lucky ☆ star 16

Hurry it up! Classified information. Currently impossible. There’s a penalty! I have no interest in something so ordinary…

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In terms of self-referencing, Lucky Star has been as bad as a Kevin Smith movie. And, um, you know exactly the downward spiral of those movies. While I’m not against some self-referencing (i.e. Itsuki’s FUMOFFU!), what I am against is using the self-references to provide cheap thrills instead of actually — gasp — developing new material and trying to be a real anime series instead of just being an infomercial. While I have enjoyed Lucky Star, I’m beginning to think it just doesn’t have the legs to be a 26 episode series. There’s just not enough there, and Kyoto seems to be desperately trying to make sure that the viewers don’t notice it.

Shooting Stars

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Between this scene and the “Japan loves little kids!” line from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 3, I’m beginning to think that Chris Hansen needs to expand to Tokyo. It’ll be like Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift where instead of coming across a new type of racing style, Dateline NBC comes across a new type of pedophile.

(If you haven’t heard Adam Carolla’s movie idea of “Pedophile Island,” you need to hear it. I’m positive this is why his radio show is only available in the pacific time zone.)

(Andohbytheway, LOL FANG-TAN in the background.)

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A troubled Tsukasa is fine too. I did enjoy this scene only because of how uncomfortable Tsukasa looked… but she was somewhat willing (“Hiroyuki!”) until Kagami butted in. Tsukasa is probably one of those girls who wouldn’t suggest it, would seem a bit disgusted if you suggested it, but she probably wouldn’t resist if you want to flip her over.

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Technically, Konata is right since there’s three different Code Geass (why start censoring now?) series with Lelouch being the least sucky from what I’ve been told. Though I’m still startled that there’s a “Nightmare of Nanali” series that has nothing to do with Adam Carolla’s Pedophile Island.

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I did enjoy their visit to Konata’s cosplay cafe though, even if I too was developing a Kyon-class touch my forehead with my fingers type of sigh.

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Tomokazu Sugita and Minori Chihara were spooky in reprising their roles. It’s obvious that Kyoto wants to animate more Haruhi. We want to see more Haruhi. Yet… “Hey guys, you know what’s a good idea? Let’s blow 26 episodes animating a series that was already animated 4 years ago, and we’ll follow the same plot points and re-use the music!” Still no Itsuki or Mikuru though.

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Yuki slays me now. She seems 10% more genius as time goes on… she’s like a steady equity investment where Haruhi is more of a hedge fund. Mikuru, of course, would be all junk bonds. What you gon’ do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?

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It’s fantastic how Aya Hirano can phase in and out of her Konata and Haruhi voices. Quite different. She’s not like Horie Yui or Rie Kugimiya who have exactly one voice.

(I like this clip where Aya tries to do various random anime voices.)

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“This cafe exhausts me.”

Haruhigasmic… ? Dammit, where’s my ponytails?!?

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Maybe this isn’t infomercial but more like Kyoto’s way of telling all the Haruhi fanboys out there, “Hey, you’re not weird for having a Haruhi wallpaper, Mikuru-run ring tone, or dance to Hare Hare Yukai! Please! Buy more of our stuff! Don’t worry about appearances…’)

(I am disappointed that Konata doesn’t have an iPhone and isn’t enjoying some random Haruhi clip on Youtube with it. She loses street cred with me. I probably enjoyed that video’s “she bounces a lot and i’m like >:-)” comment more than the video itself… damn, if that person were a reader, that would qualify for a YTAMR… haven’t gotten a lot of worthy comments for that lately…)

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Just not the same without the costume rape. It’s like seeing Rena without a butcher’s knife.

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Yeah, complete and total sausage fest. At least that part’s realistic. Though I can’t imagine saying to myself, “You know, I had a tough day at school. I’m going to chill and relax over at that cosplay cafe and make an ass out of myself dancing along to some cheesy anime song.” I’m not sure what is more depressing. Here or the ATM line at a Vegas casino comprised of chain smokers who just lost $500 at blackjack and are now maxxing out their credit card cash advance. In either case, self-esteem is probably a thing of the past.

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So that’s where Yoko went after she left Kamina City! Dimension Slip Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!

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Man, I need to update that MILF list. I also need to update the Meido Power Rankings™ and crank out a thin slicing post. Sigh. Part of me just wants to outsource the blog to India and pray that the readers don’t notice the shift from NBA to cricket references as well as less Hollywood and more Bollywood.

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“You’re still in demand.”

(Like good steak, doesn’t need any flavoring here.)

