Visual Novel / Lucky Dog 1

Lucky Dog 1 is a Boys' Love doujin Visual Novel by the company Tennenouji. The art is drawn by Yura, who is also well-known for her work on Enzai and Absolute Obedience.

Set in 1930s America, it's about a particularly hot Mafia group called the CR-5. At the beginning of the game, they're stuck in prison, until the protagonist, Giancarlo Bourbon del Monte (mostly known as "Gian"), finds out that he can become the CR-5's boss if he manages to break them all out successfully. With his cohorts Giulio di Bondone, Ivan Fiore, Bernardo Ortolani and Luchino Gregoretti, he (hopefully) makes it out of prison intact, and to his hometown known as Daivan. The plot then chronicles his life with whatever character you choose to pursue, and whether or not Gian makes it into his position or not.

After the first game's commercial success, there has been two more spin-offs released, titled Gian Carlo's Lucky Happy Life and Gian no Tamenara Sekai wo Kowasu, with a planned (but as of yet unreleased) sequel/expansion pack titled Lucky Dog 1 +bad egg. There is also an ongoing manga adaptation called Lucky Dog 1 BLAST, which appears to be focusing more on the storyline from the original game. A fan translation is currently rendering the first game's script into English proper.

In July 2018, MangaGamer announced plans to release an official translation in the future. A release date for the English version has not been confirmed at this time.

---

Provides examples of:

• Accidental Aiming Skills: Gian gets one moment of this in Luchino's route, when he fires a single round while aiming at the GD members attacking them and manages to hit the fuel tank of their car instead, causing it to leak underneath their feet. He then flicks a burning cigarette at the puddle for predictable results.
• Aerith and Bob: American characters have names like David Owen against the likes of Bakshi Christensen.
• Affectionate Nickname: Bernardo calls Gian "Honey" sometimes while Gian calls him "Darling" whenever they start flirting.
• The Alcatraz: The literal one is featured in one of Gian's bad endings in Lucky Happy Life. Unfortunately, Gian gets stuck there instead of being able to escape.
• All Men Are Perverts: During the escape period. After catching sight of a young woman, all of the CR-5 members (except Giulio) follow her and upon realizing she's about to take a bath in a spring start playing Rock–Paper–Scissors in order to determine who gets to "join" her. Until, they realize she's a man, that is.
• Almost Kiss: Gian and Ivan almost share one after an intimate scene, until Gian inadvertently ruins the moment by saying the wrong thing. Later averted in their route.
• Alternate Reality Episode: Gian Carlo's Lucky Happy Life features a whole bunch of mini-plots about these.
• Alternate Timeline: Each of the four routes in the first game start off the same way, but play out entirely different events in Daivan. The central conflict is always relevant to the specific character whose route Gian has taken.
• Always Save the Girl: The CR-5 capos make it very clear they will literally destroy the earth itself to save Gian in the spin-off, If It's for Gian, We Would Destroy the World.
• Animal Motifs: Dogs! At least wherever Gian and Giulio are concerned.
• Art Evolution: The artstyle noticeably evolves between Lucky Dog 1 and its spinoffs.
• Ascended Extra: Bakshi becomes one in the spinoff Gian Carlo's Lucky Happy Life, and both he and Ragtliffe are supposed to get expanded roles in the long-awaited sequel.
• Auto Erotica: Happens at one point in Ivan's route, and also in one of the Drama CDs. It also occurs briefly in Giulio's route.
• Bang, Bang, BANG: Averted with the handguns, which aren't really that loud. In comparison, Bakshi's sawed off shotgun makes a huge booming noise whenever it gets fired, and there's a loud elephant gun that gets used in Luchino's route.
• Bears Are Bad News: Gian invokes this trope when he pretends to hear a literal Mama Bear approaching, while tagging along with Ivan in the forest, in order to scare him. Ivan falls for it hook, line, and sinker and is almost frightened out of his wits—until it turns out to be Giulio emerging from the tall grass.
• Big Fancy House: The Daivan hotel that the CR-5 capos occupy for the third part of the game.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ivan's true ending. After seeing him share a tender kiss with Gian, the next scene skips decades into the future where all of the other CR-5 members, including Gian, are already long dead and Ivan is slowly dying alone in a hospital bed, remembering him.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The entire Mob War that breaks out between the two criminal organizations in Daivan can be ascribed to these. CR-5 may be full of criminals up to no good, but GD is much worse.
• Body Bag Trick: In one of the two escape routes from prison.
• Born Lucky: Gian. His luck is the whole reason for his nickname.

