Lucky Star - Episode 24 (FINAL) Discussion / Poll

[Calawain]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Same here... the odors in a high school can get.... overwhelming (unwashed teens doused in nose-burning French cathouse odors from their perfume/deodorant/musk-crud)

Take a damn shower after gym, people....... (bunch of prudes)

@Kenny: well... in the last two years, I've gone from mostly black/brown/red hair to almost silver-white .... very annoying. I tried a dye last year but it seems my skin just soaks up the dye like crazy so I'm stewing on just coloring the whole thing silver and to hell with it. The dye was kind of interesting though as it left a lot of red/brown/silver that everyone said made me look like some sort of kitsune in disguise <snort laugh> ... so whatever my self-image is, unfortunately, -jiji may be appropriate though I often feel younger than many of the stick-in-the-mud parents 20 years younger than me O.o

Okay, we're off-topic >>> discussing ep 24 final again.

I'm trying to remember the lag time between the end of Haruhi and its R1 release and wondering if we'll ..... hmmm, still no sign of a Kanon 2006 R1 release either, is there?
Well, in this instance the Haruhi connections may help L*S get a release in the US ...... so it goes.

According to wikipedia, the final Haruhi episode was aired 7/2/06, the license was announced 12/22/06, and I know I bought my volume one of the show at the end of May 07, so it was about 10 months afterwards for it to be released. That's about an average turnaround for a popular series, although these days shows are getting licensed a lot faster as companies realize that if you license and release fast people are less likely to get fansubs and more likely to just wait and buy your DVDs.

And Kanon has been licensed by ADV, while I don't know if they have made a super official announcement, they did show trailers online.

Optimistically I would hope for an LS licensing within a couple of months, I don't know of any big cons coming up for them to wait on. Then if they are quick about it you could guess a 8 month lag time from now until release. One can only hope.

[Princess_of_Hell]

Originally Posted by mickal555

loli: Small child- female
lolicon: someone attracted to a loli

Actually loli is sorta an english word, it comes from a book writen about 100 years ago: lolita.
It's about a older mans obsession with a 12 year old who he perceives as a "nymphet", (the book is also the source of that word).
It's written from his perspective and is sympathetic to his feelings, it sorta makes you empathise with him, which is part of the masterful writing as he's quite the sicko. Kinda psychological things going on there.

The word is the nick name given to the child "dolouris", it's regarded as a classic piece of literature these days.

There's also been two movies produced.

I'm more about Gothic Lolita, the non-sexual and Japanese fashion of which I have many outfits.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by Vexx

... so whatever my self-image is, unfortunately, -jiji may be appropriate though I often feel younger than many of the stick-in-the-mud parents 20 years younger than me O.o

Just to go off-topic for a bit more, if it will make you feel better, I'm perfectly amenable to using the -sensei honorific instead. As in Izumi Soujirou, the Otaku/Lolicon-Sensei.

[kenjiharima]

AFK released Lucky Star 1-24!

There's a prelude? O_O;;; What the?!! 4.18GiB of torrent ACK!!! XD

Hope there are alot of seeders like me.

My bad it's Kannon XD [a.f.k.] Kanon - 01-24 & Prelude

[Risaa]

Wait, whaat? You mean Vexx *doesn't* actually have spiky bluish-black hair?? I'm totally slow in the uptake! D:

Working on memorizing the entire cheerleading dance... Well, it's not too bad. I already had some parts memorized from watching the OP over and over.

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by Risaa

O.o.... I don't know any girls who don't shave their pits, at least to my knowledge. I think you should hit the swimming pool and observe.

There are a couple of girls in that dance group who probably won't ever need to shave anything off their bodies...

Originally Posted by Vexx

and she's Konata-sized but Kagamin-tempered...
@seijisensei

You're wife's not that chibi, Vexx-dono... she looked like a real women, just a bit short The chibi's I know... well, one of them still pay child fair for bus rides.

