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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 religion.

Lucu Lucu is a gag manga by Yoshitou Asari, which ran in Afternoon from 2001 to 2009. The story revolves around the daily life of Rokumon Suzuki, 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 seinen manga, and has a few Puns. 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.


The manga as a whole provides examples of:

  • Accidental Pervert: Rarely happens, but it does, to Rokumon.
  • 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, especially the religion ones.
  • 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.
  • Catchphrase: "DEMON!" (It has a variety of applications!)
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Kitamakura. 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, which has a crossdressing contest. 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.
  • "Double, Double" Title: Lucu Lucu.
  • 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.
  • Fanservice: 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 The Ditz. A nice one, however.
  • Gainax Ending: It does come out of nowhere.
  • Hair Wings: Lucu's preferred method of transportation.
  • Louis Cypher: Multiple:
    • 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.
  • Only Sane Man: Rokumon, but he only gets mildly sarcastic about it.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Most of the angels seen in this 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 this 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.
  • Perpetual Poverty: The living conditions of the characters for most of the manga reflects this rather realistically.
  • Pintsized 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 are heavy satire on things people actually do, for example, worshiping demonic idols, ridiculous exorcism 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.


Individual chapters 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 Psycho 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 intentionally 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!?
  • Hollywood Science: Lucu and the demons revive a Sokushinbutsu (self-mummified Buddhist priest) who was apparently still alive because he hibernated. Add water to the dried up priest and Humanity Ensues. Rokumon has problems with this.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Christianity promotes modesty, forgiveness, and being non-judgmental. Jophiel's (an angel) idea of defeating the demons is beating them at whatever activity they are doing, or opposing that activity. For example, the demons cleaned up the town, so the angels dirtied up and vandalized the town in order to destroy the demons' plans. The demons also helped in Rokumon's school's cultural festival, so the angels had to naturally set up their own Maid Cafe. With Lumiel in drag.
  • Mind Screw: Well, Lucu's doppelganger for one. However, the fact that Rokumon NEVER EXISTED because he was possibly CREATED by LUCU was almost as traumatizing as learning that IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAAAAAAAAM!!!!
    • Not quite a dream. It appears the Rokumon is apparently in a state between life and death and Lucu is using his dream/hallucination/whatever into a kind of Lotus-Eater Machine to serve as Purgatory so that Lucu AKA Lucifer can overcome his greatest weakness of Pride and serve as replacement for God who went missing. Cookies if that actually makes more sense.
  • Punchline: The best ones are near the end of the chapter. The very best ones usually have the Catchphrase shouted: "DEMON!"
  • Running Gag: Lumiel wearing a schoolgirls uniform at school. No he doesn't get a different one, and Rokumon can only wonder... Also, Lucu hitting Bubu with chain and ball, Rokumon's house getting destroyed by the demons, Rokumon's house getting rebuilt by the demons, and Kitamakura's strange, strange, understood by some, obsession.
  • Yaoi Fangirls: Kazue and the masochistic young girl both become this. Even when Jophiel is in Kazue's body.


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