Osoaioi - Peaches

I’m very nostalgic for them

What Space Patrol Luluco meant to me, as an aeromantic middle schooler

H hhiii everybody, this is an essay I wanted to write. I know this is an art account, but the last time I wrote a half assed paper about Osomatsu’s 24th season two episode you guys like it? So maybe, just maybe, you guys would be ok with reading another, this time something more personal, about what I beleive is a completely underrated show and how it changed my life! :D

WARNING!! THERE ARE HEAVY SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE FOR SPACE PATROL LULUCO

Space Patrol Luluco is a 13 episode shit post about a 13 year old girl name Luluco (fuckadoodle doo) who take her father’s place in the Okikubo division of the Space Patrol after he’s turned into a frozen brain splinter by her Space Pirate Mother. (more on that later)

What the series is most known for is being one huge fucking inside joke for fans of Studio Trigger. The 13 episodes are divided into 5 mini seasons, each ending on the third episode so that that there’s never a fourth episode, since Trigger is known for their infamously bad fourth episodes. The show even confirms that all Trigger properties belong in the same universe just on different planets, Luluco even meets some notable characters from other shows. It’s a really neat show for fans of the studio.

But for me, I’ve always seen the show as something much more personal than that, especially as an aeromantic middle schooler.

The show throughout seasons 1-3 carries this subplot of Luluco’s crush on this apathetic good looking boy name Nova; and to be honest when I was first watching it I found this subplot cringey and unappealing.

As a bit of a disclaimer, my aeromanticism was a coping mechanism due to some bad experiences involving being stalked and manipulated by a boy I knew for seven years. (i’m not joking, fourth grade to tenth grade) For most people aeromanticism isn’t a phase, and I’m not trying to imply in anyway that that’s what it is, but for me, it was a phase. Romance made me incredibly uncomfortable, because I was convinced that all love is shallow especially premature teen age love. I believed the standard of love we had created for ourselves was impossible to actually achieve. Especially impossible, and pointless, for middle school love.

And that’s how I felt about Luluco’s crush for Nova. It wasn’t special, it wasn’t deep, it wasn’t love. But it all changed in the series's climax, because my outlook on Luluco’s crush was the exact intention of the writer’s. The audience was meant to view her love as insignificant, because that was the exact view of the series's main antagonist too.

Another thing I’ve always loved about all of Trigger’s properties are their insane plot twists. (or at least the ones I've seen have plot twists) In episode one of season four of Space Patrol Luluco it’s revealed that the commanding chief of the entire space patrol force is a Blackholien, an alien species that only finds joy from stealing everything the universe has to offer; but because he’s so bored of stealing things of value, he sets about trying to steal the most worthless object in the entire universe- a middle school crush. Nova, the boy Luluco loves, is revealed to be a Nothingling, a being incapable of having a personality or feelings. The Blackholien humiliates Luluco by showing everyone that she only loves Nova for his looks, because that’s all he is. Then, Nova steals Luluco’s love from her body and the shock of this kills her.

Now, watching this for the first time, this really got my attention. In the next fucking episode, Luluco isn’t even in the opening anymore, because she’s dead. She spends the whole episode in hell, until she realizes something. It doesn’t matter to her that her love seems immature and shallow, because to her, it’s real.

Pulling back from the show for a moment, I’d like to say that we live in a society where we hate little girls. We do. If something is fucking stupid but is geared toward boys we withstand it. But if something is fucking stupid and geared toward little girls we hate on it, relentlessly. I felt that pressure alot as a child. Until I reached high school I was a tomboy, because I didn’t want to be seen as feminine. Subconsciously, I saw it as weak and something to outgrow. But it wasn’t until freshmen year that I realized that I’m ok with being girly. I can be feminine and powerful at the same time.

I got a little off topic there but what I’m trying to say is that these themes are very present all through out the show Space Patrol Luluco, except it focuses less on gender expression and more on age but still it’s kind of the same. There are arc words within the series, such as how instead of stealing people only use the term “shoplift.” And how the Blackholien at every chance he gets calls Luluco a worthless middleschooler, belittling her for her age and her optimism.

I rewatched the series recently, and seeing it from a different perspective, with a romantic partner in my life, I’ve really come to understand Nova and Luluco’s relationship. Back in season one, after spending sometime with Nova Luluco experiences this big bang, and it’s meant to be this metaphor for the emotions blooming within her. Later, after Luluco comes back to life and confesses her feelings to Nova he experiences a big bang too, and for the first time ever he can feel emotions, and he falls in love with Luluco, and to me, that is the most romantic beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

As someone who has personally experienced what it’s like to feel incapable of love to finding my soulmate, it’s incredibly empowering. And that’s the real purpose of Space Patrol Luluco. Good art shows people different perspectives of the world, and years ago that’s exactly what it did for me. And I don’t care if love is stupid anymore I just know what it is I feel, and that’s what Luluco is for. To teach little girls like me that it’s ok to have dumb middle school crushes.

I MADE THIS A YEAR AGO FOR A DIGITAL MEDIA CLASS IM HONESTLY REALLY PROUD OF IT

‪I guess I’ll just never post a piece of nice polished digital art ever never forever again‬

I call her Minnie the Moocher

@blshitsu I FINALLY FINISHED I WAS TRYING NEW THINGS AND I THINK IT CAME OUT GREAT I HOPE UOU LIKE IT- THEY WERE REALLY FUN TO DRAW

If it means getting to see more of your awesome art, I'm all for it 👏🏼

HEDGEY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH THANK YOU ;;;;; ILL DO MY BEST!!