Lucky☆Star is out! This is the new Kyoto Animation anime that’s based on a 4-koma manga, as everyone and their mom probably already knows. The hype levels have been through the roof since it was announced, but can a 4-koma anime really be that awesome?
Lucky☆Star starts off awesome with an op sequence to end all op sequences. At least, it’s very nice. It sorta reminds me of the ED sequence of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Is KyoAni just pandering to its fans now? Either way, it’s really fun!
Anyhow, Lucky Star follows the lives of four high school girls. Izumi Konata is the weird one voiced by Hirano Aya. Hiiragi Tsukasa is Konata’s friend, which also makes her weird. She seems like a klutz type. Hiiragi Kagami is Tsukasa’s sister. She’s more of an assertive, sometimes demanding character. Then there’s the meganekko, Takara Miyuki. The disproportionate ratio of screencaps with her in them is not a coincidence. She’s the moe character that keeps everyone sane. I think.
Just watching the first episode, it seems to me that Lucky Star is like the Seinfeld of anime. It’s literally about nothing. They spent the first 6 minutes or so just talking about how they eat their food. I think. I watched this raw, and I still have a semi-hard time understanding the dialogue intensive talking head anime.
After that, here’s what I think they talked about. I believe the girls were talking about maid cafes and how the girls call the customers “goshujin-sama” and then Konata said something like how it’s normal in ero-games? Thereby suggesting that she plays ero-games? That’s what I got out of it. Then there was a part where they were talking about how Miyuki would be cuter if she wore contact lenses, but she turned out to be moe anyway.
Also, there was a section that I totally understood, where they were talking about the Japanese saying that “idiots can’t catch colds” because they’re so dumb that they don’t realize they have a cold. Konata said that since she’s dumb, she can’t catch a influenza, but then Tsukasa was arguing about whether that saying counted towards influenza, or if it was strictly a cold-only type of thing…
And the randomness continued. The best part was where Konata was talking about video games, and they had a parody of Konata vs. a gaikokujin (foreigner) that looked suspiciously similar to Guile from Street Fighter II in Ryu’s stage… She even did the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! At the end of the episode, Konata (I’m assuming) sings the theme to Uchuu Tetsujin, as seen here.
As far as animation goes, it’s good, when animation actually happens. Like most of the show is just talking heads. They’re awesome looking talking heads, though! I really like the character designs. I haven’t read any of the 4-koma, but I’m assuming that KyoAni did a good job anime-fying them.
I don’t know if it’s really justified saying that this anime is a waste of KyoAni’s resources. If they end up making a good anime, who cares? I really like how this anime looks, even if I don’t get all of the dialogue. Once I do understand 100% of what they’re saying, I’m sure it’ll be even better. I hope.
Lucky Star seems like a really fun anime. Sure, there’s been a lot of hype leading up to it, and maybe that’s made everyone have higher expectations than a 4-koma adaptation can live up to. Personally, I liked the parts that I understood, and the vibe that I got from the animation. The pop culture references are also pretty fun to catch as well. I’m really looking forward to watching this with subs, and actually getting more of the jokes.
Yay! A post that *doesn’t* hate Lucky Star!
I second Zeroblade’s notion. Some people just don’t understand more sophisticated comedy. =D
@All the posts dissing Lucky Star:
YOU CANNOT DENY THAT THE OP WAS GODLY.
Right now I don’t hate it, but I’m sitting on the fence.
I have to wait for some subs before I can figure out if I’ll really like it, or even understand it (a lot of the humor seems uniquely Japanese).
What little I saw of the manga didn’t make me laugh at all, so I can’t say I had high hopes for the anime, especially now seeing some of the reviews it’s getting. But I remember the first couple episodes of Azumanga there were parts that didn’t seem funny to me at all on the first watch that became more funny once I got to know the characters and their quirks, so I’ll probably give this a couple episodes to see if that’s the case here too. I have a mixed record with 4-koma series, I liked Azumanga but didn’t like Sensei no Ojikan at all…I guess at least even if Lucky Star is terrible there’s a ton of other good anime to watch this season
>After that…customers “goshujin-sama” and then Konata said something like how it’s normal in ero-games?
Actually, Kagami was reading a newspaper whose headlines read: “locked up 2 months” and “I wanted a slave.”
[cut scene Tsukasa, Kagami, Konata walking to school]
Kagami: There seems to be so many news stories about weirdos locking up girls against their will these days. You know, some of them force the girls to call them their goshujin-sama and such…
Tsukasa: really?
Konata: Basic morality aside, I think it all comes down to playing too much galge and ero-games; it’s a practical situation similar to all of them
Kagami: You just described yourself…
Kagami: Hey wait a minute, how the heck do you know the details of adult-oriented games! You’re only 2nd year high school student!