• Breaking Out the Boss: Not the boss himself, but four of the highest-ranking members. In fact, Gian gets ordered by the boss, Alessandro, to successfully break himself and the other CR-5 captains out of jail at the beginning of the game.
• Broken Record: Played for laughs when Ivan shouts "homo" over and over at Gian and Bernardo, who take it perfectly in stride.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: The first time that Bernardo and Luchino have sex with Gian in their respective routes, they're seriously drunk. Gian mostly isn't, though.
• Cardboard Prison: Madison Prison is essentially this for Gian, who has already escaped from there four times.
• Cast Full of Gay: A better term might be Cast Full of Closeted Gay, though it could be justified considering the stance on homosexuality in USA at the time, as well as among mafia members in general.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys
• Caught in the Rain: In Bernardo's good ending, he and Gian enjoy each other's company as they walk side-by-side under the rain.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: Occurs in Giulio's route, when Giulio finds Gian in the car engaging in some alone time much to Gian's embarrassment.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Gian with either Ivan or Giulio in the alternate timelines in Lucky Happy Life. They can either be unlucky childhood friends or victorious ones, depending on the ending.
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Accidentally made by Ivan to Rosalia when she was really young when he carelessly said "Yes" to one of her questions, without paying attention to what she said, when it just so happened to be if he was planning to marry her one day when she grew older. Cue his Oh, Crap! reaction when it finally sinks in years later.
• Cigar-Fuse Lighting: Occurs at the end of Ivan's route.
• City of Adventure: Daivan, where most of the action occurs in the third part of the game.
• Clear My Name: Gian's route in Lucky Happy Life is about him trying to clear a false accusation in court.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Courtesy of Ivan, whose volume can verge on Atomic F-Bomb levels at times.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Shown on both sides of the gang war when they capture opposing members.
• Comical Overreacting: Ivan's response to walking in on one of Bernardo and Gian's Faux Yay moments. His yelling is remarkably delayed though, until he gathers the other CR-5 capos to publicly accuse them.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Played straight and inverted in Lucky Happy Life. If you play normally, you'll probably end up cursing the AI-controlled opponents for getting rigged dice rolls in their favor all the time, but if you exploit the official cheat provided in-game, you'll end up cheating far more than they do and always beat them.
• The Consigliere: Tonio Cavalli is the consigliere of the CR-5.
• Contrived Coincidence: So many instances of this happen because of Gian's absurdly good luck.
• Conveniently Cellmates: The five CR-5 capos are inside the same prison, and Gian's room is not only across from Ivan's but two rooms away from Bernardo. However, Giulio was going to get transferred to another prison soon, so Gian needed to hurry up his escape plan before it actually happened.
• Cool Car: The sleek red Alfa Romeo that the gang steals from the warden at the end of the prison breakout. Also, Ivan's white Mercedes counts in his route, which he eventually blows up at a harbor to wipe out a group of GD members using some dynamite and a wad of gum.
• Cruel Twist Ending: Ivan's "best" ending can be considered one, especially since it's the only one that shows a depressing glimpse into the future, while all the other character endings are conventionally positive and hopeful.
• Cue the Sun: In Ivan's route, after he, Gian and Rosalia have just escaped into the sea (while fleeing from their car which is about to explode) and fortuitously fall atop a fisherman's boat. The sun is shown to be shining in the horizon as Ivan and Gian start laughing and clapping each other on the backs, glad to be alive.

