NAOTA NANDABA
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Naota Nandaba is twelve years old and already trying very hard to be finished with childhood. He insists that Mabase is ordinary, acts unimpressed by almost everything around him, and treats caring too openly as something embarrassing.
A lot of that performance comes from his older brother Tasuku. Tasuku was the baseball star who left for America, the person Mamimi loved, and the standard Naota quietly measures himself against. Naota even carries Tasuku's bat while refusing to swing it. Not trying lets him avoid discovering whether he can live up to the person he has built his brother into.
Then Haruko Haruhara arrives and makes detachment impossible. She opens an N.O. channel through Naota, uses him as a passage for machines and weapons, moves into his house, and becomes another person whose attention he wants even when he knows he should not trust her.
Naota's growth is not that he suddenly becomes mature. It is that he gradually stops using indifference as protection. By the end he can swing the bat, admit what he feels, confront Haruko, and let both her and Atomsk go without pretending none of it mattered.
A lot of that performance comes from his older brother Tasuku. Tasuku was the baseball star who left for America, the person Mamimi loved, and the standard Naota quietly measures himself against. Naota even carries Tasuku's bat while refusing to swing it. Not trying lets him avoid discovering whether he can live up to the person he has built his brother into.
Then Haruko Haruhara arrives and makes detachment impossible. She opens an N.O. channel through Naota, uses him as a passage for machines and weapons, moves into his house, and becomes another person whose attention he wants even when he knows he should not trust her.
Naota's growth is not that he suddenly becomes mature. It is that he gradually stops using indifference as protection. By the end he can swing the bat, admit what he feels, confront Haruko, and let both her and Atomsk go without pretending none of it mattered.
NAOTA THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
GROWING UP IN MABASE //
Open page →Two People Living Around Someone Who Already Left
Tasuku Nandaba never needs to appear on screen to dominate the beginning of FLCL.
He is Naota's older brother, the baseball player everyone remembers and the person whose bat Naota carries without swinging. He is also Mamimi's absent boyfriend, now living in America while she remains in Mabase.
That leaves Naota and Mamimi building a relationship around the same missing person for completely different reasons. Naota wants Mamimi to see him as himself. Mamimi keeps calling him Takkun and reaching for the familiarity Tasuku left behind.
He is Naota's older brother, the baseball player everyone remembers and the person whose bat Naota carries without swinging. He is also Mamimi's absent boyfriend, now living in America while she remains in Mabase.
That leaves Naota and Mamimi building a relationship around the same missing person for completely different reasons. Naota wants Mamimi to see him as himself. Mamimi keeps calling him Takkun and reaching for the familiarity Tasuku left behind.
Why it matters
Naota is not only trying to grow up. He is trying to discover who he is when being Tasuku's younger brother is no longer enough. Mamimi has the opposite problem: she keeps trying to preserve what Tasuku meant to her by transferring it onto whoever is still within reach.
Attraction, Manipulation and the Person He Cannot Control
Haruko gives Naota exactly the kind of disruption he claims not to want.
She is exciting, invasive, funny, dangerous and completely unwilling to behave according to the rules Naota uses to keep the rest of his life manageable. He distrusts her and wants her attention at the same time.
Haruko has her own reason to stay close. Naota's N.O. ability makes him useful in her pursuit of Atomsk, and she repeatedly pushes him toward situations he does not understand because she wants access to what can come through him.
The relationship therefore never becomes a clean romance or a clean manipulation.
She is exciting, invasive, funny, dangerous and completely unwilling to behave according to the rules Naota uses to keep the rest of his life manageable. He distrusts her and wants her attention at the same time.
Haruko has her own reason to stay close. Naota's N.O. ability makes him useful in her pursuit of Atomsk, and she repeatedly pushes him toward situations he does not understand because she wants access to what can come through him.
The relationship therefore never becomes a clean romance or a clean manipulation.
Why it matters
Naota's feelings are real even when Haruko's motives are selfish. Growing up does not mean discovering that one side was fake. It means learning that somebody can matter to you without belonging to you or wanting the same thing you want.
Episode 4 · Tasuku's Bat Stops Being an Excuse
Naota carries Tasuku's baseball bat through the series but refuses to swing it.
