Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion of Lucky Star?

Question:
What do you think of Lucky Star?

Answer:
I’ve purposely delayed addressing this question for a while in order to allow myself more time to watch more of the Lucky Star television series, and compose my thoughts on it. I’ve now watched the first six episodes of the series. I think I’ve gotten over my initial reactions and have developed a considered opinion based on reflection and analysis. This is my personal opinion. From an objective stance, it may be wrong in part or whole, but I think and hope that it’s accurate. Furthermore, it’s not my wish to insult anyone with general observations I make.

After watching a half-dozen episodes of Lucky Star, I’ve come to the conclusion that the show isn’t exactly like school comedies like Azumanga Daioh, School Rumble, and Sensei no Ojikan. Those shows are designed as overt comedies. Lucky Star isn’t literally an iyashikei (healing) anime like Aria the Animation, Bartender, or Binchoutan, but it may have more similarity to iyashikei anime than school comedies like Azumanga Daioh. I think that Lucky Star falls into the same category as titles including Galaxy Angel and Paniponi Dash. Lucky Star is a humorous, seemingly superficial program that’s relaxing because it doesn’t deeply engage viewers or create affecting empathy with viewers. Lucky Star is a show that viewers can unwind with.

Unlike Azumanga Daioh and School Rumble – series that developed eccentric character-based humor, Lucky Star employs more conventional, predictable humor culled from realistic, conventional reactions. On one hand, the straightforwardness and simplicity of Lucky Star’s humor makes the series feel less witty and less engaging than other school comedies like Azumanga Daioh and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. But Lucky Star’s conventional humor also makes the show easy to watch; the series doesn’t require a lot of psychological or intellectual investment. My initial reaction to the series was disappointment that it wasn’t outrageously funny. Upon consideration, I realize that the program isn’t designed to be outr&eacute or unpredictable. It’s intentionally simple, conventional, and accessible.

Moving to some specifics, I appreciate the show’s tendency to include sight gags and in-joke references to other anime, but I’m disappointed that the series sometimes overtly names out its references. I’ve always found that referential sight gags are more effective when they allow the viewer to discover them, rather than literally explain them to viewers. Furthermore, I initially thought that the references to earlier Kyoto Animation productions – particularly Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu? and Suzumiya Haruhi – were amusing until their abundance started to feel excessive. The Lucky Star anime really seems to straddle a line between referential humor and shameless self-promotion for its production studio. Finally, I think that the closing “Lucky Channel” segments were amusing during the first one or two episodes, but the humor of cheerful idol Akira exposing her true, cynical personality has already grown stale by six episodes. The inclusion of a “Lucky Channel” segment in every episode feels extremely redundant and reduces time viewers could spend with the more diverse and more amusing series’ primary cast.

The most fascinating, and most popular, part of Lucky Star is undeniably its amazing opening animation sequence. As if the animators realized that the body of the show didn’t allow for displays of exceptional animation quality, the opening animation feels a bit egoistic. But despite its extravagant flamboyance, the opening animation sequence is utterly captivating and very technically impressive. In fact, the opening animation is so popular that it’s been parodied countless times. I’ve already seen parody versions of the Lucky Star opening featuring Higurashi no Naku Kono Ni, Death Note, Dragon Ball Z, Rockman, Suzumiya Haruhi, Gundam plamo, and even Michael Jackson! The amazing popularity of the Lucky Star opening animation caused me to consider exactly what makes it so successful. I’ve reached the conclusion that the Lucky Star opening is tremendously popular because there’s more to it than meets the eye.

I think that the Lucky Star opening subtly represents a number of contemporary Japanese attitudes, which makes it particularly appealing to Japanese anime fans. The opening features, of course, cute dancing girls, which is always sure to attract attention. The opening also features an insidiously catch pop song. More importantly, the opening animation exhibits the highly choreographed group dancing which has been popular in Japan for a number of years. Throughout the opening sequence, characters are almost always depicted in groups. The girls dance together in synch, viewers see them walking together, talking together, and posing together. These instances may represent the contemporary Japanese philosophy of community and solidarity. Note that during the only scene in the opening animation that includes a male character, the male character is separated from the pair of female characters, seemingly reinforcing a de facto segregation: boys congregate with other boys, girls with other girls. I’m also reminded that Konata’s “Da Da Da Da Da” finger-pointing scene in the opening animation is identical to what Guu does in the ending animation of the Hare Nochi Guu Deluxe OVA series. Guu and Konata are both acerbic characters prone to blunt atypically Japanese criticism. Furthermore, Konata is an otaku with a predilection for online games. She seems like a role model for Japanese otaku. Particularly her finger-pointing in the opening animation reminds me of the blunt criticism and ASCII characters that Japanese otaku post on anonymous internet message boards. Konata is able to proudly criticize and literally, aggressively point at something. Such finger pointing may be considered rude in real life Japanese society, so in the otaku community, it’s done anonymously through message boards. Reinforcing the idea that Konata represents the sort of shameless otaku that Japanese viewers aspire to be, in the episodes she makes observations about Japanese otaku – particularly the collector mentality and the tendency to be lured by the phrase “limited edition.” The Lucky Star opening animation exhibits the sort of exuberance, collective security and happiness, and self-assuredness that Japanese viewers wish for. (Once again, I want to emphasize that this is just an observation. I don’t wish it to seem like a criticism.) If the Lucky Star opening does indeed subtly or even subconsciously illustrate and emphasize these uniquely Japanese psychological tendencies, that may explain why the opening sequence is so wildly popular, overshadowing even the body of the show itself.