Lucky Star (Generic Discussion thread)

[FireChick]

Hmmmm....I think I might watch this! I hope it'll be hilarious and funny (Like Ed, Edd n Eddy). Tsukasa looks really cute! And I might be watching it mainly because my fav seiyuus are in it like Emiri Katou and Hiromi Konno.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Maybe you know Kyoto Animation isn't big on maintaining the original look and feel of their adapations as people seem to think. It seems to me they do whatever they think will make the series popular, such as replacing the audio drama cast with whoever is popular right now. When I saw the drama list didn't include any of Kyoto Animation's darlings and actually had people I like in it, I wondered how long it would take for them to replace every good voice actor with the trendiest people out there as I can see right through Kyoto Animations glossiness to the lack of any creative substance underneath.

This, lends credence to my theory that studios are going to be horribly abusing Aya Hirano's popularity in years to come (I mean its no wonder she's getting ill, I'd hate to be in her position). Not impressed with this company, they are honestly killing the medium for me. In fact I've hated them for the longest time for their blatant over-pandering to the desires of fans (I'm actually red with fury just thinking about how much I hate what Kyoto Animation is doing). Overeaching to fans kills creativity just as much as not caring about the fans does. I'm glad people here are starting to question things that studios do a bit more though, rather than automatically accept cast replacement simply based on the fact that the replacements are currently very popular, we have a healthy dose of skepticism from people (why people are surprised I'm not sure as Kyoto Animation is the ultimate do whatever is popular company in the industry, only topped by Capcom's habits in the video game realm). Well I hope people judge the series on its true merits (as it does look incredibly right down my alley, loli's and video games and whatnot), rather than by the fact that Kyoto Animation is doing it and Aya Hirano is in it (Two things likely to be mentioned at least 10000 times once its aired, one of the other main reasons I tend to dislike the presence of either of the two in a production as suddenly the thread no longer becomes Lucky Star, but Kyoto Animation produced show with Aya Hirano...Discuss. I think people know what I mean). I also have to wonder why Aya Hirano hasn't realized what a tool she's become for the industry (again I really pity her for being so overworked, she didn't ask for this).

And To Kyoto Animation wherever you may be, if you want my respect you have to earn it through creativity. I've seen creativity in the form of Sunrise and Bones and Kyoto Animation, you sir are no Studio Bones.

[FireChick]

I'm kinda getting the feeling that Lucky Star is gonna be like Azumanga Daioh for some reason. Or maybe that's just me?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by FireChick

I'm kinda getting the feeling that Lucky Star is gonna be like Azumanga Daioh for some reason. Or maybe that's just me?

I get a similiar vibe and wonder how much longer I will get to talk about the actual show, before the topics are flooded with posts like "OMG Aya Hirano is the best and Kyoani is teh pretty". I also pray to god that I'm just being overly paranoid and I can talk about this hilarious looking series with others when it airs. I always get this sense of forboding whenever either of the two are involved in anything, like all thats important to people is the fact that they are involved in some way.

I also resent the fact that Kyoto Animation seems to think that the series, as a look at the otaku industry of Japan, can't hold its own weight unless it has the latest and hippest voice actors playing the parts, so they have to fit them in to the cast. That's all I can pull out of this voice actor switch. Makes me, wonder how long its going to take for them to work Goto Yuko into the cast as well.

All in all it's a fairly insulting slap in the face to both me and the orchestrators of the base franchise.

[Vexx]

If one has read the manga Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star - there are a lot of similarities in the format (witty dialog between high school girls of a variety of personalities in different situations). So... yeah.

I'm a little concerned about the VA switch. I always like to hear new voices (rather than the same 4 or 5 voices repeatedly until I can't watch a series without advanced cross-contamination thoughts from other series). As much as I like Hirano or Gotou, for example, I don't want to hear them doing *every* single character in *every* series whether or not their voices fit the role. OTOH, I don't have any really preconceived notions about what these characters should sound like.... so the major problem will be if I hear character X and keep thinking "character from series Y".