As long as he never tries, he never has to find out whether he can live up to his brother. The bat lets him remain connected to Tasuku while protecting himself from the comparison at the same time.
Episode 4 finally removes that option. With the falling satellite threatening Mabase, there is nobody else Naota can wait for. He has to swing.
As long as he never tries, he never has to find out whether he can live up to his brother. The bat lets him remain connected to Tasuku while protecting himself from the comparison at the same time.
Episode 4 finally removes that option. With the falling satellite threatening Mabase, there is nobody else Naota can wait for. He has to swing.
Why it matters
The importance of the moment is not that Naota suddenly becomes Tasuku. It is the opposite. For once he uses his brother's bat to make his own decision.
Episode 6 · He Gets the Power She Wanted
The final irony of Haruko's entire plan is that she succeeds in reaching Atomsk through Naota and still does not get what she wants.
Atomsk manifests through Naota, placing the enormous power Haruko has been chasing in the hands of the boy she treated as the route to it.
Naota confronts Haruko carrying that power, tells her that he loves her and then releases Atomsk instead of surrendering him to her. Haruko immediately chooses the chase and follows Atomsk away from Earth.
Atomsk manifests through Naota, placing the enormous power Haruko has been chasing in the hands of the boy she treated as the route to it.
Naota confronts Haruko carrying that power, tells her that he loves her and then releases Atomsk instead of surrendering him to her. Haruko immediately chooses the chase and follows Atomsk away from Earth.
Why it matters
Naota cannot make Haruko stay and he cannot turn his feelings into ownership. His final act is not winning her. It is making a choice while fully admitting that he cares, then living with what happens afterward.
Ninamori and Performing Maturity
Open →The Class President Is Acting Too
Ninamori initially looks like the kind of person Naota thinks he is supposed to become: composed, capable and apparently untouched by the childish mess around her.
Episode 3 dismantles that image. Her father's scandal is tearing apart her family, she manipulates the class play vote to get what she wants, and the glasses she normally hides become another reminder that the version of Ninamori everyone sees is carefully managed.
Naota catches her in that contradiction because he is doing his own version of the same thing.
Episode 3 dismantles that image. Her father's scandal is tearing apart her family, she manipulates the class play vote to get what she wants, and the glasses she normally hides become another reminder that the version of Ninamori everyone sees is carefully managed.
Naota catches her in that contradiction because he is doing his own version of the same thing.
Why it matters
Ninamori gives FLCL another twelve-year-old who has mistaken appearing controlled for actually being okay. Naota does not need an adult to teach him that lesson. He sees it in somebody his own age.
Tasuku Leaves · Naota Fills the Space · The Name Moves Again
Mamimi's relationship with Naota becomes easier to understand once Naota finally admits what has been sitting between them from the beginning.
She misses Tasuku.
Calling Naota Takkun lets Mamimi preserve some version of the relationship she lost, but it leaves Naota trapped between wanting her affection and knowing it is partly directed through him toward somebody else.
When Mamimi later gives the same name to another creature, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
She misses Tasuku.
Calling Naota Takkun lets Mamimi preserve some version of the relationship she lost, but it leaves Naota trapped between wanting her affection and knowing it is partly directed through him toward somebody else.
When Mamimi later gives the same name to another creature, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
What changed
By the end, neither Naota nor Mamimi can keep living inside the arrangement they had under the bridge. Naota stops accepting the role of substitute, while Mamimi eventually leaves Mabase and begins moving toward a life that is not built around waiting for Tasuku.
N.O. CHANNEL MECHANICS //
Open page →N.O. allows matter to move through a person from somewhere else. In Naota's case, the route opens through his head and repeatedly produces objects and Medical Mechanica machines that could not physically have been inside him.
Amarao provides explanations for N.O., but FLCL never turns them into a complete set of measurable rules. The safest way to understand the phenomenon is by watching what it does.
Amarao provides explanations for N.O., but FLCL never turns them into a complete set of measurable rules. The safest way to understand the phenomenon is by watching what it does.
How you can tell
Naota grows a horn-like protrusion before something emerges. Haruko deliberately interacts with those growths. Canti and other machines cross through the opening. By the climax, the same route becomes capable of bringing Atomsk into the conflict.
