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Kaleidoscopic Katamari - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Aug 08 2024

Kaleidoscopic Katamari is a collection of Katamari Damacy fanfics by FoominBlue on Archive of Our Own. The series is primarily made up of Gen Fic fleshing out the lives of the Dashing Prince and his many, many Cosmic cousins, though with the potential of touching upon darker territory at times.

Works in the series include:

  • Naming Nuances: Velvet muses about the layers hidden in her name, followed by her perspective on some of the nicknames her brother and other cousins use.
  • Like Milk and Honey: Daisy deals with some of the downsides of her heritage. Namely her Bizarre Alien Biology.
  • Vox Cosmica: Explains how 'Cosmic Voices' work from Foomin's point of view.
  • Campanile: Delves into the Backstory of Velvet and Odeko, and how their mother Satiné's machinations have impacted the twins, along with how the King assigned several of the Royal and Second Cousins to start sharing planets with each other.
  • Relativity: A companion piece to Campanile wherein the King of All Cosmos reflects upon his past and why he chose to pair up so many of his nieces and nephews on random planets, among other things.
  • Personality Problems (In-Game and Out): Try as she might, Foomin just can't figure out how to get the personality she wants her heroine to start with in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. So she asks Velvet for help.
  • The Foopeo Factor: Explores how sharing a planet with Opeo has naturally impacted Foomin's ability to throw parties and have company over, via a sleepover intercut with Flashbacks to various incidents.
  • Goes the Spoiled: A character study following Ace's perspective, delving into what drives his Jerkassery, even if it's all blatantly biased and more explanation than excuse.
  • Storge (or something similar, anyway): Companion piece to Goes the Spoiled centering on L'Amour's perspective, particularly how she feels about her planet-mate Ace.
  • Gifts (Unexchangeable): Opeo deals with a bad body day with the help of Foomin and other friends.

This fanfiction series contains examples of:

  • Abnormal Plushies:
    • Downplayed by the plushie Marcy brings to the sleepover in The Foopeo Factor, a "violently violet and magenta" froggy friend that Foomin suspects she made herself. It's not implied to be of bad quality; it's just a vibrantly-hued poison dart frog that matches the busy frog-laden pattern on her (also self-designed) pajamas.
    • Ace compares his second cousin/planet-mate L'Amour to one, thinking she looks like a cheaply made plushie that got donated to a thrift shop; something made by someone who "couldn't afford anything better."
  • Abusive Parents:
    • Alluded to during Naming Nuances; Velvet privately muses that the King of All Cosmos hasn't been an especially attentive parent or paid attention to his son's emotional needs.
    • Once he'd selected the future King of All Cosmos, the High King neglected the rest of his children, focusing mostly on putting his chosen heir through Training from Hell. Campanile opens with Satiné musing that while getting passed over naturally stung, she doesn't truly envy how her brother was forced to deal with their father's full attention.
    • Satiné herself isn't much better: she views Velvet as her "masterwork" while treating Odeko as less important than his twin sister, manipulating his Big Brother Instinct to her own ends.
  • Air Quotes: While recounting a mishap in Lethal Company, Foomin corrects herself from 'spider' to '"Spider"' while using air quotes to help emphasize the difference.
  • All Take and No Give: L'Amour does her best to support Ace and ensure he has somebody looking out for him. He repays this thoughtfulness by dismissing her as a Secretly Selfish Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who just wants somebody she can pity, and considers it generous on his part whenever he doesn't literally throw her efforts back in her face.
  • Ambiguous Situation:
    • While Odeko and Velvet were born prematurely, it's unclear how accurately the circumstances surrounding their birth get recounted in Campanile. Namely the idea that Odeko was perfectly healthy while Velvet needed neonatal care. Odeko sees no reason to question his mother's account, and it might be accurate... or exaggerated to suit her purposes.
    • Throughout The Foopeo Factor, Foomin tends to make uncharitable assumptions about how others view Opeo, something she recognizes isn't entirely fair. It's unclear just how accurate any of these thoughts are.
    • On a lighter note, while Foomin suspects in the same story that Marcy might have had trouble with her hair dye, it's never confirmed one way or the other if it did turn out differently than she'd expected.
  • Appearance Angst:
    • Implied with Daisy's mother; she makes a point of wearing dresses long enough to hide her four hybrid udder-teat/legs and gloves of various lengths to mask how her hands are also hooves.
    • Downplayed with Daisy herself, as she's mainly concerned with how her hoof-hands aren't quite the same as her mother's, being somewhat more flexible with sharper claws. Part of this discomfort stems from her accidentally injuring Ace when she pushed him away during an argument.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance:
    • The King alludes to this in Relativity, noting how odd it would be if Daisy didn't eventually take after her mother and share her bovine domain, given how both have several cow-like features.
    • Peso dabbles in both water and fire magic, and has a distinctly rounder noggin than most Cosmic Beings, which comes back up to a point in the back. The shape could be described as either teardrop-like or similar to a single-tipped flame.
  • Bad Liar: While trying to comfort L'Armour after she learned that the King had her sharing a planet with Ace, the Prince starts to say that he'd trade places with her if he could, only for her to cut him off and force him to admit that he honestly wouldn't want to.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: The future King of All Cosmos yearned for attention, feeling that he didn't truly stand out amongst his siblings, especially once he was no longer the youngest. Being chosen as heir meant he had his father's full focus... and everything that came with that. Including the resentment of most of his siblings, along with being isolated and estranged from the whole lot.
  • Beneath the Mask:
    • Relativity delves into the King of All Cosmos having an Inferiority Superiority Complex, along with his reluctance to acknowledge his Papa was abusive even as he tries to be a better parent for the Prince, despite his own flaws and failings in that regard.
    • The Foopeo Factor shows that while Foomin is sincerely brash and forthright, she doesn't act on every impulsive thought that flits through her head, exercising more self-restraint than others might realize when she plays The Gadfly or a Drama Queen. And while she's proud of her twin towers, there's also some minor insecurities she nurses concerning how they affect her hair.
