I always learn something new when I watch FLCL. This time I found new narrative strings that I didn’t really see before and although seasons 2 and 3 drastically diverge from season 1 there are some symbolic similarities that run through all of them.
First I want to look at the three main characters of each season.
We start off with 12-year-old Naota, a cynical boy who is all at once emotionally suppressed, socially distant, and challenged by Haruko’s appearance in his life. When he is given the powers of Atomsk at the end of his season it is this explosive moment where he defies his own personal desires, and for what reason, it is actually unknown. Considering he doesn’t make a grand speech or anything during that minute or two we can’t fully understand his mindset when he abdicated that world-bending power. What we’re left to assume is that he retains the “Little Buster” attitude, that it’s ok for him to not try to springboard himself into the ideal of maturity that he has for himself, since it’s something he has yet to understand.
Second we have 14-year-old Hidomi who is more emotionally suppressed and socially distant than Naota. We also see that through her dream sequences she has these hidden dark fantasies where she idolizes pain, destruction, and death. I will personally chalk that up to it being a manifestation of her angst towards her family situation; it is implied that her father has been gone for a very long time and she’s been holding out hope. Instead of hope, the absence of her father has left her in emotional pain that leaves her emotionally and socially stagnant, quite like the murky brown water of the wasteland and the putrefied zombies that she envisions in her dreams. While she did not seize Atomsks’ power, she did contain a large amount of N.O that she wasn’t able to summon at will, but still utilized to great effect. Finally, when her season ended she resolved to her narration which again carries the “Little Busters” attitude that is content with not wanting to do or be anything—there’s no rush to grow older, there’s no rush to be anything other than who you are in the moment.
Last off we have 17-year-old Kana, who does retain some degree of emotional suppression, but masks it through her friendships with Hijiri, Mossan, and Pets. This isn’t really seen until the final episode of the season, but Kana also has a massive N.O capability, one that could apparently collapse space-time. In fact, in the final episode she was able to control that power and utilize it to stop the catastrophe from destroying the world. Yet again, Kana reverts to a “Little Busters” attitude in the end of episode 4 and in the end of the season. Her opening narration from episode 1 is repeated and she doesn’t reach the other side of the threshold of “maturity,” neither do Naota or Hidomi.
So from season 1 to season 3 we see a growth in how N.O is used as a plot device to show that the characters come to grips with the idea of “maturity” only to ultimately revert back to being content with their current station.
This go-‘round I also saw an advancement in the symbolism of the Medical Mechanica iron-shaped building. In season 1 there was only 1, and it was swallowed by Atomsk. In season 2 there were several all over the place, without much explanation, and the most prominent one was used in the final mecha battle. In season 3 there were numerous buildings around the world, also followed up by pins…Sort of like the pins you see on Google Maps or other navigation apps on your phone. It turns out that the pins and the iron-shaped buildings were waypoints that could be used to transport aliens and Medical Mechanica mechs from possible light-years away, and that it culminated in this apocalyptic siege where the world would be overrun by aliens and mechs from other galaxies.
When looking at season 2 and season 3 it really changed my understanding of these symbols in season 1. Instead of some innocuous, self-contained inside-joke, the creators decided to expand upon it to make it part of some intergalactic conspiracy. I wish that aspect of the story was used more, but I’ll give them an “A” for effort on expanding upon symbols and concepts we saw in season 1 and also using it as a narrative tool to advance the story.
You’ve gotten my 2 cents on how the music impacts the story, so really reading this was a waste of your time, unless you either love the series as much as I do, you love reading my break stuff down, or something in the lanes between the two. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do for FLCL Week of 2021, but hopefully I’ll come up with something. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope you have been inspired to either watch FLCL for yourself or at the very least listen to The Pillows (kita mikichi).
-The End
(P.S: THIS WAS 50 PAGES IN MICROSOFT WORD. 50 PAGES SINGLE-SPACED! MY FINGERS ARE CRAMPED AND MY RIGHT ARM FELL ASLEEP TOO MANY TIMES TO COUNT!)
