Lucky Sonoda

I'm Lucky! I can make it come true!

Lucky responding to Reijiro's wish, Chapter 11, Page 15 and 16

Lucky Sonoda (園 (その) 田 (だ) ラッキー, Sonoda Rakkī) is the protagonist of PPPPPP series. He is the sixth sibling of the Otogami septuplets. After leaving the Otogami family to be with his mother, he took on her surname "Sonoda" rather than the Otogami name. He is a first year student at Shibuya Music High School.

Etymology

• His name in Japanese is Rakki, from which the syllable Ra comes from the note la (ra in Japanese) being the sixth note in the major scale representing Lucky as the sixth sibling of the Otogami septuples.

Appearance

Lucky has yellow/blonde hair which is seemingly in the shape of a star. Rokku Maki states that his hair is very messy. His eye color also matches his hair, being a khaki color. Lucky seems quite tall (with his height being unknown as of now), being significantly taller than his friends Ako Furusu and Rokku^[2], taller than his older brother, Reijiro Otogami^[3], and almost as tall as Hideo Dada^[4].

In the first chapter of the series, he is seen wearing a loose-fitting short sleeved button up (opened), a regular t-shirt and rolled up pants. After getting into Shibuya Music High School, his attire changes to a loose-fitting long sleeved, white button up with his sleeves either down or rolled up, and with a loose, colorful flower patterned tie. He wears baggy rolled up pants with a hatched design and sometimes wears a suit jacket that matches. In colored art, his suit is a muddy green with a hatched design or just a plain black suit. He also wears high-tops.

Personality

In the beginning of the series, Lucky is introduced as a carefree boy. He is seen casually asking his friends to go poop together, does not participate in after school activities, and plans to drop out of school right after middle school.

When he goes home, he is nothing more than a housekeeper to his aunt and cousin, Masashi. He is quick to apologize, does not complain as much and does as he is told. Although he seems to be carefree on the outside, he seems to be suffering internally and constantly feels guilty for being mediocre and for what happened to his mother. He is constantly apologizing to his mother while she is sleeping and is extremely vulnerable around her and sensitive when it comes to her.

Lucky is friendly, sweet and caring and does not seem to mind how horrible someone is to him. He is quick to “forgive and forget,” which is obvious when he pursues to grant Reijiro his wish even after he told Lucky he was going to make him quit playing the piano. He wants to spread happiness through his playing and wants to grant wishes to people he cares for like Furusu, Rokku, Reijiro and his mother.

Abilities

Style

Lucky was frequently told that he is mediocre and horrible. The only people who have noticed and appreciated his talents from the beginning are his mother and Hideo Dada. As a pianist, Lucky plays very quietly. According to the judges/faculty from the Shibuya Music High School entrance exam, he play(ed/s) poorly, weirdly and softly. His music is perceived by unsophisticated by the majority, much like a child was performing.

Visual Music

While auditioning for Shibuya Music High School, playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Dada realizes that he was the only one who felt his visual music and that is is still faint. Since it is quite faint in the beginning of the series, the range of his abilities are not reached by the majority.
After granting Rokku’s wish, Wao Niiza claims that he is a monster. When practicing “Turkish March,” he is required to apply more pressure on to the keys, which help him with his soft and quiet playing style. On the last day of Wao Niiza’s auditions, Lucky plays fully enough for the audience and judges to be engulfed in performance. However, he still loses due to his lack of knowledge in musical analysis.

Musical Analysis

Lucky is currently in the middle of training camp, where he is learning musical analysis. He has difficulties capturing the vision of the composer, but instead tends to capture what he wants to visualize instead.

History

10 Years Ago

Lucky was born as the sixth child of Gakuon Otogami's septuplets. Growing up in the Otogami house, the house was filled with pianos. Lucky and his siblings were always playing the piano together. One song that is very nostalgic to Lucky is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and their variations of the song.

With his father being a world renowned pianist and dominating the 3 largest piano international competitions, standards were extremely high. Compared to his siblings, he was the only one who was claimed to be mediocre with a meager imagination and horrible. He was abused, and shortly after was not allowed to play the piano anymore. After the incident, his father would constantly ridicule him everyday and his mother would defend him every time. This began to cause problems between his mother and father, eventually causing a divorce with Lucky being the only child to leave with his mother.

After his mom was admitted to a hospital due to the post-complications of birthing 7 children and deteriorating health, Lucky begins to live with his aunt and Masashi. During his time living there, he is usually seen cleaning the house and is forced to do labor much like cleaning the house, walking the dog, fixing the roof, tending to the yard, etc. Although she is rich and can pay for professionals, she chooses to make Lucky to all the work. This was due to the resentment his aunt has for his mother and for him for leaving Gakuon. Lucky’s classmate states that he does not participate in any school activities and goes straight home; Lucky dismisses this by saying she’s busy with her piano school. Much like in the Otogami house, Lucky was also banned from playing in the Sonoda household. They also have security cameras where Masashi claims that they strictly watch him.

