Anime / Space Patrol Luluco

Due to the sheer volume of spoilers, all of them are unmarked in this page. You Have Been Warned!

Fight for Justice!

"I'm Luluco. Ogikubo—an abnormal town that's the only one of its kind on Earth, a Space Immigration Zone where humans and aliens live together—is where I live with my dad as a completely normal middle school student. But to be honest, I hate this weird town. I want to live a normal life, like people in other towns do".

So begins Luluco's narration on what seems to be a relatively normal day for her, waking up and having breakfast with her father Keiji. But when he accidentally bites into a cryonic pill and turns into a Human Popsicle, she is forced to take over his job as a member of the Space Patrol to make ends meet and pay for his unfreezing.

Space Patrol's Hot-Blooded skeleton leader Over Justice equips her with a suit that transforms her into a giant gun, sending her to root out crime in her school and meet her new law enforcement partner, who turns out to be a New Transfer Student named Alpha Omega Nova. Luluco isn't too sure about the whole Space Patrol thing, but this mysterious blonde-haired boy makes her heart skip a beat. If the Big Bang was the moment when the universe began to expand, is our 13-year-old heroine about to have a Big Bang of her own?

Welcome to Studio TRIGGER's Milestone Celebration.

The anime aired as part of the spring 2016 anime season, and also ran during the Ultra Super Anime Time block. An English dub was provided by Funimation and released in October of 2017.

A Compilation Movie entitled First Love Big Bang, consisting of the complete run of the series was released alongside the special edition Blu-Ray in September of 2016. It edits out several scenes for timing/pacing reasons, but does contain textless versions of scenes from Episode 3 and Episode 12.

In January of 2017, director Hiroyuki Imaishi and other ex-Studio Gainax staff released a doujin that reveals what happened to Nova after the final episode. It can be read here (Warning: contains spoilers for another Imaishi series. Read at your own risk.)

Since this is a short and densely packed series containing a lot of surprises, being even one episode behind can expose you to major spoilers, and the character pages pretty much spoil everything. Read these pages at your own risk, and consider staying away altogether if you aren't caught up (Although considering that each episode is less than eight minutes long, getting caught up shouldn't take you long).

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Awake! Judgment Trope Morphing!

