Lucky Star (Generic Discussion thread)

[Nuke Mayhem]

Yay! A.f.k. finally put up his torrent for LS ep 21. I consider his subtitling of the series the best.

[User65554]

^Thats good. I like having all my subs from the same place.

[HashiriyaR32]

WARNING: UN-EXPLODED MUNITIONS

L☆S just got TMA'd!!

[Nuke Mayhem]

Originally Posted by HashiriyaR32

WARNING: UN-EXPLODED MUNITIONS

L☆S just got TMA'd!!

I live action LS? ....Make sense since it doesn't require a huge budget or CGI to make it.

[Vexx]

Um..... NOPE.. sorry --- that link is to a *porn* production that parodies Lucky*Star.
Kind of like Flesh Gordon versus Flash Gordon. One of our local posters, AVPlaya, has some comments about it on that Canned Dogs link.

It *would* be interesting to see a live action Lucky Star since it is mostly verbal humor and character study.... but this isn't that puppy. Not that this puppy won't have entertainment value, of course. It'll just be the kind that makes Kagami panic and blush. The adult video industry in Japan has a long tradition of this kind of parody/homage.

[HashiriyaR32]

TMA is the VERY reason I put up the live munitions warning. Didn't want you to be blown to smithereens.

[~ Lawliet ~]

I had started when it had been up to episode 4 and but of course, fell in love. An amazing anime it is indeed.

[Ultima_Rasengan05]

Its been a while since Lucky*Star has ended, but I think an OVA would be good to show the girl's graduation ceremony and such.
I've recently just finished watching Azumanga Daioh, which some have compared that show to Lucky*Star to almost being similar, but different in their own way. They showed the graduation ceremony for the characters in that show, which made the show feel more complete and such.
An OVA would be good though, but I'm not saying that the last episode of Lucky*Star wasn't bad. It just felt kinda "incomplete" without a scene where the girls had their graduation.

[espeon]

Thanks to A.F.K for finishing the series, I do wish there was more cause i felt that the last epi was a little to quick to end but oh well , Hope to see it licensed some day!

[Anachronism]

Yeah, the ending wasn't very satisfying. I would also like to see a OVA about their graduation or even better a whole season about the characters going to college.

[bschultz]

I'll ask this here since I cant seem to start a new thread.

Did anyone notice that at the beginning of a lot of scenes they were always talking about how something smelled bad, or that a person smelled bad?

Just wondering if anyone had any input about that.

[Lucky_Day]

Some of the writing courses I've taken had me practice writing descriptions using the five senses: see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Talking about smell might be the most noticable because it is the least talked about. People talk about seeing and hearing things all the time. When someone is eating something, taste is talked about frequently too. Our culture seems to give the sense of touch an almost mystical quality, the one sense remaining when all other senses fail. It seems the sense of smell is only talked about is if something smells really good or really bad.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by bschultz

I'll ask this here since I cant seem to start a new thread.

Did anyone notice that at the beginning of a lot of scenes they were always talking about how something smelled bad, or that a person smelled bad?

Just wondering if anyone had any input about that.

It's a running gag. They could have meant anything or anyone, but the show always makes sure we know nothing more than that it smells. End of story.

---

This might appear to you as racist, simply-not-true, or stereotypical. That's fine. Those are my ramblings about social issues and how they connect to anime, and you can take it however you want.

After mentioning Lucky*Star to most of my real life otaku friends, I have come to the realization that KyoAni has done a very good job in keeping a show widely popular only in a small variety of people and even only in Asia, because...so far only Asians I asked of this have loved the show. Everyone else just balked the moment I named it and flatly refused to watch it, citing reviews from probably just Westerners. While I know perfectly that there are Westerners on this forum, I'm pretty sure that in real life you guys are vastly outnumbered.

So I sat down and ground my mind thinking how they did it. Personally, I think the show is perfect. It even reminded me of my days as a kid, watching those old animes, some of them for children. That could be why, because mainstream anime culture tends towards action, suspense, comedy and adventure, and as I perceive it couldn't tolerate anything calm, quiet, cute, or a combination of them. Mainstream is all about entertainment without much intelligence required to the average viewer, because most people like to be entertained without effort. Western anime culture has yet to reach beyond the mainstream, because everyone I asked likes and continually watches one mainstream show or another while I usually just shrug, and I don't think it's likely to get beyond that point, because publishing companies act as such an effective popularity filter.

That, and I think Lucky*Star paints itself as a very Asian series. If you don't understand Asia, you won't get the jokes and you won't like this show, and vice-versa. One of my friends simply answered, "the less I know about Japan, the better because I'm not a weeaboo" when I commented that it's a very Japanese show. From there, I think I see mild, natural xenophobia at work, that people like to make sure they're still connected with their home culture.

Should this show be called Asian Pride, or what? And why the hell did KyoAni think of making something like this?

[Anachronism]

Originally Posted by Claies

[A lot of stuff I cleared out of here to save space.]

I'm completely white. My ethnic background is entirely white European. I was born and raised in the United States and the only other country I've ever visited is Mexico. Yet, I like Lucky Star and find it hilarious. I'm far from being an expert on Japanese culture but I still seem able to find the show funny.

Although I do know what you mean about most anime viewers in Western society only being able to watch action oriented anime. I have friends that watch shows like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun but call me "wapanese" for watching a show like Lucky Star. I tried to introduce one friend who watches Bleach to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and his only criticism of the show was that, "it's too Japanese."