Plot

Intro Arc

Almost 1 Year Before Getting Into Shibuya Music High School

When a classmate asks Lucky if he finished his form for his plans next year, he states that he’s dropping out of school and getting a job to live alone. At this time, he hears the name “Otogami” from a schoolmate, Ako Furusu. Lucky begins to overthink and wonder if people around knew he is also an Otogami. While going up a flight of stairs, Lucky experiences the visual music of the oldest Otogami septuplet, which he quickly recognized, being played through Furusu’s phone.

Later that day, Lucky visits his mother once again and sees that she is awake. She says that it’s time for him to decide what he’s going to do next year and that she hears him apologizing to her all the time. She apologizes to Lucky for not being able to birth a genius and that she failed. Unknown to Lucky at the time, Chocho Sonoda has only a few years left to live. Much like a dying wish, she tells Lucky to become a pianist, despite being mediocre, just because she loves the way he plays the piano.  

Because of this, he has an epiphany; he begins ignoring his aunt, fights with his cousin and starts taking lessons from a teacher despite the consequences and negative reactions from these people. He signs up for the Shibuya Music High School entrance exam shortly after. This is when Hideo Dada is first introduced and where Lucky plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for the first time. While playing, it is subtly hinted that Lucky can “grant wishes” for the first time, or whatever he chooses to visualize through his music. While playing, his playing takes Dada to the past where all the Otogami children are playing the piano. He is in the point of view of Chocho Sonoda in this performance, and was the only one to feel it. Lucky passes the exam and gets accepted into Shibuya Music High School.

After Getting Into Shibuya Music High School

4 days after school starts, classes officially begin. Although Lucky is admitted into a music school, he couldn’t even tell 3 notes apart of each other in ear-training classes. After class, Lucky sees Furusu again, recognizing her from middle school and learns that she is the head of her class.

Since his high school has dorms, Lucky visits his mother right after school. When he enters her room, she is seen watching a news segment on the Otogami sextuplets, and quickly turns it off. Lucky insists to turn it back on and to watch it together. Miss. Sonoda begins to talk about how she sees her children all together again when he plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” indicating that she might also see Lucky’s visual music as well. After leaving her room, Lucky overhears that Miss. Sonoda has about a year left to live at this point. He begins to realize the reason why his mother was pushing him to become a pianist.

Hideo Dada Student Competition

A day passes since Lucky learns of this news and it is now the first day of practicum. Lucky meets Dada for the second time, Dada being his assigned practicum teacher. While entering the room, Lucky is biting down on his lips to the point of bleeding out and begins punching himself when asked what’s wrong. Lucky is eager and impatient, quickly asking Dada to play the songs he played during the entrance exam. After playing the 3 songs, Dada tells Lucky that his “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is amazing. Lucky spirals and claims he needs to be pianist and catch up with everyone within a year before his mother dies. Following his performance, Dada calls out to another student, telling them to come in the room, with that student being Ako Furusu. Dada states that he is only allowed to take one student from each grade. Here, Lucky learns from Furusu that Dada is the only person that Gakuon Otogami has every recognized and claims he is the only one who can teach Lucky. He has both of them compete to become his student two weeks from now. The song that they must play is Maurice Ravel's "Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte (Pavane for Dead Princess)."

During the two week preparation time for the competition, Lucky begins to struggle with the piece. While studying in the library, Lucky comes across the Shibuya Music High School School Bulletin, and finds a Q&A of former professional pianist Meloli Yamanaka. Reading the Q&A, Lucky stumbles upon these questions:

Q #3. What’s your favorite piece of music?

A. Pavane pour une infante défunte.

Q #4. What do you feel when you play Pavane pour une infante défunte?

A. Pavane is a very nostalgic piece for me. It’s not about a dead princess – it’s about a wistful princess.

Lucky stops overthinking about the piece. He begins to question if he is a mama’s boy due to constantly thinking about his mother while playing the piano. While looking up “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” Dada sneaks up behind him and tells him what he combines and does with his “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” makes it so great. Dada claims that him and his mother leaving Gakuon is what led up to this miracle. While Lucky is in shock of Dada’s discovery of him being an Otogami, Dada gives Lucky more of an insight on what he does with his music; he simply recreates reality, not a fantasy.

After Dada leaves, Lucky hears music playing from the other room next door. Looking through the glass, he sees that it is Furusu playing "Mazeppa" by Liszt. She catches him and leaves the room right after without saying anything to Lucky. Later in the day, Lucky is seen going to a convenience store where, unbeknown to him, Furusu works. Furusu states that she works because she is poor due because of her mother. Her mother used to be a pianist who unfortunately lost to Gakuon Otogami, therefore losing her jobs and her standing as a pianist. She reveals her goal to Lucky of beating Otogami. She claims she wants to have everything how it was before and to have her mom pat her on the head after playing her music.

