Do you feel lucky, punk?
I wasn’t expecting to like Lucky Star. I just started watching it on a whim because I wanted to know what it was like. So with that in mind, I guess I was pleasantly surprised? It wasn’t much more than ‘okay’, but I did finish all 24 episodes without ever feeling like I wanted to quit, so that counts for something.
It’s a 4koma comedy, which is very obvious from the timing and delivery of the jokes. I wasn’t especially funny, but it was amusing enough to keep it from getting boring. That’s mainly thanks to Konata the high-functioning otaku. These sort of characters are usually loud and obnoxious, but Konata’s laid-back attitude (and relentless teasing of Kagami) made her the best character in the show, and it would’ve been much worse without her. I also liked the Lucky Channel segments with the horrible gremlin Akira. I wouldn’t want a whole series about her, but one scene every episode was just right.
On the other hand, there’s Konata’s cousin Yutaka and her circle of friends. Introduced later into the series, they were a net negative, with a lot more focus on characters just being moĆ©. Just having Tsukasa was more than enough.
It’s also kind of funny seeing what the freshest anime references were back in 2007. It’s mainly Haruhi because, well, it’s Kyoani, but you also get scenes like Konata imitating Marimite. That sort of stuff ages quickly, but it also gives you a glimpse of otaku culture from 16 years ago. I normally roll my eyes at reference humor, but Lucky Star avoids making “I recognize that thing” the entire joke, so I didn’t mind it.
I certainly don’t think I was missing out by not watching this show earlier, but I can think of worse ways to spend my time.