American examples: "john wayne" and "clint eastwood" movies are great to watch... but the story is almost irrelevant to watching these guys perform their iconic/archetypal selves. I think that's a shame to some extent - I don't mind it on occasion but when it interferes with the story itself (recalls Leonard Nimoy doing a Sherlock Holmes play right after he had finished Original Star Trek .... lets just say the audience was full of Trekkies rather than fans of Sherlock Holmes who would have applauded even if Nimoy had bumbled all his lines).

KyoAni has great production values, but it does not mean they are incapable of screwing up.... <shrug> I don't see too much point in getting overwrought until we see the series in action. If it makes me laugh, it wins for me -- if I start making the faces 0.O o.O then the points will slide off.

[Chaos2Frozen]

As long as it works, and the show's good or better, I won't complain...

[Kaioshin Sama]

I would like to make a gentleman's bet with the people on this topic should they agree. I will bet that Aya Hirano does the opening to this show as a way to lure in extra viewers. If I am right, others must admit that Kyoto Animation is using her as a hook to draw extra viewers to this series. If I am wrong, I will not be allowed to say anything negative about this series during its run. Either way nobody wins or loses anything really, only the truth wins. So, how about it?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I would like to make a gentleman's bet with the people on this topic should they agree. I will bet that Aya Hirano does the opening to this show as a way to lure in extra viewers. If I am right, others must admit that Kyoto Animation is shamelessly pandering with this series. If I am wrong, I will not be allowed to say anything negative about this series during its run. Either way nobody wins or loses anything really, only the truth wins. So, how about it?

If you hate the series, why would you keep watching? Do you enjoy complaining about how a show is not to your taste?

I'm sorry, but my "Ignore" list in animesuki forums is filled with people who made it their life's goal to troll an anime forum complaining about a series they really should have stopped watching eight episodes ago. If you are going to be like that, please inform me ahead of time so you can join that list.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

If you hate the series, why would you keep watching? Do you enjoy complaining about how a show is not to your taste?

I'm sorry, but my "Ignore" list in animesuki forums is filled with people who made it their life's goal to troll an anime forum complaining about a series they really should have stopped watching eight episodes ago. If you are going to be like that, please inform me ahead of time so you can join that list.

Dude it hasn't even aired yet, I'm speculating. Usually a series has to earn points with me for me to like it, so I always start off fairly skeptical. Its not enough that Kyoto Animation is doing it for me to declare it automatically good before its even aired, like it is with others. Since people don't ever allow me to say anything negative and it all has to be postive, I will be giving up my right to interpretation of the series including the good and the bad, which is a big deal to me, hence the sacrifice I would make should I lose the bet. I don't troll though, I say what I think, people just can't tell the difference for some reason, because they don't know that a critical perspective means highlighting the potential problems of something and where improvement can be made. If that's a problem go ahead and add me since you don't seem to like moderate or opposing opinions of shows, but keep in mind if I was trolling, I would have been moderated for it as this board has good moderators who don't allow for any shenanigans.

I assume your not in the bet than. I hope somebody takes me up.

You also don't seem to remember me. It's me the guy from the Haruhi forums who was initially extremely skeptical of the overwhelming popularity of the series. Intially I was unimpressed with it since it was nowhere near as good as others were claiming day in and day out, but I ended it up liking it very much in the end, though not to the degree others did. I now periodically check up on the translations of the novels and read a chapter when I have time.

[Vexx]

Hopefully that list doesn't include people who like a show but are able to see its shortcomings or are unhappy with certain aspects. I'd hate to read a forum where everyone just gushes about how wonderful it all is I know I've read some pretty amazing rants from Vallen over the last few years (here and on MT forums )

Kaioshin didn't say he hated the series, he hasn't formed an opinion, it hasn't aired yet. He is unhappy with the tendency lately to cast the *same* VAs over and over and over --- whether or not they may be the best choice for the role. That is an argument about the production team tension between art and profit -- and one I can say is quite suitable for discussion.

note: I don't know about "shameless pandering" , if she does the OP tune - its just another hook to draw in viewers and new potential fans. For me, potential problems arise when a series becomes more about a VA or a particular director than about the story itself.