Two weeks have now passed and it is the day of the competition. Before the competition, Lucky is stressing out about Furusu’s wish and whether or not it will come true. He quickly realizes her real wish and is called up to play. While he plays, he “grants” his first ever wish, Furusu’s Mom patting her on the head. Dada feels this as well and Furusu storms out of the room claiming that it was “creepy.” Lucky rushes out of the room thinking he did something wrong, but is greeted with blushing Furusu who thanks him.

In the end, Dada reveals that he is going to take them both on as students, despite Furusu not playing at all and her being his original student. Now that they are both his students, Dada insists that they go to Sendai for the Sendai International Music Competition to compete against their first Otogami, Reijiro.

Reijiro Arc

Lucky learns that Reijiro will be in Japan for a while, competing in national competitions. He wants to meet with Reijiro but understands he might have difficulties doing so since he is famous. With the plans of going to Sendai, Dada plans to leave in 2 weeks, on the final day.

On the day of the competition, the site is incredibly packed. While Furusu and Lucky are walking into the building, Furusu is being swept away in the crowd and Lucky is held back by Reijiro. This is the first time that Lucky sees Reijiro in over 10 years and Lucky is incredibly nervous. They begin to talk about their mother, with Lucky bringing up that she is incredibly worried for him. Reijiro has nothing to say on that, claiming is doesn’t make him happy when she is worried. Wondering why his mom won’t help him, not knowing that she is hospitalized, a phone call interrupts the conversation, leading to Lucky revealing that he is in music school. Reijiro gets upset at Lucky’s ambition to become a pianist and surprisingly flicks Lucky and knocks him down. Reijiro reveals the only reason he’s in Japan is to win all the competitions and tells Lucky to watch his performance and learn why normal people can’t become pianists. After Reijiro’s performance, Dada tells Lucky he will be in a competition ran by Wao Niiza, which is really an audition. Reijiro sneaks up behind Dada and decides to enter as well; on the occasion that if he wins, Lucky will give up on playing the piano.

After they return from Sendai, Dada explains the audition being held by Wao Niiza to Lucky and is told that the theme of the audition is joy. Two days pass, with no sleeping, while he thinks about his “joy,” and recognizes that his joy is a playing style that grants wishes.

When he sees Furusu after two days, he stumbles and falls, meeting Rokku Maki. Lucky is taken to the infirmary after falling due to sleep deprivation. In the infirmary, Rokku asks Lucky if he is an Otogami, now proving that the septuplet rumors are true. After claiming that he is not a genius, Rokku tells Lucky to give up. Arguing back, Lucky claims that it is for his own happiness.

The next day, Lucky waits outside of school for Rokku, and asks for their wish and claims he can make the wish come true by playing the piano. Rokku cracks and tells him he wants an ovation, where Lucky proceeds to invite Rokku to Wao Niiza’s competition.

On the first day of the audition, Lucky is the first person to preform. As he plays a single note, Rokku is seen standing in front of an audience receiving an ovation. Rokku’s wish is the second wish that Lucky grants. Once again, only a select few of people experienced that visual, with Wao Niiza being one of them.

After the competition, Dada insists that Lucky learn and play different piece where the other judges can also experience and enter his performance. He begins to practice “Turkish March” for days in order to play “Goin’ Home” at the level where the other judges can experience it.

On the last day of the audition, Lucky finds out that Masashi has locked Reijiro in a room. He rushes to find him and when he does, he asks Reijiro his wish. After memorizing and practicing visuals and sensations and receiving information from Kokore, Lucky, once again, “grants” Reijiro’s wish of ‘going home with friends’ during his performance. Due to Lucky practicing “Turkish March,” which had more notes with more pressure on the keys, he plays “Goin’ Home” with a fuller sound, leading everyone in the audience to experience Reijiro’s wish.

While Reijiro was recording for Wao’s soundtrack, Lucky, Reijiro, Furusu and Rokku spend time together by hanging out and visiting their mother. After recording, he was invited to Italy and needed to leave Japan. Reijiro encourages Lucky to become a wonderful pianist.

Mimin Arc

After Reijiro leaves, Dada meets with Lucky to reflect on why he lost. Before Lucky can answer, he is interrupted by Meloli Yamanaka. She explains that during the audition, he was playing for Reijiro, not the composer and not what the music wanted to express. She begins to teach Lucky about musical analysis.

Some time between Reijiro leaving and meeting Mimin, Lucky calls Reijiro to ask about letting the rest of their siblings meeting their mother. Out of the 4, Don and Sorachika would most likely be the only ones willing to see their mother.

