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Lucky Star
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Animation - 7.5 |
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Sound - 7.4 |
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Story - 5.5 |
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Character - 7.4 |
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Value - 6.7 |
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Enjoyment - 7.4 |
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Average - 7.0 |
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Zhoumaster |
(2008-12-30 03:30:00) 2008-12-30 03:28:47 |
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| The plot-less life of Konata and her friends and family. Touching at some times, serious in others, a joy in all. This is a personal favorite.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Zaku88 |
(2008-05-28 21:03:55) 2008-05-15 19:44:54 |
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| Average |
5.7 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| This is a comic-strip turned anime about the daily ordinary lives of an otaku girl and her friends. The humor comes almost completely from poking fun at Japanese and otaku culture as well as LOT of parodies/references to other animes (esp. those done by Kyoto Ani.).
Some will find this show extremely hilarious and enjoyable but others won't find much in this. There really isn't any plot and it really is just a large collection of daily life snippets (just like a comic strip almost).
If you're looking for a deep and intricate plot line with action or romance, look elsewhere. If you want a simple, light show to just smile at, then this is for you.
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1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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No
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Most people were turned off by Lucky Star by finding out it was just a simple comedy anime instead of an action, intense packed storyline, with moving characters. Instead you get cute character designs talking about random things that happen in their lives. Some people just sit there watching this anime with a bored look on their face and the only reason that they watched this was because it was produced by Kyoto Animations (Kyoto Animations is a highly popular animation company known for their wonderful animations) And some people just watched this for the Suzumiya references. The reason I was drawn to this anime was because I love comedy animes and this anime always left a smile on my face at the end of each episode. Some people want something exciting happening in each episode, but if you just lay back and enjoy the ride you'll find that Lucky Star is just as good as any anime.
Lucky Star doesn't produce as many laugh out loud moments as most comedies do, but it leaves a smile on your face and during some moments you'll realize, "Hey, this happen to me before too." Lucky Star takes all these ordinary things that happen in our ordinary lives and does it in such a fashionable way that it's just entertaining to watch. Blowing into a fan, moving stuff into a different icon on our desktop, what animal fits your personality.
There are also quite a few parodies in this anime as well. (You'll see a few SHUFFLE! references, Full Metal Panic references, and a ton of Suzumiya references in this anime) It's all these simple things that add up and that is what makes up Lucky Star.
Animations are fairly good with a few gorgeous shots every now and then. While the backgrounds and character designs aren't as detailed as most animes it still passes. The character designs are really cute and you'll find all the characters cute and different in their own different personalities. The backgrounds on the other hand are simple, yet attractive and once in a while you'll find some backgrounds that are simply amazing. That is thanks to Kyoto Animations.
Most people fell in love with the OP song, but didn't fall in love with the anime. I just thought of the OP as an added extra to this anime to sweeten the deal. The opening sequence shows all the characters doing a dance routine in cheer leading outfits. By then everyone was obsessing about the OP sequence. (Myself included.) And when they found out about the anime, everyone's expectations went ka-plop and down the drain it went. Sound effects are well done and the voice acting is top notched. A few repetitive background music, but it all works out fine. I did like the ED songs after the first 12 episodes and I liked seeing Shiraishi singing and dancing at the end.
The characters were simple and there really wasn't any plot development on any of the characters. But it's the friendship that all the characters have between each other that makes this anime shine. In harem animes, the two things that are important are the background stories and how hot the girls are. But in Lucky Star we don't focus on good looks or sad stories. No, we get friendship power between all the girls in this anime and that's what makes Lucky Star's cast shine brightly.