• Cutting Off the Branches: Averted. None of the routes in Lucky Dog 1 are declared canon (since they're all self-contained). In fact, the Spin-Off Lucky Happy Life avoids this by depicting Gian paired with no one in his personal route, or in the manga adaptation.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Some of the nastier repercussions are shown in the game, including what happens to those who break the code of omertà, but the overall presentation of the Mafia is pretty positive.
• The Dandy: Luchino. Even his subordinates are well-groomed.
• Deserted Island: One of Giulio's good endings shows him and Gian enjoying their time together marooned on a deserted island after escaping from their sinking ship.
• Die Laughing: Gian dies unpleasantly like this, in Giulio's bad ending, after getting abruptly shot to death while he was still high on narcotics.
• Distracted by the Sexy: All of the CR-5 men in response to a young woman who is about to undress, except Giulio.
• Ditch the Bodyguards: Gian gets rid of Bernardo's subordinates in Ivan's route with a Dramatic Gun Cock at one point.
• Divided We Fall: In several of the bad endings when the CR-5 capos are unable to trust one another enough.
• Does He Have a Brother?: Luchino asks Gian if he has any sisters or female cousins because he has an affinity for blondes, particularly the ones with Gian's shade. Unfortunately for him Gian doesn't have any, although Luchino later shifts his attention to Gian himself in his route.
• The Don: Alessandro del Salto/Sarto of the Toscanini Family. Gian is supposed to inherit his title, though.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Gian often tells Giulio he doesn't have to keep calling him "Gian-san", although Giulio does it anyway. He only stops in his route.
• Downer Ending: All of the bad endings, obviously. But one of Giulio's bad ends stands out in particular. So, not only is Giulio dead, but Gian never got to tell him he loved him.
• Drugs Are Bad: Despite the fact that CR-5 handles some drug trafficking, none of the main characters use the drugs actively, and Gian is shown to be particularly averse to them because a crazed drug addict was responsible for killing his parents. All of the bad endings where they abuse drugs leads to someone dying as well.
• Dysfunction Junction: All of the main characters. Gian noticeably defies this trope though, despite having the requisite angsty background (dead parents).
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Bernardo's route is notable for being the only one filled with a lot of bad endings, and only one happy ending that the player might have to work a bit harder to get to.

• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite their heavy financial abuses, assassination of enemy gangsters, prostitution, and illegal smuggling, CR-5 won't ever cross the line of killing the innocent civilians in the city, unlike GD (in Giulio's route).
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: In Ivan's bad ending, everyone except Ivan dies. Also happens in the Buried Alive nonstandard gameover when the characters first try to escape from prison and fail.

