lucky ☆ star 18
Categories: anime, episodic review, lucky star
Tagged: lucky star
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Jii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~…
Man, I think I’m out of things to write about Lucky Star, which is probably not a good thing since there’s still like 8 episodes left. This episode hasn’t done anything but confirm that Lucky Star should have been just 13 episodes and/or a Haruhi Suzumiya infomercial. The cast is getting bigger, but is it getting better? Usually when a series starts adding characters, it’s an affirmation to the belief that “I have no stories left to tell with the core cast and now need more characters to inject more stories to milk it further.” The Simpsons played this to a T and even made fun of this type of writing in the Poochie episode. Still, it’s not as bad as Leonardo DiCaprio inexplicably joining the Growing Pains cast or Frankie joining the A-Team. *shudder*
In other news, Andrew’s wiki has the Fall 2007 information up. Yes, I’m going to continue beating up Kyoto for remaking a series that was only four years old, extended a 13 episode (at least) series into 26, and for making Clannad, which I suspect will get trashed more than praised. Good times! Meanwhile, franchise players Sagara and Haruhi are sitting on the bench. The NBA equivalent, of course, would be the Phoenix Suns starting Sean Marks and Marcus Banks over Amare and Nash. “You know what, we can really increase our value to shareholders… but nah, let’s not!” The only show that I’m looking forward to is Gundam 00, just because… well, that’s a post for another day. Back to Lucky Star…
Shooting Stars
Oh man, you know an episode’s weak if even Lucky Channel can’t save the day. Did they put Akira on anti-depressants or rewrite her contract to penalize her for number of times she punches Taniguchi? The Emo Akira that Taniguchi feared for his life with is a lot more fun than Stewing Akira. I miss her. We need her old self back.
Chihara Minori looks a bit wooden in the ED, but I can’t blame her. “Wait, you want me to run around some park in a wedding dress while Taniguchi sings a creepy song in the background?!? It’s just going to be me, Taniguchi, and a camerwoman?” I’d be a little afraid too. Then again, she’s a seiyuu, not Hillary Duff… nonetheless, Taniguchi is awesome. I’d give this ED a 12^2-1 out of 10.
Five second rule? I watched the episode of Mythbusters that explored this one, and, basically, bacteria grows everywhere! (Duh!) The thing is the human body has evolved over thousands of years to handle this since most bacteria will die via stomach acid. I’d be more worried about the contaminants on the floor than the bacteria. Misao is right. Dropping food on Kagami’s floor is probably less of an issue than on a schoolroom floor. But, of course, neither would stop Homer Simpson.
Besides the jii~~~~~~~~~~~ bit, the SRW parody was the second highlight of this episode. Gotta love LOL FANG-SENSEI’s “MY HONEY!” And I gotta love how the FMP theme song is the A-Team theme song. I keep waiting for B.A. to pop out and scream at Sagara, “I pity the fool!”
Enjoyed the dodgeball scene as well just because I could say old, tired, uninspired lines like “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball” and “I’m going to punch you in the ovary, a straight shot right to the babymaker.” But Iwasaki’s dodgeball dominance isn’t surprising, after all, the Girl Scout team whipped Average Joe’s. (Though they were doping.)
ZOMG! Kyoto’s next project, thus pushing Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya to 2010. Seriously, I would love to see Kyoto do High School of the Dead. Or even remake Gurren Lagann. I mean, that series isn’t even done airing… of course it’s due for a remake.
Oh man, critters! I like some of the choices like Tsukasa as a dog, Konata as a fox, and Yutaka as a squirrel. I’d toss in Taniguchi as a kiwi and a poodle for Akira.
“What is moe?”
You know that feeling you get in your stomach after seeing the Borat and Azamat scene after Borat discovers Azamat’s hand party with Po-me-la? Well, like that, only the exact opposite.
An arrow featuring a vibrating device to Tsukasa’s skirt… *blink*… anyway, with the advent of technological devices, I see more and more women wearing cell phones on belt clips. Not to play fashion blogger, but even I know that’s not acceptable. Guys with cell phone on belt clips are toolish enough already.
(Know who else I can’t stand? People who wear their Bluetooth headset around all the time.)
“I shouldn’t look at friends with perverted eyes!”
No, how else are you going to look at them? As I said before, Iwasaki and Yukata are in pole position to re-enact Shizuru and Natsuki.
“Otome Road” by Patricia Martin was pretty entertaining as well, if only because if you have Pat’s real explanation, Yutaka’s fantasy, and me playing “Otome wa DO YOUR BEST deshou” in the background.
