, catches her first glimpse of TV Boy, or Canti as she comes to call him; she identifies him with the god of that video game to which she’s addicted. He has kind of a Messianic vibe about him at that, kind of a Jonathan Livingston Seagull thing going on there, although I’ve never seen that movie either.

Apparently Haruko’s ‘better than CPR’ reward is giving Naota a ride on her bike, whew.

It does get cold on some days in October, but right now it’s November by now and it still isn’t so cold over here. Indian summer, you know.

So he doesn’t like sour drinks, and he doesn’t like scary stuff- whoa! She’s maneuvered the bike, herself and Naota around so that with the inertia and all she practically has him performing cunnilingus on her! She DID have depravity in mind! Well, all in the interests of stimulating his NO and all of that.

We now cut to, um, I’m not sure what they’re going for here, those reality tv shows? A documentary, maybe? Anyway, we know that Naota is 12, Mamimi 17, and Haruko, well, apparently whoever’s filming this doesn’t know. Oh, and the ‘Takun’cat is playing with Miyu-Miyu.

Mamimi has been following TV Boy / Canti and taking pictures of him.

Haruko likes ‘Sameji’ - well enough to be on a first-name basis with her - but Naota’s grandpa doesn’t. The feeling is mutual to say the least. There’s all kinds of theories that could be made as to the past of these people; my theory is that ‘grandpa’ raped or at least sexually assaulted Mamimi at some time in the past, but that’s just me.

Haruko noticed the robot looking at Hustler.

It seems that Mamimi now thinks of Canti as the kind of god you worship. Worshipful master—wait, that’s the Masons. Excuse me.

Haruko likes the pulpy kind of drinks. Do drinks in Japan have actual names, other than pulpy or sour or sweet or whatever?

Haruko is using Canti to run errands, and Mamimi scolds her. Fine way to treat the one who showed you the most kindness, although she takes it in stride, scratching her navel.

And while Mamimi worships Canti, Naota’s father (Kamon) wants to know if ‘TV Boy’ recorded the Thursday Night Special. I have heard of the Saturday Night Special, although if it’s on every week it’s not really that special is it?

Anyway, Canti / TV Boy searches for more parts of himself while the kids go exploring some recent arson site. They speculate: aliens? (Naota could say something there) foreign agents (ditto)? And what is this Focus magazine?

Before Mamimi was wearing clogs, now it’s sandals. I guess she goes through the wet shoes. Is there any pity for her, any compassion? It seems that she’s bullied from time to time.

Naota apparently makes a realization as the smoke comes out of the MM plant.

Later she’s walking… wherever, barefoot, and he follows her. She drops her game and lights another cigarette.

It seems that the town in the game is Endsville; sounds like something beatniks would say.

While his monotone voice describes the ‘Fista’ game, we have a recap at the same time of things people have said that we have already heard, as well as some questioning that apparently has been done of Naota by the authorities, and the cat Miyu-Miyu talking like a human.

Haruko is reporting in to her superiors via Miyu-Miyu again, when another fire breaks out. Apparently she thinks that this fire is crucial to her purpose.

Naota remembers another fire, six years ago, when he was 5 and Mamimi was 11, his current age. I guess that means his brother Taskun is at least 6 years older than he; I’m thinking he’s 18 or 19.

Does Mamimi equate Taskun with Lord Canti? Did she at the time?

She doesn’t need that video game to which she was addicted any more, so apparently she has turned a corner somehow or other.

‘Well, I never thought a girl could be so cruel, and I’m never going back to my old school’ --- Steely Dan.

Apaprently as poor as she is, she can still afford a boom box. I’m not surprised at that; when I was working at a homeless shelter I saw people standing in line for meals with headset radios on them. They can’t buy food but they can buy a headset radio, just like she has to depend on charity for day-old bread; go figure.

Anyway, we can see that she’s manic-depressive, pyromanic-depressive, even.

He freaks out, the alarms at the MM plant sound, and today’s whatever comes out of his head. It’s the right hand, counterpart to the previous episode’s left hand.

Naota is knocked away as soon as the right hand emerges, and hits Haruko’s bike.

With that question she asks you’d think Haruko cared for Naota; maybe she does, I dunno.

Haruko attacks, and she’s down. Naota knocks Mamimi out of the way, saving her life possibly. You’d think she’d be grateful to him on her own for that.

The Atomsk symbol appears on Canti, and he eats Naota. Then we see the image of a screw in his head; only by absorbing Naota can Canti access the NO in him and the channel it travels through.

Then he changes colors from red to blue, and that music starts up. What's that they’re singing? ‘Mary Kate and Ashley Olson’? Boy, those formerly adorable going on desirable twins are everywhere aren’t they? And making millions upon millions, they could probably buy Time-Warner by now, heaven forbid.

Canti then transforms, I’m a sucker for Transformers by the way, and dispatches the hand. Then he blesses Mamimi like a priest would, the hand. Then he craps out Naota.

What Mamimi said about the ashes still being here? They ain’t no more.

Haruko’s all for getting out of there, and she tells the kids to come on; I guess she’s aiming to give both of them a ride. Generous of her.

And we come back to what Naota was saying about a third of the way into this episode, about the lies. He decides to stay by Mamimi’s side, forever. There’s a number of cynical things I could say about that.