Lucky Star is hard to recommend. I know half of you will be turned off by the nonexistent plot or the lack of character development. And some of you will love it just for the cute comedy it offers. I personally adored this anime and I hope that more of you will like it as well, but seeing the reactions so far I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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No
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| Average |
5.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| 監督が「その域に達していないため」と言う前代未聞の理由で放映開始早々降板させられた伝説のアニメ。自分は交代劇の後からDVDで見はじめたが、その前後を比べてみても、どの辺がそうなのかわからなかった。
原作の漫画は読んでいて、そこそこおもしろいと思ったので見始めた。この作品を一言で表すと、みなみけと同じく「平凡な日常的を淡々と描いた」作品なので、過度な期待はするなというところか？分類すればコメディなんだろうが、腹を抱えて笑うようなものではなく、暇つぶしには良いといった程度のもの。
それにしてもひどすぎる。元々が４コマなので、ページ数が少ないせいか、穴埋めが露骨で、それが全く面白くない。第一話でごく普通の会話が延々と続いた時はテレビの電源を切るところだった。それでも7巻まで借りたのは時々挿入されるバロディが面白かったせいか？制作が京都アニメーションということもあり、同社が製作した「ふもっふ」や「ハルヒ」等のアニメのパロディが登場する。また、島本和彦の「アニメ店長」が登場してくるあたりが新しい。
この作品で特筆すべきはそのオープニングであろう。いわゆる電波ソングで、歌詞は全く意味不明。しかし何故か耳に残る曲。
また、シリーズの前半では、エンディングをメインキャラクタがカラオケ店で歌うという設定で、古い特撮やアニメの主題歌を歌うというスタイルは面白い。ただし、シリーズの後半では、（サブキャラクタの）声優が実写で登場して歌うというのが、あまりにも楽屋落ち過ぎて、好きになれない。やっている当人は面白いと思っているのかもしれないが、はっきりいって白けた
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3 of 4 people found this review helpful.
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|
Vanessa |
(2008-02-23 23:45:03) 2008-02-23 23:44:09 |
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| I don't know what it is about this anime but I absolutely loved it. Every week I looked forward to it and every episode managed to put a smile on my face and made me laugh. It definitely reminded me of when I was high school with all the random conversations and outings I had with friends.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| For what it's worth, I actually did enjoy Lucky Star as an overall series. It wasn't the type that you would hold your sides laughing to, but it had a certain sense of humor to appeal to-whether it was through references to many anime series (Initial D, MariMite, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Keroro Gunso, Rurouni Kenshin, and Dragonball among many...even a reference to the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series o_O) or even in the situational bit humor based between the interactions of the characters. There's not a set story or plot to measure up to-but rather depends on the characters and their interactions to drive what little story there is.
And the story is....random craziness. If you want a central themed plot, you won't find it here, but there's a mixture of subtle and overt humor in the series that makes it an enjoyable watch. I wasn't holding my sides laughing at this on all points (not like Azumanga Daioh or Minami-ke), but it made me laugh in certain segments (the Lucky Channel is a satirical riot-Akira I'm convinced has a multiple personality disorder-either that or she's really like the washed up actress even only at 14 @_@) while others, such as the common interactions between the twins and crazy Kana were worth the watch. The series isn't something to watch continuously back to back, but at a gradual pace, as the stories really have little to no connectivity.
Granted, it takes an open sense of humor to appreciate some of the gags and punch lines in Lucky Star. The animation is adapted for a "cute" presentation, and considering the girls are supposed to be 17...they act younger. ^^; The music is very happy go lucky, the opening theme and sequence is a prime example of that, featuring the four main seiyuus in "Mokette! Sailor Fuku!". The endings are many and varied-ranging from anime songs to classic Japanese J-pop...done in the craziest ways possible, sometimes by Aya Hirano herself. However "butchered" they might have been, I think they were fun interpretations.
Overall, I wouldn't go into Lucky Star with too many expectations-not for a central story nor anything remotely close to it, and it would be one where I'd watch in not so much one swoop but over a stretch so it doesn't seem so overbearing with its random nature. I did enjoy it, but I would lend a recommendation to those who like random comedy in series such as Azumanga Daioh, School Rumble, or more recently, Minami-ke.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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|
|
|
| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Lucky Star will alienate the majority of people with its obscure anime references, but for hardcore fans, this is an enjoyable ride.
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4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Azmodeus |
(2007-10-14 06:30:02) 2007-10-14 06:29:14 |
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| Average |
6.4 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Lucky Star is an anime about nothing in particular - a slice-of-life comedy show about high school girls. Given these aspects, it sounds very similar to Azumanga Daioh, right?
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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|
|
|
| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Lucky Star is a really hard anime to review, and its score is actually depending on how much Japanese culture and trivia the viewer knows as the entire series used those infos as its basis.
You can't just find any faults with the animation of KyoAni. They just cannot produce any bad drawing or art at all and Lucky Star is no exception. Excellent use of the colour palette, fluid animation, KyoAni continues to set the bar for animation quality.
Hirano Aya continues to be the focus on almost every anime she's in and this one is no different. Her voice as Konata compliments the series and brought excitment to the other character as well. The catchy OP and the every confusing but funny EDs brought a refreshing view to the anime.