Time passes and Lucky is out looking for a metronome and he runs into Dada. Lucky asks him about the time that he beat his father, which was a long time ago. He reveals that for a moment, he was a “fully realized version” of Lucky and leaves. While Lucky is wondering what that means, he hears a note play from a piano, turning around to find his only sister, Mimin, playing with a digital piano in a store. At first, Mimin does not recognize or accept that it is Lucky and calls him a doppelgänger. She tells Lucky to play “Für Elise,” but Lucky struggles to start without preparing first and Mimin decides to take over and play instead. After listening to both versions of Mimin’s “Für Elise,” he comes to the understanding that he must know what the piece is saying and have a better understanding after listening to her second version.

After Lucky agrees with the majority that Mimin’s second version of “Für Elise” was better, she admits that the system of “good” or “bad” playing restricts her, and that she wants her father to expel everyone who loses to her. Lucky tells her that he will enter the All Japan Student Music Competition, which will be occurring in August, to stop her.

Time passes again, now in August and summer vacation has started. Lucky, Furusu, Dada are taking a car trip up to the mountains, suggested by Meloli, to attend a training camp. When they arrive at the house, Dada and Furusu enter while Lucky stays behind. As he is walking through the forest that is surrounding the house, he begins to analyze “Für Elise” in his thoughts after the trees reminded him of Mimin's second version of “Für Elise." While Lucky briefly talks to himself, he is interrupted by Sadame Hino, the man who owns the house.

Later, while playing “Goin’ Home,” Sadame rolls through the halls of the house in screaming, while Lucky follows. After Sadame praises his playing, Lucky asks about the music he’s going to play in the competition. Sadame gives him the option to choose between two etudes, and a piece from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Lucky chooses Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, No. 1, Prelude and Chopin’s Etude OP. 25, No.9 “Butterfly.”

Sadame and Lucky begin studying musical analysis. However, in return of Sadame teaching Lucky, Lucky must grant Sadame one wish after the competition, which Lucky reluctantly agrees to. Once again, Lucky thinks about his playing style, realizing that as much as he wants to grant people’s wishes, he cannot individually ask everyone their wish. This would be in opposition to playing music that portrays sadness.

Shortly after, unknown to everyone, Mimin appears at the training camp. After eating and causing a ruckus, she asks Lucky to see their mother. Recalling the conversation he had with Reijiro before meeting Mimin, he warns Lucky what will happen if Mimin goes and causes a commotion; if their father found out that they were in contact with each other, it would be over for Lucky’s hopes of becoming a pianist. Lucky tells Mimin to wait until after the competition and to not tell Gakuon about anything.

After the preliminary rounds, Lucky struggles to find a way to talk to Furusu after she couldn’t make the cut. When talking to Rokku about it, Rokku tells Lucky to find a way to cheer her up. Lucky takes the advice and goes looking for Furusu, only to find Dada talking to her through a door entrance. Dada notices Lucky and turns his attention to him, while also talking to Furusu, and gives them both the encouragement they need to continue by embracing their sadness.

Through sadness, Lucky recalls the time where his own sadness first began with his father. Lucky embraces his sadness and chooses to win with his sorrow. He declares to Furusu that he’s going to play a piece that will annoy his father. Dada prepares for this competitive behavior by asking the Director to invite elite musicians and the media.

Relationships

Chocho Sonoda

Lucky loves his mother very deeply, even coming to the conclusion that he is a mama's boy. He visits her in the hospital often, regardless if she’s awake or not, and frequently plays the piano there. After finding out that she has a year to live, he begins to get irritable and eager to become the best pianist within a year. His goal is to make her as happy as possible by catching up with his siblings so they can all play again for her.

Hideo Dada

Hideo Dada is Lucky’s teacher and mentor and the first person to recognize his talent. They seem to respect each other on a Teacher/Student level.

Ako Furusu

Ako Furusu is the first person to overhear and know that Lucky was/is an Otogami. Lucky did not tell her due to her goal of seeking revenge against the Otogami family, and apologizes for not telling her sooner when it is revealed. Furusu’s wish was the first one that Lucky granted. Lucky seems to deeply care about Furusu as he is prepared to go up against his father in her place, despite his financial and social status and power.

Rokku Maki

TBA

Reijiro Otogami

Reijiro Otogami is Lucky’s older brother. When they were younger, they were extremely close. Reijiro seemed clingy towards Lucky. Reijiro always wanted to play the piano with Lucky as to not play alone, he wanted to eat with Lucky as to not eat alone, and he wanted to sleep with Lucky as to not sleep alone. Miss. Sonoda also claims that Reijiro has loved Lucky more than anyone else, including her. After Lucky grants Reijiro's wish, they get closer and keep in touch. Although Lucky is not as clingy as Reijiro, he still cares for him.

Mimin Otogami

TBA

Quotes

TBA

Appearances

References