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in his home short, Machspeed doesn't try to extort his client for cash or get him killed. The most he does to Luluco is demand a fee for playing therapist for her. This is out of necessity since the group is dealing with a tween instead of an adult.
• Adaptational Villainy: Sucy in her sole appearance in the show is portrayed as an antagonist who outright tries to kill Luluco with poisonous mushrooms. Granted, it was because she thought she was an invader who was out to steal the sorcerer's stone (and the mushrooms don't kick in for 70 years, so they have no effect on Luluco currently), but killing another human being is rather extreme compared to anything Sucy does in her home franchise.
• Adjective Noun Fred: Space Patrol Luluco.
• Alliterative Family: Luluco's mother is named Lalaco, and according to the Drama CDs her maternal grandmother was named Lilico.
• Almost Kiss: Nova looks like he's leaning in to kiss Luluco in episode 7, before they get interrupted.
• And the Adventure Continues: At the very end of the series, Luluco goes off to find Nova.
• Animation Bump: When things get serious, so does the animation.
• Apocalypse How: Planetary Metaphysical Annihilation. After Over Justice sets Kill ** Killian ablaze with Dark and Dark, KLK-X is burnt to a crisp and burns away into the dark reaches of subspace.]] In Episode 9, Violence ends up destroying the SVM planet in his murderous rampage.
• Art Evolution: To match the series' art style, Sucy is depicted with bolder lines and in a more simplistic and cartoonish style compared to how she's depicted in Little Witch Academia.
• Art Shift:
  • Episode 7 features the usual style along with retouched photos that represent the various Ogikubo locations, very detailed but even more cartoonish still frames colored in pastels, and a few creepily realistic frames when the Kill ** Killian burns to death.
  • Episode 9 is mostly in the same palette as the short it's crossing over with, SEX and VIOLENCE with MACHSPEED.
• As You Know: At the start of episode 1, Luluco manages to remind Keiji of everything he already knows but the audience doesn't, in response to him praising her for turning out so normal growing up in an abnormal environment:
  "You're part of the Space Patrol that upholds Ogikubo's law and order, and hardly get any time off. Mom left home after a fight and took all the furniture with her, so now we live in this run-down apartment. Yeah, we're super normal alright".
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Season 2 episode 3 ends with Ogikubo getting shoplifted and subsequently auctioned by Lalaco, forcing the Space Patrol to look for it.
  • The first episode of Season 4 ends with Luluco dead, Nova having revealed himself to be a double agent, and the rest of the Space Patrol locked up in jail.
• Badass Family: Luluco's mother and father are a member of the Space Patrol and a Space Pirate respectively, and Luluco herself eventually Took a Level in Badass after coming back to life.
• Battle Couple:
  • Luluco and Nova are partners in combat with an increasing amount of UST. Episode 12 sees them make their relationship official as they prepare to fight the Big Bad at each others' side.
    • In the dub of Episode 13, Luluco and Nova say "their love is a battlefield".
  • Keiji and Lalaco do an ex-spousal Enemy Mine in the final assault on Space Patrol HQ.
• Bittersweet Ending: Luluco defeats the evil Blackholeian and restores justice to the universe, but at the cost of her beloved Nova sacrificing himself to the black hole they used to defeat the villain, thus separating them across time and space when they had only just confirmed their mutual love. Yet Luluco does not despair because she knows he's alive and waiting for her in some alternate universe, and she fully intends to search the cosmos as Trigger-chan until she finds him again. And with the Geek Boy doujin set after the show's ending, we now know that Nova came out intact in the world of Panty and Stocking. The Art of Trigger book even shows that the two of them grow up fine when they see each other in the 4-year Time Skip.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Surprisingly, yes. On the heroes' side, we have a Reluctant Warrior, a Sociopathic Hero, a shameless Token Evil Teammate, and Da Chief. On the villains' side, we have a Space Pirate who auctions off entire cities and has no problems with beating the crap out of her daughter and an entire species that loves nothing more than taking worthless crap and stealing it anyway, and are perfectly okay with endangering an entire town and starting a wild goose chase to manipulate a young girl's feelings. And then destroy her worthless item afterwards.
• Bookends: The first episode starts with the opening theme, Luluco giving a monologue about how much she hates the weirdness of her town, and her having breakfast with her father. The last episode (disregarding The Stinger) ends with Luluco having breakfast with her father, her giving a monologue about how much she loves the weirdness in her town, and the opening theme played over the credits.
