Lucu Lucu

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ryokan: "You said this world was created by God?"
Itsukyuu: "Which sukiyaki did God create?"
Lumiel: "...God did not create sukiyaki."
Ryokan & Itsukyuu: "Your God can't even make a decison between Kanto and Kansai styles!?"

Lumiel: "SHOULD MONKS EVEN BE EATING BEEF?"
—A fight over sukiyaki religion.
"Humans are a despicable lot, committing sin after sin, filling the endless boundaries of the underworld with tortured souls. Now, it would seem, Hell isn't so endless after all, and it has become dangerously close to filling, and then overflowing into the human realm. Princess Lucuha sees this imminent disaster and has a plan: save Hell by making humans decent again. Of course, the Angels can't simply allow Demons to roam freely on Earth, and they do their best to stop Lucu and her dastardly plans."
—Summary of Lucu Lucu from Baka-Updates

Lucu Lucu is a gag manga revolving around the daily life of Rokumon (first name) Suzuki (family name), Princess Lucuha and her demon pals (who are all squatters in Rokumon's home) including Bubu, a sort of Deadpan Snarker and comedic foil to Rokumon and Lucu. But wait, there's more! We also have Rokumon's father and the angels that come to Earth in order to find out the demons' plans. However, unlike normal demons, Lucu is different. She feels human emotions and has a sense of duty to care for Rokumon and others, which the angels always mistake for some sort of diabolical plot. Hilarity Ensues. It's a cutesy and likable seinen manga, and it doesn't spare you of an Incredibly Lame Pun here or there, and the plot isn't necessarily the focus, rather the interaction of the characters with each other is highlighted in the first 40 chapters or so. Rokumon seems to be familiar with Lucu, and he has a difficulty remembering his childhood, a mystery presented in the story, and he only knows that it was absolutely horrible, since his mom is presumably dead, and his father was a drunkard who gambled most of his money away.

It also likes to make fun of religions. All religions.

Tropes used in Lucu Lucu include:
  • Accidental Pervert: Rarely happens, but it does, to Rokumon. (By rarely, I mean, there can be a good six chapters before you see another ecchi moment.) However, because of its rarity, when it does happen, it's really, really funny.)
  • All Just a Dream: ALL OF THE EVENTS PRESENTED IN THE SERIES. Or Was It a Dream?
  • Archangel Michael: Jophiel and Lumiel's boss. Jophiel views Michael as a rival and wants to be stronger than him.
    • Michael appears later at the very end series to finish what Jophiel and Lumiel started.
  • The Blind Leading the Blind: The setup for a lot of the jokes in Lucu Lucu, especially the religion ones. Kinda appropriate, huh?
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Basically what happens between Lucu and Bubu, except that Bubu will say something snarky and Lucu will get pissed off and hit him with a chain and ball. This happens to other demon underlings under Lucu when they do something idiotic to make fun of her.
  • Butt Monkey: Lumiel, and sadistically so.
  • Catch Phrase: "DEMON!" (It has a variety of applications!)
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Kitamakura. Your Mileage May Vary on whether you like Kitamakura as comic relief or if you just groan at him and think he's an idiot. Anyways, Kitamakura's perversion knows no bounds, but he would only let Rokumon suffer, and not his victims of ogling, because that's what best friends do!
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Either it's Rokumon groaning and being miserable because of others, or it's the religion freaks (Itsukyuu, Lumiel, Jophiel, Kazue; the self-declared "good" side) being miserable because of the "demons", and sadly, themselves.
  • Crossdresser: Lumiel. Apparently the school would only give him a girl's uniform when he transferred into Rokumon's school. He also crossdresses for the school fair. He wins the crossdressing contest.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The demons are actually out to redeem humanity (if only to clear up space in Hell).
  • The Ditz: Pero. She's also amoral. She tries babysitting, but later on she leaves a note saying "I got bored" next to the baby.
  • Fallen Angel: This is what Princess Lucuha is, apparently, since she sprouts angel wings identical to Archangel Michael, and Jophiel remarks that their battle (Michael's and Lucu's) was between two archangels.
  • Fan Service: Pero. She's always close to naked, and she's The Ditz, and she lacks any common sense whatsoever, and she's got an inner-demon form thing, and she's just an idiot. A nice idiot, but an idiot regardless.
  • Gainax Ending: Your Mileage May Vary, but it does come out of nowhere.
  • Hair Wings: Lucu's preferred method of transportation.
  • Louis Cypher: There is a reason Lucu's weapon of choice is a morningstar. Not that she hides who she is.
    • The rest of Lucu's troupe also have thinly veiled names of major demons. Bubu, spellable as simply Bub, is Beelzebub. Tan is a separate and much more pessimistic entity from Lucu (Lucifer) and plays his role as tempter and corrupter straight.
  • Meganekko: Shiki Tohn—Harry Pott—I mean, Rokumon.
  • Only Sane Man: Rokumon, but he only gets mildly sarcastic about it.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Most of the angels seen in Lucu^2 are well-intentioned, but overly suspicious of the demons who are actually trying to make the world better.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Most of the demons seen in Lucu^2 are actually pretty nice. Lucu herself is a cute little girl, who seldom speaks and is trying to better the world. Also, even though Bubu can put on a scary face, he's actually pretty silly, but ironically more knowledgeable about the world than the tame Lucu.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: Lucu practically looks like a cyclops most of the time.
  • Perpetual Poverty: The living conditions of the characters for most of the manga reflects this rather realistically.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Lucu's hair is strong enough to lift a bag of rice and Rokumon and is capable enough force to fly her.
  • Running Gag: The way that Jophiel's human consciousness depressing helmet keeps upgrading as the series goes on.
  • Satire: A lot of the jokes about religion in Lucu Lucu are heavy satire on things people actually do, for example, worshipping demonic idols, ridiculous excorcism methods, Church of Masochism, etc. etc.
  • Serious Business: The wacky interactions between Ryokan/Jophiel and Itsukyuu are fueled by this trope.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jophiel... maybe. He has the extremist part down, seeing as he believes the best way for you to get to heaven, is killing you.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Grade B to A, depending on the angle and the how steady the mangaka's hand wants to be.

