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Lucky Star (manga)
File:Lucky Star logo.pngThis is the logo to the series
Genre	Comedy, Satire
Manga
Written by	Kagami Yoshimizu
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Video game
Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill
Developer	Kadokawa Shoten
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre	Homework drills
Platform	Nintendo DS
Anime
Directed by	Yutaka Yamamoto (1-4) Yasuhiro Takemoto (5-24)
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Video game
Shin Lucky ☆ Star
Developer	Kadokawa Shoten
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre	Mini games
Platform	Nintendo DS
Video game
Developer	Kadokawa Shoten
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre	Romance-ADV, Visual novel
Platform	PlayStation 2
Manga
Lucky ☆ Star Lucky ☆ Star Satsujin Jiken
Written by	Tōka Takei
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten

Lucky ☆ Star (らき☆すた, Raki ☆ Suta) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip manga by Kagami Yoshimizu. The strip has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq magazine since January 2004. Cameo strips were published in other magazines such as Shōnen Ace and others. It was not originally meant to be serialized, but when Comptiq suddenly had pages to fill, Lucky ☆ Star was there. As it was popular, it was decided that the strip was to be serialized. Like many four-panel comic strips, it has no real plot, and typically focuses on the daily lives of the characters.

In August 2005, a drama CD based on the series was released, and in December 2005, a Nintendo DS video game entitled Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill, was released. A sequel, also playable on the DS, called Shin Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill was released in May 2007, and a PlayStation 2 visual novel will be released in November 2007. In September 2006, it was released to the press that Kyoto Animation would be animating an anime based on the series; it contains twenty-four episodes. The anime aired on the Chiba TV Japanese television network between April 8 2007 and September 16, 2007. A light novel was released in September 2007.

Plot

Lucky ☆ Star's story portrays the lives of several girls attending a Japanese high school named Ryōō with a very loose sense of humor. The setting is mainly based on the city of Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. The main character is Konata Izumi, an athletic and intelligent girl who, despite these attributes, is not in a sports club and has low grades. Her laziness at school is due to her love for anime and video games and lack of interest in anything else. The serialization began with the four main characters in their first year of high school: Konata Izumi, Kagami Hiiragi, Tsukasa Hiiragi, and Miyuki Takara. As the story progresses, they move on to their second and third years.

Principal characters

Konata Izumi (泉 こなた, Izumi Konata)

Voiced by: Ryō Hirohashi (drama CD), Aya Hirano (anime)

Konata, nicknamed "Kona-chan" by her friends, gets bored easily when something does not interest her. She can be smart, but she hates studying so her grades are a bit uneven. However, she is an expert in pulling an "all-nighter" to study before a test. In contrast to her studying habits, she loves video games to the extent that she can compete against Kagami even in trivia games. Konata plays many, if not all, kinds of games. Some games she plays include Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill (a knowledge game based on Lucky ☆ Star), Monster Hunter 2, massively multiplayer online games, and even adult games. Her love of video games, as well as anime and manga, is often attributed to her father's influence. Her father buys adult games for himself, so she is able to play and enjoy them as well (another example of her father's influence). In fact, when she turned eighteen, Konata was overjoyed that she could now buy and play adult games legally.

To help support her massive video game and dōjinshi expenses, Konata was lucky enough to get a part-time job at a cosplay café. Konata spends a lot of time playing an online game, where she plays a male character who is, ironically, married to a male gamer using a female character. She often plays online games late into the night which is why she tends to fall asleep in class, making her the frequent victim of her teacher Nanako's fists. Nanako also plays the online game, and pesters Konata to get to her homework (Nanako is a serious game player, however).

Ironically, despite the fact that she is an extreme otaku and quite short, Konata is a surprisingly athletic individual, running faster than most people her age.

Kagami Hiiragi (柊 かがみ, Hiiragi Kagami)

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (drama CD), Emiri Katō (anime)

Kagami is Tsukasa's older fraternal twin sister and is occasionally referred to as "Kagamin". In school, her grades are excellent because she studies very hard. She was even the class president in her first year. She is in a different class than Konata and Tsukasa, but she frequently comes to their class during lunch time to eat with them. Kagami is often shown wishing she could be in the same class as everyone else. Kagami chose the humanities course in her second year so that she could be with her friends, but she was separated into a different classroom; the same thing happened in her third year. Kagami is also a bit egotistical, and is somewhat weak in cooking.

Kagami is a stereotypical tsukkomi character, however, she is prone to becoming shy and emotional at times, making her appear as a tsundere character as well. Much like Konata, Kagami likes video games, but plays a different genre than Konata; Kagami likes to play scroll-shooting games. She loves to read light novels, but she feels lonely because no one around her shares this interest.