• Buffy Speak: "You're under arrest for some kind of space fraud!"
• The Cameo:
  • Wooser makes several cameos throughout the anime and the gag manga, such as his likeness on the dial of Luluco's alarm clock.
  • Sucy Manbavaran from Little Witch Academia makes an extended crossover in Episode 8, and Akko gives Luluco a high-five in The Stinger of episode 13.
  • Inferno Cop himself appears in Episode 11 and helps Luluco come back to life.
• Care-Bear Stare: Luluco bombards Nova with Aflutter Jewels in Episode 12. It manages to give him emotions.
• Cast of Expies: Every named character in the series is either an expy of a previous Gainax/Trigger character or a cameo by a previous Trigger character.
• Casting Gag: The English dub getting Christopher Sabat (who voiced Ninja Slayer) to play Inferno Cop.
• Cast of Snowflakes: While the main cast has fairly similar body types, all of the background aliens are highly varied in design. Averted with the Blackholians who are all exactly the same.
• Cerebus Retcon: Luluco's desire for normalcy starts making a disturbing amount of sense once we see what her childhood was like. This doesn't keep it from being funny though.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The cockroach in the first episode is a member of Lalaco's pirate crew. He planted the pill that turned Keiji into a Human Popsicle.
• Crash-Into Hello: In the manga, one of Luluco's friends suggests that she invoke this to start a romance with Nova. She does crash into him... along with another classmate, resulting in a Love Triangle.
• Crossover: The doujin mentioned in the description is one with Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
• Crossover Punchline:
  • Episode 7 confirms the existence of Life Fibers in the universe, features a planet named KLK-X, plays "Before my Body is Dry", and even has an alien that looks like Guts, but Kill la Kill is not even mentioned once in the episode.
  • It gets elaborated even further in Episode 8, apparently not only do Life Fibers exist in this world, but Luna Nova also exists as well.
    • What makes this one even worse... Little Witch Academia, in its current form, WASN'T EVEN MADE YET. She crossed over with its Backdoor Pilot!
  • In episode 9, three quarters of the episode was literally just SEX and VIOLENCE with MACHSPEED with Luluco's confused screams in the background.
  • Episode 11 shows that not only is Inferno Cop a real person in the show, but that he was a former member of the space patrol too.
  • The final episode shows during the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Lalaco plundering the Kiznaiver planet.
• Darkest Hour: Episode 10 ends with the Blackholeian smashing Luluco's Aflutter Jewel and absconding with Ogikubo, Nova's betrayal, and Luluco's Death by Despair. Over Justice still hasn't repaired his body, and Keiji still hasn't gotten the rest of his body back from Lalaco, but even she apparently senses that something's wrong.
• Dating Catwoman:
  • Luluco's mother and father are a notorious Space Pirate and a Space Cop respectively. They're never shown being romantic (in fact their only interaction is a flashback where they're having an intense gunfight) but they managed to have a kid somehow.
  • Luluco continues this trend with Nova after she finds out that he's working for the Blackholians, saying that she's going to confess to him and then arrest him.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Luluco soundtrack provides us with three drama tracks, about the length of a regular Luluco episode:
  • Episode 0.5, a Lalaco-focused track dealing with how she met and broke up with Keiji.
  • Episode 8.5, a Midori-focused track.
  • Episode 13.5, a Nova-focused track taking place some time after Nova and the Commander-in-chief's disappearance in the finale, with Nova running into him while he's searching for Luluco.
    • Additionally, Episode 3.5, a track focused on the Space Patrol as a group, is included on the CD as well.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Initially depicts the dangerous consequences of a Naïve Everygirl getting caught up in Love at First Sight with a guy she doesn't really know, when that guy is actually just an Empty Shell with a pretty face being used to manipulate her. However, after thinking about her mistakes Luluco realizes that she misunderstood Nova, and that she needs to make him understand her feelings no matter what. Armed with a heart that will grow back no matter how many times it's taken from her, she confronts him, confesses her love, and hits him with a Care-Bear Stare that makes him fall in love with her and come back to the good guys, thus vindicating the first love that the Big Bad had dismissed as worthless.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: Luluco mentioned in the first episode that her mother took all the furniture when her parents got divorced. Although this had nothing to do with any settlement. Lalaco is a Space Pirate and she stole it when she left.
• Doomed Hometown: Ogikubo gets shoplifted by Lalaco and auctioned off to who-knows-where.