I think you're onto something with the xenophobia but I don't think a person has to be Asian to enjoy Lucky Star or even know a lot about Japanese culture. They just need an open mind. There are a lot of Americans who react the same way to British shows as they do Japanese shows and our cultures are fairly similar, we look the same, and we have the same language. It's not that they need to be British to watch those shows or Asian to enjoy anime, they just need to be willing to try something different.

[relentlessflame]

Claies... as a Lucky Star fan and "Westerner", I don't know how I should take that. My gut instinct is to be a bit offended. We're all -- "Westerners" and "Asians" alike -- vastly outnumbered simply by virtue of being an anime fan. Some shows are more popular in Asia, and others are more popular in the "Western World", but you know what? Who cares? I'm not in any way Asian, and I like whole lot of anime that don't stand a chance at being licensed due to a lack of local popularity. Does that make me a "weeaboo"? No! It just means I have different tastes than most of the people around me -- and there's nothing wrong or abnormal with that. What's different is that I've accepted my uniqueness and am not afraid to seek out the things I like, even though society around me doesn't understand it.

I agree with Anachronism -- most of the Westerners you spoke too seem way too close-minded. If they were less judgmental, they might actually find themselves quite interested in these sorts of shows. I don't think there's really all that much "Asian" about it, despite there being cultural things they may have to (*shock*) research to fully understand (because it'd be way too much work to try to actually, you know, learn about foreign cultures -- they'd be weeaboos before they know it! Oh no!).

All in all, whenever someone calls something "too Asian", or says "you'd have to be Asian to understand", it really ticks me off. Society's spent so much time trying to break down racist and cultural barriers, but then people go and purposefully put them up again saying "oh, you just wouldn't understand". Isn't it more like you don't want me to understand? So much about being a human being is universal, but some parts are distinct and unique. If we just accept what's common, and learn about what's different, then we can all understand each other. We won't need antiquated circumstantial barriers like race or region, location or language. Anime has the potential of being one of the vehicles that's used to help bridge those gaps, so long as we don't hamper it by labelling and pre-judging those who watch it.

Lucky Star isn't "more Asian". There just happen to be more people in Asia who share my tastes.

[Claies]

Please understand that I'm not supporting there being cultural barriers. I obviously want people to enjoy this show of Asian-specific references by the bucketloads, as it is indeed worth at least a chuckle from the charm the characters give off even if people don't get it. What I really want to know is what KyoAni had in mind when they built this, because I have never seen such polarizing reactions towards an anime before, and I often wonder if this series intended to expose all those subtle social mindsets around animes.

Also note that I love this show to death and I'm just trying to grasp the difference between the set of people who like it and the set who don't, because there are a lot of things that don't add up. I've heard of many anime fans who love Azumanga Daioh but pay far less heed to Lucky*Star, and coincidentally they also like a lot of mainstream shows.

Right now I'm thinking that this stems from extreme lovers and haters throwing dirt at each other. All those who care a bit less got hit badly in the crossfire, while those who care even less just backed away from the drama and with that the series altogether. All that "weeaboo", "only for old men", "too Asian" comments are byproducts of that little conflict.

[Anachronism]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Lucky Star isn't "more Asian". There just happen to be more people in Asia who share my tastes.

That's a contributing factor but there's also the fact that the show has only aired in Japan. The only "Westerners" that know Lucky Star even exists let alone have actually watched it are people who are a very small niche group of people. We really won't know how many "Westerners" as a whole enjoy Lucky Star until it gets licensed and released to the masses.

[Vexx]

All I can offer is that the "Westerners" (aka non-anime fans) that I've shown it to compared it to Peanuts tossed with bits of Monty Python and Seinfeld. Some of the references are opaque to many.. but then how many people get all the references in a typical 1950s Bugs Bunny cartoon ---- very few unless they know their 1940s/50s pop culture --- yet it remains funny.

Despite claims of "only japanese or asians could understand this" from some posters and reviewers, there isn't a thing in this show that hasn't got some connections to Western humor (vaudeville, comedy duos, slapstick, parody, jokes about obsessive fans)... frankly, anyone who thinks it is unapproachable, I have to wonder about their awareness of their own comedy culture.

As far as culture-specific jokes or situations.... L*S is no more prone to it than any other anime set in similar environs.

These are the rational reasons I've encountered for not liking the series:
1) This type of humor just doesn't appeal to them (human condition or character-driven humor)
2) They've seen it done better (personal opinion but subjectively valid)
3) This type of genre doesn't appeal to them (cute girls doing funny things)
4) They liked the manga but were antagonized by all the anime-only injections (anime tenchou, L*C, intrusive Haruhism, etc) to the point of distraction.

Absurd hating seemed to come in some interconnected flavors:
1) Its popular therefore we hates it.
2) I loathe KyoAni fanbois therefore we hates it.
3) I loathe AIR/Kanon/Clannad -- Kyoani and so we hates it.
4) Its only popular because of the Haruhists whom we hate so we hates it.
5) .... in other words, mostly things unrelated to the actual Lucky*Star itself.

And finally, I'll point out that those using the word "weeaboo" should watch over their shoulder.... after all, saying the word should get the user chained to a pipe and paddled.

[JustInn14]

1) Its popular therefore we hates it.

That's a dumb reason to hate a show. :/

[User65554]

Originally Posted by JustInn14

That's a dumb reason to hate a show. :/

And yet a suprisingly common one.