Wow, you've posted the photo of your wife, Vexx-dono? My wife will throw me out of the house if I do anything like that. Only thing I can say about my Tsundere wife is that she looked pretty much like Kagami interm of body-type, but her hair and face, well, since we're in Azudai mode, looked very similar to Osaka, minus the dojiko and the kansai-ben part. She does do a great imitation of Osaka's "pon pon ya!" after eating. No twin drills for her, although I did ask nicely. Then a sailor suit, and.. okay, better stop now.

Originally Posted by Rembr

Ikahodo, to the best of my knowledge, is a phrase originating in Lucky Star. While it is a pretty clever new form of the word, I doubt it'll be replacing dondake. Unless its origin is elsewhere.

No, Ikahodo is a real slang. It's listed on several Japanese slang dictionaries. Not sure where it got started; the only info I can find is that girls (and maybe gays) have been slowly saying ikahodo instead of dondake. The meaning is the same, which is similar to "WTF".

Originally Posted by Kempis Curious

What was Patty demoing on her cell phone?

It's obviously the Lucky Star OP.

Originally Posted by Risaa

Working on memorizing the entire cheerleading dance... Well, it's not too bad. I already had some parts memorized from watching the OP over and over.

Make sure you youtube that dance there.

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

The chibi's I know... well, one of them still pay child fair for bus rides.

I'm still growing, I swear. o_o (Whaat? It's cheaper..)

Yesterday my mom and I went to pick up my sister at her middle school. We were both stopped - the guard asked why my mom was walking around without a visitor's pass, and I was asked why I wasn't in uniform, in class. It's not that I'm short, but rather that middle school students are getting so tall.

Make sure you youtube that dance there.

Eto, I believe it's already been posted in the videos thread ne?

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by Risaa

Eto, I believe it's already been posted in the videos thread ne?

Eto, video of Rissa-chan doing the cheer dance? Where?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Risaa

Wait, whaat? You mean Vexx *doesn't* actually have spiky bluish-black hair?? I'm totally slow in the uptake! D:.

bah... upstarts stole my online moniker. The names comes from a D&D NPC dragon I dreamed up in the mid-80s and I've been using the nick since 1987 on the Internet (yes, pre-Web). I figure on outlasting them...

oooh, video.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

It's obviously the Lucky Star OP.

You know, i'm still surprised Kyoani didn't have the SHnY cast doing the dance on her phone or something.

[archanfels]

The first thing I want to say after the post-last-episode-emoness is that in the part where Kona "convinced" Kagamin into doing the dance, that's your tsundereness at its best, so typical it should be in the moe text book if there ever is one. Kagamin is so damn cute it's criminal ><

[AVPlaya]

Just for the Last Episode I'm going to post my references one at a time, since I'm no longer time-crunched to get everything out before the next episode. Hopefully this will encourage people to keep visiting the forum and keep talking about this episode. When I'm done I'll post it all in one big post format in the ref thread.

====

The Real Cultural Festival
The Cultural Festival is one of the two big events in a Japanese school year (the other being the Sports Festival of course). It was supposed to be a showcase of the culture of the school and the locale, but it became a way to foster relationship with the outsiders like parents, alumni, and local officials, and to show off the accomplishment and the talents of the students. In spirit it's a way to installing team-work by having the entire class and school (everyone MUST be involved) pulling off a massively complex project in a short amount of time. In reality is a time for some students to goof-off as much as possible while eating as much crap as possible.

Every class pick a "theme" of what they would want to SHOW OFF as a class, and invariably the theme became a contest to see which class can attract the most visitors. Thus, although Miyuki's idea of doing a display on the history and the use of 桐箪笥 (Kiritansu, a traditional chest made from Paulownia wood) is what the Cultural Festival SHUOLD be about, the old standard of a fortune telling place was chosen instead. Even her mom laughed at her for sticking to the true meaning of cultural festival, as the Kiritansu made in Kasukabe (春日部桐箪笥) is a nationally recognized traditional art form and a wonderful topic for a cultural festival display.