• Dysfunctional Family: This turns out to be the true nature of Luluco's family situation. Keiji and Lalaco, despite fighting and her leaving, still get into contact with one another, and when Nova disappears into another dimension, Keiji encourages Luluco to look for him and arrest him]], in much the same way a father would tell his daughter to chase after the kid she loved. And especially so, since he and his wife go through the same thing.
• Epiphanic Prison: In episode 11, Luluco thinks that her life is over and there's no way she can get out of hell, but Inferno Cop helps her to realize that she can leave through the exit and return to life as soon as she understands what she needs to do.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Luluco is devastated to find out that her beloved Nova was just using her and didn't care about her at all.
• Evolving Credits:
  • The third-to-last shot of the opening changes between seasons. In the first season, it's just Luluco. The second season adds Midori and Nova. The third season has all three of them in their uniforms. The fourth season adds Lalaco standing on some junk and Hisho wheeling around Over Justice. Each season also changes the color of the text and the speed lines (Red → Green → Blue → Yellow).
  • Episode 11 has a unique version with a grey color scheme that completely removes Luluco, due to her dying the previous episode.
• Exact Words: Episode 9 had Nova tell Luluco that she was precious to him. She is, but only because he needs the Aflutter Jewel within her for his mission.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: All three of the main characters have something on the left side of their heads (Luluco's pigtail, Nova's Idiot Hair, and Midori's third eye). Their space helmets also have holes for them.
• First Love: Luluco falls in love for the first time in her life when she meets Nova, represented by the heart-shaped jewel that grows over time, though she wonders whether he will love her back. Deconstructed in episode 10 when the Blackholeian taunts it as the shallow first love of an especially foolish girl, who fell for a boy who was all looks and hollow on the inside. Reconstructed when Luluco realizes that her first love still has meaning, and that her Aflutter gem will grow back no matter how many times someone tries to take it from her. With it she redeems Nova and becomes his first love in return, thus vindicating the first crush of a middle school girl that started as something worthless.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Keiji's alarm clock in ep. 1 is shaped like his secret spaceship.
  • Midori uses an illegal space-smartphone app that generates small portals, similar to black holes, to shoplift stuff. The Big Bad of the series is the Blackholeian race, black-hole-headed beings who commit similar acts of petty shoplifting, only on an universal scale.
  • While Luluco is blowing up the meteor in episode 4, everyone else is playing Pop Up Pirate. Guess what pops out of the meteor.
  • There's specific emphasis on the heart gem and its growth whenever Luluco and Nova get somewhat close. Turns out he was letting it get big enough to steal for the Blackholians.
  • In episode 7, everyone on the fake Ogikubo is drawn to Kill ** Killian because it projects their Lust Object instead of its true form. However, Nova seems perfectly fine despite everything. He doesn't have anything to lust over because as a Nothingling, he doesn't have any strong emotions.
  • One that goes as far back as the Studio Trigger website: One of the very first wallpapers available on the site is one of Trigger-chan and the film reel covered bullets she eventually fires in the Grand Finale.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Midori goes cross-eyed in episode 10, her third eye goes cross-eyed as well (sprouting a second pupil).
  • When Ogikubo is stolen by Lalaco, Midori finds that it's being auctioned off. There's a brief shot of the screen, and you can see people are asking if it comes in the original box, or with accessories, as if a city were an action figure.
• Generation Xerox: Luluco ends up following roughly the same life choices as her mother and father, what with going from a normal life to one of action and peril, getting into a Dating Catwoman relationship with someone she's duty-bound to arrest]], and ultimately realizing that whatever side of the law you're on, you have to stay true to yourself.
• Gratuitous English:
  • Whenever Luluco's suit begins transforming, the suit's voice announces in English, "AWAKE! JUDGEMENT GUN MORPHING!"
  • Any time someone mentions justice, they have to say it in English and AS LOUD AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
  • Courtesy of the Blackholian: "ZA NASSHINGU! (The Nothing!)" and "One and only!"
  • And in the finale "AWAKE! DEEP LOVE GUN MORPHING!" and "FIGHT FOR NOVA-KUN!"
• Harsh Word Impact: Keiji flinches like he's been stabbed for each of the brutal truths about their circumstances that Luluco recounts at breakfast.
