Episode 3: "Marquis du Carabas"

Warning! This page contains "spoilers" for Episode Three of the FLCL animated series and may ruin the enjoyment of this episode for those who have not yet seen it. This page is intended to be read by none other than those who have already seen the first through third episodes of FLCL in their entirety.

Truth and lies as a theme reappears in this episode, as well as food, and FLCL's grand over-arching theme is featured prominently as well. Have you figured it out yet? And don't forget about the cats!

A lot goes on in this episode, so here's a quick review that hopefully laces everything together. This might be my favorite episode; watching peppy Ninamori and slacker Naota bounce off each other is fun. Ninamori's father, the mayor of Mabase, is involved in a scandal of some sort, and Naota's father Kamon has reported on it in his zine, "Come On Mabase." (Come On, Kamon, get it?) We never get specifics of the scandal, but judging by the conversation at the beginning between Ninamori and his father's secretary ("You seem like a smart secretary. You slept over last night, but you put on a different suit this morning.") and the reaction of Miya-Jun, Naota's teacher, to the illicit zine, the scandal is Clintonian in nature. Ninamori's parents are on the verge of divorce, but she's trying to remain level-headed and calm.

In the meantime, Naota and Ninamori's school is putting on a show of Marquis de Carabas (more popularly known in the English-speaking world as Puss in Boots, a story about a cat that tells very elaborate lies), the roles of which have been democratically decided. Class President Ninamori has rigged the votes so that she was given the role of the Marquis and her crush Naota was given the role of the cat. Noises off…

(When Ninamori says "I don't have a home to go back to. All I have is my cat" around 7:18, I believe she is practicing a line from the play. The line is significant, however, as she really can't go back to her home due to the media frenzy there in the previous scene, and her cat (Naota) soon shows up. ☺)

Ninamori is a liar. She has cheated on the play elections, and there's also the subject of her eyewear; where does the truth end and the lies begin? "They're fake…" (Actors have to wear fake glasses on stage anyway; otherwise the lights reflect on the glass and annoy the audience.) I suspect I'm not alone in thinking she's not quite truthful in her insistence that she is indifferent to the fate of her parents, especially with Naota's narration in the last scene; "In the end, Ninamori's father wasn't prosecuted, and [her parents] didn't get a divorce. Ninamori said she didn't care either way. Then she smiled." Even more than Naota, Ninamori is trying her best to act like a grown-up ("Your pajamas? They're way too short for me, can you see?") and ultimately failing.

To completely change the subject, if you have a way to watch the DVD with headphones (perhaps on your computer?) or a really nice sound system, go watch the silhouette jumpy Kitty Takkun scene again (it starts at about 5:50) for a funny aural gag. If visual gags are more your thing, look quick right after the cat ears sprout from Ninamori at about 16:48. And what the heck are Naota and Miya-Jun doing in the lower-right corner in the screen around 17:40?!

Note that after Canti is transforming, he's shooting a big red ball out of his cannon. (He did this last episode too, but it was more noticeable in this episode.) Pay attention to that ball in future episodes; you'll see it again.

Let's focus on the curry for a bit, 'cuz that's important too. In that frantic scene at the Nandaba dinner table, what was Naota's complaint about his curry? It was too hot. And in Ep 1, he complained because the drink Mamimi had picked was too sour. Pay attention to Naota's taste preferences in the future as well. And why do you think curry was focused on? I'll leave you to figure that out for yourself. You're smart. You can do it. :P

An odd thing in this episode you probably noticed is that the monster came out of Ninamori's head instead of Naota's this time. Why is that so? Well, if you looked closely at the scene where their heads collide, starting at about 8:46, there's a red flash right where their heads are touching. Yes, somehow this resulted in the monster that would come out of Naota's head to come out of Ninamori's instead, though the specifics of this are a mystery. (After you've seen the series all the way through, check out the "Ninamori's monster" entry on the Unsolved Mysteries page for more discussion of this… but it's mostly more questions and no more answers.)

A bit of typical FLCL humor appeared when Haruko caught Canti in the cupboard. What was he doing? It took me a while to figure this out… (of course, if I would have just listened to the Director's Commentary, I would have figured it out immediately.) Poor TV-Boy (you've sometimes gotta feel sorry for the bot and all the abuse he takes in this series) is a bit embarrassed about having his head split open. If you paid close attention in Ep 2, you saw him pick up a red chip of something and observe it right before Kitty Takkun jumped on his coat. This chip was a piece of his head that was broken off by Haruko's Rickenbacker in the previous episode. What he gets caught doing here is trying to glue the pieces back on. In the next scene, he has settled for a humble cardboard box.

A nod to fans of Gainax's other works sneaks into this episode. At the end of the ep, Miya-Jun is wearing bandages (despite the fact that her body seemed to be in one piece when she wakes up and cries "Whaaat? No! Indecency! Demerit!" moments earlier). These bandages are similar to the bandages fanboy favorite Rei wears in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gainax's most popular (and, in my opinion, most overrated) production; of course, Miya-Jun's have a few slight differences… Rei wears these bandages in the third episode of her respective series, just as Miya-Jun does. Thanks to "KSeki" for pointing this out to me, as well as for providing the screen capture seen in the image at the left. Tsurumaki, FLCL's creator, was also part of Eva's crew.

If you have the DVD, get the case and slide out the paper jacket thingie. Check out the picture on the blue side… look closely.

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