Ok, as some of you know I constantly make fun of Lucky Star and call it crap, and Smokie loves it and thinks I'm wrong, so we made a bet.

I have to watch 13 episodes of Lucky Star, and if I objectively decide that it has merrit it gets shown at AP. If I hate it, he makes up for the time of my life I lost watching it by staffing for me for that time.


I'm going to keep a log here of my thoughts.

Episode 1

This is easily the least plesant half hour of anime I've ever seen. Everything about this is horrible. It's trying SO HARD to be adorable it hurts. Between the little kitten-ball thing on the eyecatches, the girls talking about eating food, and everything else, it just fails. Nothing has ever failed has hard as this episode. Stop trying to be Azumanga Daioh, you will NEVER be azumanga daioh. Also, if I hear the word "Moe" one more time I'm stabbing someone. No one cool likes moe. Moe is sick degenerate bullshit for fat-ass pedophile anime fans who want to sit at home all day alone but still feel like they are part of a culture, pretend to have played Street Fighter 2 when they haven't, like Keroro Gunsou because their supposed to, and masturbate constantly to 9 year olds who CLAIM to be in highschool.

Im short:
Waves of stupid filled the seas of suck.

episode 2

This one wasn't so teeth drillingly bad like the first episode (though they did talk about getting teeth drilled. There was one decent sight gag, where it showed the difference made by waking up early between two twins.

Still tried way too hard though, and with no results. There were a lot of terribly constructed scenes as well, like the staring contest which was unforgivably lame.
It seems a lot of the segments had potential, but it was lost to poor direction or writing, like the Konata having a job thing could have been kind of funny if they took it a little more over the top and put some passion into it. This whole series seems to lack energy, which is no good as it leaves the viewer feeling drained.

I'm kind of conflicted, as at one part they briefly played a parody of Active Heart (the Gunbuster opening) with Nurse With Kogumi, a drill robot, and the Excellion (also from Gunbuster). On one hand I love Gunbuster, and were this a gainax anime would welcome the Excellion, but I sort of feel like neither the creators nor (especially nor) the show have earned what it takes to referance Gunbuster (or Gainax in general).

Looking foreward to reading your thoughts on it. ^_^ (And enjoying the ones already here)

An interesting bet, should be fun to see how it ends. Also I agree with yuffie, this will be interesting to read. :D

Mike, just try your best to get through them all.

Mike I already told you episode 1 was bad. It does get better though little by little. Episode 6 was what finally convinced me I would keep watching it.

Also I don't love the series. I merely like it and think most people are too hard on it. Is it for everyone? No. Does that mean it a show made just for pedos? No. The truth lies somewhere in between.

I'm watching it aren't I?

Episode 3:

I made the mistake of waiting to write my review of it, and therefore have forgotten what happened in the episode. That is sort of a review in and of itself though.

I really hope the lucky channel thing changes format soon. Three times in a row they've done the same stupid joke, and it's going to get old fast if they don't go somewhere new with it.

I'm also thinking that this show would be a lot better if each episode had a little more continuity, and possibly a plot. I get the impression that this was made by a bunch of anime types in japan who wrote down every simple conversation or stupid thought they had for a year then made a show of it.

Episode 4

This one hit a little close to home, as it followed the girls NOT studying for an exam. Having a single plot device for more than half the episode helped a lot, and made for a much more enjoyable (and less disorienting) watch.


One thing that is sort of bugging me though is how much they referance FMP. They did that in Haruhi too, and it bugs me. FMP isn't terrible, in fact I rather like it, but it is NOT some monumental, revolutionary, or even notable anime. It would be like constantly referancing Witch Hunter Robin or something. Yeah people have seen it, but no one gives a shit. They act like they had some big hit with it, and that we should all be like "Oh look, they're talking about fumoffu!! This is great, I loved that show!". Honestly, the arrogance of this studio is despicable.

Coming from the man whose favorite studio is going to bring us Puchi Eva EVANGELION@School.

Which looks AWESOME!! Seriously, have you looked into it yet?

Seriously, Gainax has earned the right to self referance the hell out of themselves because they redefine every genre they touch!

