Lucky Star on the surface isn’t really about anything per se. It’s the day to day happenings of 4 school girls with somewhat average lives. What makes Lucky Star great though is not the plot on the surface, but rather; all the obscure references to older anime and parts of Japanese pop-culture. If you haven’t watched a good majority of anime considered to be classic, most if the humor will be over your head. There is references all over the place–it’s like the Family Guy of Japan.
The references are blunt enough to be product placement, but they don’t feel like product placement. The humor of the show is built around all the references in such a way that it wouldn’t feel right without them.
Kanata is probably the most interesting character in the show–she is a huge gaming and manga fanatic and often completely ignores all responsibilities to to play MMOs. She has a huge collection of Manga filling an entire bookshelf and she plays many roleplaying games and…uh…’dating sims’. Dating sims of course being the more work-safe name for H-Games. These dating sims are bought for her by her father…who also plays them. He is a blatant pervert but all of the characters are comically ignorant of it.
Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi are non-identical twins…non-identical in just about every way. Kagami is a very studious and energetic character, while Tsukasa regular sleeps past noon and has to copy Kagami’s notes so she doesn’t fail at school. Kagami has various somewhat Otaku interests, for example; she plays quite a few scrolling shooter games and reads light novels. Kagami is more sensitive about being considered an Otaku for her interests which causes many comedic disputes between her and Konata. Tsukasa, for the most part is outdone by her sister in all aspects, except that she is great at cooking while Kagami is absolutely awful.
Miyuki is moe. Completely and entirely. She is a perfect representation of your stereotypical moe character. She is smart and beautiful yet very naive. Konata very often points out just how moe Miyuki is. She comes from a wealthy family and is very well brought up. She also doesn’t really show any interest in Otaku things. She tends to have more interest in things that are considered more sophisticated, which just adds to the immense moe that she is.
Their teacher Nanako pretends to be strict but in her free time actually plays the same MMO as Konata and is often even in the same party. She is very lax and has many somewhat Otaku interests like gaming. Sheis the eternally single type always complaining about how she needs to find romance.
At the end of every episode there is a quick overview part called Lucky Channel hosted by Akira and Minoro. Minoru is your usual under-confident newbie, while Akira is a jaded, cynical, near has-been idol that’s always verbally abusing Minoru or even having violent outbursts. She is known for throwing her full ashtray at Minoru or threatening to have him replaced.
Lucky Star is a hilarious show, but it has a very specific audience…you really need to be part of that specific otaku crowd to understand the humor. But if you are part of it this series is very much for you. I strongly recommend it if you think you could spot an Initial D or Fullmetal Panic! reference from a mile away.
You can get all sorts of cool Lucky Star stuff at Play-Asia.
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