• Every Car Is a Pinto: The cars in this game tend to blow up frequently. Justified in Ivan's route though, after he and Gian left a bundle of lit dynamites inside the car.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: The manga portrays the GD executives plotting in pitch darkness, with only their outlines shown clearly.
• Evil Twin: Gian's darker half in Lucky Happy Life.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Enforced regularly in Lucky Happy Life. To get many of the bad endings, the player often has to lose the mini-games against the skull. The game also enforces certain limits on money and luck in some cases; having too much of either instantly leads to a game over after landing on a particular space on the game board in some of the routes.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: In Luchino's route, Bakshi shoots the chandelier to fall on top of Luchino who manages to avoid the worst of it in time although he still ends up seriously injured.
• Famous-Named Foreigner: Giancarlo Bourbon del Monte and Giulio di Bondone. There's also Alessandro del Salto/del Sarto possibly.
• Fan Disservice: Giulio's first H-scene in the third part of the game might be...off-putting to say the least due to the circumstances surrounding it.
• Faux Yay: Bernardo and Gian flirt with each other regularly for no other reason than the lulz.
• Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Played for Drama in Giulio's route. After Gian finds Giulio soaked in blood and surrounded by the mutilated bodies of his foes, one of his options is to run away immediately in response. Or try to, anyway, since Giulio won't actually let him leave.
• Fed to Pigs: One of Ragtliffe's scarier methods for disposing of bodies.
• Finish Him!: In the second part of the game, Luchino gives Gian a gun and tells to finish off a traitor they've just tortured after getting enough information from him. Gian can either pull the trigger himself or wink at Giulio and let him do the job.
• Firing in the Air a Lot: Gian does this at the end of the second part of the game with a machine gun.
• First-Person Smartass: The narrative follows Gian's snarky point of view for the most part, except in a few specific instances.
• Flash Step: Giulio and Bakshi are capable of doing this.
• Forceful Kiss: Happens once in all of the routes, mostly with Gian on the receiving end except in Giulio's route where it gets reversed.
• Foreshadowing: Ivan's route spoils its true ending on the first day by showing the final scenes and Ivan's thoughts about the friend he once had long ago—Gian. It's shown completely out of context though, meaning it probably won't make sense to a first-time player unless they were already spoiled beforehand. Averted in Ivan's second good ending, though.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Besides the English swearwords everywhere (mostly by Ivan), there's Italian ones, too.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Gian may not remember meeting Giulio in his childhood until much later, but it still left a deep impression on Giulio many years later.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Each of the CR-5 captains fits under one. Gian is sanguine, Ivan is choleric, Giulio is melancholic, Bernardo is phlegmatic, and Luchino is phlegmatic II (a blend of sanguine and choleric).
• Fun with Acronyms: The CR of CR-5 stands for caporegimes (with the five denoting how many of them there are). Also, GD stands for Grave Digger.
• Gangbangers: Gian and Ivan join one as youths prior to joining CR-5 in Ivan's scenario in Lucky Happy Life.
• Gangsterland: Three prominent gangs are featured here: CR-5, GD, and another gang based in Chicago.
• Gangsta Style: Gian holds his gun like this in the opening credits of the game.
• Gayngster: A whole group of them!
• Gratuitous English: And Gratuitous Italian.
  • Gratuitous English Swearing: Ivan sort of talks like Panty.
• Gray Rain of Depression: At the end of Bernardo's route, Gian finds him standing alone in a downpour outside the bar where his former girlfriend is currently singing, while holding a bouquet of roses. Nonetheless, after Gian encourages him to leave and move on, this trope quickly transforms into Caught in the Rain.
• The Great Depression: Only briefly mentioned despite being set in 1932.
• Great Escape: The first part of the game.
• Guide Dang It!: The prison breakout part. Trying to figure out which character path matches well with one of the escape routes can be really hard for the first-time player, not to mention how there are quite a number of failure conditions. Also, trying to get the best ending for several of the characters requires a certain level of luck and omerta, which can be hard to reach without knowing which options are the right ones to take. Finally, there's trying to find all the alternative scenes for each character in order to unlock the 100% completion.
• Gun Kata: Giulio is implied to do this to dodge the snipers' bullets at the end of his route.
• Guns Do Not Work That Way: Humorously lampshaded by Bakshi in Giulio's route, after the latter has just shot rapid fire multiple times with a bolt action rifle; Bakshi understandably calls him a cheating bastard.
• Guns in Church: Literally happens at one point in Luchino's route during a face-off between CR-5 and GD members.
• The Gunslinger: All of the characters use them, except Giulio for the most part. Justified, considering the Mafia/underworld setting.
• Heroic Bystander: The snarky street kid who shares the same first name as Gian later helps him out immensely by running off to alert Ivan of his and Bernardo's current location, who later arrives with his men as backup.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Giulio's second bad ending. He sacrifices himself to save Gian from two grenade explosions.

• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: The main characters all speak Italian and English, and occasionally switch to Italian when they want to have private conversations within earshot of English-speaking outsiders. The one time they forget to make the switch though inadvertently leads to an old woman realizing they're actually escaped convicts and not a group of traveling performers.
• Homoerotic Subtext: All over the place in the manga adaptation. Justified, considering its source material though.
• 100% Completion: Completing the score 100% for each character unlocks a romantic post-epilogue picture of them together with Gian in the gallery.
• I Call Her "Vera": Ivan calls his Mercedes "Valkyrie" and uses it for ramming into people in his route.
• I Love the Dead: Giulio, before he realizes sex is much better with real people.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Especially the CR-5's prison outfits. Where the hell did they get those in the 30's?
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Giulio, and how (although he prefers using a knife).
• Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight in Gian's backstory, where he was the only one left alive (as a young child) in the aftermath of a drug addict's rampage that killed both of his parents. Averted in Ivan's route where a prepubescent girl swallowed insecticide to kill herself after watching both her mother and grandmother hang themselves. Her rotting corpse is accidentally discovered by the main characters, which triggers one of them to snap violently.
• Improvised Weapon: Giulio can make use of a variety of different objects to lethal effect, including a sock filled with dirt, a razor for sharpening pencils, glass shards broken off from a window, and even his own nails. Also, Ivan uses his belt near the end of his route.
• Indirect Kiss: Bernardo and Gian do this while smoking in one scene in prison when they touch the tips together in order to light Gian's cigarette. When Ivan walked in on them, he thought they were actually kissing, though.
• Institutional Apparel: The classic striped version. The CR-5 men trade these for more stylish regular clothes after returning to Daivan.
• Intoxication Ensues: In one memorable scene in Giulio's route, after he offers Gian some heroin. If Gian chooses to accept it, he ends up getting really high and starts seeing things cross-eyed before deciding not to do it again. Nevertheless, it happens again in Giulio's bad ending with heavy consequences for Gian.
• In Vino Veritas: For both Bernardo and Luchino in their routes.
• Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: The snarky street kid in Bernardo's route says this to Gian frequently.
• Italians Talk with Hands: Not shown in the game for obvious reasons (since there only ever stills/CGs shown and no animated frames), but the manga depicts Gian using quite a few hand gestures while talking.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: Choosing not to escape on the seventh night in prison has really nasty consequences for Gian.