Gainax made Eva, the show that nearly destroyed Super Robots forever, perminantly scarred anime fandom and sent it in a new direction, is STILL the source of CONSTANT debate amung fans, and is far and away the most commercially successful piece of media ever created in Japan, with the single exception of Sanrio.
FMP is a Giant Robot show about magic and panties.


Fuck it: Rant extended!

Wings of the Honneamise - brought anime to adults, something that nausicaa didn't even do. Nausicaa was what first got anime recognized as a legitimate artform in Japan, but saw little international success and even domestically (though very popular) was still primarily seen as a family film. Wings not only founded Bandai's animation division (can we all give them a big THANK YOU for that!), but also was the first major title launched in Japan to be extremely well recieved by an adult-only market. It also got quite a bit of attention outside of japan in the independant film communities and at film festivals and is what planted the opinions on anime the Akira would later cement in western minds (which was extremely benificial to animes eventual popularity in the west).

Gunbuster - enough fucking said. Created the genre of the OAV, blew more minds and spilled more tears than just about anything else to date. Managed to both parody Shoujo manga and exemplify super robots all in one glorious 3 hour period.

Nadia - still one of the most beloved serieses in Japan. Took the confines of a really stupid kids series and by episode 4 left them shattered and raped. Still one of the best, and most enjoyable shows I've seen. Nearly got Gainax sued out of existance by NHK.

Otaku no video - the definitive otaku documentary. Bittersweet yet funny. Tragic yet inspiring.

-Long dark period of failure and poverty-

Eva - see above.

Kare Kano - Took an already excellent shoujo romance and pushed it beyond its limits into a dark and scary place, so much so that the original mangaka pulled the plug because it was CLEARLY no longer her work.

FLCL - need I say more?

Mahoromatic - people have killed themselves after seeing the last 2 episodes.

Abenobashi - another glorious gainax suckerpunch at the end of an otherwise enjoyable series, chocked full of otakuy goodness.

Melody of Oblivion - Didn't really push any envelopes, but I actually did enjoy it. Visually it was pretty powerful, and the setting was cool, but past that it wasn't revolutionary. It did cause a restoration in Saint Seiya and Samunrai Troopers popularity amung fans though.

This Ugly and Beautiful world - meh, not amazing. Still though, it ended in a gainax way, rather than how a lot of studios would have ended it.

He is my Master - Codi looks damn fine when she cosplays as Izumi, that's all I'm going to say.

Gurren fucking Lagann - Not sure if it's the best super robot show ever, or the worst giant robot show ever, but holy fucking shit, HOLY FUCKING SHIT!


Now, why Kyoto animation doesn't have the right:

1) Half of what they do are dating sim anime. Air, Kanon, and Clannad are all based off of "visual novels". Don't get me wrong, they aren't bad titles if you're into that sort of thing, but they aren't doing their own stories, and they aren't doing anything new and revolutionary.

2) As stated before, FMP is a giant robot show that is about magic and panties. Giant robots are supposed to make sense. Panties are always welcome, but should never be as much of a focus of the show as they are in FMP. It was a show that had a lot of potential, a great cast, and a decent setting, which I sort of feel all went to waste. I was really excited when it came out, so don't go saying I'm biased, it would be more correct to say I'm heartbroken over the loss of what should have been a good show.
Fumoffu... what the fuck
Second Raid might be cool, but Kyoto wasn't actually all that involved in its production.

Lucky Star - verdict undetermined. See above (and below) for commontary.

Haruhi no Yuutsu - A pretty solid show, I enjoyed it a lot, though I don't think it was too spectacular, and the ending was shit. I sort of consider it to be the modern day Tenchi (which is a compliment).

As for why it bugs me so much when Kyoto tries to referance stuff, it's because they clearly don't get it. They aren't otaku, they are a pastich of otaku, they are the meta otaku, they are aware of the otaku stereotypes without having been there themselves. Gainax gets it. Gainax was there. They were a college sci-fi club that founded a sci-fi con then went on to create their own stuff. They are the hardcore fans. I don't beleive for a second that Kyoto is staffed by serious fans. Watching what they referance and why they referance it, I get the overwheling impression that they are just trying to make money off otaku by playing to what we are supposed to like.
"Oh, it's a moe stereotype, aniem fans will eat this up!" "Oh, dating sims, anime fans love that shit!", etc. Referancing Yamto doesn't mean you understand fans, it's HOW you referance the Yamato.

