How do you insert something heartfelt, even serious, in the middle of a show dedicated to jokes–and otaku jokes at that? You do it the way this year’s Hirano Aya/KyoAni lovefest, Lucky Star, did it in episode 22. 

This post is brought to you by Owen’s Collective Farm the Anime Blogging Collective.

Continue Reading »

No Comments »

Long long ago, and in a season far far away, in a fit of somewhat intentional provocation, I wondered out loud whether Lucky Star could ever compare in laughs to that classic, Azumanga Daioh. I also said I was very willing to be proven wrong. Was I? Well, no. But the gap between the two has considerably narrowed for me and it’s time to think about why this is a very successful otaku comedy after all.

Continue Reading »

3 Comments »

Mike made his comparison of Azumanga Daioh VS Lucky Star all the way back in our 100th post, and I think most of his comments still holds true even now.

My feelings for Lucky Star is a mixed bag. To be on the fair side, it’s not the funniest show I’ve ever seen in my life. It would’ve been unfunny to me if I weren’t an Otaku. I like shows with good physical humor. Azumanga offers that, Potemayo offers that as well. Both shows make me laugh out aloud.

To me, Lucky Star is very much a fanfare generated specifically for the legions of Otaku who can’t get enough of Otaku references and humor and Hirano Aya. I’ll freely admit that both my feet are planted firmly inside both territoreis.

To speak in my Otaku mode, this show gives me huge grins and makes me nod whenever I realize that I understand something that Konata talks about, whether it’s a rant about Otaku being ruder and ruder these days or how some people can tell what’s inside a card pack just by shaking it! o_____O

I also love Kagame. She’s so cute in her tsundere mode and she often comes to the comedic rescue using her non-Otakuness. Konata’s the team leader who begins a segment, with Tsukasa playing the nice person who’s trying very hard to understand, Miyuki with her “natural way” of speaking her mind sweetly and give us doses of moe with Tsukasa’s slight awkwardness, and Kagame always come to deliver her jabs at Konata’s comments. Without her, a segment is just a never ending set of dialogs of self-congratulatory and not-so-obvious affirmation about Otaku with commentaries as the initiating ceremony of warm feelings for hardcore Otaku.

I’ve discovered that for Otaku-humor driven shows or shows specifically talking about Otaku, there’s always a very necessary non-Otaku character. This character, let’s say she, is often “naked” inside the enemy Otaku territory and completely exposed to the ways of the warrior Otaku. She often begins her journey with a critical eye toward the Otaku friends that surrounds her, but through it all she grows to care for these nice and mild mannered and surprisingly accepting folks who share their passion freely with her. In the end she often becomes accepting and in some cases, even begin to perform some of the rituals that the Otaku frequently does, albeit she may not perform them completely willingly most of the time.

Now before I make my review all nice and warm and fuzzy, let me just become my critical self again (yay). The reality is that a lot of Otaku are not the most accepting-kind of people in the world - they just simply don’t care too much about things outside their own world or they simply don’t do a thing to change anything that’s outside of it. Accepting? It’s more like they really don’t care or don’t want to or too chicken shit to kick the outsider out of the club. Mile mannered? you mean lacking of their own opinions. Nice? You mean they being gutless. I should know because I often do these things. I’m too lazy to change the world and I really don’t care if a non-Otaku ever steps inside my world, because if the non-Otaku does step inside then fine, it will just happen, and if the non-Otaku doesn’t then fine, it won’t happen.

(WARNING: Psychotic ranting ahead! XD) I despise what we Otaku call “Normals” - people who don’t understand us and judgmental and unaccepting - when I last went to Akiba. Even being a tourist myself I hated these asses making fun of everything and being pushy and rude and staring back even though they were out of line. I did so very seriously hate their presence inside the holy land of Otaku. Get the fuck out of Akiba and go gawking inside other “hip places” that you people are so very much proud of. Go ahead and laugh about how superior and how really stylish and normal you are. I know and can act just like you people but I despise you people from the core of my being when you were tourists inside Akiba. I can kind of understand how some Parisians feel about some tourists but hey, I’m never going to Paris so I’ll never be a bother to Parisians.

