Lucky Star - Blu-Ray Set Review
By: Archmage[yasr_multiset setid=9]I had never seen Lucky Star before now, so that made me one of the lucky 10,000. My only knowledge about it was that it apparently gets better around Episode 7 because they switch directors, which it does, but more on that later.Lucky Star is, at its core, a slice of life story about a group of 4 friends: Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki. These 4 act as conduit for a cornacopia of "in jokes" focused towards the Anime and Video Gaming community. It can get a bit exhausting trying to keep up, but that's borderline.
You've all probably seen this dance sequence at some point
The list of reference based jokes that are made is too lengthy to go into, and has been compiled neatly by TVTropes already, so CLICK HERE if you want to go trough them all. This can be off putting if you're new to Anime and haven't seen older series like Getter Robo or Initial D.
Needs more Running in the 90s
After watching this series, I came to the conclusion that Lucky Star is the Sinefeld of Anime. The true series about nothing. You watch these girls go through a single year of High School and their day to day antics. They sub in a few classmates, their teacher, and family members from episode to episode in order to keep things new. Every episode is it's own self contained story. The ending of each episode is done with a quick 4th Wall breaking "Lucky Channel" where they have an Idol character rant about the last episode... at least in the beginning.
Shiraishi is the real star of the show
This is where I think the 7 Episode start is an issue with some people. The show is very slow. The pacing of this series is such that you could fall asleep in the middle of one episode, and wake up to another, and you would be sure if you'd missed anything. It takes a bit to get used to because, even though this is fairly standard for Slice of Life, Lucky Star takes it to the extreme. Take episode 3 for instance, the episode starts off with a 5-7 minute conversation about twins and then eventually makes its way into hair styles. This is about par for most episodes.
Most of Konata's jokes come at Kagami's expense
That isn't to say that this series is bad. Once you get used to the pacing, it's a very relaxing series to watch. If you've seen plenty of older series, you'll find the reference humor on point. Unfortunately, I don't think this series will age very well. As we get further and further away from the series they're referencing, it's very unlikely that newer audiences will have seen these series. The most recent reference series is Haruhi, and even that's not on everyone's watched list.
The Director really loves his Haruhi references
The Dub is really good, and they are able to translate the cultural jokes over very well. The stand out has to be the teacher, Shiraishi, and Akari; their performances are hilarious whenever they're on screen. Over all, Lucky Star is a funny series that will resonate with an older generation of Anime fan going forward.The Box set is fairly standard for Funimation releases. They give you both the DVD and BluRay, the animation quality is about as good as you can get for a series that doesn't have Hi Def scenes and minimalist animation. The extras are minimal so it's really just to have the series. Right now the series is on sale for $45, or you can watch the Sub or Dub on FunimationNow.