Naota repeatedly becomes the route through which FLCL's impossible machinery enters Mabase.
Robots emerge through him. Weapons emerge through him. Canti repeatedly absorbs him and draws on much greater power. Eventually Naota becomes the point through which Atomsk himself can manifest.
Robots emerge through him. Weapons emerge through him. Canti repeatedly absorbs him and draws on much greater power. Eventually Naota becomes the point through which Atomsk himself can manifest.
Why it matters
This is why Haruko stays attached to Naota. His importance to her is not that he has been chosen as a conventional hero. He is an unusually useful doorway to the thing she actually wants.
Why Haruko Hits Naota with the Bass
Open →The First Blow Opens the Problem
Haruko's first bass-guitar strike is immediately followed by the strange growth on Naota's forehead and the first arrival of machinery through him.
Later events make clear that Haruko is deliberately interested in Naota's N.O. potential and repeatedly uses her guitar around the openings that appear through him.
The OVA does not give us enough to describe the first strike as precise neurological surgery or the installation of a permanent device.
Later events make clear that Haruko is deliberately interested in Naota's N.O. potential and repeatedly uses her guitar around the openings that appear through him.
The OVA does not give us enough to describe the first strike as precise neurological surgery or the installation of a permanent device.
Why it matters
The hit is not just random slapstick either. It is the moment Haruko turns Naota from somebody she crashes into into somebody she can use.
Ninamori and the Transferred Growth
Open →Episode 3 · Naota Is Not the Only Route
Episode 3 complicates the idea that the strange growths belong only to Naota.
After Naota and Ninamori collide, the horn-like growth associated with his N.O. incidents appears on Ninamori instead. A Medical Mechanica machine eventually emerges through her during the school-play crisis.
After Naota and Ninamori collide, the horn-like growth associated with his N.O. incidents appears on Ninamori instead. A Medical Mechanica machine eventually emerges through her during the school-play crisis.
Why it matters
The episode shows that N.O. is not simply a permanent piece of hardware Haruko installed inside Naota. Whatever is happening can involve another person, and physical contact with Naota is enough to change who is carrying the problem.
RECURRING IMAGES & IDEAS //
Open page →The Forehead Growths
Open →N.O. Portals · Bodies Becoming Public Problems
Naota's strange forehead growths are literal signs that something impossible is trying to come through him. Episode 3 extends the image to Ninamori, whose carefully controlled public image falls apart at the same time that her own growth becomes impossible to hide.
The sexual and puberty imagery is hard to miss: sudden growths, embarrassment, bodies changing without permission and other people becoming extremely interested in what is happening.
The sexual and puberty imagery is hard to miss: sudden growths, embarrassment, bodies changing without permission and other people becoming extremely interested in what is happening.
Why it matters
FLCL does not require the growths to mean only one thing. The joke works because the science-fiction problem and the adolescent embarrassment are happening at exactly the same time.
Bitter Drinks, Spicy Food & Acting Grown-Up
Open →Adulthood as Something You Perform
FLCL repeatedly surrounds its younger characters with small performances of adulthood: coffee, cigarettes, spicy food, sexual knowledge, cynicism and the insistence that nothing is surprising.
Naota is especially committed to that performance. He wants to sound bored and experienced before he has actually lived enough to earn either attitude.
Naota is especially committed to that performance. He wants to sound bored and experienced before he has actually lived enough to earn either attitude.
Why it matters
The series keeps discovering that adults are not magically finished people either. Naota's mistake is not wanting to grow up. It is assuming maturity means learning how not to look affected by anything.
Mamimi and the Name "Takkun"
Open →Tasuku · Naota · Something to Hold Onto
Mamimi keeps returning to the name "Takkun."
It belongs first to Tasuku, the boyfriend who left Mabase. She then uses it for Naota, Tasuku's younger brother, while leaning on him for the closeness she lost. Later she gives the same name to another creature she becomes attached to.
That repetition is more useful than reducing any one Takkun to a symbol.
It belongs first to Tasuku, the boyfriend who left Mabase. She then uses it for Naota, Tasuku's younger brother, while leaning on him for the closeness she lost. Later she gives the same name to another creature she becomes attached to.
That repetition is more useful than reducing any one Takkun to a symbol.
