FLCL

[atrophiedXlungs]

I never really figured out something, what about Mamimi, what happened with her and Naota?

What do you mean what happened? She left town. She followed her dreams and became a photographer.

Or do you mean, what happened in episode five? Well, the way I see it, it's like this (this will be long, because I read too much into everything).

In episode four...by "swinging the bat," Naota grew up some. You see, he never swung the bat before because he was afraid of what might happen...if you never swing the bat, there's always the possibility that if you did swing it, you could hit a home run. But you could also strike out swinging. To Naota, striking out by swinging would be the worst, so to speak...it's like you tried and you failed. If you don't try, you can just brush it off by saying "Yeah, I don't really care," or something to that effect.

So, Nao swung the bat. And he matured some...this is kinda awkward for Mamimi, because she was using Naota as...something of a replacement for his older brother, Tasuku. Naota, then, was the passive one in such a relationship because that's the way he was...and if he weren't the passive one, things would be harder for Mamimi. So when he tries to take an active role in their relationship by taking her to a coffee house (that appears conspicuously like a love hotel), she pretty much has an emotional breakdown...basically, her illusion is shattered.

The way I see her (just a side note...she's my favorite character, from anything, ever...any anime, any book, any movie, etc etc etc. She tops everyone, in my eyes), it's not that she didn't care about Naota at all...she did, but in a sort of unconventional way. You see, in using Naota as a substitute for his brother, her feelings for his brother were at least partially transferred onto him (when this happens within clinical therapy, it's a condition known as transference. We may think of it in the same way here, because Naota is essentially her support system for dealing with Tasuku abandoning her), and so she grew to care about Naota based upon his own merits...but I think that was more of a seperate idea of Naota (that is, he's divided within her mind, into Naota as a friend and Naota as a "lover"), than the one she fools around with. So when the two are standing right in front of her, she's unable to reconcile them...and thus she just panics.

Side notes:

1. Freud thought that starting fires was a symptom of an underdeveloped adolescent psyche. If you will, think about this in context with Mamimi's actions.

2. Her panic at that point in time, I think, was also associated with some abandonment issues I see within her. That is, she obviously doesn't have much of a home life (her comment in episode three, about both of her parents seeing her school plays together leads me to believe they're divorced, and that it was a bitter thing)...and I think she hangs out by the river because, psychologically, she's abandoning her relations before they can do the same to her. Also, a person she cared about left her, so when she sees the possibilty of Naota leaving her, she kinda leaves him first.

3. I don't know this for sure, but I recall reading on another message board a while ago, that when her photo appears in the magazine at the end of the series, she uses a pseudonym. I can't recall what it is exactly, but I do remember what it meant (or at least what random person X said it meant). It meant "to exhaust, use up, befriend." This is pretty interesting, when one considers it.

[~Chrono~]

1. Freud thought that starting fires was a symptom of an underdeveloped adolescent psyche. If you will, think about this in context with Mamimi's actions.

Geez, thanks for the info. I also think that Mamimi has some learning problems or her being dyslexic. This is another proof to my thought (well, i read it in another forum but I began to search for clues and Ive found them)

1. She asks Naota to do her homework.
2. She acts really dumb for a 17 years old high-school girl.
3. When she took the old-bread for Naota's house, there was a sign that said "the bread is old" and Naota reminds Mamimi and asks her if she hadn't read it cause she was about to eat it. (The scene at the bridge)
4. She is also bullied by her classmates.
5. She becomes photographer. You don't need to study to take pictures.
6. What you have just said about the fires.

I also think that she's always away from home because her parents (maybe) don't gave her too much attention because of her learning problems. So she sticks with Naota that is a passive one, and when he swings the bat he's no use for her, then she sticks with the cats cause she can tame it. But later, it was all over, the cat gets a couple, and the core... well... the core is not a pet. xD

What about when she mistakes her hands when holding the baseball bat at the begining of ep.1, maybe thats analyzing too much. But its smthg extra.

[atrophiedXlungs]

I'd have to disagree...I'll break it down number by number.

