Naota Nandaba is the protagonist of FLCL. 12 years old, currently residing in the small town of Mabase and recently having lost his brother to the promise of baseball glory in America, Naota is bored. Mind numbing, head aching, grade school bored. This is not his problem though. If Naota were simply bored he’d just be every other young kid in a small town, no, Naota’s real problem is that his brother left. When his brother left it left a void in Naota’s life as well as those of his father, grandfather, and Mamimi. Not knowing any better and realizing that he can’t actually fix things by taking his brother’s place, Naota is half-thrust and half-jumps into the roles that his brother used to fill for all of these people, unsuccessfully. While Naota thinks he truly can take his brother’s place for these people, he can’t and fails to see that he’s only delaying the inevitability that they’ll have to face that fact that Tasuku (Naota’s brother) is gone eventually. Amidst the confusion and turmoil created by the consequences caused by his attempted emulation of Tasuku Naota is also trying to deal with his brother’s departure (he obviously misses Tasuku but attempts to cover any of this up except occasionally around Mamimi or Haruko). His interactions with Haruko often have Haruko playing the matronly/older brother role comforting, encouraging and praising Naota and Naota as himself instead of his Tasuku personality. The whole point of Naota’s character is to show that trying to grow up to early, for whatever reason, is silly.
Naota and Mamimi: Naota knows Mamimi because she and Tasuku used to date. Now that Tasuku has left Naota has filled in as a sort of pseudo-boyfriend for Mamimi (Mamimi’s take on the whole thing is explained in a previous post). “Dating” a high schooler has colored Naota’s perception of women however as he isn’t really shaken by Mamimi being physically intimate with him but they aren’t personally intimate at all (Naota doesn’t really understand Mamimi’s pain over Tasuku’s departure, especially initially when he tells her that Tasuku has an American girlfriend probably under the assumption that she’ll move on once there’s no hope for them) and he doesn’t know about people bullying her. This isn’t to imply that Mamimi and Naota aren’t close, but its more like a brother/sister dynamic rather than a boyfriend/girlfriend one with the exception of the physical aspect. Naota displays embarrassment when any sort of non-teasing physical activity occurs between female characters he has feelings for (when Ninamori rests her head on his shoulder he tells her to go home and he blushes profusely and gets flustered when Haruko insinuates she’s going to sleep in his bed and half jokingly asks him to have sex with her). Confused, he tries to kiss Mamimi after she refuses to go on a date with him (after gaining some self confidence by saving the city with his guitar and mistakenly thinking Mamimi is impressed and also jealous of Haruko when in reality she’s realizing she’ll have to move on and is sad that Naota is sort of ignoring her as a friend (she doesn’t have anyone else)). His inability to understand that Mamimi doesn’t just want a boyfriend to fill Tasuku’s role, that she liked Tasuku and is using Naota to help dull the pain of the extreme loneliness she’s feeling, and that physical closeness doesn’t equate to a personal relationship give us an insight into the fact that Naota is truly still a kid and doesn’t understand many of the aspects of “adult” (high school but adultish compared to him) relationships. This is important because he is just a kid and has been thrust into an adulty world of relationships which he has to learn his way our of. Because he‘s just a kid. Which is the whole point. But I’ll get to that later.
Naota and his father: Naota’s father used to be some sort of editor (I could look up the exact title but I’m not going to, wiki it if you really care) for a magazine about three months before the show begins. Presumably he opened a bakery after Tasuku left in order to be able to take care of Naota (you never find out what happened to their mom) and in the process has gone slightly stir crazy. Acting like a child, publishing a ridiculous (but accurate) “mini-zine of justice!” and treating Naota like someone much older than he is (like Tasuku), Naota’s father hasn’t handled the transition from being fairly literarily influential (major editor, there’s also mention of a book he also wrote about Evangelion) or the absence of two members of his family well. Naota attempts to keep him under control (often telling him to “stop acting like such a child”), but he’s only a kid and has difficulty. Naota’s father aids and abets Naota’s attempt to fill in for Tasuku by making ridiculous assumptions about him (for instance that he’s doing the “Fooly Cooly” (its implied that Fooly Cooly is something sexual in this instance) with Mamimi. And Haruko, even though Naota and Haruko hadn’t even known each other for a day). He lets Naota run off with Haruko and miss school with no resistance (although whether this is him being a nonexistent parent or him seeing that this will help Naota get over Tasuku/that Naota is in love with Haruko is questionable, although its less likely that it’s the second option). He makes no attempt to keep track of Naota’s whereabouts (he hangs out with Mamimi under the bridge frequently, goes off and fights robots, etc) and is for all practical purposes nonexistent as a parent. This forces Naota out of the child role and into a sort of self sufficient/caretaker sort of role. This is another instance where he has to learn that he isn’t Tasuku: he’s just a kid.
Naota and his grandfather: Same as the dad, except with baseball. There’s not very much evidence outside of the baseball game and his grandfather’s general attitude lining up with the dad’s because the grandpa is a very minor character. I just thought I’d mention it because it does exist.