Why it matters
Mamimi keeps trying to make absence hurt less by placing the same name onto somebody or something that is still nearby. Naota eventually has to recognize that being wanted as a replacement is not the same thing as being seen as himself.
ATOMSK & MEDICAL MECHANICA //
Open page →The Crimson Bird
Open →Atomsk's Final Manifestation
When Atomsk finally appears openly in the climax, FLCL represents him as an enormous glowing red bird-like presence erupting through Naota.
The image connects back to the red power associated with Canti whenever Naota is absorbed into him, but the OVA does not stop to provide a biological or technical explanation for Atomsk's form.
The image connects back to the red power associated with Canti whenever Naota is absorbed into him, but the OVA does not stop to provide a biological or technical explanation for Atomsk's form.
How you can tell
The important visual language is consistent: red, wings, the Atomsk mark and a sudden jump in power. By episode 6 those scattered signs finally resolve into the being Haruko has been chasing from the beginning.
Atomsk's Bass Guitar
Open →Crimson Gibson EB-0 · Pulled Through Naota
A red Gibson EB-0 emerges through Naota during one of the clearest moments when the N.O. phenomenon stops producing only Medical Mechanica machinery and begins drawing something connected directly to Atomsk.
The bass eventually becomes part of the final confrontation between Naota and Haruko.
The bass eventually becomes part of the final confrontation between Naota and Haruko.
Why it matters
FLCL keeps collapsing the difference between instrument, weapon and impossible object. Atomsk's bass is not important because the OVA gives it a technical classification. It matters because its appearance tells us Haruko is getting closer to what she has been trying to pull through Naota.
Naota Is the Route · Atomsk Is the Target
Haruko arrives claiming an official role and spends much of the OVA behaving as though the chaos around Naota is just another mission.
It is not.
What she actually wants is Atomsk. Naota matters because his N.O. ability gives her an unusually powerful route through which objects, Medical Mechanica machines and eventually Atomsk himself can cross into Mabase.
That makes Haruko's relationship with Naota uncomfortable by design. She enjoys him, provokes him and becomes part of his life, but she is also using his body and his feelings to pursue something she wanted before she ever met him.
It is not.
What she actually wants is Atomsk. Naota matters because his N.O. ability gives her an unusually powerful route through which objects, Medical Mechanica machines and eventually Atomsk himself can cross into Mabase.
That makes Haruko's relationship with Naota uncomfortable by design. She enjoys him, provokes him and becomes part of his life, but she is also using his body and his feelings to pursue something she wanted before she ever met him.
Why it matters
The reveal does not mean every moment between Haruko and Naota was fake. It means Naota finally has to understand that wanting somebody does not make their motives safe, simple or centered on him.
GUITAR & ORDNANCE //
Open page →The Crimson Gibson EB-0
Open →Atomsk's Bass · Pulled Through Naota
The crimson Gibson EB-0 appears through Naota as the connection to Atomsk becomes stronger.
Unlike Haruko's Rickenbacker, this is not an instrument Naota simply chose to carry. It arrives through the same impossible process that has already produced Medical Mechanica machinery from his head.
By the finale Naota is wielding the bass while carrying Atomsk's power, turning an object that first appeared as evidence of somebody else's presence into part of his own confrontation with Haruko.
Unlike Haruko's Rickenbacker, this is not an instrument Naota simply chose to carry. It arrives through the same impossible process that has already produced Medical Mechanica machinery from his head.
By the finale Naota is wielding the bass while carrying Atomsk's power, turning an object that first appeared as evidence of somebody else's presence into part of his own confrontation with Haruko.
Why it matters
The bass visually marks the point where Naota stops being only the doorway everybody else is using.
Canti's Flying V
Open →Appears with Canti's Red Combat Form
Canti's Flying V appears alongside the red, winged combat form associated with absorbing Naota and drawing on the power moving through him.
The guitar is part of the same visual escalation that gives Canti his halo, wings and drastically increased fighting ability.
The guitar is part of the same visual escalation that gives Canti his halo, wings and drastically increased fighting ability.
How you can tell
Domestic blue Canti is the robot doing chores around the Nandaba house. Red Canti carrying the Flying V means something much larger is moving through him.
