dooley.rosemarie - 2015-02-15 05:25:11

From great characters, to just plane out wacky situations, lucky star has many situations to make you laugh or just plane out happy to live on earth, when you look at lucky star you see girls talking in a classroom, you see voice actors trying to make a living, you see a normal type Pokemon, BUT if you look closer very much so closer you will see those girls are not just talking in a classroom but there having talks about chocolate cornets, those voiceacters are making more than just a living there putting life in to lucky star characters. that pokemon is an electic type named minun-ard

alf91 - 2014-07-11 08:51:52

       Lucky Star is one of those anime that will always be looked at from the wrong angle. Many people, especially critical reviewers, will absolutely despise Lucky Star. I mean, it has no story, simplistic characters, and humor that is arguably overused. But that in itself is the charm of this anime. Let's get on with the review so I can further explain:

Story: Now as you probably know already, Lucky Star isn't exactly a plot-oriented series. Almost exactly the opposite, actually. Lucky Star follows our 4 main characters throughout their time in high school.
      As such, a vast majority of this anime is centered around conversations between the group. And there may be absolutely no point to the conversation at all. But that's what makes it charming. It's just normal chatter between friends. Nothing complicated, nothing elaborate.
      Now, this is where you either love or hate Lucky Star. If you're someone who doesn't like dialogue-heavy anime, this isn't for you. If you're someone who can't appreciate the simplicity, this isn't for you. If you CAN deal with these things, then you'll probably enjoy Lucky Star just as much as the next guy.

Animation: Lucky Star was animated by Kyoto Animations, the studio that's brought us anime such as Clannad, Chuunibyou, and Free. As you may know, Kyo-Ani has a very high production value with anything they make, and Lucky Star definitely isn't an exception. While it does have simple designs, the animation is fluid and flows between normal and comedic scenes easily.

Sound: None of the tracks from this anime really stand out, but that's to be expected. The background music for this anime was meant to be just that. Background. It doesn't stand out, it doesn't stick in your head for long, and it doesn't overtake anything happening on screen. However, the opening is one of the most unique OPs I've heard in a long time. I find myself singing this CONSTANTLY. I mean, listen: (I'll come back and edit the video in later... Hummingbird is freaking out for some reason and I can't insert youtube videos without my browser crashing)
      Japanese dub: The Japanese dub is good quality, all the voices suit their characters and do their jobs. I do have to give a major shout-out to Aya Hirano for her performance as Konata. OF COURSE Hirano had to voice Konata, since the entire anime came into existence because of Haruhi. And she did a wonderful job.
      English dub: This dub, on the other hand, is okay. I won't say it's bad by any means. I just prefer the Japanese in this case. Wendee Lee, while she did give a good performance, didn't really capture Konata's character to the same degree that Aya Hirano did.

Character: Now this is where Lucky Star really shines. In a series based entirely off of dialogue, we'd better have some damn good characters!
       Konata Izumi is the first of our main characters, the one that Lucky Star is based around. She's a standard otaku, collecting manga and anime and games. However, she is the source of the majority of the show's humor. Konata always has a witty response and has a knack for leading conversations in the way she wants them to go.
      Kagami Hiiragi is the best friend of Konata. She's essentially a generic tsundere, and is who Konata plays off of the most. Kagami is constantly being teased by Konata, and reacts in exactly the way a tsundere would.
      Tsukasa Hiiragi is the sister of Kagami (as if it wasn't obvious by the name). Tsukasa is the 'little sister' character of the anime. She's constantly needing to be tended after, and is often embarrassing herself by finding her way into awkward situations.
      Miyuki Takara is the moe blob character who happens to be a massive bookworm. Whenever one of the other main characters has a question, Miyuki is there to help them out with her Wikipedia level of random knowledge. This earns her the nickname "Miwiki", which appears in the OVA.

Enjoyment: I was absolutely in love with this series when I first saw it, and I still am 3 rewatches later. There  were many times when I found myself quite literally rolling in the floor laughing when Konata got into one of her hilarious conversations with Kagami. I watch Lucky Star whenever I feel down, or if I need a break from action/plot-heavy anime.

