No, not late.. just expanding (I had brainfarted on the sisters being the daughter of the shinto priest).

I think the best indication that they're well off is that their family is large yet the girls each have their own room, despite it being Japan (land and housing is NOT cheap).

I thought Miyuki's supposed to be the rich one...if done this way, Konata would be the only "commoner." XD

Yes, Ouran is still somewhere in my head.

They live in Kasukabe, which is in Saitama; a suburbia of Tokyo. Land is fairly much more cheaper as you go farther and farther away from Metro-Tokyo. And being from a Shinto shrine, they are somewhat exempt from numerous taxes (as with most nations who has a specified separation of church and state laws prohibiting taxes from religious organizations). That doesn't make the Hiirage family "rich" persay as other cost-of-living expenses are still high, which I would assume to be so due to their particularly large family. You may also note that the Hiiragi family still uses an old analog rotary phone, whereas Konata has a number-display capable personal handset.

Shiraishi agrees with me, Miyuki is the bestest! Super-smart, slightly goofy, utterly adorable too. I want to be her in my next life. I'm amused that she's not actually that moe though, so many generic elements there yet it just doesn't work. Probably because she's too genius, and mostly so competent, self-reliant, etc. Just waiting for her to get more screen time for personality development. I briefly thought about neg-repping you for such an outrageous comment Skane, but I forgive you because you have the best visual pun in your avatar that I've ever seen.
:: wanders off to karaoke the Star Blazers theme::

Ending karaoke didn't bother me too much, I'm only mildly amused by the whole concept to begin with, so it doesn't matter that much if Konata's "good" singing voice is a bit too good. It's not like she went into full operatic voice anyways. I'm more amused by the previous ones though, just because I've never liked the sappy romance sort of songs to begin with. Looking forward to what songs get picked by the other chars.

[nitpick]
Lucky Channel doesn't involve breaking the fourth wall. From a wiki: "The term "breaking the fourth wall" is used in theatre when a character or the use of some device makes the actors "aware" that they are being watched by an audience." Since the two performers in Lucky Channel are simply being themselves talking to the camera, there isn't a fourth wall. Shiraishi is Shiraishi, and Akira... well, she is changing personas, not characters. Revealing some less-than-pleasant aspects of working with entertainment pros is amusing to the audience, but her mood swings aren't about the fourth wall.
[/nitpick]

Konata's humor often relies on her being unaware of the fourth wall. One of my favorite lines from this ep (according to a.f.k.): "The world's always been interested in watching the gap between physical age and mental age." Kagami doesn't get it because she's not the audience... and Konata certainly doesn't seem like she's referring to herself, even though she's the prime example. Likewise, for there to exist a show called Fumoffu in the Lucky Star world makes sense because it's supposed to be the real world.

What this show (and this ep in particular) has in mass quantity is self-reference, and metareference. Characters talking about anime characters as real people. Real people as anime characters. Anime chars who are anime fans being used by their animators to criticize real people. I think it's pointless to try and map this stuff out because the frames of reference keep changing and referencing between many different levels. To me this is what makes this show better than Azumanga, the way in which multiple levels of meaning get inserted in so regularly. Of course, I'm a really big geek for this kind of philosophy...

Konata Rubs Shoulders With -- Tommy Lee Jones???
 

Hi!

Not exactly sure this is the right episode topic because I don't have my lap to check the ep now (sorry if it's misplaced this topic then!), but in the ep where the girls are discussing falling asleep on the train and missing their stops, Konata's sitting in the train and nodding off against the shoulder of someone who looks AWFULLY like awesome Tommy Lee Jones! Is this a plant? Is he pop there too???

Dee