Of course, outside the holy land I simply don’t care very much what the “Normals” think. (Note: END psychotic ranting! XD)

But seriously, back to talking about the show.

Over all, the characters are colorful and mostly interesting. Konata and Kagame are the characters that I found most engaging, the rest are more or less anime stereotypes but the show manages to make fun of these archetypes well. The music, except the Konata Karaoke segments, and for character highlights, is forgettable. I hated Hiraishi and I wanted him to shut up. But I did like pairing up him and Akira (Hiromi Konno) in Lucky Channel.

Despite the mix bag feeling that I have, I enjoyed the ride. It ends nicely and the ending corresponded with the beginning, which means closure. That’s always helpful in ending a show well.

85% recommended for your daily anime diet (my fair assessment)

95% recommended for your daily anime diet (my Otaku assessment)

No Comments »

It’s rather difficult for me to review Lucky Star, because unlike Claymore, it’s really talking about nothing, sometimes about Otaku-nothings. But anyway, finally something I can actually post something about.

In Japan, when I buy figurines at that small city (Fukuyama for anyone who cares to know), I used to just stare at them intensely and trust my instincts - which are pretty good, and I used to not get a lot of repeats. But then, I started getting some repeats. So what could I do?

I remember going to a fairly close bigger city (Okayama), and seeing some glass-wearing, greasy guy with a pony tail shaking the boxes, before he finally settling on one box and then it just clicked for me! Shaking the boxes can help determine the content!

When I went to Animate in Akiba, I saw a sign that made me laugh. The sign translates in English roughly said: Do not shake the boxes to determine the contents or we might ask you to leave (at least I know the first part of my translation is correct).

It was fun to see Konata talking about it in this episode. So that’s why when I went to some stores in bigger cities in Japan I see there are boxes taken in random order and not one next to each other. It’s like someone picked and chose.

It was shocking to hear that she said some people can even do the “shaking” method with collectible cards…O____o that’s scary….

Other parts of the episode have usual banter and fun. There’s a little discussion about how Otaku men often wish to find Otaku women (very true), but it doesn’t seem like Otaku women want to find Otaku men (because women are plain picky and often demands more dream-like qualities XD). I really like the Fist of the North Star reference, because I grow up in the 80’s as a kid. More Japanese specific humor follows.

A blatant Haruhi promotional fanservice…I mean a Haruhi “commerical” is placed in it, and I was reminded that one of the bloggers on animeblogger.net said that Lucky Star is like an informerical for Haruhi. Sometimes that just seems so true. In the lucky channel of this episode, Koizumi from Haurhi, shows up and plays as himself for a few-second role.

At the end, Hirashi goes crazy again and plays a cheerleader this time with pon-pons. I don’t find him funny anymore; I think he’s rather annoying.

Other things I did as an Otaku in Japan (that Konata talked about) - buying the second book of the stack even though the first one looks perfectly nice and clean. Buying a lot of a certain kind of food products to collect a certain item (I already forgot what it is and I had to throw the stupid things away 2 years ago because I moved to Taiwan), buying a manga/book/magazine just because of the little figuring that it gives (often sucks).

Anyway, as a comedy, so far I don’t favor this over Azumanga Daioh, and also a lot of references in this show are still beyond my grasp simply because I’m American and not Japanese. However, I love this show fir its specific brand of quirkiness. To try to give this a fair rating, I’d say:

88% recommended for your daily anime diet. I added 6 points for the work of the seiyuus. This show is not medicre, but without these people voice acting and without its Otaku references, I would not find it funny at all.

P.S. Still reading? YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD! XD

P.S. No you’re not. That was the First of North Star reference.

4 Comments »