I like to think it’s the fact Lucky Star has a dub. Perhaps not having to read subtitles about nothing was one of the reasons. The voice actresses were all playing the characters pitch-perfectly and as far as I’m concerned this is one of the best dubs I’ve ever watched. But there has to be more to it than the fact it’s in English.
Lucky Star is a clip show for the most part, doling out healthy doses of high school girls discussing things, doing cute things, and, well, being high school girls. It follows four main girls through their second and third years of high school, sometimes switching to a variety of minor characters. There are some running gags and a lot of references to anime and other facets of Japanese culture. At the end of each episode, we are treated to Lucky Channel, a review of what we just watched. This segment establishes that the main portion of the show is being done by actors, leading me to believe Lucky Star is a reality show rather than actual events in these girls’ lives. It’s a cute idea, executed really well.
The characters of the main segment are enjoyable company. Konata Izumi is an otaku obsessed with anime, manga, and video games. Kagami Hiiragi is her best friend, a tsundere who loves sweets and is always on Konata’s ass to study. She has a twin sister named Tsukasa, who’s a airhead. The final of the main four is the rich and very moe Miyuki Takara.
All these characters fall under conventions but Konata and Kagami take on lives of their own. Tsukasa and Miyuki on the other hand felt weaker to me and weren’t quite as memorable.
Then there is the character who steals the show. Her name’s Akira Kogami, the cutest little moeblob on the planet—at least, when she’s on camera. Beware pissing her off or saying something wrong, otherwise you shall face her wrath. This apparent chain-smoking fourteen year old brings a unique character type as well as some great humor to the show.
On the subject of humor, Lucky Star is really funny. It has some moments of pure genius sprinkled throughout. Every time the manager of the manga store showed up, I knew I was going to laugh my ass off. And the English dub doesn’t Americanize anything. It stays true to the source material despite some very dated and inherently Japanese humor. You’ll spend a lot of time Googling names to understand the jokes. That doesn’t detract from anything (who would knock something down for using cultural references of the culture it hails from?) but it does showcase the dedication and love put into the dub.
When it comes to the sound, Lucky Star is very rich musically, sampling tunes from all sorts of different anime and also containing some whimsical music of its’ own. The music during the segments, typically very pokey and cute, fits the mood of the very pokey and cute action taking place.
On top of that, the animation is top notch, even seven years later. Lucky Star is pretty to an exceptional degree. It manages the moe look while also borrowing art styles from various eras of anime to help convey some hilarious jokes.
I do have a couple problems with Lucky Star to counterbalance all the praise I’m raining on it. First of all, watch Haruhi Suzumiya. Like seriously, go watch it. Lucky Star would love it if you do. Kyoto Animation, the studio that brought you every cute anime that has adorable girls dancing to catchy J-pop, wants you to really watch it. And this is my biggest problem; it seems like nothing more than a commercial for Haruhi. A very good commercial, mind you, but a commercial nonetheless. And while other anime are brought up and referenced, Haruhi is the most prominent and appears in more episodes than I can count.
There was also an imbalance as far as the focus on characters is concerned. Konata and Kagami get a lot more time than any of the other main four, and halfway through is when side characters get the spotlight. Which is a little disorienting when we’re building up characters I had no idea existed in the first place after I’ve gotten used to seeing Konata and her pals.
There’s also a completely unexpected part that made me nearly cry. Why did we have to do that? It was way too sad for such an upbeat anime. It was a happy sad, but a sad nonetheless.
Lucky Star is a fantastic anime full of fun, memorable characters, entertaining dialogue, and great ambiance. Its chock full of referential and observational humor while also being moe as hell.
It’s a definite watch from me.
