Uchuu Patrol Luluco – Episodes 8 & 9

Episode 8

Luluco and the others have come to Magic Planet LWA because they are getting a strong Ogikubo signal. Chief Over Justice sends down Luluco and Nova as an away team, to Luluco’s delight and Midori’s annoyance.

Once on the surface, Luluco tries to make conversation with Nova (since this is a “date” in her mind) but has little success. They spot a witch in the air, and Nova wants to talk a witch into flying them to the top of the tower, but Luluco shoots down the idea because she doesn’t want him near other females. *eye roll*  So Luluco transforms into her gun mode to shoot herself up to the top of the tower.

A witch finds her at the top of the tower and starts poking her with what looks like a cattle prod. Seeing that her attacks are having little effect on Luluco’s bubble helmet, she whips out some mushrooms and shoves them into the barrel of Luluco’s gun mode. This causes her transformation to reverse, and the witch Sucy tells Luluco that she will be dead in less than six minutes.

Luluco, somewhat understandably, starts freaking out about dying young and all the things she’ll never have the chance to do. She lies down and laces her fingers together, prepared to at least have “a normal death.” At the last moment, she decides to ask Nova if he’ll give her her first (and last) kiss. He’s really undecided about it, but as Luluco’s last moments are ticking away, he lets her kiss him. As her counter hits zero, Luluco’s body falls lifeless to the floor.

Except not really. Luluco is still alive, and Sucy realizes belatedly that she gave Luluco mushrooms whose poison won’t take effect for another 60 years. So Luluco knows she’ll live to the age of 73 I guess. Luluco muses about what their kiss means for her relationship with Nova, but something inside her breaks a little when she looks over to see Nova wiping his mouth. </3

Also, the witch’s Sorcerer’s Stone is not the Ogikubo Luluco’s looking for, it’s just a powerful magical stone. So it’s onwards to the next planet!

 

 

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Episode 9

The next planet their team is set to explore is Badger Planet SVM-Z. Or rather, Luluco is set to explore, because she’s on its surface alone. She felt that Nova was ignoring her as he worked with Midori, so she got pissed and left alone. She seeks out the Badger Game Detective Agency to inquire about the location of Ogikubo, but also to get some relationship advice. The shark detective is zooming all over the room while his assistant, Se’chan, keeps giving her tea.

Then the room is ambushed by the mafia, and the shit hits the fan. Luluco realizes that the planet is very dangerous because it appears to be filled with nothing except the mafia, violence and warfare. And she’s stuck in the middle of it all.

The detective’s assistants use the only weapon they have to fight back against the mafia as they race along the streets in their vehicle – Se’chan. She’s alive but she’s really just a rubber doll, meaning the good guys can bounce her off the walls, use her like a missle, etc. x__x  Poor Se’chan. She eventually ends up in pieces, but can still talk.

Just as Luluco is about to be struck by one of the mafia don’s romantic partners, Luluco is saved by Nova. Moments earlier, Se’chan had given Luluco her requested romance advice: “Men might usually treat you like crap, but if they truly care about you, they’ll dive headfirst into any kind of danger to save you.”

Nova tells Luluco that she’s precious to him, and that he’d been waiting for that moment for a long time. But he doesn’t elaborate. He carries Luluco off the planet as they float back up through space to their ship, and beneath them the planet explodes into fragments. Nova explains how he found out that all the other Ogikubos were fake, except for the signal at the center of the galaxy. What’s there? The Space Patrol Command HQ planet.

On that planet there are many, many personal Ogikubos. But which one is Luluco’s? Once they land, the Space Patrol Galaxy Commander-in-Chief arrives to congratulate them and give them awards. Luluco’s reward is the Ogikubo they’ve been seeking, still in its shipping package. Everyone takes a picture together to celebrate the occasion, but what’s with the sinister-looking Commander-in-Chief watching them from the background…?

~*~

My thoughts: I… have no idea what they did to the opening theme, but I hate it. My Japanese is subpar but as far as I can tell, it’s like they dubbed over the opening song with some kind of commentary. The result is one big jumbled mess that makes me turn my volume off until it’s over. -_-;

I did not like the second episode. At all. The entire scene on the Badger planet with its jarring black-white-orange color scheme made it really hard to follow, and then there was the whole schtick with Nova, whom I still don’t trust. He goes from being completely ambivalent to supposedly having feelings for Luluco, but not that he never clarifies what he means when he says he’s been waiting for “this moment” as he’s rescuing Luluco. What, he was waiting to rescue her? Waiting for her to completely fall in love with him?

And then there’s the Space Patrol Galaxy Commander-in-Chief. What’s up with him?? I don’t trust him at all either. Chief Over Justice had noticed upon arriving at the Command HQ Planet that things looked different, and I’m betting the two things are connected.

So yeah. First episode was cute, second episode was a big fat UGH from me. These last 4 episodes will most likely be the last story arc in the series (or the last arc + a finale episode), so I’m curious to see what’s going to happen with Lalaco, since we haven’t seen her for awhile, and Luluco’s dad too.