[Nightengale]

In some ways, I can see what the whole issue is about. It's much like Sunrise really. Some people are watching Sunrise animes waiting for it to turn into a trainwreck and laugh at it, ignoring the fact that Sunrise produced 2 good anime series alongside that one below-average Sunrise anime. And Kyoto Animation's rise to fame due to their apparent "faithfulness" and high production values due to low-episode count and one-anime-at-a-time-production has clearly appealed to those who wants eyecandy. It's not that they're a bad studio, it's just that they aren't GOD Animation either. They've been around for quite a while, but their track-record isn't long. I'm still waiting for an original studio animation by Kyoto Animation that should occur sometime in the future.

Likewise, my only interest in this anime so far is seeing how Kyoto Animation will deal with manga-adaptions, much less a 4-koma. I'm always interested in animation studio's virginal quest, even though 4-komas isn't wholely my cup of tea.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

In some ways, I can see what the whole issue is about. It's much like Sunrise really. Some people are watching Sunrise animes waiting for it to turn into a trainwreck and laugh at it, ignoring the fact that Sunrise produced 2 good anime series alongside that one below-average Sunrise anime. And Kyoto Animation's rise to fame due to their apparent "faithfulness" and high production values due to low-episode count and one-anime-at-a-time-production has clearly appealed to those who wants eyecandy. It's not that they're a bad studio, it's just that they aren't GOD Animation either. They've been around for quite a while, but their track-record isn't long. I'm still waiting for an original studio animation by Kyoto Animation that should occur sometime in the future.

Likewise, my only interest in this anime so far is seeing how Kyoto Animation will deal with manga-adaptions, much less a 4-koma. I'm always interested in animation studio's virginal quest, even though 4-komas isn't wholely my cup of tea.

Well the fact that they will have to interpret a 4-Koma and will be required to add to it, could finally be their baptism of fire so to speak. Will they be able to rise to the challenge of actually writing a series and prove themselves once and for all or will they buckle under the challenge of having to do something other than animate a series that's already been written for them. Like I've said before, I see there faithfullness to original scripts as a weakness/crutch rather than a strength.It shows a lack of creativity, and its also seems to be the reason why Kyoto Animation can continue to afford high quality animation in its series. Thus, Kyoto Animation's entire credibility as a creatively competive studio for the next little while, rests on this series success.

Oh and just try hard to ignore the people who think its clever to expect each Sunrise series to trainwreck because one series failed as a result of everything under the sun going wrong at once and lack of trust in the production staff. The people who expect these trainwrecks, obviously aren't familiar with Sunrises catalogue and history of innovation (As far as I can tell they think Sunrise was founded in 2002 or something) stretching back into the mid 70's at least. When you define a genre time and time again it tends to balance out one failure.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Dude it hasn't even aired yet, I'm speculating. Usually a series has to earn points with me for me to like it, so I always start off fairly skeptical. Its not enough that Kyoto Animation is doing it for me to declare it automatically good before its even aired, like it is with others. Since people don't ever allow me to say anything negative and it all has to be postive, I will be giving up my right to interpretation of the series including the good and the bad, which is a big deal to me, hence the sacrifice I would make should I lose the bet. I don't troll though, I say what I think, people just can't tell the difference for some reason, because they don't know that a critical perspective means highlighting the potential problems of something and where improvement can be made. If that's a problem go ahead and add me since you don't seem to like moderate or opposing opinions of shows, but keep in mind if I was trolling, I would have been moderated for it as this board has good moderators who don't allow for any shenanigans.