Since as we know Konata's school isn't really called 春日部共栄 (Kasukabe KyoEi) but 陵桜学園 (RyouOu Gakuen) instead, the name of the Kasukabe KyoEi Cultural Festival, 藤桐祭 (TouTouSai), was also changed to a similar 桜藤祭 (OuTouSai). One also glaring difference is that The Kasukabe version happens in the summer (this year is June 3rd), while the Lucky Star version is in mid-autumn; it's a very strange time to have a cultural festival. The Real TouTouSai is hosted together by the Middle and High school. The Festival is two days long, and only the second day is open to visitors; the Miyakawa Sisters visited on the wrong day. Over 5,500 people visited this year's TouTouSai during the Open House day, and even the K.K. Alumni Association had a booth.

The list of the Cultural Festival Themes voted on by the 3-Nen B-Gumi:

• バザー (Bazaar, or food booth, at least 12 votes)
• 迷路 (Maze, at least 6 votes)
• 占いの館 (Fortune-teller's House, at least 21 votes)
• ハミガキ体操 (Toothbrushing Exercise, 7 votes) <-- this is a joke, since everyone learned this since kindergarten
• 桐箪笥の歴史と作り方 (History and construction of Kiritansu, 1 Miyuki Vote)
• おばけ屋敷 (Haunted House, 6 votes)

Some photos of this year's Kasukabe KyoEi's TouTouSai:

Spoiler for Unhide to Join the Cultural Festival:

A class doing a Bazaar or Kissaten theme, I think:


The 2007 TouTouSai Poster:

===
More to come....

EDIT: congradulation to the Kasukabe KyoEi H.S. Girl's Swimming Team for winning their first National Championship! Swimming Dynasty Indeed. The 2-time defending champs, the Boy's Team, was 4th this year. It's the girl's time to shine! The Lucky Girls can do their cheer dance for them neh! (The Swim Team do have a Cheer Squad). BTW, this coming weekend is the actually the Sports Festival for KK High School.

[kim8268]

Is there go to be a second season or a special episode (hopefully at least 5) of lucky star? and are there going to be a second season of melacholy?


Playing Magic to kill the waiting of new releases

[Kinny Riddle]

AVPlaya, just where did all the intel of Katsukabe Kyoei High come from? Their official website? Is it really that comprehensive? Since it's been ages since I last visited my own secondary school's website, and the info there is seriously outdated (we're talking about months, not weeks or days). Though I understand different schools have different standards concerning their websites.

And Vess-ossan, for the umpteenth time, stop misspelling my name. It's Kinny with an I. I didn't go through the trouble to make sure my username is recognizable enough by picking a generic name like Kenny.

[AVPlaya]

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

AVPlaya, just where did all the intel of Katsukabe Kyoei High come from? Their official website? Is it really that comprehensive? Since it's been ages since I last visited my own secondary school's website, and the info there is seriously outdated (we're talking about months, not weeks or days). Though I understand different schools have different standards concerning their websites.

Where you in a Japanese HS, Kinny-sama? Lucky... No wonder you're so perapera.

I was just doing research on TouTouSai when I visited their news page - they update it pretty frequently. I got the news on their Swimming victory here. There was a news item about how the Sports Festival event order may change due to the possible heat wave tomorrow (or rather today), so that's how I knew about that. Their site, although a bit on the ugly site, is very useful and updated often. It is a one of the best high school in the area, and give the large number of people visiting their cultural festival, quite popular among the locals as well. No wonder Yoshimizu has such love for his alma mater.

[Kinny Riddle]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

Where you in a Japanese HS, Kinny-sama? Lucky... No wonder you're so perapera.