The story is both Lucky Star's "point" and its weakness. In essence, there is no main story (besides the characters going to school), every episode, they try to make references to other anime, from the obscure to the famous one (even to their own previous productions), as well as random "annoying" facets of life that you and I often encounter. Some might find these things funny, but I find a lot of those "annoying facts of life" references a bit pointless and filler to the episodes. Also, there are a lot of obscure references to other anime that only you have to know the other anime, but you have to know them well in order to get those small little jokes. If you get it, then it'll be extremely satisfying, but a lot of times you'll be scratching your head wondering what anime they are referring to.
While there are numerous characters in the series, it focuses mostly on Kagami and Konata. And even though there isn't much development, we do see a lot of their inner feeling as each episode progress. It's also easy to see the similarty in the characters between Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star.
If you have been watch a lot of anime, this is the anime that feels a lot like Trivia Pursuit, and fun in a way. But if you consider yourself an anime newbie, then this anime might not be familiar to you at all.
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1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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|
Budding |
(2007-09-28 12:55:22) 2007-09-27 08:48:25 |
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| Average |
9.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| In order to fully appreciate every parody in Lucky Star, you must have watched: Full Metal Panic - Fumoffu!, Kanon Remake (2006), Initial-D, Dragonball Z, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, Getter Robo, To Heart, Shuffle!, Street Fighter, all the Gundam series, Galaxy Express 999, and have seen advertisements by a company called Timotei. However, this 24 episode long slice-of-life comedy will keep you glued to it regardless of your viewing experience.
Kyoto Animation has done it again. However, unlike their previous high quality anime, Lucky Star shines through simplicity. The graphics, animation, storyline and characters are simple and charming. The style of how the anime is drawn together is filled with short innovative moments. This makes Lucky Star very relaxing to watch, adding to its humour and enjoyment.
Lucky Star contains arguably the most catchy opening theme tune in existence. Coupled with the brilliant styles of presenting its ending themes, and the perfectly fitting background music, the soundtrack of Lucky Star is definitely one to remember, if not keep.
The storyline of Lucky Star is not for everyone. It consists of a series of brief snapshots in the lives of its characters, expressed in humorous and extremely entertaining ways, similar to Azumanga Daioh. This style of story telling means that there is no main storyline, which might disappoint viewers who prefer to watch anime that have a conclusion. Nevertheless, this means that Lucky Star is an anime that can be watched whenever, regardless of episode order, which suits a comedy lover like me just fine.
The characters in Lucky Star are simple, but contain plenty of charm. Their personalities remain consistent throughout the anime, and are therefore not developed, but their actions never become boring to watch. New characters are introduced rather late in Lucky Star, which adds plenty more enjoyment to the show.
Lucky Star was made by KyoAni, and like all previous works by them, it is excellent. A light hearted comedy full of parodies and puns makes Lucky Star a perfect watch after a hard day's work. The simplistic drawing and the innovative animating, combined with the charming characters and excellent soundtrack makes Lucky Star stand out from all other anime. The storyline, although not for everyone, would most definitely be enjoyed by comedy lovers and others like myself. I would definitely recommend Lucky Star to everyone, as I personally adore this anime.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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|
| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| This kind of anime seemed pretty new to me, with the senseless, pointless style of humor. Strangely enough, it kept me quite hooked onto this series and I ended up keeping up with the oncoming episodes (I usually bulk watch my anime except for those looong ongoing ones. You know what I'm talking about *cough*gay ninja boy*cough*)
I enjoyed this much more than I would have expected and was sad to see it finish, but as it didn't have any kind of plot, it was easy to bid farewell after a well enjoyed series. If you know what I mean.
I found that I could actually appreciate those long pointless conversations and how they can so relate to everyday life, and the fact that these four high-school stereotypes are having such conversations (on TV) can be quite humorous.
This series is Strictly for laughs.
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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|
|
| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Ok, haters, stay back, Lucky Star will NOT appeal to those anime fans that are desperately seeking a great story, with great developed characters and a AAA line up of comedy.
That said, Lucky Star is good, why? Reasons will stem from those fans who love the Otaku nature of it all, from the lovable Konata Izumi who manages to do brilliantly in highlighting Otaku social factor, as well as Kagami Hiiragi, who does brilliantly as the 'normal' one of the cast. But, this is the reason why some people will love it and why people will hate it. Anime fans, in general, are a unique group, they 'like' to take the mickey out of themselves, whether its in the form of images, events etc, they don't care as long as they enjoy it. But on the other hand, its embarassing, many people wouldn't be seen dead with this title in their deathbed, but topical issue aside, Lucky Star is a good watch.