More next time. Hopefully I'll get to Marquis de Carabas by the end of the day. We'll see.

[SSJPabs]

Please edit that with spaces between paragraphs! It made my eyes cross!

[oranthal]

Please edit that with spaces between paragraphs! It made my eyes cross!

Yeah. I didn't even bother read it because of the way it was formatted. Very hard on the eyes.

[Anime Guy]

Damn, so many huge posts on this thread. I haven't read any of them, but it is impressive how commited you people are.

[Conekiller]

Kinda slightly off topic (but I guess it beats resurrecting the official C&C to make this observation)

in ep #6 whne Mamimi is fidgetting with the phone, it looks as if the phone is made by the company "Cyberdyne" can anyone confim this for me (I have my DVDs lent out)

[SwedeRacer]

Kinda slightly off topic (but I guess it beats resurrecting the official C&C to make this observation)

in ep #6 whne Mamimi is fidgetting with the phone, it looks as if the phone is made by the company "Cyberdyne" can anyone confim this for me (I have my DVDs lent out)
Close. It is made by "Cyberdyine". Theres also another name on it, probably the specific product name, which is "Su-ka"

[SSJPabs]

What I wonder is if Haruko is considered a "rogue agent." My fondest dream is from someone to come from the space police (or whatever they are called) and mete out justice to Haruko... with extreme prejudice.

Well I think Ninamori really is just commenting on how wrong it is for a 12 year old to be going with a nearly grown woman. It's probably illegal, maybe even in Japan.

[SwedeRacer]

Has anyone pointed out the fact that, for the most part, the older a character is the less mature they are? My brief analysis(It's 2am, forgive me if i at any point sound incoherent):

On the female side: There are 4 main women in FLCL - Haruko, Ninamori, Mamimi and Miyaji. Miyaji, the oldest, is by far the least respected, and acts like a five year old. Haruko, slightly younger, is by no means the five year old that is Miyaji, but instead completely selfish and often insane. Mamimi has some severe psychological defects, but shes pretty low key, and doesnt go around causing havoc, like Haruko, or being a complete child like Miyaji. Naota's friends are keen to point out that shes abit off, but they acknowledge the fact that she is older, which they dont with Miyaji. Finally we have Ninamori, the most mature, and most adult character in the entire series. She's also Naota's age, and seems like a prime canidate for his attentions down the road.

On the male side: The main male characters are Naota's Grandfather, Kamon, Amaro and Naota. The Grandfather is the stereotypical dirty old man, as seen when explaining the 'Furi Kuri' techniques to Haruko, and sending Canti to buy him porno mags. He is thus the perverted old man who never grew up. Not far behind him in that matter is Kamon, who is obsessed with Haruko. Even his own son tells him he is "acting like a child". Yet another man who wouldnt mind Haruko's attention is Amaro, who, even more then Naota, desperately wants to be seen as mature. He tries to achieve that through huge eyebrows, and through his position at whatever agency he is working for. However, Amaro fails to produce a satisfactory guitar, showing he has failed to grow up. Naota is a wierd case, because FLCL is about his decision to begin the process towards growing up. Thus he wants to become more of a ninamori type figure, yet is unsure how to do it. That being said, he is still far more mature then any of the other three characters, and is only second to Ninamori over all.

[Nftnat]

It’s me again. About the spacing, it’s fixed now, and I’m sorry about that.
Now for the next episode: Marquis du Carabas. I’d thought that Puss In Boots was in the fairy tale collection all of us were raised on; guess I was wrong.

Last episode we concentrated on Sameji Mamimi. This episode, enter the requisite Gainax jailbait: Ninamori Eri, daughter of the mayor of Mabase. It wasn’t easy to choose one of the FLCL females but I decided on Ninamori; yes, I’m definitely a Ninamori Eri fanboy. Well, enough of that…

We open on our heroine sitting in a car; whether it belongs to the family or the ‘secretary’, I don’t know.

Apparently she’s just been told that the family was breaking up, and why.
Eri (can I call her Eri?) is definitely being mature about this. This secretary / mistress / chauffeur is breaking up her family and she’s putting up this brave front riding with her, making small talk and all that. Of course she could just be repressing big-time.

Meanwhile, shall we try to look at it from the other woman’s pov? Let’s see, secretary, mistress, chauffeur for the kid, seems she’s going to be anything and everything the guy she’s seeing requires. And engaging the kid in conversation, well, it doesn’t hurt to try to get on the good side of the child of the man you’re, um, seeing. Maybe she’s looking ahead to the possibility of that gold band, after which things will be different. Can you say boarding school?

Ninamori-san is letting her emotions show about the play, though. Well, she is emotionally invested in that.

We open – after the titles – on the baseball bat in Naota’s (and Haruko’s) room. It’s Tasuku’s bat. Though not seen, he is a force behind this show. Not necessarily THE force, but he’s keenly felt. Did that make sense?

I don’t understand the significance of the double mirrors hanging off the top bunk. Something from Haruko’s bike?

Speaking of Haruko, Naota finds her and addresses her by ever-more demeaning epithets: housekeeper wanna-be, cleaning lady, maid, bottom-feeder. It’s not until he gets to ‘evil alien’ that she reacts, and then it’s all sugar & spice. More on the spice later.

