YMMV / FLCL

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Naota's older brother, Tasuku. Did he only care about being a pro baseball player, sparing not a thought for how his family or home town were doing after he left? Is he a decent guy who just isn't good with people? Did he intentionally jilt Mamimi, or did Mamimi just completely overestimate their relationship? Or both?
    • Mamimi's relationship with Tasuku was probably a one-sided crush. It's implied that she's younger than he is, and even Naota's sixth grade classmates think she's childish and weird. What are the odds that a star athlete would be dating her?
  • Is Kamon an Abusive Parent manchild or is he an adult that has realized that he doesn't have to pretend a stoic attitude to be one? There's evidence for both suggestions.
• Better on DVD: This series is an OVA, after all. At six episodes, you can comfortably get through the whole thing in an evening.
• Bizarro Episode: Episode 3 stands out as a result of being so divorced from the rest of the narrative. The episodes before and after it are largely a linear, if bizarre, narrative focusing on Naota and Haruko, with the included focus of Canti, Mamimi, and Amarao. Episode 3 however is A Day in the Limelight for Ninamori, delving more into her background and relationship with Naota, even revealing she has some level of N.O. potential after Naota crashed into her head. While this would suggest her becoming a more important character, she largely fades into the background in later episodes, becoming just another of Naota's friend circle, up until the final few minutes of the last episode hinting that she and Naota will get together. As a result, Episode 3 feels rather odd when connected to the rest of the narrative due to how little it has to do with the greater plot.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Haruko being awesomeness personified ends up absolving her of trying to destroy the world and kill Naota in the eyes of most fans.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Kitsurubami is very popular in the fandom despite her minimal screentime.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory:
  • On the one hand you can take the plot literally: a kid meets an alien that wants to use his head as an interspacial portal that could allow her to gain the power of a space pirate. On the other, you can see it as a big allegory for puberty: meeting an older girl, getting (quite literally) horny, becoming an adult and all that entails.
  • There's a theory that the series is a criticism of Japan's "low age of consent".^note The age of consent in Japan is at least 16, the same as every other country that signed UNESCO's Kid's Rights Act. But the myth of a low age of consent persists, even within Japan. So it's entirely possible that Gainax was criticizing a law that hasn't been in force since 1993,or rather than the law the still persisting attitude, but it's equally possible that people are reading too much into it. Or both. From Naota's big brother and Mamimi, Haruko and Amarao and later Naota... probably, it seems that having sex, when not ready, has unavoidable consequences.
  • Did Haruko and Naota have sex during the whole satellite scene in episode 4? Not only is the whole scene a very reminiscent of it, but in the next episode, Haruko suggests as such. Naota's whole attitude after it doesn't help matters as he becomes more aggressive with Mamimi, lashing out at her. All the while he's still clearly afraid and intimidated by Haruko.
• Fan Nickname: After Seasons 2 and 3 were officially titled Progressive and Alternative, fans decided to nickname the original series "FLCL Classic".
• Faux Symbolism: A minor example, but the gigantic hand has a hole straight through its palm during episode 5 and the first half of 6, as if it had been nailed to a cross.
• Fountain of Memes: Haruko. Practically everything she says or does has gone memetic.
• Gateway Series: The soundtrack acts as the perfect gateway to The Pillows. As a gateway series to anime, however, it's probably not the best choice.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This series was almost completely unknown in Japan, even amongst otaku of the time. American anime fans, however, love it. [adult swim] pushing it relentlessly didn't hurt matters. Funimation's decision to bring the series back into print was treated as a very big deal. The series' popularity among American fans and the staff at [adult swim] eventually reached the point where, in 2016, it was announced that Cartoon Network would be partnering with Production I.G to produce two more seasons, something which only occurred once before with The Big O.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Episode 5 features an Art Shift that parodies South Park. Gainax would later go on to ruthlessly parody South Park and Western Animation as a whole a decade later, complete with the same art shift. In addition, Kazuya Tsurumaki stated in the commentary that when they made FLCL, no one in Japan had ever heard of South Park, so the scene was met with blank stares.
  • Haruko is a Rose-Haired Sweetie with instrument-themed weaponry voiced by Mayumi Shintani. Now why does that sound familiar?
  • Naota from FLCL is a grade schooler who's obsessed with acting mature and grown-up. Naoto from Persona 4 is a high schooler who's obsessed with acting mature and grown-up.