On second thought, Kyoto should remake Mai Hime! I’d watch that.
Good thing or bad thing this scene got the biggest chuckle from me?
34 Responses to “lucky ☆ star 18”
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You’re not alone on the Bluetooth headset thing…I think it just makes people look like cyborgs. There’s a woman at my wife’s work who wears hers all day, every day, even to the bathroom–I guess it’s nice that it’s that comfortable she doesn’t notice it, but the bathroom?
I thought I was alone in not looking forward to Clannad…while I liked Kanon, Clannad sounds too depressing for me to watch it. If I want to cry, I’ll just watch what Team Cabbage did to Yoakena.
Seeing how all the characters are in the OP, are they really adding new ones, or just using the ones they have to a larger extent, variety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m sure plenty of people are glad to see some screen time for these people we’ve barely been introduced to yet.
Maybe if they did some kind of arc that extended to a few episodes long it’d make things more interesting.
Yes, Kyoto should do High school of the dead, at least have SOMEONE do it.
“Good thing or bad thing this scene got the biggest chuckle from me?”
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I’d be very worried.
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Note that Konata still hasn’t figured out how to eat that dang choco cornet.
Pushing Haruhi back is just all for the greater good. I just have to keep telling myself that……
Mmmh… yuri doujin artists…
Doujin Work is quite enjoyable too.
that’s not chihara minori, it’s kaori fukuhara (tsukasa’s seiyuu)
not a bad looking girl, in the seiyuu sense.
Oh Oh I know why your waiting on Gundam 00……….naaaaaaw it doesn’t even need saying *Cough*Trainwreckthistrainwreckthat*Hack Wheeze*. Just be honest Jase, we all know what your gonna write about.
Anyway, I picked up informercial vibes starting around episode 12 or so and it’s just got worse up until episode 16 when it crashed completely. Right now I’m barely keeping track of all these characters, it’s bad enough so many of the side characters are voiced by the same woman, but some of the major characters such as Kagami’s older sister and her two classmates don’t even seem to have names let alone character archetypes LET ALONE development. Kyoani has never been stellar at character development, but they can surely handle the side characters better than this and their major characters as well. Couple this with writing that seems to have been based off information garnered from 2ch raids meant to look at current memes and viewer responses (both direct polling and indirect post readin) and it seems they really are out of ideas and falling back on Haruhi references. It may be the end of Kyoani’s cinderella story at least for now, but I still think they can do good in the future. Everybody get’s one.
@Getta_Wing
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Having Kujira voice all the nameless characters (except for cameos) is quite intentional, and adds a certain comedic element in my opinion. I don’t normally care for her voice, but in this setting it’s so blatant and over the top that I can’t help but laugh. I suppose I can see how some people would get tired of it, though.
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And anyhow, if you’re looking for character development in a show based off a 4koma that lives on parodies and in-jokes, I think you’ve got the wrong idea. Keep in mind that the original comics don’t have any more development than the show does.
[quote comment=”152751″]Oh Oh I know why your waiting on Gundam 00……….naaaaaaw it doesn’t even need saying *Cough*Trainwreckthistrainwreckthat*Hack Wheeze*. Just be honest Jase, we all know what your gonna write about.
[/quote]
I found Gundam’s or any “real mecha” anime’s attempts to portray war laughable. I think something is wrong when some mech pilot rant about how bad the war is while exterminating a whole tank division with a burp, doing a backflip that a over 30-ton machine should not be able to.
If I want strong and intense portrayals of war, give me western movies and series anytime.
Leiji Matsumoto’s “The Cockpit” was a step on the right direction.
@Sheba:
Are we talking about every mecha series or just Gundam Seed. I’ve seen a lot of them, some good, some bad, some passable and many of them don’t have the single unit destroying everything cliche that seems to have been attributed to the whole of Gundam thanks to Gundam Seed Destiny and Wing. I guess that misconception is forever here to stay though, which is a shame as it’s not true at all. Still the best Sci-Fi portrayal of war I have ever seen would have to be Legend of The Galactic Heroes. But, yes if you want good war drama your definitely looking at the likes of Das Boot, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan etc. Still you’re preconceptions about Gundam and Real Robot series as a whole are incredibly generalized.
…………Clannad.
…………………….damn them.
Does anyone here actually read the manga? I mean, how easily can you diss an anime if you haven’t read the original material? What if Lucky Star’s anime plot and jokes are really from the manga? Shouldn’t you guys be making an informed criticism first? Well, I haven’t read the manga so I can’t comment on the plot and the late introduction of the newer characters. But I also believe many anime/manga references especially the Kyoani ones are purely only on the anime, so I guess that whole infomercial thing might be true. Still, IMO it’s as good as a manga->anime adaptation can get.
