FLCLimax

"FLCLimax" (フリクラ, Furi Kura) is the sixth and final episode of the anime FLCL. It sums up the events of the preceding five episodes, as Haruko returns to Mabase and Naota attempts to come to grips with a world he perceives as boring. The name of this episode is pronounced "Fooly Climax" in the preview at the end of "Brittle Bullet".

Plot summary

In class, Naota's schoolmates languish under the inept care of Miya-jun, who tries and fails to wean them (and herself) off sporks and onto chopsticks. While Miya-jun continues to struggle with chopsticks, Naota walks out of class and reveals that ever since the previous episode, smoke has continued to pour out of the MM factory. Naota also comments that, due to the mist enveloping the whole city and hindering visibility, and the imposing hand statue left behind by the previous MM robot, the town feels like it is cut off from the world, and you cannot go beyond the edge. Since the previous episode, Haruko and Canti have disappeared, and become wanted criminals.

Meanwhile, Amarao and Lt. Kitsurubami talk about the giant hand placed next to the MM factory, and how it looks like a hand trying to grab an iron that might "iron out the wrinkles on the brain". Amarao concludes that Haruko is no longer their priority, and that they must find the Terminal Core before it can control the hand and activate the MM plant.

Samejima Mamimi is out in the rain, and searching for her kitten 'Ta-kun' who disappeared last episode. She is splashed by a passing motor scooter and goes under the bridge as Naota and his friends, on their way back from school, pass by. Naota's friends ask him if he's going to say hello to his 'wife', but Naota simply walks off. Mamimi then finds a little dog-like robot by the river.

Naota, while on his own, walks through a construction yard and is confronted by Amarao on the maturity of his actions. We see that Naota has taken to drinking the bitter soda that he used to dislike, and we also see Mamimi's cat, who seems to be enjoying life with his white kitten love. Amarao explains to Naota the reason for Haruko's stay in Mabase, which is so that she can rescue her love, Atomsk the Pirate King, who has been captured by Medical Mechanica. Before letting him go, Amarao slaps a pair of seaweed eyebrows similar to his own, telling Naota that "cats should stick with other cats". This shows Amarao's sympathy for Naota, as he was also once used by Haruko.

At the bridge, the robot runs away with Mamimi's mobile phone whilst she is looking at her 'sempai' (Tasuku's) number. She stops it, but in her depression, perhaps realising that she may never see or hear from him again, lets the robot eat it. The robot seems to grow in size from this, and she decides to take it in as her pet after naming it (again) 'Ta-kun'.

Naota is seen in his room, playing with his bass guitar, when he is called for dinner by Kamon. In a scene that mimics the manga parody from the first episode, Haruko has returned the Nandaba household from a "vacation in Hawaii". During the night, Naota speaks to a seemingly asleep Haruko, and asks her who she is and where she's come from. It becomes apparent that she actually is awake, and Naota flings himself at her, crying uncontrollably and asking her why she left.

Miya-jun holds a parent-teacher conference with Kamon in an attempt to figure out where Naota is. Kamon mildly blows her off with a story about how he accidentally killed a hamster through neglect as a schoolboy, and, when reminded of the topic at hand, simply smiles and says that unlike a hamster, Naota can take care of himself.

Meanwhile, Commander Amarao and Lt. Kitsurubami are attempting to find the "terminal core" of a robot they haul out of the river that runs through Mabase. They realize too late that the core is actually the device Mamimi has been feeding. It absorbs part of Canti before Haruko feeds Naota to it. It then drills into the hole in the giant hand left standing from episode 5, completing the machine. From this, Haruko hopes to extract Atomsk, the celestial being whose power she desires. The machine, now completed with the terminal core and about to use the MM plant to "smooth out the wrinkles" of the planet, looms down, threatening to crush Commander Amarao. Before the giant hand can fully grasp the MM plant, Canti miraculously stops it as Naota emerges from his head (for the first and only time in the series), glowing with the near-infinite energy of Atomsk.

Haruko is stunned but suddenly thrusts herself into a berserker rage bent on acquiring the power of Atomsk by destroying Naota. After a few initial blows, she is easily overpowered and thrown to the ground as she watches Naota speed towards her with extreme intensity. An agitated Amarao desperately urges Naota to defeat Haruko, as she is no better than Medical Mechanica itself. Naota stops just short of completely obliterating Haruko, declares his love for her, and allows Atomsk to fully emerge from his N.O. portal.

