Lulu (Final Fantasy)

Lulu
Lulu artwork from Final Fantasy X
First game	Final Fantasy X (2001)
Created by	Motomu Toriyama
Designed by	Tetsuya Nomura
Voiced by (English)	Paula Tiso
Voiced by (Japanese)	Rio Natsuki
Motion capture	Yoko Yoshida
Fictional profile
Weapon	Dolls
Race	Human
Home	Besaid

Lulu (ルールー, Rūrū) is a fictional black magic user in the Final Fantasy series, and one of the main characters in Final Fantasy X, where she appears as one of several player characters and the guardian to the lead female protagonist, Yuna. She also appears in a reduced role for Final Fantasy X-2, where she has a child with Wakka named Vidina. She has received mostly positive critical reception.

Appearances

Lulu is one of the playable characters in Final Fantasy X. Born in Spira on the Isle of Besaid, where she grew up with Wakka, Yuna, and Wakka's younger brother, Chappu, Lulu is often stern and scathing (particularly to Wakka). However, she is nonetheless caring toward others. Lulu was particularly harsh towards Tidus when they first met, but her opinion of him slowly changed for the better as the story progressed. She is also highly intelligent, one of the few Yevonites who easily questions the Yevon religion on objective terms, and is far more accepting of Rikku's Al Bhed nature than Wakka initially was. Before becoming a guardian to Yuna, Lulu guarded two previous summoners whose pilgrimages abruptly ended. Her second pilgrimage, that of Father Zuke, ended in the Calm Lands (a common decision among summoners). The pilgrimage of the first summoner Lulu guarded, Lady Ginnem, was cut short by her death in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. This event still troubles Lulu's memories, but when Yuna and company detour to the valley where the cave is located, Lulu decides to face her painful memories. At the back of the cave, the group meets the unsent bodily shell of Lady Ginnem. Lulu felt that she must fulfill a last duty to Ginnem as a guardian in ensuring that her spirit would depart to rest peacefully on the Farplane. After fighting and defeating Yojimbo – the aeon having been summoned by Ginnem – Ginnem's spirit departs for the Farplane. Lulu had been romantically involved with Wakka's younger brother, Chappu, and his death at the hands of Sin affected Lulu greatly.

However, Wakka and Lulu fall in love and marry six months after Final Fantasy X. In Final Fantasy X-2, Lulu gives birth to Wakka's child, Vidina, a name that translates as "future" in the Al Bhed language. She mothers Yuna and Rikku at points throughout the games and, although she does it more subtly, Tidus also.

Outside of Final Fantasy X series, Lulu makes an appearance as a card in Square Enix Legend World and her costume is available in Gunslinger Stratos 2. Several figures of Lulu were released by various companies, including Kotobukiya, Coca-Cola/Square and Bandai. She was also a subject of pornographic cosplay session by Ran Asakawa.

Character design

The character was designed by Tetsuya Nomura for Final Fantasy X. He has expressed that he wanted her character design to resemble a cross between a fashion model and Black Mage to break the connotation in players' minds of the traditional Final Fantasy Black Mage. This was achieved through – in Nomura's words – Lulu's "eccentric" hair and dress. Lulu therefore deviates from the traditional Black Mage look. She is instead dressed in an outlandish, low-cut, fur-lined, dark grey and black dress that displays her ample cleavage. He has also mentioned that as technology advances, the Final Fantasy games allow for a greater level of detail to be incorporated into characters' outfits, and that he makes a point of challenging the game's visual programmers with his designs. In Final Fantasy X, this challenge came in the form of the interlocking series of belts on the front of Lulu's dress. Nomura said that this design has a specific order to the belts and that each buckles in a specific manner. His challenge to the game's design team was for them to recognize the belts' pattern and keep it consistent throughout the game, from the beginning to end. Because of this, Nomura referenced Lulu's dress as taking a lot of hard work.

Another key design aspect of her dress was that it still show an "appropriate" amount of skin for the character, which most notably translated to her cleavage and shoulders being mostly uncovered. Her look was also inspired by the traditional obeah vodoo priestess and a modern day witch doctor due to her ability to wield black magic and her usage of dolls during battle which includes cactuars, moogles, and other Final Fantasy creature types that she can control to attack enemies. Lulu's Celestial Weapon is the Onion Knight, a homage to Final Fantasy III.

Reception

The character has received mostly positive reception. Lulu was ranked eighth on IGN's 2008 list of best Final Fantasy characters as the highest ranked representative of Final Fantasy X on this list. IGN commented on Nomura being famous for over-accessorizing his characters and called Lulu "over-accessorized enough", citing her "floor-length skirt, elaborately-pinned hair, and collection of super-cute mascot dolls" as why she's the coolest looking character Nomura has ever drawn. Tiso's portrayal of Lulu has received especially positive reception, garnering praise as being amongst the best voice acting in the English version of Final Fantasy X. However, Gamasutra editor Kurt Kalata described Nomura's character designs as "outlandish", calling Lulu more like a "fetish object" than an inhabitant of Final Fantasy X's world.

Over the years, Lulu appeared on several lists of the sexiest characters in video games. In 2008, GameDaily ranked her as 13th among the "hottest game babes", describing her as both sexy and dangerous. In 2009, GamesRadar called her "Miss 2001" in an article on the sexiest new characters of the decade, calling her the "first officially sexy Final Fantasy girl" and stating that Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII had the potential to be sexy, but was too pixelated to pull it off, and adding that it was not just Lulu's looks but her attitude that made her sexy. UGO.com ranked Lulu at 27th place on their 2011 list of "video game hotties", adding that Nomura's attempt to create a cross between a fashion model and a black mage character was successful. That same year, GameFront included Lulu on the list of the "greatest boobs in video games" at number 20, commenting that "Final Fantasy has pioneered the existential angst + gratuitous TnA school of storytelling," while Complex ranked her as the 23rd of the "best looking sideline chicks in games" as well as the 12th most stylish video game character.

In 2008, GamesRadar named Lulu and Wakka as the worst Final Fantasy couple, commenting that while their pairing appealed to the concept of "opposites attract", the pairing of a goth and a jock is the source of the "She married him??!! And they've got a kid??" reaction. In 2011, Complex commented: "We’re still kinda blown that Wakka of all people got Lulu pregnant. Now what kind of magic did he have to use to do that?" In 2013, Gus Turner of Complex ranked Lulu as the 20th greatest Final Fantasy character of all time, noting that she "was not only FFX's sexiest character, but also one of the most powerful."

See also

• Characters of Final Fantasy X and X-2

External links

• Lulu at The Final Fantasy Wiki