Heh, I wish. I've never even been to Japan. Not yet, anyway. But thanks for flattering me. I live one timezone behind Japan, quite some distance from Akiba, but much nearer than most of the North Americans and Europeans who lurk here.

The high school's here in Asia do have sports days and the occasional open day, but in the end, it's just not as fun as those you see in RL Japan, let alone the wacky premises in tonnes of anime. xD

Spoiler for off-topic useless rant about my school:

Using my school as reference, I'll list why Asian schools outside Japan sucked compared to Japan's HS in terms of off-curricular activities.

Sports day - Compulsory for all students to participate in at least one race. But the main gripe is they're not allowed to wander around the campus when they're not participating. It's like a concentration camp, where you are forced to sit in the field, keep quiet, and wait till it's your turn to be gassed...er, I mean, run the track or do the long jump. And then go back to being bored again and sitting under the sizzling sun. You're not even allowed to sleep. While all those f**king prefects get to sit with the teachers under a makeshift tent and sip their tea while lording all the students around.

Open day - Everything is organized by the Student Council. The non-members are basically at their mercy. The classes don't do any exhibition whatsoever. Unlike the SCs in Japan, I don't recall the SCs ever doing anything for me. So this was the only day they did something. Depending on the members, the Open Day may or may not be boring. There's always some sort of concert event, but don't expect anything like Suzumiya Haruhi and Nagato Yuki hitting the stage.

I've got tonnes more to rant about, but it's irrelevant to this topic, and I don't feel like recalling them as well.

[AVPlaya]

Okay, here's #2..

Spoiler for Long Post - Unhide to Read:

Comforting (Ko)Izumi
When Konata tried to comfort the defeated Miyuki on her quest for a actual culturally-relevant theme for the cultural festival, she said the phrase: "頑張った！感動した！" (You did your best! I'm moved!). This is a reference to a popular saying coined by the ex-PM 小泉純一郎(Koizumu Junichirou). A noted Sumo fan, he attended a sumo tournament in 2001 said these words to the then Yokozuna 貴乃花光司 (Takanohana Kouji) after he won the tournament while being hurt. It became a popular way of cheering people up.

We're powerful, but we both ph33r Izumi Konata-sama



Ghost-Faced Kagamin
When Konata and the Hiiragis were talking about their respective class themes on the bus, Konata started to look at Kagami funny after she mentioned that their class is going to do a haunted house (probably the most difficult of all the themes to pull off). Konata's simply want to get the Tsundere angry, so she can see her "鬼の顔" "Oni no kao" or "demon face". The principal bad guy in Japanese mythology is the demon-like "鬼 (Oni)", which appears in a number of popular folk tails such as the Adventures of Momotarou. The key features of an Oni are the horn on their head and the angry face with large canines. When a person becomes angry, it's said that that person's "demon face" came out. Konata thought that Kagamin's perfect for a Haunted House since she shows that demon face all the time.

I'm much prettier than Kagamin



Cheer Cheer Revolution
EP 24 was all about the girl's quest for the perfect Cheer Dance. Although it seemed like this is an Lucky Star original idea, it's really not. Cheer Dance has been really popular in the last few years, and this year marked the 7th year of the All-Japan Cheer Dance Championship. As most of you know, cheer leading in Japan is usually reserved for the Cheer Squad (Oendan) which is made up mostly of boys who can't make the team. They wore their most masculine attire and lead the cheer section like a drill sargent. Although energetic, visually it's not very appealing. Around 20-30 years ago, Japan begin to notice American Foodball and its array of female cheerleaders; soon this tradition was brought to Japan and we now have a squad of female cheerleaders with pompoms right next to the Oendan and the band as window dressing - they didn't really dance that much. As the sport of Cheer Dancing grew popular in the US, again the Japanese tried to emulate it, but aside from the American Football and a few rugby teams, there's very little room for Cheer Dancing in traditional baseball dominated schools.