I assume your not in the bet than. I hope somebody takes me up.

You also don't seem to remember me. It's me the guy from the Haruhi forums who was initially extremely skeptical of the overwhelming popularity of the series. Intially I was unimpressed with it since it was nowhere near as good as others were claiming day in and day out, but I ended it up liking it very much in the end, though not to the degree others did. I now periodically check up on the translations of the novels and read a chapter when I have time.

Please, don't take it as an insult; I am just allergic to people who watch anime they hate just so they can say how much worse it is compared to last week. My philosophy is "if it makes my eyes bleed, I stop watching".

As for that thing with Haruhi? Yes, i remember you. And no, that's not important. People can like or dislike any show they want, and people become Haruhiists only if they truly believe in it. The line I highlighted on your quote in the last reply I made was the only thing I have an issue with. And it was really only because it brought back bad memories. As I said, this isn't anything against you.

Anyway, onto a different line of thought...

Am I the ONLY person who believe Kyoto Animation doesn't need to make an Original Animation?
Why is it so important? The majority of anime on the market had been, is, and likely always will be adaptations. And so many good source material gets butchered by bad adaptions that most of us once believed it was inevitable.

KyoAni had proved us wrong. It IS possible to be faithful to the original while having a good product at the end. And thus far, that has been their strength. Close cooperation with original authors and an eye for detail had served them well thus far, so why risking it all doing something else?

(As a reverse example, Gainax was made famous by their good Original Animations. Their anime adaptations tend to have production difficulties because they don't get along with the original authors. In their case, I prefer if they just make Original Animations only, and preferably be as controversial as possible while they are at it. Each to their own strength, I say.)

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Please, don't take it as an insult; I am just allergic to people who watch anime they hate just so they can say how much worse it is compared to last week. My philosophy is "if it makes my eyes bleed, I stop watching".

As for that thing with Haruhi? Yes, i remember you. And no, that's not important. People can like or dislike any show they want, and people become Haruhiists only if they truly believe in it. The line I highlighted on your quote in the last reply I made was the only thing I have an issue with. And it was really only because it brought back bad memories.

Anyway, onto a different line of thought...

Am I the ONLY person who believe Kyoto Animation doesn't need to make an Original Animation?
Why is it so important? The majority of anime on the market had been, is, and likely always will be adaptations. And so many good source material gets butchered by bad adaptions that most of us once believed it was inevitable.

KyoAni had proved us wrong. It IS possible to be faithful to the original while having a good product at the end. And thus far, that has been their strength. Close cooperation with original authors and an eye for detail had served them well thus far, so why risking it all doing something else?

You are exactly right a "GOOD" product, is what you get with a good adaptation. Well we've got an all-star cast of posters now, so I'm not really worried at all. We will be discussing this show after all without the threat of fanboyism. I think I'll be changing my Avatar to read something different now. Thanks for helping me restore my faith even though you didn't even intend to in the first place, you have done it.

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Am I the ONLY person who believe Kyoto Animation doesn't need to make an Original Animation?

As I like to put it...Who Dares, Wins. Just because they've found their niche at being good novel adaptors doesn't mean they can't venture out. It's fun to expect the unexpected....and seeing myriads of fake spoilers. :P

In a way, technically the same argument can probably hold true for Sunrise and Madhouse. Madhouse has proven time and time that their manga adaptions are respectable and worthy adaptions, even to extents of it being better than their source material, due to extra executions made possible by animation while Sunrise too had proven that they're good at light shounen adaptions and rewritings, also made it's point by their overall improvement of Yakitate Japan by improving the pacing, the puns and the writing in the last quarter of the show, Keroro because Sunrise loves Gundam, Gintama by being...Gintama, and recently Kekkaishi by cut-and-pasting/rewriting/repace/reanimate/lenghten episodic chapters so that they flow better than their chapterish episodic manga counterpart. Well, Inuyasha wasn't very good, but I can't blame them. Inuyasha shows few signs of ending, but more recently though. But even so, they have their fair share of original animations and other works too. In a perfect world, Kyoto Animation would be animating every light novel in existence, but we're not in a perfect world and we'd have to settle with what that can be done.

