Episode 3: Marquis de Carabas
Episode 3 of FLCL probably has the most references to real-world political and historic events, and I will not breach those topics in detail because it belabors my project. What I will say about this episode is that it is my second favorite due to its attempt at portraying realistic concepts. While episode 1 did introduce us to the characters and season 2 did give us Sameji’s struggle with arson and the like, both of these episodes tried to capture things that are very abstract. Whatever happened to Sameji is very loosely hinted at, and it is similar to this episode, but I believe since we can draw that the events in episode 3 are based on real events and because they have a bit more detail to them, I believe that episode 3 handles this better.
Also, I like the idea of having Ninamori be the main focus of the episode as opposed to Naota. Ninamori can be seen as Naota’s foil, she is a character who, like Naota, is prided as being mature and carries a distinct air of authority with her by the fact that she is both the mayor’s daughter and the class president, but she is willing to break the façade of being this sophisticated being for the purpose of getting what she wants.
She also directly challenges Naota who stubbornly rejects the idea of participating in a school play because “school plays are for little kids,” but Ninamori accepts that as opposed to trying to pretend as if she’s more mature than she actually is. She also confides in Naota, overtly admitting that she, like any stubborn kid, would be willing to lie and cheat to achieve certain ends.
Instead of Naota, who turns his nose towards his father and grandfather for them acting immature, Ninamori desperately wants the love and attention from her mother and father, and she will only expose those true desires to Naota while the rest of the world regards her as this stoic, “level-headed”, mature child who is too grown up to be bothered by the fact that her family is wrapped up in a cheating scandal that threatens their marriage and that her classmate’s father is spreading slanderous news about her family.
It is in the brief exchange between Ninamori and the Secretary about the school play that we are treated to
(1)Instant Music
This time, it is with lyrics. The song itself plays all the way out, and instead of Ninamori, the song underscores Naota’s life. It carries into him waking up to Haruko’s B.S, his interactions with Ninamori, the crazy breakdown that Miyajun has in his classroom, and his narration of how he regards Ninamori in all of her status before ending at 4:28 right before he is shown with Sameji.
Everything about this song appears simple and upbeat, but after looking at the lyrics, you may grimace. On the page where I got the lyrics from, it actually gives a small blurb about how an interviewer apparently said that: “The song ‘Instant Music’ seems to be angry at, and even disgusted with, music in the world today, do you think so?” To which Sawao Yamanaka replied “No, I don't really think so at all. Of course, I think about things like that sometimes, and one day I may make a single out of it. But it's not something I want to discuss right now.”
I’ll just put the chorus and one of the verses here:
Instant Music
It's flooding the world
Children are drowning
Diet Music
Look! it enthralls them
Well, f*$% that!
That’s the chorus. Also, this lyric kinda had me cringing.
A rental sentimal
Stress Zero for Happy!
Getting a pipe cut would be O.K.
And the website also highlighted that the term “pipe cut” is slang for a vasectomy…certainly not what I was expecting when I was hearing the instrumental. Granted, the lyrics are not dominating the sound of the scenes, but the very punk rock nature of the lyrics make you think something else.
Considering that the song has a very anti-authority message in its lyrics and it also takes place in the scene where Naota is observing Haruko’s foolish antics, Ninamori chastises Naota like he’s a child, and there Miyajun has a Hanna-Barbera style cartoon meltdown in class, I think this song enhances the scene by showing how much Naota and Ninamori both despise the idea of adulthood while simultaneously vying for it.
They hate how adults are so stupid, selfish, and wrapped up in their own foolish ideals that they become stoic, zombielike husks who refuse to express any form of emotion while claiming that their own actions conform to a child’s idea of maturity or adulthood. To a young kid breaching into adolescence, they equate drinking sweet drinks with being childish and drinking bitter drinks with being mature. They equate mild food with childishness and spicy food with maturity and even Ninamori outright says that spicy curry is “an adult taste.”
While Ninamori quietly desires to have a loving mother and father, the scandal threatens that security which requires Ninamori to put up a front as if she’s okay if they get divorced. Naota is also confused about the idea of a functional relationship considering that his brother is gone, it is implied that his mother is dead, he cannot relate to his father and grandfather, and aside from Ninamori the only two women in his life are Haruko, the much older psychotic alien who toys with his emotions, and Sameji, an emotionally damaged older girl who keeps coming onto him.