Overall: Lucky Star is a good 'in-between' anime for when you just need to wind down and take a break from the plot-oriented mess of anime that the internet is overflowing with. It's incredibly funny as long as you can appreciate the humor, and the characters work well to increase this factor. Lucky Star is  very enjoyable as long as you don't go in expecting the wrong thing.

vincenza58 - 2014-06-25 22:28:47

review is short and spoiler free

Story;
7/10
What story...
Kidding aside there is essentially no central story behind Lucky Star in the slightest, even by slice of Life standards. That being said it doesn't mean episodes don't carry over little bits from one to the next, or the individual (and often very short, sometimes 4-5 an episode) arcs are any less interesting.

Animation;
8/10
Its cute and really suits the shows atmosphere perfectly, but I'm just not a huge fan of the art style.

Sound;
9/10
That main theme was playing in my headphones everywhere I went for weeks. The background music was also all very nice, bubbly, and really suits the show perfectly.

Character;
10/10
Characters feeling a tad cliche? like polar opposites of one another? well thats because they are meant to, its part of the shows humor.

Enjoyment;
10/10
One of my first anime's, and will always have a special place in my memory. This show will never cease nor fail to keep you laughing.

Overall;
10/10

runolfsson.dayton - 2014-05-14 20:06:58

I'll allow to make a choice... You could either watch the video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbb3TaNjaqw

or you could read the text review:

Lucky Star - Anime Review

Intro:

As you might or might not know, there's a certain studio called Kyoto Animation. A studio that has produced a bunch of anime. And that studio is now considered one of the best animation studios, along with the likes of Shaft, Ufotable and to a lesser extent, Ghibli, and debatebly Gainax. This studio has produced a number of popular series like Free, Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On, and of course, what I like to call the Triforce of "Feels". But, theres a particular one I didn't mention, and that's because it is the anime I'm going to review today. Good morning, Good Afternoon or Good Night, depending on the time you watch this, I'm Frozen Wolf and welcome to Frozen Zone reviews, today I'll be reviewing my second favorite slice-of-life/comedy anime, Lucky Star. Let's begin, shall we?

The Story:

Lucky Star, being a Slice-of-Life/Comedy anime, shares some of its characteristics with shows like The Daily Lives of High School Boys. What I mean by that is that, it doesn't have a focused story, it's just an anime about the day to day lives of these lovable girls. And since it's an episodic anime you can probably watch a random episode and you won't be losing that much, although you might not want to do that since you would be skipping some " character development" and some really funny scenes. Is this anime original? For me... I don't know how to answer, granted there are a lot of anime in this particular genre, but Lucky Star is better than most of them. And although this genre tends to be a little too repetitive, it doesn't affect Lucky Star, since every single episode presents us to some cool situations and engaging conversations (have in mind that I'm saying this for this particular genre). Being a 25 - episodes anime you can probably breeze through this anime, especially if you're like a certain friend of mine that might end up doing some reviews for this channel that marathons 25 - episodes animes in 2 days almost non-stop. Now, this anime ,being of such a genre, doesn't focus as much in the plot as it does in the characters...

The Characters:

Allow me now, to talk about the characters. To avoid "spoilers" or people bitching in the comments section I'm only going to talk about the 4 main characters.

- Konata Izumi, a 17 years old girl that is too small for her age, she's also an otaku and a gamer;

- Miyuki Takara, she is the stereotypical girl that is moe, wears glasses and is really clumsy;

- Kagami Hiiragi, the Tsundere of the group, and honestly my favorite character in the show (but only by a slim, really tiny fragment of personality);

- And finally we have Tsukasa Hiiragi, Kagami's twin sister and the klutz of the group.

The side characters deserve mention, since they make the show even more funny than it already was... major props to Konata's dad and Kagami's classmates.

Saying that the characters go through a great ammount of development would be a lie, and that's because they don't develop, YOU get to know them better as the series progresses.

Now, other than the personality and characteristics of said characters there's another thing that makes those characters be who they are...

The Visuals:

If I could describe the character design in 1 word, it would be: Nosebleed. This is KyotoAni in action, their characters are all so adorable that whenever you watch any of KyotoAni's character designs you'll either be puking rainbows or you'll level up your diabetes' stats.

The animation, is pretty standard throughout the whole anime and they are pretty consistent as well, BUT, sometimes Konata visits a certain store... and the REALLY EPIC ANIMATION kicks in! Those scenes are fucking great in terms of animation and comedy.