Last episode Mamimi was barefoot, now Haruko is. For now at least.
The family business is a bakery, but Mon-chan’s (nice meta-humor there) or Kamon’s (Naota’s father remember) passion seems to be investigative journalism. He’s a former assistant editor-in-chief of something or other; now he publishes his own ‘zine. I thought they were only referred to as ‘zines’ if they were published exclusively on the internet; guess I was wrong. The magazine figures heavily into the plot of this episode.

Naota’s wearing a hat, so there’s probably something growing out of his head again; we don’t see what it is here, though. Later.

There seems to be a preoccupation here with curry; remember the stolen super spicy stuff in episode 1? We know that Naota doesn’t like sour drinks; apparently he doesn’t like spicy stuff either. He has a lot of growing up to do, although he’s more grownup than anyone else in the house. Maybe this is his way of coping.

This reminds me of an editorial cartoon taking place in a diner next to the UN. With the place packed with diplomats from other countries, the guy at the counter is calling in the orders: "One borsch an’ yoghurt, one camel’s milk, one salami gavrilovic, one Indian curry, one fufu with cream, one hot tomalley with chili sauce, one shishkebab, and one stomach powder for me, Fred." Wonder how Naota would handle that situation.

Cut to school. Naota closes his locker, and there is Ninamori-san, sporting the latest in anachronistic wear. Hey, Ninamori-san! The Cold War is over, and communism lost! Well, if Sir Paul McCartney can still sing "Back In the USSR"…

She talks about having voted and we cut to a flashback of a blackboard with the strangest looking tally marks I’ve ever seen. True, they’re probably in kanji, but tally marks are the same in every language aren’t they?

I must admit that Duraimon is another character I’ve never heard of. Nice of them to mention Tom & Jerry (Jerry’s not a cat!), although they could have opted for other cats, like Felix (patriarch of all cartoon cats), Garfield (he ruled the ‘80’s), and the Warner cats: Furrball, the lovely Rita, and of course, my favorite WB character, Sylvester. Well, can’t have everything.

The magazine Naota’s friends are flashing, the one they got in Sakai, comes into this running thread of this episode. Most of the characters on the red cover are in kanji, but you can make out the words ‘Come On’. Remember this.

Also remember the Crystal Pepsi. I know I still remember, despite my attempts to consign it to the oblivious depths of my subconscious with the Arch Deluxe.

I remember those Van Halen Right Now Crystal Pepsi commercials, but aren’t they a bit young to remember them? Wasn’t that in the ‘80’s? Well, okkay, it was 1991, from the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album, but still would they remember commercials from that long ago? I remember commercials from the ‘70’s, but that’s just me.

That ‘pervert’ friend of Naota’s - all right, so I forgot their names - is completely clueless. He’s so into what he’s saying that he doesn’t realize that he’s stomping on another student’s head, to say nothing of the attention his behavior will attract.

Miss Miyaji, is that her name? Anyway, she seems to be quite pleasant and level-headed, but with the disturbance in class came a disturbance in her mood which didn’t go away. She flat freaked out.

And she embarrasses Ninamori-san while fretting about the class embarrassing her. Ninamori will act on this later.

Naota didn’t want to play a cat, so he goes to hang out with some real cats.

Where did Mamimi get that cat hat anyway? It looks soooooooooooo kawaii.

This is the only time that I can recall that Mamimi talks about her parents. Apparently she used to have a normal life. Wonder what happened. I’d say things changed before she was Naota’s age, on account of that’s when she burned down the school.

Oh, and more picture-taking. I wonder what happened to the pics of Naota’s impression of Nick Bottom.

Now, what’s Ninamori-san doing in this part of town? Well, she heard - as did the whole class - about the potential for embarrassment at her expense in that ‘Come On’ magazine, she must have overheard that it was available in that store in Sakai that still sold Crystal Pepsi; so it’s logical that she went looking to get to the bottom of this, and apparently it wasn’t hard to track down the store in question.

She walks in the store while Kamon is giving his sales pitch about his investigative magazine, ‘Come On Mabase’. Nice title; I’m sure it will go down in history with the likes of Avanti or Die Neuische Zeitung. I wonder if he does all the work himself (bit of a crimp in the baking business that would be), or if there are others working on it (employees he’d have to pay)? What ‘Come On Mabase’ could use is some crackpot anarchistic lunatic as a regular columnist, like those other papers I mentioned.

He says that investigative journalism is the key to community reform. He has a point; I’m sure the same belief permeates the premises housing the Enquirer, the Examiner, the Globe, the Star, Weekly World News…

He mentions the store’s backlog of Crystal Pepsi, and the above pieces start to fall into place. As well as some other pieces.

Mamimi says that Naota is almost as cute as Duraimon, who Naota says doesn’t have ears. Apparently this ‘Duraimon’ is a popular cartoon character in Japan. That’s more than I know.

The events at the old school in the previous episode happened ‘the other night’. By now Mamimi has told herself that Canti didn’t eat ‘Takun’ but allowed himself to be piloted by him.

Speaking of Canti, he’s trying to glue himself together.

The media has found out about the mayor and the other woman. She tries to sneak out through a manhole?

