Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Darkshaunz joins an Esper squad

Readers may recall that I ventured into the world of Lucky Star a while back, sampling the first two episodes with relatively poor enthusiasm for the material. You know what, I’m a jackass, but a nice jackass. So since I feel so saintly recently, I was willing to give Lucky Star a second chance to blow my socks off or knock me cold. I marathoned my way, trawling to yet more and more trivial crap which I experience from day to day, regurgitated to me in the form of some bizzare pseudo-moe character design. Like some drug addict, I felt repulsed with the content, but needed moar as well. On the plus side, hearing Hirano’s Haruhi voice again is very very refreshing. For my pants.

The master observes the new arrivals.

Haruhi Season 2 is going to be a stellar success

It is, believe me. I mean, just look at episode 16 in it’s entirety, if you thought you have seen long advertisements, try half an episode’s worth of floating the MoHS series. Now, they didn’t have to push hard for someone like me to like Haruhi the series. I personally enjoyed it immensely, and I know Rets got a boner everytime Haruhi opened her mouth or batted her eyes. Not according to the Kyoto Animation marketing team, they had to hawk the living shit out of Haruhi in episode 16. Some readers reading this will say, “It’s called Parodying/Referencing lol, you nub!”. Not when there’s a Haruhi wallpaper in Konata’s phone (I need to get one of Rukia for mine), and not when the whole maid cafe stint was a massive Haruhi advert. Leaving me with a facial expression of Kagami’s “Yare-Yare” kind.

Buy the Haruhi Artbooks!

Buy the Mikuru Maid Costume PVC!

Execution wise, I’ll admit it was done in an awesome way. The way Kyon ordered his food and gave Yuki “Permission” was a nice nod to my favourite episode in MoHS (I still rewatch it from time to time). Also, its perfectly logical that Konata assumes the role of Haruhi in their MoHS themed cafe, what with Aya’s aura charming all the male viewers into a feeding frenzy. Yes, I enjoyed the whole erratic/spontaneous changing of Aya’s voice from indifferent Konata to spontaneous Haruhi, when Kagami was ordering her food. It was all ridiculously well done. The problem was, this was all Haruhi material that they merely recycled, the reason it’s good, is because it came from an awesome script. Although Lucky Star is meant to adopt a “Seinfeld” structure for an anime, with disjointed “inferred” plots here and there, it really wheezes when compared to MoHS, her shorter yet much sweeter cousin series.

Sounds like a brothel almost…..I’ll take 4 hours.

I need to go to one of these cafes in Japan.

Agreed.

What has changed since I first saw Lucky Star?

General structure-wise, Nothing. They still talk about things in each episode which you instantly forget about after the episode finishes. Wait, that’s a lie, I will never forget about Konata talking about that fucking Chocolate Coronet for like fifteen minutes. No matter how many times I dip my head in a bucket full of nails, the pain from that experience will never dim away. After each episode, I am left wondering, why would they wreck their already somewhat forgettable material with the Lucky Channel segment? Although I enjoyed the first two segments in my earlier entry, I must admit that fourteen more segments of the same old shit sure gets tiring. I think a lot of people will agree with me here when I say we’d rather see Konata trolling some Japanese forums or even Kagami scolding Konata as opposed to two “pretend” idols duke it out for the remainder for the show. That said, Akira is still an awesome character, I just wish they could a different spin on her each episode, not just Cutesy to Insane psycho bitch mode.

Me on the right.

Content-wise, there’s been a welcome change. This would be the arrival of Konata’s younger cousin (Yu-chan, as her Otaku comrade hails her) and the introduction of a Rei-Clone to the series. However, instead of the typical bluish-gray tone type of hair, she’s sporting green hair. She’s perhaps more of a tribute to Eureka from Eureka Seven. Aside from this, Lucky Star suffers from the typical MMORPG game syndrome, whereby the heroes establish their identities, then wander around the game world aimlessly searching for meaning and reason behind every little thing in the world and “attacking” issues till they “Die” before ultimately realizing that they’ve really achieved nothing. That’s how it is for me, watching the show is like Grinding for my shiny new +3 to Otakuism bunny ears, but for some reason, this game’s XP curve is so fucking ridiculous, I don’t feel like I’ve levelled up enough even to leave the starting zones.

