[Pellissier]

Episode 1:

1) A couple of annotations by Kaioshin_Sama:

Spoiler:

- When Konata tells the story of how she saved Tsukasa from an evil foreigner, the video of her beating up the foreigner shows her using the Tatsumi Senpuu Kyaku (Ryu and Ken's special move) on a Foreigner who looks like Street Fighter 2's Guile in Ryu's Japan Stage from the same game. Also the Street Fighter 2 Interface is used for this scene as well.

- The ending theme sung by Konata is the opening from an old 1976 Metal Hero Series called Uchū Tetsujin Kyodain.

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2) Informations posted by aohige:

Spoiler:

-The newspaper article Kagami was reading, is lifted from the Yasuyoshi Kobayashi case. Kobayashi kidnapped and held a girl in confinement with a dog leash on her. He confessed to wanting to keep her as his slave.
His nickname among some people was "prince Kobayashi", due to his looks. On Internet, many referred to him as "confining prince".
The newspaper Kagami is reading says "confining princess", as a reference to this incident.

-Many of the stores you see in the show are slightly modefied names of stores near the Kasukabe train station.

-The way Shiraishi calls out the next episode preview is mimicking how the popular cartoon series Sazae-san introduces the previews.

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3a) AVPlaya tells us a bit about the Opening Theme:

Spoiler:

The two-handed heart gesture the girls made during the OP dance is a signature move for Morning Musume, requently made by two of the "cute" members, Michishige Sayumi and Kusumi Koharu. The gesture is also part of Kusumi Koharu's PV dance for "Balalaika", the OP of the extremely popular young girl's anime, "Kirarin Revolution".

I guess everyone knows that KyoAni OP/ED dances are parodies of Hello! Project groups, right? I was playing the 2006 Momusu concert as I was building my home gym last night and boy, I would guess that the great majority of the Wotas at the concert probably watched both Haruhi and Lucky Star. There's must be a huge overlap between idoru otaku and anime otaku.

3b) Always about the OP, AVPlaya adds another little bit:

Spoiler:

The sideway gun guesture Konata made during the OP, in which she jabs the viewer with her index finger several times, seemed to be a reference to a part of the Akiba-idol group AKB48's dance for their single "Aitakatta". At the end of the chorus, during the line "Kimi ni...", all the girls would point their right hand up in the exact fashion as Konata and point forward as the finish the line.

I believe this is a reference because 1. The song came before L*S started, and 2. We know KyoAni watches idol groups obsessed by the Wotas like Momusu to get their idea for their OP/ED dances. An online discussion revealed that several famous ota-gei movements were performed by the SOS-dan during the full Hare Hare Yukai dance. I'm quite sure they must have viewed all available video on the rising star of the Wota scene - AKB48 - when planning their dancing segments.

You can reference these two videos - the gesture is pretty much the signature move of the song. I'm sure it performed many a moe-death to the otageishi screaming below.

Spoiler for Unhide to view Moe Video:

Aitakatta MV

Aitakatta Concert performance