Episode 12
The newly resurrected Luluco is under attack by the Blackholeian’s minions, when suddenly Lalaco and her pirate crew emerge from a portal and block the bullets aimed at Luluco. Lalaco had been returning for Luluco’s funeral but was surprised to see her daughter had already been brought back to life. Luluco explains the situation and asks her mother for a favor; Lalaco gives her daughter her space ship and tells her to go confess to Nova. Luluco is locked onto the bow of the pirate ship and without further ado the ship takes off for Nova’s location. Lalaco, Midori, Chief Over-Justic
e and even Luluco’s reawakened father Keiji all morph into their gun forms and start shooting at all of the Blackholeian guns.
Luluco finds Nova and she finally confesses to him. She offers her heart to him, then tells him she’s placing him under arrest. Nova is shocked by Luluco’s confession, although he still doesn’t hesitate to take her Aflutter Jewel again. The Blackholeian arrives and smashes it to the ground, but Luluco produces a new one again and again, until she’s firing a steady stream of them in Nova’s direction. She tells the Blackholeian that they her feelings for Nova and that they will never die. As Nova is encompassed in this jetstream of love and memories from Luluco, he develops the capacity to feel and reciprocates Luluco’s feelings by falling in love with her on the spot. He even has a jewel of his own now!
The Blackholeian is enraged and directs an attack at Luluco, but Nova steps in front of her to protect her. He tells the Bolackholeian that he’s just a “normal Nova” now and that he’s just fallen in love with Luluco. Yay for middleschool love!
The Blackholeian gets even angrier and he levels up to his final form. Nova reassures a panicking Luluco that they can defeat him together. Hand in hand, they tell the Blackholeian that he’s under arrest for super space shoplifting.
Episode 13
As Luluco and Nova fight the evil Blackholeian together, Lalaco, Keiji and the others are watching from in the background. Nova’s jewel is called a Pitter Patter Stone, and when it merges with Luluco’s Aflutter Jewel it becomes a Lovey-Dovey Diamond. *facepalm* SO sappy~
However the Blackholeian has a trick up his sleeve: he activates the micro blackhole he installed in Nova’s forehead. It grows in size, slowly enveloping Nova’s body. Luluco “pulls the trigger” as Lalaco says, and starts absorbing the pink aura which had been floating around in space, increasing her powers immensely. Apparently these new powers of Luluco’s give her the ability to patrol across different dimensions of space.
The Lovey-Dovey Diamond morphs into a new crystallized arm with a gun in the hand, and Luluco fires it at the evil Blackholeian again and again. When the bullets lodge in his body they turn to crystal, blocking the black holes which give him his power. But he still has enough power to smash Luluco between his two powerful hands, and her friends and family can’t get close enough to help.
Just when she feels like this might be the end for her, Nova’s disintegrating form appears to her and tells her to use him as a weapon. Nova says he can’t stay in their current dimension, but if Luluco fires him at the Blackholeian as a bullet, the two black holes will cancel each other out and both will disappear. Luluco asks what the point of them meeting was if he knew they were destined from the beginning to part, and Nova cheerily replies it’s so that they can meet again.
With that, Luluco knows she must follow Nova’s suggestion. She fires Nova’s Justice gun at the Blackholeian and together the two are sucked into another dimension. Once the Blackholeian disappears, all his minions transform back into regular people. Lalaco wastes no time disappearing, but Keiji is there to support his daughter and give her some words of support. Slowly the shoplifted Ogikubos drift back into the universe, heading for their homes.
Back at Luluco’s Ogikubo, life resumes as normal. Except now Chief Over Justice is the new Commander-in-Chief, and Midori has been promoted to his former rank of Chief of the Ogikubo branch. A widescreen appears behind father and daughter in their home, and they see that Lalaco’s up to no good again. Speaking of which, their home is now a spaceship, not a cramped apartment in Ogikubo. It looks like both Midori and Luluco have stopped going to school too.
Keiji leaves in their spaceship to chase after Lalaco, and Luluco leaves on her own space rider to do her own thing. She has a new nickname too: Miss Trigger (haha).
My thoughts: Luluco’s parents’ reactions to her confession to Nova were pretty funny. Luluco’s father is the stereotypical protective father, pointing out that his daughter is thirteen and too young to be getting involved with guys yet. Lalaco takes the stance that her daughter is growing up into a young woman (although I hate to pin that label onto a thirteen year old >>; ) and can make her own decisions.
I think these two episodes were my favourite. It was a sappy yet bittersweet ending to a show I wasn’t even sure I was going to stick with, but I’m glad I did because it ended up being more than I had anticipated. But poor Luluco~~ ;~;
Final Impression: Ugh, the ending to this show. ;~; *tries to tape her broken heart back together* Goddamn bittersweet endings. I was so happy Luluco got her wish, and was caught so off guard when it was taken away from her.
Story: Not as shallow as I had originally thought. One of the main themes of this show is that Luluco spends so much time and effort trying to be normal, but in the end after Nova leaves, she gives up and accepts that her life as part of Space Patrol will never be normal.
As with Hundred, the focus of the storyline changed too. It was initially about rescuing her father, then became about dealing with her mother, stealing back Ogikubo, and lastly trying to confess to Nova plus the whole faceoff with the Blackholeian. I appreciate series which aren’t one or two-note because it makes them much more interesting to watch. For a show that’s only about five minutes long once you remove the opening and ending themes, I was pretty impressed.
Characters: Kinda meh for me. I was right about Nova being a little suspicious, but he and Luluco grew on me. Midori was probably my favourite character as I feel she had the most personality, and it didn’t hurt that she has the same seiyuu as Haruko from FLCL. Luluco’s parents were alright, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Chief Over Justice or his silent assistant.
Music & Animation: Probably the weakest elements of the series for me were the music and animation. I wasn’t a big fan of either the opening or ending theme, and five minutes doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for other tracks. The animation itself was solid, but I’m not a fan of the wild-crazy-all-over-the-map style of this show. It often made it a little difficult for me to track what was going on, especially when the action really got going and shots were firing everywhere. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just not to my liking.
Overall Thoughts: As I mentioned, I ended up enjoying this show a lot more than I thought I would. The characters and the zany animation grew on me like a fungus until I caved and just went with the flow. If you’re a fan of other Trigger works then I recommend watching Uchuu Patrol Luluco, especially if you’re the type who likes looking for easter eggs.
Final Score: 8/10