Chapters of this series provide examples of:

  • Artistic License: Biology: Lumiel, don't you know creationism isn't scientific!?
  • Ax Crazy: In one chapter 64, the gang met with a nice-looking granny who said she an evil idol reminded her of her son. You can imagine what a surprise it was to have the granny turn into a Knife Nut whenever someone pretends to be him. Cue old lady with a Slasher Smile trying to kill everyone. I wonder what her son was like?
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 47. Lucu wins a family vacation to the beach. No, there's no fanservice. The seawater is full of jellyfish. (Lumiel dives right in.) There's only one type of firework to light. Lumiel gets washed up nowhere. Half the cards are missing from the deck provided by the inn. Oh, and a typhoon rolls in. Awesome.
  • Brick Joke: Variation. In chapter 57, Rokumon tries to prevent Kazue from blowing up her bullies with a bomb. The bomb was a firework. Hence, that was the punchline. But the theme of the chapter was too serious ( you know, bullying AND bombs ), so the author naturally had to stick in another punchline. Cue Lumiel getting arrested for illegal possesion of explosives. Lumiel getting arrested was a running gag, but it reappears 20 something chapters later making it a Running Gag AND a Brick Joke at the same time.
  • Broke Episode: There are a good amount of chapters that has Lumiel broke, hungry, or completely distraught by the rigors of human life.
  • Came Back Wrong: Rokumon's dad. You thought he was dead in the first few chapters, but then you learn that he died and the demons brought him back as a cat.
  • Cult: Jophiel's host, Ryokan, the Demon Talisman Monk, is a practitioner of a radical sect of Buddhism. Also, in one chapter, Lumiel is broken from his failures and is drawn into an cult that equates spirituality with pain. However, the cult leaders were only trying to get his money. Lumiel is broke.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: Lucu intenionally tries to make sure she catches Rokumon every time he tries to knock his rocks off.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin'': You just can't, especially Lumiel, although, his arrest are more of the comedic sort. Sometimes subverted with Rokumon or the angels trying to find out what the demons are up to and they end up discovering something harmless. (But the angels will still make something out of it.
  • Duel to the Death: Averted. Rokumon kicks Lucu and Jophiel out of the house before they can interrupt his breakfast and fight.
  • God of Evil: Ryokan collects evil idol statues and worships them as Buddhas.
  • Heat Wave: Chapter 46. Rokumon's newly reconstructed house has no ventilation. He wants some cool summer dishes to alleviate the situation. Lucu serves curry. Hilarity Ensues.
"They're recreating the atmosphere of hell in this house, and trying to create a gateway to the other world to send in their army!?"
—Lumiel, upon breaking into Rokumon's sweltering home
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