• Holding Hands: Nova sometimes takes Luluco's hand to reassure her, which makes her heart race. In episode 12, the way they hold hands as they prepare to fight the Blackholeian establishes them as an official Battle Couple.
• Hope Spot: Episode 9 makes it seem like everybody gets a happy ending, and then in episode 10 it turns out that they played into the villains' hands.
• I Let You Win: Over Justice's response to having his ass handed to him is to call it a draw.
• Kill It with Fire: Apparently, Over Justice's burning love of justice is enough to set an entire planet made of life fibers on fire.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While in hell, Inferno Cop tells that he was in Space Patrol with Luluco replying that makes Inferno Cop her predecessor. This is true both figuratively and literally as Inferno Cop was the first of Trigger's works and Luluco's show is the one that takes the most after his from the three that came afterward (Kill la Kill, Ninja Slayer, and this show).]
• Let's Get Dangerous!: After Lalaco annihilates the Space Patrol, Over Justice stops playing around and gets a sudden Animation Bump and gets ready to throw-down against her. It doesn't work, as he gets quickly curb stomped by her.
• Lighter and Softer: The plot of SEX and VIOLENCE with MACHSPEED, that being the mob coming after the group after Machspeed pissed them off, is left mostly untouched in their crossover episode. However, since their client is a middle schooler instead of the loser son of a don, Violence's gory punches and Se'chan's "Se'chan Missile" attack (where she has literally explosive sex with her opponents) are toned down into an attack where Violence tosses Se'chan into people until they blow up. The catalyst is also changed from the mob getting revenge on Machspeed for killing their boss and his son to coming to collect after Machspeed messed with the honeypots at one of their cabarets.
• Limited Animation: It's a Studio TRIGGER work, so this is to be expected. Over Justice stands out in particular, being animated the same way that Inferno Cop was. Until he gets serious that is. Inferno Cop himself still retains his trademark stiff animation.
• Literal Metaphor: In Episode 10, Nova breaks Luluco's heart and stomps on her feelings both figuratively and literally.
• Logical Weakness: Life Fibers are made out of thread. As a result, they're highly flammable.
• Love Confession: Luluco properly confesses her love to Nova when she confronts him in episode 12, though she had already asked him for a kiss in episode 8 and said that she loved him in episode 10.
• Love Triangle: Luluco and Midori are in competition for Nova's affections, though for Midori it's more about wanting to posses whatever someone else wants. Sure enough though, Luluco wins.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Starting in Episode 7, the team travels to planets based off of different Trigger shows, Kingdom Hearts style.
• Meaningful Echo: The series ends as it begins, with Luluco talking about the town she lives in. The only difference is that in the beginning she hated how weird it was and in the end she has come to love and embrace it.
• Meaningful Look: The Stinger, with Akko and Luluco as Trigger-chan looking at each other and then giving each other a high five, works on three levels:
  • Studio Trigger's first major character and their mascot appreciating each other.
  • The protagonist of Trigger's first anime work and the protagonist of their latest work looking at each other, showing how far they have come as a studio.
  • And the intended interpretation: to act as a teaser for Little Witch Academia (2017).
• Meaningful Rename: Luluco goes through one. She's the mascot for Studio Trigger, Trigger-Chan in her Older Alter Ego!
• Meet the In-Laws: Keiji tells Luluco that she still has to do this in order to give her the motivation to find Nova following his Heroic Sacrifice.
  Keiji: You're supposed to introduce your boyfriend to your dad, right?
• Moment Killer: In episode 7, Luluco wakes up to find Nova leaning over her, and she thinks he's about to kiss her, when Keiji suddenly pipes up and starts ranting, causing the moment to be ruined.
• Monumental Theft: Lalaco and her crew steal the entire city of Ogikubo by plucking it out of the ground with their spaceship, and put it up for auction to the highest bidder. Once a buyer is found, they fold it up into a giant shipping box and try to send it through a wormhole. This is also the trait of the Blackholians, bordering on Impossible Thief.
• Mood Whiplash: Episode 10 suddenly takes a nosedive with Nova's betrayal and Luluco's Aflutter Jewel being crushed, leading to her Death by Despair.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Alpha Omega Nova is a little too eager to shoot things without trying to negotiate.
• No Dead Body Poops: Referenced in Episode 11, where Over Justice recalls the human body excreting something when they die, but mistakenly believing it to come out the nose.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Chief Over Justice, being an Inferno Cop reference, is completely different from the other characters. He's also a cardboard cutout... most of the time.
