Quote:
Originally Posted by kenjiharima
It works as good marketing, but if one show or another over does it it's gonna get common.
But Lucky Star has every right to do it!!! One reason the main character is an otaku girl named Konata who likes anime stuff and games alot. 
But what about parodies from movies? |
The whole show is a current Japanese pop culture parody. There's parody/references from almost every part of current Japanese life, but we only see the otaku stuff here because that's all most people know. That's why I started to write my ref list because some references are designed to stump the otakus (TV shows and sports being the most frequently used.)
I don't have a problem with KyoAni/Kadokawa product placement in the show - Lucky Star was CREATED to push products in a Kadokawa magazine and Haruhi is like a sister show to Lucky Star. In the Japanese culture, the IN group is supposed to be looking out for the other member of the group. Lucky Star referencing Kadokawa manga/magazines and KyoAni anime is acceptable. Unlike the product placement that's rampant in US TV and movies, most of the L*S references are actually funny. The promotion of other companies like the Animate stores is a bit questionable for me, but at least I thought they did a good job. The Anime Tenchou sections are mostly good.
Again, people, before you think KyoAni is some hot shot company - only a few years ago KyoAni is a little known shop in the middle of animation desert (Kyoto is not a hot bed of animation industry). It faces stiff competition and discrimination from larger, more established Tokyo houses and it usually gets filler works or sub-par OVAs. It's it only recently it became an otaku favorite. They still face some of the same issue they've faced before like Kanto snobbery, so I don't blame them for doing everything they can to promote their sister properties. Kadokawa is in a similar place facing competition from Japan's Big Three publishing houses. Again, I don't blame them one bit.
Lucky Star is a VERY Japanese show made with Japanese cultural ethics. We should not use our gaijin eyes to judge them when it comes to product placement/promotions. I personally love the references to death and the effect it has on otakus - I can imagine many of them just start reading a economic book by an accountant and mainstream TV shows about smart cats and dogs just because of Lucky Star. L*S have have single handedly brought many otaku out of hikkomori-dom and back to the real world again.