Lucky Star - Episode 05 Discussion / Poll

[Mirrinus]

I actually don't bother voting a good deal of the time. I share the same logic that the hosts of X-Play give concerning why they hate rating scales higher than 5, which is that there's really no important difference between, say, a 7 or an 8 on a 10-point scale (or even a few decimals off, if you're going into decimals). As far as I'm concerned, I either like it or I hate it. I'm less averse to rating whole series, but usually for single episodes I don't even bother.

[Jazzrat]

With regard to the goldfish scene, isn't there this perception in Japan that if you are a bad person, animals will start avoiding you? I thought that is why Kona-chan said that was proof of Kagami's barbaric nature. If that's the case, it shows why Kagami treasured the one who didn't flee from her.

The perception is actually quite widespread in oriental culture afaik where a person's "killing" intent can be felt when in close proximity. Lots of martial art/fighting anime/manga typically have characters that can detect or hide such intent/aura.

Konata is probably poking fun at Kagami's blunt display of her aggressive intention to catch a gold fish, not that she's being barbaric.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Wow! Thank you.

Don't worry the message wasn't to you or anybody specifically, but for everybody. I get his feeling I'm going to take a lot of flack for being the outlier of the ratings, but then again maybe not as it doesn't seem to have happened. I really just hope things work out in episode 6 and I can put this episode behind me. If there's any episode that deserves a redo for DVD's though I think its this one.

....eh? What's with the "sankyu"? I wasn't trying to praise you.

I'm with Vexx-jiji on this one; there may be people out there who hate your guts, Kaioshin-chan, but I'm not one of them. Whatever your quirks, whenever you give a review you do back up your opinion with proper articulation of what you like or don't, and more importantly, you make the qualifier that it's merely your own opinion. And you know, it's kinda hard for me not to respect that; I only ever go HARUHI-MODE at people who give me utter bullshit all the time.

[joke]On your part, you only give me bullshit a small fraction of the time, and you make up for it by being so indescribably moe. [/joke]

For myself, the way I rate an episode of any particular anime depends on the nature of the anime itself; for most animes with a basic story like Kanon and Sola, multiple factors go into my eventual review. For content-light comedies like Lucky Star though, I use a far simpler system; the number rating I give is an approximation of the percentage of the episode that made me laugh. That's why you hardly ever see me go below the '6' barrier; that's reserved for those that I just find horrendously bad.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by Vexx

My instructor had asked me to bring in some good samples for listening practice and those two eps had a lot of vocabulary we'd covered in class.

Are you sure you brought in L*S just because your sensei asked you to bring in stuff for listening practice (or are you secretly planning to convert your classmates*a-hem*)?

That reminds me, I got to watch Doraemon in my class.. :{D

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

The perception is actually quite widespread in oriental culture afaik where a person's "killing" intent can be felt when in close proximity. Lots of martial art/fighting anime/manga typically have characters that can detect or hide such intent/aura.

Konata is probably poking fun at Kagami's blunt display of her aggressive intention to catch a gold fish, not that she's being barbaric.

lols, I totally misread this the first time. Here's my second attempt at a comment:

I agree; I doubt that Kona actually viewed Kagamiya as being *barbaric* - Kona just simply likes to take advantage of any opportunity to poke Kagamiya. I didn't know about the killing intent/aura thing (maybe because I never watch fighting/martial art anime ); I only know of a person as being good-spirited if they ward off supposedly unlucky animals and attract lucky ones... but I suppose that's in a whole separate category of its own ne.

And the fish swimming away from Kagamiya is what *always* happens at that game....
Actually I think when you're too aggressive while trying to catch the fish, it tends to make the paper rip faster. D:

Edit: woah I think I misread something... that's what I get for staying up late.

[Sorrow-K]

Disclaimer: I finished watching this episode about ten minutes ago, and before watching the episode, I did not once read any posts made in this thread, so the following is my opinion formed purely from what I thought of the episode and not influenced by any other post in this thread.

Now, I'm not one for cynicism or conspiracy theories surrounding an animation studio, so, as far as I'm concerned, the name of the director in the credits is the director, no questions asked, and thus the person that deserves the praise or criticisms for a good or bad episode. And, in my opinion, this was a good episode. In fact, I'd say this was the best episode of the series. It's still too early to decisively say that Takemoto is more suited to this job than Yamamoto, but if the rest of this series remains as funny as this ep, then I'd say the decision to change directors was an outstanding one. But this ep was certainly, in my eyes, better than any of the eps that Yamamoto helmed. The jokes fired, the punch lines had more impact, and, more importantly, the timing was significantly better. And the show managed to stay afloat without relying on a massive number of references. This ep was a much better example of the potential of this type of show for comedy, IMO (although I still do think Hidamari Sketch is better). The test now is, can Takemoto maintain this level for the rest of the series.