Naota and Haruko: For all practical purposes Haruko serves as Naota’s surrogate Tasuku as well as an object of a sort of worshipful romantic love (the kind that would never GO anywhere but is still love nonetheless, like the admiration for a big brother except transformed into a romantic sorta thing). She takes him on trips (they go on her moped multiple times, once by the ocean and then later they go on an extended trip which causes Naota to miss a significant amount of school). Begrudingly, Naota allows her to sleep in Tasuku’s bed at night, keeping Naota company (not the sexual kind), talking and stuff. She makes Naota lunch and takes care of the bakery when he’s away (taking on a lot (but not all) of his Tasuku-persona’s responsibilities involving his dad which frees Naota up (a little bit) to be more of a kid). Despite his baseball prowess, its clear that Tasuku never taught Naota to actually “swing the bat” (it has a number of meanings, but here it’s a pretty literal one). Masterful at the game herself, Haruko gives Naota impromptu batting practice one night ( a lesson I’ll go into shortly). Haruko does all the things for Naota that disappeared with Tasuku which lets him revert back to the little brother role sometimes, though not entirely, and be a kid; and Naota responds to this by treating her like Tasuku. Unintentionally, Naota says Tasuku’s name when he sees her swing her bass for the first time (reminding him of his brother playing baseball). After her departure with Kanti and sudden return, Naota starts crying when he’s alone with her, asking her why she had to leave (clearly meaning not only her, but Tasuku as well: Naota is just a kid after all and doesn’t understand why his brother would abandon him). Her proxying of Tasuku is part of the reason Naota tell Haruko, “I love you” at the end of the series. It acts as a sort of closure for Naota, admitting that he loves his brother and misses him as well as understanding that its foolish to try to replace him. Romantically, he does have feelings for Haruko as well and by this point has learned that despite the consequences you should do/say what you feel because you may not get a chance to at a late time (he’s learned this from Tasuku leaving, then Haruko’s sudden departure and return as well as Haruko’s lifestyle in general). This is one of the two major lessons (at least that I see) Naota learns over the course of the show. Through his unsuccessful efforts to replace Tasuku, tumultuous interactions with Mamimi (especially her rejection of his attempted advances), Tasuku and Haruko’s departure, as well as all the crazy supernatural events in the show he’s learned that you need to just let things be and roll with them. “Whatever happens, happens” (in the words of Spike Spiegel) and that’s not a bad thing. In order to enjoy life for the wonderful thing he comes to learn that it is you need to just sit back and let it drive while enjoying the scenery and traveling companions it dumps on you. In her response to her own question of whether Naota would like to accompany her in her chase of Atomsk, Haruko illustrates the other thing Naota learns (which sort of goes with the first one) namely that he’s “still a kid.” Naota, in his attempts to care for all of those left reeling in the wake of Tasuku’s departure has, in his eyes (although in reality he hasn’t) cast of his childhood in order to be his more adult brother. Haruko shows, and tells, him that he is in fact still a kid and should enjoy his childhood while its still available for enjoyment. She tells him that they’ll get Atomsk “next time” imply that there’s still plenty of time to do adult things later on but that for now he should just have fun being a kid. FLCL isn’t really about growing up (like so many people I’ve heard claim it is), Naota matures a little (telling Haruko he loves her) but the area he matures in really just lead him back to his nature as a child (again, sort of growing up but not significantly). Therefore I say that FLCL, for Naota at least, is less about growing up and more about learning that its okay to let growing up happen at its own pace and that you don’t need to be in a hurry to get anywhere you’re going in life.
Naota and Ninamori: Ninamori is the actual love interest in FLCL. Yes Naota loves Haruko in some sort of weird brotherly love/older babysitter-school kid crush thing and I have no doubt that he genuinely loves Haruko. But seeing as how that’s an impossibility considering the fact that up until perhaps the last two minutes or so of the show Haruko is using Naota for her own ends and only after she sees that A) Naota’s love is pure and B) pure love makes for the most powerful channel to N.O. (allowing Atomsk to come through in his true form) does she become genuinely affectionate for Naota, Ninamori is the only love interest with a possibility of panning out. Not only does she have feelings for Naota (as well as he for her although both are hesitant to show it, especially Naota) but she’s similar to Naota in many ways. Her parents are detached and often embarrass her (although both of these things are taken to a much larger extreme than they are for Naota). Ninamori rigs the votes for the class play (for personal reasons) but also so that her and Naota will be co-starring giving her more of a reason to interact with him. She displays genuine affection for Naota, especially when he begrudgingly reciprocates by allowing her to sleep over/jokingly chatting with her (before the accident with Haruko’s bike)/ apologizes for his father’s magazine exposing her father’s scandal, and Ninamori displays jealousy towards Mamimi and Haruko (asking if Haruko sleeps on the top bunk of Naota’s bed every night, saying Mamimi “doesn’t look very bright” after Naoa’s friends tell her that Mamimi is “Naota’s wife”). In the very last scene we see that Ninamori and Naota’s friendship has blossomed (she does the thing Mamimi does when she picks his drink before he can and it’s a kind he doesn’t like because he’s still a kid). Ninamor and Naota also share the fact that they’re in some sort of deep emotional pain (Naota over Tasuku and Ninamori over her parents issues (she says she told her parents how she felt and then cried in one episode) and try to mask it by acting more adult/aloof (Naota’s always saying that there’s nothing to do and that everything is no big deal, Ninamori mimicks the second one whenever her parents issues are brought up and tries to brush off the issue by claiming that “at least she has a lot of money” and is a “Nuevo-rich princess (which is something her father’s secretary, who she sees as someone who does “adult” things, because of the secretary’s involvement with her father, said to her and by mimicking it she’s trying to be adult)).
