FLCL (OAV)

When Kitsurubami is ranting on about clothes while shooting a machine gun, her rants are all about Lupin III. In fact, Kamon is dressed up like Lupin.

The vespa that you see at the end is real, but only about 1000 were made, and the one they use during the credits has a busted motor so it does not work.

When Kitsurubami is aiming the gun at Canti, she tells Amaro that "the signal is definitely blue" (to which he replies "Are you sure it's not red?"). This is a nod to the blue souls of the angels (and the red souls of humans) in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The subtitling introducing the viewer to the "Mabase Immigration Department" is the same font and type seen in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

While neighbors look on at Canti loading the truck, listen closely to Kamon's speech. He starts to ramble on, then at the end it winds up at driving anime Initial D. Naota tells Haruko that his father calls the story "The Life of Eva".

The meaning of N.O. is often debated by fans. Although, it is explained. N.O. is a portal, opened through the cranium, that enables objects to be pulled through, from lightyears away, in a matter of seconds. However, as we see in the case of Naota's father, it can not be opened in everyone's head, and if it is activated in the wrong person, can lead to temporary fatalities.

In one episode, Amaro is ranting to Kitsuribame about something. As it is clear to see, occasionally, in the midst of his rambling, the animation switches to stop-motion photography, using constuction paper as the media. This is the technique used to produce the show, "South Park." The whiney way in which he talks during these sequences is also a South Park reference, because all of the characters on the show speak in much the same way.

Atomsk, which is mentioned throughout the series, only shows up in the last episode. Atomsk is a metaphor for pure sexual energy. Haruko is looking for Atomsk (pronouned Ata-misk) which is why she hangs around Naota all the time. (Naota becomes Atomsk at the end of the series)

Anime Insider named FLCL the best anime series of 2004.

During episode 3, when Mamimi is taking pictures of herself in her cat ears, Naota, and Takkun, she starts to talk about plays she used to be in when she was an grade school kid. Her comment "Hey everyone! ...The king's ears... are really... donkey ears!" refers to the Greek myth of King Midas (the /other/ myth about Midas), where he was cursed with ass's ears for making a biased judgement in a musical competition between two gods.

Fooly Cooly is also pronounced as 'Furi Kuri', which is an old Japanese slang term for fondling a woman's breasts or butt. This title is quite fitting considering the amount of sexual innuendos in the show.

On ep. 1, right before the Manga scene, it shows a car outside Naota's house. The car has an 'F' on it, and the year it was released in USA, '(03)04'

The Vespa in the end has a license plate that says Mabase.

At one point in episode 1, Kamon mentions "Tomino" and "gundam-hammer." The gundam-hammer was a weapon used in the original "Mobile Suit Gundam" television series. Tomino (the creator/director) had the weapon removed when the series was turned into the movie trilogy. He stated that the weapon was a super-robot weapon and that the Gundam was "not a super-robot."

In episode 4, Haruko pulls a Gibson V90 Double out of Naota's head.

In the climactic battle in Episode 5, Haruko is dressed somewhat like a Playboy bunny. This is actually an homage to the Daicon movies from the early 80's. She even shouts "Daicon V!" when she makes her entrance. She is implying that she is Daicon V, considering that only up to Daicon IV was made.