  • Berserk Button: One of the tangents Foomin goes off on during Vox Cosmica Implies that she seriously dislikes poorly-executed subtitles. Especially those that leave things untranslated, such as simply noting that somebody is speaking another language without making any further effort to transcribe whatever they're saying.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Odeko has this towards Velvet; sadly, it's Deconstructed, as their mother deliberately nurtured and Exploited this tendency as a way of manipulating him into seeing his twin as requiring his protection... and himself as less important.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Throughout Goes the Spoiled, Ace asserts that several of his relatives are secretly just as selfish and self-serving as him, only pretending to be nice in order to trick and manipulate others. He also thinks Opeo might be deliberately Playing the Victim Card for sympathy points, though he mostly dismisses him as too stupid to pull that off.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • Campanile ends this way, as the King and Queen are informed of Satiné's abusive behavior. Velvet and Odeko are staying on their respective planets, with their own support networks; Velvet also sends her brother a book on cardistry to encourage him to pursue his own interests more. Things aren't perfectly resolved or wrapped up in a neat little bow, but they're in a better position than they were before.
    • Relativity, as a companion piece to Campanile, ends on a similar note: The King watches the Prince enjoy a leisurely outing with several of his cousins, a luxury his own father denied him after making him heir. He's only able to make himself watch for a short time before looking away, as Velvet's smile reminds him far too much of how he used to be closer to her mother.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology:
    • All Cosmic beings have naturally layered voices, with different underlying sounds/noises that accompany and harmonize with their words. As they mature, they gain greater control over this and can manipulate the individual layers.
    • Their antennae act as 'universal translators' so that they can understand all the various dialects that can be found throughout the Great Cosmos, including those on Earth.
    • Cosmic beings can use their antennae to send out a distress signal, alerting others that something is amiss. Daisy does this without realizing in Like Milk and Honey after treading on glass with her hoof-hands, and is startled when help arrives, only belatedly realizing that she must have been broadcasting her pain.
    • Cosmic beings have tapetum lucidum; one story has Foomin noting that she must have successfully avoided waking up anyone at her sleepover, because she doesn't see any telltale eyeshine to indicate otherwise.
    • Both Daisy and her mother have legs that double as udders, complete with the ability to squirt milk. Daisy's mother has four legs in this fashion, and favors floating/hovering over walking, while Daisy wears special booties that are highly absorbent.
    • While Daisy and her mother also have hoof-like hands, her father being in charge of All Bears resulted in hers having more claw-like traits as well. This includes being a little more dexterous than her mother's, though not so much that she's able to pick glass out of her own palms.
    • Velvet is able to fold her legs up seamlessly beneath her while floating around.
  • Blessed with Suck:
    • Velvet feels this way about her domain in Campanile after figuring out that it's connected to wealth and jewelry. Specifically, she can manifest precious gemstones, metals, and other materials that can be used for crafting jewelry, an ability that'd obviously be VERY easy to abuse... and could attract all the wrong kinds of attention, along with being used to justify her family growing even more overbearing.
    • Relativity reveals this could also apply to the King of All Cosmos himself. He fears that his father only chose him as his successor because his connection to rainbows ensured he could easily learn the Royal Rainbow techinique. This led to him being isolated and estranged from his siblings and put through Training from Hell as his father tried to beat him into the heir he wanted.
  • Breather Episode: Campanile and Relativity are set around the time that the King decided to make the cousins' planets that appear in We ♥ Katamari, and delve into heavy themes of parental abuse and transgenerational trauma. The following ficlet, Personality Problems (In-Game and Out), is set around the then-recent release of the HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, and is much more lighthearted.
  • Brick Joke: Early on in Vox Cosmica, Foomin alludes to having a tendency to make up nonsensical songs. The ending reveals that the noises her in-game counterpart makes when being rolled up might be based on something she was overheard singing, a prospect she finds hilarious.
  • Comically Missing the Point: While trying to reassure Opeo that she really does want him around, Foomin asks if he's ever heard her say something she didn't mean. Opeo replies that he's noticed her encouraging Ace a lot in a strange tone of voice.

    Foomin: Hey. Hey. Seriously, Opp', have ya ever heard me say somethin' I didn't mean...?
    Opeo: [brow furrowing] A-all the time with Ace...? Y-you're always saying, um, 'Woo~oow, Ace, that's a great idea, you should totally do that~', but it's always in that really weird tone and—

  • Commonality Connection:
    • Discussed in Campanile; the Queen justifies having Nickel share a planet with Signolo rather than pairing him off with his brother Kuro by pointing out how have technological aspects to their Bizarre Alien Biology, with Nickel being an outright robot while Signolo has three traffic light-esque faces.
    • In the same story, Odeko suspects that he and Havana were paired together since both of them have particularly long heads. He also muses that he would've preferred being matched with Johnson instead.
    • Relativity confirms that the King tried to pair off some of the cousins in this manner while determining who would share planets with each other. Near the end, he also privately acknowledges that he relates to how Odeko doesn't want to admit he's been dealing with parental abuse.
    • Brought up in Storge; L'Amour doesn't know why the King saw fit to pair her off with Ace for the planet plan, not seeing what they had in common aside from sharing the same family tree. She even wonders whether it was a bit of a Stealth Insult, implying he found her just as annoying as the self-centered Jerkass.
  • Compressed Hair: This generally applies to any Cosmic beings with hair covered by their usual headgear. Velvet, for instance, has a Sci-Fi Bob Haircut, and The Foopeo Factor shows that Foomin has been growing out her hair as best she can given her circumstances, looping its length up and around her towers.
  • Condescending Compassion: Odeko shows this attitude towards Havana in Campanile; while irritated by his physical and social awkwardness, Odeko observes that he is trying to improve, but dismissively thinks that his best efforts aren't yielding much, regarding him with pity.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Relativity centers around the King being introspective. He directly references the concept while acknowledging a topic he doesn't wish to delve into, noting that 'Some navels are best left uncontemplated.' (Specifically, he refuses to reflect upon how his father might not have had so many children, including the future King himself, if he had ways of preventing their conception.)