Showing posts with label The Deep End? But Squints Can't Swim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Deep End? But Squints Can't Swim. Show all posts
Jan 25, 2011
Dec 22, 2010
Pillow Talk, Part II
Haruhara Haruko:
Haruko is the Vespa/Rabbit riding, Rickenbacker bass wielding, “splendiferous house keeper at Ta-Kun’s house,” who’s “…at least twenty years old” (according to Mamimi) and happens to be the main catalyst for events in the story. The main events of the plot start when Haruko runs over Naota with her Vespa (its actually a Japanese brand called a Rabbit but in the show it’s referred to as a Vespa, so I’ll be referring to it as such), gives him mouth-to-mouth, decides she’d better hit him again when she realizes he isn’t dead, hits him in the head with her left handed Rickenbacker bass, and shakes him stating that “it“ won‘t come out. This causes a bump to form later on Naota’s head (the “it” Haruko was referring to) from which the first two robots (Canti and a hand monster) spring. As for why Haruko is doing all of this, well…..
She’s an alien. A galaxy space patrol officer to be exact, supposedly on the tail of an “astral being named Atomsk” who apparently has so much NO “he can steal whole start systems.” The things is, Atomsk has been captured by a shady organization named Medical Mechanica (more on them later). The other things is, Haruko isn’t tracking Atomsk because she wants to capture him, it turns out she’s in love with him (supposedly, her actions raise some questions as to her true motives). So Haruko chases Atomsk around the universe and presumably does battle with Medical Mechanica along the way (we never really get a history of Haruko vs. MM but its pretty safe to assume based on some off hand comments made throughout the show). Then she comes to Earth. And as stated above, meets Naota and our story takes off. Haruko’s motive’s aren’t really clear up until the end. At first she appears to have come to Earth to help protect it from MM (not the case AT ALL). It’s implied that Haruko has been to Earth before because Amarao (who will be referred to as Eyebrows from now on) implies that he knows her multiple times (he talks to Naota about what a big mistake it is to get involved with her) in the baseball episode especially, claims to know her real name, says he wants to impress a girl that he hasn’t seen for a long time (Haruko is the only one he could be realistically be talking about), and Haruko says his guitar is small, “as usual” (in the fifth episode) and that perhaps what’s happening with Naota has happened before on Earth with Eyebrows (its clear that Eyebrows was once/still is in love with Haruko and that she doesn’t reciprocate those feelings) although if it was there’s a good chance it wasn’t successful (Haruko tells Naota repeatedly that “his head is the only one that works” and when she pulls Eyebrows guitar out of his head its small and ineffectual) which leaves a lot of things unexplained (how earth is still even there for one, but I’ll deal with more of this later when I get into the plot). Haruko clearly hates MM, although its more for imprisoning Atomsk than for what they’re doing on a larger scale: almost all of her actions are motivated by her desire to free Atomsk. She often manipulates Naota in order to further her own plans and uses other people, like Naota’s dad, to get Naota to do what she wants. However, despite her plotting, many of the things that trigger robots to emerge from Naota’s head occur without Haruko’s interference. Much of the above needs to be explained so…
Haruko, Atomsk, and the Channel to N.O.:
Basically Haruko can open a portal using “the left and right brain’s distinct thought processes” that is “capable of pulling things through from light years away.” This is the explanation they give for the robots that emerge from Naota’s head (I’ll get into what I think exactly causes them later). The idea behind this is to pull through robots made by MM until Atomsk appears (either as a robot since he’s imprisoned by MM or to keep MM from accomplishing their goals: its never definitively stated whether Haruko knows Atomsk is imprisoned in Canti). Haruko is capable of doing battle with the MM robots that come out of Naota’s head but she never actually defeats one without Canti’s help and while in the earlier fights its more of a partnership once it comes to the fourth episode its clear that Haruko can’t do any real damage to the robot. Its often unclear how much Haruko knows about the portal. She says early on that the channel is imperfect, when in fact it turns out that its capable of pulling Atomsk through in his true form. Eyebrows tells her that when Canti turns red, the red version is Atomsk; she responds to this in an odd manner. She gets extremely angry although we can’t be certain if its because she didn’t know this information, if she’s angry at what Eyebrows is insinuating (the fact that Atomsk can in fact be contained inside a MM robot and what that implies (that if she gains those powers she may still not be able to completely be invulnerable from MM)), or if she’s angry that Eyebrows is stupid enough to insinuate that a robot is Atomsk’s true form (it shows that he thinks Atomsk has a humanoid form, I’ll discuss whether or not that’s correct later). She also is unsure that Naota is the correct channel for the portal, shown through her attempt to use his dad’s head (which doesn’t work). Despite the fact that her exact knowledge about the portal remains somewhat of a mystery we do see that Haruko manipulates Naota in order to get the robots to come out. We see in the last episode that she’s gained his trust in order to feed him to the terminal core to make Atomsk appear (presumably to save Earth or wreak vengeance on MM). Haruko also exploits Naota in the baseball episode by making him believe she’s in a relationship with his dad (which just turns out to be a robot of hers) in order to make Naota overflow with jealousy and another robot to emerge. The fact that Haruko manipulates Naota leads us to the conclusion that she believes that if the situation becomes dire enough (the robots become more powerful as the emotions that cause them become more potent) Atomsk will step in (leading us down the line of reasoning once again that Canti is Atomsk considering he is the most powerful being pulled through outside of the actual Atomsk which is pulled through by Naota’s true love for Haruko and his brother but since Mamimi’s love for Tasuku and jealousy of Tasuku’s new girlfriend is clearly the second most powerful emotion that overflows in the series). However she seems to believe that lust will bring the true Atomsk through. This is why she flirts and is overtly sexual with Naota throughout the series: when she ties to make him jealous by seemingly having sex with his dad for example. She becomes more and more overtly sexual, pulling his guitar (in an extremely double entendre filled scene) out from inside him as well as trying to have sex with him in the second to last episode (they’re in bed, she’s wearing a slip, on top of him, yeah). She doesn’t know what love (what truly brings out Atomsk in my opinion) is, only lust (which she has for Atomsk, she wants his power more than anything as we find out at the end when she battles Naota for it). Its evident from conversations Eyebrows has about Haruko as well as through his interactions with a female member of his team he only understands relationships in an immature lustful manner.
