This series is massively overrated. FLCL is basically a series that follows that Seinfeld motto of being "a show about nothing", because there isn't really a plot here, and while yes, the Atomsk name is brought up a lot, it ends up being irrelevant to the overall narrative as he's basically only there to be a massive Deus ex Machina. The only other characters I could bother remembering their names were Naota and Haruko, since every other character is extremely uninteresting or just plain annoying like that girl that sexually harasses our 12 years old main character (which he likes, mind you). Every single volume is divided in two halves, each adapting an episode of the anime, but without the fluid animation and great soundtrack (which were the only saving graces of the anime imo), the series just ends up a plain bunch of nothing with no explanations and whose "plots" are basically just "weird things happen to Naota and Haruko acts like crazy" repeated over and over again. I honestly read the novels expecting to get more hindsight of the anime, but ended up liking the anime more because these novels pretty much don't add anything and in fact lack the good things of the anime (the only actual addition of the novels is a better explanation via monologue of Haruko's feelings towards Naota). Overall, unless you really, really liked the anime and want more of the same (but lacking the animation and soundtrack), I don't really see much reason to read this novel over any other sci-fi one.