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Notes -
Regarding FLCL: I can’t tell which parts of the linked comments you’re saying are wrong. I really did think the robots were fueled by something like sexual tension.
When I watched the show, it was a pirated, bitcrushed mess, which made it even more incomprehensible. But I was also coming off an Eva rewatch, which has its own obvious messaging, especially regarding predatory/broken authority figures. So I may be missing a lot.
From prokopetz:
The climactic moment of last episode of FLCL proper -- the very next sentence from Naota's mouth after he takes the power of the Pirate King, defeats (more accurately 'effortlessly obliterates') the evil robots, and confronts Haruko -- is to explicitly to pull his attack and to tell Haruko "I love you".
It's not a healthy love in any way, or a reciprocated one, or one compatible with The Pirate King's powers (while not out at the time, FLCL Progressive would eventually spend two and a half hours working its way up to joke that Atomysk cock-blocks Haruko; you can wince at the pun). Haruko turns Naota down the very next two sentences: he is, after all, just a kid. But the very point of the story depends on Naota loving Haruko enough that her rejection is unpleasant and something he's been unwilling to risk. The 'NO' metaphor is all of that something awful can and indeed likely will happen when you try, whether for a game or to seek romance. A different NO activation, when Naota confronts Mamimi knowing that she does not love him, does not just cause Mamimi to reject him, but it nearly causes the end of the world!
But Naota learns to do it anyway, because it was only festering otherwise, and because it was important to do on its own (hence the satellite weapon episode, even as Naota tried and failed there).
((And this is still a work-in-progress even as the story ends: I think prokopetz overstates how well Naota is responding to Ninamori in the closing scene.))
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