Lucky Channel is getting tired, though. It's a tough job trying to figure out how to revamp what's virtually a one-joke number without dropping it altogether, but it is pretty much dead-time now.

Overall, I was very impressed. New director seems to have breathed new life into this show. And, I carry no bias either for or against Takemoto when I say this, since, in all honesty, none of his previous work in comedy has really impressed me all that much (with the exception of the FMP:TSR OVA, but that's a one-off, which is hardly enough to turn me into a fan).

[Chavenz]

Hirano Aya singing Cha La Head Cha La = win!

if only they showed how she looked while singing that, double win!

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by Mirrinus

I actually don't bother voting a good deal of the time. I share the same logic that the hosts of X-Play give concerning why they hate rating scales higher than 5, which is that there's really no important difference between, say, a 7 or an 8 on a 10-point scale (or even a few decimals off, if you're going into decimals). As far as I'm concerned, I either like it or I hate it. I'm less averse to rating whole series, but usually for single episodes I don't even bother.

I'm with Mirrinus on everything about ratings. Sure there are some episodes I'd would ineventibly like more than others, but I rather judge a series as a whole rather than each individual episode as I like to see the big picture. I especially agree with the rating scale, as I've found GamePro's rating scale much more useful than all the others in helping choose which games to buy when I used to subscribe to gaming magazines (I don't anymore as now I ONLY play RPGs, and I buy whatever interests me despite bad ratings).

[Fixen]

I don't know...what I do with ratings is based on how much I enjoyed it at the first and second runs, and not about analysis. If I think it's a good use of my time, it gets a rating above 6. If I can't be bothered to make it through the episode, then it starts getting the sub-5 failing grade. Since I don't have much time for anime and therefore I'm picky to begin with, I never rate below a 6. I mean...as long as the verdict is justified and not just some knee-jerk extreme reaction, I can take it.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Yeah, I admit it... it is Kagami's fragile eggshell of toughness that dissolves into tears that makes you just want to protect and hug her. And the subtle blushing... the eyes... the way she eats... argh.

You, sir, are my brother. (Actually, more like my competitor because I'd swear I want to hug her more)

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

Suddenly I flash back to her traumatic weight-gain confession when I imagine her finding the poor thing floating

So she is barbaric!

Originally Posted by Risaa

Aah, she's the classic type who thinks she's the most stable and self-sufficient of the group, but it turns out she's the most unstable and needy of them all...

We need to see her PMSing then.

[nikorai]

I watched the episode just yesterday. voted for 9.
looked through the pages here. i think i need to watch it once again. seems i miss some details.
Kaioshin_Sama mentioned earlier kero-chan ni omakase. my thoughts exactly. besides in ccs there was also an episode about a festival including a scene with a shooting range. well maybe its not exactly about ccs, more about anime in general where it is quite common to find a festival theme.

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Fixen

~
You, sir, are my brother. (Actually, more like my competitor because I'd swear I want to hug her more)

If the Avatar thread is of any indication, a LOT of people want to hug Kagami.

Heh.

[Fixen]

Originally Posted by Skane

If the Avatar thread is of any indication, a LOT of people want to hug Kagami.

Heh.

This will get bloody.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Fixen

This will get bloody.

Add my name to that list of "people who want to hug Kagami". Now it's going to get even bloodier.

[dKiWi]

Kagami is my favourite Lucky Star girl right now, but I've gotta wait for Chihara Minori's character to make a debut before I commit to hugging XD

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by dKiWi

Kagami is my favourite Lucky Star girl right now, but I've gotta wait for Chihara Minori's character to make a debut before I commit to hugging XD

Same here only replace commit to hugging with commit to making things bloody.

[WanderingKnight]

Well, I don't usually have a soft spot for tsundere characters (does Kagami qualify as tsundere?), so I'm gonna go with Kona-chan. Of course, we still have lots of episodes to go and much of what happens can influence my decision.

And of course, if Tsukasa turns into the new Osaka, I'll love her even more.

Kaioshin-chan, haven't you already tried hard enough to make things bloody? One day you're gonna get a heart attack for getting so nervous out of something as superfluous as an anime series.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Risaa

Are you sure you brought in L*S just because your sensei asked you to bring in stuff for listening practice (or are you secretly planning to convert your classmates*a-hem*)?

That reminds me, I got to watch Doraemon in my class.. :{D

Actually, the first time I saw the food sketch - the first thing I thought was "this'd work great for listening practice in class - they're all about the food"
that followed with the Kagami-sick sketch which all about the polite protocol visit. Finished out with a few clips of sensei-speak just to show regional differences.