That look on Ninamori's face when she apparently feels the other woman underfoot is priceless. I get the feeling that calling her a ‘nouveau-riche princess’ won’t help Miss Thang, but the title will be remembered and re-used.

Again with the boots. And we never see the secretary again.

Who’s that person wailing the fact that she has nowhere to go? That she has nobody? No one but her cat? At first I thought it was Mamimi, but it turns out to be Ninamori, apparently going over her lines to the play, while drinking a… could that be Crystal Pepsi?

Ninamori and Naota each have something on the other. Ninamori concedes that point because Naota won’t care if she squeals on him. Never mud-wrestle a pig; you both get dirty and the pig likes it.

Naota comments on the scene at Ninamori’s house. Apparently the media circus was started by some tabloid printing the story, which Ninamori admits is all true. Another thing to remember.

I almost reached for the phone before I realized that those tones were announcing the ‘5:37 to Nagano’.

Anyone else get the feeling that Ninamori was trying to make a pass at Naota here? She suggests that they go somewhere, do something, then she falls back on the Puss & Boots thing. Methinks she has control issues.

As soon as Naota mentions the person he’s waiting for with the pronoun ‘she’, Ninamori is sad. She wants him.

Again with the cat. Maybe it’s not a nod to Trigun, as I had thought; maybe both shows were playing on the ‘black cat = bad luck’ tradition.

We have the requisite ‘Matrix’ scene which appears every other episode. Those two are destined for each other. It looks like they’re going to kiss - man, she’s pretty! - and then the transference happens when they bonk heads. This episode, it won’t be Naota’s head out of which a robot will come.

She’s told not to touch Naota’s ears - and much has been made here of the sexual symbolism therein - by a Haruko who immediately lies back on the ground and… I’m not sure what she’s doing there.

It’s the combination of the head trauma and touching Naota’s ears that now causes Ninamori to get sick to her stomach, which Haruko is quick to point out is not her fault.

After the commercial we find Ninamori having supper with Naota’s family, which leaves a number of questions unanswered. How did she get there? Why is she there? Was it out of pity? Compassion? Guilt? Just the thing to do? Did Haruko give the both of them a ride on her bike? (If so, decent of her) Was there any discomfort on anyone’s part when Ninamori showed up at the door? Did they clear her eating with them with her parents?

And Haruko has switched outfits, opting for a maid uniform (only time we see that in the series, I believe; then again, it’s the only time they have company over for supper). Haruko is a Transformer, in the Mary Pat Foley sense of the word. (Red Rabbit, apparently Clancy likes Transformers; good for him)
So "Little Prince Curry Bran (bran?) Goes to New York" translates into Manhattan style curry.

The robot is eating with the family, which Ninamori notices, to put it mildly. Speaking of mild…

It’s obvious why Ninamori got the light spice, and no, it’s not because she’s a girl, although given the hentai Japanese culture I wouldn’t be surprised. No, it’s because of her stomach trouble. Naota asks about it later; apparently he doesn’t make the connection, so preoccupied is he with how he has to eat that spicy stuff.

When Ninamori said her first words in the Nandaba house I didn’t know it was her talking. It looked like she was eating, not talking; but there was no one else who was opening their mouths to talk so it must have been her. She might look into ventriloquism, if she hasn’t already.

Chocolate icing on curry? I’ve put together some weird food combinations in my time; maybe I should look into this. I could at least make a nutty rhyme: light spice, chocolate ice, eh, forget it.

More soda. It’s not Crystal Pepsi, is it? Maybe Kamon had to make a deal with that proprietor.

Grandpa was the only one who had a bad reaction to the curry, at first. His head’s a volcano!

I don’t see why Kamon’s making such a big deal about Ninamori getting run over; he was run over too and apparently there were no ill after effects. And she looks just fine (more than fine, but I’m trying to control my inner fanboy). Besides, it was Naota who was run over; he then hit Ninamori.

"I don’t think it’s any big deal." One time, two times, three times, four times, do I hear five? Yes, in the bath.

And that was Haruko’s own bike that did the running over.

And the big scandalous mess is played up again. Another thing to remember.

Ninamori’s delayed reaction. As she leaves, Canti notices her.

Next scene, a must for Gainax, she’s bathing herself. Don’t people in Japan have regular baths or showers? Maybe some don’t, I dunno.

And finally, we have the exposition for the whole thing. That was Kamon’s magazine, ‘Come On Mabase’, that broke the story of the mayor - Ninamori’s father - and the other woman. Naota’s friends got it at that Crystal Pepsi place in Sakai and brought it to school, where Miyaji got her hands on it. She was apparently shocked, which causes me to wonder what sort of stuff Kamon prints up where Naota might see it. She mentions the chance of embarrassing Ninamori, not because she’s the class president as some have thought, but because it’s her father in apparently lurid coverage. Ninamori hears what Miyaji says - how can she not? - and decides to do some investigating on her own. Maybe Miyaji destroyed that copy, which means Ninamori wasn’t going to get any help getting to the bottom of things on that end; but she overheard the Crystal Pepsi comment and after that it was just a matter of asking the right questions of the right people. Only one store in the area still sells Crystal Pepsi so… Anyway, she shows up just as Kamon is making his sales pitch for the next batch. Not recognizing her, he offers her a copy. He apparently wasn’t at home when the others came in; otherwise, he would have found out about the accident before supper. The guilt he might have felt over the daughter of the man he had just disgraced eating with his family, he must have channeled into concern over her getting run over. And now, separated by a wall and a window, he makes peace with her. She’s glad that he broke the story as it got rid of that secretary.

