Episode 5: "Brittle Bullet"

Warning! This page contains "spoilers" for Episode Five 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 fifth episodes of FLCL in their entirety.

This episode's theme is gunplay, but all the usual suspects make an appearance too.

Surely you didn't miss the goofy comic-book-slash-South-Park scene starting around 4:40. This looks really goofy, but it serves a purpose… Go watch it again and see if you can figure it out; listen to what Amarao says. You see? There's a duality; when Amarao is being an adult, dealing with trying to take Canti out, he's in cool comic book pose mode, but when he's acting like a child, saying he wants a cool haircut and sweet candies, he's in kiddie South Park mode. Amarao's English voice actor rocks in this scene, by the way.

This episode makes more clear the fact that Haruko and Amarao have definitely had a relationship in the past. "Who's the girl he hasn't seen in so long?" Kitsurubami asks. Why, the girl picking her nose in the next scene. Amarao and "Rahara" seem very familiar, don't they? Amarao says one of the funniest lines ever to appear in animation; "I'm not a child anymore. I'm an adult. I can buy my own insurance and everything." Amarao seemed to be pretty familiar with having things pulled out of his head too, don't you think? Hmm, so Haruko met this guy when he was a kid and used to whack him with her guitar and pull things out of his head. Sounds kind of familiar, don't you think? (And did you notice that Haruko was only able to pull things out of his head when his eyebrows had fallen off?)

In regards to Naota and Mamimi's relationship, this episode picks up right where the last one took off. How has Mamimi's attitude towards Naota changed? Go back and watch their riverside chat scene again; it starts around 9:40 and lasts quite a while as other scenes weave in and out. The end part of it, where Mamimi rejects Naota's kiss, takes place in front of a building designed to look like a Japanese love hotel, an inexpensive lodging designed specifically for romantic rendezvous. Each stroke of Naota's pride cocked that revolver; when he realized Mamimi no longer liked him, it fired. Mamimi cries for Tasuku-sempai (-sempai meaning older classmate or mentor). Spurned, Naota still tries to be his own man; he insists that Mamimi no longer call him "Takkun," a name that both implies childishness (with the -kun honorific) and is likely the same name she called his brother Ta-suku.

So what is up with this Atomsk dude? How does he relate to Naota and Canti? And he has a guitar too? Most definitely! We'll find out in the next and final episode…

Here's the significance of some of the allusions in this ep.

The birds coming out of the TV and the scene that was on just before that is meant to be reminiscent of the films of John Woo, a director from Hong Kong who has created many action movies both in Hong Kong and in Hollywood.

Much tribute is given to Lupin III (pronounced Loo-Pawn the Third), a Japanese comic and animated series whose eccentric creator calls himself Monkey Punch. It's about a high-class thief named Lupin and his eclectic friends who attempt thievries all around the world while staying a step ahead of the bumbling Chief Zenigata. Kamon's red jacket and blue tie are just like Lupin's outfit. When Kamon asks Naota if he likes the green one better, he is referring to the Lupin III movie The Castle of Cagliostro, which was directed by Japan's animator of animators, Hayao Miyazaki. In Cagliostro, Lupin's coat is green instead of red. But "Monkey-sensei prefers the red one, you know." The scene in which Kamon jumps out of his clothes and is met by an odd springing punching glove from nowhere in freeze frame is a classic Lupin gag too. (Miyazaki also directed the Emmy award winning Spirited Away, which you must see if you haven't yet.)

The text on screen when Kitsurubami and Kamon are in the sludge says "Correct way to write 'Mackerel,'" and is part of an untranslatable joke that appears during this scene on the Japanese soundtrack. If you're watching the English version, just ignore it. ☺

Regarding the Adult Swim run of FLCL, there's a "Not an Edit" in this episode, or a scene that one would expect to be edited for television, but which isn't. It's the scene where Haruko is lying on top of Naota in a very friendly position on his bed, her bare tookus clearly visible resting on Naota's leg. "Not an Edit" was coined by Kyle Pope, a guy who writes The Edit List, a ridiculously meticulous and somewhat pretentious list of edits made (or, in this case, not made) to various Japanese animation productions as they air on American television.

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2: Fire Starter
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