However, something dramatic happened in 2004 which changed how Japan views Cheer Dancing. A cheer dance team from a little-know public school in Kanagawa, 厚木高校 (Atsuki High School), came out of no where and won the 2004 All-Japan Cheer Dance Championship AND the 2004 NDA National Dance Championship in the United States. Yes, they beat the best in the USA, birth place of the Cheer-leading culture. It's like a Japanese college basketball team came to the US and beat NCAA Champs, and the team that did it didn't even exist a year ago. This dramatic event soon gave a boost to visibility of Cheer Dance to all walks of Japanese life, and in 2005 the Tamagawa University "Julias" won the Chick-fil-A Cheer & Dance Collegiate Championship in Florida, which again stoked the Cheer Dancing flame. All the sudden, Japan became a Cheer Dancing powerhouse, and many, many school now spend time and effort developing Cheer Dance or Drill squads. In fact, In Saitama Prefecture, Kasukabe Kyoei HS is one of the sponsoring High School for the Saitama Region, and of course, the school really does have a real cheer dance team. Cheer dancing is so popular now that most sport-oriented school have it as a program on it's own right - not a subset of the baseball program.

So why did Lucky Star showcased Cheer Dancing? Well, we know from all the TV references there must be at least one TV and dorama junkies on KyoAni's staff. The dramatic story of the Atsugi High School's unlikely run from no cheer dancers to world domination in a period of a year was made into a dorama called "ダンドリ" or "Dance Drill", starring several cuties like Eikura Nana and gave the career start to the currently popular 加藤ローサ (Kato Rosa, the lead in manga-based "Jotei", which has just ended.) This is how I got to know all about Japanese Cheer dancing. Although the anime gave all the credit for the Cheer Dancing idea to the American Patti, it's no longer a foreign sport to most Japanese.

The Atsugi Miracle Team and the current Kasukabe KyoEi Dance Team:


The likely real inspiration of the L*S Dance, the Dance Drill Team from "Dandori"



Cheer Dance Recruitment Efforts
The recruitment summary for the greatest Anime Dance eva.

• Originator - Patti the American cheerleader type
• Yutaka - The SOURCE. Without her, there's no dance. Want to challenge her frail self
• Minami & Hiyori - joins for the love of Yutaka. You know Minami will never, ever leave Yutaka by herself
• Konata - swayed by Patti's bribery of a randomly-selected ticket (200 ppl only) to Hirano Aya's Handshake Meeting for the promotion of her first photobook, "平野綾写真集 H". Konata joins the party.
• Tsukasa - Moved by the promise of once in a lifetime opportunity to have fun with friends
• Kagamin - Tsundere weak point for the sickly Yutaka fully exploited by Konata, reluctantly joins the party.
• Miyuki - A pushover easily defeated by shameless Konata via complements to her mighty chest
• Ayano & Misao - we have no idea why they've agreed, but it must be due to their undying love for Hiiragi

Without Konata's (self) love for Aya there won't be any dancing around here.

===
I guess not many people will read this since this tread is dying, but they'll keep coming even if no one's reading them.

[Psycho Power J]

Originally Posted by Kinny Riddle

Heh, I wish. I've never even been to Japan. Not yet, anyway. But thanks for flattering me. I live one timezone behind Japan, quite some distance from Akiba, but much nearer than most of the North Americans and Europeans who lurk here.

The high school's here in Asia do have sports days and the occasional open day, but in the end, it's just not as fun as those you see in RL Japan, let alone the wacky premises in tonnes of anime. xD

Spoiler for off-topic useless rant about my school:

Using my school as reference, I'll list why Asian schools outside Japan sucked compared to Japan's HS in terms of off-curricular activities.

Sports day - Compulsory for all students to participate in at least one race. But the main gripe is they're not allowed to wander around the campus when they're not participating. It's like a concentration camp, where you are forced to sit in the field, keep quiet, and wait till it's your turn to be gassed...er, I mean, run the track or do the long jump. And then go back to being bored again and sitting under the sizzling sun. You're not even allowed to sleep. While all those f**king prefects get to sit with the teachers under a makeshift tent and sip their tea while lording all the students around.

