lucky ☆ star 3
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Tagged: lucky star
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Good job!
I think the anime that Lucky Star most closely resembles is My Neighbors the Yamatos, a highly underrated Ghibli film. That also was based off of a series of 4koma comics and jumped subject matter like a 9 year old with ADD on a sugar high. One thing that Yamadas did that Lucky Star is not doing is unify the seemingly unrelated tapestries into a single theme. Yamadas focused on family togetherness, and the stories eventually swung back to that idea. This episode just meandered and ended a few states away from where it started. Lucky Star seems to just go from one thing to another… oh! Gaming! Oh, Miyuki’s moeness! Oh, ponytails! It’s like watching 6 Seinfeld episodes spliced together into one. I also wish that Kyoto stuck to a theme each episode… like this one they’ll just focus on moe and the next one they’ll do gaming.
I know this sounds weird coming from someone who can toss up 2,000 words on the most idiotic of subjects, but I have a hard time thinking of what to write for this episode. I watch it… then… well… it’s like there’s nothing there. It’s not a low calorie snack (i.e.Hayate). It’s zero calorie Splenda. On the surface, Splenda is zero calories and, well, not really digestable and just passes through. But if you want to dig deeper, Splenda is a complex chemical creation… and like Lucky Star, yeah, it may seem like a comedy, but are we sure it’s a comedy?
Since I’m not sure what to write, I’m just going to meander all over. Let’s start with rating the girl’s ponytails…
A+. Chris Hansen has immediately hired Tsukasa as his helper on Dateline To Catch a Predator.
B. Only because I get the feeling that in five years, Konata would be one of those fangirls with large yaoi collections and tie their hair in a ponytail because they don’t want to take care of it.
A-. It’s not the ponytail that’s cute, it’s the blushing that went along with the ponytail.
BTW, between Fumoffu’s ponytail episode, Kyon’s “Ponytails turn me on” line, Mai’s epic ponytail, and now this ponytail comparison scene, do you think that Yutaka Yamamoto has a secret ponytail fetish? I can picture him in 2005 deciding his next project… “Ummm… both Zero no Tsukaima and Haruhi Suzumiya sold a shit load of copies. One has a wrathful loli. The other has a ponytail lover. Oh, screw it, I’m going with Suzumiya, even if Itsuki creeps me out.”
And, of course, Akira’s reign of awesomeness continues. I watched a.f.k.’s subs, and the way Stratos translates it, well, it ends be being naughtier than intended. “The two of us have now done this… TA-DA!” I mean, sounds like they went to a love hotel. “Three times after today’s [show]!” I mean… dude has some stamina. “How do you feel about it, Shiraishi-san? Have you gotten used to it?” Ah, makes sense that Akira is the teacher and Taniguchi is the pupil. And then later her “It feels like Shiraishi-san hasn’t opened up to me yet,” line in combo with her surly-mode over Taniguchi fawning over Miyuki could be jealousy. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t get a “Miyuki gets around a lot, probably has herpes.” This unintended (?) translation artifact ends up pushing Lucky Channel to new heights.
Shooting Stars
Our favorite graduate from Columbia… MIT… whatever. I’m guessing that Becky is the way she is not because the mangaka of Pani Poni Dash wanted to show off the gap between physical and mental age but because he was trying to appeal to the Chris Hansen audience. Then again, I find it funny that it’s Konata who is trying to explain this… I mean… who looks more 17 to you? Konata or Inoue Kikuko?
Yeah, I think this scene highlights the gap between Konata’s physical, mental, and animated age. She ranges from genius to goofball to lolibait to supposed 17 year old.
A life with no shame is a life on easy mode.
(Konata seems like one of those wacky evangelists. She rambles and is completely crazy, yet, if you hang around her enough and listen to enough of her nonsense, you’ll start drinking her Kool-Aid too.)
Highly disappointed that they are not playing Guilty Gear. If they did, I think Kagami would try to Grand Viper spam with Sol. Konata would toy around with her Baiken’s counters.
Mmmm… if you were a guy in their class, who would you hit on first? I’ll make this a poll question one more of the cast comes into play.
An example of this random ADD topic jumping is that after Kagami asked for the game hint, Konata just casually changes the topic to detective show cliches and suggests new archetypes for police dramas and games. I do kinda agree with her as every episode of CSI, CSI New York, and CSI Miami seems to feature a dead hooker, dead cheating spouse, or a dead gold digger, but I don’t remember the last time I played a detective video game… maybe Blade Runner for the PC. Well, sorry to burst your bubble Konata…
“Travel around Japan in search of missing persons.”
We have that! Without a Trace, every Sunday at 10PM… only on CBS!
“Tailing people would translate well into a game.”
We have that! From the Red Sea to Greenland they’ll be singing the blues / Well they never Arkansas her steal the Mekong from the jungle / Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
“Could also conduct investigations into unfaithful wives.”
We have that! Cheaters, check your local channel for syndication time and date! (Fantastic show, BTW. I can’t wait to see the Kevin Federline episode.)