Haruko learns some humanity:
Haruko clearly plays to the fact that Naota misses his brother and sort of fills in that roll for him. During the first battle on the bridge when Naota sees her swing her guitar for the first time he says his brother’s name (in the original Japanese, not the dub). Haruko teaches Naota to “swing the bat” (literally and figuratively) which his brother never really did (its stated multiple times in the baseball episode that Naota doesn’t swing the bat when playing baseball; he doesn’t swing the bat when it comes to other things like Mamimi either (Mamimi also claims that Naota isn’t one to swing the bat)). Haruko also takes Naota riding on her moped by the beach which he says he’s never done and clearly enjoyed. There’s a particularly poignant scene in the last episode after Haruko returns when Naota hugs her and starts crying and asking why she left (clearly he’s talking about not just Haruko but his brother). Haruko one of the only characters that treats Naota like the kid that he is and doesn’t expect him to be his brother. She tells him multiple times that he shouldn’t come with her because he’s still just a kid (and has lots of life ahead of him to experience). Haruko does come to gain some humanity and care for Naota to come degree. This manifests itself in her taking him on a vacation of sorts when she returns from space in the last episode (this can be argued as manipulation but I think it can be both at the same time, I think its motivated a little bit by each factor). When Naota gains Atomsk’s power at the end and then confesses his love to Haruko, Atomsk emerges in his true from Haruko sees that Atomsk emerges through the portal when love overflows. She then acts like an older brother to Naota telling him that he shouldn’t come with her, that he’s still a kid and that he’ll get it next time (talking about being in love). This compassion from Haruko shows that she’s gone beyond simply manipulating Naota by acting as a brother stand in and truly cares about him.
Haruko is the Vespa/Rabbit riding, Rickenbacker bass wielding, “splendiferous house keeper at Ta-Kun’s house,” who’s “…at least twenty years old” (according to Mamimi) and happens to be the main catalyst for events in the story. The main events of the plot start when Haruko runs over Naota with her Vespa (its actually a Japanese brand called a Rabbit but in the show it’s referred to as a Vespa, so I’ll be referring to it as such), gives him mouth-to-mouth, decides she’d better hit him again when she realizes he isn’t dead, hits him in the head with her left handed Rickenbacker bass, and shakes him stating that “it“ won‘t come out. This causes a bump to form later on Naota’s head (the “it” Haruko was referring to) from which the first two robots (Canti and a hand monster) spring. As for why Haruko is doing all of this, well…..
She’s an alien. A galaxy space patrol officer to be exact, supposedly on the tail of an “astral being named Atomsk” who apparently has so much NO “he can steal whole start systems.” The things is, Atomsk has been captured by a shady organization named Medical Mechanica (more on them later). The other things is, Haruko isn’t tracking Atomsk because she wants to capture him, it turns out she’s in love with him (supposedly, her actions raise some questions as to her true motives). So Haruko chases Atomsk around the universe and presumably does battle with Medical Mechanica along the way (we never really get a history of Haruko vs. MM but its pretty safe to assume based on some off hand comments made throughout the show). Then she comes to Earth. And as stated above, meets Naota and our story takes off. Haruko’s motive’s aren’t really clear up until the end. At first she appears to have come to Earth to help protect it from MM (not the case AT ALL). It’s implied that Haruko has been to Earth before because Amarao (who will be referred to as Eyebrows from now on) implies that he knows her multiple times (he talks to Naota about what a big mistake it is to get involved with her) in the baseball episode especially, claims to know her real name, says he wants to impress a girl that he hasn’t seen for a long time (Haruko is the only one he could be realistically be talking about), and Haruko says his guitar is small, “as usual” (in the fifth episode) and that perhaps what’s happening with Naota has happened before on Earth with Eyebrows (its clear that Eyebrows was once/still is in love with Haruko and that she doesn’t reciprocate those feelings) although if it was there’s a good chance it wasn’t successful (Haruko tells Naota repeatedly that “his head is the only one that works” and when she pulls Eyebrows guitar out of his head its small and ineffectual) which leaves a lot of things unexplained (how earth is still even there for one, but I’ll deal with more of this later when I get into the plot). Haruko clearly hates MM, although its more for imprisoning Atomsk than for what they’re doing on a larger scale: almost all of her actions are motivated by her desire to free Atomsk. She often manipulates Naota in order to further her own plans and uses other people, like Naota’s dad, to get Naota to do what she wants. However, despite her plotting, many of the things that trigger robots to emerge from Naota’s head occur without Haruko’s interference. Much of the above needs to be explained so…
Haruko, Atomsk, and the Channel to N.O.:
