Lucky Star TV

Lucky Star (Series)

Japanese Name	らき☆すた, Raki☆Suta
Director	Yutaka Yamamoto (Episodes 1-4), Yasuhiro Takemoto (Episodes 5-24)
Series Configuration	Touko Machida
Character Design	Yukiko Horiguchi
Music	Satoru Kousaki
Animation	Kyoto Animation

Lucky Star is an anime based on the Lucky Star manga. The twenty-four episodes aired between April 8, 2007 and September 16, 2007 on Chiba TV and is produced by the animation company Kyoto Animation. The series was initially directed by Japanese animation director Yutaka Yamamoto, but after the first four episodes he was fired and replaced by Yasuhiro Takemoto starting with episode 5. An original video animation episode was produced following the series and was released on September 26, 2008.

Plot[]

Main[]

Lucky Star's anime is mainly based off the original manga strips, but includes extended side plots. The only major difference between the anime and the manga is that the anime starts the story with them beginning their second year of high school, while in the manga it starts during their first year.

Lucky Channel[]

See: Lucky Channel

Near the end of every episode, there is an additional segment called Lucky Channel co-hosted by Akira Kogami and her assistant Minoru Shiraishi. The humor of this segment takes on a decidedly darker, mean-spirited, more cynical and mature tone than the main show, disguised as an infomercial that skims over characters who appear in the anime, but mainly deals with the progressively abusive and violent work-relationship between Akira and Minoru.

Miyakawa-ke no Kufuku[]

A spinoff, Miyakawa-ke no Kufuku broadcasted from April 29, 2013 to July 1, 2013 and it focuses on the Miyakawa sisters.

Lucky Star Episodes[]

Development[]

Kadokawa Pictures USA and Bandai Entertainment announced that they licensed the Lucky Star anime with a teaser trailer as a special feature on the volume 4 DVD of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The first four English DVD volumes were released by Bandai Entertainment in 2008 on May 6, July 1, September 2, and November 18. The fifth and sixth volumes were released in 2009 on January 6 and March 17.However, the sixth volume's limited edition release has been canceled due to low sales of the other volumes' limited editions. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment in 2012, Funimation (Crunchyroll) announced at the Otakon industry panel in August 2014 that it acquired the license of the Lucky Star series. The series was re-released on DVD by Funimation on July 12, 2016.

As much as possible, the English cast was paired with the same characters as those of the Japanese voice actors from past shows, in order to translate the anime references clearly—Wendee Lee voiced the lead roles for both Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata Izumi, in reference to their original voice actor, Aya Hirano.