Tsukasa Hiiragi (柊 つかさ, Hiiragi Tsukasa)

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (drama CD), Kaori Fukuhara (anime)

Tsukasa is the younger fraternal twin sister of Kagami and lives in a six-member family household with her parents. She is in the same class as Konata. While she is not good at studying or sports, she excels in cooking. She is portrayed as the stereotypical friendly, good-natured but clumsy person. She is often portrayed as an airhead who is unreliable and is always compared to her twin sister, who generally does better than her in most areas. It is often implied that Tsukasa is unable to follow the gist of complex conversations. Tsukasa will often ask her older sister for help on her homework, though it usually does not make much of a difference. She is also known for having her hair in the same style as Akari Kamigishi from To Heart, something hinted at frequently in the series.

Miyuki Takara (高良 みゆき, Takara Miyuki)

Voiced by: Erina Nakayama (drama CD), Aya Endo (anime)

Miyuki is a young lady from a wealthy family who is beautiful, smart, and well-mannered. She always uses extremely polite Japanese, even when talking with her closest friends. She was the class president for her grade level in her first year, at the same time that she became good friends with Kagami. Now Miyuki is in the same class as Konata and Tsukasa. Miyuki's classmates often rely on her for help with their studies, and she is often shown giving impromptu but highly-detailed, encyclopedic definitions or explanations on diverse and obscure matters.

She is described as a stereotypically friendly meganekko, or glasses-wearing girl. Her vision is less than 0.1, though it had been good until elementary school, when she began reading books in the dark after her mother dozed off while reading to her in bed. She likes to read books, but does not read light novels. Miyuki loves to sleep, and she always goes to bed fairly early. She hates visits to the dentist, but frequently has to go to fix a loose crown or because of tooth decay. On the rare occasion that she plays video games, her personality changes. Due to her embodying such a large number of moe archetypes, Miyuki is the frequent-victim of Konata's playful bouts of verbal sexual-harassment.

Media

Manga

The four-panel comic strip manga version of Lucky ☆ Star started serialization in the Japanese magazine Comptiq on January 2004 and is still currently running. There are currently five bound volumes of the manga, published by Kadokawa Shoten. Volume one was released on January 8 2005, volume two on August 10 2005, volume three on July 10 2006, volume four on April 10 2007, and volume five on September 10 2007. Besides Comptiq, the manga was also featured in other Kadokawa publishings including Shōnen Ace, Newtype, CompAce, Dragon Magazine, Mobile Newtype and Kadokawa Hotline for various lengths of time.

Video games

DS

A video game, entitled Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill (らき☆すた 萌えドリル, Raki ☆ Suta Moe Doriru), was released on December 1 2005 on the Nintendo DS. A limited edition game with many extras was sold called the "DX Pack" along with the regular version. A sequel, with the title of Shin Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill ~Tabidachi~ (真・らき☆すた 萌えドリル~旅立ち~, Shin Raki ☆ Suta Moe Doriru ~Tabidachi~) has been released on May 24 2007.

The genre of the first game is homework drills. It tests the player on various subjects and memorizations. The player's main objective is beating other characters in quizzes. There is also a "Drama ☆ Mode" where the game plays like a mini-adventure game as you make your way to Akihabara. Math quizzes and mini games (about five in all) pop up as you play along.

There are two different types of one-person games: "Hitasura ☆ Drill" and "Drama ☆ Mode". The player can also link the game with another person. When this occurs, the player can use the character that is built up in Drama ☆ Mode as a choosable character. Additionally, if the player wants to use a special battle skill against his or her opponent while in link mode, the player must shout out the name of the skill into the microphone. In Drama ☆ Mode, the player partners with one of the characters, and tries to increase her parameters and have her learn new battle skills. There are five different types of "drills". One of the quizzes called "Ondoku" requires the player to shout out the answer into the microphone. Several mascot characters of large anime and dōjin shops (like Broccoli's Di Gi Charat, Animate's Anime Tencho and Toranoana's Miko-chan) make cameo appearances.

PlayStation 2

Kadokawa Shoten will produce a visual novel game for the PlayStation 2 entitled Lucky ☆ Star: Ryōō Gakuen Ōtōsai (らき☆すた ～陵桜学園 桜藤祭～) which will go on sale in Japan on November 29 2007.

Anime

The Lucky ☆ Star anime, produced by Kyoto Animation, aired between April 8 2007, and September 16 2007, containing twenty-four episodes. The animation director was changed after episode four from Yutaka Yamamoto to Yasuhiro Takemoto. The reason given was: "Our company has determined that the director of Lucky Star — Yutaka Yamamoto — has not reached the standard of director yet, therefore we have changed the director." Near the end of every episode, there is an additional segment called Lucky Channel co-hosted by Akira Kogami and her assistant Minoru Shiraishi. This segment mostly covers either information on characters in the anime, or deals with the ongoing work-relationship Akira and Minoru form overtime.

