The Forehead Growths
N.O. Portals · Bodies Becoming Public Problems
Naota's strange forehead growths are literal signs that something impossible is trying to come through him. Episode 3 extends the image to Ninamori, whose carefully controlled public image falls apart at the same time that her own growth becomes impossible to hide.
The sexual and puberty imagery is hard to miss: sudden growths, embarrassment, bodies changing without permission and other people becoming extremely interested in what is happening.
Why it matters
FLCL does not require the growths to mean only one thing. The joke works because the science-fiction problem and the adolescent embarrassment are happening at exactly the same time.
Bitter Drinks, Spicy Food & Acting Grown-Up
Adulthood as Something You Perform
FLCL repeatedly surrounds its younger characters with small performances of adulthood: coffee, cigarettes, spicy food, sexual knowledge, cynicism and the insistence that nothing is surprising.
Naota is especially committed to that performance. He wants to sound bored and experienced before he has actually lived enough to earn either attitude.
Why it matters
The series keeps discovering that adults are not magically finished people either. Naota's mistake is not wanting to grow up. It is assuming maturity means learning how not to look affected by anything.
Amarao's Eyebrows
Authority You Can Stick to Your Face
Amarao's enormous eyebrows are visibly artificial, and FLCL keeps framing them as part of the hard, authoritative adult image he wants to project.
He knows enough about Haruko to be genuinely useful. He also spends much of that time insecure, jealous and desperate to convince Naota that he understands her better.
Why it matters
The eyebrows make Amarao's problem visible before he says a word. He really does know more than Naota, but knowing more and being mature are not the same thing.
Mamimi and the Name "Takkun"
Tasuku · Naota · Something to Hold Onto
Mamimi keeps returning to the name "Takkun."
It belongs first to Tasuku, the boyfriend who left Mabase. She then uses it for Naota, Tasuku's younger brother, while leaning on him for the closeness she lost. Later she gives the same name to another creature she becomes attached to.
That repetition is more useful than reducing any one Takkun to a symbol.
Why it matters
Mamimi keeps trying to make absence hurt less by placing the same name onto somebody or something that is still nearby. Naota eventually has to recognize that being wanted as a replacement is not the same thing as being seen as himself.
