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Naota Nandaba[]
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Voiced by: Jun Mizuki (JP), Barbara Goodson (EN) |
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The 12 year-old main character. His name is derived from the Japanese word for "honesty". He apparently has the "right kind of head" to be used as an N.O. channel. He dislikes bitter drinks and spicy curry.
Naota is obsessed with appearing mature and attempts to act nonchalant. This is most expressed in his monologues which open and close each episode where he continues to claim that "nothing amazing ever happens here" despite the show's surreal and often absurd happenings. Naota idolizes his older brother Tasuku and believes him to be the model for a mature adult.
At the beginning of the series, he's noticeably bothered by the situation with Haruko, but over the course of the series he realizes his own feelings and admits that he loves her, along with embracing her with a kiss, in the final episode. In the end though, Haruko leaves him behind after telling him he's still only a kid.
- Adorably Precocious Child
- Alliterative Name
- Batter Up: In episode 4.
- Becoming the Mask: Tries to put on a mask of being a mature adult, despite being 12 years old. Various characters try to further this process or halt it. Haruko eventually convinces him it's okay to act his age.
- Biggus Dickus: Haruko pulls a guitar out of his head so big that it gives the female controllers watching it nose bleeds.
- Blue Eyes
- The Chew Toy
- Coming of Age Story
- Crash Into Hello
- Deadly Upgrade: He's able to power up Canti by letting himself get eaten by him, though it really doesn't do much but faze him afterward.
- Although it does make him smell of No. 2, apparently, when Canti excretes him.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: "How can you like someone who's insane?" He's talking to Mamimi- the pyromaniac arsonist- not exactly the paragon of sanity, even if she is a bit saner than Haruko.
- Humongous Mecha: They come out of his head.
- Improbable Weapon User: When he eventually gets a Gibson Flying V, nice choice.
- Kid with the Leash: Besides Haruko, Naota seems to have the most control over Canti.
- Little Boy Seeks Big Girl
- Love Martyr
- Meaningful Name
- Missing Mom: His mother is never seen or mentioned in the anime or manga. The novels, though, tell us that she vanished mysteriously when Naota was little. Also, she was a colleague of Haruko in the Space Police.
- Nice Hat: Actually no, people don't really think the hat's cool. Even more-so is the the one he wears when cat ears pop up on his head.
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Ninamori: By the way, that hat is really bizarre. |
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- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: And he still seems to say it even after everything that's happened to him.
- Only Sane Man
- Power Glows
- Replacement Goldfish: For Mamimi.
- The Stoic: For most of the series.
- Not So Stoic: As of episode 6.
- Took a Level In Badass: At the climax of "Brittle Bullet", Naota breaks free of his dependence and desire for Mamimi's affection by outright rejecting it and summoning Canti to fight the giant gunslinger robot. And then later in "FLCLimax", absorbing the power of Atomsk and entering a sort of Super Mode.
Haruko Haruhara (Haruha Raharu?)[]
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Voiced by: Mayumi Shintani (JP), Kari Wahlgren (EN) |
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An energetic, spontaneous pink-haired woman from outer-space, and investigator for the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood/Stellar Fraternity. She rides a sunglow Piaggio Vespa SS 180 and carries a blue Rickenbacker bass guitar on her back and claims to be 19, even though she's not human. She becomes the Nandaba household's maid after running both him and his father over with her Vespa and plays on a rival team of the Mabase Martians, seemingly for extra money.
- Alliterative Name
- Badass Biker
- Biker Babe
- Betty and Veronica: Veronica to Mamimi's Betty.
- Beware the Silly Ones
- But Now I Must Go: After Atomosk escapes Earth, Haruko leaves to chase after him. At first looked to be subverted in that she asked Naota to join her, but she immediately plays it straight by retracting the offer because he's "still a kid."
- Cat Smile
- Cloudcuckoolander: She comes across this way to Naota, though her crazy perspective is matched by the equally crazy universe they're living in.
- Cool Big Sis: This to Naota, though he'd never admit it.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Cute and Psycho: Oh yes! A Most Triumphant Example, if you will.
- Crash Into Hello: Does this most frequently by running people over.
- Drives Like Crazy
- Extraordinarily Empowered Girl
- Eyes of Gold
- Genki Girl
- Goggles Do Nothing
- Human Alien: At first glance, though it might not be her true form.
- Improbable Weapon User: Her Model 4001 Rickenbacker bass guitar, which seems to have an engine in it and can apparently levitate.
- Instrument of Murder: Her bass, again, which seems to do everything from batting robots to shooting bullets.
- It's All About Me
- Lack of Empathy: She's basically a borderline sociopath.
- Loveable Sex Maniac
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: With an emphasis on the "manic".
