List of FLCL characters

This is the list of characters for the anime FLCL. The English edition of the anime preserves the Japanese naming order for characters.

Atomsk

Atomsk (アトムスク, Atomusuku), also known as the "Pirate King" (海賊王), is an enigmatic character, and apparently the most powerful "space pirate" in the galaxy. His N.O. is great enough to steal planets. 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. Amarao portrays him inaccurately, imagining Atomsk's appearance as a humanoid male figure with fiery red hair when he describes him to Naota. In an interview, the director clarifies that Atomsk's true form is indeed that of the bird, and Amarao's mental image was of a man because he believed that Atomsk and Haruko were lovers, which was later exposed to be false, and Amarao looks very surprised when he sees Atomsk's true form. It is the desire to obtain him and gain his power for herself that drives Haruko to constantly follow Atomsk, and not care which planet is destroyed, so long as she gets to Atomsk. In the early stages of creation, it was planned to make clear that Haruko, as a police officer or marshal of sorts, is after Atomsk as a fugitive pirate. Her bracelet, for one, was planned to be a handcuff cut in half, with its other end on Atomsk. However, as work progressed, this relationship was left somewhat vague, and much is left to speculation. Atomsk's guitar is an EB-0 1961 Gibson.

Atomsk is named after the novel Atomsk, by Carmichael Smith (a pseudonym of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, better known as Cordwainer Smith). In the director commentary on the third DVD, the director states that he is unsure as to how its really pronounced (in FLCL it is pronounced "atomisk" or "atomos'ku").

Commander Amarao

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Kôichi Ôkura	Dave Mallow

Commander Amarao (アマラオ) works for the department of Interstellar Immigration. This agency, among other things, acts as a middle man for negotiations between the government and Medical Mechanica. Thus, Haruko/Raharu is a big problem for them as she is bent on provoking an attack by disrupting communications. Amarao has fake eyebrows made of nori which, he believes, serve the dual purpose of making him look macho and protecting him from N.O. Amarao seems to have had a past relationship with Haruko similar to Naota's. It is a likely inference from the story that as a child he was approached by Haruko/Raharu, just like Naota, and she tried using his N.O. to contact/capture Atomsk. However, his N.O. channel is so weak that he can barely pull something the size of a slingshot through. When the prior happens in episode 5, Haruko says "Small, as usual.", again suggesting a previous relationship between the two, or that she has tried it with other men. One could also argue that a youthful entanglement with Haruko could have lead to his career with Interstellar Immigration. There are some traces of him feeling jealous that Haruko has chosen Naota over him. He has a love of sickeningly sweet candy and drinks, and hates spicy, sour, and pulpy foods - much like Naota. His vehicle of choice is a Fuji Rabbit, a motor scooter which was produced initially in 1946 six months prior to the initial production of the Vespa. Given that throughout the series Amarao is constantly trying to impress Haruko, who rides a Vespa, one could conclude his ownership of a scooter is further manifestation of his attempts to impress her - or at very least a signal to the level at which Haruko influenced him in his youth.

Canti

Template:Genchar Canti (カンチ, Kanchi) is 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 MM. After having his head broken by Haruko he is recruited by her as an assistant, however he proves to not be good for much other than washing dishes and fetching drinks for the family. It is later revealed that Atomsk can manifest through him, with Naota being the catalyst. Atomsk's symbol appears on Canti's screen when he absorbs Naota; the symbol is a corruption of the kanji characters for "adult" (大人). This symbol also appears on him when Naota "swings the bat" in Full Swing and when Canti is absorbed by the terminal core in FLCLimax. The emotions of Canti are very human-like, despite his looks. He is embarrassed about his broken head (where Haruko hit him) and is looking for the pieces to glue back together in episode two. He wears the box on the back of his head for the same reason- shame. Canti also dons a halo and fake wings (which Haruko was wearing in early episode two). Mamimi is convinced that Canti is an angel. (She calls him Lord Canti after "The God of Black Flames" in a video game she plays which is what the rest of the cast call him throughout the rest of the series). Apparently, he can also eat curry with his "mouth," but it is never really explained how.

