hontou ni » Lucky Star

Lucky Star OVA

Zyl — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:29:14 +0000

For me, this OVA confirms what an excellent choice Katou Emiri was for the role of Kagamin. Her lovely chemistry with Hirano Aya's Konata doesn't count against her either. Ahaha~♥

Visually, my favourite sequence was the transformations of Kagami, in rapid succession, into KagaMeido, KagaMiko, KagaRin and KagaMiku. More comprehensive series of caps over at Kurogane's post. Her twintails just make her perfect for the latter two.

But, as a whole, I enjoyed the above sequence most. Misao says: 'Love!' as she embraces Kagami and I've always enjoyed the two contrasts of, firstly, how she admires Kagami but Kagami doesn't seem to care very much and, secondly, how Misao resents how Kagami values Konata's friendship. Kagami's transition from her initially curt responses of 'Shaddup!' and 'Don't touch me!' to her more extended outburst of 'I'm not here to take part in the martial arts battle! I don't want to be your bride!' was just LOL as was her denial that she was being tsundere.

Unfortunately there's not been much to go on for Konata x Kagami shippers like myself. MEGAMI posters, in particular, can be such a tease - followed by the Hiyori Berserk Otaku Imagination disclaimer. While the higher screen cap above highlights how Kagami allows Konata to invade her personal space in a way she doesn't allow others (there's even a pair of unanimated 4koma where Misao gets slapped for pinching Kagami's waist but when Konata does the same thing, Kagami just blushes and grumbles); the physical contact even persuaded Kagami to relent in her reluctance to visiting the pet shop. The lower screencap above was also a nice example of how they support each other and how openly expressive they are when communicating with each other.

Having said all that, I can't really see any attraction that would take this beyond 'best of friends' even with my yuri googles on. But then again, that's what fan art and fan fiction are for, as the case of Hiyori in the anime and 4koma show acute authorial awareness of. :3

Just to mention, in passing, that I'm a much bigger fan of the cochocochoco interpretation (see here for a fine example of showing the tension in the, nonetheless very warm, attraction) than the rather more lugubrious Kagamin Bocchi universe where the driver is loneliness which I found to be too great of a departure from the happy-go-lucky atmosphere that defines the type of life being sliced in Lucky Star.

WP 2.3 upgrade and Three Favourite Lucky Star scenes

Zyl — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:01:00 +0000

Not being a tech person I tend to go yare yare, like Kagamin above, when WP announces yet another upgrade. But I was encouraged by how the Sea Slugs! WP 2.3 upgrade went relatively well; the final push came when I learnt from AnimeLife that the K2 RC1 didn't break (no customizations except for the header CSS, link colour and list of allowable HTML in comments) and that ELA has been modified to cope with the new thingamajig. Have updated most of my plugins too (spoilers are now enclosed with [spoiler]text[/spoiler]). Do let me know if anything is wonky.

In any case, while searching for a screencap to accompany this post, I thought a bit about my favourite Lucky Star scenes and they were, in ascending order, (3) when Kagami lures Konata to her house using Tsukasa's cookies (wait, that didn't sound right ), (2) Kagami's horror turning into being happy for Konata at the cosplay cafe and (1) when Kagami was Konata's Prince at the Haruhi Gekisou. I'm detecting a pattern here...

Lucky Star 24

Zyl — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:08:04 +0000

Cheer dance revolution! :3

Looks like Konata is weak to Kagamin's tsundere charms as Kagami is weak to Konata's theory of friendship. :3

Which is why fansubs are essential. :3

So fitting that Kagami-sama wanted to be Prime Minister when she was in primary school. :3

Witch Hat Konata! So cunning that she got the class to do a Fortune Telling Mansion so that she could cosplay as the Divine Nagato. :3

Strawberry Panic's Carmen, anyone? :3

The cheerleading dance was sooo addictive. It's glued to the screen on replay like Hare Hare Yukai and God Knows all over again. :3

Best of friends. Would have been nice if there was just that little bit more too. :3

Thanks, girls, it's been fun!

I recall a lot of naysaying and bashing of this series at the start - ironically because, for some, the OP gave the impression that there would 'more stuff happening' rather than just lots of talk. There were also a view that compared L*S unfavourably to Azumanga (which I enjoyed very much too); I'd argue that the two are only similar in terms of form (4koma origin, high school girls) but that the humour had a rather different dynamic with L*S relying more heavily on the individual characters' quirks bouncing off each other, thus the need for buildup and getting the feel of each character before moving up from unit-level to system-level. For me, the first few episodes are even more enjoyable now that I know more about the characters and I'm gratified by how the dynamics were all laid out right from the start already; this makes for high rewatching enjoyment in my book.

Like PPD! (or even Azumanga where some are put off by the untranslateable puns), this series isn't for everyone - particularly those who want linear narratives and stuff blowing up - but it worked out for me and I enjoyed it.

Oh btw, could have had MOAR yuri. :3