  • Cooldown Hug: Havana pulls off a Cooldown Tackle against Odeko when he's about to accidentally electrocute Peso, Havana and himself in Campanile. The same story has a straighter example when the stress of Satiné's visit causes Velvet's cooling aura and gravity manipulation to fluctuate; Drooby holds on and rides the shifting pressures out.
  • Cope by Creating: Implied and Played With in Campanile; Velvet deals with the stress from stumbling across her domain by trying her hand out at wire sculpture... as it's a way for her to discreetly practice using her powers without revealing their exact nature.
  • Crossover Relatives:
    • Storge reveals that second cousin L'Amour is the result of her Cosmic mother marrying a member of the same species as NOBY NOBY BOY, another work by Katamari's creator Keita Takahashi.
    • Downplayed with Yū; Namco High already established that they were a cousin to the Dashing Prince, but didn't specify their precise relationship beyond that. Gifts (Unexchangeable) reveals that they're specifically Opeo's older sibling.
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: A natural side-effect of how Cosmic voices work. While they can naturally modulate the layers of individualized sounds they make as they get older, babies don't have that degree of control. In Foomin's case, for instance, her voice naturally produces notes akin to those of tuning forks, which have been responsible for giving her parents LOTS of headaches.
  • Dangerously Garish Environment: Downplayed with planet L'Ace. The ring around its main body is solid enough to hold Ace and L'Amour's homes, and is covered with orange, yellow and golden-hued sand that glitters in the sunlight... which can swiftly reach blinding levels. In Storge, L'Amour complains about how she had to get thicker curtains and have her windows replaced with tinted glass panes, and how there's no shade or cover on the ring aside from that provided by their houses.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Most installments in the series focus upon one or more of the Dashing Prince's many, many relatives, rather than directly upon the Prince himself.
  • Delicate and Sickly:
    • Opeo is a somewhat Downplayed male example; Foomin describes him as always dealing with something working its way through his system, and while he generally manages to remain a Cheerful Child despite this, it still wears on him physically. And there's moments where he can't quite maintain his usual positivity, either...
    • Campanile reveals that Odeko and Velvet were born prematurely. While Odeko came out well, his twin sister spent time in the NICU, and is noted to be naturally smaller and more delicate. Satiné uses this to stoke Odeko's protective instincts.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • The Foopeo Factor sees Foomin internally lamenting her lack of foresight when it came to designing her abode. While she knew she'd be sharing the titular planet with Opeo, and saw everything he wanted for his hospital-themed home, she didn't think to copy and include any of those accommodations into her house. She especially regrets not adding an elevator, as her place includes two basements and an attic, and her accident-prone cousin has taken quite a few tumbles while visiting.
    • Ace repeatedly tries to create his own alternatives to katamari for training purposes, such as collecting push pins, burs, and other objects that naturally stick to things, or by covering his ball with glue. He also repeatedly fails to take into account how things like push pins, burs and their ilk can easily attach to him instead, or the fact that the rings of L'Ace, the area he's practicing in, are completely covered in glittery sands. Meaning that using glue tends to get incredibly messy.
  • Die or Fly: Velvet has such a moment in Campanile, discovering on the fly that she can alter the barrette she crafted and give it edges sharp enough to cut through her mother's fabric.
  • Disappointed in You: Goes the Spoiled features a variant during one Flashback: Ace notices that the Prince doesn't seem remotely surprised by his Lack of Empathy for an injured Opeo, yet something about the way he's regarding him causes Ace's gut to twist uncomfortably.
  • Doublethink: Odeko believes that Velvet is a significantly better spellcaster than him, underestimating and undervaluing his own command of his elements. But he just as firmly believes that she's reliant upon his protection as her "older brother".
  • Drama Queen: Played for Laughs in Personality Problems (In-Game and Out), as Foomin treats her inability to navigate the Player Personality Quiz in Dragon Quest III and get the result she wants as evidence that "The whole Cosmos is conspirin' against [her]—!"
  • Drink-Based Characterization:
    • Personality Problems (In-Game and Out) reveals that Velvet likes root beer, as well as tea. She observes that her cousins generally don't share her love of the former, with most only willing to take it as part of an ice cream float; therefore, she keeps a few other drinks on hand for any guests, such as variants of ramune.
    • Foomin likes lemon-lime drinks like ramune, as well as variations thereof, including any lemon-or-limeade that's got a secondary flavor like strawberry or raspberry to help balance it out. She's also shown to be quite careless with whatever container her beverages are in.
    • In Gifts (Unexchangeable), the Prince declines taking advantage of Foomin's offer to pick up something from her wider selection of drinks, despite how she's already heading over to her place to grab some other things. He states that he's fine with apple juice, the same thing Opeo's having. Foomin, meanwhile, retrieves some blueberry lemonade for herself, and milk with honey and strawberry syrup for Daisy.
  • Ear Worm: A Flashback in Goes the Spoiled shows how Foomin weaponized this against Ace. After seeing a picture of the newly created L'Ace, she observes that the top half resembles a bright red butt, then jokes about a 'Bum-bum-bum' fanfare playing whenever the sun rises on that planet. Years later, Ace still remembers that exchange and can hear the song in his head while regarding the view from his house/his side of the ring.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Referenced by Odeko in Campanile; he compares trying to ignore the size of Havana's head and his reputation for being The Klutz to this concept.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Velvet considers "Drooby" to be one for her second cousin Bossanova, questioning its dubious origins and wondering why she doesn't push back against the others using it so often. For her part, it's implied Bossanova/Drooby doesn't actually mind.
  • Entertainment Above Their Age: Potentially; Foomin and Shikao share an interest in horror, and it's implied in The Foopeo Factor that she's familiar enough with Silent Hill: Ascension to have gotten some sky blue shirts with the memetic "IT'S TRAUMA!" emote emblazoned on it. Velvet's also noted to occasionally play games others find disturbing.
  • Exact Words: Ace believes the King's constant assertations that "If it were Ours, it would be much bigger" is a textbook case of this. After all, the King would probably give himself a much bigger katamari to work with from the start, wouldn't he?