• Nose Shove: In episode 10, when Luluco isn't waking up, Over Justice suggests that Midori try stuffing tissues up their nose because as far as he knows, something leaks out of humans when they die.
• Not Big Enough for the Two of Us: Said by Inferno Cop to Luluco to encourage, rather than to threaten, her to leave Hell.
• Now or Never Kiss: In episode 8, upon getting poisoned and thinking she only has minutes left, Luluco decides to finally kiss Nova. When they learn that the poison won't kick in for another sixty years, Nova immediately wipes his mouth.
• Official Couple: Luluco and Alpha Omega Nova are the main Love Interests, in case the official art didn't make it obvious whose romance this is about. Granted, the show's pretty sneaky about the whole Decon-Recon Switch, but by episode 12 they are officially a couple in canon.
• Origins Episode: The entire series is this for Trigger-chan, as Luluco becomes her in the finale to search for Nova.
• Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Played for Laughs in episode 7, where a series of hand-colored still images highlight the melodramatic climax of the episode.
• Product Placement: Luluco's mom is seen in a flashback going away from home and carrying her stuff in a bag with the Good Smile Company logo. Justified since it's one of the series' sponsors and is making nendoroids and other gadgets inspired by the series.
• Promotion to Opening Titles:
  • Inverted. Luluco is entirely removed from the opening for episode 11 due to her Death by Despair in the previous episode. Ironically, she's the only character in the episode besides Inferno Cop to get any major screen time.
  • Played straight with Lalaco, who gets added to the opening in episode 10, even though they don't show back up until episode 12.
• Punch Catch: Nova stops a punch from Lalaco that was aimed at Luluco, saying "Not that I care, but hitting a girl isn't nice".
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In episode 10 when the fake Space Patrol Chief and Nova finally obtain Luluco's Aflutter Jewel, the former gives a speech about how Luluco's First Love is pathetically shallow and worthless, and the boy she is in love with was nothing but an Empty Shell all along. Combined with Break Them by Talking, as it has a devastating effect.
• Recoil Boost:
  • The rocket launch in episode 4 is powered by the character's gun forms. Although, instead of shooting downwards to launch themselves up, they shoot upwards to launch the people above them.
  • Luluco does a more traditional version in episode 8 to get to the top of a tower.
• Red String of Fate: In episode 7, Nova tells Luluco that they're connected by the red string of fate, and she finds that a glowing red string is tied to her finger, causing her to blush at the implication that their love is meant to be; Then she realizes that he is not the real Nova, but Kill ** Killian, who is using life fibers tied to his fingers to feed on the energy of the crowd of people who see in him the illusion of their heart's desire.
• Sequel Hook:
  • But not to the show itself. The Stinger of the final episode is a hook for the Little Witch Academia anime that has been announced on the very same day]].
  • There could be an actual one, since the Blackholian says he'll be back for "the second and the third" before being subdued and disappearing.
• Shave And A Haircut: Heard as a Recurring Riff in the OP.
• Shout-Out: Now comes with its own page!
• Something Else Also Rises: The minute Luluco falls in love with Nova, her Judgement Gun Morphing sets off, and she shoots the captive criminal in front of her. Keep in mind that her blaster is placed exactly where her crotch should be.
• Space Pirates: Luluco's mom, Lalaco Godspeed]], is a Space Pirate with a spaceship shaped like an old-fashioned pirate ship, and a crew that dresses like stereotypical pirates. Their MO is to steal stuff and sell it off to the highest bidder.
• Space "X": Parodied, as the prefix space- gets randomly tacked onto regular words to the point of absurdity:
  • "She's putting it up for space-auction!"
    • Current bid: 3000 space yen (tax-free).
  • "They found out I was space-cheating!"
  • "Space Ethics are going to the dogs!"
  • "That's beyond dumb! It's space dumb!"
• Spent Shells Shower:
  • A flashback in episode 5 shows shell casings falling on the food as Luluco's parents exchange gunfire during mealtime.
  • The spent ammunition shower is even crazier in episode 12, when Space Patrol and the Pirates assault the Blackholeians.
• Spinoff Sendoff: In The Stinger for the very last episode, Luluco, now going as Trigger-chan, flies past and then high fives Akko Kagari, which announces the Little Witch Academia anime.
• Spiritual Successor: The entire show can be considered a Studio TRIGGER version of TYPE-MOON's Carnival Phantasm: both shows are comedies based on taking several different independent properties owned by the company (Inferno Cop, Kill la Kill for TRIGGER and Tsukihime, Fate for TYPE-MOON) and crossing them over with comedic results, along with being a sort of Self-Parody of the companies producing the anime.