But I gotta say, Lucky Star's visual style differs a bit from other works of the same studio. But it's pretty good for what the anime is.

There's only one thing that can make an anime with good characters, nice scenarios, and good looks be even better and that is...

The Sound:

The soundtrack... this is a tough thing for me to say, since there's not a single track that comes to mind, so it's not that rememberable. Not counting the show's opening: Motteke Sailor Fukku, which is an awesome song to boot whenever I feel like it, and the Redalice remix...gosh...it's so good. So yeah, this is no Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya or Clannad. But it's still enjoyable, don't get me wrong.

About the voice acting, here's the thing, the japanese dub is pretty good but I have a problem with it, because there are a lot of references, usually the screen get's full of notes, so I have to pause the episode to read what's written, which took me away from the whole experience, BUT fortunately, the english dub is awesome! Shoutout to Wendee Lee for the awesome work with Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata Izumi, she nails both characters.

Section Finale:

I personally love this show as well as its spiritual successor: The Daily Lives Of High School Boys. I love these types of shows, because they're really close to reality, at least in my case. After watching this show, you could probably watch some of the animes I mentioned at the beginning of this video, and for those who don't know, the Triforce of "Feels" consists of Clannad, Kanon 2006 and Air. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

The score, from now on, will be based on the following categories: Story, Characters, Visuals, Sound and personal Enjoyment, and no I'm not ripping off GRArkada's rating system, I'm using the Hummingbird rating system. So based on those categories I give Lucky Star 8/10. Lucky Star is an anime I highly recommend if you're a fan of the genre. If, on the other hand, you prefer anime with immersive stories, this anime won't fit your needs.

mertz.tyrel - 2014-02-21 13:40:06

A surprisingly boring example of early mainstream moe. Don't get me wrong, I love moe, but this show is dull as fuck. The best parts are the 2 minute "Lucky Channel" portions at the end of each show. Hopefully this shit picks up soon, because as someone who never drops a show, this one is really trying my patience.

murray.kuhlman - 2014-01-21 11:07:09

Lucky Star is a 24 episode long adaptation of the manga written by Kagami Yoshimizu. As a comedy anime, its main goal is entertaining the viewer. The action is revolving around the lives Konata and her high school friends. Before I start the review, I want to tell you that the score's I will give certain aspects are my raw opinion of them, without any personal feelings involved. We have the enjoyment section for that. So, if you don't want to see me criticize the show, head to the Enjoyment section.

Story

Lucky Star portrays the high school lives of Konata and her closest friends. It does a great job introducing us to the otaku and gaming culture of Japan. It can be said that the story is split in two parts: The lives of the high schoolers and The events at Lucky Channel. The first part is strictly episodic, just like the type we see in Gintama, with most of the episodes being just random moments that happened during high school. Some episodes are just random stuff mixed together that can drive the viewer away from the show. The first episode, for example, was a discussion about food and correct ways of eating it. Other episodes show us the personal lives of the characters, hoping that we would see ourselves in one of them. The second part of the story is the Lucky Channel. The Lucky Channel is a tv show hosted by the idol Akira Kogami her new assistant Minoru Shiraishi. It is mostly about Minoru's adapting to the job and showing the duality of Akira's personality. The interaction of those two is just hilarious. Now, since the main story just throws random moments at you, without following any major plot – the story gets a lousy 3/10. Keep in mind that this is not the selling point of the show and that it will not affect your overall enjoyment. If you are able to bear through the first episode, you will surely enjoy the show. I was unlucky to drop the show once because of that so I nearly ended up missing it completely.

Animation

The first episodes make it clear that the animation of the show is cheap. Its not about the animation style, I liked how witty it was – it's about the consistency of the animation. Most of the people besides the main cast are just motionless sketches and there are tons of motionless scenes. The finest example of this is the Karaoke room, where you just stare at a door while one of the characters is singing a song. When the animators got bored of that ending, they switched to showing us real time footage of them goofing around (mainly Shiraishi singing some songs and doing RL mortal kombat or something). Lots of frames get reused which can be noticed when Konata is on her computer, in front of the TV with her father, or panicking about something. The animation quality gets a 3/10, just because of that opening.