Basically Haruko can open a portal using “the left and right brain’s distinct thought processes” that is “capable of pulling things through from light years away.” This is the explanation they give for the robots that emerge from Naota’s head (I’ll get into what I think exactly causes them later). The idea behind this is to pull through robots made by MM until Atomsk appears (either as a robot since he’s imprisoned by MM or to keep MM from accomplishing their goals: its never definitively stated whether Haruko knows Atomsk is imprisoned in Canti). Haruko is capable of doing battle with the MM robots that come out of Naota’s head but she never actually defeats one without Canti’s help and while in the earlier fights its more of a partnership once it comes to the fourth episode its clear that Haruko can’t do any real damage to the robot. Its often unclear how much Haruko knows about the portal. She says early on that the channel is imperfect, when in fact it turns out that its capable of pulling Atomsk through in his true form. Eyebrows tells her that when Canti turns red, the red version is Atomsk; she responds to this in an odd manner. She gets extremely angry although we can’t be certain if its because she didn’t know this information, if she’s angry at what Eyebrows is insinuating (the fact that Atomsk can in fact be contained inside a MM robot and what that implies (that if she gains those powers she may still not be able to completely be invulnerable from MM)), or if she’s angry that Eyebrows is stupid enough to insinuate that a robot is Atomsk’s true form (it shows that he thinks Atomsk has a humanoid form, I’ll discuss whether or not that’s correct later). She also is unsure that Naota is the correct channel for the portal, shown through her attempt to use his dad’s head (which doesn’t work). Despite the fact that her exact knowledge about the portal remains somewhat of a mystery we do see that Haruko manipulates Naota in order to get the robots to come out. We see in the last episode that she’s gained his trust in order to feed him to the terminal core to make Atomsk appear (presumably to save Earth or wreak vengeance on MM). Haruko also exploits Naota in the baseball episode by making him believe she’s in a relationship with his dad (which just turns out to be a robot of hers) in order to make Naota overflow with jealousy and another robot to emerge. The fact that Haruko manipulates Naota leads us to the conclusion that she believes that if the situation becomes dire enough (the robots become more powerful as the emotions that cause them become more potent) Atomsk will step in (leading us down the line of reasoning once again that Canti is Atomsk considering he is the most powerful being pulled through outside of the actual Atomsk which is pulled through by Naota’s true love for Haruko and his brother but since Mamimi’s love for Tasuku and jealousy of Tasuku’s new girlfriend is clearly the second most powerful emotion that overflows in the series). However she seems to believe that lust will bring the true Atomsk through. This is why she flirts and is overtly sexual with Naota throughout the series: when she ties to make him jealous by seemingly having sex with his dad for example. She becomes more and more overtly sexual, pulling his guitar (in an extremely double entendre filled scene) out from inside him as well as trying to have sex with him in the second to last episode (they’re in bed, she’s wearing a slip, on top of him, yeah). She doesn’t know what love (what truly brings out Atomsk in my opinion) is, only lust (which she has for Atomsk, she wants his power more than anything as we find out at the end when she battles Naota for it). Its evident from conversations Eyebrows has about Haruko as well as through his interactions with a female member of his team he only understands relationships in an immature lustful manner.
Haruko learns some humanity:
Haruko clearly plays to the fact that Naota misses his brother and sort of fills in that roll for him. During the first battle on the bridge when Naota sees her swing her guitar for the first time he says his brother’s name (in the original Japanese, not the dub). Haruko teaches Naota to “swing the bat” (literally and figuratively) which his brother never really did (its stated multiple times in the baseball episode that Naota doesn’t swing the bat when playing baseball; he doesn’t swing the bat when it comes to other things like Mamimi either (Mamimi also claims that Naota isn’t one to swing the bat)). Haruko also takes Naota riding on her moped by the beach which he says he’s never done and clearly enjoyed. There’s a particularly poignant scene in the last episode after Haruko returns when Naota hugs her and starts crying and asking why she left (clearly he’s talking about not just Haruko but his brother). Haruko one of the only characters that treats Naota like the kid that he is and doesn’t expect him to be his brother. She tells him multiple times that he shouldn’t come with her because he’s still just a kid (and has lots of life ahead of him to experience). Haruko does come to gain some humanity and care for Naota to come degree. This manifests itself in her taking him on a vacation of sorts when she returns from space in the last episode (this can be argued as manipulation but I think it can be both at the same time, I think its motivated a little bit by each factor). When Naota gains Atomsk’s power at the end and then confesses his love to Haruko, Atomsk emerges in his true from Haruko sees that Atomsk emerges through the portal when love overflows. She then acts like an older brother to Naota telling him that he shouldn’t come with her, that he’s still a kid and that he’ll get it next time (talking about being in love). This compassion from Haruko shows that she’s gone beyond simply manipulating Naota by acting as a brother stand in and truly cares about him.
Dec 13, 2010
Pillow Talk, Part Un
This may not be the "best" anime I've seen, but its without a doubt the second best and my personal favorite. Here's my take on the not-that-confusing greatness that is FLCL.
Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers. Honestly it won't make much of a difference if you know the plot before you see it, but still in the words of an animated lion, be prepared. I’m going to go through this on a character by character basis and then do the plot and some other random stuff if I haven’t hit on it by then.