  • Failed a Spot Check:
    • Played for Drama in Like Milk and Honey when Daisy doesn't realize that the "crushed ice" glinting through the grass is actually crushed glass until she's already stepped on it. She also notes that others might not have noticed the traits she shares with her father due to her naturally small size.
    • Played With in Campanile when Odeko recounts an incident where Foomin tipped over her chair and Velvet kept her from falling with her gravity magic. According to Odeko, Foomin failed to notice how much this took out of his sister; however, it's unclear how much his bias is impacting his recollection, and if she truly didn't notice or just didn't draw attention to it.
  • First-Person Smartass:
    • Several of Odeko's POV sections in Campanile reveal just how critical and dismissive he is towards his planet-mate Havana, along with mocking and making light of his efforts to improve himself.
    • Velvet flirts with this throughout Personality Problems (In-Game and Out) while dealing with Foomin's dramatics.

      [mentally, in response to Foomin moaning her name] Hrm. It appears half of her name is being stretched far beyond its normal length, as if to compensate for the speaker's apparently lacking ability to finish what they started. One might compare it to a zombiesque moan, though if that was what they were going for, they hadn't quite hit the mark. A mite too wheedling for that, by her estimation. Edging a little too much past plaintive and more towards the pathetic.

  • Flat-Earth Atheist: In Relativity, the King of All Cosmos brings up how some believe in the Divine Right of Kings — that their rulers were chosen by some higher authority. His musings on the matter leave it unclear whether or not he personally believes some greater force exists; rather, he's mostly focused on why his father chose him as his successor.
  • Flat "What": Ace reacts this way when Foomin declares that the top half of L'Ace looks like a butt.
  • Fun with Acronyms: One of the possible monikers Ace comes up for himself in Goes the Spoiled is "The Astoundingly Cool, Extreme Prince of All Cosmos", playing off of his given name.
  • Gale-Force Sound: Vox Cosmica establishes that Foomin has both wind and sound-based magic, implying that she could Invoke this concept by combining her powers... though they haven't quite developed that far yet.
  • Gentle Giant: Daisy describes her father as such, seeing him as somebody who's generally slow to anger and tends to end arguments quickly.
  • Girl in the Tower: The concept gets directly referenced in Campanilenote , with Velvet comparing herself to Dragon Quest IV's Rose and balking at the concept of sharing her fate.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Daisy brings three plushies to the sleepover in The Foopeo Factor, while Marcy brings a vibrantly colored frog that she may have made herself. Foomin is also noted to have several around her place, including multiple Hornets. All of the boys brought plushies with them as well; Opeo and Peso each brought two, while Dipp only brought his Little Buddy.note 
  • Gravity Is Purple: Played With slightly; Odeko and Velvet can both manipulate gravity to some extent, both wear different shades of purple/violet, and their magic is tinted accordingly... but they also have electric and ice as their primary elements, and their magic retains the same hues.
  • Gravity Master: Velvet and Odeko can levitate things in this fashion. Odeko considers his sister to be more powerful; he mainly uses it to telekinetically retrieve small objects, while she uses it to 'catch' things in a pinch. Such as one of her cousins when they tipped their chair back too far.
  • Green Is Blue: Referenced during The Foopeo Factor when Foomin compares her teal blue eyes to Opeo's sapphire ones.

    They're a much deeper hue than her own; hers are more of a teal, trending more towards blue than green, but eh, the division there's always been kinda iffy, hasn't it? Least she's pretty sure nobody's 'bout to call her eyes 'grue' or anything like that.

  • Giver of Lame Names: Ace believes the King of All Cosmos is one of these; while speculating on what the Dashing Prince might have been named if he wasn't the heir apparent, he muses that the not-King might've thought "Scallion" was a good choice for his son
  • Hates Being Touched: Velvet isn't fond of others touching her, especially without warning. Her tolerance levels hinge heavily on how much others respect her boundaries, and she's willing to initiate with those she trusts.
  • Headbutt of Love: Honey and Havana perform a platonic variant in Campanile when she visits; the two embrace and butt foreheads together.
  • Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Campanile offers a Downplayed example, as Odeko notes how he hasn't been able to get the hang of healing magic despite his best efforts. He suspects that his primary element being lightning might factor into the difficulty, but it's left unclear whether his theory is correct.
  • Heart Symbol: The main body of L'Ace, the planet shared by L'Amour and Ace, is shaped like a stylized heart. In Goes the Spoiled, Ace laments that he wanted it to at least be anatomically correct, but was shot down.
  • Heir Club for Men: Alluded to in Relativity; the King wonders whether his father considered any of his sisters as candidates for succession or not. Given that it's implied all he cared about was their particular powerset, gender likely wouldn't have been a factor.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • According to Campanile, Velvet is a fan of RPGs whose tastes run a wide gamut, including a higher tolerance for horror and disturbing imagery than others. She also likes making metal wire art, along with jewelry crafting.
    • Campanile also reveals that Odeko has an interest in prestidigitation, cardistry and Stage Magic, specifically being fascinated by what can be achieved simply through sleight of hand.
    • Storge reveals that L'Amour enjoys pottery, and it's heavily implied that she asked the King to ensure L'Ace had plenty of clay deposits so she could harvest her own materials to work with. She also practices archery, and will occasionally take her bow down to the planet's surface to turn some trees into targets.
  • Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Campanile reveals that Velvet has a black Sci-Fi Bob Haircut that's typically hidden under her headdress. When let loose, it tends to fall over the left side of her face. She starts wearing a jeweled barrette to hold her hair back, which proves significant since she crafted it herself and can continue tweaking its form and function with her magic.
  • Impaled Palm: Downplayed during Like Milk and Honey when Daisy accidentally steps on crushed glass. None of the pieces go all the way through, but it's still a painful and upsetting experience.
  • Implicit Prison: After selecting his heir, the High King took the future King of All Cosmos to live away from the rest of their family, in a tightly controlled environment. The future King was not allowed to bring anything with him, given a whole new wardrobe and having his belongings limited to whatever Papa gave him, including the occasional Present.
  • Important Hair Accessory: Midway through Campanile, Velvet starts wearing a bejeweled barrette in order to keep her hair from falling into her face when it's not covered by her usual attire. It symbolizes how she's trying to hide her developing powers... and when her mother discovers it, she winds up using it as an improvised weapon.
