Lucky ☆ Star

I'm a little surprised that there's no topic for this yet, but I'll have the honour of making it I guess!

Official site... or maybe this is it...

From the studio that gave you The Melancholy of something or other, and 4-koma style manga (of Azumanga fame) comes a new show in which... well, nothing happens. And not in a Seinfeld way either--they spend almost the whole first episode eating and talking about lunch.

But it's great! Somehow! The character design is really cute, the dialogue is funny and the whole atmosphere is very relaxing and nice. The opening song is awesome, too. Let's see what we got here, characters from the first episode...


The main character seems to be Konata, a blue-haired sporty girl who is also simultaneously a geek. She enjoys anime and games. She's pretty relaxed overall but gets kind of intense over some subjects (such as whether you should flip over a green pepper on a yakiniku grill). She is voiced by Aya Hirano, of Haruhi fame.


Her best friend is Tsukasa, a typical "healing type" anime character--soft-spoken and shy. The first episode doesn't give me any specific impression of what kind of person we're dealing with, other than that she's calm and mild-mannered. She doesn't seem to be particularly good at school or sports.


Tsukasa's twin sister Kagami seems to be a little bit more serious than the other girls. She is in a different class than the rest of the girls, but she eats lunch with them anyway, which prompts Konata to ask if she's a social outcast within her own class. She is the one that reacts the most violently to Konata's jabs.


Finally, Miyuki is the source of wisdom of the group. She's portrayed as being very smart and sweet, and clumsy which Konata just thinks is a "moe" element. She wears glasses, which according to Konata "attracts a certain type of fetishist", but Miyuki is just scared to put stuff into her eyes (I can relate to that!)

Here are some screenshots from the anime:



Oh yeah, the Lucky Channel thing... I'm not sure what that's all about, but apparently, an idol called Akira and some guy called Shiraishi answer fanmail. The first fanmail asks Akira a personal question, and she responds by becoming gloomy and violent... It's funny, but also completely unrelated to the show. S'all good!

If nothing else, you have to check out the OP of this anime, it's incredibly awesome:

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I have to admit that the opening to this series is very funny, kinda reminds me of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya opening and are those Wii controllers I see on the official site?

Enter the promo video!

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The only buzz I've seen on this show is hate so I'm not too surprised there hasn't been a thread about it until now.

That's primarily because, for some reason, people were expecting Haruhi season 2 despite the inherent differences (4 panel strip vs. light novel series). Don't listen to /a/, either.

I'm waiting on a better sub before I start watching, though. The opening amuses me to no end.

Originally Posted by DarknessTear

The only buzz I've seen on this show is hate so I'm not too surprised there hasn't been a thread about it until now.

Well I mean, even before any episode aired it was basically an all-star show.

And yeah, what Taco said--people seemed to be expecting something completely different. As long as the show is subbed, I couldn't care less.

The subs are okay actually, as far as I can tell. It's nice that it's soft-subbed, I don't know if that's the norm in anime fansubbing nowadays (I haven't watched a show since Haruhi), but it's a nice touch anyway.

I can honestly say the intro was the best part ~_~
It feels like it should be on a learning channel for children, maybe Nick Jr.
It did have a 2 or 3 funny lines but the rest I felt was just nothing to really spark an interest.

I don't see how anyone would actually hate the series when it's so uneventful to the point of being dull. Maybe the first ep was meant to be modest on purpose, but I get the feeling it was supposed to make me laugh more often than it actually did.

The constant talk about the little details of eating made me smile, though.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

I don't see how anyone would actually hate the series when it's so uneventful to the point of being dull. Maybe the first ep was meant to be modest on purpose, but I get the feeling it was supposed to make me laugh more often than it actually did.

The constant talk about the little details of eating made me smile, though.

It puts me in a really mellow mood. I don't think it's supposed to be laugh out loud funny (although admittedly, Japanese people are really weird when it comes to humour). It just seems like a really relaxed, smooth atmosphere in which nothing really matters that much, and there are no real problems.

It's like... sitting on a terrace on a summer day with the setting sun in your face and a gentle breeze cooling your cheeks, eyes closed, drinking a beer. Yeah. Like that.

Oh come now. Super colorful, super deformed characters with strange and varying stereotypes, based on a 4-koma, humor built on out of nowhere visual reference gags and making aside remarks while talking extremely fast?

This is not the mellow, relaxed calm of Aria, this is definitely supposed to be more in the "crazy" wacky style of Pani Poni Dash and ilk, only not quite as trippy or rapidfire.

Originally Posted by surasshu

It's like... sitting on a terrace on a summer day with the setting sun in your face and a gentle breeze cooling your cheeks, eyes closed, drinking a beer. Yeah. Like that.

Since I don't drink beer, I guess I can't speak from experience, snaps.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Oh come now. Super colorful, super deformed characters with strange and varying stereotypes, based on a 4-koma, humor built on out of nowhere visual reference gags and making aside remarks while talking extremely fast?

This is not the mellow, relaxed calm of Aria, this is definitely supposed to be more in the "crazy" wacky style of Pani Poni Dash and ilk, only not quite as trippy or rapidfire.

When I was skimming the thread, ARIA was precisely what I thought of when these "uneventful" and "mellow" keywords came up. The opening seems to speak otherwise though.

At any rate, I guess I'll try and give this a whirl once I free up some space on my notebook.

I wouldn't say it's mellow but since it's based on 4-koma gags and stuff it's definitely paced like slice-of-life. It's somewhere located in the pace of slice-of-life, Genshiken, and Azumanga Daioh.

Yeah, the only people who aren't happy with this are those expecting a second season of Haruhi and that they think something a little more advanced could be put to the talent of Kyoto Animation or something.

I'm quite happy with the show. I'd describe it as being "cozy" with its humor since you don't really laugh a whole lot while watching but you'll smile warmly most of the time.

Saw the first ep subbed, and I enjoyed it. Its nice to watch an anime now and then thats just simply slices of life, no plot or drama to really worry about and just sit back and go "oh yeah. I'm like that"

haha, the OP is the next haruhi OP.. XD. It reminds me of Galaxy Angel Rune's OP. A good Slice of Life anime to look foward to.

On a different note does Aya Hirano as Konata sound an aweful lot like Chiwa Saito's becky form PPD?

Don't know why but for some reason the OP made me laugh. Gonna have to check this anime out...sometime....

Hope it's worth the 24 episodes it's supposed to run for (as mentioned by ANN) but I just saw that it's got Kikuko Inoue in it so I must check it out!! Too bad it seems she only has a bit part though....

With all the chatter about this at irc before, I wasn't all that sure what to expect.
Opening was quite "=o". First half of the episode wasnt all that funny with all the chatter about eating habbits etc. (aside few chuckles), but second half picked up and I lol'd like Santa on OD of milk and cookies.
All in all, it was a funny watch and I have the strangest of feelings that it'll get way grazier~


also:
[22:37:23] <workrat> what does grazier mean?
[22:37:56] <Boo-kun> it means engrish

The OP looks really interesting, IMO. I think I'll be picking this up, but I've heard actually translating the thing is a bitch though.

That OP amuses me to no end.

Wow, this looks intersting. For those of you who need a link to a dubber!

http://a.scarywater.net/afk/

I'm probably going to be watching this series. It's hard to say what it's about, other than "nothing", which reminds me of Seinfeld. In fact, the discussions they have, especially in the beginning, sound like things that would be from Seinfeld.

Either way, I've never come across an anime like this before, but it has my interest so far. Although on a more negative note, as of now it doesn't seem as if episodes have much "re-watch" quality.