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Weak Lucky Channel. It is funny watching Akira’s career free fall as fast as Ben Affleck’s, though.

(Did enjoy Taniguchi’s reference to Kyon’s atrociously sucktastic character image song.)

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Didn’t enjoy Hiromi Konno’s singing as much as Taniguchi’s. You can’t top Taniguchi. I’m sorry. He’s the Japanese anime seiyuu equivalent of William Shatner. Sorry, I’m afraid Cape of Thirty Years gets my lowest rating ever. Seven thumbs up.

(Note: Akira is only funny when she’s really, really bipolar. Subdued Akira is no fun.)

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Next episode preview was pretty good with Kyon. I missed his sarcastic wit. My dream cast right now for some sort of anime Real World would be Kyon (Haruhi), Tsukasa (Lucky Star), Kamina (Gurren Lagann), Shion (Higurashi), Amuro (Umisho), Lulu (Code Geass), San (Hanayome), Little Boss (Nanoha), Guchuko (Petomayo), Saito (Zero), and, of coure, Pink Supervisor (SZS). Can you imagine the chaos between such strong personalities like Kyon, Kamina, Lulu, Shion, and Pink Supervisor? Can you top the hilarity of Little Boss confronting Guchuko after Guchuko uses Little Boss’ toothbrush? Can you imagine the possible threesome between San, Amuro, and Saito in an Olympic-sized hot tub? Can you imagine all the o_o;; looks from Tsukasa as all the chaos meander around her?

22 Responses to “lucky ☆ star 16”

  1. This episode made me feel like an ex-pothead that just got beat over the head with a lit bong.

  2. [quote]It’s fantastic how Aya Hirano can phase in and out of her Konata and Haruhi voices. Quite different. [/quote] I prefer the Ayako Kawasumi quadfecta of Saber, Mahoro, Matsuri and Nodame. I can only imagine what husbands of seiyuu demand in the bedroom though…

    On the Tsukasa photographing, Id do it too… Her reactions are excellent as well.

    Oh, and I demand the signing Taniguchi back!

  3. Wait wait, so what am I watching again, LS or Haruhi season 2…? I’m surprised Tsukasa immediately understood why they were photographing her. Konata’s powers of corruption are to be feared. I don’t understand why they “censored” the Code Geass references, there’s been more than enough clear visual refrences to other anime.

  4. My only complaint is that Konata didn’t do the entire hare hare yukai dance, whats with this begin-cut to end crap.
    Somehow I can enjoy this even with all the references, maybe I do enjoy trying to “point out that anime”.
    Akira, should have died by now.
    On better news Taniguchi is back in the next ep with another hilarious skit

  5. As long as KyoAni don’t abuse off self-referenceses like junkies abuse of drugs, everything is allright. I liek that part from Aya Hirano too, very polyphacetic and dynamic; shifting between characters very fast.

    Funny, I was looking at Wiiki for some good shoujo ai series; and they’ve Lukcy Star in teh section of “Series with some shoujo ai related on them”. That made me LOL for a long time.

  6. [quote post=”1130″]My dream cast right now for some sort of anime Real World would be Kyon (Haruhi), Tsukasa (Lucky Star), Kamina (Gurren Lagann), Shion (Higurashi), Amuro (Umisho), Lulu (Code Geass), San (Hanayome), Little Boss (Nanoha), Guchuko (Petomayo), Saito (Zero), and, of coure, Pink Supervisor (SZS). [/quote]
    You forgot Onimaru Miki (Muteki Kanban Musume). Of course, she’d probably just end up getting kicked out of the house for some trivial matter like, say…knocking down one of the walls during an argument with Shion, or sending Pink Supervisor to the hospital while trying to save him from another suicide attempt, or straight-up killing Lulu when, after a series of contrived coincidences, she remembers what happened that night she drank all the sake…

  7. [quote post=”1130″]So that’s where Yoko went after she left Kamina City! Dimension Slip Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann![/quote]

    If I remember correctly, she’s not a reference to anything. She’s an actual character that appears later on along with her green haired sister that comes running up moments after that scene.

  8. I laughed a lot during the cosplay cafe bit. Even though I know I shouldn’t, since it really is descending into HaruStar now, in an evident attempt not to haemorrhage viewers.

  9. The cosplay café bit with Hare Hare Yukai and Kyon and Yuki wasn’t what made me laugh, but the cosplay café itself: Unless there are several like this one in Akihabara, I went once in the very same cosplay café, with the shelves of sweets on one side, the video games on the other and the PCs at the other side.

    Kyoani is fearful.

