Anime Review: Lucky Star

Kristy Unangst, '10

 Japanese animated shows are becoming highly popular in America.

Ranging from action to horror, from school kids to magic, from romance to drama, and from giant robots to science-fiction, there are plenty of different genres of anime series out there to watch and enjoy. One of the most popular genres of anime and movies alike: comedy. Out of all the thousands of comedy anime series that are being released in America this very moment, one specifically caught my eye. This series is titled Lucky Star.

There are loads of characters in this amazingly funny and adorable series, the main characters being Konata Izumi, the blue-haired green-eyed enthusiast of anime and video games, Miyuki Takara, the ever so sweet illustration of innocence (she gets it from her mother) with glasses, and the twins, Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi. Konata is the athletic and smart-witted main character who, despite these attributes, is not in a sports club and has low grades. She always seems to find ways to mix reality with her ideals of gaming and anime, which more than once irritates her friend

Kagami, who is slowly being dragged into Kanata’s world of anime and manga. Miyuki is the pure manifestation of clumsiness and information all packed in an innocent girl. She often answers all of the girls’ questions and gives us all something to laugh at. Don’t forget little Tsukasa, the younger sister of Kagami. This little cutie is a little slow on certain aspects and is easily amused with the simplest of things, which she gets teased for.

Lucky Star presents to its viewers a story of young high school girls who seem to have plenty of time to chat with each other about school and silliness. This series is generally geared towards those who enjoy “loli”, aka children-like anime, but it contains things that you don’t usually take the time to think about and realize. Simple subjects from cramming for assignments after breaks and doing your homework to how you eat your food are often shown throughout this series.

Rare to most other series, this anime brings into play the issues on video gamming among the youth and how they handle it. It also uses other anime series for conversations among the main characters, such as the ever so popular Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (which by the way, the voice actor for Konata is also the voice actor for the main character of Haruhi Suzumiya) and some other various anime. At the end of every episode there is a mini segment called Lucky Channel, staring hyper little Akira Kogami and her assistant Minoru Shiriashi to speak of events and characters introduced into the anime.

One of the best things also about this series is that the ending theme song is never the same. Our favorite characters do some karaoke to some songs from anime, old live action series and other popular songs.

Should you watch this anime? If comedy dealing with school girls going throughout their daily lives is what you like, I highly recommend it. Really, how can someone not fall in love with the utterly political incorrectness of this series?