1 / 2. She's clearly a delinquint, and a slacker. I don't think she's LD, though...though that could just be my massive affinity for the character speaking. And she's ditzy too...but speaking as someone who was once in high school, I knew quite a few ditzy girls, and none of them were LD.

3 / 4. The bread...she does eat it, remember? She says, "It's hard." I think she knew it was, and was just saying so. I'm pretty sure that both the reason she bought the day-old bread, and the reason she's picked on at school, is because she's poor.

5. I hardly think a person aspiring to become a photographer is a sign of mental handicap. I mean, if this was a real person you suspected was LD, and that was one of the reasons you suspected so...that'd just be ridiculous, in my eyes. Also, there's quite a bit to learn about photography...but it's not really textbook knowledge, it's more..."applied knowledge," shall we say? But there is quite a lot...from shutter speeds to aesthetics, and beyond.

6. As to the starting fires, you kinda misinterpeted me. But that's ok...I didn't make myself very clear. Starting fires as associated with pyromania...it's usually considered a sexual behavior, something of a masturbatory impulse (although some people believe it's an attempt to communicate by people with limited social skills). So it's generally regarded as the actions of a...person with a libido that isn't fully developed (as most genuine pyromanacs are teenagers). That's what I meant to convey.

[~Chrono~]

3 / 4. The bread...she does eat it, remember? She says, "It's hard." I think she knew it was, and was just saying so. I'm pretty sure that both the reason she bought the day-old bread, and the reason she's picked on at school, is because she's poor.

I'd have to disagree. Mamimi can't be poor. She has a cellphone and the video-game we see in FiSta. She also smokes a lot, cigarrettes are not cheap and then, the stereo, remember? There are no signs that she stole all that. What we see is that she later stole a bunch of cellphones to feed the Terminal Core.
Mamimi was about to eat the bread and Naota says to her that it is old. It CAN be what you're saying, Im not saying its not. Maybe she just wanted to leave the photographs in Naota's house and asked for bread as an excuse, who knows? And the one who sugested she's a poor is Kamon, Naota's dad, I think that was a misconception of him or a pre-judgement, you know this story deals with adults a lot and maybe that shows some sillyness of them to say things like that.
About the photography thing, im not saying its a reason, of course every photographer I see is not a LD. What I inteded to say is that she chose Photography and maybe its related just like the other points I said.

[atrophiedXlungs]

I'd have to disagree. Mamimi can't be poor. She has a cellphone and the video-game we see in FiSta. She also smokes a lot, cigarrettes are not cheap and then, the stereo, remember? There are no signs that she stole all that. What we see is that she later stole a bunch of cellphones to feed the Terminal Core.
Mamimi was about to eat the bread and Naota says to her that it is old. It CAN be what you're saying, Im not saying its not. Maybe she just wanted to leave the photographs in Naota's house and asked for bread as an excuse, who knows? And the one who sugested she's a poor is Kamon, Naota's dad, I think that was a misconception of him or a pre-judgement, you know this story deals with adults a lot and maybe that shows some sillyness of them to say things like that.

That's a very good point about Kamon...a very very good point.

I almost forgot about the cellphone, that's a good point. But...the stereo and her hand-held videogame...both of those are probably cheap. You don't see them much anymore, but those little LCD games that had a game coded into the hardware, they were more popular when I was young...and even then, they were pretty cheap. And the tape player...I'm thinking if you looked in a thrift store, you could find one for like $5.

But the cellphone and the ciggarettes, you still have a solid point. I have a possible explanation there too, as I do believe she's...well, I think poor was a bad choice of wording on my part. I don't think her family's very well-off financially. But like I said in my earlier post, I think her parents are divorced...and I think the parent she doesn't live with tries to..."buy her love" so to speak, by buying gifts instead of actually caring about her (sadly enough, a common occurrance in real life).

Anyhow, I think we're both pretty-much spinning our wheels here. But it's been fun conversing with you about irrelevant details of a series we both enjoy. =)

[Cloud Clone]

Don't worry about trying to "get" it all, there's still alot of humor there that's accessible to the casual viewer. At least that's what I tell myself since I only got to watch it on AS...