First off, the animation and art, cute and bright, this is the sort of art that appealed to me when i first wanted to draw manga, though not as good as Manga art, the studio manages to capture the series well in this TV series. Secondly, characters, as mentioned, Konata is a truly liked (or despised) character, but Kagami does it for me, the cast in general is well worth watching, there really isn't anyone not bad at all, whether its from the cute but clumsy Tsukasa, to the busty but shy Miyuki. And importantly, entertainment, it starts off slow, but gradually gets better, but there are several points in the show where it trandscends into nothing but a Haruhi fanfest, no surprise there, love it or leave it if you like.
Now, bad, story, well, due to the 4-koma nature of the manga, and no real story to it, it be hard pressed to say this is a developing story of awesomeness, if anything, alot of the episodes comprise of random clips that usually doesn't connect with one another. Secondly, the music, thoguh i loved the karaoke EDs in the first half of the show, the show gradually became tiring and gridning with its repetitive BGM, annoying (after a while) OP and a poor Minoru ED second half. Thirdly, far too long, 24 episodes, what were they thinking? Alot of episodes weren't memeorable but scenes were, but 24 episodes was too long for this show, a show like Azumanaga did it well, but a show like Lucky Star failed to hit 24 episodes and keep it consistently good.
But saying that, i will miss Lucky Star for Kagami the Great!
Overall, 7.5/10
Grade: B
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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|
Pakxenon |
(2007-09-18 00:44:34) 2007-09-17 21:26:45 |
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Lucky Star is quite a hard anime to review. On one hand, I loved this anime for having great characters, some generally good comedy, and the self-referencing that is lightly sprinkled here and there (I myself having given The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya a 10/10 before, of course). On the other, there is a lot of backlash against this anime for all the good reasons it has, along with several terrible baseless ones that make little sense but yet still relevant. It's a good thing people can support their opinions with good reasons (I'm looking at certain people who can't do this correctly... *eyes those people* you know who you are), which is why even though I love Lucky Star, it's all more the reason I don't recommend this to the general audience.
Produced by the reputable Kyoto Animation, there were a lot of expectations before it even aired. The original source is a 4koma comic about the lives of 4 female high-schoolers with an interest in the otaku culture, so people expected an otaku-themed Azumanga Daioh. Another is that this was a cash cow between two KEY projects (Kanon and CLANNAD), so people expected crap because all the money is supposedly going to be spent on the aforementioned. And so the first episode aired... they were discussing how to eat a chocolate cornet and other food business for 8 minutes. I'm not sure how you'd react to that, but that certainly put off a lot of viewers, because it was from the very first episode that the backlash started. Even with a catchy-as-hell opening theme (complete with a cheerleader dance), people just couldn't decide whether they should love it for being KyoAni, or hate it with a burning passion for being below expectations/riding the popularity waves (more on this later). I for one have good patience when it comes to something that catches my eye, so as the episodes kept rolling in every week and I watch it the first moment the subs came out, more people decided there should be a huge gap between the love-it and hate-it factions, leaving no room for a middle-man like myself. Quite the way to start off a season, isn't it?
The source material itself isn't that bad. Most of it consists of high school daily hijinks (studying, homework and the likes), character-centric quirks (Tsukasa's phone, FMP!-fan Kagami, Miyuki and the dentist), and everyday conversations (how to eat a chocolate cornet...). I generally enjoyed the various jokes and gags each episode brought, each character introduced, and each week's original material such as Lucky Channel and the varied ending themes where the girls go sing kareoke to old popular songs. Each week brought more depth to each character, allowing time to get related to the character's situations as well as their developing personalities. The directing took some getting used to, but eventually the abrupt scene shifts will feel more of a commonplace as character spotlights increased and new situations arise. However, there are sometimes bad moments where the jokes just don't fall into place, or just some general "bad idea" (I especially don't like Miyuki and her thing with dentists, but I guess I can't relate to that), but those are a minority with my opinion (I don't know what your ratio is going to be like, but I'd say mine's about 92% "great"). And with the focus being mostly on high school life and otaku culture, I don't expect many general viewers to get most of them either. While the focus on school life is/becomes very mundane (Did you study for you test? Staying up all night for an MMO, AGAIN KONATA? The summer festival with fireworks, why don't we go to?), the underground stuff is quite welcomed on my perspective as it highlights/makes fun of the culture/target audience and the irony of it (one of my favourite jokes is the one about Otome Road, which I really had no idea existed as Akihabara was the "main/big" location). There are also "reference" comedies (most of it added in for more laughs), which will only be gotten if you actually know what they are talking about. One is that huge Gundam conversation that I couldn't make heads or tails out of because I've never completed a single series before (though I'd think many people will have... so this isn't a bad example). In my opinion, reference jokes are the lowest level of a joke that it can possible get as I see it more of a last resort type of thing, so I don't really enjoy them as much as I do the source humor.