Compare Abenobashi to Lucky Star, and any experienced fan will see the difference. Fandom at its core is, and has always been, about respecting art. Yeah, we get carried away and make jokes about hentai, or moe, or lolicon, or whatever, and from the outside it's all you'll see, but anyone who was actually a fan would know the superficial from the core. Kyoto has never referanced beyond the superficial. Lucky for them there are enough piece-of-shit worthless meta-fans out there that they can get away with it.

Yeah I'm actually looking forward to Puchi Eva. I haven't seen much info on it but it does look like it will be fun. That or Gainax is setting us up for some new unexpected kind of mind fuck.

And Gurren Lagann is one of those things that blurs the line between real robot and super robot. Hell lets just call it Awesome Robot a genre of its fucking own.

I agree with you I won't totally respect KyoAni till I see an awesome original work from them but their rise to the top has been impressive. They do good work. They go from unknown to common otaku vocabulary in a few years. Thats not an easy feat.

However Mike, Lucky Star is based on a 4 koma strip hence the way some of the episodes run. Not the easiest thing to make a show out of.

Also in your Gainax list I did not see Daicon 3 and most importantly Daicon 4.WTF! :o

I was only looking at major works and serieses. I also didn't note all the stuff they were commissioned to do.

Overlooking Daicon IV and the origin of "the bounce" is a sin Mike. I'm pretty sure you're going to Hell now. And you have AIDS.

The first episode wasn't even worth putting in the bad anime room.

God Damn It! It has been established that episode one sucks ass.

I've already said that it doesn't start to get really good until episode 6 so there was no need to point out the obvious.

I don't even want Mike to show it at the con. If he did want to show a moe anime I'd rather they put on Manabi Straight in the video room.

Does anyone else find it out that a thirteen episode series doesn't, apparantly, get good until episode six?

THAT'S HALF OF THE FREAKING SERIES. Shit, I've gotten fed up at 26 ep series before because they've had three or four useless, stupid, waste-of-time episodes (GunxSword, Trinity Blood, et cetera,) and here you're saying that I'd have to watch half of the thing to get to the good stuff?

Hell no. I'm glad Mike took the bet and not me XD

Its a 24 episode series Lothlin. Mike is just watching the 1st 13 of them. He only wanted to watch 12 but since episode one is a wash I wanted episode 13 to be my ace in the hole. And shit some of Lucky Star as its worst is better than the past 4 or 5 episodes of Naruto which may be exceeding the DBZ level of dragging shit out.

Well, that's a bit more reasonable then. Not excellent, but not half of the series.

I can excuse series as long-running as Naruto a few crappy episodes (or even a crappy filler arc,) because most of those I can stand to skip those episodes and just read the relevant manga. I just can't get into short series that are mostly crap.

The first 4 episodes had a different director. Except for episode 1 they are halfway decent. Just not as good as episode 5 onwards. Episode 6 is special because it has a really funny parody of Initial D and is where things really start getting good.

Ep 5

Lucky channel didn't follow the same cookie cutter mold this time, but alas it still sucked. Most of the episode was lame, lots of jokes that probably wouldn't have been funny even if I did like MMOs.
The one thing I did think was funny was them playing with the fan, something I still do as well. Alas, a 25 second segment is not enough to save the show. I'm rather amazed by how acurately I can guess what a new character is going to say or act like before they even have any lines.

Edit - Hearing Konata sing Cha la Head Cha la worse than me was kind of funny.

Ep 6

Because waiting to the end of the episode to do the review usually means that I forget half the episode (again, whose fault is that, show I'm doing this one in real time.

Hey, it's the vacation episode! I remember this from Azumanga Daioh! Let me guess, one of them will be a psycho driver, and the other will on the surface be alright but then will be sort of crappy in her own way. Oh, and of course it makes perfect sence that the teacher is taking them on their vacation.

Oh, initial D parody, complete with gutterdrop! (Of course, my predictions were damn close...)

Man, I hope this is the kind of vacation that ends in the highschool girls exploring their sexuality, or at least with a hotsprings or something.