The instructor and I usually chat after class and she knows about my hobbies - but yes, anyone I can lure to the dark side increases my karma
There's another mom in class that's an anime fan (she mentioned Fruits Basket, Prince of Tennis, and Initial.D) and a couple of guys who had watched anime in the 80s/90s and had no idea what current anime looked liked. After class I punched through some example clips (Gurren-Lagann, 5cm, Kanon, PPD, Lovely Complex ...) they were quite amazed. The instructor was also quite taken/surprised though she was often appalled at the grammar and slang She spent the rest of class discussing phrases, casual verb conjugation, and the subtleties of particle modifiers like "ne?" and "da yo" along with the honorific transmogrification of Kagami.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by Vexx

The instructor was also quite taken/surprised though she was often appalled at the grammar and slang

My class is *terrible* about that. Nearly everyone is an anime fan and loves to spout off slang from their favorite show. (I'm particularly fond of an ARIA phrase, "no embarrassing remarks allowed!") Sometimes I really feel that I learn more just from watching anime... Everything sounds so much more natural than what we learn from the book (mochiron). And it helped me to learn short form much quicker. *Much* quicker.

Since everyone seems to be on the subject of ratings... I'll admit I admire Kaioshin_Sama-san's systematic way of doing it. I could never do it that way because I'm too biased (ironic ne). If the show is of a genre I really tend to enjoy, I'll justify myself bumping up the rating a few numbers, whereas if it seems to me to be just another typical harem anime, I'll knock it down a few. Like most others, I tend to go on gut feeling. I've never given a perfect 10 for an episode (no episode, IMO has been *perfectly flawless* complete with sparkles and stuff). Usually if something is lower than a 6 for me, I wouldn't even be hanging out in the thread because I'd already dropped the series.... because everyone knows how much more I linger in other threads than the L*S subforum...

As for Kagamiya... a part of me wants to give her a hug, while the other part of me simply wishes to point and laugh, like Kona does. I'm doing that thing again where I sit on the fence and lean towards Kona as being my favorite... but then Kagamiya does something that makes me snap towards the Kagamiya side... then Kona does something that makes me go over to her side again... It's out of my control, I tell ya.

[Princess_of_Hell]

Who is that girl with the long back hair and the glasses?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Risaa

As for Kagamiya... a part of me wants to give her a hug, while the other part of me simply wishes to point and laugh, like Kona does. I'm doing that thing again where I sit on the fence and lean towards Kona as being my favorite... but then Kagamiya does something that makes me snap towards the Kagamiya side... then Kona does something that makes me go over to her side again... It's out of my control, I tell ya.

I suppose in the wonderful world of anime you can have both, eh?

@Princess_of_Hell: you're going to have to be more specific (long black hair?) If you mean the girl in the back row with the red eyes in the OP cheerleading sequence? I've not figured out all the names of the girls (roaming through the manga, haven't even spotted her yet maybe she's in volume 4 that I've not received yet?)
Here's the cast we will see during the animated series (ANN ref):
Aya Endo as Miyuki Takara
Aya Hirano as Konata Izumi
Emiri Katou as Kagami Hiiragi
Kaori Fukuhara as Tsukasa Hiiragi
Hirokazu Hiramatsu as Soujirou Izumi
Hiromi Konno as Akira Kogami
Kaori Shimizu as Hiyori Tamura
Konomi Maeda as Nanako Kuroi
Mami Kosuge as Yukari Takara
Minori Chihara as Minami Iwasaki
Minoru Shiraishi as Minoru Shiraishi <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< best casting of all time
Nozomi Sasaki as Patricia "Patty" Martin
Saori Nishihara as Yui Narumi
Shizuka Hasegawa as Yutaka Kobayakawa
Fumihiko Tachiki as
Customer (ep 2)
Man A (ep 2)
Teacher (ep 2)
TV (Man) (ep 2)
Yankee (ep 2)
Kikuko Inoue as Miki Hiiragi
Kujira as Teacher (ep 1)
Satomi Akesaka as Matsuri Hiiragi
Tohru Furusawa as Tadao Hiiragi

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Minoru Shiraishi as Minoru Shiraishi <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< best casting of all time

I honestly have to wonder how that's like, being cast as yourself. What if you felt like saying, "can I have a do-over? I don't feel like I was in-character"? It's pretty much the same as saying, "can I have a do-over? I don't feel like myself". Or maybe your boss would feel that you're not accurately portraying yourself. Would you be able to ask about a word you're unsure of in the script without having someone else tell you, "you ought to know what that word is since obviously it's *in-character* for you to use it"?

...I imagine there'd be a lot of jokes floating around Shiraishi.