  • Inadequate Inheritor:
    • Relativity delves into how the King struggled with being seen as such after his father chose him as his successor. For while he was chosen over all of his siblings, the High King refused to explain why, constantly hammering into his head all the qualities that he lacked.
    • The Dashing Prince also grapples with his own insecurities regarding this. Naming Nuances reveals that one of the reasons why Velvet isn't particularly bothered at her own royal status going largely unacknowledged on Earth is because she doesn't view being a princess as a vital part of her self-identity, while the Prince does.
  • Incoming Ham: Foomin announces her arrival in Personality Problems (In-Game and Out) by banging on Velvet's door and dramatically moaning her name. Or half of it, anyway.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: The King of All Cosmos shows shades of this. Relativity opens with his younger self questioning why he was chosen as the heir over the rest of his siblings; as an adult, he fears it was solely because his domain happened to be rainbows, making it easier for his father to teach him the Royal Rainbow technique.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Satiné mentally impugns Bossanova/Drooby in this fashion during Campanile, only briefly acknowledging their status as the daughter of a "backwater" relative before shifting entirely to referring to them as 'it'.
  • Joke of the Butt: One Flashback in Goes the Spoiled revolves around Foomin suggesting that the top half of planet L'Ace looks like "A big ol' red butt. Like a baboon butt, y'know?" She keeps up her mockery for the whole flashback, and Ace is annoyed by his inability to just forget about the incident, wishing he hadn't insisted on being on top of L'Ace's ring.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em:
    • As Campanile shows, Satiné didn't approve of her brother's plan to create planets for all of the royal and second cousins, especially since he wasn't keeping all of the sibling pairs together. However, while she voices her concerns, she ultimately decides against fighting too hard against the proposal, not wanting to rouse too many suspicions.
    • Later in the same story, she opts to back down when Drooby stands between her and her daughter; while she has no qualms with the prospect of outright murdering Drooby to get what she wants, she recognizes that she doesn't know everything Drooby is capable of... and that Velvet's own powers could complicate matters.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Implied in Storge; L'Amour notes that her parents want to have more than one child, but haven't had much luck, despite their best efforts.
  • Life Isn't Fair: L'Amour reflects upon this throughout Storge, as does the Prince in Flashbacks running throughout the story. Ultimately, she comes to the conclusion that this sentiment is often used as an excuse, which is why she's so determined to continue reaching out to Ace, even if her efforts are never appreciated.
  • Magnum Opus: Satiné regards her daughter Velvet as a masterwork-in-progress, intending to mold her into her perfect heiress in order to prove that she can succeed where her own Papa supposedly failed with the King.
  • Make Some Noise: Foomin can effectively use her towers like a tuning fork, broadcasting out waves of what she calls "pure, unfiltered sound". However, this comes at the cost of leaving her with a considerable headache that can linger for several days afterwards.
  • Making a Spectacle of Yourself: L'Amour has heart-shaped sunglasses, noting in Storge that Ace seems irritated by their very existence. Not that she cares about his opinion.
  • Malicious Misnaming:
    • According to Naming Nuances, Ace once called Odeko "Dekoboko", a play on his given name that involves swapping the kanji order. Somebody didn't react well to that, though it's not specified who.
    • In one Flashback, Ace is overheard insulting a couple of his cousins, including Shikao (ignoring how he's currently visiting the cousin in question for one of his movie marathons). He repeatedly pronounces Shikao's name as though there's a 'T' right in the middle, and refers to Opeo as 'Odie' instead.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Odeko's full name, Ōtotsu, was chosen to contrast with his sister's; Velvet is smooth, while Ōtotsu means "bumpy/uneven/not-flat". It's also an Odd Name Out, reflecting how their mother Satiné intentionally excluded him from Family Theme Naming, having decided from the start that she wished to shape her daughter into her "masterpiece" and he was just unnecessary extra material.
    • Marcy is The Fashionista and hopes to develop powers similar to her Aunt Satiné's ability to create and manipulate fabric. Her full name, Marceline, happens to be a type of fabric.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Like Milk and Honey implies that part of the reason why cowbears exist is because Daisy's parents are in charge of All Cows and All Bears, respectively.
  • Morning Routine: Ace likes to start every day well before the sun rises, eating breakfast before going for a jog around the rings of L'Ace. His planet-mate L'Amour has accounted for this in her own morning routine; she makes sure he stays hydrated by bringing him a thermos.
  • My Beloved Smother: Satiné presents herself as this, claiming to have her daughter's best interests at heart, given how small, slight and delicate she is. In reality, she's more of a straight Control Freak intent on molding Velvet into her "greatest work".
  • My Hair Came Out Green: Foomin speculates this might have happened to Marcy in The Foopeo Factor, noting that her hair turned out a "surprisingly deep" shade of plum that strikes her as unusual for her cousin, given how much she prefers vibrant hues.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Downplayed with Velvet, whose personal library of video games includes some titles that have caused her cousins to shudder at the sight of whatever she was playing.
  • No Infantile Amnesia: Averted in Campanile; Odeko doesn't remember anything relating to their birth. He just feels as though he should, trying to "reconstruct memories" based off his mother's account of events.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: According to Velvet, there's been several incidents where one of her cousins noticed she was playing a game and thought nothing about peering over her shoulder to see what it was. She considers it slightly karmic that this has occasionally resulted in them being creeped out by what they saw.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Late in Relativity, Satiné directly compares the way she and her brother the King have raised their respective children, along with comparing him to their own father. This earns her a blow to the mouth from the furious Queen.
  • Now Allowed to Hug: While Velvet is generally touch-adverse, she lets Drooby pull her into a hug in Campanile after her mother pays them a surprise visit. She also returns Peso's embrace not long afterwards, underscoring how they've grown closer after spending time on Velpesso together.
  • Odd Job Gods: This is a natural result of how the Great Cosmos works: every Cosmic Being is in charge of something, not just the King of All Cosmos. Some of these domains are naturally more impressive-sounding than others.