• Stealth Prequel: To Trigger Girls, the mascot characters for Studio Trigger.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The Blackholians smashed the Aflutter Jewel within Luluco after Nova betrays them. In other words, they broke her heart.
  • When Luluco rides on her space motorbike, the shape she takes when she's on it makes the ride resembles a gun, with her as the Trigger.
• Stealth Sequel: Episode 7 is this to Kill la Kill, as the characters visit the home planet of the Life Fibers.
• Strange Salute: The Space Patrol salute is putting your hand into the shape of a gun and pointing upwards.
• Taking the Bullet: In episode 12, Nova shields Luluco from the Blackholeian leader's beam weapon with his body, although he isn't seriously hurt by it himself. He does it again in the series finale when Luluco is being absorbed by the force of the black hole.
• Team Power Walk: A Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame in episode 7 has Luluco, Nova, and Midori in their Space Patrol Suits walking side-by-side in a badass formation as Kill ** Killian burns behind them.
• Theme Song Power Up: Near the end of the series, the ending theme "Pipo Password" starts playing during particularly dramatic moments, usually when The Power of Love comes into play.
• Thirteen Episode Anime: Ran for 13 episodes during the Spring 2016 season, which were idiosyncratically divided into four miniature "seasons" of three episodes each, plus "season final" consisting of just the 13th episode.
• Time Skip: The Art of Trigger book for this series provides a brief one, showing Luluco and Nova meeting in a desert 4 years later.
• Title Drop: Twice:
  • When Nova asks to know Luluco's name during an arrest, she immediately stampers out "I'm Space Patrol Luluco".
  • In episode 12, Luluco says that she won't let someone get away with a crime, "Because I'm Space Patrol Luluco".
• To Be Continued: Luluco says this at the end of every episode save for Episode 10, where she succumbs to Death by Despair and says "never to be continued". This includes the final episode. Even Nova's appearance in Geek Boy: Homecoming isn't safe from it, as Brief is the one to deliver the phrase at the end of the book.
• Transformation Sequence: The characters are all able to transform into guns, ranging from Luluco turning into a handgun Megatron-style or Alpha simply turning his arm into an Arm Cannon with a revolver cylinder.
• Unflinching Walk: Subverted in episode 7; Luluco, Nova, and Midori start to Team Power Walk away from a conflagration in an unflinching, badass fashion, but almost immediately they realize that they have to run to the spaceship to avoid getting caught in it.
• Using You All Along: Luluco's whole quest and her crush on Nova turn out to have been orchestrated by the Blackholians for their evil plan.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Luluco tries her best to be as normal as possible, while both of her parents are massive Large Hams.
• Wham Episode: Episode 10 turns everything upside down by revealing that Nova was a puppet for the Blackholians all along, and apparently killing off Luluco!
• Wham Shot:
  • The shot at the end of episode 6, confirming that Lalaco's life fibers were not just a one-off Shout-Out.
  • Nova plucking the Aflutter Jewel that would occasionally appear in in-show out of Luluco's chest.]]
  • The ending of the series itself, revealing that the whole show was actually an Origins Episode for Trigger-chan.
  • The very last scene announcing Little Witch Academia (2017).
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Ogikubo is back where it belongs. Keiji and Luluco are living in space now, Over Justice is the new Commissioner of the Space Patrol, and Midori has taken his place as the Ogikubo Patrol Chief. Lalaco's still terrorizing planets somewhere, as well. And finally, Luluco takes up the name Trigger-chan and wanders the dimensions in order to find Nova again.
• World-Healing Wave: After the Blackholeian Commissioner is defeated, the Space Patrol headquarters planet is rid of the black holes surrounding it and returns to normal.
• World of Ham: It's an Imaishi anime, what else were you expecting?
• You Are Already Dead: Sucy tells Luluco that she only has six minutes to live after she accidentally poisons her thinking she was an intruder, and begins counting down the time as she struggles between Face Death with Dignity and trying to maintain a Heroic Willpower long enough to kiss Nova. Then they all find out that her poison takes sixty years to take effect.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As Sucy reminds Luluco every thirty seconds after forcefeeding her poisonous mushrooms.
  Luluco: Am I going to die?
  :Sucy: In another two and a half minutes, yes.

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I'm Luluco. This is the story of my first love. [...] A whole lot has happened, but I love Ogikubo and this universe, where the abnormal is the norm! And until the day I meet him in some other dimension... To be continued!

SEE YOU NEXT TRIGGER ANIMATION

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