Although he’s not scoring any points saying how mature she is; that’s what that secretary did.

And now he hands her a hair ring, is that what it’s called? A bit late with that, isn’t he? Does he expect her to reach up and grab it? Good thing they cut then.

Apparently Canti asks Naota about Ninamori. We never do hear him speak, do we?

Plugging that health drink there; we’ve heard about it.

I guess Ninamori is a few inches taller than Naota; I hadn’t noticed.

And now she’s making another pass at him, I mean she’s really coming on to him, while he’s freaking out.

The mood is ruined and Ninamori is again ticked off when Haruko announces herself, playing her bass guitar. One, two, three, four times she smiles the same smile. And she’s a fine one to talk about being honest with people.

Honestly, though, Ninamori has some issues to work out regarding control, honesty, using positions, using people, using the truth. Naota was talking in the last episode about the lies of Haruko and of Mamimi; they have nothing on Ninamori.

And the whole cuddly furry thing. You ever try to get your arms to go like that? I have; it’s almost possible. Of course no one was stroking my ears at the time.

The next day at school, apparently Naota’s ‘pervert’ friend is now stuck on ‘smooch’. This kid needs to get a life.

Why is Ninamori wearing gym shorts for rehearsal? (like the Gainax boys need a reason)

"My PARENTS are going to see it TOGETHER!" Shouldn’t Naota have dropped it then? Knowing what he knows about her family situation, wouldn’t that have been the thing to do? But no, he had to start that embarrassment one-up game.

When he blurted the truth about her having cheated, that caused a meltdown.

Again with the sirens at Medical Meccanica, and this time the robot came out of her head, which was presaged by the transference of the ears.

This robot is a stomach-like thing as opposed to the hands in previous episodes. Hands came out of a male and a stomach out of a female. I could develop the thought further, but I think I’ll just leave it to y’all’s fertile imaginations. The first thing it does is attack Naota, then Canti.

That bit with the shorts, and the underwear, very dodgy. Yes, she was actually bare-you know what for a couple of frames there.

Haruko sees the robot, and she goes to the attack. She’s smiling, her tongue flopping like Jordan and stuff. She’s enjoying this. She doesn’t have her bass guitar with her, so she uses the closest stringed instrument at hand: the ukulele for the play. They’ll have to get a new one.

We see Naota still on top of Miyaji - and don’t be pervs about that, folks - then suddenly he’s attached to Ninamori again. Maybe he’s trying to dislodge her from the robot.

Haruko whistles for her Vespa, and then the chase music starts, music you might expect to hear in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, the ones by Gene Deitch from the early ‘60’s, not the Hanna-Barbera or Chuck Jones ones.

Suddenly Haruko’s on top of the robot, with her bass guitar, which was on the Vespa.

Canti distracts the robot long enough for Haruko to start swinging. It doesn’t work.

Then the robot eats Takun’s curry. Maybe it was the spoon that got the bad reaction; it swallowed that too, did you notice?

Naota flies off of Ninamori (behave, people), is shoved aside by Haruko, and lands on Miyaji’s car.

I see they give demerits at that school. We can use that at American public schools; one reason my family opted for private / parochial / religious school.

Now Canti swallows the bouncing boy and turns red again. Atomsk time, people.

It finally lets go of Ninamori and has the same reaction she'd had the previous evening. Haruko handles it the same way.

"Thanks… hey, there’s no restroom here! I’ve been tricked!"

When the robot is destroyed the music switches back to that Mary Kate & Ashley stuff. Really, that is what it sounds like, kind of.

And destruction is bad on that school.

There’s Mamimi, playing with her pussy, er, I mean, never mind. But after what she’s done in the previous episode, how do you think it affects her, seeing the explosion at Takun’s school?

And we have Naota explaining what happened afterward with Ninamori and her family. The admission that the glasses were fake has been explained that she can admit to herself that she’s lying, but she still doesn’t think that she has to be honest with others. Well, at least she’s being honest with herself.

The tag for the next episode mentions Ichiro, no doubt a reference to Ichiro Suzuki, formerly of the Dodgers, but now of the Texas Rangers, not that that will do any good. They could trade teams with the Yankees and still figure out a way to lose and lose and lose. You Cubs and Sox fans think you have it bad? At least your teams get to be in the league champonship series every now and then. I’m telling you, we’ve had Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog, Ted Williams, Nolan Ryan, Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, Kevin Brown, we just can’t win! Sorry, a bit of a rant there from a frustrated Rangers fan.

And Tommy Lasorda was the long-time manager of the Dodgers. He hasn’t managed them for the last few years, but he still helps the team wherever he can, as Sandy Koufax has done and no doubt will continue to do, as soon as Fox sells the team. What was the New York Post thinking? Never mind.

Well, that’s it, and I’ll break down Full Swing next time. Thank you, and I’d just like to say, that I’ve never thought about Crystal Pepsi this much in all the time since it first came out put together as I have in this post.