Open day - Everything is organized by the Student Council. The non-members are basically at their mercy. The classes don't do any exhibition whatsoever. Unlike the SCs in Japan, I don't recall the SCs ever doing anything for me. So this was the only day they did something. Depending on the members, the Open Day may or may not be boring. There's always some sort of concert event, but don't expect anything like Suzumiya Haruhi and Nagato Yuki hitting the stage.

I've got tonnes more to rant about, but it's irrelevant to this topic, and I don't feel like recalling them as well.

It depends on the Asian school, I suppose. One school I went to has something similar, but also very different. The classes all picks something to do, and there was some pretty wacky results. You don't pay money, but buy tickets of certain values (50 pt ticket for example) from a school booth which is used to pay for stuff. There was a lot of vending booths set up, and everyone competes to get the most tickets to win a prize. The school administration gets in on the fun as well. I remember stuff like some arcade booths and some rides like a mini Ferris Wheel being rented. It seemed more like a carnival.

One thing I remember is what the Student (Security) Council sets up. They filled the school quadrangle with various symbols and scribbles. If you step on one, you suffer a penalty. Some of the penalties are putting you in a wooden detaining area (kinda like what city police precincts have only it's a lot more flimsy) or getting you soaking wet with a water balloon. It was quite fun, since it wasn't compulsory for the lower grades and I spent the time just hanging around.

On hindsight, it's probably something for the school to get a lot of money. They probably got a lot of income from selling the tickets. One just had to wonder how much.

Another event I remember from that school is more like Sports day, only without the sports. Everyone competes in music and dance exhibition. I remember a couple of classes including mine do a dance to a faux-Hawaiian song. It was open to the public, although I'm not sure if admission was charged (probably was). Everyone gets free tickets to invite family though.

[Zero Shinohara]

I guess not many people will read this since this tread is dying, but they'll keep coming even if no one's reading them.

I will follow you in the L*S thread down to the pits of hell, AVPlaya-san! Once again, thanks for the post. Really lots of nice information in there. Who woulda thought Cheerleading had actually become popular in Japan? We don't get many news about that back here.


And as far as Sports events went back where I came from, it pretty much followed the same layout as Kinny Riddle's school for the most part. We were allowed to go around the school during certain times only, and when they were hosting games, you were supposed to go and cheer for your friends. Since me and the people I hung out with pretty much knew no one else out of our own circle, we just used the time to play some D&D Those were fun days, I have to tell you. And Cultural Festivals aren't that different anywhere you go. We had a Cafe and also had a Haunted house, although those aren't usual settings you'd find in most "normal" schools, so...

Kagamin is so damn cute it's criminal ><

You f*cking bet she is! Kagamin Shall be remembered as one of the cutest tsunderes ever assmbled by a japanese mangakka! Seriously, she definitely deserves the Saimoe ><

[Risaa]

Originally Posted by AVPlaya

Spoiler for Long Post - Unhide to Read:

Ghost-Faced Kagamin
When Konata and the Hiiragis were talking about their respective class themes on the bus, Konata started to look at Kagami funny after she mentioned that their class is going to do a haunted house (probably the most difficult of all the themes to pull off). Konata's simply want to get the Tsundere angry, so she can see her "???" "Oni no kao" or "demon face". The principal bad guy in Japanese mythology is the demon-like "? (Oni)", which appears in a number of popular folk tails such as the Adventures of Momotarou. The key features of an Oni are the horn on their head and the angry face with large canines. When a person becomes angry, it's said that that person's "demon face" came out. Konata thought that Kagamin's perfect for a Haunted House since she shows that demon face all the time.

Some people smile sweetly when angry - they have a pretty oni no kao or is that not considered one?

Oo, stormy tonight. x_x