Theme songs

Opening theme

"Take It! Sailor Uniform" (もってけ！セーラーふく, Motteke! Sērāfuku) by Aya Hirano, Emiri Katō, Kaori Fukuhara, and Aya Endo (episodes 1 - 23)

Unlike most anime, Lucky ☆ Star does not have one consistent ending theme, instead using a new one in each episode; most of them are of theme songs from other anime and from tokusatsu television shows. Each ending theme in episodes one through twelve is performed as a karaoke by one of the principal characters. From episode thirteen onwards, each ending theme is performed by Minoru Shiraishi, singing and acting in live action (the exception to this being episode sixteen, which shows a music video excerpt of "The Cape of Age Thirty" by Hiromi Konno).

Insert songs

1. "Hare Hare Yukai" by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara, and Yuko Goto (episodes 2, 4, and 16)
2. "Kuchibiru Daydream" by Aki Misato (episode 7)
3. "God knows..." by Aya Hirano (episode 15)
4. "Cherry Blossoms Bloom into Future Love Dreams" (サクラサクミライコイユメ, Sakura Saku Mirai Koi Yume) by yozuca* (episode 15)
5. "The Mikuru Legend of Love" (恋のミクル伝説, Koi no Mikuru Densetsu) by Yuko Goto (episode 16)
6. "Futari no Mojipittan" (ふたりのもじぴったん) by Nana Furuhara (episode 22)
7. "United Force" by Minami Kuribayashi (episode 23)
8. "Take It! Sailor Uniform" (もってけ！セーラーふく, Motteke! Sērāfuku) by Aya Hirano, Emiri Katō, Kaori Fukuhara, and Aya Endo (episode 24)
9. "The Minoru Legend of Love" (恋のミノル伝説, Koi no Minoru Densetsu) by Minoru Shiraishi (episode 24)

Audio CDs

The Lucky ☆ Star drama CD, aptly entitled Drama CD Lucky ☆ Star, was released on August 24 2005 by Frontier Works. The video game soundtrack entitled Lucky ☆ Star vocal mini album was released on December 22 2005. The anime opening theme single Motteke! Sailor Fuku was released on May 23 2007. An album containing the first twelve ending themes entitled Lucky ☆ Star Ending Theme Collection was released on July 11 2007 by Lantis. An maxi single with the name Aimai Net Darling (曖昧ネットだーりん, Aimai Netto Daarin) containing two songs sung by Hiromi Konno as Akira Kogami, and Minoru Shiraishi as himself in the anime version was released on July 25 2007. A remix single of Motteke! Sailor Fuku was released on August 8 2007 by Lantis. Two more albums will be sold on August 29 2007: Misoji Misaki by Hiromi Konno as Akira Kogami, and Cosplay It! Oh My Honey, by Aya Hirano as Konata, and Nozomi Sasaki as Patricia. An album called Shiraishi Minoru no Otoko no Rarabai contains the ending themes sung by Minoru Shiraishi from episode thirteen onwards and was released on October 10 2007.

Four character song CDs were released on September 5 2007 sung by the voice actresses Aya Hirano as Konata, Emiri Katō as Kagami, Kaori Fukuhara as Tsukasa, and Aya Endo as Miyuki. Four more character CDs followed on September 26 2007 sung by the voice actresses Shizuka Hasegawa as Yutaka, Minori Chihara as Minami, Kaori Shimizu as Hiyori, and Nozomi Sasaki as Patricia. Another two character CDs will follow on October 24 2007: one as a duet between the voice actresses Kaoru Mizuhara as Misao Kusakabe, and Mai Aizawa as Ayano Minegishi, and the other as a trio between Aya Hirano, Shizuka Hasegawa, and Minori Chihara as Konata, Yutaka, and Minami respectively. Another two character CDs, both duets, will follow on November 21 2007: the first between Hirokazu Hiramatsu as Sōjirō Izumi, and Sumi Shimamoto as Kanata Izumi, and the other with Saori Nishihara as Yui Narumi, and Konomi Maeda as Nanako Kuroi.

An album entitled Lucky Star BGM & Radio Bangumi "Lucky ☆ Channel" no Digest o Shūroku Shita Special CD 1 was released with the first anime DVD on June 22 2007. The album contained background music tracks featured in the anime, along with original audio dramas featuring Hiromi Konno as Akira Kogami, and Minoru Shiraishi, as himself. Another similar album with more background music tracks and audio dramas was released with the second anime DVD on July 27 2007. The third volume in this series was released with the third anime DVD on August 24 2007, and the fourth followed with the fourth DVD on September 28 2007.