Haruhara Haruko

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Mayumi Shintani	Kari Wahlgren

Haruhara Haruko (ハルハラ・ハル子), 19 (or so she claims), is an energetic, spontaneous pink-haired girl from outer-space and investigator for the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood/Stellar Fraternity. Mamimi observes that she looks at least twenty years old but, considering that she is of an unknown alien species, neither Mamimi nor the viewer has a relevant frame of reference. She rides a yellow Piaggio Vespa (and is also known as The Wasp Woman, a pun on the word Vespa, which means wasp) and wields a blue left-handed Rickenbacker bass guitar model 4003 (similar to the 4001 used by Sir Paul McCartney, whom she mentions in Episode 5),with a pull-cord motor on the back, as a bizarre weapon of sorts. Her guitar is able to shoot bullets, act as a rocket launcher, fly, and is used several times to open an N.O. channel in Naota's forehead. She leaves it for a more powerful double-necked guitar (a fusion of the Gibson Flying V, drawn from Naota's N.O. channel, and the 1961 Gibson EB-0, from Atomsk's, that Naota creates while harnessing Atomsk's power) when she departs from Earth in Episode 6. She becomes the Nandaba household's maid and plays on a rival team of the Mabase Martians seemingly for extra money, but in fact to knock a satellite out of Earth's orbit with the baseballs she hits. She has also apparently had past relations with Amarao, most likely similar to her relationship with Naota. This mysterious character is the catalyst for FLCL's entire plot. She is called Haruha Raharu (ハルハ・ラハル) by Amarao; this may be another alias, however. Haruko has connections to the Nandaba family cat, Miu Miu. The cat serves as a "walkie talkie" to her superiors. The cat does not speak (besides its "mews" and grunts) but it is obvious that Haruko is getting some kind of reply as her conversations with Miu Miu are reminiscent to that of a telephone conversation.

Naota calls Haruhara Haruko "Haruko", Kamon calls her "Haruko-san", and Mamimi refers to her as "Haru-san". Amarao, who believes her real name to be Haruha Raharu, refers to her as "Raharu".

Lieutenant Kitsurubami

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Chiemi Chiba	L. Villa

Lieutenant Kitsurubami (キツルバミ) is an attractive young woman on Amarao's staff. In episode 5, Haruko refers to her as being a commando. Amarao makes a pass at her in the final episode, but she resists him. In fact, Kitsurubami seems to be generally disgusted by the idea of romantic inovolvement with Amarao, though she looks up to him as a superior decision-making power and follows his orders loyally. She also seems to become smitten with Canti, despite her initial efforts to attack him. During episode 4, she and two other members of Amarao's staff get nosebleeds when Haruko pulls the Gibson Flying V from Naota's head. In Japan, there's an old wives tale that nosebleeds are caused by sexual arousal, in this case the size of Naota's guitar being a not-so-subtle analogy to penis size.

Kitsurubami is named after a light brown traditional Japanese color, which happens to be the color of her skin. Thus, her name could be interpreted as "Lieutenant Brown", although the color Kitsurubami is not the common "brown."

Miyaji Junko

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Yukari Fukui	Jessica Straus

Miyaji Junko (ミヤジ・ジュン子) is Naota's eccentric sixth grade teacher. Her students have given her the nickname "Miya-Jun". She seems to be constantly troubled by the shallower problems which Naota seems to create, such as the destruction of her car (which happens twice over the course of the series) or the terrible interruption of a lesson. Even on 'normal' days, however, she is pathetically inept: her attempt to teach chopstick usage to a generation of students raised on sporks ends with the revelation that she is unable to use them herself.

She can be viewed as symbolic of the ineffectiveness of educational institutions imparting any truly important or useful knowledge: Naota constantly characterizes the adults around him as "unable to grow-up". In his mind, Miya-Jun's inability to act like a normal adult (similar to his father, grandfather, Ninamori's father, Amarao, and many others) confirm his theory. Adults like her are contradictions in Naota's life; he wants to become an adult, but the adults around him don't act like adults at all.