Characters

The characters this show presents us are parodies of real life stereotypes. You have Konata, the laid back gamer girl which tends to leave studying for the last possible moment (good old „Ill do that later since Ill be wiser then" philosophy). She is designed as a bait for the viewers, making most think „She is totally the anime version of me“. She is the kind of character most people envy, being athletic and smart, but not using any of that. Takara Miyuki, the „moe saint“ and airhead of the show. Tsukasa is the moe klutz of the show, constantly having trouble with learning and homework. She is the type of girl which gets easily obsessed with something new. Her sister, Kagami, is the opposite. She is the typical tsundere – always arguing with Konata, yet sweet when its needed. Akira Kogami is the two faced idol which we get to see in the Lucky Channel. She easily turns from the cutest girl ever to the most arrogant **** in anime. Shiraishi is the straight man of Lucky Channel. He goes through hell while working with Akira, but he (nearly) endures it all.

Another character worth mentioning is Sojiro Izumi, Konata's father. He is the „complete otaku set“, being an lolicon (not a pedo, just someone with a lolita complex), anime fan and playing visual novels. He is the perfect father for Konata. Since most modern families tend to „feel like strangers“ I appreciate the fact that he is portrayed as a loving father and that is why I love this guy so much.

Now, to the flaws. While the characters themselves are really likeable, they are not that special. They are something you encounter lots in anime and real life. Most of the characters have no development at all (except Shiraishi, he quits being the straight man). Keeping in mind what I said about all of them, and what i just complained about, i give this a 6/10, or slightly above average.

Soundtrack

Oh my God that is one catchy opening. Its something like the choreography dance from Haruhi, but with the three chipmunks singing. The voice acting is ok, not too good, not too bad, right in the middle. The ending's consist mostly of songs meant to invoke the feeling of nostalgia in the viewer. They were mostly anime songs changed a bit to avoid copyright. I am not counting the endings where Minoru sings as that can be considered „additional material“ and has nearly nothing to do with the anime itself. Other sound tracks are mostly just a few patterns repeated over and over again and they don't really stand out. Keeping in mind all i said, i give the sound 6/10 (opening+ other soundtrack-). Again, I must point out that this is a professional opinion of it, without the nostalgia factor.

Enjoyment

Now to the fun part. Why is this show so good? It does exactly what it was made for – entertaining the viewer. The comedy of the show relies mostly on the amount of anime the viewer has watched. Because of that, most viewers new to anime don't find the show that funny. Everything is aiming to either invoke the feeling of nostalgia in you, or making you feel like watching an anime version of someone you know, be it yourself or your friend. Despite the scores I gave in the different sections of the review, I gave this anime a 8 out of 10, as it stands among the top comedy anime of all time.

bashirian.nigel - 2013-08-14 02:47:37

Lucky Star? WATCH IT! Again we're just in front of another Animé which REALLY deserves to be watched.

Despite the fact of having no lineal storyline or sense at all, this slice of life animé is a wonderful and fun-to-watch comedy. But, what does make Lucky Star special? Certainly, I don't know. Rather, i wouldn't know how to explain, nor where to start explaining from.

Yes, Lucky Star is really funny, and you know, I barely could understand, after having watched it again, and again, and again around 5 or 6 times, that having no storyline at all, is what makes this series wonderful. And somehow different from many others. See, in most animé there's a story. There are some main chars, there's an idea of what is going to happen after the current. There's also at least one objective, one target, or a 'to do's' list. <----- This, my friends, I must say that sometimes, no matter the abismal difference between the hundreds and thousands of existing serials, can be... Not boring, but quite repetitive. For example, who does NOT want to watch a short, relaxing, and completely out of the topic serial, after having watched a lenghty, complex, and perhaps even slow one? I think it's really nice and open-minded to try and watch all sort of categories (can't say sorts of "things", because Animé is the only thing I watch xD), but, as I was saying, it's also possible that watching always the same may end in an eternal boredom, that may also last lengthy weeks to dissappear.

That's why, I'd really recommend Lucky Star, both as an 'intermedium' or 'sparetime' animé, while you perhaps can look, at a while, for some other perhaps more serious serials.