  • On a Scale from One to Ten: During Gifts (Unexchangeable), Opeo reflects upon how being chronically ill might have thrown off his mental calibrations of the pain scale, and where what he considers to be a low number might rank higher with others.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Several of these come up in Naming Nuances:
    • Odeko prefers being called that over his given name of Ōtotsu, which was chosen for a bit of Theme Twin Naming.
    • Marcy is revealed to be short for Marceline, while it's also noted in passing that Lalala "makes a point of defying all their father's expectations".
    • Drooby's given name is Bossanova, but she doesn't mind being called by any number of nicknames, such as the shorter "Boss", "Bossu" or "Nova" or her main moniker of Drooby. Velvet doesn't understand why she doesn't consider Drooby to be an Embarrassing Nickname.
    • Twinkle's given name is Subarunote . The nickname stems from his younger sister Miki associating the old English lullaby with him due to his body naturally resembling a four-pointed star, which stuck around and has been picked up by most of their relatives.
    • The Dashing Prince of All Cosmos generally goes by "Prince". While the other Royal Cousins have their own titles, he's the only crown prince, the King's son and heir apparent to the Great Cosmos. While occasional efforts have been made to shift towards calling him "The Dashing Prince" or similar monikers, or even simply "Dash" for short, none of those have actually stuck, and most are comfortable calling him "Prince".
  • Oral Fixation: Foomin notes in Vox Cosmica that Opeo uses cough drops commonly enough that she's picked up on how it slightly alters his voice whenever he's got one in his mouth.
  • Palette Swap: Foomin laments the absence of alt-colors in Super Mario Party Jamboree, thinking that she'd play Birdo more often if she could use her light blue or white variants. Given that Opeo seems to like the light blue version of Yoshi the most, that might factor into her frustration as well...
  • Parental Neglect:
    • The High King paid precious little attention to the rest of his children after choosing which of them would serve as his primary heir.
    • Satiné decided early on that she wouldn't attempt to mold both of her twins into a magna opera, with Odeko getting the short end of the proverbial stick.
    • Odeko speculates during Campanile that Havana and Honey's parents have largely given up on helping their children deal with the problems caused by their naturally oversized heads, figuring that they'll eventually grow out of that phase without or without their guidance.
  • Parenthetical Swearing: During Vox Cosmica, Foomin shares her suspicions that Velvet occasionally modulates her voice to hide that she's cussing, ensuring that all others hear coming out of her mouth is the brief tinkling of bells.
  • Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Foomin and Dipp stand on opposite sides of this debate. One story has her noting in passing that if she serves a pineapple pizza at any of her parties, he always insists on her providing an alternative, regardless of whether he actually wants any pizza or not.
  • Player Personality Quiz: The central conflict of Personality Problems (In-Game and Out) (such as it is) involves one, as Foomin seeks Velvet's help getting the result she wants.
  • Playing the Age Card: Odeko tends to do this against Velvet, calling her his "baby sister" even though they're twins.
  • Plot Parallel:
    • Campanile shows that neither Odeko or Velvet were particularly close to Havana or Peso before the King assigned them to share planets with each other. Both are more acquainted with their respective planet-mate's reputation... but while Odeko regards Havana's clumsiness with Condescending Compassion, Velvet uses less loaded language and interprets Peso's quirks more charitably. This reflects how Odeko lets his biases color his perception of his mother and "baby" sister as well; his relationship with Havana is just as strained as that with Velvet. To underscore this further, Odeko's side of the story ends with him offering to teach Havana about cardistry, much like how Velvet encouraged Peso's interest in wire sculpture.
    • The Foopeo Factor centers around Foomin's perspective and touches upon some of her fears and frustrations regarding Opeo's chronic illnesses. While this impacts her social life to some degree, she's honestly more concerned about how this affects him, and she's shown struggling against the impulse to assume the worst of others and lash out. Opeo, meanwhile, is shown to also assume that others are deliberately excluding him just as a matter of course, and that he similarly tries to smile through and downplay his feelings on the matter.
  • Pokémon Speak: The games' usage of this is Lampshaded in Vox Cosmica, where it's attributed to a "creative liberty" taken by the series due to humans not being able to fully grasp how Cosmic Voices work. Foomin theorizes that most of their game counterparts repeat jumbled fragments of their own names as a way of reinforcing their individual identities to players. (Though she also finds it amusing that she's one of the few exceptions.)
  • Poor Communication Kills:
    • Velvet is reluctant to openly express any admiration for her brother and his achievements due to how he keeps bragging about being older and being overbearing, so she doesn't want to feed his ego. Beneath the Mask, however, Odeko actually thinks very little of himself and very highly of his "baby sister", so he'd likely appreciate her praise more than she realizes.
    • The King's Inferiority Superiority Complex is worsened by how his Papa was incredibly stingy with anything approaching praise, an issue that he's repeating with his own son. Making this worse is how his father never clarified why he chose him in the first place, leaving the King to speculate and come up with his own unflattering conclusions.
    • In Storge, L'Amour wonders why the King chose her out of all the possible candidates to share a planet with Ace. While she's come to suspect he was hoping she'd serve as a Positive Friend Influence or Morality Pet, the fact that he's never come right out and said so, much less asked her the way his son did leaves her wary.
    • One of the ways Ace degrades L'Amour's efforts to support him in Goes the Spoiled is complaining that she rarely brings him anything other than water. Storge reveals her perspective: whenever she brings anything else, he complains about it, then later gripes about her not reading his mind and knowing when he wants something different.
  • Portmanteau: Most of the planets that the King designed for the cosmic cousins combine the names of both residents. Velpesso, for instance, is shared by Velvet and Peso; Odevana has Odeko and Havana; Foopeo holds Foomin and Opeo; L'Ace has L'Amour and Ace, and so on and so forth.
  • P.O.V. Sequel:
    • Campanile focuses on Odeko, Velvet and their mother Satiné, fleshing out their Backstory and dynamics, and how the King implementing his "planet plan" had some unexpected ripple effects for them. Relativity serves as a companion piece centered around the King, delving into his childhood and going into greater detail about how he came up with the planet plan in the first place.
