Lies in FLCL
FLCL is full of motifs and symbolism. The mention of sweet, sour, and spicy foods; black wings and matches; swinging a baseball bat; etcetera. Some of it I understand, some (most) of it I don't. But there is a very particular motif that is present in FLCL from episode one on, that has to do with Ninamori as well as Naota and, if you will, one of the main points of the show. And that is.. Lies. Naota's narration is full of mentionings of lies. He says a lot of lies are floating around him; he asks where the truth ends and the lies begin. And in episode three, this idea is tied in with Ninamori. When Ninamori spends the night at Naota's, she's seen wearing a pair of red glasses. She tells Naota that it's her little secret and that she really wears contacts.. except the last shot of the entire episode shows her on stage wearing the glasses, and the sticking her finger through where the lens should be.. Showing that she actually lied about lying about her vision. The glasses weren't real at all. :P She also confesses to Naota that she rigged the votes for the school play.

And also, of course, her whole way of coping with her problems is based on lying to herself and everyone around her. Which is actually what the whole lie motif is supposed to be about, I think.. But wait a minute, I'm getting there.

Ninamori is obviously a little liar. But because of her lying, and her obsession with the play and Naota, she points out something else. When Ninamori reveals to Naota that she rigged the votes, her reason for making him play the cat was because she said no one would understand better than him. In Puss and Boots, the cat is a huge liar. The prince is too, because he never admits the fact that he isn't really the Marquis de Carabas. Naota is the cat. Ninamori is the prince. In which case.. both of them are liars. And both of them have the same problem. Ninamori tries to act mature, like an adult, in the hopes of actually being an adult. And so does Naota - which is the point of the show. You can't grow up by acting like a grown up. Then you just look stupid. You grow up by going through the process.

Anyway, that's what the whole lie motif is supposed to mean I think. And by making Ninamori such an obvious little pretender, I think what Gainax wants is to get you to realize that Naota is, too. Not as obviously as Ninamori, maybe. But her own conflict and resolution only foreshadow the same process for Naota.
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