This animé is, basically, a slice of life of four initially girls (later they turn to be 5, 6, etc) who live their life as teenagers. This means having to deal with many problems like, for example, physical development, mental puzzles, and having to tolerate really unsoportably annoying, vexed friends who want to do thousands of sorts of things at the same time. But, Lucky Star adds a touch of sense and hiliarous humour to everything, (and I really mean everything). Centering 4 main characters,

+(Izumi Konata, a plain blue, toelenght-haired seventeenager otaku and addicted to videogames whose dad is a true Lolicon, only concerned about never growing up in height),

+(Takara Miyuki, a busty moe kinda superkawaii and really scaredy girl, always trying to help others and worried about the way she could get involved in, (as what she thinks this is), a 'filthy world'. And despite the fact of being a calm, and quiet girl, who is almost a living encyclopedia, she gets nervous really often, and doesnt figure out how to solve many basic situations)

+(the twins, Hiiragi Kagamin and Tsukasa. Despite of being twins, these two are quite really different from each other. While Tsukasa is presented as the most distracted, moony and dreamy, (not need to mention she's really cute and lovely), although she's quite fragile and soft-tempered, the other one, Kagamin is the perfect example of a Tsundere. Although, despite of being rude sometimes, or completely unsensitive, she really cares about her friends, and takes (particularly) a special affect from the watchers, because she is the only one separated from the group, when they start secondary school.)

Later, (and suddenly,) many other characters are presented to us, such as Kobayakawa Yutaka, (Konata's cousin) and many other secondary school' students.

Many situations are presented in this show, and for example, (another thing that should be named also), is the way in which every chapter is divided in. Instead of being divided in two halves, as most other animés, this in particular divides every chapter in three sections, every of them showing differents situations that, probably, have already happened to most of us, of course, in the most hilarous, funny, and enjoyable way they can do. For example, in the first episode, two thirds of the programme are spent in a moving and entertaining chatting about... well... Food. Yet you don't understand? I couldn't understand WHAT did this animé have, that made me spend a while time in front of da screen, while girls chat about food. In the end, i rached a conclussion: This is incredible, and no matter the explanation, i'm really enjoying it so much.

And, must say also, to be a short animé (24 chapts), this one moves really fast, as it is really entertaining and funny.

Another impressive fact, is the sound. Not so much the music (as it doesnt have many tracks at all), but the amazing sound effect and short melodies added as background while chars are speaking. They go so well with the topics, expressions and feelings, that probably, a 50% of the interest goes also into the sound part.

Yet probably the animations aren't really elaborated or detailist, it doesn't affect the enjoyment at all. Indeed, i'd say that fact makes Lucky Star even more interesting. So, it can be a perfect example of an animé in which NO ANIMATION AT ALL is needed nor used to cover storyline shortcomings, and, of course, as there's no plot at all, there's also no filling chapters!

So, to sum up, i strongly recommend you to watch this. Believe me, no matter if you're a Lolicon, a Gore lover, a Shonen, Shojo or Seinen lover, a housewife, a cat, a wooden basin or whatever the heck you are, you surely will like Lucky Star

(believe me when i say, i showed it to my uncle, who is 43 now, and he loved it! He asked me a few weeks later he watched it, if I had some OVAs, and when more chapters were going to be launched xD)

PS, i must give a 1 to the storyline, you'll understand if you watch Lucky Star (again I repeat, you should. No disappointment at all!!!)... but surely a 10 to the rest ;)

Good luck around there, don't kill scaredy grandmas, and if you steal, make it professionally, with a chainsaw ;)

Cheers, ValkyrieSkies :3 from here.

shirley.watsica - 2013-08-11 02:18:40

Lucky Star is parody/comedy/slice of life anime.

There is no story in Lucky Star, and honestly I wish I could abstain from rating it. Story is not the purpose of this show. It goes even as far to not even have some random emotional tug later in the show to pull things together. Each part of an episode is pretty much stand alone, and the only differences between the early episodes and later ones is that the cast expands. Besides that you can almost watch each episode in any order and it could make no difference at all.

The comedy can vary, but there is a big improvement in just about everything after episode 4. However, the jokes and situations in the show are well placed. Simplicity is a big factor in the show and the comedy is very solid in that it doesn't make you over think. If you are to get the joke or laugh at something it will be instant gratification. The references add an even better layer to the comedy as several other anime will be referenced throughout the series. It might not be a "oh my sides" comedy but it will keep a constant smile on your face.

