Lucky Star - Episode 12 Discussion / Poll

[Vexx]

Not sure .. but Kagami was buying manga using the list that Kona had given her. Kagami wasn't buying anything on her own (I'm just a buying drone).

She got tempted to look as she walked by the doujinshi of S&M doom and was shocked to see her favorite characters in scenes we'll leave to the imagination. She didn't buy them but ran like a rabbit

[Crisu]

I think she did buy them, but they were part of Konata's shopping list.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I've given the episode a 7.5/10 on my blog just now. I guess I'll round it up to 8 here. The main thing I took from this episode was that it finally stayed on theme for the episode, but didn't seem to know what to do for that theme for the most part in terms of overall variety.

Edit: Now it really is up. I could have sworn I put it up last night, but maybe when I had to do an emergency shutdown, even though I had clicked publish, it must have lagged and then never got fully uploaded.

[Ultima_Rasengan05]

another great episode!

Spoiler:

I really liked all the cameo cosplayers in the background when Konata, Kagami, and Tsukasa went to that comic convention...I could only recognize some though
oh yea and the VA for Yuki from Haruhi also made a cameo appearance.
and the battle of the Tomokazu's! hahaha yups, Tomakazu seki, Sousuke's VA, made another VA appearance with the same character from episode 10, and also Tomokazu Sugita, Kyon's VA also made a VA appearance...hahahha that was a great battle that they had.

9/10, Lucky Channel was short this time around, but it was still good!

[Crisu]

One blogger found info on an analysis of Konata's shopping list at Comiket.

http://www.alafista.com/2007/07/01/konata-comiket-list/

How naughty of Konata...

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Looking at this list, Chihara Minori is never a good thing (bland bland voice acting), I was hoping we could go most of the anime without her presence, but I guess now is the time unfortunately.

Minorin didn't speak at all so, I don't see anything that has to do with her voice acting affecting scores here. Plus if she speaks, most of us would probably add more points.

She scores points here because she looks absolutely cute and cudly in Lucky Star art style.

[nanafan]

that was an awesome episode. love when tsukasa got lost, and the fight between the sosuke doujin and kyon.

[DragoonKain3]

Meh, not really thrilled with AFK's subs this time around. But then again, I guess Japanese foods doesn't really have a western equivalent and thus the reason for the footnotes.

Either that, or they're too busy with AnimeExpo this weekend.

As for the episode itself, BL love Kagami was fun. Sooner or later she will fall to the dark side (aka Otaku-ism) like Kona, MWAHAHAHAHA!

Kinda odd though that its Kagamis second Comiket and only Tsukasa's first, despite the twins doing almost everything together. It would've been easier to trick Tsukasa as well, so I really do wonder why Tsukasa didn't come along the first time around. Or maybe its just another subtle hint in that Kagami and Konata are really the closest friends of the group.

Another odd thing is that Kagami still had to wait an hour for the toilet. From what I heard, unlike western conventions where the split between the genders are almost 50/50, aren't Japanese convetions more like 90/10? If that is so, I find it hard to believe that the line to the washroom for womens is that long...

anime!Chihara was awesome cute though, and Anime Tenchou was as cool as the last one because of the Tomokazu battle. And finally, Miko twins! Now all we need is arubaito!Konata, hehehehe.

Lucky Channel though was da bomb. Especially how Minoru responds to Akira's grunts as if as though she was speaking her usual lines.

[AVPlaya]

Finally we can talk about EP 12 now that English fansub is out for everyone...


A great winter matsuri episode... both New Year and Winter Comiket. I really really love all the Japanese reference in the show... it's almost the show is testing Otaku's own knowledge about normal Japanese everyday life. Perhaps since they know scores of gaijin will be watching the show, a test to see how many non-Japanese will actually get what they're doing.

I am shocked that a non-otaku like Kagami-sama will RETURN to comiket; this shows how much she really, really love Konata. Plus she probably can't resist her fujoshi instincts. Next time she visit she will be buyingf first her FMP BL doujin no doubt. Great, great description of Comiket battle plan. But it's strange they didn't bring any wheeled luggage; girls and weaker otaku usually drag one of those to store as many battle spoils as possible A little loli like kona should definately be without one, especially being a haruhi-otaku. Now we know we know exactly what doujin konata reads at night...

But aside from the expected otaku references, I really enjoyed the description of New Year activities. I think everyone who watch anime long enough should know that in New Year's day everyone visit a shinto or Buddhist temple and pray for the new year and get your fortune. The miko-chans will explain the poems on the fortune (usually written in classical Chinese). When you get a bad fortune you can "return" it by tying it to a special post or any tree branch. Supposedly you can avoid the bad luck. Loved the explanation of kagami's name... the idea that bronze mirrors are spritual objects stems from ancient China. Mirrors are still used in feng-shui to ward off evil spirits or negative energy.

Kona-chan's New Year greeting to her dad was pretty moving. Yeah she's probably doing it for the pochibukuro (very simliar to the Chinese red packet tradition) money, but I thought she really meant it. She's an ii-ko and her dad is a good, yet perverted, dad.

The show they're watching is the 2006 New Year special of the very popular variety show Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! called the Batsu Gamu (punishment game). This is a 3-hour special where the member of DownTown comedy manzai group and show regulars get to spend 24 hours in a police station. Everyone will try to make them laugh, and if any of them do, someone will whack them in the ass with a police baton at full force. Talk about police brutality. Batsu Games are very popular special and there has been many version of it. This latest one got super-high rating and will probably become a new New Year Tradition like Kuohaku.

