Lucky☆Star

I'm a late bloomer-- well, a VERY late bloomer to Lucky Star, but I feel like that means I can at least offer a perspective from the eyes of someone who doesn't have any nostalgic memories or value towards it. And you know what, despite that? I still thought Lucky Star was a fantastic experience that surpassed my expectations. There has been many a "Slice of Life" anime out there since this show first aired in 2007, but it seemingly feels like Kyoto Animation nailed giving me everything I wanted out of this genre from the get-go. I shouldn't be too surprised as some of ... their most beloved works of all time consist of Slice of Life anime such as Nichijou and Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, but Lucky Star is undoubtedly a progenitor and should serve as a blueprint for what other SoL should follow.

The strength of the characters is what I feel Lucky Star's biggest strength is. I mean, it kind of HAS to with such a simple and basic premise with no wacky hooks or antics to make it more exciting; despite that, they hard carry the show like it's nobody's business. Many scenes in this anime simply consist of Konata Izumi and her circle of friends/family simply going about their life and discussing various topics amongst themselves just to hang out with each other and pass the time. There are certain events that DO happen in the show, such as the gang going to Comiket or taking a field trip to Kyoto, but these merely serve to show off more aspects of the characters and how they go about things. The writing in particular is what I'd like to praise, because everyone is written extremely well to be somewhat realistic portrayals of a character archetype while keeping all their goofy quirks intact. Unlike some SoL or comedy anime out there, I feel that Lucky Star doesn't Flanderize the characters to where their entire personality is the typical tropes you come to expect. Instead, the show balances out their zaniness with them just being generally chill and friendly around each other while still taking jabs and calling each other out when they say something dumb or funny. It simply makes these groups of friends and their family members feel like actual people and oddly makes you more invested into them because of that.

In tandem with the strong character writing, another genius move I feel Lucky Star does is subtly flesh out and give their characters more depth through their aforementioned "normal conversations". The girls often discuss extremely mundane and ordinary topics like how they think certain food should be eaten, or how someone might be afraid of the dentist. Some viewers might be bored by this and get lost in the shuffle, but if you pay attention to what they're saying, it reveals more things about their character; more importantly, certain things they talk about are often brought up or referenced again in some way. There are multiple "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" lines where a character may nonchalantly say something happened to them or they did something, only to see that innocuous line referenced again in a later episode by the character actually doing or thinking said thing. For example, Konata mentions very early on in one episode that she started working part-time at a Cosplay Cafe, and much much later in the show, you finally head there and see Konata working. It's a lot of little stuff like that that adds up to allow you to learn a lot about how the cast thinks and feels about many things while the show keeps it's quick pace up with lots of jokes and having more room to squeeze in more scenes like this.


So because of the strength of it's characters and their writing, I feel Lucky Star just, "understood the assignment" for lack of a better term. It knows the strengths of it's premise, and plays to them in all the right ways to make you want to infectiously listen in on every little conversation the characters hold, while making them all fun and amusing in their own special ways. It's no wonder why Lucky Star is as revered as it is, and I think if you have even a passing interest in slice of life anime, you should watch this.

I really liked the upbeat OP but the content felt very stream-of-consciousness ala Japanese humour.

It was pretty funny at times. I especially liked the karaoke scenes and references to other animes. In many ways it reminds me of a funnier, cuter Pop Team Epic. If you enjoy either of these things you will probably enjoy this anime.

There is no story or plot to speak of but the art style was fun, bright, and loud. The characters are really cute but did not have enough development for me to become invested in them.

For me, I need more of a story and more ... growth to enjoy myself but I can see the appeal of this if you are looking for something fun, cute, and relaxing.

Despite the moe character design, Lucky Star is very... bland. What K-ON! did for the moe genre was revolutionary and has an incredible story in its own right with a cast of lovable characters. Lucky Star essentially is just a show about a group of high school friends that make fun of anime tropes, high school and really specific Japanese foods, and Japanese things in a snarky way. Some of the jokes land and are pretty funny. Most of them don't and it makes the show seem more like a commentary about the anime industry as a whole as opposed to a show worth watching ... on its own without watching other anime. Also, if you need to have watched other shows to understand a bunch of the jokes, unless you do something like Clerks did when they made reference to Star Wars with the Death Star,, give a quick explanation for people who might not have seen it and then proceed to make a really solid point about government contractors and relate it to real-life, just attempting to parody it, and then making reference to what you are parodying reminds me of those terrible comedy movies like Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and Vampires Suck. It's just lazy. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than to say that the OP is the type of BOP that you listen to with headphones and never tell another soul about. Super cheesy and embarrassingly catchy. Like a weeb national anthem.

All hail the Lucky Star OP!
I BUY SAUSAGE!!!!!

3/10