Nobody's asking Kyoto Animation to stop doing what they're excelling at. That's dumb. It's like asking Sunrise to stop making Gundam. It's just that it's interesting to see people try something different.

[Skane]

But KyoAni has been branching out.

The problem here is that they are 'only' producing one anime series at a time. So the speed of them diversifying is rather... glacier. I often compare KyoAni to Blizzard as a metaphor, as both companies share a similar policy of one product at a time, both insist on high-calibre production values, and are both relatively new to their respective worlds.

Just as KyoAni's current claim to fame lies in its' ability to adapt light-novels, Blizzard's claim to fame lies in its' RTS-genre games. Both are trying to branch out in varying degrees. Blizzard had tried to make an Adventure game but that got cancelled in favour of WC3, which subsequently led to their first true genre-deviation in a grand way. A MMORPG, known to many as World of Warcraft(WoW), now currently ranked as the most populated MMORPG ever.

Blizzard is also trying to create a FPS. The infamous Starcraft:Ghost. If it ever gets completed, it will be a nice test of whether Blizzard can compete in even more genres.

So we come back to KyoAni. Let's see...

FMP!Fumoffu!, Air(TV), FMP!TSR, SHnY, and now Kanon(2006), with Lucky Star in the near future. We will ignore their other anime-productions, since those were joint efforts.

Considering that we only have... six anime series to draw conclusions upon, I think it is a little too early to dismiss KyoAni as an one-trick pony. What do you want them to do? A different genre every time? That would be ridiculous.

It would be nice to see an original production from KyoAni in the future of course, but we need to be realistic here as well.

Lance Armstrong is God-like in cycling, but does that mean we need him to be Godly in other sports as well before we start to respect him? It would be a nice bonus and grant him much more kudos, but should we deny him his due respect just because of his speciality?

Cheers.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Skane

But KyoAni has been branching out.

The problem here is that they are 'only' producing one anime series at a time. So the speed of them diversifying is rather... glacier. I often compare KyoAni to Blizzard as a metaphor, as both companies share a similar policy of one product at a time, both insist on high-calibre production values, and are both relatively new to their respective worlds.

Just as KyoAni's current claim to fame lies in its' ability to adapt light-novels, Blizzard's claim to fame lies in its' RTS-genre games. Both are trying to branch out in varying degrees. Blizzard had tried to make an Adventure game but that got cancelled in favour of WC3, which subsequently led to their first true genre-deviation in a grand way. A MMORPG, known to many as World of Warcraft(WoW), now currently ranked as the most populated MMORPG ever.

Blizzard is also trying to create a FPS. The infamous Starcraft:Ghost. If it ever gets completed, it will be a nice test of whether Blizzard can compete in even more genres.

So we come back to KyoAni. Let's see...

FMP!Fumoffu!, Air(TV), FMP!TSR, SHnY, and now Kanon(2006), with Lucky Star in the near future. We will ignore their other anime-productions, since those were joint efforts.

Considering that we only have... six anime series to draw conclusions upon, I think it is a little too early to dismiss KyoAni as an one-trick pony. What do you want them to do? A different genre every time? That would be ridiculous.

It would be nice to see an original production from KyoAni in the future of course, but we need to be realistic here as well.

Lance Armstrong is God-like in cycling, but does that mean we need him to be Godly in other sports as well before we start to respect him? It would be a nice bonus and grant him much more kudos, but should we deny him his due respect just because of his speciality?

Cheers.

It mostly seems to me that they are trying way to hard at the moment to recreate the Haruhi buzz and they figure if they can get as much of the cast back together they can do that. Ultimately its a lack of confidence I didn't want to see. Not only that, there's more idols in this series than I have ever seen in any anime ever, including Lovedol. I haven't had a chance to research just how popular they are and what kind of a draw they would have, but I'd assume a fair bit.