- Manipulative Bitch
- Master of Disguise: She tries at least. Most of the time her disguises are pretty transparent, but when she really wants to disguise herself, she's capable of changing her voice and mannerisms so completely that her victims don't realize the difference. That is, until they hear their nurse's voice change mid-sentence, and then look up to see her sporting a great big Slasher Smile.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: She's far more ruthless and calculating than her Genki Girl zaniness would suggest.
- Older Than They Look: She claims to be 19, but Naota has his doubts about that. After Haruko's first appearance Mamimi guesstimates that she's "At least 20 years old". It's later implied that when she and Amarao first met, he was Naota's age.
- Pretty Freeloader: Though she does help around the house. Somewhat. Maybe.
- Psychopathic Womanchild
- Rose-Haired Girl: Salmon Pink.
- Sarcastic Confession: Haruko tends to give people outrageous answers, knowing she won't be believed.
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Naota: Who are you, and what do you want? |
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- Scarf of Asskicking
- Screaming Warrior
- Shotacon: Subverted.
- Slasher Smile
- The Southpaw
- Space Police: Haruko claims to be one, but she's apparently gone rogue.
- Villainous Breakdown: In episode 6.
Mamimi Samejima[]
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Voiced by: Izumi Kasagi (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN) |
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A truant high school student with pyromaniacal tendencies, she's apparently Naota's brother Tasuku's girlfriend, though she is in some sort of relationship with Naota since his brother left Japan. She also smokes a lot and spends most of her time under a bridge. She is often seen with a camera, and always smokes a worn cigarette with "Never Knows Best" written onto the paper. It is implied that she is often bullied at school, causing her to often ditch.
- Betty and Veronica: Betty to Haruko's Veronica.
- Broken Bird
- Brown Eyes
- Bullying a Dragon: The Dragon in this case.
- Camera Fiend: Her first reaction to Naota and Haruko's Crash Into Hello is to take pictures of it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Thinks Canti is the Lord of Black Flame, the god character of her video game.
- Dangerously-Short Skirt: Not an Action Girl, but she still sports one.
- Delinquents
- Distressed Damsel: Every time robot fight happens.
- The Ditz
- Journey to Find Oneself: She ends up leaving school and Mabase to pursue a career in photography.
- Kid with the Leash: She does this with the the Terminal Core, a disembodied robot with a dog-like personality and a ravenous appetite for machinery, which she uses to get revenge on everyone who did her wrong.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Kitten lover, technically.
- Meaningful Name: Not so much hers. Mamimi calls Naota "Ta-kun" during the series, which was her petname for Tasuku. However in the epilogue, she says "See you later, Naota" in goodbye, showing that she was no longer using Naota as a substitute for Tasuku.
- Panty Shot: At least one per episode.
- Pyromaniac
- Joshikousei
- School Uniforms Are the New Black: She's always in her school uniform.
- Smoking Is Cool
- Shotacon: Subverted later on.
- Verbal Tic: Has a tendency to end her sentences with "~su."
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In episode 6.
- Yandere: She loses it when she finds out Tasuku has an American girlfriend.
Canti[]
A medical robot with what looks like a television set for a head. He was manufactured by Medical Mechanica, but taken over by Atomsk as a way to escape them. After having his head broken by Haruko, he is recruited by her as an assistant; however, he proves to be no good for much other than washing dishes and fetching drinks for the family.
When called into battle, he can access Atomsk's power using Naota as a catalyst.
- BFG: When channeling Atomsk, he gains the ability to transform into an antitank gun. Some fans theorize it's a pitching machine.
- The Blank: His head is a television.
- Butt Monkey: When running errands.
- Covert Pervert: In the novel, Canti spends 3 hours at a time looking through perverted magazines.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a fumbling robot who gets embarrassed because his head is broken, but he kicks ass and takes names once Naota's inside him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Not what you think.
- Losing Your Head: Well, only the back part of it.
- Mundane Utility: He does the housework.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He is first called TV-boy, Lord Cantide and then Canti, but none of those are his real names and he probably doesn't even have one.
- Power Glows
- Ridiculously-Human Robots: Not only does he express human emotion, he can also eat curry with no trouble at all... even with no mouth.
- The Speechless
- Talking with Signs: Often expresses himself through pictures shown on his TV head.
- Transforming Mecha: Cannon mode.
- Turns Red: When he powers up.
- TV Head Robot
Eri Ninamori[]
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Voiced by: Mika Itou (JP), Melissa Fahn (EN) |
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Naota's classmate. In the series, she is referred to as Ninamori, her last name. She is the daughter of the mayor of Mabase and is class president.