“The really hard cases end without resolution or go unsolved.”
We had that! Unsolved Mysteries… you’d have to trade VHS tapes if you to watch this nowadays.
Sadly, I’m disappointed that Konata didn’t bring up something like “use dead people to solve crime” because I could have typed “OBJECTION! Both Phoenix Wright and Ghost Whisperer starring Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cleavage do that!”
(Just for fun, there’s also a crime show about sex crimes, SVU, a crime show about unsolved cases, Cold Case, a crime show about pedophiles, Ichigo Mashimaro Dateline TCAP, a crime show about crime bosses, Sopranos, a crime show about math, Numb3rs, and a crime show about white trash, COPS. I’m probably leaving out a bunch. Needless to say, crime drama is to American TV as harem comedies are to anime.)
The whole discussion on twins and prize drawings… I spent most of that time chatting on IM about the NBA playoffs.
“You should always have two or three of something you like.”
Exactly. This is why the Hanaukyo triplets were superior to Mariel… there’s only one Mariel (albeit they could probably clone her rapidly, but still) but three triplets. Three meido triplets.
30 Responses to “lucky ☆ star 3”
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My roommate was behind me, silently watching this episode as I was playing it from his bed earlier today. I didn’t even notice, until he said aloud “Dragonball Z looks a lot different these days. Those chicks are actually drawn pretty cute.” I didn’t even bother correcting him, but he had a point. The moe-factor on Lucky Star is high. And that’s almost the only reason why I continue to watch.
The cromartie high school reference brought me laughing almost to tears.
As much as this show is rocking my world, I still have to wait on my opinion of it vs Azumanga, hopefully it’ll follow the same suit that Azumanga did around the middle of the series and have some episodes that follow a certain 2 episode plot, aka summer vacation trip or such, just to get away from the complete randomness for a bit. I wouldn’t doubt that it could go in that direction cause Azumanga started out oh so very similar in its early episodes.
What’s better Sakakis’ Awesomeness or Konatas otakuness.
I find this show… interesting. It’s not laugh out loud funny for the most part. It does rate high on the smirk-o-meter though. What keeps me coming back are two things, really. Lucky Channel and … something.
I actually watch Lucky Channel first. I just skip straight to it. I think Minoru Shiraishi’s playing as himself may over take Taniguchi as his biggest role to date. How’s that gotta feel?
The exchanges after the sign has fallen at the end are always great.
A-“Doesn’t she like smoke a pack at a time backstage?”
M-“No worry of that. She isn’t you.”
Burn.
And then I go back and watch the rest of the episode. And it isn’t amazing. It’s not the best thing ever, and it’s not even always funny. Sometimes it’s less of a “HaHa. Awesome” and more of a “Huh, really?” And yet I can’t look away. I think there’s something there. I just don’t know what.
“Highly disappointed that they are not playing Guilty Gear. If they did, I think Kagami would try to Grand Viper spam with Sol. Konata would toy around with her Baiken’s counters.”
I’d think Konata would dish out pain through various sidewinder loop (read: basic combo) starters while Kagami goes through the intricacies of a character like…oooh say…faust?
Man, Kyoani should just throw in random Guilty Gear references in each episode – give it the whole Genshiken experience! At the very least I’d have an excuse to not fast forward through entire episodes just for lucky channel and the summary execution of show themes expertly performed in satire by Hirano Aya :p
“Only because I get the feeling that in five years, Konata would be one of those fangirls with large yaoi collections and tie their hair in a ponytail because they don’t want to take care of it.”
I thought Konata’s hair was already super long? In the OP, isn’t it past her butt? Makes you wonder how she manages to stay so athletic, but ah well, Tsukasa ponytail wins.
Mmmm… if you were a guy in their class, who would you hit on first?
Tough choice between Konata and Kagami. Altough I’m already drinking Konata’s Kool-Aid, Kagami’s tsundere-ish traits, along with her relatively good understanding of the otaku fandom, makes her quite appealing.
>>>Mmmm… if you were a guy in their class, who would you hit on first?
Kagami, I’m weak against tsunderes, and Konota feels too much like my long-lost twin sister.
I wouldn’t say it’s a very ‘funny’ episode, but nevertheless I watched it several times because, as mentioned, it’s still a ‘cute’ episode.
Plus, there aren’t many animes that could pull a Cromartie reference and a Pani Poni Dash reference withint 1 minute of each other.
As for the ED theme… Aya Hirano made the Fumoufuu OP sound like quite a different song. It was sort of odd because her singing voice differs DRAMTICALLY from her Konota voice.
This show has a certain ineffable quality. I don’t find it particularly funny or coherent or clever or even all that moe, the animation fails at the Kyoani standard just for the blocked out classmates and there is no plot at all, but somehow it manages to sidle onto the top of my watching order every time. It helps that Akira is herself and the OP is the musical equivalent of crack cocaine, but it’s something more than that. Perhaps the sheer whimsy of it all.
The shifting chairs was the best part of Lucky Channel.