But, My biggest objection to the company is the artificial god status they have attained because of their lucky break with Haruhi. After they did that, Kanon came along, which you know is a good series that can stand alone, but so much of the focus is on the fact that Kyoto Animation happens to be doing the 2006 version. It's always like, "What is Kyoani going to do next, are they going to do Haruhi references with Lucky Star. Oooooh Squeal!" And I feel like saying you know just because Aya Hirano happened to do the voice of Haruhi (The most legendary thing ever to happen in the history of the universe by the way, in case people didn't know) doesn't mean that the character she's is playing Haruhi (I'll tell everybody right now I've read the character data and she's not even remotely like Haruhi).

It's just gotten so irritating lately to see these blind followers of a company, who don't even know why they like the series the company does, but they'll follow them off a cliff if need be (not saying its ever going to happen of course) because they produced the Haruhi anime. I used to think it wasn't the companies fault and it was the fans, but now that they seem to be taking advantage of it, I don't know. The biggest kicker is the VA of Yuki returning, a person who's not even particularly good at her job and is just a random idol who lucked into the spot,replacing the original strikes me as bizzare to say the least.

Right now things are quiet calm and reasonable on this thread and its still about Lucky Star the video game parodying 4Koma, but once it airs its likely to become utter chaos. You'll have people coming in out of the blue who don't even know what Lucky Star is, but they'll be hear to check the latest Kyoto Animation series with "Haruhi" in it. It'll be all about how Aya Hirano nailed her latest part and how Izumi is the best character and how deep she is, (never mind that its next to impossible for a character in a 4Koma to be deep, but it will come up at some point) nobody else can compare blablabla, and people will misinterpet the characters and insert Haruhi jokes and it will just be mentally exhausting for me and a few other people I know here. Basically expect the thread to look something like this. I don't know how Skane can even stand posting on this blog. As far as I can tell its the pinnacle of everything I've just discussed up until now. I can't tell if its something like Colbert Nation or if its actually serious.

Anyway, if none of this happens I will personally eat my hat that I'm not wearing, because the joy of being able to discuss the anime properly will numb the horrible indigestion in my stomach. This series looks like so much fun and I already feel like any chance I have of enjoying it on the same level as everybody else (The would have been comedy and video game centric or Content level, intead of the Voice Actor and Studio level) is gone now thanks to these changes and the production studio.

[Vexx]

Probably ought to start boiling that hat and add some ginger.... I'd say the odds are 100% at least *someone* will be all about the Hirano rather than "is the adaptation from 4-panel to animation true to the spirit of the comic?"

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Probably ought to start boiling that hat and add some ginger.... I'd say the odds are 100% at least *someone* will be all about the Hirano rather than "is the adaptation from 4-panel to animation true to the spirit of the comic?"

Hahaha, yes you are right. I have someone in mind, but one person isn't enough to kill a thread. It's when the entire thread reaches that point (roughly an hour after the first sub gets released) that things will deteriorate. Just check out that link in my previous post, if you want to know the horror I am picturing.

The blog post starts of with a harmless, Skane (that's you bro) says Kyoto's next project is.... Discuss, and wow!!!! So then as I'm reading its basically

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I don't know how Skane can even stand posting on this blog. As far as I can tell its the pinnacle of everything I've just discussed up until now. I can't tell if its something like Colbert Nation or if its actually serious

Does anybody actually takes that blog site seriously?

I love to read it, but I do so just to get a laugh at the jokes Jason makes.

Anyway, I have never cared much about voice actors; I am grateful for their work in anime , but that's as far as my love for them goes. So, I am cool either way the thread goes in the end.

EDIT:

Finally got around to see some bits of the manga and sadly, I didn't find it very funny.

Still willing to give the anime a try though.