• Just One Man: Many of the GD members sorely underestimate Giulio when they first see him, assuming their superior numbers mean they can easily beat him.
• Large Ham: Gian and Ivan occasionally, but it's mostly Bakshi who really hams it up.
• Leitmotif: The four CR-5 capos have them, and even Bakshi gets one in Lucky Happy Life.
• Luck Stat: It's more of a meter than a stat, but it still affects the game in a similar way. Starts off at 100% to represent Gian's tremendous luck, but can drop depending on the choices picked. If it ever falls below 50% or even down to 0% though, expect Gian to get screwed over in the worst possible ways.
• Kinetic Clicking: Each new day in the game is signified by the click of a gun being loaded.
• Kissing Under the Influence: And more in Bernardo and Luchino's routes.
• The Mafia: The CR-5 is based on a fictional Italian crime family known as the Toscanini Family. However, it doesn't follow the proper family structure since there's no underboss and only five caporegimes (hence the name).
• Malicious Slander: In Luchino's route. The GD members spread vicious slander about Luchino in an attempt to discredit him in the eyes of the citizens of Daivan.
• Mascot: A black and white pug with a yellow 1-shaped mark on its forehead. It shows up on Ivan's prison shirt in the first game, and only appears once as an actual animal in a brief scene in Lucky Happy Life, but is frequently used as a visual icon for the series.
• Master of Unlocking: Gian is noted to be good at this, which helps him to escape from prison regularly. However, he needs at least two in-game days (shortened to one if assisted by Luchino) to practice, not to mention a good quality set of tools for picking the locks. Not preparing enough for this in advance leads directly to a nonstandard gameover.
• Mob War: The third part of the game shows a war breaking out between CR-5 and Grave Digger, a rival American criminal organization.
• Multiple Endings: Each route usually has a best ending, a good ending (except Giulio's route which only has one), and a number of bad endings. The first part of the game also has a number of bad endings if the escape plan goes awry. However, there's no True Ending in the first game, although there might be one in Lucky Happy Life in Gian's solo route.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: In one of Giulio's bad endings in Lucky Happy Life, after Gian succumbs to despair and later dies from an illness.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Grave Digger.
• Near Misses: Gian is pretty good at avoiding bullets by complete accident. On the third day of the escape period, Gian accidentally slips on the muddy ground and pushes Bernardo down as he falls forward...and then a bullet flies right where their heads were if they hadn't been been knocked down. A similar incident occurs in Luchino's route.
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The CR-5 keeps good public relations with the community, including the local church as Luchino's route reveals.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Subverted in Giulio's route, where Giulio repeatedly brings only a knife to battle while fighting scores of men armed to the teeth with guns, and beats every single one of them.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Initially starting out as a Knife Fight between Giulio and Bakshi, when Giulio loses his weapon while saving Gian from getting shot, it seems like he's destined to lose to the still-armed and dangerous Bakshi, yet he nonetheless beats him at the end thanks to Gian's timely distraction (i.e. popping gum loudly) which affords him enough time to gouge Bakshi's stomach with his nails.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Even Giulio's fans agree the boy's a bit...off.
• No Romantic Resolution: In Gian's solo route in Lucky Happy Life, which teases at this in the best ending.
• Not Enough to Bury: Giulio attempts to do this to a corpse he's supposed to bury in front of Gian much to his discomfort. He gets prevented from doing it because Gian tells him they don't have enough time, though he looks fairly disappointed.
• Not What It Looks Like: Exploited for laughs by Gian and Bernardo in one scene when they overhear Ivan about to walk in and see them in a supposedly intimate moment.
• Odd Name Out: A sharp-eyed player will probably notice this right away when the captains of CR-5 are first introduced in this order: Ivan, Bernardo, Luchino, Giulio and finally, Giancarlo.
• Oh, Crap!: A glorious moment happens at the end of Ivan's route when Honus, who served as the main antagonist throughout this particular storyline, finds out after he has opened the door to the Mercedes (where he thought Ivan and Gian were hiding when they have already fled) that he has just triggered the fuse to a bunch of dynamite laying there, which is now seconds from an imminent explosion.
• One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Played straight in one of the two possible outcomes in Luchino's route in Lucky Happy Life, where scrawny Gian has to take on brawny Luchino in an arm wrestling match and somehow wins much to both of their surprise. In the other outcome however, Gian loses painfully.
• One-Steve Limit: In Bernardo's route, there's a street kid who has the same first name as Gian.
• Only Six Faces: Egregiously done in the CG of Bernardo entering a room with his men in black behind him who all look identical to one another.
• Only the Knowledgable May Pass: Ivan has all of his subordinates knock on the door to the room he's inside a specific number of times before he permits them to open the door. He also has them buy only American food. When they knock on it differently or tell him they've bought Italian food though, he can instantly realize there's danger on the other side of the door.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: With Lloyd or Homer in the first part of the game. They're also notable for being the only instances where Gian is dominant.
• Out of Focus: Happens to all of the other main characters after Gian enters a specific character's route in the third part of the game. This is after they all receive a fairly equal amount of plot attention for the first two parts. Bernardo tends to show up the most in the other routes, though.
• "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: In several of the good endings.
• Percussive Maintenance: One of the non-standard gameovers in the first part of the game features an amusing scene where Gian repeatedly bangs on the locks to the cell doors out of frustration to get them to open after his lock pick fails. Bernardo and Ivan snark at him over this.
• Personality Blood Types: Revealed in the visual fan book. As might be expected, all of the characters fit the personalities associated with their blood type (Bernardo: A, Ivan: B, Giulio: AB, Gian and Luchino: O). The only apparent exception so far is Bakshi (AB).
• Pistol-Whipping: Ivan does this in his route, but for lethal purposes.
• Police Are Useless: They get paid off regularly by Luchino to avoid CR-5 members getting arrested, at any rate.
• Porn with Plot: The plot focuses more on the rising conflict between the two rival gangs than the explicit scenes, although there are still a number of them.
• Potty Failure: In Luchino's route, Gian loses control of his bladder during one of the sex scenes.
• The Precious, Precious Car: The prison warden Brooks' spanking new Alfa Romeo gets stolen by the CR-5 gang at the end of their jail breakout.
• Precocious Crush: Rosalia's crush on Ivan. She's thirteen, he's twenty-two. It's clearly onesided, though.

