The central characters in FLCL (also known as Fooly Cooly), a 2000 Japanese anime produced by Gainax and Production I.G, with two additional seasons released in 2018, followed by two more seasons in 2023. The first season covers the story of a sixth grade student named Naota Nandaba whose life is greatly changed after he is run over by the mysterious alien troublemaker Haruko Haruhara. The second season covers the story of a seventh grade student named Hidomi Hibajiri whose life Haruko also intrudes on.
Main characters Haruko Haruhara
, her actual name , is a mysterious pink-haired alien girl who is the central character in the FLCL series and serves as the antagonistic catalyst for the abnormal events within the series, her goals mostly unknown save her obsessive desire to have Atomsk by absorbing him. She came to Earth years before the events of the first series and has history with Amarao, a deemed failure to her expectations. She is an energetic and unpredictably reckless sociopath who is nicknamed "Vespa Woman" for riding a sunglow Piaggio Vespa SS 180, claiming to be 19 and later 16 despite Mamimi's observation that she is 20. She displays knowledge of guitar types & American classic rock. Besides unlocking a human's N.O. abilities by kissing them, Haruko also has the ability to hypnotize weak-minded people into complying with her demands or believing anything she wants like having someone believe a bad drawing to be a photograph of a fabricated experience.
During the events of FLCL Alternative, claiming to represent the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood, Haruko directly antagonizes Medical Mechanica while entering Kana Koumoto's life to gauge the potential of her latent N.O. powers. From Kana's forehead she acquires a red 1968 model Fender Mustang, and she is not seen until the finale riding her signature Vespa SS 180, which is left in the care of noodle chef and occasional accomplice Dennis Yoga. Haruko aids and instigates Kana and her friends throughout the season, and is shown to have had a previous relationship with Tsukata Kanda of Interstellar Immigration, before having moved on when she was underwhelmed by his N.O. potential. Nonetheless, they team up in the finale "Full Flat". Haruko was ultimately sucked through the "Naked Focal Point", a giant wormhole opened by Kana unleashing her full power to end Medical Mechanica's apocalypse event. In the credits she is seen alongside her Vespa on another planet, FLCL Shoegaze revealing that she ended up in separate reality created by Kana's powers.
During the events of FLCL Grunge, a prequel to the first season, Haruko came to the mob-run town of Okura and infiltrates its infrastructure by taking the Kenshibishi Yakuza, one of the two mobs running the town, and poses as an escort to Mayor Kuroiwa, who has the Kenshibishi's rival Yakuza group in his services. But Haruko finds Shinpachi and awakens his N.O. abilities before arranging Medical Mechanica to be infected with a virus so she can steal Atomsk during the chaos brought about by the resulting mob war. She uses Shinpachi's NO Channel to acquire a weaponized midnight blue left-handed Rickenbacker bass guitar model 4001 that fire bullets and has axe and rocket launcher modes.FLCL Ultimate Edition DVD Liner Notes But Atomsk escapes during the chaos, with Haruko hitching a ride on the Medical Mechanica plant as they chase him down to another planet.
During the first season of FLCL, having come to the planet years before and having a history with Amarao, a deemed failure to her expectations, Haruko arrives to Earth under the cover of an investigator for the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood to find a human with N.O. abilities to help her retrieve Atomsk from the clutches of Medical Mechanica. She eventually finds Naota and established the channel by hitting him with her guitar, moving into his household as a maid to keep tabs on him while her constant presence endangers him and others on a daily basis. Haruko has connections to the Nandaba family cat, Miyu Miyu, who serves as a "walkie talkie" to her superiors. The cat does not speak (besides its "meows" and grunts) but it is obvious that Haruko is getting some kind of reply, as her conversations with Miyu Miyu indicate. With even Amarao unaware of her full intentions, assuming Atomsk is a former lover, Haruko's played with Naota's feelings while endangering the Earth as part of her plan for Atomsk to fully manifest. But the plan backfires when Atomsk made Naota his host, with a furious Haruko attacking the boy before being incapacitated long enough for Atomsk to escape in the universe. Haruko appeared to forgive Naota in the aftermath while tenderly offering him to join her in tracking down Atomsk before retracting the offer, leaving her guitar behind and taking the double-necked guitar/bass that Naota created while harnessing Atomsk's power as her own. At the end of the manga adaptation, a character identical to Haruko appears from Naota's forehead and introduces herself as Haruha Raharu's boss Superior Raharu,FLCL Volume 2, p186, Tokyopop, November 2003 hinting that Haruko is actually on the run from the Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood.
Between the events of the first season and FLCL Progressive, as depicted in the latter's credits, Haruko manages to briefly absorb Atomsk years after leaving Naota. But the experience causes a part of Haruko's being to split off from her while losing Atomsk. The ordeal changed her hair orange while keeping the Gibson EB-0 component of Naota's double-necked guitar/bass, though Haruko remains adamant to capture Atomsk all over again. Returning to Earth under the guise of a homeroom teacher in Hidomi's school, Haruko uses the girl's classmate Ko Ide to weed out Hidomi as her target while being opposed by her discarded fragment in the form of Julia Jinyu. Haruko eventually devours Julia, restoring her original hair color, and focuses her full attention on a defiant Hidomi whom she provokes into attacking her just as Atomsk approaches Earth. Regaining her original guitar while continuing her fight with Hidomi, Haruko manages to absorb Atomsk before he and a possessed Julia separate from her as she emotionally breaks down from failing again. But Haruko quickly recovers from her loss and resumes her hunt for Atomsk.