Nandaba Kamon

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Suzuki Matsuo	Joe Martin

Nandaba Kamon (ナンダバ・カモン), 47, is Naota's father, a former pop culture journalist working as a freelance writer, with his own trashy tabloid: "Kamon-Mabase" (the title is a pun on "come-on mabase"). He makes the most references to pop culture: EVA, "Monkey-sempai" (referring to the creator of the series Lupin III), Hamtaro, Mobile Suit Gundam, and MTV to name a few. Kamon has taken a liking to Haruko, but she only wants to use him as an N.O. Portal. In the fourth episode, Naota discovers that Haruko tried to use him but "his head didn't work" and that she had left a robot replacement to putter around the house. The real Kamon is found dead in a cabinet but is brought back to life by being rehydrated in a small bathtub. Haruko's true intentions of coming to Mabase are revealed through her interactions with Kamon. After realizing that his head didn't open the N.O. portal, she discards him and returns to using Naota, saying "you're the only one who works".

Nandaba Naota

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Jin Mizuki	Barbara Goodson

Nandaba Naota (ナンダバ・ナオ太), 12, is the main character. His name is derived from the Japanese word for "honesty" and his father named him Naota because of that (Fooly Cooly). Unbeknownst to him, he has the "right kind of head" to be used as an N.O. channel. He 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 claims that "nothing amazing ever happens here" despite the show's surreal and often absurd happenings. Naota idolizes his older brother Tasuku, carrying around Tasuku's baseball bat, and even hanging out with Tasuku's old girlfriend Mamimi. In Naota's mind, Tasuku is the epitome of what it means to be an adult, as opposed to the other adults in his his life (e.g. his father, his grandfather, and his teacher) who he perceives as being immature. Much like Amarao, Naota is picky about his drinks (disliking drinks which are sour, bitter, or contain pulp) and hates spicy foods. While at the beginning of the series he appears to be bothered by Haruko's presence over the course of the series he realizes his own feelings and admits that he loves her in the final episode. His guitar is the Gibson Flying V which Haruko pulls out of his head in the fourth episode.

Nandaba Shigekuni

File:Shigekuni.jpg

Nandaba Shigekuni.

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Hiroshi Ito	Steve Kramer

Nandaba Shigekuni (ナンダバ・シゲクニ) is 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. Shige-kun values baseball more than anything in the world- he is disappointed in his own son and younger grandson because they are lousy baseball players. He does not defend Naota as the other players mock him, because he holds too much pride for Tasuku. He enjoys taking advantage of Canti as much as Kamon does.

Nandaba Tasuku

File:Tasuku.JPG

This is the clearest image of Nandaba Tasuku shown in FLCL. The envelope is a very old American air-mail stationery design.

Nandaba Tasuku (ナンダバ・タスク), 17, is Naota's older brother who moved to America to play baseball. Mamimi believes that, since Tasuku saved her from the fire at their old elementary school, he likes her. The actual depth of their initial relationship is unknown. In the first episode, Naota receives a postcard from Tasuku, revealing that he now has an American girlfriend.

Although he never actually appears on screen, he is very significant to the storyline. As the former star of the baseball team, Naota idolizes him, but he is afraid of not living up to his brother's legacy, and because of this never swings the bat when on the plate.

There are examples of scenes in which Naota yells out "Tasuk--"; the Japanese audience, at first assuming that he will exclaim "Tasukete" (Help me!), may be surprised when he instead says "Tasuku," the name of his older brother.

Ninamori Eri

File:Ninamori.JPG

Ninamori Eri.