Oh and to add on, Azumanga 26 episoder was based on just 4 volumes of 4-koma. Lucky Star at present has 5 volumes of 4-koma material and is ongoing. All that “should be just 13 eps” is quite an unfair statement.
A NEW season for You Are Under Arrest, Genshiken and Shana coming up this fall?? I believe I felt bricks in my pants.
[quote post=”1139″]Does anyone here actually read the manga? I mean, how easily can you diss an anime if you haven’t read the original material?
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Still, IMO it’s as good as a manga->anime adaptation can get.[/quote]
You can easily diss an anime without reading the manga, just based on its own merits. Do you need to have read Romeo and Juliet to diss Romeo x Juliet? (though the two are very tenuously coupled). Or have to have read the books to say how crap the Harry Potter films are? Can you not make snide remarks about the Higurashi anime without playing the games, or complain about all the fuss over Haruhi without reading the light novels?
However you definitely can’t say “Still, IMO it’s as good as a manga->anime adaptation can get” without having read it. How on earth would you know?
Doh, in this world there are nay-sayers and yea-sayers. I belong to one group and you belong to the other. I just happen to think Lucky Star is quite a nice anime. So I disagree with people who diss it. Then there will be people who diss my dissing. Do I have to repeat myself? I believe I can find valid points to refute your response to mine, but why bother? Sheesh.
I don’t even have to have seen Lucky Star 18 in order to comment on this blog post!
Hah, let’s face it. Many of us are doing this just to fight boredom. Seriously, I’m a little bored now in my office. I guess that’s the source of all flaming and trolling and stuff. Nah, I blame the internet.
But on a more serious note, I wonder if the Japanese really give a sh*t about what we say. We can flame, troll and diss with each other, but to the Japanese, we’ll just be a bunch of “Gaijin Otakus”. Animes were never meant for the overseas market, the Japanese are probably thinking “Oh, some Americans want to buy our anime, Ok, whatever, we make most of our money here selling to our own otakus anyways.”
Sometimes I think Japanese are pretty ignorant about the rest of world, like those Americans in Borat. But who isn’t?
AFAIK, Lucky Star seems to be doing pretty well in Japan. So our thoughts and comments probably mean diddly squat to them. But hey, Jason is one magnificent dude to blog anime and spread the word in the English speaking world, so I’m not complaining. Gives me a chance to post crap on the internet too.
Does anyone here actually read the manga? I mean, how easily can you diss an anime if you haven’t read the original material?
Pretty easily, actually. If the anime is crepe, I don’t care that the original manga is solid gold win.
I’ve never played Kanon, the game, and I think it’s safe to say that 90% of the people who watched the new series haven’t, either. Does that mean I can’t critique it? Or praise it, for that matter?
That’s like a pro athlete saying to a sportswriter, “You’ve never played the game, you don’t KNOW what’s going on out there.” Sorry, I think Peter Gammons has a better idea of what’s happening on the diamond than some 19 year old bonus baby making his first appearance.
*shakes head* Guess I should just stop blogging about anime, since I don’t read manga at all, huh?
I wonder if the Japanese really give a sh*t about what we say.
Ask the production staff on “Kaleido Star” that question.
Woohoo. Look at all the posts in response to mine. I feel special :P
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But hey, I’m not vehemently disagreeing to your points. I’m just saying that I feel some of your views on Lucky Star seem off, so I made a comment (which on 2nd thought sounded obnoxious) in response and you guys pounce on my words like wolves to a slab of meat. LoL.
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Well, I think you are perfectly right in criticizing/praising stuff without knowing the source material. I’m just commenting that I don’t agree with it. No need to get upset. No need to go about saying stuff like “I’m not blogging anime because I don’t read the manga” etc. Sheesh, I did say Jason is a swell guy to do so.
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And I’m Asian and I live in Asia so I’m very unfamiliar with your entertainment news, so don’t go around talking about “Peter Gammons” since… who the hell is he?? I’m beginning to understand how Asians living in Western societies feel.
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Nevertheless, using animes like Kaleido Star that try to portray stereotypical Western life doesn’t really mean the Japanese are trying to reach a broader fanbase. You gotta give a better example. We all know the Japanese are good at adopting outside concepts for their own sakes.
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And back to topic. I really think the later episodes of Lucky Star are really neat. I just don’t get why some of you are complaining. LS makes me laugh and that’s all that matters.
