The Final Rating/Rating Of Lucky Star

SURPRISE!  Behind the scenes I’ve actually been following this series, and now that I’m finished it, I decided to share my final review and rating of it as well.  This is more simple than the average review I do, but then again, Lucky Star was a more simple show than I usually watched.  So Here Goes:

I intend to start this review by first looking at the aspects of Lucky Star I felt stood out as poor points for the series. 
 

The Bad:

Overkill Haruhi References:

I felt like screaming, “Look I don’t care that much about Haruhi, stop thinking I do”, at the screen sometimes.  This could have been toned down a lot to give more time to Lucky Star.

Some Animation Glitches: 

Many minor ones I noticed where lip syncing was off more than normal, the line between objects transitioned awkardly, one of Konata that looked like a photoshop, and one that was actually hilarious where Konata looked like she had a Monoeye like a Zeon Mobile Suit.  It just wasn’t at an acceptable level for an animation production of high expectations.

Uninspired Music: 

Look I love my Casio too, but I don’t like to play it everyday.  A little more variety in BGM would have done a lot for the scenes.  And as much as Sailor Fuku was fun the first couple times, but it got annoying after just a few listens.  That was THE big vocal song for the series, and not liking it was not a good thing.  The Karaoke could also be inconsistant as well, it was supposed to be the characters singing, but sometimes you get the sense that the voice actors were being given priority for certain “Special” songs, and it just killed the goofiness of it to suddenly hear Aya Hirano’s voice instead of Konata giving what sounded more like a Studio produced version of Sorega Ai Deshou, than a goofy little Otaku’s Karaoke house rendition.  The Minoru stuff was just weird and I didn’t care to much for it, but he sure as hell was funny and had a great personality.  I wouldn’t mind having a drink with the guy.

Lucky Channel: 

Man, the joke ran it’s course around the 5th episode and the guests weren’t all that interesting or surprising (I prefer The Daily Show), save for Goto Yuko and her badass bike.  I wish that this could have been scrapped during production meetings and that we just could have spent more time with the actual Lucky Star characters.  That’s the biggest complaint of all I have.  It’s like if I went into a Movie theatre to see something, and suddenly the management decides that the movie trailers that were airing before the movie were going to be counted towards the time you paid for to see the movie, and the Feature Presentation would have to be reedited to compensate for them.  It wasn’t cool is what I’m saying

Now The Good:

The Characters:

Who couldn’t honestly say they weren’t amused by the quirky Konata Izumi, her obsession over video games and Japanese Animation, she feels a little close to home, and she’s cute to boot.  What about Kagami and her tendency to “fix” the conversation before things got out of hand, her battles of wits with Konata, her Ide Sweatdrop, her love for her sister and all those other things.  What about Tsukasa and her overkilled cutesiness (to the point where I think she was a parody of Moe it’s self), and Miyuki and her speeches (index finger up), her tendency to bump into objects, her…..pinkness.  And of course there was Yutaka, Minami and them as well who brought up the flat chest brigade and Patty and her misconceptions about what Japanese culture was like.  All these characters were extremely simple, but that was what allowed them to be played off one another to tell the 4Koma style jokes.  That’s the essence of Lucky Star and it was pulled off very well.  Had we seen more of the characters and jokes based on them, and less of some other things this series could have probably scratched the 8/10 barrier for me.
The References To Japanese Pop Culture:

I liked this style of setting.  Learning about a culture and/or reinforcing your knowledge about it is NEVER a bad thing.  I learned a bit about how the Japanese family and group of friends functions during such important times as dinner, after dinner TV viewing, public outings and more.  I also think the show parodied the rather absurd idea that if you are a cute little girl, everywhere you go outside, somebody is going to try to hop out and take a picture of you, or get a good look up or down your Sailor Fuku.
The Frequent Bizareness Of It All:

Lucky Star could be just plain strange sometimes and that’s always a good thing.  It wasn’t SD Gundam level strange, but it was enough that it could give me something to talk about to others or make a not of while watching.

And That’s the reason behind my rating.  Would I watch it again, probably not, but I’m at least satisfied I gave it a chance.  Now what is the final rating people might ask if they made it this far, well here it is at last.

Final Series Rating: Six And A Half Out Of Ten

Shin Oikamas’ Final Rating: Eleventy Billion Out Of Ten