[Anime Guy]

Umm Nftnat, would it be possible to get that last post summarized?

[SSJPabs]

It took me until today to figure out that they're stream-of-conciousness posts. http://forums.toonzone.net/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Much better on the spacing now! I can read 'em! It's just... I've said about all I had to say about FLCL.

[Artimus Gigan]

In the episode one in firestarter preview it makes references to Gameboy


so hence implying that Gameboy has mario, mario has the ability to shoot fire. sooooooo


Mamimi= Mario
Naota= Luigi
Canti= Yoshi
Kamon= Toad
Grandpa= Wizard
Haruko= Toadstool


it all works out...

[lostrune]

Doreamon ('http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1317') is a long-running children's TV series featuring a back-from-the-future (robotic?) large talking cat with no ears (that's why Naota says Doreamon doesn't have ears, in contrast to Mamimi comparing him to Doreamon).

As for the various pop culture references like Crystal Pepsi, in the original, those are actually Japanese pop culture references that we wouldn't get. That's why they replaced them with similar American ones in the dub. So don't ask why such young kids know about Crystal Pepsi which was before their time. :p

[Conekiller]

crystal pepsi was 12 years before 2000? I think not, it was early 90's IIRC.

Unless Crystal Pepsi was marketed in Japan also (and failed there, also) and truly was still lingering on the shelves of some back-water convenice store.

I'm sure the third season of Voyager has aired in Japan, thanks to Trigun we know TNG did!

[Artimus Gigan]

crystal pepsi was 12 years before 2000? I think not, it was early 90's IIRC.

Unless Crystal Pepsi was marketed in Japan also (and failed there, also) and truly was still lingering on the shelves of some back-water convenice store.

I'm sure the third season of Voyager has aired in Japan, thanks to Trigun we know TNG did!
Actualy in the Japanese sub titles the Crystal pepsi part actualy was originaly Cherio.


It was just so that the american audiance could refer to somthing

it's the same thing with Haruko dressing up as a rockstar, they list artists that americans havn't even heard of.

[SwedeRacer]

In the episode one in firestarter preview it makes references to Gameboy


so hence implying that Gameboy has mario, mario has the ability to shoot fire. sooooooo


Mamimi= Mario
Naota= Luigi
Canti= Yoshi
Kamon= Toad
Grandpa= Wizard
Haruko= Toadstool


it all works out...
This thread must officially be titled "Hit And Miss" ;)



If Mario's ability to shoot fire is the only thing your going of here, then you are failing to consider the fact that Luigi can also shoot fire...as can those ivy plant guys and Bowser etc.

[Nftnat]

Okkay, folks. I’m late, for which I apologize. Those who know my other internet stuff can tell you I’m doing pretty good for me. And yes, this is stream of consciousness stuff. Y’all have run out of stuff to say about FLCL, fine; I haven’t. I could have contributed to that monster thread if I’d read faster, but I didn’t. So, here I am. This is the FLCL overanalysis thread, and overanalysis describes me to a t. And I’ve already tried to explain myself back on the previous page. So, there you are.


Anyway, after a couple of side stories focusing on the other two women in Naota’s life, we turn our attention back to the main plot of the series. Also, we see the debut of Our Lord of the Eyebrows.


We open to see that Haruko is putting her skills in swinging to practical use; she’s playing ball, and doing quite well at it. But not for the local team. Not the former team of Naota’s brother Taskun, the current team of Naota himself coached by his grandfather, the Martians. No, she’s playing – and pitching – for a team that has the initial P and pays her off in thousand-yen notes.

And she’s having quite an effect with all of her outside-the-park home runs and her shutout pitching. The score so far, by inning: 9, 6, 13, 7, 9, for a total of 44; as opposed to zip, zilch, nothing, nada, and zero, for a total of a goose egg. She seems to be the only one in shorts; her choice would be my guess.

One of the players mentions that one of her homers escaped the Earth’s gravity; how right he is, as we will see.

How common a practice is this, that the coach wears different colors from the team?

So things have gone poorly for the team since the Medical Meccanica factory opened; very indicative. I wonder if Taskun left at the same time that MM opened up. We can blame MM for everything, can’t we?

Haruko does things with particular viciousness, even when the opposing batter is Naota, if you can call him a batter. There is some logic to his not swinging, though. Four pitches, take your base. And if you get hit, one pitch. Makes sense with most pitchers, but Haruhara Haruko is not most pitchers.

Oh, the game was apparently called after five innings, 44-0.

So what hope do the hometown Martians have? Enter TV Boy / Canti, their secret weapon against Haruko’s team.


Naota’s expecting another ka-bong from Haruko. Not this time.
She mentions that he has to swing the bat, he tenses up, we see the jet symbolizing his departed-for-the-United-States older brother, and we have the titles: Full Swing.


Leading out of the titles, we focus on the electric meter at the Nandaba house.

Apparently, Naota didn’t get a ride with Haruko as she’s already there when he gets in and has been for some time.

She’s really trying to set off his NO through his libido, apparently. Pushing all the buttons she can think of to get him aroused, or just agitated.

I admit I missed this the first and even the second time, but Kamon is plugged in, which should have told me something.