• Magnificent Bitch: Haruko Haruhara, possible real name Haruha Raharu, uses her employment in the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood to claim the N.O. powers of the mighty "Pirate King" Atomsk for herself. Haruko uses the powerful N.O. user Naota Nandaba to summon and recruit the Medical Mechanica robot Canti, in her endeavor to free Atomsk from Medical Mechanica's captivity and subverts the efforts of both the company and government officials seeking to stop her. Leaving Earth after being defeated by a Naota empowered with Atomsk's strength who only didn't kill her because he chose to profess his lover for her instead, Haruko returns years later, searching for more N.O. users to begin her plans anew. Through a series of manipulations and deals with rivals—including her own split-off personality—Haruko again nearly unites with Atomsk. Though initially torn by his repeated rejection, she recovers with the aid of his comforting before preparing to chase him once more, calmed and enlightened.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Some people like to joke that Naota managed to do in six episodes what Monkey D. Luffy couldn't in 900+: Become the Pirate King (or at least gain the power of one).
  • This anime is often paired with Chop Suey by System of a Down due to the fact that during the early years of YouTube, it was one of the earliest AMVs that made fans of the anime and the band.
• Moral Event Horizon: Haruko feeding Naota to the Terminal Core, probably expecting that it would kill him, and knowing for certain that doing so could result in the demolition of the entire planet, all so she could "get what [she] want[s]." It's worse in hindsight –- she abandoned Naota like Amarao when she thought she had successfully extracted his power into Canti, and only returned when it became obvious that this wasn't the case. Thankfully, she has a bit of a Heel Realization and leaves Naota alone afterwards.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The BRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG when Haruko's bass guitar hits something.
  • The droning "air raid siren" that emanates from Medical Mechanica, which usually means something bizarre and awesome is about to happen.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Episode 4: Naota saves the city from a hand-shaped robot satellite that falls from orbit and pitches a gigantic baseball-shaped bomb at the city, using an electric guitar that Haruko pulls from his head to bat it. Yeah.
  • Episode 5: Haruko surfing (in midair) on a bass guitar and using it to take down a multi-story five-armed robot gunman that's actually a giant hand (each "arm" is a finger) — while wearing a Playboy Bunny suit. That's not something you see every day, folks.^note Haruko wearing a Playboy Bunny suit during this batshit insane battle is actually a reference to one of the opening videos a group of amateur animators made for DAICON in 1982 and 1983 before they later formed Gainax. To drive the point home, Haruko even shouts "Daicon!" in that scene.
  • When Amarao opens fire on her in the barbershop, Haruko wields a razor and slices each and every bullet perfectly in half without effort. Cue dozens of Men in Black with machine guns storming the place, and Haruko proceeds to defeat all of them without breaking a sweat:
    Amarao: ...You can't be real.
• Superlative Dubbing: Many Western fans who are otherwise skeptical or outright hostile towards anime dubs love this dub. Many thought a dub of this series would have been improbable due to its use of Japanese puns and pop culture references. Instead, these were replaced with comparable English puns and cultural references. As for the cast, Kazuya Tsurumaki hand-picked the English voice actors himself, because it was vitally important to him that they have the same "essence" as the Japanese voice actors. He was particularly impressed by Haruko's voice actress, Kari Wahlgren.^note  Who at this point was a complete newbie that had never recorded a dub before.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: As this reddit post points out, "One Life" sounds very similar to "Don't Look Back In Anger", by Oasis.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: The series has its share of batshit insanity and like a drug trip, you can find some nuggets of true brilliance while your housekeeper with a chainsaw engine-powered guitar and robot that popped out of your head join you on magic adventures.
• Toy Ship: Naota and Ninamori. At the very end, it's implied that they'll probably get together eventually if not immediately. It helps that it's definitely the healthiest male-female relationship, and Ninamori herself always had the most sincere affection for Naota. In a Ship Tease, Ninamori rigs the play just so she and Naota get certain parts. Also the fact that she unashamedly reveals this to Naota while holding his hand.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The manga sequences in Episodes 1 and 6. They better damn well be, since they both took massive chunks out of the show's budget. Even the characters acknowledge it.
  • Haruko's kiss in Episode 1, which is loaded with complex 360-degree spinning that is incredibly complex for 2D animation.
• Woolseyism: As noted in Superlative Dubbing, a significant portion of the dialogue was replaced in the English dub with comparable Western jokes and references. For example, in the Japanese version, the soft drink Cheerio is referenced. Since Cheerio is unknown outside of Japan (and the term is more closely associated in the U.S. with the breakfast cereal Cheerios), this was changed to Crystal Pepsi in the English dub.

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