You’ve seen Hidamari Sketch.
You should know better.
Heh, it might help to differentiate hype in this context. Yes, there has been lots of fan hype for Lucky☆Star. But how much industrial hype or source material hype has there been? Nothing but a commercial going “Uuuuuuuuu.” I’m not one to blame an anime for the faults of the fans, especially fans who haven’t even seen it yet. Certainly there must be less shallow reasons to love or hate something, no?
Of course, most people would rather blame the show or the studio for not living up to expectations created by fans rather than blame the fans for unjustified hype in the first place. After all, the show’s not going to fight back, is it? Seems like a pretty cowardly and childish thing to do, IMHO.
Forgive me for my ramblings. ^_^
@Yumi F.: And that’s why I need fansubs…
For the cold part, Konata never knew there was a difference between a cold and a flu. I loled at the Street Fighter reference.
From the looks of it, it’s going the direction of Azumanga Daioh, which is good.
that opening song could be the next “hare hare yukai”…
@V2: At this rate, it already is.
The openings so addictive, I cant stop watching it.
And if anyones wondering why it resembles “hare hare Yukai” so much, Is because the same company named “kyoto animation,” produced both this and “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”
Hey Hung, if you don’t mind karaoke-less speedsubs there’s one out already. Just thought I’d give you the heads up in case you didn’t know.
The opening is AWESOME, however I hold judgment for the actually anime. I’ll have to see a few more episodes before I can honestly say I hate it or I think it’s ok.
While not everything in the first episode was great after the Lucky Channel part at the end you couldn’t pay me to not like this. Even though I loved the Konata vs. Foreigner part, seeing Akira turn from cheery, carefree super idol to annoyed, bloodlusting preteen(?) and exposing what being an idol is really like while still on TV was incredibly amusing. Then having her snap back into idol mode at the end was simply icing on the cake.
Well, in terms of haters, not many people liked Kanon for the first few weeks. You just have to let the glorious animation sink in.
Well, I could point out that the “klutz” is Miyuki, not Tsukasa. You seem to have misplaced your associations.
Also, I would expect that you would have an “interest” in Miyuki. Her image screams “meganedojikko moe~”. XD
THAT VIDEO OF THE OPENING THEME IS AWESOME, AND YOU HAVE A LOT OF NEAT PICS. LUCKY STAR RULES!! I AM A KLUTS LIKE MIYUKI, BUT I LOVE ANIME, LIKE KONATA. ANIME LIKE LUCKY STAR IS THE BEST!!
I think that Lucky Star is a pretty cute anime. It funny in a weird sort of way. >.> Well, atleast I think it’s funny. When I watched the first episode I wanted to watch more and now I’m finding myself waiting for the next episode to come out (eps 5). Hahaha… I guess I’m weird. Ohh welll. :]
I got the great opportunity to watch this without the hype, and hell, I was hooked with just the OP. Most animes have (sorry for this guys) but really sucky intros. I second the seinfeld of animes, that’s just how it seemed to me.
I think this is sophisticated comedy in disguise. Love the layers. Fans have a tendency to destroy everything they touch. :S Overzealousness on their part tends to move things to standstill creativity-wise, you got to evolve and that requires change, and frankly haven’t seen anime like this before. I’m quite sure this is going to be a classic, to overcome over the next years.
cheers!
I’ve been watching it since episode 1, and I have to say that it’s gotten a bit better with the new director.
I think people watch this because its so dumb it makes them feel a little smarter inside
Lucky Star is hilarious! I know there might be some haters out there, but hey, everyone’s got an opinion. And yes, I do agree its like the Sienfeld of anime because it has no plot, which animes don’t necessarily HAVE TO have.
i think this anime rocks! ^_^ its so kawaii!
id seed it if i knew where i could download it, right now ive only got the first few episodes but i dont know where they came from
I have seen up to episode 11 and have yet to see any of the other students besides the main four… Do they come in at all?
this anime is really good.. It’s so random that it’s funny.. and the OP IS GODLY XD ENDINGS ARE ALSO GODLY At first, I couldn’t tell that Konata’s voice was done by Hirano Aya XD she’s really good
I love this anime so much~ It is pretty amusing that Aya Hirano is the one that is doing the voice of Kono-chan! This anime helps us in our daily lives as well and fun to watch!You learn something almost every episode~:D
this anime is so cool! you learn something after each episode I think~ but the show is so fun to watch!
well i hae to say i love this show and this post is better than all the ones capping on lucky star.i have seen almost all the episondes in jappaneese on youtube and google and i think its hillarious.The manga is cool to i mean i didnt lol so much when i read some of it but on occasion it got a lil lol outta me.
uhmmmmm i havent watch dis but the pics are so cute
@mangodude88
2 more characters come in around episode 14, then they all kinda join from 16 onwards