Anime Hajime Review: Space Patrol Luluco

Series Synopsis

Luluco (voiced by Mao Ichimichi) is your average, run of the mill, completely ordinary, normal middle school student and that’s the way she likes it. This is made difficult since she lives in one of the least normal places in the entire universe, Ogikubo; a city where humans and aliens live side by side.

One day, Luluco’s father (voiced by Mitsuo Iwata) accidently freezes himself. Hoping to revive him, Luluco brings her dad to his work at the Space Patrol Ogikubo Branch. Things don't go as planned and Luluco is strong armed into joining the Space Patrol.

Damn near immediately, the normal life Luluco has spent years building up is shattered. A hallmark of Space Patrol is the organization's headstrong, some might say destructive, brand of justice. Though a little heavy handed, the job will get done.

Maintaining order isn’t the kind of task which can be done alone. Therefore Luluco is assigned two partners, Alpha Omega Nova (voiced by Junya Enoki) and Midori (voiced by Mayumi Shintani). Together these three must fight against any and all threats seeking to destroy their city.

As members of Space Patrol, these young agents must travel the universe and across dimensions to see justice served. What could possible go wrong?

Luluco

Series Positives

I really like this one.

I didn’t know this was a Trigger production going in, but it became very obvious very quickly. At this point it’s fair to say I'm a fan of this studio. Their track record, for what I have seen, has been fantastic and Space Patrol Luluco continues this streak.

Alpha Omega Nova

For a short form anime, it was good. It’s random, all over the place, high energy, and it’s fast as s@#$. Things are happening constantly. There will be moments which will have you scratching your head and things will not make sense.

But that’s where a lot of the show’s charm comes from. This series is entertaining, in the purest sense of the word.

Midori

Visuals and Sound

Animation-wise, wow this one was pretty. With the amount the energy going on, the visuals complemented this so well.

Everything is just so bright, so colorful; extremely vivid, swift, and beautiful to look at. This is where Trigger Studios have shined and the influence of its other shows can be seen.

In fact, this series goes one step further than inspiration and actually brings some of Trigger’s past works into the fray. Yet Space Patrol didn’t rely on past success. This is its own thing.

A gorgeous looking anime and this alone makes the series worth a look, but when you pair the animation with the music; dear god is it special.

 

Now I haven’t seen all the series that were referenced, but there were two which I recognized instantly. The first was Inferno Cop and that was interesting, but more on that in a bit. The second one though put a big stupid smile on my face.

Space Patrol's soundtrack is great and it allowed the series to establish its own feel. However, this show was able to do something quite awesome. I wasn’t expecting this so it was a treat. Let’s set the stage.

Luluco and company find themselves on a thread planet; don’t bother questioning it. As things went along, an oddly familiar red string kept coming up. Then I heard those words which have now been ingrained in my head; life fibers. A little suspicious and a tad excited, I was wondering if they were really going to do what I thought they were going to do.

Sure enough the music started up, that unmistakable bold font appeared, and the drop came. It was My Body is Dry from Kill la Kill and I would be lying if I said I didn’t lose my s@#$.

It’s a little weird to praise a show for using something from something undoubtedly superior. But like a said, this series’ own music was also brilliant. Space Patrol Luluco may have referenced Kill la Kill, but it's not Kill la Kill. This is a separate entity with its own good points to highlight.

The Story

For a short form anime that’s nothing but balls-to-the-wall, there was an actual story...and it was decent. Not the best, but still good.

This show is broken up into “seasons”; five in total. The first two surprised me because they were solid. There weren’t deep or difficult, but definitely straightforward and fun.

Season three happened and I’ll get into that in a moment. Then four and five came and I was taken off guard since the story suddenly became a lot more epic than I was expecting. I didn't think this would be possible to create out quick seven minute bursts, but Space Patrol Luluco did it.

A good time all around.

Series Negatives

I might have just finished praising it, but I want to go back to the story. It was quick and frankly parts didn’t make sense. It’s not like it was hard to follow, but you have to simply accept a lot of things in this show.

For the most part nothing stops, except for one episode. Everything slows down to build up the climax. It wasn't bad and it served its purpose. However, it did something to which I’m not sure what to think. To be Luluco’s voice of reason and clarity, there needed to be a character known for their insight. Who does the show go with? Inferno Cop of course.

I honestly can’t tell if this was hilariously brilliant or out of place and stupid. Inferno Cop is the character known to shoot first and never ask questions. To have him show up here and be the responsible one was certainly strange. I’m torn and I can’t determine if I like this or not.

Season 3

This is the part of the show that had the majority of the cameos, including Kill la Kill. Even taking that into consideration, this whole segment was nothing but a complete waste of time.

A lot of this could be because I haven’t seen the other works referenced. Had I, then maybe I would have found the same enjoyment as I did with the Kill la Kill part. Yet despite even that, nothing of value really gets accomplished here.

In total, I believe Space Patrol Luluco referenced four previous Trigger productions, Kill la Kill, Inferno Cop, and the two I haven’t seen are Little Witch Academia and Sex and Violence with Machspeed.

This is the risk with cameos and references. If the audience doesn’t know what you’re talking about, there's nothing to latch on to. Even if I had known these characters, these moment were still completely pointless.

What ended up happening was the show stopped doing what it was already doing great at, being its own thing.

I will most likely end up watching the entire Trigger filmography one day and will probably come back to this series after doing so. While I might get more enjoyment out of this segment in the future, I don’t think it will justify the deviation and it will remain unnecessary.

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing Trigger Studio understands, it's how to be entertaining. Case in point Space Patrol Luluco.

Its fast, it’s fun, and brilliantly animated. The story is simple, but for towards the show’s benefit. The amount of references might be fun, but they do kind of take away the focus for a bit.

I expect I will come back to this one in the future. Actually, there is a good chance I might even re-review this series after I have a few more Triggers under my belt. For the time being, Space Patrol Luluco remains an easy recommendation.

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