Much has been made on this board about the sexual connotations of her getting a job to help out with the electric bill. Flashback: "You’re the one I saw first."

His favorite food is genetically altered fermented soybeans? I didn’t know that; I didn’t know what his favorite food was at all. It’s not curry; I know that. We don’t hear much about food preferences. Just never comes up.

Sharing a fried egg like that was too much for me too.

He actually swings the bat – on a vending machine.


Enter His Eyebrowness: police Commander Amarao.

Here’s another thing with which I’ve had no experience: I’ve never had a baguette. Anyway, Amarao mentions hitting things with soft stuff, indicating his prefernce, not only for sweet things, but for soft things, as has previously been discussed hereon.

Did anyone else forget that this place is a bakery? Has anyone ever seen any actual baking going on there? Big ovens, massive amounts of flour and other ingredients, any baking activities? Anyway, this is the first time we see any actual business taking place in there. Naota waits on Amarao, if you can call it that.

Again with super spicy curry bread; remember Naota’s friends mentioned that in Episode 1? It’s new.

Amarao talks about the unwanted stuff in life, while we – and they can hear Kamon and Haruko still doing, um, whatever they’re doing. You get the vibe that Amarao knows something about Haruko, like maybe he knows her.

Those eyebrows.

Amarao seems to be quite the professional cop. Don’t they all want to be Joe Friday? The one from the old Dragnet series, you know, Jack Webb. The Man. Literally.

All the same, Naota opines that adults are stupid, no doubt referring to Haruko and Kamon. Amarao? Give him until next episode, you’ll see.


Now Mamimi is saying how mature Naota is. Didn’t we get enough of this in the last episode?

She wants to leave her mark again? Is she afraid she’ll overflow again? Set more fires? But she doesn’t need her game anymore. Maybe she just likes it.


Sunset batting practice. Haruko’s trying to stimulate Naota’s NO again.

I’m, I’m confused about this scene, right after Kamon’s head drops. I mean, Naota’s behind Haruko, Haruko’s behind Naota, they’re facing each other, it’s all confusing to me.

Still trying to get him to swing the bat, and his NO, well, it’s not stirring, but it’s not completely dormant.

Of course the star is flickering. All stars flicker. It’s called clouds; they get in between us and the stars.


Cut to some top secret government agency, something something CP. I don’t know, I can’t read Kanji.

The satellite they’re talking about – the Geosaki satellite – was hit 10 hours ago, so it’s that many hours after the game. It’s an attack satellite, is it?

There’s Amarao, looking at his just-bought super spicy curry bread. That rather attractive blonde next to him apparently has the name Kitsurubami. She seems to know what she’s doing, more than he does.

He doesn’t like super spicy curry bread? Then why did he buy it?

Those eyebrows.


And now Haruko really turns things up on Naota, apparently (we never actually see anything do we? Although that extra layer… ) fornicating with Kamon or whatever. If her intent is to cause trauma to him, sparking his NO, she succeeds. His NO spikes and is detected back at the government installation.

Eyebrows.


Well, a new day, Canti’s first day pitching for the Martians.

Meanwhile, Mamimi is literally wrapped around Naota. That kid gets more action…

‘Haru-san’s’ friendliness toward Mamimi is apparently mutual.

When she hears that Canti is playing she runs for Haruko’s bike so fast she leaves her underwear behind.


Back home, again the meter comes into view. Naota finds Kamon, dead, and the Seiko clock beside him smashed. Time: 1:00

Or is that Kamon behind the curtain? Nah, too clean-shaven. Although that is his voice. And Naota seems to think it’s him.

Now the time is 11:52, what’s that all about?

Remember the ‘relationship’ question in Episode 1? Naota asks about it better than the other guys did imo; I think that "what kind of relationship?" is better than "what do you mean?!?" It gets the same answer, though; mouth to mouth.

Miyu-Miyu goes 'off with her head' on Haruko, very bloodily so.

Again with the meter.


Back at the game, Haruko puts Canti out of the way early, and the carnage is even worse than before. The score of Haruko’s team, by innings: 14, 17, 21.

Mamimi and coach Grandpa are both shocked, for different reasons. They scream, until they notice who they’re screaming with, and who they’re holding. They don’t like each other; they really don’t.

But the game is called on account of evacuation. Cue the blimp.


Back at the house, Amarao shows up again. Apparently he’s investigating the murder, if there is a murder.


Kamon is 47. 10 years ago his job as assistant editor (assistant editor in chief in Episode 1) of a subculture magazine came to an end. It’s been a month since the series began.

Amarao keeps dumping the sugar into the tea. He gets it up to 7 cubes with an 8th in his hand when he stops. I prefer to add the sugar - and saccharine - while the tea's hot, and I make it by the gallon, but that's just me. Well, my family, actually.

Again with Haruko’s ‘swing’. We seem to keep coming back to swinging, and I don’t mean in a Playboy sense. Well, maybe I do, but not in that way.

Naota accidentally spills the tea with all that sugar in it. Spilling the sweetness, representing loss of innocence that accompanies adulthood, has been covered on the other thread.

Competing with his father for Haruko. How Oedipan.

Eyebrows. What about eyebrows? Amarao notices Naota’s interest, although with those eyebrows, John L. Lewis would be interested. Anyway, Amarao files away Naota’s interest for use at a later time.