You can watch the whole thing in youtube starting with this one. Just search related term to find all 18 videos. You don't need subtitles to enjoy the show. This is slapstick comedy to the extreme:

This is one of the most popular past batsu gamu sketch, the English Lesson. Even gaijins will get this one:

Love Shiraishi as the host of Lucky Channel. Poor Akira-sama. She'll never appear in the main story.

This damn show... got me to fill my ipod with oldies by KyonKyon, Tomo-chan, ZARD, and Akina-chan, now I gets to watch them batsu gamu again.... BTW, beautiful (and insane) 32-years old Kahala Tomomi just got fired by her agency recently for being out of touch for a month. I guess this is really the end of her showbiz life.

[Aime]

I feel like such an ignorant when I read this posts ....geeeeezzzz... I've got WAY too much to learn....

Two questions....

Spoiler for Who Knows - just in case:

First.....Is there any reference being made in the kid that Tsukasa asks directions for? Or is he just a regular security person in the Comiket?

Second..... From previous episodes I have in my mind that Akira could possibly appear....maybe I got it wrong... Because Konata said something about a cousin joining the school soon.... Did I mixed up stuff in my head? I'm just hoping the cousin is Akira... Of course I haven't read the manga so it could be anyone else. Or ...uhmm,,,, in episode one I remember saying something about a childhood friend and asking "I wonder what happened to her", and sometimes I think she is talking about Akira

[kenjiharima]

gave it a 9 finally seeing the subs since I did'nt knew that there where seiyuu's in the comitek. Kagami and Konata ruled here

Spoiler for I really love this part:

[nikorai]

it is a very good episode indeed. When they went to comiket there were quite a number of laughing moments.
I'm late to watch the episode as usual and I see that a lot has been discussed already. i just wanted to say that from the point of view of learning japanese i found out some things which are new for me. for example I didnt know you could shorten happy new year wishes to simply saying 'あけおめ'

[Vexx]

I see we're starting to attract the "I don't participate in the thread but I'll troll the vote poll" trolls. I wonder if they realize we can check their posts and arrive at an opinion about their relevance or lack of it

In general, the temple/new year's sequences and the convention lead up (minus the voice actor battle ending it) is some of the high points of the series for me ... which is especially note-worthy since a lot of it is anime-only (not in the manga).

@nikorai: casual japanese among close friends is amazingly short-hand, leaving off all kinds of the things that your average japanese teacher tries to impress on you. It is probably a better idea to listen to anyone but Kona speak though because she uses phrases that probably would get you a "?.?" look from most japanese

[nikorai]

to Vexx
thanks for the comment, I'll keep that in mind.

[Vexx]

I was rewatching the New Year's temple segment and realized we got an introductory quick view of two incoming characters (working as miko).

I kind of like the way people are introduced from the background and move quietly forward in this series.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I was rewatching the New Year's temple segment and realized we got an introductory quick view of two incoming characters (working as miko).

I kind of like the way people are introduced from the background and move quietly forward in this series.

Actually, the other two sisters had been around since early on. You first see them during the holidays when you had a split-screen for Tsukasa and Kagami, when they had breakfast. You also see one of them when Kagami ask her for help with her homework, and she replied that if even Kagami couldn't answer it, she got no hope of helping. (Even though she is in college.)

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by nikorai

for example I didnt know you could shorten happy new year wishes to simply saying 'あけおめ'

First off: Listen to Vexx's wisdom. Konata is NOT a good example of Japanese speech.

In this case, though, you hit on something: あけおめ is not unusual. It's just very, very casual. While it's not an unusual phrase, it's not one you would use amongst close companions or people lower down the social tree. You'll notice that the only times you see it in the episode are when Konata speaks to friends (who reciprocate with the complete phrase) and when Nanako types it to Konata (and Konata had actually greeted Nanako with the formal phrase).

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Actually, the other two sisters had been around since early on. You first see them during the holidays when you had a split-screen for Tsukasa and Kagami, when they had breakfast. You also see one of them when Kagami ask her for help with her homework, and she replied that if even Kagami couldn't answer it, she got no hope of helping. (Even though she is in college.)

My error, I didn't recognize them as their older sisters. I thought they were some of their fellow students. That'll teach me to use the pause button.

[MingShun]

Spoiler for I'm not sure but...:

The background music playing in the background when Konata is giving her briefing is really similar to a Command & Conquer song. We know that the creators also reference songs, like that Initial D scene, so I don't think a game song is too off the mark. Or maybe having trumpets play fanfares to a beat of drums is a popular way to write patriotic war songs. But anyway, the song reminded me of the BG music for the USA side in C&C Generals

[Claies]

Originally Posted by MingShun

Spoiler for I'm not sure but...:

The background music playing in the background when Konata is giving her briefing is really similar to a Command & Conquer song. We know that the creators also reference songs, like that Initial D scene, so I don't think a game song is too off the mark. Or maybe having trumpets play fanfares to a beat of drums is a popular way to write patriotic war songs. But anyway, the song reminded me of the BG music for the USA side in C&C Generals

I think it's just a generic "calm before the storm" song with a "we have all these plans and we think it will work but we have a lot of work ahead of us" mood.