As I write this I’ve just finished viewing the last few episodes of Lucky Star. a.f.k. has been good and all, but unreliable and temperamental (you know it’s getting dumb when they delay subs due to “it being licensed”… twice) when it came to the last stretch. Props to Guerrand for giving us that final lap, and Moogy for mirroring the downloads on his server.

Lucky Star, in my opinion, exceeded all expectations. Paradoxically, this would only work if you had no expectations to begin with, because it was that type of anime that could only work under a lack of preconceptions. Of all the posts I’ve read about, the most appreciative ones were those who didn’t stuff LS into a box and still expect it to work its magic, namely because LS was something that just couldn’t operate under those conditions.

I’ll be honest upfront and say that this review’s one of those largely starry-eyed types. I found no problems with it whatsoever, but that might have been due to my approach to it, and how I chose to not let what the community at large perceived as problems interfere with my assessment of it. I say this in confidence, surely, for I know that LS will be one of those anime that I’ll be able to re-watch a year from now.

I’ve always seen the grey anime as requiring a different sort of methodology when it comes to measuring them up. While the majority of anime can be measured by their precedents and genre counterparts, occasionally there come along something that defies and redefines existing genre conventions. The reaction to this is divided and difficult — while some will of course allow it to show off its genius and do its own thing, others will insist to unfairly compare it to those gone long before, and this is where my thoughts come in.

the everymanwoman character designs made for ease of parodies

LS, as a rule, was unfunny to those who didn’t let it be funny. This isn’t wordplay or semantics, but rather, a pretty good indicator of what the English-speaking anime blogosphere thinks. In my opinion, LS’s unorthodox approach in the triumvirate of slice of life/school life/comedy is what made it an instant classic, and something that otaku everywhere should — with just that little bit of difficulty — be able to appreciate in the future.

How is this so? LS excelled by emphasising on the slice of life portion more than anything, which meant that people were looking for humour where there just wasn’t supposed to be any, period. Common sense would tell you that a chocolate cornet scene that went on for a couple of minutes wasn’t meant to have a punchline. Instead, bloggers turned into salivating hounds that pounced on anything vaguely resembling humour, and regurgitated them ungraciously with choice phrases like “mediocre”, “draggy”, or “unfunny” when they realised it wasn’t to their taste.

If there were one or two flaws in the design of LS that you could nitpick on, I’d have to say that its snapshot nature lets it down. Those who venture into this series a year or two from now will have to do some serious backtracking and homework in order to find out where the various allusions came from.

Although that’s not really a problem seeing how it would also be an anime that has more personal meaning to you than most. I’ll still be able to point out that Gigantic Formula’s OP was played for that short instant when Konata and Kagami were talking about mecha anime, or the split-second Noein reference scribbled in one of Konata’s books, and that’s what matters, because knowing the allusions is proof that you were once there with the anime, and that, at least for me, ensures that I’ll appreciate what LS has done for a long, long time.

Which brings me back to what I said earlier about expectations. Azumanga Daioh, the anime I’ve been loath to deign comparison due to their different natures, definitely played a part in this. There hadn’t been many anime before AD that specialised in that particular genre triumvirate, and by virtue of it existing in a chronological order that would recognise it as a precedent, so was LS thusly compared.

then there was the incessant nod-wink to past works, like Haruhi et al

This bugged me no end, and despite Hidoshi’s numerous and insightful posts coming close to scratching the truer meaning of what lay beneath LS, the thought only came to me as I shed tears for what must have been a first ever — I cried over a scene in a comedy anime.

It hit me like a bandwagon of bricks — these were real, living people that I could connect and identify with. They weren’t vessels for comedy, like some, if not all of AD’s characters were, but well-rounded and fleshed out people in which I could see myself, and my friends. The mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, and personalities weren’t entertaining as a result of situational comedy, but due to how it represented reality so well you couldn’t help but laugh at what might have been yourself, once upon a time.