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No actually I’m just making a mountain out of a mole hill. I’m just seeing what kind of responses I’ll get with my posts. I’m not disappointed. And I think Jason’s blogs on Lucky Star are hilarious. Even though I disagree on some points.
Anyways on a happier note, isn’t it ironic that tsukasa asked what’s moe when she’s a walking bundle of it herself? or that she’s uncannily similar to a certain to heart character, which basically screams moe?
[quote post=”1139″]Man, I think I’m out of things to write about Lucky Star, which is probably not a good thing since there’s still like 8 episodes left. [/quote]
then prob a good thing there only 6 mroe ep left… lucky star is 24 ep, not 26
and what’s with the clannad bashing? i’d guess about 90% people bashing Clannad have no idea wtf it’s about…. guys, give a show you have no idea a chance (SHnY?)
i believe Clannad anime will come out better than SHnY2, if just because SHnY2 is all about Yuki, and Yuki is 1 char that does better in novel than anime
[quote comment=”152747″]that’s not chihara minori, it’s kaori fukuhara (tsukasa’s seiyuu)
not a bad looking girl, in the seiyuu sense.[/quote]
and true that
wonderduck: what did you mean with the kaleido star comment?
[quote comment=”152782″]i believe Clannad anime will come out better than SHnY2, if just because SHnY2 is all about Yuki[/quote]
If just because?? Does not compute! …but then I am a big fan of Yuki whatever the medium.
I have nothing against Clannad in itself…but KyoAni’s last serious show was already a dating sim conversion from the same creators. And when they could be screening a continuation of the fantastic Haruhi, which they’ve been filling Lucky Star with references to, it’s just annoying, and makes me predisposed to dislike the inevitable 24 episodes of Clannad for making me wait for it longer.
don’t get me wrong, yuki is by far my fav char in SHnY, but kyoani has a track record of underrepresenting 3-nashi type char (Mai, Minami) it’s not even their fault.
these type char, especially yuki, is all about subtle hints like mover head by an inch, eye movement all that sort of stuff, which doesn’t bond too well with TV series
i think clannad is the 1 thing kyoani nearly obseccively wanted. it is actually the first Key game they planned to make, but circumstances made them switched to Air, then they made a trial run for it in Kanon, not to mention testing the water of duo-season format, and they took on a low budget 2nd-tier show in Lucky Star (and did a fantastic job consider the source material), presumably in anticipation of the clannad. jason prob is right in that lucky star should be 13 instead of 24, but alot people think that kyoani wanted it 2 season to buy time for clannad, also pushing it to oct release rather than july release (apr and oct are the heavy weight seasons for anime, and jan jul are kind of light weight)
so after all these i’m very interested what kyoani can do with it, like a rite of passage for kyoani
I am enjoying every moments of Lucky Star, not because of the reference zoo but mostly because of the character chemistry, Yutaka x Minami, Hiyori and Patricia are welcomed additions to the cast.
As far Clannad is concerned, I’d be lying if I say that I don’t mind the second season of Haruhi being pushed further.
But hopefully, I am the very patient guy and it is always a pleasure to hear Mai Nakahara.
i’m hearing some very werid rumors
apparently KyoAni going to do oct clannad, jan SHnY2, and april clannad2
can anyone confirm this?
Lucky Star is not perfect ALL the time, true, but taken as a whole, it is a perfect win! I love the show, it’s funny as hell. I love the characters etc etc etc….ETC!!
And like tidal mentioned, when Tsukasa asked “What’s moe…?” I was actually waiting for Konota or Kagami to hole up a mirror in front of her. Too ironic and cute. *hee*
If I have a criticism of the show right now, it’s that I wish scrap the live action karaoke crap and go back to the original ending where the the girls in the karaoke booth together….there’s a TON of good material they could do….I’d REALLY like to “see” them do “C’est La Vie” from the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live action TV show. THAT would be 12 points out of 10 right there!!
I’ll not deny some of the advertising/marketing slapped here and there, but I do not think they utterly distract from the show’s merits (the characters chemistry, for me).
Nobody else sees Chiyo in the screenshot of the dodgeball to the ovaries?
luckystar 19 is out already! ^___^;; plz review when you can…..
yes the yuri parts have made her my favorite heroine of this show XD
Lucky Star 20 is out!
And yes, I am impatiently awaiting Jason’s views (especially of LS20. Can you say OMHARUHI-SAMA fanservice)?
[quote comment=”152860″]Lucky Star 20 is out!
And yes, I am impatiently awaiting Jason’s views (especially of LS20. Can you say OMHARUHI-SAMA fanservice)?[/quote]
I dont remember Haruhi having such big melonpans.