Naota Nandaba
, is the 12-year-old protagonist of the first season. His name is derived from the Japanese word for "honesty". Unbeknownst to him, he has the "right kind of head" to be used as an N.O. channel, form of dimensional energy that seems to manifest through hormonal influxes.
Slightly wise beyond his years and heavily critical of others around him, Naota is cynical, obsessed with appearing mature and devoutly acts nonchalant. This is most expressed in his monologues which open and close each episode where he continues to claim that "nothing amazing ever happens here - everything is ordinary" despite the show's surreal and often absurd happenings. His attitude is largely reserved and bitter, though he can be somewhat smug and content at times. Naota idolizes his older brother Tasuku, carrying around Tasuku's baseball bat, and even hanging out with Tasuku's old girlfriend Mamimi. In Naota's mind, Tasuku is the epitome of what it means to be an adult, as opposed to the other adults in his life (e.g. his father, his grandfather, and his teacher) who he perceives as being immature. Much like Amarao, Naota is picky about his drinks (disliking drinks which are sour or bitter) and hates spicy foods, and shares an intimate bond with Haruko. This being said, Amarao and Naota's childhoods nearly mirror each other.
While initially bothered by Haruko's presence as she provided him with a Gibson Flying V from his N.O. Channel, Naota begins to develops a crush on her, which overlaps with his initial crush on Mamimi. He embraces her with a kiss in the final episode, and prior to that breaks down and cries while hugging her after she had returned from leaving without notice. Despite this, when his chance to be with her comes, he chooses to let her go and not follow her while keeping her Rickenbacker 4001 after she took the double-necked guitar/bass he created from his Gibson Flying V and Atomsk's Gibson EB-0.
Hidomi Hibajiri
is the nihilistic 14-year-old protagonist of season two, FLCL Progressive. While sharing Naota's outlook on Mabase, Hidomi frequently has morbid dreams of herself as a corpse and dying in horrific ways with her more perky subconsciousness as the narrator. She also wears a set of cat ear headphones which Julia Jinyu recognizes to be an inhibition device created by Medical Mechanica that protects her from both her own power and Haruko's mind altering abilities. The headphones' LED lights change from blue to red whenever she is about to "overflow", making her targeted by Haruko as a result. Haruko's attempt to have the headphones removed activates its security lock mode, drilling itself into Hidomi's skull to prevent removal and causing her to manifest the traits of her subconsciousness as a result of radiowaves from an active Medical Mechanica factory. Once the factory is destroyed, gaining glimpses of Haruko's attempt to contain Atomsk and her intent with that power, Hidomi refuses to help as she became a different person to the point that her dreams are no longer morbid in nature. The actions caused by Haruko that result in Ide being a casualty provoke Hidomi into attacking her, with Hidomi eventually reunited with Ide as they begin their relationship in the season epilogue.
Kana Koumoto
is the 17-year-old protagonist of season three, FLCL Alternative. She is a noisy airhead who works part-time at a restaurant and hangs with her friends, Mossan, Hijiri and Pets in what was an unremarkable time until she crossed paths with Haruko who opened her N.O. Channel. But the Kana unintentionally caused their reality to split in two as a result. She returns in season five, FLCL Shoegaze, 10 years after the events of FLCL Alternative, as an Interstellar Immigration Bureau with conflicted issues of her superiors' plan to merge the split realities back together.
Shinpachi
is the young protagonist of season four, FLCL Grunge. Working at his father's rundown sushi restaurant in Okura, Shinpachi is a cynical boy who lived a rather dull life until getting caught up in Haruko's schemes when she activated his N.O. abilities and used him to acquire her trademark guitar weapon.
Canti is a medical robot with what looks like a television set for a head. He was manufactured by Medical Mechanica, but he is possessed by Atomsk during his escape attempt and ends up traveling to Earth via Naota's N.O. Channel. Haruko's act of breaking the back of the robot's head causes Atomsk to reside within the robot ending up in the service of the Nandaba Family and doing Haruko's work, fetching things like drinks and porno magazines for Shigekuni. In the latter case, a conscientious attempt to satisfy Shigekuni's request, the manga states the robot would spend three hours at a time looking through "perverted magazines" which gave the impression that he likes porn. When Mamimi first saw the robot while he was wearing a halo and wings, believing him to be a god due to his angelic appearance, she named him "Canti" after "Cantido, the Lord of Black Flames" in the video game she plays.
Despite his appearance, Canti expresses human-like emotions as he feels embarrassed about his broken head (where Haruko hit him) and spends his free time finding the pieces to glue back together while wearing a box. He is also extremely polite, extending a helping hand to Lieutenant Kitsurubami even after she attempted to destroy him which thoroughly charms her. Apparently, he can also eat curry with his "mouth" (which is just a grille), but it is never really explained how.