Konata’s extremely round personality turns me on.
your getting into this show aren’t you?
(sidenote: are there doujins yet or what?)
^looks up a few posts^.. first time I’ve ever seen anyone else using my username (or at least it’s compound variation) online before.
I’ve ordered the first DVD for this, but still not convinced that I’ll stay the course. Its from Kyoani, it has Aya.. but it doesn’t give me the immediate MUST GET response I had from Haruhi and Kanon.
Second time through I realised that Konata in a ponytail reminds me of Chidori, and then they bring in the Fumoffu theme at the end..
I’m going to be the curmudgeon again and note that all the cross-property promotion gets annoying pretty quickly. Although I suppose they could’ve not shown that guy from Negima, at least not cheaply. It’s not as safe as mocking Super-Sayans. The nod towards Fumoffu in the end might be the least worst occurence actually. And least seyuu get acknowledged.
I’m also watching this show only for Lucky Channel. The rest of the show is absolutely insipid.
“I’m a huge hit with the pedophiles.”
I’m fast developing a fascination with the extras. In a show where the typical scene is a conversation between one of the same four characters, composed at tight angles, you really notice when another character is present on the screen. Could also be the dissonance of that kind of sugary art being applied to adult characters.
It’s probably a bad sign that my interest is in something so peripheral to the actual content, though.
>Highly disappointed that they are not playing Guilty Gear. If they did, I think Kagami would try to Grand Viper spam with Sol. Konata would toy around with her Baiken’s counters.
I would’ve been more epic if they were playing Eternal Fighter Zero. Think of all the Kanon & Air sniping Konata & Kagami would be making while trashtalking each other.
@SH:
>(sidenote: are there doujins yet or what?)
Yes. Very, very yes.
Not at DLsite it aint, but we are watching for movement. The raving loli lunatics have swords of moe +8. We could be seeing their innocence lost real soon. Although if there been a shonen in lucky star, the process will be sped up.
They need to make a Guilty Gear anime, and it might as well be animated as Kyoani. Aya Hirano as May?
Ineffable is the word. I don’t really even enjoy this show, but do find it comforting in a strange way. It’s almost like pleasant background music.
@Jason: did I imagine it, or did you say that you studied literature? Wouldn’t it about time to heckle Romeo X Juliet? I’ve read quite a bit of Shakespeare and this show can be pretty disturbing.
I never liked Shakespeare since I’m a philistine, but even I find the bastardization way off in left field.
@0Kami
Yeah er, Seiyuu Satomi Koorogi is May’s voice and sounds nothing like Aya Hirano. Aya Hirano is a terrible fit for a character who has already had the same voice in Satomi Koorogi for 3 straight canon entries and several remakes. Plus in the one animated promo for Guilty Gear it is still Satomi Koorogi doing her voice. The sheer insult to my favourite fighting game character of all time has left me fairly upset. Ok not really, but consider this:
Kyoto Animation is not going to do a Guilty Gear animation. Not moe enough plain and simple. Also their inexperience in animating fight scenes is startling. We had like one in Haruhi, which I can barely remember because of its briefness and then their was Second Raid, but that had more to do with the mecha designer’s vision than anything else.
Sigh… your memory really is faulty. Anybody with a decent memory is probably rolling their eyes at your notion that there has only been two scenes, let alone only two animes, where KyoAni has animated fights.
*rolleyes*
Yeah, you are right, I have selective memory, but that still doesn’t change the fact I don’t see them doing a Guilty Gear anime. I don’t think it’s moe enough…. well there is Dizzy and May and Cloudberry Jam, but that’s balanced by Potemkin, Sol Badguy, Ky Kiske and a whole bunch of other characters, plus it has a rather complicated backstory and when you’ve only worked on one action series before in your companies history, you’re not exactly top pick for an adaptation. Also, Satomi Koorogi is still May, and recasting her as Aya Hirano would be a huge slap in the face to fans of the games, so that wouldn’t happen.
>> Also their inexperience in animating fight scenes is startling.
I will have to disagree. The scene in FMP Second Raid, where Mao fend off against one of the twins in the sewer was animated pretty damn well.
>> Kyoto Animation is not going to do a Guilty Gear animation. Not moe enough plain and simple.
Animated versions of fighting games are not exactly known for being wowing. Complicated backstories or not.
Things just might be looking up for this series. KyotoAni has changed directors.
Whoever the director is, this series is still limited to the source material, so I doubt there’ll be too much difference. But that’s fine with me.
(And shouldn’t they have at least the next months episodes complete already, rather than being able to make the new director effective practically immediately?)
Oh god, I hope the new guy doesn’t ruin it. I’d take the director (episode director) of haruhi, air, kanon over the FMP tsr and fumoffu director anyday. I hope the show doesn’t lose that interesting spark that its grabbed ahold of me with so far, that feeling of azumanga.
I just hope this change doesn’t affect Lucky Channel. It’s perfect as is.
At least keep the karaoke. It was a nice touch.