Ranked #380

Lucky☆Star OVA

The “Lucky Star” OVA is made up of several short stories or chapters. A coherent plot or over spanning arc is hence not present, but this is not uncommon for “Lucky Star” and the different short stories ensure the OVA will have something enjoyable for everyone. From a slice of life story, to a full blown comedy or parody story to a heart warming tale, the OVA touches upon all of the types that were featured in the series.

Being all about Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki, it's a bit of a shame the other characters were featured less. Yutaka, Minami, Patricia and Tamura only appear in the first story, Misao, Ayano and Nanako sensei appear briefly in the other tales. But this is normal given the time restraints.

Typical for “Lucky Star” are the many references and parodies on current or older anime, as well as otaku and game culture. Some hilarious examples are Patricia's ぜつぼうした(zetsubou shita), Nanako sensei's rare item Pizza shield, Kagami's cosplay as Vocaloid's Hatsune Miku,...

The first story was centred around Minami's dog Jerry and how he encounters everyone throughout his day. A nice slice of life tale to start the OVA with it also held some great laughs.
It was followed by a story showing Konata and Nanako-sensei playing an mmorpg together with Kagami and Tsukasa, told in game which lent itself to some 3D CG visuals and funny mmorpg humour.
A dream sequence story brought us Konata dressed in “The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi” Yuki's sorceress outfit taking Kagami who was transformed into Volcaloid's Hatsune Miku's outfit -complete with leek- out on an evening filled with magic.
Next was a volleyball match with the Hiiragi sisters on opposing teams which turned out to be a more heart warming story, one couldn't help but root for Tsukasa.
Then followed a school camp tale told by Miyuki to her mother about how she and her friends erred from the correct path while heading to their camp and ended up wandering around the forest until late at night.
The closing scenes were a more psychedelic dreamlike scene which did not appeal to me that much alas as I understood little of the humour in it.

The ending credits feature a live action clip of Akira Kogami's seiyuu Ai Nonaka and Minoru Shiraishi, which I found enjoyable a lot funnier than the live action closing scenes featured in the series. It was uncanny how at times Ai Nonaka's performance and facial expressions were so spot on, one would almost think the Akira persona is based on her. Minoru Shiraishi as always is a hoot, that guy is so silly!


Like all of Kyoto Animation's productions, the animation was good, but not especially better than the series itself as the typical and somewhat more simple visual style of “Lucky Star” does not lend itself to the same visual feats as other series Kyoto Animation has animated are treated to. The subdued color palette and character appearances reinforce this impression.
However they did use the OVA to experiment more with different animation types and scene effects for “Lucky Star”, as is apparent in the psychedelic dream scene or the mmorpg in game scenes.

The soundtrack was good and featured tunes from the television series, however the series' opening track “Motteke! Sailor fuku” was omitted entirely.


The “Lucky Star” OVA was terrific, full of laughs and a must for “Lucky Star” fans, it has the exact same atmosphere as the series so it doesn't feel particularly special but you will feel as if watching the next episode, which is fine with me as the “Lucky Star” series was awesome. read more

The Lucky Star OVA was very well done. It brings fans back to the series of lucky star and includes all the characters that you have gotten to know and love... excluding a few characters... Lucky Star generally never has a real story to it but the small episodes in it seemed to flow very nicely. Since there really is no true story, I had to rate the story as a 7/10. To people who are unfamiliar with Lucky Star, watching the OVA might make you confused because you don't know what is going on. However, if you watched the series then the OVA should make perfect sense to you. All the stories were fairly good but near the end, with the pet store, it was funny but it could have been better. Personally it was not my cup of tea but it still had its moments.

The art is very well done as usual. The characters seem to look the same and the art style had not changed since the series. It is pleasent to look at and it doesn't have extremely and unnecessary shiny characters. The 2nd story in the OVA is very well done as that is what many MMOs look like.

Sound: The sound was the same, nothing really special changed from the series to the OVA. One can expect the same quality as they did in the series.

Characters: It is very nice to see most of the characters again. It is even better to still see them with their original personalities. Kagami is still her usual self and Konata is still a crazy otaku.

Enjoyment: You can expect that this OVA is done just as well as the series. If you didn't like the series, you will not enjoy the OVA. If you did like the series, you might think the OVA is a bit of a disapointment. However, it is still worth the 45 minutes to watch. read more