    • Storge (or something similar, anyway) serves as a companion piece for Goes the Spoiled, offering L'Amour's perspective on her planet-mate Ace.
  • Power Incontinence: Downplayed with Velvet, who regularly radiates a faint cooling aura that she can't quite turn off entirely. While the cold doesn't particularly bother her, she still wishes she could rein it in better so as not to bother anyone else with the natural fluctuations. Campanile highlights how emotional distress makes it worse.
  • Premature Birth Drama: Odeko and Velvet were born a couple months before their expected due date. According to their mother, Odeko suffered no ill effects whatsoever from this, and only Velvet had to spend time in neonatal care.
  • Psychological Projection:
    • Satiné firmly believes that all of her siblings and relatives are Vicariously Ambitious and trying to shape their own children into "masterworks". Including the King of All Cosmos.
    • Goes the Spoiled highlights this as one of Ace's biggest issues: he tends to assume the worst of others because of how he himself would act in their position. For instance, he believes the Prince also sees the King as a 'pretender to the throne' who stole Véronique's birthright, but doesn't care since that meant he was born into even greater privilege.
  • Punch a Wall: Ace hurts his hand this way in Goes the Spoiled.
  • Punny Name:
    • In Naming Nuances, Velvet expresses mild annoyance at the notion that her mother went with the ベルベット version of her name for the sake of sneaking a 'Beru'/'bell' pun in there. This may factor into her really disliking being called 'Belle'.
    • Opeo has two Little Buddy dolls, which look just like him — that's why he has two, in fact, because one has A Torso With A View just like he occasionally does. He calls that one Open, while the other is Oppy. Oppy Ration.
  • Reconstruct the Remains: Referenced in The Foopeo Factor; during one Flashback, Foomin mentally compares Opeo's tone to a vase that's been repeatedly repaired in this fashion; 'something that's broken before, stuck together with something more like glitter glue than gold.'
  • Recursive Canon: The Katamari Damacy games exist within the Great Cosmos; after all, We ♥ Katamari came about as a result of the first game's popularity. Naturally, there were some creative liberties taken, which the subjects have mixed feelings about.
  • Related in the Adaptation: In a variant, several of the Cosmic Cousins are revealed to be siblings:
    • Odeko and Velvet are twins, with Odeko being slightly older (but prone to overemphasizing his status as her big brother).
    • Marcy and Lalala are also twin siblings.
    • Twinkle is Miki's older brother.
    • Honey and Havana are siblings, with Honey being a few years older than her brother.
    • Kuro and Nickel are siblings as well, though it's implied in Campanile that their relationship is rather strained in nature.
  • Rightful King Returns: Played With in that this is what Ace hopes will happen: that his mother Véronique will eventually overthrow the King and reclaim what is "rightfully hers"... and in doing so, secure his status as the rightful heir to the Great Cosmos.
  • Selective Obliviousness: Brought up during the denouncement of Campanile. Velvet observes that the King doesn't seem particularly surprised by certain revelations, and Satiné firmly believes that she'll be able to sow enough doubt that her siblings and relatives will eventually convince themselves any rumors about her simply can't be true.
  • Sibling Seniority Squabble: First hinted at in Naming Nuances when Velvet starts to go on a tangent about how Odeko keeps getting hung up on their birth order, referring to her as his "baby sister" despite how they're twins. Campanile goes into greater detail about why this is such a sticking point.
  • Slumber Party: Foomin throws a mixed-gender sleepover in The Foopeo Factor. Both of her basements are specifically set up with hosting sleepovers and other get-togethers in mind.
  • Spanner in the Works: Campanile reveals that the King of All Cosmos' decision to make miniature planets for all of the Royal and second cousins between the events of Katamari Damacy and We ♥ Katamari unintentionally skewered Satiné's plans for her children.
  • Standard Snippet: The song Foomin uses to tease Ace is a vocal rendition of Also sprach Zarathustra's "Sunrise" movement, rendering the iconic fanfare and Dramatic Timpani as "bum-bum-bum-bum" while mocking the shape of his planet.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: One of the biggest blockades to Ace's training efforts is that he can't create a katamari himself, forcing him to constantly improvise and cobble together various substitutes. In Storge, L'Amour idly wonders why he can't be satisfied with using a regular old ball. Or, failing that, why he doesn't simply ask the King to make him a special katamari. (Of course, she suspects she knows exactly why he refuses to do that...)
  • Strong Family Resemblance:
    • While they don't look exactly the same, Like Milk and Honey establishes that both Daisy and her mother have hoof-hand hybrids and that their legs also function like udders, with her mother having four legs rather than two. She's also frequently compared to her mother, with others appearing to miss/gloss over the traits she shares with her father.
    • Velvet shares her mother's jet-black hair, porcelain complexion and dark violet eyes. Odeko shares that shade, at the very least, but Satiné still favors her daughter over her son.
    • Havana and Honey both have heads that are excessively wide for their age, even for cosmic beings, and similarly colored eyes, though Odeko thinks the latter's have a more honey-like hue compared to her brother's.
  • Sudden Eye Colour: In the games, characters are generally depicted with Black Bead Eyes or eyes that are otherwise simple and solid black. Throughout this series, characters are noted to have differently colored eyes — Velvet, Odeko, and their mother all have dark violet eyes; Daisy has deep brown eyes like both of her parents; Honey and Havana have honey brown; Foomin has teal blue; Opeo sapphire, and so on and so forth.
  • Super-Scream: Referenced in Vox Cosmica; Foomin notes that while her shouting doesn't pack the same punch as what she's seen in comics, she'd like to reach the point where she can reliably stun others with the sound of her voice alone.
  • Talk to the Fist:
    • Near the end of Relativity, the Queen of All Cosmos responds to Satiné's Hannibal Lecture by decking them right in the mouth.
    • One Flashback in The Foopeo Factor involves Foomin confronting Ace and Dipp after she overhears them insulting two of their cousins, trying to "make Ace eat his own words. Or her fist. That works too."
  • Technically a Smile: Referenced in Relativity, as the King notes that titles like 'Crown Prince' can be delivered in ways that feel like an insult through tone alone, and that 'Baring one's teeth was technically a smile, after all. That didn't make it a good idea around gorillas.'
