Lucky☆Star

Lucky Star is an anime by Kyoto Animation with their shining star Aya Hirano as one of the protagonists.

It's about an otaku gamer by the name of Konata Izumi who goes on with her daily life along with her close friends Tsukasa and Kagami Hiiragi, and Miyuki Takara. The entire series is very slice of life-ish with the highschoolers going on with their daily lives.

That's it. There isn't anything else besides the Lucky Channel segment at the end of the episode. The entire show itself is about highschool girls going on with their lives with various references to other anime and culture. It often also makes use of the voice actors and their previous roles (the most notable one being Konata/Haruhi).

The animation is sorta clean? Backgrounds are low budget but characters themselves are noticeably clean and often detailed better. There are also segments that show an outstanding budget (it's kyoto after all).


To be honest, the entire show is sub par in terms of "story" or "plot." I haven't read the Lucky Star manga but considering how scenes are constructed with a structured build up and gag line, it's very reminiscent of a 4 panel style manga (kinda like Azumanga Daioh!).

Voice acting for the main characters is very well done and there were some surprising performances from not-so-well known voice actors. My main gripe about it is that all background characters that have 1-3 lines are all done by the same person. I get the joke, it's clever, but it's also very annoying. It's clearly obvious is one person but it makes me cringe everytime cause it's purposely poorly done. It's even worse when there are multiple people cause then it's just one guy talking to himself.....


The gem of the show in my opinion has to be the Lucky Channel. The Lucky Channel is a small segment that has direct correlation to the show (except in terms of 4th wall breakage) about an idol that goes by the name of Akira Kogami. She hosts the Lucky Channel segment with a co-host, Minoru Shiraishi. who occasionally appears in the actual show.
The genius of the segment is that Akira is clearly tired of the "idol" life and goes on to show her true colors frequently complaining about the idol life and the expectations. There are also occasional moments when the co-host is talking to the producer.

To be honest, a good portion of me liking this show is the lucky channel because it seems at this point is when the director and script writer shine. The ending themes are also quite amusing to listen to. About halfway through the series, I heard the director was switched and it's very noticeable as the entire episodes "seem" different. I'm not sure if it's because of the source material either, but I was laughing much more often in the latter half of the series.

The music is nothing to astound yourself with. It works fairly well with no real outstanding tracks.


As a final note. Lucky Star is one of the few anime where I'm not really content with some of the voice actors. Particularly those who voiced Kagami's classmates and.... Patricia Martin. They fit, but I still don't like them.