She projects a proper, even slightly stuck-up personality, and conceals personal information to an almost obsessive degree. Eri isn't above breaking the rules to get what she wants. She rigs the voting during the casting for the school play in order to get the lead role in a play version of Puss in Boots and have Naota cast opposite her, which (along with other instances) hints at a crush on him.
- A-Cup Angst: As the brains in the Beauty, Brains, and Brawn trio, she works around this by layering her tops and leaving her legs bare.
- Becoming the Mask: She explains to Naota her desire for this using her interest of the Puss in Boots story.
- Blue Eyes
- Class Representative
- Demoted to Extra: She has A Day in the Limelight in Episode 3. Then she's mysteriously absent throughout all of Episode 4, and when she appears again in Episodes 5 and 6 she has a very small part.
- Erotic Eating: She likes popsicles.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Hey, It's That Voice! : The dub voice actress, Melissa Fahn, also did the voice of Gaz.
- Important Haircut: It's short as of the last scene of Episode 3.
- Last Girl Wins: Ninamori is the last one of Naota's Love Interests introduced in the show, if only by a few minutes, but by the end of the show, it's clear she has the purest affection for him, and will probably get with him when they're both older.
- Though technically, if she's been his classmate before meeting Mamimi, she could be an example of First Girl Wins.
- Meganekko: If she wore her glasses in public, that is.
- Ms. Fanservice; Mainly when in her gym uniform. She's also shown taking a bath in episode 3.
- Not So Different: From Naota in that she, like Naota, tries to act older and more mature than she really is. This could be one of the reasons she's attracted to him.
- Not So Stoic
- Ojou: Less than other examples, though.
- The President's Daughter: The mayor's, actually.
- Stepford Smiler: Tries to hide the fact that her parents' marital troubles bother her.
- That Came Out Wrong: Asking if "Tonight is okay?" in regards to hanging out with Naota, after he says that they shouldn't hang out for a while starting tomorrow, lest people start rumors about them. Cue Luminescent Blush on Naota's part, and a quick addition of, "Not like that," when she realized the way that her previous line could be taken. And then she begins engaging in some rather sexually aggressive behavior.
- Third Option Love Interest
- Tsundere: Though this makes her by far the sanest of Naota's potential love interests.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Everyone believes this due to her stoic mask, though it doesn't come true until later in the series.
- You Gotta Have Purple Hair
Amarao[]
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Voiced by: Koichi Okura (JP), Dave Mallow (EN) |
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An agent from the Department of Interstellar Immigration, a The Men in Black-like agency. This agency, among other things, acts as a middle man for negotiations between the government and Medical Mechanica. Thus, Haruko is a big problem for them as she is bent on provoking an attack by disrupting communications.
Unlike other adults, such as Naota's father and teacher, he is mature and serious about his job. He has a pair of eyebrows so large, people can't help but drop everything they're doing and just stare at them. He seems to have had a past relationship with Haruko similar to Naota's, and knows more about her than anyone else in the series.
- Adult Child: Word of God says Amarao is basically an adult version of Naota with the same flaws.
- Badass Normal: He can hold his own against Haruko as long as his guns have bullets.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows ( made of nori.)
- Blue Eyes
- Covert Pervert: Toward his assistant.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: His N.O ability is pretty small, which means when a guitar is pulled out of him... well...
- Genre Savvy: He seems to know what's going on most of the time.
- Guns Akimbo
- The Men in Black
- Mister Exposition: His ramblings about Medical Mechanica and the Pirate King Atomsk help to tie the more surreal parts of this series together.
- Phrase Catcher: "Those eyebrows..."
- Power Limiter: His fake eyebrows seem to block N.O usage.
- Sweet Tooth
- Not So Different: Sees Naoto as a younger him and most of his time is spent preventing him from making the same mistakes as he did, such as falling for Haruko.
- Unreliable Expositor: He knows less about Haruko than it seems.
Kamon Nandaba (Naota's Dad)[]
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Voiced by: Suzuki Matsuo (JP), Joe Martin (EN) |
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Naota's 47 year-old father, a former pop culture journalist working as a freelance writer, with his own trashy tabloid: "Kamon-Mabase" (the title is a pun of "come-on mabase"). He makes the most references to pop culture. Like the other adults in FLCL, Kamon is extremely immature, notably more so than the other adults. However, he shows a surprising amount of seriousness and thoughtfulness at some points in the anime.
- Abusive Parent: On top of becoming jealous of the relationship that Haruko and Naota develop, leading to him challenging his own son to an airsoft match for her love, his general Adult Child tendencies are hinted to be the main reason that Naota tries to act like an adult.
- Adults Are Useless: The most noticeable example.
- Butt Monkey
- Only Mostly Dead: At one point, he was Left for Dead in the closet while he was replaced with a robot.