After Amarao leaves, Naota unplugs the robot Kamon.


The blimp is still announcing the evacuation. ‘No fooly cooly.’


Naota goes looking for, what? I don’t know. But he does find something: the real Kamon, almost a skeleton by now, covered in roaches.


Mamimi might have been trying to care for Canti’s wounds. By now she’s bold enough to be on top (no, not like that!) of the one she worships. She invokes some sort of millennium end of the world predictions. I can identify with the Y2K people; I bought into the 1988 theory. I was wrong too.


So was Kamon dead? I don’t know, but Naota seems to have revived him. ‘Just add water’ comes to mind.

Cut to Amarao explaining NO. The scene of Kamon is easily recognizable: "Her family is, poor, would you say?"

More tooniness follows, like when Haruko crashes her bike into the bathroom (hey, there IS a bathtub in there!). If she has a driver’s license it should be revoked, although who would make THAT stick?

Um, when did Naota get this advice from Amarao? I thought we were flashing back to after the ‘death’ of Kamon, but he’s advising him during the evacuation warnings. It’s like half of this episode is a bit out of sync.

Nice anime line. I’m still basically a noob at this anime stuff, although I am learning. Still haven’t tried any of the Gundam series, though; hey, I only have so much time, people!

Before Naota gives Amarao’s message to Haruko, she knows what he’s going to say, and even how he’s going to say it.


That satellite is a bomb? Apparently.

So Haruhara Haruko’s real name is Raharu Haruha. Ha. Ru. Haru ha. Ruha ru. Ha ruha. Ru haru. Haruha. Ruharu. Raharu Haruhara Haruko. Haruharuharuharuharuharu- *slap* Thanks, I needed that.

Mamimi includes herself in that pic of Haruko or whatever her name is. But who took the picture? I thought Mamimi was the resident photographer, although how smart do you have to be to work a camera these days.

Do you think they’ll cancel school tomorrow… well, duh! The only thing that would stop school from being canceled is there wouldn’t be anyone to cancel school, which is a distinct possibility. I’m telling you, something’s not right with that girl, but you already knew that.


Now Haruko and Naota have traveled to the top of the Medical Meccanica building.

Haruko brought along that hair ring from the bathroom. I don’t think it’s the same one Kamon offered to Ninamori, though; that one was a different color, wasn’t it?

And now she’s digging into his head. I didn’t know that was possible. There’s a lot of impossible stuff going on.

"Not from behind!" "If I rush, it won’t pop!" Oh, the dodginess.

By the way, how are they seeing this back at the government installation? Do they have cameras everywhere, satellites and like that?

Also previously covered on this thread and / or the other one is the nosebleeds, how in other anime (Tenchi) it’s the males who automatically get nosebleeds when aroused, how here all of the females get explosive nosebleeds, how they’re all impressed at the guitar, how the guitar represents… oh, forget it already!

Part of the satellite transforms into a pitching arm to deliver the rest of it which transforms into the shape of a baseball. It’s a sinker.

Again with Ta-kun.

I always appreciate a good breaking down of the fourth wall – talking to the audience, that is. It’s a proud Warner tradition. "Depending on what he does, to all you people out there, sayonara!" Or words to that effect.

The Atomsk effect again, and Naota swings.

Suddenly, Mamimi is not happy with Naota. She’s not happy that he swung the bat; she could count on him not swinging the bat. Now that he swings, he’s no longer to be controlled by her. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Again with the music, the Mary Kate & Ashley music (I’ll call it that if I want to), and Haruko’s giving Naota a ride home. She laughs like the banshee she is.


Oh, the satellite was successfully deflected, and is now en route to galaxies unknown.

And now it’s not ‘eyebrows’, it’s ‘eyebrow’. One of them falls.

Kitsurubami is shocked. Oh, like she didn’t know they were fake? Like anyone didn't know?

The tag for the next episode mentions John Woo, which pretty much tells you how it’s going to be. I found the nose hair line uproarious, although as a male I get this feeling I should be insulted at the thinness of the male hormone factor. Well, I’ve never claimed to have thick hormones myself. Have any of you? Oh, and the most quoted line of the series, possibly one of the most quoted lines in all of anime. Do I really need to repeat it? I didn't think so.
All of that in Brittle Bullet. See you next time.

[Masamune]

This is definantly going to seem insignificant, but...WHAT DOES "FOOLY COOLY" MEAN?! Even Haruko asks once what it means. I've had my suspicions, but one can never know what the creator was thinking.

[sandwichman]

Fooly Cooly is probably just another name for N.O. Mamimi says in Brittle Bullet, "Is it Furi Kuri again?" When referring to Naota's trigger thingy.

[wrenchien]

i finally fell off the rocker, and bought the manga to compare..

strange thing is, i really didn't expect naota at the end of the story to try to leave earth on a vespa, or there might have been two raharus? also the hand monster got a lot more time in the manga than the dude with the eyebrows. and much suprised i was, that the monster in ninamori's mind came out multiple times and helped in the final battle.. a real different path the manga took from the anime.

also , a very strange ending in the manga with all the cats as naota rubs off his fingernails to the point they're a little bloody but he takes off eventually..

anyway, makes a great read. :D