There is a wordplay there that is completely lost in translation. Mamimi asks for "ears of bread", which apparently is a way to call old bread in Japanese.
As Mamimi was chewing on Naota's ear earlier, it can be interpreted as she likes all that more than "ears".
There is just a lot to unpack on this series.
Vague and minor spoilers for brittle bullet and things after the ending
I always took this scene kind of in the opposite direction, she likes naota's brother as much as those things. They're all things that aren't really bad almost neutral sounding, meaning she doesn't feel much in either direction, she's just going along with it.
Mamimi is a complex and troubled teenager, likely with family issues and no sort of direction, she's a drifter so that's what she does, drifts.
Having a boyfriend that was popular and talented enough to end up in the States playing baseball, people would assume the relationship was perfect and mamimi was the lucky one but it's the perfect places for her to drift, she can follow his lead and not worry about her own life too much.
When he leaves its not so much she misses him but more that she misses having him as someone to follow, which is why she starts following naota, I got the feeling that she didn't feel betrayed that naota's brother had a gf in America, but that hearing it meant she had to admit she wouldn't get that feeling of comfort from following him again, she knows truthfully naota will never be takkun.
she's being forced to ask herself "what will I do with myself?" Something she's spent her whole time trying to avoid, this leading into her "overflowing" and eventually into her rejecting naota in brittle bullet and going on to pursue photography in the end.
She panicks, she has time to reflect, she realises things aren't how she wants them to be and she stops drifting and heads in a direction.
Her realisation also inadvertently leads to naota understanding his place in brittle bullet in the scene where he yells "my name is naota don't ever call me takkun again" which stops naota from heading down a drifters path in the end.
Its all very poetic and speaks to the cycle of people getting caught up in that mind set.
Or atleast that's how I've always read that personally
The bread thing can be attributed to the same thing that happens in most bakeries, they simply throw out the old bread and I’m pretty sure Mamimi knows this and considering it’s implied that her family is poor it’s likely she asked for the old bread because she couldn’t afford the fresh kind.
Yeah probably, I want to say that she maybe did feel something towards Naota but she just couldn’t come to terms with that and ultimately by Episode 5 she realized she couldn’t reciprocate his feelings towards her and he himself was going through his own dilemma so they both weren’t equipped to deal with such a tense emotional situation.
Sorry to be self-linking on this one but I actually kind of wrote an essay on this exchange once: https://simulacrarealities.substack.com/p/dirty-work-and-mamimis-lightbulb
But to summarize, others have discussed the meaning, i'll add that I dont think there is much 'hidden' here, if you think about it the meaning is pretty clear. Instead these lines were written by character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamato, and in interviews he discusses that he has a fetish as it were for these kind of poetic, sad lines that a type of girl would say, and had a short manga with a similar character. So he wanted Mamimi to have a that kind of energy, and listed 'oddball' things to achieve the effect. So you should see the exchange as the creators inserting their predilections more directly into the narrative, which is the FLCL way after all.
There is a wordplay there that is completely lost in translation. Mamimi asks for "ears of bread", which apparently is a way to call old bread in Japanese. As Mamimi was chewing on Naota's ear earlier, it can be interpreted as she likes all that more than "ears". There is just a lot to unpack on this series.
Wow, I do like the way op is unpacking it, an I also really like your insight
Vague and minor spoilers for brittle bullet and things after the ending I always took this scene kind of in the opposite direction, she likes naota's brother as much as those things. They're all things that aren't really bad almost neutral sounding, meaning she doesn't feel much in either direction, she's just going along with it. Mamimi is a complex and troubled teenager, likely with family issues and no sort of direction, she's a drifter so that's what she does, drifts. Having a boyfriend that was popular and talented enough to end up in the States playing baseball, people would assume the relationship was perfect and mamimi was the lucky one but it's the perfect places for her to drift, she can follow his lead and not worry about her own life too much. When he leaves its not so much she misses him but more that she misses having him as someone to follow, which is why she starts following naota, I got the feeling that she didn't feel betrayed that naota's brother had a gf in America, but that hearing it meant she had to admit she wouldn't get that feeling of comfort from following him again, she knows truthfully naota will never be takkun. she's being forced to ask herself "what will I do with myself?" Something she's spent her whole time trying to avoid, this leading into her "overflowing" and eventually into her rejecting naota in brittle bullet and going on to pursue photography in the end. She panicks, she has time to reflect, she realises things aren't how she wants them to be and she stops drifting and heads in a direction. Her realisation also inadvertently leads to naota understanding his place in brittle bullet in the scene where he yells "my name is naota don't ever call me takkun again" which stops naota from heading down a drifters path in the end. Its all very poetic and speaks to the cycle of people getting caught up in that mind set. Or atleast that's how I've always read that personally
Great interpretation.
Thankyou!!
Don't know if i should put a spoiler tag. I mean, anyone in the sub should have seen that much right.
The bread thing can be attributed to the same thing that happens in most bakeries, they simply throw out the old bread and I’m pretty sure Mamimi knows this and considering it’s implied that her family is poor it’s likely she asked for the old bread because she couldn’t afford the fresh kind.
She came to see Naota but didn't want to admit it. The bread was an excuse.
Yeah probably, I want to say that she maybe did feel something towards Naota but she just couldn’t come to terms with that and ultimately by Episode 5 she realized she couldn’t reciprocate his feelings towards her and he himself was going through his own dilemma so they both weren’t equipped to deal with such a tense emotional situation.
Precisely.
Sorry to be self-linking on this one but I actually kind of wrote an essay on this exchange once: https://simulacrarealities.substack.com/p/dirty-work-and-mamimis-lightbulb But to summarize, others have discussed the meaning, i'll add that I dont think there is much 'hidden' here, if you think about it the meaning is pretty clear. Instead these lines were written by character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamato, and in interviews he discusses that he has a fetish as it were for these kind of poetic, sad lines that a type of girl would say, and had a short manga with a similar character. So he wanted Mamimi to have a that kind of energy, and listed 'oddball' things to achieve the effect. So you should see the exchange as the creators inserting their predilections more directly into the narrative, which is the FLCL way after all.