Thoughts
A mediocre ending to a mediocre anime.
The Motekke Serafuku dance was supposed to be the epic finale for the show, but it didn’t have the same effect on me as the first time I watched “God Knows” or the Lucky Star OP.
There are a bunch of things that I liked about Lucky Star:
There are also many things I learned from Lucky Star:
Many people call Lucky Star “the greatest anime ever made”. But in my opinion, Kyo Ani could have done a lot better. After the first six or seven episodes Lucky Star really started to plummet. Half the portion of time was spent on pointless dialog that I’ve either heard before or don’t care about while the other half was spent on referencing Haruhi. Some redeeming points included the Comiket episode, Kagami having a fight with her sister and the story on Kanata. However, it lacked the energy and humor of the first couple of episodes.
All and all, I don’t think that Kyo Ani is suited for 4-koma type anime, leave those to SHAFT. Instead, Kyo Ani should focus more on the action/romance genres. FMP, Haruhi and Kanon were all spectacular but Lucky Star was a bit below my expectations. Perhaps they shouldn’t have made such an awesome OP. It set the bar really really high and they couldn’t keep up with that. But I do not regret watching Lucky Star at all and in fact enjoyed it for the most part.
Now that LS is done its time for some CLANNAD. :)
Kagamin ftw.
-exo
close ups of konata and kagami this episode were too moe for me. I had more nosebleeds than Ikuto + Keitaro.
haha XD!! cant wait for Clannad . :s so happy they did the dance and it was a coo lending like a final fantasy thingy :X
I’m so glad that someone gave a constructive review, instead of going gaw-gaw over the massive fan-service parts.
The focus on moe-ness, instead of subverting them really threw the series off, instead of the direction that I expected — serious character development.
I had expected that one yuri/yaoi-drawing fangirl to grow a little more sensitive to the dignity of her subjects, and especially her friends… but she kept having repetitive moral dilemma that never got anywhere.
I had wished someone in Miyuki’s class would recognize her for her brilliant idea, and build upon it, but instead they just went for the generic idea. Sure, it happens all the time, but the characters acted as if it was the right choice… as is Miyuki’s idea wouldn’t be able to go anywhere… in a festival celebrating and teaching about culture?
Yutaka was pretty good… that one girl focused too much on her breasts, to the point where she had a worse self-concept than Shinji, but Miyuki’s mother’s unintentional harassment of her was pretty funny… but none of those good, sincerely funny/cute parts had anything to do with her smaller-than-average breasts. Look at Haruno Sakura; she’s gorgeous. She is too, but no one comments on her actual beauty except Yutaka, but she’s too “small” for anyone to listen to.
Too much focus on Patty; almost-cliché have-to-include foreigner, with no depth. She even proudly and blatantly, and smugly, admits to not knowing anything more about Japanese culture more than the animé industry, about which she barely knows in itself. (she avoids seriously good series, and goes straight for the fan-fav series)
There wasn’t anything spectacular about the closing dance, even without considering the fact that it was completely fanservice. It didn’t have anything special animation-wise, with the only thing going for it is “consistent style”, which any and all shounen movies achieve. Doesn’t mean they’re good, thing.
People who said that these last few episodes were “extremely well-balanced” would probably prefer chicken broth over the soup… since it is “balanced”, but balance isn’t very hard to achieve, given absolutely no substance. Which the ending episodes didn’t have.
Sorry to rant on your website, but I needed to get this out sometime. Thanks again for actually having a constructive criticism on what was only completely, and aggressively hated, or passively adored.
@Aaron – Haha np. I’m glad there are some people that aren’t caught up in the hype. Kyo Ani has a lot of potential. Hopefully Clannad will prove to be better.
I would also like the add that the manga is very good, and is clean of all the animé filler-feeling content.
The mangaka’s drawing style is also a lot cooler, and matured. :) XLG is scanlating it.
Oh, and I liked both Kagami and Yutaka equally, for different respective reasons. I liked Kagami because she was very smart, strong, and outspoken. I liked Yutaka because she was very feminine and innocent. (not in a pedo way) (I am her age, anyway)
I liked Konata because of Hirano Aya. I love Hirano Aya!
I liked Kagami because she was tsundere. I love tsundere!
I liked Tsukasa because she made the show moar funny. I love balsamic vinegar!
I liked that flat chested girl… I forgetted her name. I love Chihara Minorin!
I liked Yui-neesan because she reminded me of my friend. She somehow got into Sophia University in Japan… so, I guess she doesn’t remind me of the Lucky Star Yui anymore.
I liked Kuroi-sensei because she reminded me that it’s okay to be addicted to video games, even if servers are down due to maintenence.
Interesting to see someone giving the show a neutral review. Most people are either rabidly in love with it, or hate even the mention of its name.
While I’m definitely one of the former, I can appreciate that not everyone loves that kind of humor.
And I do agree that KyoAni is better suited to more action oriented shows, although I thought they did a fine job with this one.
Anyway, nice to see someone who doesn’t get caught up in the hype, but also doesn’t feel like they need to diss the show just because it’s ridiculously popular. :P
Although I completly disagree about Lucky star being ‘a mediocre anime’ I can understand how you feel concerning the rest of your review and in fact I agree with most of it… and yes , we need more FMP!
Aaron , some of criticisms are valid but I feel you are being overly harsh on a lot of the characters and analysing the show far too much. Yes there are shows which can be analysed in such detail , but Lucky Star is more a light hearted anime with no real objective other than to provide us with a comical version of Japanese High school life. I found it was much better to actually sit and enjoy the show, than examine the faults and sucking all fun (IMO) from it. You seem to play ‘devil’s advocate’ as it, were concentrating on the small pocket of perceived problems – I believe that the constant comical and yes fan service outweigh the downsides of this production.
Overall I would say this show scores a good 8.5/10
-1 for Haruhi ( as there were too many refs)
-0.5 as the ending could have been a little longer ( like 3 min to show everyone’s reactions and to show the characters’ later lives)
Ups of this show IMO
-Constantly had comical moments throughout ( I didn’t really think they got old)
-Some heart warming episodes later on , thrown in with the humour ( Kagami and her sister , Konata’s mum etc).
-Excellent variety of characters
-Referances to other animes ( FMP for eg.) but not on such a large scale ( cept. Haruhi) which were well placed and unpredictable.
-Random nature of the show and pointless dialogue which despite it being pointless continued to hold my interest.
-The Shirashi Minoru endings which were hilarious and developed briallantly.
i wish it could go on i hated that it had to end and im still very sad that it had to