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Mika Itô	Melissa Fahn

Ninamori Eri (ニナモリ・エリ), 12, is Naota's classmate. In the series, she is referred to as 'Ninamori', her last name. She wears a red shirt with "USSR" emblazoned on the front. She is the daughter of the mayor of Mabase and is class president. While she appears to be a very proper, even stuck-up, girl, she isn't above breaking the rules to get what she wants. She cheats during the election for the school play in order to get in the lead role and Naota cast opposite her, which (among other things) hints at her interest in Naota. Other hints are her expressed dislike of Mamimi and a final scene with Naota by a vending machine that mirrors Mamimi and Naota's early-series interactions. Ninamori is highly intelligent, if a little jaded. Much like Naota, Ninamori attempts to act mature, and although her parents' problems trouble her deeply, she refuses to admit it.

Gaku

Gaku.

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Akira Miyajima	R. Martin Klein

Gaku, age 12, is another one of Naota's classmates and close friends. In episode three, Marquis de Carabas, he plays the part of a mouse in the school play. Gaku also uses the word "chu" constantly, especially when referring to Haruko. This is a pun in Japanese, because "chu" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for both kissing and the sound a mouse makes. He's somewhat hyper (compared to the bored composure of his friends) and is usually seen with Masashi. He is an encyclopedia of bizarre rumors and legends, many of which are sexual in nature.

Masashi

File:Masashi.JPG

Masashi.

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Kazuhito Suzuki	Steven Blum

Masashi, age 12, is yet another of Naota's classmates. He is friends with Naota and is often seen hanging out with Gaku, Ninamori, and Naota. Masashi also has a job as a delivery boy, and drives a truck around, even though he is only in grade school. His truck is later eaten by the terminal core when Mamimi loses control of it. Masashi, like Naota, generally sounds slightly depressed.

Samejima Mamimi

File:Mamimi.JPG

Samejima Mamimi

Japanese Cast	English Cast
Izumi Kasagi	Jennifer Sekiguchi

Samejima Mamimi (サメジマ・マミ実), 17, was Tasuku's girlfriend, though she hits on Naota since his brother left Japan. She is a truant high school student with pyromaniacal tendencies; she also smokes a lot and spends most of her time under a bridge. It is likely that her parents are separated.

She has the peculiar tendency to name people and things "Ta-kun," after her personal nickname for Naota's brother (and Naota himself). The "-kun" suffix is an informal and intimate honorific primarily used when addressing males of equal or junior status. Mamimi is likely using Naota as a substitute for Tasuku and therefore refers to him as "Ta-kun" which can be short for both Naota and Tasuku. (Naota is well-aware of the similarity between his nickname and his brother's name.) Mamimi also calls Tasuku "Tasuku-sempai" since he is an older classmate.

The story originally sets forth that her fascination with fire stems from Tasuku having rescued her from the elementary school fire, although it is later hinted that she was the one who started that fire. Mamimi holds an almost quixotically weak grip on the difference between fantasy and reality; for example, she believes Canti to be the manifestation of Cantido, the video game god to whom she burns things as sacrifices.

Mamimi emanates an aura of benign vapidness that causes much of the cast (Naota's classmates especially) to look upon her with disdain. In fact, Mamimi can be exceedingly destructive - although only when nobody is watching. She spends much of "FLCLimax" exacting retribution against those who have wronged her - only to have her plan backfire. This is not to say she can't be kind or loving; she tries without success to bestow love on Naota, who merely finds her attention discomforting.

She loves taking care of things that are weak-willed, which she leaves (or which escape) when they start to show willpower. This leads to her eventual disinterest in Naota and ultimately proves a disaster for her when her last adoptee, the terminal core from a robot, goes haywire and overpowers first her and then the military.

As far as high schoolers go, she seems to be rather sexually frustrated, as she often pursues an uncomfortable level of intimacy with Naota (most likely because she sees him as his brother's replacement), which annoys Naota greatly. When he asks why she constantly clings to him, she responds "If I don't, I'll overflow."

At the end of the series, she leaves Mabase to become a professional photographer.

Most characters refer to Mamimi simply as Mamimi, but Naota's friends refer to her as "Naota's Wife" and Haruko calls her "Sameji", a shortening of her last name. Amarao refers to her as "that high school girl".

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