Mamimi:
Samejima Mamimi has had it rough before we meet her in FLCL. Her parents are divorced (she reminisces about school plays saying that even though they were stupid, those were happy memories because her parents went to see them together), she gets bullied in school as well as having no friends (we never see her with any other people outside of Naota and when Naota tells her over the phone to go out with her friends she just stands under the bridge and looks dejected, as for the bullying we see her standing in a river in one episode and one of Naota’s friends says he saw some girls bullying her the other day), she doesn’t like school (she frequently cuts class to hang out by the bridge), and her boyfriend just went to America. Mamimi is not in the best state of mind as we see through a couple of mental deteriorations throughout the series. First, in “Fire starter” its implied that Mamimi is starting at least some, if not all of the fires that have been suspected to be arson around the city. The hints to this are somewhat subtle but there are two major ones. First Mamimi has been calling the robot that came out of Naota’s head Canti, which is in reference to a videogame she’s been playing called fire starter in which you are tasked by the God of Black Flame to burn a fictional city of demons that is ever expanding without completely destroying it (because if you do you won’t have a place to live) in order to prevent if from explanding and taking over the whole world. The god, Canti, has black wings and Mamimi see’s Canti with black wings flying one day and is convinced that he is the God of the Black Flames. During the episode there have been a number of fires that are suspected to be arson. Mamimi and Naota are walking across a bridge later, after Mamimi is seen in a river and one of Naota’s friends says he saw her being bullied recently, when her fire starter game falls out of her pocket. Naota later finds her in a ring of cigarettes by the burnt out husk of her old school and tries to giver Mamimi her game back and she says she doesn’t need it anymore, after which she goes to Canti and asks for his kiss and his absolution. Now when you combine this with the second big hint, which is that during a voice over when Naota is talking about the fire starter game you hear a policeman introduced earlier in the episode is says that they know Mamimi is has been committing the arsons. From the fact that Mamimi sees Canti as a sort of God of arson we can infer that by asking for his absolution she meant she was asking for his approval of her work. As to why she’s committing arson there’s a few possible explanations. In my opinion, Canti is a manifestation of Mamimi’s feelings for Naota’s brother Tasku (more on why later, just roll with it for now) and since she sees him as the God from her videogame she’s trying to win back his approval by committing arson (hence her asking for his absolution with a kiss). As to why Mamimi projects her thoughts from her videogame onto Canti (outside of the fact that he actually has black wings throughout the majority of the episode) stems from how Mamimi and Tasuku met. During the episode its explained that there was a fire at the elementary school Mamimi and Tasuku attended. Mamimi claims that Canti was the one that saved her the night of the fire as well (really I think it was Tasuku since who exactly she is talking about in the sentence is a little vague and it would have been extremely unlikely that Canti was there without some very convoluted theories) which reinforces the fact that he is supposed to be a manifestation of Tasuku. Anyways, Mamimi says something to the effect that she used to wish the school would go away before she met Tasuku (I haven’t found conclusive evidence as to whether she burned it down or not) and now, even though it burned down the ashes remain (symbolic of her relationship with Tasuku but more on that soon). Although later in the episode, during a battle with a medical mechanica robot, a projectile and explosion cause the ashes to scatter and the wreckage to completely disappear which foreshadows some later events. Fire starter is the first episode where we really get into Mamimi’s relationship with Tasuku, speaking of which…..
Mamimi’s relationship with Taskuku. Taskuku is Naota’s older brother who has gone to America to play baseball. He used to date Mamimi: however we find out in the first episode that he hasn’t contacted Mamimi (in probably the best scene in the whole anime, in my humble opinion: just had to mention how awesome the bridge scene is) and that he even has an American girlfriend. When Naota tells her this, we get a fairly odd response from Mamimi. She starts clutching her head, stating that she is going to overflow and after doing so passes out. As soon as this happens the first of the robots emerges form Naota’s heard (this is actually the only time that two robots emerge, which is significant but I’ll get into that in another section). I’m going to go into my theory behind the robots later but briefly, they’re manifestations of strong emotions of people that they’ve been keeping bottled up. The fact that Canti emerges when Mamimi “overflows,” as well as the fact that the two times he “activates” (watch the show and you’ll know what I mean) and Atomsk’s symbol appears on him Naota says Tasku’s name (he also says it when Haruko hits Canti with her bass (in the English subtitles of the Japanese voiced version)). However, he doesn’t do anything brotherly towards Naota (that’s another character) except protect him, which more cements him as a Mamimi’s version of Tasuku and speaking of protecting we get into the next facet of the Mamimi/Tasuku relationship which is that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector. As we discussed earlier, Mamimi is being bullied at the time that the show is going on. She says that Canti is the protector of the weak in “Fire Starter” and also claims that she is the protector of the weak when she rescues a kitten. From the fact that Mamimi is now being bullied and that she calls Canti the protector of the weak we can infer that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her kind of protector: however Tasuku clearly was not only her shelter from bullying. As was stated earlier Mamimi’s parents are divorced. In Tasuku Mamimi had someone that cared about her and would shield her from the harsh realities of her relatively painful life. The fact that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector explains some of her other odd behavior as a result of his being gone. Mamimi calls Naota “Ta-kun” (a shortened Naota but also clearly in reference to Tasuku) and does, what the show refers to as, “perverted things” with him. Now the motivation behind these “perverted” acts is a little bit of mixed bag, the fact that Mamimi refers to Ta-kun is clearly meant to show that she’s using him as a replacement for Tasuku. HOWEVER, despite the fact that she uses sexual things as an outlet has nothing to do with the fact that she’s Naota as a faux-Tasuku. If she actually wanted a sexual replacement for Tasuku she would find someone who wasn’t a middle-schooler. She does it because she just wants an outlet to escape and let out pent up emotions in the way that Tasuku’s protection used to give her. This is solidified by the fact that when Naota actually tries to step into Tasuku’s ex-role as boyfriend Mamimi gets weirded out and tells him that he isn’t supposed to do things like that. You can argue that Mamimi is also sexual with Naota because that’s how her and Tasuku showed affection and that she chooses Naota instead of a random person as a replacement because he’s Tasuku’s brother and reminds her of him, and these are both true. However, neither of these means that Mamimi is using Naota as a sexual replacement for Tasuku or that she’s simply using Naota to let out pent up sexual feelings toward Tasuku (that last one may be part of it but there is definitely other motivation behind it. Seriously. Mamimi’s thing with Naota is not supposed to be SEXUAL sexual. If that makes sense. She’s not just giving a middle-schooler hickies because she’s horny. Honest). Now when Naota starts spending time with Haruko and ignoring (not really but I can’t think of a better word) Mamimi she tries to find other outlets for her emotions and affection in a kitten, and the terminal core robo-dog. Unfortunately for her these things still don’t help (the dog actually makes her deteriorate further into a revenge obsessed semi-deranged Mamimi and it takes the dog getting out of control and eating some of Naota’s friends truck to snap her out of it). And this inability to replace Tasuku leads us to Mamimi’s main development/point/moral/etc which is…..