  10. [quote post=”1130″](I am disappointed that Konata doesn’t have an iPhone and isn’t enjoying some random Haruhi clip on Youtube with it. [/quote]
    It is impossible. Because Japanese communication standard is totally different from Western standard. You can’t use iPhone in Japan, now. They say you have to wait two years to use iPhone in Japan. Moreover, prices of cellphones are so reasonable in Japan. Nobody pay more than $500 to get a cellphone. They can buy the latest models less than $200. Some cellphones are free to get new customers for the carriers. Yes, I got a cellphone for free.
    Sorry for my bad english.

  11. Jason said,
    “~ Can you imagine the possible threesome between San, Amuro, and Saito in an Olympic-sized hot tub? ~”
    ~~~~ ~~~~

    But Jason… how?

    Cheers.

  12. [quote post=”1130″]My dream cast right now for some sort of anime Real World would be Kyon (Haruhi), Tsukasa (Lucky Star), Kamina (Gurren Lagann), Shion (Higurashi), Amuro (Umisho), Lulu (Code Geass), San (Hanayome), Little Boss (Nanoha), Guchuko (Petomayo), Saito (Zero), and, of coure, Pink Supervisor (SZS).[/quote]

    we need to make this happen. It’d be the KH of the anime world. Although there’s a chance of too many pirates sinking the ship (if you get my drift).

    Do you guys realise that we could possibly get a picture taken with tsukasa without weird looks? Just deny the existence of To Heart and pretend we’re clueless tourist. Gaijin Smash! course, you’d have to suppress your Kamigishigasm to perform that, not a mean feat.

  13. [quote post=”1130″]It’s obvious that Kyoto wants to animate more Haruhi. We want to see more Haruhi.[/quote]

    I thought an ad for it came out on Asahi Shimbun the other day. You haven’t got it?

  14. We need an anime version of drawn together, in fact it should still have adam carolla doing a voice.

  15. Tsukasa wouldn’t be any good on Real World because she wouldn’t do anything notable, and so would get pretty much zero screen time. I know they have one such character every season, but if you’re assembling a dream team…

  16. I dunno why, but I found the reversed heights of Konata-Haruhi and Patricia-Mikuru amusing. Probably because I can see Konata having a quick motor-boat session in order to drum up business. In fact, since KyoAni seems to listen to the fans, drop a hint on 2chan. They’d get it done.

  17. Wow Jason, no love for HaruStar? It seems like our opinions on shows are diverging more and more recently.

    I give this episode a solid 4 Harustars for making me laugh my ass off non-stop through the whole show. The Akihabara/Gamers store visit was a nice touch. It’s a nice bit of “natsukashii” if you’ve been there, since it looks pretty much exactly how it does in real life, right down to the chart by the elevator listing what’s on each floor.

    Perhaps it’s just because I enjoy enka music, but I also give high marks to this episode’s Lucky Channel and ending song. Very enjoyable, and a nice change of pace from the usual formula. Even in episode 17, it feels as though the Shiraishi segments are getting kind of stale. As much as I love Minorun-run, I enjoyed KyoAni mixing it up a bit this time.

    Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but it seems to me that Lucky Star is getting better and better as time goes on. Of course, I also thought the infamous food discussion in episode 1 was great, and I know a lot of people were bored to tears by it, so perhaps it’s just me.

    Also, re: episode 17 – I’m glad to see Konata finally ditched that old PS2 and got herself a Wii. n_n

  18. It is a little distrubing they used the Haruhi trump card. However, there’s still the chance that Lucky Star could come up with something very unique.

    If the writers interview Hirano Aya, Chihara Minori and anyone who went with them to Anime Expo, they could make something funny and controversial. They have a few weeks left, but they can pull it off. I can see it now – Patricia Martin takes Konata and the Nagato clone to Long Beach. Special guest appearance by Halko Momoi.

  19. By the way, the CD shown in this episode’ll be appearing August 29th… along with Akira Kogami’s “Cape of Twenty Years” single.

    http://img523.imageshack.us/im.....iravz3.gif – for the cover. Very nice.

  20. Congrats, Jason.

    You currently rank 4th on Google for Pedophile Island. I’d daresay that’s your highest ranking in any non-anime search queue with 700,000+ search results. Best hope your enemies never stumble upon that and realize that’s your bloggy.

  21. yuki is soo effing HAWT

  22. Tsukasa is probably one of those girls who wouldn’t suggest it, would seem a bit disgusted if you suggested it, but she probably wouldn’t resist if you want to flip her over.

    (Like good steak, doesn’t need any flavoring here.)

    That’s it; I’m blaming my the continued rise of my inner lolicon on you!

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