Haruko Haruhara | Suspicious behavior

Haruko Haruhara is a central character of the FLCL series, Mabase's newest resident, and an extraterrestrial investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. She becomes the Nandaba household's maid while working to find Atomsk, the most powerful space pirate in the galaxy. She leaves Earth in FLCLimax, but returns as a teacher in Mabase in FLCL Progressive. In FLCL Alternative, she's back on Earth again, tackling a whole host of new Medical Mechanica problems.

Haruko Haruhara is an energetic, spontaneous girl. She has light pink hair and is an investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. She proclaims to be 19 years old, but it is unknown if that is true. In the first episode of Season 1, she runs over Naota with her Vespa and hits him in the head with her guitar. Shortly after, she was hired by Naota's father, Kamon, as a housekeeper. Here she is called Haruha Raharu by Amarao and Jinyu; this could, however, be just another nickname, or perhaps her real name based on its use by Jinyu and the credits of Progressive. She also used the alias "Miss Shimazaki" for her teacher persona in RE: Start.

Haruko is often erratic and unpredictable, switching between various dispositions on a dime. She can be persuasive and sometimes standoffish in her attempts to get whatever she wants. She acts promiscuously with Naota and Kamon Nandaba, acting suggestively towards one to get a rise out of the other. She can also act like a mom, a lover, or a maid depending on her mood, but more often than not has a playful personality even in high-stakes situations.

While split from Julia Jinyu, Haruko acts a little differently. She's a lot less manipulative and far more aggressive with her approach. She is very playful and selfish, intent on getting what she wants by any means without reason.

In FLCL Alternative, Haruko's traits appear to be more akin to Jinyu, as she is far more helpful than she's ever been in the past, and most that she's done is for the good of others. Despite her silly attitude, she's very wise, acting as a sort of mentor to Kana. Haruko guides Kana with simple advice for her problems, as well as protecting Kana and her friends. She is, however, still very mysterious, and her motives are unclear until the final episode, in which it's revealed Haruko strongly wants to prevent Medical Mechanica from getting their way, a goal that Jinyu wanted to accomplish more than anything.

Haruko is deceptive and remorseless about the things she has done. Ultimately, she is the cause of the events of FLCL and most of the FLCL series, making her the true antagonistic catalyst of FLCL. On occasion, however, she does show positive traits, akin to an anti-hero. Although her actions in FLCL and FLCL Progressive were impure, they ultimately changed the protagonists for the better.

There is a running gag in the series where Haruko is vastly impressed by larger objects coming out of people's heads. If the item is smaller, she will instantly lose interest in the person and mock him/her for as long as she knows them. In many ways, this joke is an interpretation of sexual encounters. This joke is stretched even further in FLCL Alternative, when Haruko stops Kanda from having sex with her and decides to pull an object from his head instead. When the item was revealed to be a small blaster, Haruko viewed him as pathetic.

Haruko is a tall, slender, and unearthly young woman with cat-like facial features. She sports a pale complexion, salmon-colored bob cut styled into a medium-length flare, and yellow-colored eyes that are almond-shaped. Her race is unknown other than Martian, but presumably, she is able to pass for Asian, due to nobody in Japan mentioning anything about her looking like a foreigner. Her casual outfit consists of a red-wine colored pullover hoodie and black pants, while the outfit she wears in action is a bright red coat, black pants, white boots, a white scarf, and a pair of goggles. She wears many outfits in the series, such as a nurse's outfit she stole from a nurse after tying her up. However, one fashion accessory she is never without is a large, chain-link bracelet on her left wrist. Serving as both a radar and a compass, the chain tracks and reacts to N.O. power to indicate the whereabouts of newly-emerged Medical Mechanica robots and/or Atomsk. It also creates red chains, presumably to immobilize Atomsk.

In "FLCL Progressive", Haruko's appearance changes after splitting from Julia Jinyu. Her hair becomes slightly shorter, spikier, and orange, while her eyes remain yellow. After reabsorbing Jinyu, Haruko's hair returns to pink, and her eyes change to red. This transformation may be a result of both characters having absorbed some of Atomsk's power before the split. Haruko also takes Jinyu's glasses for herself. Additionally, her belly appears larger after consuming Jinyu, giving her a pregnant look, but it eventually returns to its normal size. In Our Running, Jinyu splits from Haruko once more, causing Haruko's hair and eyes to revert to orange and yellow, respectively. In this season, she wears a different red jacket with black accents, while keeping her black pants and white boots. She also stops wearing her gloves.

In FLCL Alternative, her hair seems to have turned back to its normal color, suggesting she and Jinyu merged again or have yet to be apart. She now has a different hairstyle, letting one bang loose to the left, with her hair tied in the back in a way that allows tufts to spike out in upward and downward directions. Her eyes are also yellow again, and she seems to have abandoned the wrist bracelet that she's known for having, implying that at some point she must have given up on capturing Atomsk and allowed him to have his freedom like Jinyu wanted, or has yet to encounter either Atomsk or the bracelet. It is revealed in the final episode that being an alien means Haruko cannot age past 19.

