The English edition of the FLCL anime uses the Japanese naming order for characters.Nandaba Naota
Nandaba Naota (ナンダバ・直太), 12, is the main character. His name is derived from the Japanese word for "honesty". He tries to be normal, while living in a normal boring town, inhabited by crazy people. Unbeknownst to him, he has huge N.O. powers. Every episode he states that nothing ever happens in his town, even after the unexplainable and amazing happens. He carries his brother's baseball bat with him because he misses his brother. Naota is internally struggling with the recognition of his existence and independence from his brother. It is the journey of the series, however, that is the coming of age for Naota, and by the end, he has reached young adolescence, and is ready to start to explore life on his own.Nandaba Tasuku
Nandaba Tasuku (ナンダバ・直太), 17, is Naota's older brother who moved to America to play baseball. Mamimi believes that, since Tasuku saved her from the fire at their old elementary school, he likes her. The actual depth of the initial relationship between Mamimi and Tasuku is not known. From context and the fact that he gets another girlfriend in America, it is apparent that Tasuku has no real love for her. Although he never actually appears on screen, he is very significant to the storyline. As the former star of the baseball team, Naota idolizes him, but he is afraid of not living up to his brother's legacy, and in turn never even swings the bat when on the plate. In addition, Tasuku's news that he has a girlfriend troubles Naota greatly. In the first episode of the series, Naota realizes for a split second that Haruko looks like Tasuku (or at least swings her guitar a lot like Tasuku).Samejima Mamimi
Samejima Mamimi (サメジマ・マミ実), 17, was Tasuku's girlfriend though she dotes on Naota since his brother left Japan. She attends school infrequently, smokes, and has pyromaniacal tendencies, and spends most of her time under a bridge. It is likely that her parents are separated. She has a rather peculiar tendency to name many things after her personal nickname for Naota's brother (and Naota himself) "Ta-kun." It is originally set forth in the story that she has a fascination with fire after her rescue from the elementary school by Tasuku, though later it is revealed that she herself set the many fires. She loves taking care of things that are weak-willed, which she leaves when they show some willpower. This ultimately proves a disaster for her when her last adoptee, the terminal core from a robot, goes haywire and overpowers first her and then the military. She also believes Canti to be a manifestation of a fire-starting fallen angel "Cantido", who is really a character from a videogame she plays. At the end of the series, she had left Mabase to become a professional photographer, and Naota mentions that she, for the first time in the series, referred to him by his real name when she left.Haruhara Haruko
Haruhara Haruko (ハルハラ・ハル子), 19 (or so she claims), is a pink haired girl from outer space. She rides a yellow Vespa (and is also known as The Vespa Woman, a pun on the word Vespa, which means wasp) and wields a blue left-handed Rickenbacker bass guitar model 4003 (similar to the 4001 used by Sir Paul McCartney, whom she mentions in Episode 2) as a bizarre weapon of sorts, She hits people with it and can fire bullets from the neck. This weapon is used several times to conjure robots from Naota's forehead. She becomes the Nandaba household's maid and plays on a rival team of the Mabase Martians for extra money. She has also apparently had past relations with Amarao, most likely similar to her relationship with Naota. This mysterious character is the catalyst for FLCL's entire plot. She is called Haruha Raharu (ハルハ・ラハル) by Amarao; this may be another alias, however.
Haruko has connections to the Nandaba family cat, Miu Miu. The cat serves as a "walkie talkie" to her superiors. We never hear the cat say anything but it is obvious that Haruko is getting some kind of reply as her conversations with Miu Miu are reminiscent to that of a telephone conversation.Nandaba Kamon
Nandaba Kamon (ナンダバ・カモン), 47, is Naota's father, a former pop culture journalist working as a freelance writer, with his own trashy tabloid: "Kamon-Mabase" (the title is a pun on "come-on mabase"). He makes the most references to pop culture: EVA, "monkey-sempai" (referring to the series Lupin the III), Hamtaro, Gundam Wing, and MTV to name a few.
Kamon has taken a liking to Haruko, but she only wants to use him as an N.O. Portal. In the fourth episode, Naota discovers that Haruko tried to use him but "his head didn't work" and a robot replacement putters around the house. The real Kamon is found dead in a cabinet but is rehydrated back to life in a small bathtub. Haruko's true intentions of coming to Mabase are revealed through her interactions with Kamon. After realzing that his head didn't open the N.O. portal, she discards him and returns to using Naota's head "you're the only one who works". Although Kamon warns him, Naota is slow to see this and still believes that Haruko loves him up until the very last episode.[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Characters of FLCL ]
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