Self-satire at its best is what I’d term it as. Despite it being an all-girl cast, and there being peculiarities of behaviour your typical heterosexual teenage male wouldn’t possess, I saw myself and my friends in the interactions of Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki — having three guy friends whom I’ve grown up with, whom I remain close with to this day.

Where else could you find an anime depicting simple things like sibling conflict, a love letter, or even everyday conversation so well? The beauty of LS lay in the details; whether it was Kagami arguing with her sisters over dinner or facing a tentative love confession, Miyuki talking about the dentist, or even Tsukasa and her handphone fascination, it all fell into place.

LS endeared me to it through this amazing portrayal of friendship. The characters had lives beyond providing the occasional laugh, and this is LS’s greatest strength — they weren’t there just for the jokes and punchlines. They had hopes and dreams, fears and weaknesses, flaws and strengths. It was by this understanding of LS that I cried unabashedly during the scene where Kanata appears, being moved to tears by a family moment so private that seemed like an embarrassing intrusion to witness.

to give you an indicator of what I usually cry at, the last thing I shed tears for with such ease was the movie portrayal of Sophie Scholl

In addition to that, LS shed light on moe’s true nature in a way any other anime would be hard-pressed to do. The idea of LS being a ‘moe anime’ is, as I’ve said before, patently absurd, but there’s another side to it in that those who make the statement are obviously ignorant — moe in LS isn’t a selling point, unlike harem and eroge adaptations which are wont to do so, but a side-effect of effectively portraying realistic characters.

The distinction between “moe anime” and “anime with moe in it” has to be made, because it’s apparent to me that moe is nothing more than an imitation of real-life, distilled of its impurities. That Konata can chuckle quietly when her friends exhibit such traits are a result of art imitating life, and it’s important to differentiate due to the negative traits usually associated with “moe anime” — characters in a typical moe anime are usually flat, having no personality aside from the assigned younger sister/tsundere/yandere stock and what have you.

This only goes to show that KyoAni has adequately grasped the contemporary understanding of moe, and moulded it to their advantage with such acumen that you can only sit back and marvel. It’s understated, surely, and even more ironic when you figure that a large portion of the demographic they were marketing to probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate it for what it is, choosing to focus instead on the surface.

What problems I’ve had with the blogosphere for ragging on LS is pretty simple — they seem to think that they see through the plan for ’selling out on moe’ or trying to market something that’s obviously a moe anime and scoff accordingly, but they couldn’t be far from the truth. That’s a snap judgement for you, and it’s been disappointing that not everyone I know of decided to watch LS, because it’s been getting more flak than it’s deserved throughout its run.

Last but not least, Minoru Shiraishi deserves mention for being something (himself, no less) that toed the line between delicate and hilarious. I didn’t find Lucky Channel all that forced or unfunny contrary to popular belief, and I can safely attribute that to how the fourth wall was broken numerous times. Like the girls, Minoru was more than just a character there for the laughs or to be abused by the irascible Akira; this can be seen when he finally snaps towards the end, wrecking the studio in the process and forcing Yuko Gotoh, also playing herself, to intervene..

seeing how he was all but emasculated, this is rather fitting

Would LS have been any better off without Minoru, Akira, or Lucky Channel altogether? I highly doubt it. If the four girls are the layered sponge cake and the side characters the toppings, then Lucky Channel would be the icing that holds everything together. Minoru’s enthusiasm and willingness to horse around for his a cappella renditions of original songs were admirable to say the least, and it sealed the deal for me.

I’ll be missing LS, surely enough. This is the anime that spawned a thousand Photoshops and a thousand more fan-made videos on YouTube. The only anime whose contrast from the OP and the show itself was so strong that it turned unwitting people off barely into the first episode. The anime that was both shallow and deep at the same time, and the anime that spawned as much, if not more controversy than Haruhi, all while being a walking blatant advertisement for it. Not like I had much problem with it, though. The scene of Konata going nuts over the possibility of holding Aya Hirano’s hand was nothing short of brilliant genius, and that’s how I’ll remember it — self-referencing, ironic, witty, but understated.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Anime, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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