FLCL

Why didn't he ever swing the bat? Was he afraid he would be in his brother's shadow?

It was symbolism for not getting intimate with anyone.

But he did.
and you didn't

>Why didn't he ever swing the bat?
He needed the balls to drop just a little before he could connect.

he cant be compared to his brother if he never swings his bat
I think they say it in the episode too

they just say "we can't tell if he's any good, since he never swings." doesn't really imply they were immediately going to shit on him for not being as good as his brother, they were just mad he wasn't even trying

If he'd had any hair on his ass, he could have ridden that girl hard and put her away wet.

I don't think he even liked baseball... Just being up there put him in his shadow

There's talk about this in the director's commentary track. Goes something like:"If he swings and misses he would be crushed because he would be forced to realize that he can't hit, so he doesn't want to swing because as long as he doesn't he can keep thinking that he could hit if he just swung." Basically it's the fear of failure that prevents him from even trying. Up until that point he would rather believe that he maybe could
rather than actually trying and seeing for himself.

He did, bt the reason it took so long was simple.

If you don't swing the bat you can keep that microscopic bit of hope that you could succeed it you did.

If you swing and fail, you are exposed for the failure you truly are to everyone but most importantly yourself.

Later on he learns that nothing good will happen until he does swing the bat, that's what makes that moment so powerful and supplements the big climax in episode 6.

He probably also doesn't want to be like his brother who left him. He was swinging the at a lot clearly

The guy with the big eye brows was his brother right or was he that kind of character people talk about but we never see?

No, that's a kid in his class. His brother is older than him and went to America on a baseball scholarship. He was dating Manami when he lived in town, but he got a new girlfriend in America.

>Do good, baseball-chan's brother!
It's in op's image, user. The team might not think anything about it, but it's obviously not okay with Naota.

Manami wants him to fill in the gap left by his brother. Eri want him to be costar in the pussy play. Haruko wants to blow his mind, and anything else that might help her capture atomsk. Lucky bastard.

>The absolute state of FLCL 2

when it turns out to be great, I can't wait for Sup Forums to backpedal and pretend how they always knew it would be great and how they had faith and how they are huge fans of the original

I'll wait until I see it before I bitch about it.

a certain element of people shitting on it will exist completely regardless of how it actually turns out. this is the nature of things.

More people need to remember another old Gainax show that got a sequel; Gunbuster. Diebuster turned out fine, and even sensible people who like Gunbuster more agree that Diebuster is still good in its own right.
I don't expect FLCL 2 to be on the level of FLCL 1, especially since it's my absolute favourite anime, but I have no reason to write off the sequel completely and immediately.

People don't know how to process situations until they are taught. Either by observation or by explanation.

No one teaches young men shit. This is tenfold in Japan.

People say to you, "Swing the bat, hit the ball". But there's so much more needed. Life is a never ending series of people telling you to hit the ball and never giving you any clue how to hit it. So, in the end you have to take the moments you were taught and turn that into your swing. At that moment, Naota learned that swinging was the most important part. It don't matter what you were taught, so long as you swing the bat you'll hit the most important balls.
You can all call me a faggot now.

This, Japan is focused on getting the younger generation reach the conclusion without understanding the path leading to that conclusion.
To put it in terms of a bad analogy, it's like telling a child that 2+2=4 while never explaining what 2 even is. Then they expect the children to have really processed the lesson.