The lyrics of Instant Music do a great job of expressing this angst-ridden, punk-rock echo chamber that both Naota and Ninamori are in as a result of them having to live double-lives of simultaneously being children but trying to reach a broken ideal of what it means to be an adult.
(2) Sad Sad Kiddie-Instrumental
This is the second time the song “Sad Sad Kiddie” has been used as filler music. In episode 2 the song is used to underscore the mundanity of Canti doing chores around the Nandaba house while Kamon spouts stupidity, and it is the same here in episode 3 where Kamon is trying to sell salacious magazines and Crystal Pepsi. Since there were no lyrics used I won’t get into that. It ends almost as quickly as it begins.
(3) Runner’s High- Instrumental
“Runner’s High” should be appropriated as Haruko’s Head Bashing Theme. This time, though, the target indirectly ends up being Ninamori as she gets second-hand contact with the “Fooly Cooly” phenomenon by having Naota crash into her.
This sort of comes up in season 2, but having “Runner’s High” play as Haruko runs Naota over with her vespa only to transition into a fast-paced 360-degree panning shot of Naota slowly accelerating toward Ninamori for the screen to briefly slow down as if they were about to kiss—and them BAM, their heads collide…You see this in FLCL where Haruko sort of utilizes latent teenage hormones or “young love” to cultivate her schemes, and watching FLCL in this order sort of helped me piece that conclusion together.
(4)Carnival-Instrumental
I have to skip the Dinner Scene even though it is one of my favorite scenes in the anime to briefly describe how the instrumental to “Carnival” softly uses its rumbling bass to display the tension in the Nandaba household. It’s only about 30-seconds long so it’s relatively insignificant, but in this 30-second-or-so display you hear Ninamori say that she is glad that the Secretary is gone.
(5)Stalker-Instrumental
The bass of “Carnival” also accomplishes the same job of “Stalker” in the scene where Ninamori spills the details to Naota about her cheating. There was so much weird tension in this episode, and I’ll just let you watch the episode for yourself to observe it.
The long-and-short of it is a weird three-way conversation where Haruko seems to tease Ninamori and Naota about the state of their relationship and it all ends rights before the dramatic conversation between Ninamori and Naota reaches its boiling point in their classroom…This scene is briefly laden with silence right until the heated conversation turns into an action sequence where the song played is
(6)Advice
This is probably the honorary action theme since this song underscores a lot of the action scenes between Canti and whomever. Instead of the instrumental, you actually get to hear the chorus and the final verse of the song which is sung in English and is:
I want to see you again someday
So, leave me alone. Away with you!
Everyone told me that I was wrong
I have nothing to do with it!
They gave me a lot of advice
I don't want to have anything to do with you!
Almost sounds like a vindictive break-up song. Seems as if the action is used to reveal pent-up angst that culminates in action sequences.
(7) Little Busters
I chose to skip the orchestral play music that dominates most of the action scene to emphasize how the song “Little Busters” is used here.
It serves the exact same function and is timed in the same manner as it was used in the previous episode, so I won’t beat a dead horse there.
What is special about this usage of the song is that it ends abruptly, right before the final line of the episode as Ninamori says “they’re fake” in reference to her glasses.
If you think about it, that’s kind of a disappointment. Ninamori actually wears glasses, but refuses to let others know that. In short terms, it’s Ninamori’s crutch, her false façade of appearing to be an adult instead of choosing to be content with being a kid. In the final minute or so of the episode Naota narrates the conclusion, that Ninamori’s father was not prosecuted and that her mom and dad are not getting divorced, but Naota sort of expects Ninamori to use the events of the episode to be honest with herself and with others, symbolic in the action of choosing to wear her glasses.
In this moment, Naota is expecting Ninamori to “behave like an adult” and be real as opposed to putting up a façade. Instead, Ninamori contends to remain a child and exposes that the glasses she’s wearing for the play are indeed fake. In later episodes, you see other subtle changes in Ninamori such as her changes in hairstyle. Instead of following Naota on his journey to be this idealized adult figure, she goes back to being comfortable with the façade.