  • Theme Twin Naming: Satiné named her son Ōtotsu, meaning "uneven/bumpy/a non-flat surface", as a play on how velvet is known for its smoothness. In Naming Nuances, Velvet reflects that there are various other fabrics Satiné could have chosen to maintain a Family Theme Naming between all three, but she went for the contrast instead.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Touched upon in Naming Nuances; while Velvet doesn't know why Njamo decided to change his name, she sees no reason to press the matter and potentially make him uncomfortable.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: A Flashback in Storge shows that L'Amour was... less than thrilled about being assigned to share a planet with Ace. Later, when she suspects that her planet-mate didn't go on his usual morning jog because he's fallen ill, she murmurs a soft "............shit."
  • This Is My Side: Goes the Spoiled reveals that Ace insisted on claiming the "upper half" of L'Ace, the planet he was forced to share with L'Amour, as his side. In retrospect, he wishes he'd claimed the "pointy end" instead... mostly due to how Foomin compared the top half to a baboon's backside.
  • This Is Reality: In The Foopeo Factor, Foomin notes that while she wishes she could go back and use what she's learned to better accommodate Opeo and all his illnesses, "replaying for a higher score’s only possible in video games." So she has to settle for being better about it going forward.
  • Total Party Kill: Foomin admits during Gifts (Unexchangeable) that she's caused this more than once while playing Lethal Company.
  • Toxic Family Influence:
    • Despite having seen and experienced the terrible consequences of how their Papa largely neglected her and most of her siblings in favor of his chosen heir — along with seeing how this affected the future King — Satiné still believes she can prove herself superior by succeeding where he failed and molding Velvet into her "masterwork", while treating Odeko as nothing more than a means to that end.
    • Satiné is also a terrible influence upon her son, encouraging him to view Velvet as weaker and dependent upon their protection.
    • Ace combines this with Toxic Friend Influence; he and Dipp are close enough that he's able to encourage his flashier cousin to insult and belittle their own cousins.
  • Translator Microbes: The antennae of Cosmic Beings act as a sort of 'universal translator', enabling them to understand and communicate in different languages. Things naturally tend to get lost in translation, however; in Vox Cosmica, Foomin notes in passing that her more linguistically-minded cousins frequently complain about all the nuances that slip through the cracks.
  • Trying Not to Cry: Seen in Relativity when Odeko's trying and failing to convince the King and Queen that his mother's not abusive.
  • The Unapologetic: While Foomin technically apologizes for teasing Ace about certain aspects of planet L'Ace's design in Goes the Spoiled, it was blatantly obvious to him that she didn't really mean it.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: At best, Ace takes the kindness of others for granted, seeing it as just what he's owed. For instance, Goes the Spoiled reveals that L'Amour regularly checks up on him while he's running laps and brings him refreshments... but as far as Ace is concerned, the fact that she's occasionally failed to do so (due to being sick or otherwise indisposed) or has shown up 'late' is proof that she's Secretly Selfish and a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
  • Unreliable Expositor:
    • Campanile switches back and forth between Velvet, Odeko and Satiné's viewpoints. While all three have their own biases, Odeko's perspective hints at how heavily their mother has influenced him; compared to his sister, he's been far more Conditioned to Accept Horror, making more excuses for their mother's behavior. It's also Implied that Satiné might have exaggerated or outright lied about the circumstances surrounding their premature birth.
    • Goes the Spoiled follows Ace's perspective. As he's extremely self-absorbed, he naturally exaggerates every slight against him, real or imagined, and downplays the severity of his Parental Abandonment or the impact it's had upon him.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Campanile has this as a cascading effect: Honey visiting her brother on Odevana inspires Odeko to pay his sibling a surprise visit, unintentionally straining his relationship with her. Especially when he insists on showing off one of her wire sculptures to their mother...
  • Voice Changeling: Downplayed with Foomin; while she's good at mimicking voices, the way Cosmic voices work complicates matters. Namely, she has to be careful that the tuning fork-like notes that naturally accompany her voice don't give her away, and she hasn't worked out how to copy other effects.
  • Wacky Cravings: Referenced in Relativity; the King notes that he occasionally felt Powerful and Helpless over his inability to track down absolutely everything his wife craved.
  • Weather Manipulation: June is speculated to have a nascent form of this, hence the tendency for rain to follow her wherever she goes.
  • Worth It:
    • The Foopeo Factor sees Foomin concluding that while having Opeo as her neighbor and planet-mate has brought its share of complications, ensuring that her sickly cousin doesn't feel left out is totally worth the effort.
    • Ace considers the ring around L'Ace to be the best part of living there, as it makes an excellent track for running on. He specifically thinks that it's worth the hassle of how he got teased for the planet's unfortunate design.
    • Played darkly at the end of Goes the Spoiled, as Ace tells himself that everything he's supposedly endured will be well worth it once his mother overthrows the King and all his relatives are forced to bow to him as their future ruler.
    • Some of Foomin's theatrics while helping Opeo out in Gifts (Unexchangeable) get him giggling, which he internally notes hurts a little, but he considers it worthwhile since he's already in pain.
  • Would Hurt a Child: On top of being a Control Freak, Satiné is willing to subject her children to being wrapped up in suffocating fabric. Near the end of Campanile, she also casually contemplates how much fabric and force she might need to break Drooby's neck.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: At one point in Campanile, Satiné asks "Excuse me? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
  • YouTuber Apology Parody: In Relativity, the King muses that the Divine Right of Kings tends to place any fault for someone being poorly chosen upon the ruler, rather than whomever chose them. This inspires a brief tangent about how one can't simply expect a divine authority to declare "My bad" or deliver a public apology, possibly using the Internet to make sure it can be witnessed worldwide.
  • Youngest Child Wins: Referenced but Averted in Relativity. Not only was the King of All Cosmos not the youngest when he was chosen to become his father's heir, he admits that his familiarity with this concept from fairy tales meant that he didn't take it well when the first of his younger siblings was born. Something he finds ironic in retrospect.