• Prison Rape: Mostly on the bad paths. Somewhat notably, in one optional scene Gian, a prisoner at the time, manages to rape the man who came to interview him. This affects your luck meter a bit.
• Race Against the Clock: Gian only has seven days (technically four days for the player) to plan an escape route for breaking himself and four other men out of jail without getting caught or screwing up somehow. The eighth day is the exact moment when he has to execute it. Forgoing the chance to do at that moment causes Gian's luck to instantly drop to zero, and then plays out a particularly nasty bad ending as a Nonstandard Game Over.
• Red Baron: Gian is known as "Lucky Dog", and Giulio is known as the "Mad Dog".
• Relationship Values: They can be viewed in the score page. Whichever character you've interacted with the most appears in the first empty box in each part of the game, showing whose route you're headed for/already in.
• The Roaring '20s: Technically the thirties, but it still counts in its presentation.
• Right Behind Me: In one scene in Ivan's route in Lucky Happy Life.
• Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The American gang, Grave Digger. In fact, even though the setting is in the United States, Daivan itself is shown as a city overflowing with immigrants which has been under the Mafia's control for some time now which is why GD is seen as foreign compared to CR-5.
• Sanctuary of Solitude: Gian visits his childhood monastery briefly in Giulio's route while feeling lost about what he can do to end the conflict.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The game literally prevents this from happening, since whenever Gian attempts to do this in Bernardo's route, he gets rewarded with a sudden, and often anticlimatic death.
• Secret Underground Passage: In one of the two escape routes from prison. Gian has to specifically prepare for this route by getting a candle, a match, and a long string in advance, though; not fulfilling this criteria results in the characters getting buried alive on the night they attempt it.
• Sex Slave: In two of Gian's bad endings. Both of these are treated as a Fate Worse than Death, though.

• Shoot the Fuel Tank: Happens in Luchino and Giulio's routes, resulting in some pretty impressive car explosions.
• Shout-Out: To Anne of Green Gables in Ivan's route.
• Shower of Love: Luchino and Gian share an intimate moment together in the shower in their route at one point.
• Shown Their Work: Many of the references to Cosa Nostra, Omertà, and the family structure of the Mafia (except for the missing underboss) are accurate. Italian words are also used correctly, if gratuitously, throughout the game.
• Sick Episode: In Giulio's route, Gian gets ill after getting raped by him. Ivan is the one who nurses Gian back to health, though.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Giulio does this on a regular basis.
• Sock It to Them: Visiting Giulio a few times during prison has him eventually fashion a crude bludgeon out of a sock with a handful of dirt. He wields it with surprising ferocity against one of the prison guards.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Two vulgar Japanese words referring to genitals get repeatedly bleeped out, often to amusing effect, although the English/Italian swearwords never receive the same type of censorship.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The scene where Giulio happily plays with Gian's bloody corpse is made all the more horrifying by the romantic music being played in the background.
• Spell My Name With An S: Daivan or Deiban. Alesssandro del Salto or del Sarto, as well.
• Spin-Off: Gian Carlo's Lucky Happy Life and If For Gian.
• Spit Take: Hilariously, Gian does this twice after hearing Rosalia declare she's engaged to Ivan. And both times it accidentally hits the same waiter nearby, who unfortunately had a change of clothes the second time it occurred.