As with nearly all comedies in existence, the characters are what makes the show, especially with leads like Izumi Konata that thrives on the audience for being the perfect visualization of an otaku's dream. She plays MMOs all weekends, shops for a lot of manga and anime, buys figurines, and plays H-games - quite unconventional as a female. Kagami is the tsundere/straightman type of character that polarizes Konata's otaku ways and insists upon valuing education as an important priority. Miyuki is basically a human Wikipedia that supposedly has "moe" characteristics, and Tsukasa is everyone's favourite moeblob (she's actually my favourite character on the show). More characters are introduced later on during its run, such as Izumi Soujirou (nickname: Awesome-kun, for winning at life), Cousin Yui, Yutaka, and the rest of the classmates. But things aren't always perfect even with leads like these. Comics tend to fall a little when characters are introduced and a feeling of unfamiliarity sets in. And with KyoAni faithful to the adaption, characters appear in the timeline they're suppose to, which isn't a good thing if they are introduced too late in the season. Awesome side characters such as Patricia Martin (the otaku gaijin) and Misao (5-second rule/LOL FANG-TAN/Oi, Hiiragi! - yes, she's that awesome) get introduced too late to have enough spotlights on them, which is a shame in faithful adaptions like these that can't integrate them earlier because the jokes don't call for them. In conjunction with this, the lead 4 characters introduced way back in episode one get really boring as gags are reused and recycled. The jokes that are reused in a different way fall flat (these make up the majority of the "bad" jokes), and character development eventually becomes stagnant because the author can't pull anything new for them. The characters are great in their own way, but the handling of them can't be improved.
Well enough about the core material; let's dig in on the backlash that has plagued Lucky Star 24 weeks in a row. The number one reason most people will say is that Lucky Star is actually a Haruhi season 1.5, also known as an INFOMERCIAL. Yes, Lucky Star is a 24 half-hour infomercial on KyoAni's currently hottest commodity. Popularity is good if it is actually deserved, but exploiting that can be VERY VERY BAD even for fans who loved it. Though in truth Haruhi references make up very little of the overall airing time, it's sprinkled enough that it gets irritating with each reference. Sure, one or two is fine, but when, in one episode, an entire 3-minute segment is devoted to the glory of the ending theme, people will eventually proclaim "SHIT SUX" and walk over to the hate-it side. It all started with a subtle (background) drawing of a bunny-suited figurine of Haruhi with her signature guitar on the shelf of Konata's room. Later, the referencing became more obvious, more blantant. Inevitably, it isn't subtle anymore - it's in your face screaming "BUY OUR DVDs IF YOU WANT A SECOND SEASON HAHAHA". Conversations truly deserve an outburst of "viral marketing" when they get to that point of the episode. For crying out loud, we know Haruhi is good, but don't bastardize it with too much shameless self-promotions! The rule of thumb is that the bad points overwhelm the good points of a subject when they are subjected to discussions about it. The self-references really detract viewers from the core of the show, and all we end up is a lot of backlash for being so straight-forward with marketing plans. In addition to this, it also detracts the value of the anime, as people who haven't watched/disliked Haruhi will hate these references immensely, and only time will tell if Haruhi is still a pinnacle of early 2000's anime. [Though if you actually enjoyed this, more enjoyment to you, then.]
(For Full Metal Panic! fans... prepare for the worse. :D)
Lucky Star is also a good example of blatant (viral) marketing via product placement. Just look at all the products in there! SHUFFLE! being one of the many titles they are allowed to market, Anime Tenchou at his register in the chain store Animate, his helpers the Keroro Platoon (I know I'm being some sort of hypocrite here... but go watch Keroro Gunsou!), and various product placements. Though television is truely THE marketing media-distribution machine, KyoAni/Kadokawa made sure to take full advantage of it, and thus turning a few more people to the hate-it faction. [And if you feel like purchasing these products, then they're doing a good job of making you do that.]