YES!! BATHHOUSE!! This can only go good places!!
oooh... lotion.

Oh. the girls are but specks on the screen, and one of them is lecturing us on how hair gets damaged at the beach. This is fucking gay.
Oh wait, more skin time, surely something will be seen.

Now I'd like to bring up that the one surefire way to turn a guy off is to talk about your period. This holds true even for teenage japanese twins taking a bath together. Fuck this show.

But it takes slice of life to whole new levels!

As for sensei taking them on vacation come on Mike its a convenience thing. Lots of animes pull stunts like that.

but we've met the characters parents!!

Sadly they are safer going with sensei than Konata's dad or even Miyuki's mom.

I meant the twins. We've seen both their parents, they seem nice.

True but we rarely see them. Also they did have 4 kids it cost a lot to raise a family that size so I imagine they both might have to work.

It's anime, and not a well planned one at that! Both twins have their own room, I think they have money.

But you're right, it makes much more sense for the local police officer and the school teacher to take just 4 students to a hotel.

Real time reviewing was fun. Episode 7

This episode has failed to make an impression on me one way or the other. It's hard to say, but I think that means the shows quality is improving.

Ok, I take that back, I'm getting really annoyed with Konata as a character. Yeah, we get it, she likes games and anime. If you're going to use that attribute to make jokes, could said attribute not ALWAYS be the punchline!

I liked how Lucky Channel started this time, though as seems to be the case with this show they started somewhere with potential and never actually took it anywhere.

Well the police officer is Konata's cousin so thats OK. I think you will even admit that. As for sensei.......it is an anime after all. Besides I like Kuroi-sensei. In a way she reminds me of Misato. Don't know why other than the fact they are both single and always the bridesmaid never the bride. I guess Misato is also a teacher in Angelic Days, Shinji Ikari Raising Project and Puchi Eva so thats something they have in common.

Also that one happy episode of Eva with the "Yui alive" alternate reality

Episode 8:

Rather than review this episode and be forced to do the same things over and over again (like a certain show does) I'm going to complain about Lucky Star in another way. While picking up the latest Gurren Lagann at the Toshokan, I saw a lucky star hentai torrent, so I got it.

Fucking worthless. Just like the show the doujinshi was a lot of cliches without a lot of action. It was basically just Akira in different stereotypical costumes (the schoolgirl, the swimsuit, gym clothes, etc.) No sex, not even any nudity. Yet another disappointment, Lucky Star. You don't even have good porn, WTF!

Yeah I agree that was pretty bad in the old porn department. There were some others that were a bit better and actually porn. Still typical doujinshi fare though.

I found a couple REALLY bad dickgirl ones (and one of them was just fucking terrible) but yeah... pretty lame.

You can't blame KyoAni for doujin manga though Mike.

Still just keep watching. Episode 8 is decent.

This is just amusing to read.

You really think Lucky Star is about animation?

I watch it, and all I can think about is the fat obnoxious people who will force loud laughs at the spots you're supposed to. It's like, I can see the punchline to their jokes, they even leave pauses for you to laugh in, but I can't imagine anyone with a critical mindset or an actual appreciation for animation laughing at it. I reiterate, this show is for people who think they understand not a genre, but a culture, when really they are just posers.

Poser loosers, is there anything more pathetic?

BTW, I finished episode 9. Nothing of note to report that I haven't already said. Lucky Channel is absolute shit. Could have been funny, but lack of inspiration, writing, and directing has effectively killed it. All the characters are bland and uninteresting, and unless I was one of those worthless cunts who thinks that anything involving Akihabara or its related cultures is glorious I can't imagine this show bringing me the slightest fulfilment. It brings nothing to the table, it isn't funny, and it isn't even well directed. It's like Megatokyo except it has a fan-base.

All that talk about Lucky Star porn made me want to show you this article I found today.

Lucky Star, the Adult Movie

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: No pr0nz actually in article, k.

Jeansnow RSS had this video linked.

Anime GTA, starring those... twins from Lucky Star.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KYfAU7eXNU

Episode 11.

Nothing significant to say about this episode. As with most, some of the jokes would have been pretty funny if handled better, but they weren't.