• Stuff Blowing Up: Especially in Ivan's route, where dynamites aplenty are used.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: A milder example than most, but it still counts. In Giulio's route, Gian eventually has to choose between immediately returning to the base and focusing on trying to save the civilians (who are getting killed by their enemies), or...have Gian helplessly say he doesn't know what to do in this crisis. It's probably easy to guess which is the one you're supposed to pick if it's under this trope, but choosing the pragmatic option in this case leads straight to a highly disturbing bad ending.
• Super-Deformed: Half of the artstyle in both spin-offs.
• Tamer and Chaster: The manga adaptation, Lucky Dog 1 BLAST.
• Tattooed Crook: All of the CR-5 members have the organization's name carved onto their skin somewhere. The same applies for GD members. Whenever the members switch allegiances though, they have to burn off the former tattoo with a cigarette.
• There Is Only One Bed: Averted when the characters have to decide who's going to share the master bedroom. Even though Ivan freaks out believing there's only one bed, Gian corrects him by saying there are two inside, which both characters sleep separately in.
• Together in Death: One of Giulio's bad endings with Gian in Lucky Happy Life has them drown together in a ship, with Giulio happy that he can at least be with Gian.
• Token Mini-Moe: Rosalia Cavalli is the only female character with an actual design and portrait in the game. She also happens to be a pubescent.
• Torture Always Works: As demonstrated repeatedly in the game. When it happens in Luchino's route though, only one of the captured pair squeals since the other gets knocked out.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Giulio and ice cream. Ivan and meat, to a lesser extent.
• Translation Convention: The setting is in USA in the 1930s, and all of the CR-5 characters are supposed to be fluent in Italian (except Ivan) and/or speaking regular English otherwise, but it's all voiced in Japanese for the actual game. The text often notes when they're switching to Italian or English, since the language itself doesn't reflect that.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: If you don't use a guide for the first part of the game, it may take quite a while to figure out how to break out the characters from prison. Also when Gian has to pick either the right or left door at the end of Bernardo's route.
• True Companions: All of the CR-5 captains to one another, at least theoretically. Some of them really don't like or get along with one another, but they're all supposed to rely on and consider each other family.
• Tsundere: Gian in every (good) route, Ivan as well in his particular storyline.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The CR-5 makes it to a small town during their escape, and notice a pretty farm girl, follow her into the woods, see that she's about to bathe in the river, and...find out that she's a he.

• Wham Line: "...Dead bodies." In this case, Gian reacts similar to how the audience would.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Giulio uses a knife in combat nearly all the time, and it always works. Humorously, he even tries to use it combatively for something as innocuous as cooking in one of the Drama CDs.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Daivan is apparently located somewhere in the southern states...and that's about all they'll say about it.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: During the escape period, Ivan gets caught trying to loot a villager's house while wearing prisoner clothes, and Bernardo has to quickly make up a story about them being a group of passing performers. Fortunately, the village was about to celebrate a festival on the same day, so when they show up there at night they are believed even though the villagers have already heard the news about a number of escaped convicts from prison being on the run.
• World of Badass: Even a young thirteen year old girl eventually becomes badass in Ivan's route.

• Yandere: Giulio Di Bondone is this for Gian.
• You Know Too Much: An old woman who overhears the CR-5 gang talking and realizes they're criminals can get killed by Giulio because of this. Alternately, she can be spared for staying quiet about this knowledge with only a menacing warning if she ever lets it slip.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Gian gets punished severely when he doesn't trust the other CR-5 capo enough by choosing the wrong option in their routes.
• You Taste Delicious: In Giulio's route, Giulio licks ice cream off of Gian while they're in bed at one point. He even outright says Gian tastes delicious in the midst of doing so.

---