If I had any more to say, I think I ran out of steam for that. This is currently my longest review ever, and I hope you had fun/hated reading it. Lucky Star isn't the next big thing, nor a significant impact to the history of anime, but it does sure bring in the money for KyoAni! It also deserves a mediocre score as I've rated here - not absolutely terrible, and not the best thing ever either. I hope your opinions are stated with good reasons when you decide to review this anime, and enjoyed it as much as I did. I still don't recommend this anime because I don't want you to come in here after the first 8 minutes proclaiming "SHIT SUX" or something stupidly baseless. Lucky Star had a good run, and I can't wait for CLANNAD and Haruhi season 2.
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1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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|
| Average |
8.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| This is the ultimate 'Otaku' show based on a 4-panel comic with pleanty of in-jokes and new references every episode. The characters are archtypical (meant to be?) but still have enough individual personality to keep it interesting. There is enough humor and 'fun' stuff to keep watching it every week.
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| Average |
8.4 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Some things you need to get from the get-go before watching Lucky Star:
It isn't supposed to have a storyline. It isn't supposed to amaze anyone. It's just a simple, funny show about the daily lives of a few teenage girls and in that respect it succeeds.
I personally love this show. It's something you just sit, watch, smile and laugh occassionally. If you're looking for ninjas, fighting, super powers, romance or anything else of that sort you will be sorely disappointed and this anime is not for you.
That aside, the review. The animation is so-so, nothing impressive but it suits the mood of the show well. The sound is great, there is no story to speak of, aside from the background info but other than that there is no developement or progression whatsoever. It's kind of like scooby-doo, things happen but they don't necessarily impact the following episode. Value, I'd watch it again. Enjoyment, I love every minute of the show. You'd think it would be pretty hard to pull off 15-18 minutes of constant conversation without getting boring but Lucky Star somehow manages it. Great show for killing time and laughs, bad show if you're expecting something epic.
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| Average |
9.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| People seriously need to calm down when watching this Anime. Its not something you should expect anything deep from. Its just something you sit down with and just calmly watch.
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|
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| Average |
4.0 |
| Animation |
3 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Remember that episode of Azumanga Daioh where Osaka and Chiyo-chan spend over a minute of screen time throwing a ball back to one another, hitting each other in the face with it? It was a scene that went on so long as to not be funny at all. I wondered if there would ever be another anime like that in my life that extended jokes that long? Unfortunately, there is, and its name is Lucky Star.
It's not that Lucky Star is unfunny or boring: the show truly has its moments now and again (including a hilarious next episode preview featuring the voices of Keroro, Tamama, and Giroro from Sgt. Frog acting out as their characters!), as well as some fun anime / video game parodies (there's also some pretty funny stabs at MMORPG's that I also found to be funny). Unfortunately, most of these jokes come from a SINGLE character: Konata, the girl otaku and the series' central character, played with gusto by Hirano Aya (Haruhi, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). The rest of the jokes in this series are derived from daily events like cell phones, summer festivals, bus rides, etc. They're basically the same kind of jokes already done in Azumanga Daioh and Cromartie High, except those jokes were funny and to the point (mostly: AzuDai has a few crappy, pointlessly long scenes, most of them involving Osaka). In comparison, Lucky Star stretches out many of its jokes to such a length that they cease to be funny. One episode has a character spending over a minute text messaging someone on her cell phone, another featuring a several minute scene where the girls talk how about to eat a chocolate cornet, and yet another about bus rides and how you lean back into someone while riding and trying not to. Some of these little conversations can actually be quite funny, but most are just pointing out things that you and a friend can explain in greater detail. Better yet, your real life conversation will automatically have better visual and audio presentation than Lucky Star could ever dare to give you.
The characterization is weak, too. The main cast is made of stereotypes. We have Tsukasa, the klutzy, shy, soft-spoken girl, her twin sister Kagami, the sarcastic, easily frustrated girl who barely gets along with the main girl but somehow is friends with her, and the nice, smart girl with glasses and big breasts. Then we have Lucky Channel, a 3 minute or so segment at the end of every episode. Lucky Channel stars an easily angered, cutesy loli and her male assistant. These segments air at the end of every episode, most of them involving the loli snapping at her male co-host over various reasons. The two Lucky Channel characters are actually more fun and interesting than the main cast (save Konata) themselves, mainly because they don't overextend all their scenes! Too bad the other 18 minutes of each episode aren't as neat.