[~Chrono~]

Anyhow, I think we're both pretty-much spinning our wheels here. But it's been fun conversing with you about irrelevant details of a series we both enjoy. =)

Of course, I enjoy it a lot. I like discussing this pointless things. I want to make the best of this series cause Im happy talking about it.
I also forgot to say that Mamimi also has a Camera. What you said about her family is a nice theory but there's no way i can give a feedback to it cause its just speculation. About Mamimi's parents all we can do is speculate. I didn't make my own story for her parents, I'll think about it and post it later.
Ill start making points.
1. Mamimi is in need of attention. She looks for it and we can see it through Naota, the cat and the robot of the terminal core.
2. She was abandoned by Naota's brother. She stills thinks about him as next to her but she hears about the "blond gal", she "overflows" (i think this also is about her having some psyche problems cause maybe she can't handle too much pressure)
3. She's bullied by her classmates, discrimination by... looks? i dont think so, economic status? not my guess, intelligence? this is my point
4. Certainly, her home, she doesn't want to be there. Or maybe her relationship with Naota is stronger that with her parents... still, that aint normal. Parents fighting? Parents who don't care about her? I think that they may be divorced. In "marquis de carabas" she talks about a play she was into, and her parents went to see her. That was a good memory, i assume that those were other times.

Well, ill continue later, this is going nowhere.

[atrophiedXlungs]

3. She's bullied by her classmates, discrimination by... looks? i dont think so, economic status? not my guess, intelligence? this is my point

But a lot of kids are bullied for absolutely no reason at all...because it's about the bully, it's not about the victim. Bullying is about making the bully feel better, by knocking the victim down.

Also, like I said in my earlier post...I'm pretty sure Mamimi has abandonment issues(probably due to her parents being divorced...at least I think they are). I mean, she shows all the classic signs (if you want to learn more about that, and you don't feel like reading the DSM, watch the film Good Will Hunting. Great example of a similar disorder). She clings to anything that will support her emotionally...until the point where she thinks it'll leave her, and then she "leaves" it...which is exactly what happened with Naota.

Hmmm...I can't think of anything else now. Maybe there'll be more later.

[Malificus]

Look, if you really want to see how insane Mamimi is, read the manga. She leaves naota in the second book, continues making fires almost the whole series, becomes reclusive, only talking to haruko, and in the end, when she's about to be killed asks if takkun was a good boy.

In the anime, Mamimi is oppresive (and by the end psychotic), always telling Naota what to do until he gets mad. It isn't her parents that cause her problems, it's Naota's brother who she loves, at first she takes him as a replacement to control and be loved by when she needs it because his brother isn't there. She was also saddened when he "swung the bat," because that showed that he was going to stand up for himself. When he "leave's her" he had just tried to confess he loves her, but when danger came, she calles for his big brother in America for help. He get's mad and wants her to ask for his help, and calls Canti. After losing someone who she could control, she moves onto the black cat Takkun, who leaves her in the next episode for a white cat. She the finds the third Takkun, a robot dog that she discovered eats metal. She then uses the robot dog to take revenge on all of the people who did her wrong, like the person who ot her dirty, on accident, while driving by.

Naota, on the other hand, is developing a backbone. He is begining to stop acting like an adult, and begins to accept that he is just a kid (which makes him more of an adult). He moves on to love Haruko of course.

[atrophiedXlungs]

Look, if you really want to see how insane Mamimi is, read the manga. She leaves naota in the second book, continues making fires almost the whole series, becomes reclusive, only talking to haruko, and in the end, when she's about to be killed asks if takkun was a good boy.

I don't think it's possible to really reference the manga when talking about the anime...they're barely parallel storylines. In the manga, Haruko's boss looks identical to her and shows up on earth. Also, Canti / Atomsk becomes giant, and goes into space to defeat a gigantic baseball laucher that was bombing Mabase.