- Dirty Old Man
- Goofy Print Underwear
- No Fourth Wall
- Otaku: He makes the most pop culture references in the show, after all. Case in point, the picture of him up there? He's wearing Lupin's outfit.
- According to Naota, he wrote a book on the deep mysteries of Eva.
- Putting on the Reich: Episode 5.
Shigekuni Nandaba (Naota's Grandpa)[]
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Voiced by: Hiroshi Ito (JP), Steve Kramer (EN) |
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Naota's grandfather. He owns the family bakery and coaches the local baseball team, the Mabase Martians. He has a grudge against Mamimi for unspecified reasons, but it is suggested that he didn't approve of Tasuku dating her. Shigekuni values baseball more than anything in the world — he is disappointed in his own son and younger grandson because they are lousy baseball players. Though like his grandson, he cannot stand spicy curry.
- Dirty Old Man: He makes Canti buy him porn magazines.
- Grumpy Old Man
- Serious Business: Baseball.
... And anything else can be assumed to be another old man trope.
Masashi and Gaku[]
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Voiced by: Kazuhito Suzuki (Masashi, JP), Steven Blum (Masashi, EN), Akira Miyashima (Gaku, JP), Bob Marx (Gaku, EN) |
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Two of Naota's friends/classmates, both 12 years old. Masashi generally sounds slightly depressed and always has a look of apathy while Gaku is somewhat hyper and is obsessed with kissing and other things of sexual behavior while constantly saying "chu" ("Smooch" in the English version.) Masashi also has a job as a delivery boy, and drives his dad's truck around, even though he's only in grade school.
- Expy: They look quite similar to Keisuke and Toji, Shinji's best friends from Neon Genesis Evangelion, with their general natures switched.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Gaku is more hyper and active than perpetually bored looking Masashi.
- Those Two Guys: Are pretty much just commentators and observers to what going on in the series.
Lt. Kitsurubami[]
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Voiced by: Chiemi Chiba (JP), L. Villa (EN) |
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An agent who works with Amarao. She's perhaps the most soundly mature off all the characters, devoted to her position as lieutenant and a pinpoint sharpshooter to boot. However, Kitsurubami has a touch of fangirl in her that pops out from time to time. Amarao has a crush on her, but she's become utterly repulsed at his unwelcome and creepy advances toward her- especially when she takes notice of his peculiar "eyebrows."
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She certainly shows signs of this fawning over Naota's guitar in Episode 4 and going googly eyed at Canti in Episode 5.
- BFG: Wields a tank cannon in Ep 5
- Clothing Damage: In ep 5, getting cannon fire knocked back at ya can do that to you.
- Dark-Skinned Blond: Heck her pictures the main one of the trope.
- Good Looking Privates
- Meaningful Name: It's the name of a light brown colour, which matches her skin tone.
- Nosebleed: Episode 4, and very blatant at that.
- Youthful Freckles
Atomsk the Pirate King[]
An enigmatic character, apparently the most powerful "space pirate" in the galaxy. His N.O. is great enough to steal entire solar systems. His physical appearance is that of a bird-like creature resembling a phoenix. He has a nose ring identical to the metal ring on Haruko's bracelet, which allows her to detect Atomsk's presence or the activation of N.O. in general. His power is initially channeled through Canti, augmenting him with strength and powers of superhuman feats, until his release in the final episode. Amarao mistakes Atomsk for Haruko's love interest, picturing him as a humanoid energy being, but is quickly proven wrong: Haruko has been searching for Atomsk in hopes of absorbing his infinite power for herself, but is unsuccessful at capturing him. Instead, Naota gains his powers for a short time and enrages Haruko into trying to kill him, but he quickly gives them up to confess his love to her. Atomsk escapes to the far reaches of the universe, and Haruko begins her hunt for him anew.
- Energy Being
- Feathered Fiend
- Living MacGuffin
- Meaningful Name: Named after the novel Atomsk, by Carmichael Smith (a pseudonym of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, better known as Cordwainer Smith).
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast
- No Pronunciation Guide: The anime pronounces it "atomisk" or "atomos'ku" (dub and sub, respectively), though the director's said he's not sure how it's really supposed to be pronounced. In the director commentary on the third DVD, the director states that he is unsure as to how it's really pronounced.
- Physical God
- Power Floats: His N.O. is so immense, it screws with the Earth's gravity.
- Chunky Updraft: Which is how it looks, with an entire city block.
- Power Glows
- Powers Via Possession: Channels his powers through Canti.
- Red Sky, Take Warning: When he's freed.
- Sealed Inside a Person Shaped Can
- Shout-Out: To the Cordwainer Smith novel of the same name.
- Space Pirates: At least, that's how others describe him.