Light novel

A light novel written by Tōka Takei with illustrations by Lucky ☆ Star's original author Kagami Yoshimizu called Lucky ☆ Star Lucky ☆ Star Murder Case (らき☆すた らき☆すた殺人事件, Raki ☆ Suta Raki ☆ Suta Satsujin Jiken) was published on September 1 2007 by Kadokawa Shoten under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko label.

Reception

Before Lucky ☆ Star was made into an anime, Kagami Yoshimizu, the author of the original manga, was interviewed by Newtype USA in the June 2005 issue where he stated, "I don't really think my production process is anything special." However, he has the opinion that, "...my personality is very well suited to doing four-panel comic strips, and I really enjoy creating this one." As if to predict the future, Yoshimizu also was quoted to say, "...but one day, I wouldn't mind seeing these characters moving around on screen." In the same interview, Newtype USA reported that the first volume of the manga sold out so quickly that Kadokawa Shoten had to do a rush reprint.

Lucky ☆ Star has become an immediate hit in Japan, receiving a broad following in the anime fandom. Explaining this phenomenon, the analyst John Oppliger of AnimeNation, for example, suggested that a major factor in the series' success is its similarity to an earlier work by Kyoto Animation — The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (the show itself makes numerous references to the same series). However, he also admitted that Lucky ☆ Star is quite different from its "predecessor" and that the second major factor is its "unique" composition that "panders to the tastes of otaku, but does so with good humor and sly wit", thus, making it "the ultimate in fan service", a "witty, self-indulgent, guilty pleasure".

The Special First Edition version of the first DVD volume was released on June 22 2007 and contained the first two episodes to the anime. The first DVD sold quickly in Japan, and it has been reported that "Amazon Japan has already sold out its entire supply of the DVD." Furthermore, "the majority of the stores with special displays for Lucky ☆ Star have run out."

The popularity of Lucky ☆ Star also brought many of its fans to the real life settings of the anime, beginning from April 2007. The August issue of the Newtype magazine ran a feature on the various locales which the anime is based on, including Konata's home in Satte, Saitama, Tsukasa and Kagami's home in Washimiya, Saitama, and the school in Kasukabe, Saitama. The magazine also included directions on how to reach these places from the otaku hotspot Akihabara, which resulted in massive "pilgrimages" to these areas. The most widely reported consequence of this is in the Washinomiya Shrine of Washimiya, where the Hiiragi sisters work as miko in the anime. Various Japanese news media reported that the shrine became a place teeming with photographers trying to replicate scenes from the anime, cosplayers wandering around, and prayer plaques ridden with anime drawings and strange prayers like "Konata is my wife". The locals were divided on the situation, with some suggesting that it is good for the shrine to have so many worshippers, and some being concerned about the town's security. This was satirized in the twenty-first episode of the anime.

Notes and references

1. ^ ""Lucky ☆ Star" Holy Ground Sightseeing (『らき☆すた』的聖地探訪, "Raki ☆ Suta" Teki Seichi Tanbō)", Newtype, pp. Centerfold, 2007-07-10 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "Lucky Star PlayStation 2 visual novel announced" (in Japanese). Famitsu. July 10 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. "Anime News Network news article". Retrieved 2006-12-24.
4. "Lucky Star Changes Director After Four Episodes". Anime News Network. April 30 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. This song is a parody and expanded version of a short, improvised jingle sung by the character Taniguchi in an episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Taniguchi's voice is performed, not coincidentally, by Minoru Shiraishi, and the two shows are both produced by Kyoto Animation.
6. "Other media at Lucky Star's official website" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-08-10.
7. ^ Kagami Yoshimizu: CG Illustrations from a Champion of Four-Panel Comics, Newtype USA, June 2005 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
8. Oppliger, John (2007-07-17). "Ask John: Why Is Lucky Star So Popular?". AnimeNation. Retrieved 2007-07-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. ^ "Lucky Star Special Edition DVD Flies off Shelves in Akiba". Anime News Network. June 27 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. ^ "Lucky Star otaku invade the oldest shrine in Kantō. The locals: It's a problem of security" (in Japanese). Sankei Shimbun. July 25 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
11. ^ "Anime Lucky Star fans flock to the Washinomiya Shrine in Saitama. The characters even show up on prayer plaques" (in Japanese). Fuji News Network. July 27 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
12. "Fans flock to real-life home of anime hero". Asahi Shimbun. September 18 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Lucky Star official website Template:Jp icon
• Lucky ☆ Star DataBase Template:Jp icon
• Kadokawa's website for the video games Template:Jp icon
• Lucky ☆ Star ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

• Manga series
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• Anime of the 2000s
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