The characters are a real strength in the show. The main four, Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki are all pretty much based on character types, Otaku, Tsundere, Ditzy/Klutz, and Glasses Girl, but they seem to transcend these stereotypes with their dialogue and interaction with each other. Konata especially is extremely entertaining and has a lot of the good lines in the show. While I'm not going to say it's the greatest cast in anime the synergy they have with each other is superb. On top of this, the added secondary members feel very natural like you've been watching them the whole time.

The art is simple, and simplicity is a big key in Lucky Star. It might not be the most visually striking art work, but the animation is smooth and well done. The sound is there. I am a firm believer that sound is only really noticed if it's bad. I don't really notice it, so it can't be bad.

Overall Lucky Star is a joy to watch, it has a very entertaining cast and some great comedy. It doesn't twist your arm or do a lame bait and switch like some other shows of it's type might try on you, it's what it is throughout.

ugreen - 2013-07-22 23:28:48

Lucky Star is known as the Anime that makes no sense at all. It's said that it is an Anime about noting and still, it has a really high fanbase. Why is that?Story: Well...it is really hard to score this for Lucky Star, since the only story there is, is some girls going to school. There is no real plot, but only random scenes out of the life of the main characters. There is no drama, no death, only comedy. Nothing else.?/10Characters: This is just as hard to score, but this time I will give it a try. The characters are the typical characters for a moe-show. There is the crazy one, the agressive one, the smart one and the clumsy one and all of them are cute.We have Izumi Konata. She is the typical lazy Otaku, playing Light Novel, MMOs, console games, reading Manga and watching Anime. She has a really sarcastic humor and is the main idsentification of the show.Hiragi Tsukasa is the clumsy one of the whole group. She breaks everything and is neither smart nor gifted in anything but being cute.Hiragi Kagami is the contrary to here twin sister Tsukasa. She is really good in school since she is studying a lot and gets angry quickly.Takara Miyuki is the smart one. She is really clever and knows almost everything. Still she is almost as clumsy as Tsukasa and just as kind.6/10Art: Lucky Star has been produced by Kyoto Animation, who had many major works, such as the almost every key adaption (Clannad, Air, Kannon 2006), K-on and the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. The style of the show is really moe. The girls who are supposed to be 17 look as if they were still in elementary school and even the mature ones look this way. The Animation is quite good, given that this is a slice of life comedy Anime.7/10Sound: The sound is ok. The Soundtrack has nothing special in particular. The Opening though is even if it is really annoying one of the most addicting ones ever and I found myself listening to only this song for over an hour. The ending on the other hand is not definable, since it always is diferent and always for the purpose of comedy (sometimes it really is incredibly hillarious)7/10personal enjoyment: This Anime is hillarious. That's why has that much of a fanbase. It basically has no plot and no sense, but the comedy is so well done that you just have to laugh out loud. It has one problem though, and that is nothing that really gets the score down, but something that might be annoying to some. To be able to watch Lucky Star, you should have seen the whole Haruhi Suzumiya franchise (except movie), since there are so many references about it that it actually will be a lot less funny if you don't know it. Of course there are other Otaku references too, but not as siginifcant as this.10/10I LOVE THIS ANIME. It's official now. Lucky Star is incredibly funny, but has too many flaws to really give it full points. The plot is nothing that really is missing and I love the fact that it doesn't take Anime seriously at all. The Anime is done for those Otaku's who actually know a lot about the Otaku scene.In total: 8/10

koss.odie - 2013-03-04 18:29:01

The Anime "Seinfeld". Seriously, I love this show. It shines in it's dialog, and if you understand a lot of the pop culture references you will be laughing yourself out of your seat with each episode. So much of Japanese/Otaku culture is parodied in this show. From jokes about video gamers, hentai, and school life to 4th wall breaking segments, yuri relationships, and more. The characters are memorable and great in their own ways, from the tsundere Hiiragi Kagami, to the hyper-intelligent Moe-blog Tanaka Miyuki. The main character Izumi Konata is both parts adorable and inappropriate at all the right times. My fiance and I watched the entire thing in a single week, and we adored every episode. This show is a hit in our books, and hopefully you enjoy it just as much as we did!