New content GET! The Rei-clone is quite delicious.

“Wait a minute Shaunz, why are you watching this again?”

You know when you are eating a bag of snacks, let’s say BBQ-flavoured chips. The first twenty pieces are really delicious and you kind of mow them down with awesome fury, but the next twenty become a kind of “It’s nice, but it’s boring now” affair. The last ten pieces, you have finish or else you picture yourself spitting at the general direction of starving african children (Haruhi bless their souls). That’s my take on Lucky Star I think, but instead of starting off delicious, it’s the bag of chips which you opened realizing that this flavour is your brother’s or sister’s favourite, not yours. But since you opened it, you’re kinda self-forced into flavouring the goods anyway. The novelty of the taste difference is sharply pleasant at the start, but then you convince yourself you’d rather soak your mouth in petrol than try that ever again.

This would be the flavour I tasted many times before, but I want something new!

Okay okay, I secretly liked this a lot.

Petrol eh? So why is it that I trawled through fifteen bouts of petrol tasting? I could have just bailed on the first two tastings, but instead I went and emptied the barrel. Lucky Star has a strange draw, it’s the girl which I convinced myself is a bitch back in high school, but in the process, got myself worked up over till the point I can’t stop thinking about her. I need my fix of Kagami. I need my fix of Konata, and I am left wondering why, oh why, strangely decent and entertaining characters are stuck in an anime where after each episode, I feel the need to go to the Universal Time Bank Society and ask for a Temporal Refund for time not spent doing something else. I suspect this is the case with most Lucky Star fans, though I am not a “fan” (obviously), as viewers we are drawn to the concept of playing roulette in our heads as to what Konata and friends will be discussing in their daily prattles this time around. I guess as long as it’s not on food, I am a Bad enough dude to withstand whatever they throw at me.

TETSUOOOOOOOOO!!!

KANEDAAAAAAAAAA!!!

How to make Lucky Star better?

I have a great idea which will not fail at all. They should stop calling it Lucky Star, and call it the Melancholy of Konata Izumi. Then, they should make Hirano Aya do her Haruhi voice for Konata, because Konata’s voice sounds like Hirano Aya’s upper lip is devouring her lower lip for talking space. After this, they should get rid of Miyuki and Tsukasa and make it a hardcore lesbian anime involving Kagami being extremely Tsundere whenever Haruh-I mean Konata walks into the classroom with her trademark orange ribbons and SOS-Bridage Arm Sash, sex is optional (cough). Also, I want a dancing portion of the ED as well, not some Karaoke crap. That way, I can download the latest Lucky Star episode and just watch the OP and ED and finally give it a score above “This shit sucks” out of Ten. Oh, and keep Konata’s Older cousin (the Policewoman), in her “Initial-D” parody face, because not only does she look Takumi-awesome, but her car looks fucking badass that way too. Initial-D makes everything better, like boobs.

Where’s Itsuki? Kyon is just asking for Buttsecks right there.

Why didn’t they introduce Yuki Nagato? Maybe its because its the REAL her.

With all that said, I do believe that I can persevere and give you guys another update when the series is about to draw to a close, and we are all hyped up for Haruhi season 2 (see: Instant hit). This just in- According to Rets, there’s yet another Haruhi “reference*COUGH ADVERT*” in episode 17, apparently our Goddess appears on the cover of the comic which Konata is reading. There wasn’t any Bleach last week, so you guys escape my flailing anger of that this time, but I believe Aizen-hairstyling begins this week, in which case, I will all over it like a Rat hungry for Hueco Mondo tablescraps. In the meantime, make sure all of you go out and buy Haruhi R1 DvDs, order some Mikuru figurines and go dine in a MoHS themed cafe. Just Do It.

In case you forgot.

Cheers,

Darkshaunz