The central character in FLCL (also known as Fooly Cooly), a six-episode Japanese anime produced by Studio Gainax, is "Naota Nandaba", a sixth grader whose life is greatly changed after he is run over by "Haruko Haruhara", who claims to be an alien. Other main characters are "Mamimi Samejima", "Commander Amarao", "Canti", "Atomsk", and "Lieutenant Kitsurubami".
Naota Nandaba (ナンダバ・ナオ太 Nandaba Naota), 13, is the protagonist. 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.
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 at the beginning of the series Naota appears to be bothered by Haruko's presence, her alteration of his regular, mundane life results in him developing a crush on her with 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. His bass is the Rickenbacker 4001 which was Haruko's, but she leaves it behind when she takes the new combination of his Gibson Flying V and Atomsk's Gibson EB-0. He is voiced by Jun Mizuki in Japanese and Barbara Goodson in English.