File:Naota Kisses Haruko.jpg

"I love you."

While Amarao is beside himself with Naota's naїveté, everything in Mabase seems to be drawn towards Atomsk's gargantuan N.O. portal. However, Atomsk only consumes the terminal core and blasts into space while Haruko is dumbfounded by finally meeting her "true love." As the dust settles from the rubble, Haruko casually asks Naota if he wants to pursue Atomsk with her, despite their climactic battle where they nearly destroyed each other. He does not reply so Haruko says, "You're still just a kid, Ta-kun." and to "Save it for next time" implying that she may hold some feelings for him. With that she zooms away towards the sky on her Vespa, leaving Naota to find her guitar lying amongst the rubble.

The episode then cuts to a point a few months after that (note that Ninamori's hair is longer here than during the earlier parts of the episode) when "the seasons have changed." Naota, Gaku, Masashi and Ninamori are all wearing school uniforms, and Naota is throwing a mild fit that Ninamori has bought a beverage "too carbonated" for them to share. The scene then cuts to his house and Canti is seen bating out the wrinkles on a bedsheet hanging over the balcony while Naota's father and grandfather can be heard arguing in the background.

Naota continues to reveal that Mamimi has struck out on her own to become a photographer and still calls his town boringly ordinary. As he and his friends begin middle school on a cheery note, as the scene shifts, Haruko's guitar, sitting alone in Naota's room, plays one final, somber note.

Trivia

• In the scene when Haruko returns and Naota is thrown out the front of his house, you see a superman-like figure shoot out from the house when the camera zooms out.
• When Kamon is talking to Naota's teacher about the hamster dying, one of the last things he says is Hamtaro.(19:54)
• After the Credits you see Haruko driving through space on her Vespa.
• In the English dub, Naota's friend Gaku talks about sporks and refers to them in a vaguely perverted way. When Naota leaves the classroom he snickering makes the remark: "Think he's going to 'get some'?" This is because the word for "sporks" (咲き割れ sakiware; literally "split-fronts") also refers to cleavage. In the English version the reason for the classmates' behavior may be confusing because of the pun-translation barrier.
• At the very end of the episode, Fooly Cooly is misspelled "Fooly Coolly" in a magazine lying on Naota's bed. The magazine shows a picture of Naota holding a guitar and standing on a rubble heap. This is presumably the shot that Samejima Mamimi took after the battle between Haruko and Naota.
• Mamimi is almost entirely isolated in this episode. The only conversations she has are with the robot she finds, and she is always referred to in the third person, even when she is in the presence of the speaker. Likewise, she is only identified by name once - in Naota's final monologue for the series, when he quotes her final words to him before she leaves.
• In the planner book Mamimi reads/makes notes in, the week it is open to is Monday, December 3rd. Unless the series is set in the year 2001 (or later), Mamimi has somehow gotten hold of a long out-of-date planner book from 1990 (or earlier): 1990 was the last year before FLCL's production year of 2000 that December 3rd fell on a Monday.
• Upon initially airing FLCL, Adult Swim announced that, of all six episodes, only one edit was made, and a hint was given: it was in episode 6. In fact, episode 6 contained two edits (a penis, which was blurred in the original footage, was further blurred for TV, and the credits, which contained a short extra scene, was cut for time), and a spoken obscenity was blanked out of the soundtrack in episode 2. An Adult Swim bumper card from the original 2003 suggests a miscommunication: it states (incorrectly) that the credits were stripped from every episode because they were in kanji. In fact, they were broadcast intact on the other five episodes.
• In the English dub of her rather tight-lipped conference with Kamon, Mija-Jun's mouth actually continues to move after she finishes speaking ("Can we stay focused?"). This amounts to a sizable pause between when she finishes speaking and when Kamon starts, with the upshot being that Kamon comes off looking slow witted, and led some fans to believe Adult Swim made another edit that wasn't mentioned.
• Yet another Mobile Suit Gundam parody was made during this episode. As Haruko swings her guitar towards Naota, a streak of darkly lit lightning passes by his head and he ducks. This is a reference to the animation made when the main character, Amuro Ray senses danger.
• The terminal core, when merged with Canti, almost looks like Godzilla.

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