If we consider Alternative as a prequel, according to Jason Demarco. In this case, the events of the series take place before receiving the bracelet and becoming obsessed with Atomsk, so she is less selfish, albeit manipulative, and her main goal is still the fight against Medical Mechanics. The credits for FLCL Progressive show the separation of Haruko and Julia as a result of an attempt to absorb Atomsk, after which her journey on Vespa from Alternative to the original story is shown, which ends with Progressive.

In FLCL Grunge, her hair is now colored in an ombré style, transitioning from a dark pink to bright orange at the ends. In the first section of "Shinpachi", she has her hair styled in an updo, while wearing a red mini dress and her metal bracelet. In the later section, she wears her hair in a short bob again and appears in her usual outfit from the first season, but with the sleeves now appearing yellow instead of white.

Her true form resembles a wasp.

Haruko has a wide array of abilities, both from the tools at her disposal and her own natural strength. Most notably, she rides a super-powered yellow Vespa that allows for flight and super-speed and wields an electric bass guitar that opens N.O. channels. She can move at incredible speeds, as seen in FLCL when she dodges bullets from guns pressed to her body, and she also possesses superhuman strength, such as when she launches a bomb into space and when she fights the Medical Mechanica robots who tower over her. She can also consume and absorb the strength of other beings, as seen in her attempts to absorb Atomsk and when she devoured her other half, Jinyu. She survived being electrocuted by a Medical Mechanica robot in Fire Starter and in LooPQR, Raharu and Jinyu generate a red and blue aura, respectively, during their fight. It is possible that they both carry remnants of Atomsk’s power. She is fast enough to dodge bullets and has also demonstrated that she can hypnotize weak-minded people. In Our Running, it is revealed that Haruko’s bracelet can produce red chains, which she tried to use against Atomsk. In Alternative, she is able to make an ordinary car fly and control it like a surfboard, suggesting that other things she's been using to fly may not normally be capable of doing so.

Haruko's first bass in FLCL is a 1974 left-handed Azureglo Rickenbacker 4001c64 electric bass guitar, first seen in episode one of FLCL when she hits Naota in the head. It seems to have a saw attachment that can improve its melee capabilities, and can be used as a gun and hoverboard. It is also used by Haruko as a bat and is referred to as such on a few occasions. It's indestructible and is her main tool. At the end of FLCL, she leaves it behind with Naota, but seemingly gets it back at the end of Progressive.

In FLCL: Grunge, she was able to acquire the Rickenbacker bass by using Shinpachi's head and a katana that Orinoko's father made for Shonari.

After the events of FLCL, she acquires Atomsk's bass (a Gibson EB-0), and it works in about the same way, save for the lack of a saw function.

In FLCL, Progressive, and Grunge, Haruko drives a yellow Vespa SS 180. This vehicle can fly, reach incredibly high speeds, and can almost stop on a dime. It is also able to weave through tight traffic despite its incredible speeds. A real-world version of this Vespa is featured in the credits of FLCL driving itself around Japan in a series of photographs.

Haruko Haruhara is a chaotic, pink-haired alien from the anime series FLCL, known for her energetic and unpredictable behavior as an investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood. She arrives on Earth on a yellow Vespa, wielding a Rickenbacker bass guitar that doubles as a weapon, and her main goal is to capture the powerful space pirate Atomsk, often by using and manipulating the series' protagonists. Her true name is Haruha Raharu, and she is a central, often antagonistic, catalyst for the series' bizarre events.

Key characteristics Occupation: Investigator for the Galactic Space Police Brotherhood.

Appearance: Pink bob haircut, cat-like features, and often seen in a red coat or casual clothes.

Transportation: A yellow Piaggio Vespa scooter.

Weapon: A modified Rickenbacker bass guitar that can fire bullets, act as a rocket, and open "N.O. channels" in people's heads.

Powers: Superhuman strength, speed, and durability; hypnosis; and the ability to absorb others' power (like Atomsk's).

Personality: Reckless, sociopathic, and morally ambiguous, but sometimes shows anti-heroic traits.

Goal: To find and absorb the power of Atomsk, the Pirate King.

Role in the series She crashes into the life of the protagonist, Naota Nandaba, by running him over with her Vespa and hitting him with her bass, which activates his latent "N.O." (Nothingness Origin) powers.

Her actions drive the plot, as she uses Naota and others to help her in her quest, often causing giant robots and other strange phenomena to emerge from people's heads.

She appears in multiple FLCL series, sometimes under different guises, like a teacher, but always with the same core mission.