Ranked #142

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

I have to say before you launch into watching this anime, that you need to watch Lucky Star the TV series before you watch the OAV. It will help you understand the story, the characters and their dynamics a lot better, and it will also help you appreciate this OAV more as a side story/continuation of the original series.

Right. Now that's out of the way...

The first thing you'll notice right off the bat is the different mood set up by the opening scenes of the anime. There is less of the patented Lucky Star energy that was present the series, and it seemed to focus more on the calmer, slice of life aspects of the anime. But do not despair, it soon picks up right after. If you liked the series, then much of the story remains the same: there isn't really a story. Lucky Star has made itself famous (and infamous) for being pretty much about nothing, and it keeps up the grand tradition of having no real linear plot. But that's never a bad thing, as it keeps the story open for a lot of randomness and day-to-day, slice of life-y activities and events.

The art and art direction is excellent, I must admit. Even though the art style is very simple, especially in the character design, very few anime make use of colour. Lucky Star stands out in that it presents us with the absolute best that its art style can ever be, and that's a pretty great thing. The animation is very good too. The body movements of the characters are animated well, and there are some interesting camera angles to. Take the absolute first gag of the OAV: it was an exercise in POV (point-of-view) from a dog's perspective, if you may, and boy, did it sure get me to laugh. There is also a segment done in 3D, and it looks pretty good.

The sound is light and poppy, keeping with the upbeat mood of the OAV. It totally fits with the genre, and it does well as the background music for a lot of inane yet amusing dialogue and scenes of this OAV.

The characters are pretty much the same as well from the series. There haven't been any truly drastic changes. They remain some excellent characters. What I did enjoy about them from the first time was that they were based on anime archetypes but ironically turned out to be three-dimensional and more developed than you would expect. The characters are all distinct, and each have their own personality.

What can I say other than this was a pretty great OAV for Lucky Star? I enjoyed it a whole lot, and found myself still laughing just as much as I did when I saw the original series.

I do recommend this for any fan of the franchise. We get to see our favourite girls back in action, doing pretty much nothing but goofing off. There's a lot of parody, satire, and references to things from the otaku or geek culture, so I think any anime fan would have an excellent time with the Lucky Star OAV. I know I did. read more