@Otou-san: I like the idea of a Gainax Manifesto challenging what ‘growing up’ means. I know they’re an organisation run by geeks and catering to a young audience, but I really like the way stories such as FLCL question how to go about behaving like a proper adult. I guess it crops up in anime a lot, but Gainax have done some of the most memorable examples.

@Chris K: yeah, Naota’s cynicism is I think the result of not really knowing how to deal with certain situations. Half the time he’s acting like he couldn’t care less, but often he’s just unsure of what to do as well.

@kadian1364: that sounds like a really neat summing-up there. I noticed a difference in storytelling approach to visual novels and the anime adaptations, now you mention it. The story might be the same but the emphasis is somewhat different; I guess there’s an even bigger difference between full-on games and their adaptations (although adaptations of video games are rarely as good…maybe this is the reason why!).

@ojisan: I’ve always thought that Gainax excel in making OAVs rather than TV shows; Gunbuster and FLCL are classics to me. What I noticed about Gunbuster 2 though, even though it’s not as good as its predecessor, is how much attention was paid to the little details: stuff like the rustle of clothing and the sounds of footsteps, and FLCL is the same I guess. Animated films rarely go to so much trouble to include anything more than dialogue, BGM and the most noticeable sound effects.

@2DT: I wonder too. There seems to be an emphasis on new titles but it’s hard to gauge how the older ones have stayed in the limelight. There’s a fondness for the really old classics, but I don’t think FLCL is quite in that area either. It’s kinda in between.

@Hige: I’m glad I’m not the only one whose attention was caught by Mamimi. Part of the reason is a subconscious feeling that she’s too easily overlooked by the other characters (not to mention the viewers), but whose eventual fate is perhaps the most poignant.

I often wonder whether I’ll ever tire of watching this…the relatively short length helps I guess. It just gets everything right.

Haruko is a force of nature, unstoppable with ambition and intention, and Mamimi is a direct contrast to this – trapped in stasis with no real drive and unable to move forward as a result. This is partly due to her co-dependence, as you said, but a lot of it has to do with her complete lack of prospects. Her vengeance mission in the later episodes demonstrates how deep and crippling her ennui is with even the slightest offence being something she festers over and acts out against. She’s near insane during those scenes and it demonstrates how suffocated she is by her surroundings. It’s also the preceded by her giving up on Tasuku, who abandons her to go on adventures away from Mabase and acts as this sort of betrayer and inspirational figure all of once. Betrayer because he leaves her, but inspiration because he shows it can be done.

In many ways Mamimi is the real victim of what Naota laments about regarding Mabase and its nowhere prospects. He’s scared of what might happen but she’s already there, living it. She’s the only character that genuinely feels like they’re trapped and her flights of fancy are all desperate acts to rise above the tedium. She burns it down (Endsville), summons the apocalypse, facilitates the MM iron to wipe it clean. Every quirky action is actually a tragic grasp at something better or exciting. It’s an overblown GAINAX analogy for anyone who’s ever felt like they’ll never get out of their shitty little town and away its shitty opportunities, but it’s very effective and fundamentally true.

On a slightly less depressing note, though, she’s also the only character who we know definitely escapes. I found the ending, her photo in the magazine, so powerful because of the relief I felt that she gets free of it all. I think at the time it gave me a bit of hope.

It’s funny that this is THE anime for a certain generation of English-speaking anime fans, probably the ones who grew up with the early days of Adult Swim in the US. Makes me wonder if it has nearly the same influence for the Japanese.

Naota – among all the frightening transformations around him – robots sprouting from his head, fathers turning into android zombies, etc, the worst transformation is from adolescent to adult. Ick.

Another recently read book – odd anime catalogue – the author was pointing out that the sound design of FLCL was way ahead of most anime and totally shaped the viewing experience – not just The Pillows rocking out (bless ‘em) but the churning washing machines, buzzing streetlights, cars on overhead bridges – went back to watch it again, and he’s so right.

In a book I once read written by an exceedingly philosophical video game designer, he talks about the difference between games and stories. The former focuses on action, and great ones emphasize the importance of decisions and logic, teaching one to weigh options and make more effective one’s decision making process. The latter, at its core, is about characters, and the great ones focus on characters’ thoughts and feelings, teaching empathy among other themes. FLCL is one of those great stories.

You’re completely right about Naota being in the “halfway house of adolescence”; Naota is surrounded by what should be at least three different objects of sexual attraction who come on to him in one form or another at various times but he’s too immature to do anything but either act indifferent or ignore the situation. I don’t think that Naota is really cold or indifferent but that’s the only way he knows how act when he’s confused or uncertain.

Naota thinks that as long as he’s unenthusiastic and cynical, he’s acting adult-like, but the discovery that other so-called adults are doing essentially the same thing (faking it) reduces his concept of growing up to a pair of fake eyebrows. Perhaps his brother (who actually does have a name though it’s not really mentioned: Tasuku, hence Takkun) was the only mature one around, but a more likely story is that he left before Naota had a chance to start to come to these realizations.

To me it’s another chapter of the Gainax Manifesto, that you should grow greater but not grow older. When you become an “adult” that means you’re either a cold bastard (Gendo), a guy who makes supposed “tough decisions” instead of doing what’s right (Rossiu), or… not really an adult at all, just an overgrown kid with faux eyebrows. When you think of what giant otaku Anno, Tsurumaki, etc are, it makes sense.

Ninamori’s episode is easily my favorite; to me it sums up the whole pain-of-adolescence story the best, while at the same time playing the symbolic weight of “getting hit by Haruko’s bike” for laughs in the dinner table scene. And then the magic moment when Canti swallows Naota synced to the opening chords of “Little Busters”… you can’t stop the awesome.

Love the post, I think I might go watch FLCL again now…