Sometimes you just have to let things be, you can’t necessarily replace or get over things; sometimes good things leave your life. Mamimi is sinking deeper and deeper into a depression/funk as the show progresses and Naota is paying more and more attention to Haruko and less and less attention to her. She tries to remedy this by finding replacement Ta-Kuns but as I stated above she can’t find anyone to replace Tasuku and her feelings of loneliness and loss threaten to consume her (as seen when the terminal core leads her to become an extremely revenge obsessed semi-psychotic individual). But when she sees Naota confess his love to Haruko and watches Haruko leave (I said there would be spoilers) she realizes that good things in life, the things that make you the happiest, will leave and there is nothing you can do about it. After realizing this, Mamimi sees that there is nothing but painful memories for her in Mabase and leaves to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer.
Well there you have it. That’s all the important things I can think of about Mamimi. She’s a depressed girl because the only person who she ever thought cared about her left and has an American girl friend so she’s using sexuality and his younger brother to try to shield herself/give herself an outlet from the pain in her life as well as a way of expressing affection for a person she no longer can. But she eventually realizes that sometimes things just happen and goes off on her own. Her overflowing with emotion is one of the key things that gets the ball rolling in the series (since he almost pure love for Tasuku is the thing that first manifested Canti/Atomsk) and “something amazing” did result from it, just as she says in the very beginning of the series. She is my favorite character of the series by far and has some amazing dialogue, especially the bridge scene.
And that’s all about that. Haruko is next.
Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers. Honestly it won't make much of a difference if you know the plot before you see it, but still in the words of an animated lion, be prepared. I’m going to go through this on a character by character basis and then do the plot and some other random stuff if I haven’t hit on it by then.
Mamimi:
Samejima Mamimi has had it rough before we meet her in FLCL. Her parents are divorced (she reminisces about school plays saying that even though they were stupid, those were happy memories because her parents went to see them together), she gets bullied in school as well as having no friends (we never see her with any other people outside of Naota and when Naota tells her over the phone to go out with her friends she just stands under the bridge and looks dejected, as for the bullying we see her standing in a river in one episode and one of Naota’s friends says he saw some girls bullying her the other day), she doesn’t like school (she frequently cuts class to hang out by the bridge), and her boyfriend just went to America. Mamimi is not in the best state of mind as we see through a couple of mental deteriorations throughout the series. First, in “Fire starter” its implied that Mamimi is starting at least some, if not all of the fires that have been suspected to be arson around the city. The hints to this are somewhat subtle but there are two major ones. First Mamimi has been calling the robot that came out of Naota’s head Canti, which is in reference to a videogame she’s been playing called fire starter in which you are tasked by the God of Black Flame to burn a fictional city of demons that is ever expanding without completely destroying it (because if you do you won’t have a place to live) in order to prevent if from explanding and taking over the whole world. The god, Canti, has black wings and Mamimi see’s Canti with black wings flying one day and is convinced that he is the God of the Black Flames. During the episode there have been a number of fires that are suspected to be arson. Mamimi and Naota are walking across a bridge later, after Mamimi is seen in a river and one of Naota’s friends says he saw her being bullied recently, when her fire starter game falls out of her pocket. Naota later finds her in a ring of cigarettes by the burnt out husk of her old school and tries to giver Mamimi her game back and she says she doesn’t need it anymore, after which she goes to Canti and asks for his kiss and his absolution. Now when you combine this with the second big hint, which is that during a voice over when Naota is talking about the fire starter game you hear a policeman introduced earlier in the episode is says that they know Mamimi is has been committing the arsons. From the fact that Mamimi sees Canti as a sort of God of arson we can infer that by asking for his absolution she meant she was asking for his approval of her work. As to why she’s committing arson there’s a few possible explanations. In my opinion, Canti is a manifestation of Mamimi’s feelings for Naota’s brother Tasku (more on why later, just roll with it for now) and since she sees him as the God from her videogame she’s trying to win back his approval by committing arson (hence her asking for his absolution with a kiss). As to why Mamimi projects her thoughts from her videogame onto Canti (outside of the fact that he actually has black wings throughout the majority of the episode) stems from how Mamimi and Tasuku met. During the episode its explained that there was a fire at the elementary school Mamimi and Tasuku attended. Mamimi claims that Canti was the one that saved her the night of the fire as well (really I think it was Tasuku since who exactly she is talking about in the sentence is a little vague and it would have been extremely unlikely that Canti was there without some very convoluted theories) which reinforces the fact that he is supposed to be a manifestation of Tasuku. Anyways, Mamimi says something to the effect that she used to wish the school would go away before she met Tasuku (I haven’t found conclusive evidence as to whether she burned it down or not) and now, even though it burned down the ashes remain (symbolic of her relationship with Tasuku but more on that soon). Although later in the episode, during a battle with a medical mechanica robot, a projectile and explosion cause the ashes to scatter and the wreckage to completely disappear which foreshadows some later events. Fire starter is the first episode where we really get into Mamimi’s relationship with Tasuku, speaking of which…..