Lucky Star's slow-paced jokes might be forgivable if at least had something for you to look at. Think again. The art and animation are terrible. I'm in total agreement with Chastain about the quality of art in shows like these as of late: standards really have seemed to lowered in the last several years. Most of the episodes are talking head episodes, taking absolutely no advantage of the animated medium save for stock anime expressions you've seen in many, many other anime. The backgrounds are plain and boring, and the character designs are uniformly bland. The audio falls into the same level: the background music is bland and forgettable, the voices are serviceable but nothing else (save, once again, for Konata's performance), leaving the opening number as the only standout point audio-wise of this anime (which is also about the only sequence in this show that's actually animated, save the rare scene now and again).
While not quite the disaster of comedy anime such as, say, Doki Doki School Hours, Lucky Star still isn't that good. It's not so much bad as it is boring and overly dragged out, I'm sure that in the hands of a better team this could've been a great show, but as it stands this is probably the most bland anime I've seen all year so far. Cripes, if the director of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu taking over as series director in episode 5 didn't perk this anime's quality up, I don't know what will (for the record, I've seen 13 episodes to date, more than half of the series)!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have more Hayate the Combat Butler to watch. Ciao!
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Kamille |
(2007-06-12 20:40:49) 2007-06-12 20:13:13 |
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| This is a hard anime to review. On one hand it can be very clever and funny with its strong cast of characters, but production Studio Kyoto Animation seems to squander a lot of the shows potential at times for easy gratification by throwing in Moe moments and product placement for Parent Company Kadokawa Shoten to score points with a specific group of people, while pleasing the overhead. The show is at it's best when making fun of Otaku, but it doesn't do that nearly often enough. A very mixed bag type of show. If the show could challenge itself a bit more to be truly funny without substituting referential and social lampooning style comedy for Moe moments most of the time, then it could be truly great, but that isn't happening and it doesn't seem that it is likely too.
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Encu |
(2007-10-21 05:58:41) 2007-06-03 02:08:10 |
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| This is a truly brilliant comedy anime in many ways, with a nice fast pace and lots of original humor that has a refreshingly unique style in its buildup.
Lucky Star is definitely not for everyone, and so it's unsurprising to already see such mixed reviews for this anime, but I for one would highly recommend this to any of you looking for a great anime comedy.
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nauXolo |
(2007-05-31 16:54:18) 2007-05-31 16:50:53 |
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| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Based off of 8 episodes:
I don't usually like anime that do not have their own autonomous storyline - for example, i dislike most parody animes. However, Lucky Star has some sort of cute charm about it, especially since I really liked two of the four main character. Perhaps its because I am quite well-versed in the japanese anime/mmo tradition that I could appreciate its references. Its mainly because of my familiarity with the anime's subject material that I was able to watch through this. To anyone else who want to watch anime for its own storyline, do not bother with this.
Anyway, I really liked their references. For example, in episode 7, they had a reference to a shakugan no shana anime figurine that I myself once owned. I also could understand when Konata mentioned her mmo habits, as well as the mmo terminology. What else... the anime lifestyle was also very familiar, and the whole thing where she would attempt to sleep 3 hours and study early in the morning due to late night anime watching/gaming was very nostalgic. I could also understand a few of the female references such as how hard it is to buy clothes that fit the waist but not the hips and having to choose one or the other... Everything in this anime has some sort of point, and the fun part is to try to understand it.
A little bit about its presentation method: there is not a straight story succession or linear timeline. Instead, it has some sort of theme that different scenes focus on. The character personalities are all consistent, and they basically present some sort of humorous scene related to the topic at hand. Like someone mentioned before, it is very similar to random omakes added, but I think it is also somewhat similar to Cromartie High School gag anime type of humor, because it just jumps randomly. Anyway, none of this 'one day at a time' type stories. Very jumpy storyline.
Independently, animation and storyline fall flat on their face. It's mostly the interesting subject material that allows Lucky Star to be watchable. I must say, I do NOT feel compelled to watch this continuously and in straight succession. It just isn't THAT interesting. Nevertheless, there are some funny points that make it worth watching. I really like Konata and Tsukasa's characters, whose cuteness factor really made it easier to swallow. Other than that, this is just a decent mediocre anime aimed towards those who are well-versed in the subject material.
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