Mamimi’s relationship with Taskuku. Taskuku is Naota’s older brother who has gone to America to play baseball. He used to date Mamimi: however we find out in the first episode that he hasn’t contacted Mamimi (in probably the best scene in the whole anime, in my humble opinion: just had to mention how awesome the bridge scene is) and that he even has an American girlfriend. When Naota tells her this, we get a fairly odd response from Mamimi. She starts clutching her head, stating that she is going to overflow and after doing so passes out. As soon as this happens the first of the robots emerges form Naota’s heard (this is actually the only time that two robots emerge, which is significant but I’ll get into that in another section). I’m going to go into my theory behind the robots later but briefly, they’re manifestations of strong emotions of people that they’ve been keeping bottled up. The fact that Canti emerges when Mamimi “overflows,” as well as the fact that the two times he “activates” (watch the show and you’ll know what I mean) and Atomsk’s symbol appears on him Naota says Tasku’s name (he also says it when Haruko hits Canti with her bass (in the English subtitles of the Japanese voiced version)). However, he doesn’t do anything brotherly towards Naota (that’s another character) except protect him, which more cements him as a Mamimi’s version of Tasuku and speaking of protecting we get into the next facet of the Mamimi/Tasuku relationship which is that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector. As we discussed earlier, Mamimi is being bullied at the time that the show is going on. She says that Canti is the protector of the weak in “Fire Starter” and also claims that she is the protector of the weak when she rescues a kitten. From the fact that Mamimi is now being bullied and that she calls Canti the protector of the weak we can infer that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her kind of protector: however Tasuku clearly was not only her shelter from bullying. As was stated earlier Mamimi’s parents are divorced. In Tasuku Mamimi had someone that cared about her and would shield her from the harsh realities of her relatively painful life. The fact that Mamimi saw Tasuku as her protector explains some of her other odd behavior as a result of his being gone. Mamimi calls Naota “Ta-kun” (a shortened Naota but also clearly in reference to Tasuku) and does, what the show refers to as, “perverted things” with him. Now the motivation behind these “perverted” acts is a little bit of mixed bag, the fact that Mamimi refers to Ta-kun is clearly meant to show that she’s using him as a replacement for Tasuku. HOWEVER, despite the fact that she uses sexual things as an outlet has nothing to do with the fact that she’s Naota as a faux-Tasuku. If she actually wanted a sexual replacement for Tasuku she would find someone who wasn’t a middle-schooler. She does it because she just wants an outlet to escape and let out pent up emotions in the way that Tasuku’s protection used to give her. This is solidified by the fact that when Naota actually tries to step into Tasuku’s ex-role as boyfriend Mamimi gets weirded out and tells him that he isn’t supposed to do things like that. You can argue that Mamimi is also sexual with Naota because that’s how her and Tasuku showed affection and that she chooses Naota instead of a random person as a replacement because he’s Tasuku’s brother and reminds her of him, and these are both true. However, neither of these means that Mamimi is using Naota as a sexual replacement for Tasuku or that she’s simply using Naota to let out pent up sexual feelings toward Tasuku (that last one may be part of it but there is definitely other motivation behind it. Seriously. Mamimi’s thing with Naota is not supposed to be SEXUAL sexual. If that makes sense. She’s not just giving a middle-schooler hickies because she’s horny. Honest). Now when Naota starts spending time with Haruko and ignoring (not really but I can’t think of a better word) Mamimi she tries to find other outlets for her emotions and affection in a kitten, and the terminal core robo-dog. Unfortunately for her these things still don’t help (the dog actually makes her deteriorate further into a revenge obsessed semi-deranged Mamimi and it takes the dog getting out of control and eating some of Naota’s friends truck to snap her out of it). And this inability to replace Tasuku leads us to Mamimi’s main development/point/moral/etc which is…..
Sometimes you just have to let things be, you can’t necessarily replace or get over things; sometimes good things leave your life. Mamimi is sinking deeper and deeper into a depression/funk as the show progresses and Naota is paying more and more attention to Haruko and less and less attention to her. She tries to remedy this by finding replacement Ta-Kuns but as I stated above she can’t find anyone to replace Tasuku and her feelings of loneliness and loss threaten to consume her (as seen when the terminal core leads her to become an extremely revenge obsessed semi-psychotic individual). But when she sees Naota confess his love to Haruko and watches Haruko leave (I said there would be spoilers) she realizes that good things in life, the things that make you the happiest, will leave and there is nothing you can do about it. After realizing this, Mamimi sees that there is nothing but painful memories for her in Mabase and leaves to pursue her dream of becoming a professional photographer.
Well there you have it. That’s all the important things I can think of about Mamimi. She’s a depressed girl because the only person who she ever thought cared about her left and has an American girl friend so she’s using sexuality and his younger brother to try to shield herself/give herself an outlet from the pain in her life as well as a way of expressing affection for a person she no longer can. But she eventually realizes that sometimes things just happen and goes off on her own. Her overflowing with emotion is one of the key things that gets the ball rolling in the series (since he almost pure love for Tasuku is the thing that first manifested Canti/Atomsk) and “something amazing” did result from it, just as she says in the very beginning of the series. She is my favorite character of the series by far and has some amazing dialogue, especially the bridge scene.
And that’s all about that. Haruko is next.
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