Lucky Star (Series)

Lucky Star (Series)
Japanese Name	らき☆すた, Raki☆Suta
Creator	Kagami Yoshimizu

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. Like many four-panel comic strips, it has no ongoing 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 was released in January 2008. In September 2006, it was announced that Kyoto Animation would be animating an anime based on the series; it contains twenty-four episodes. The anime first aired on the Chiba TV Japanese television network between April 8, 2007 and September 16, 2007, though aired concurrently on other networks. A light novel was released in September 2007. The anime has been licensed in the USA by Kadokawa Pictures and distributed by Bandai Entertainment; the first and second of six DVDs were released in North America, respectively, on May 6 and July 1, 2008, with the third released on September 2.The fourth was released on November 18, 2008, and the fifth will be released on January 6, 2009. An original video animation episode was released on September 26, 2008 accompanied by a drama CD.

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 to resort to all-nighter cramming for tests. 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. However, the anime starts the story with them beginning their second year. The storyline usually includes numerous references to popular past and present manga and anime series.

Main Characters

Konata Izumi (泉 こなた, Izumi Konata?) Voiced by: Ryō Hirohashi (drama CD), Aya Hirano (anime), Wendee Lee (English) The very representation of an otaku, Konata (or sometimes called 'Kona-chan') is the childish but good-natured leader of the Lucky Star girls. Usually a lazy girl who is 'occupied' with video or online games, manga, anime, or all of the above, Konata is actually capably intelligent and athletic, but does not join any school clubs because of her otaku interests. Konata works at a cosplay café with underclassman Patricia Martin due to her hobbies and often deals with Kagami pestering her for not working hard enough on her studies. She lives with her widowed father (an otaku who often buys adult games for himself and Konata), as well as her younger cousin Yutaka Kobayakawa, who goes to her school (although she is even shorter than Konata). She has a comedic friendship with Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki, although at widely varying degrees.

Kagami Hiiragi (柊 かがみ, Hiiragi Kagami?) Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (drama CD), Emiri Kato (anime), Kari Wahlgren (English) 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 shoot 'em up 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), Michelle Ruff (English) 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), Karen Strassman (English) 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, and is nicknamed "Yuki-chan" by 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. She is scared of contacts, and of putting them in her eyes, thus why she wears glasses. Her vision is less than 20/200, 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—as Konata said it—Miyuki is the frequent-victim of Konata's playful bouts of verbal sexual-harassment.

Other Media

Manga

Manga Cover.

The four-panel comic strip manga version of Lucky Star started serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine Comptiq on January 2004. The first bound volume of the manga was published on January 8, 2005, and as of September 10, 2008, six volumes have been released. Besides Comptiq, the manga was also featured in other Kadokawa magazines including Shōnen Ace, Newtype, CompAce, Dragon Magazine, Mobile Newtype and Kadokawa Hotline for various lengths of time. The manga has been licensed by Bandai Entertainment for release in English in North America. Lucky Star also has a manga called Lucky Star Pocket Travelers which has the four main characters waking up one morning to discover they have shrunken to doll size.

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~?) was released on May 24, 2007.

The first game 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 produced 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～, Lucky Star: Ryōō Gakuen Ōtōsai?) which was released in Japan on January 24, 2008.

Anime

The Lucky Star anime, produced by Kyoto Animation, aired between April 8, 2007, and September 16, 2007, containing twenty-four episodes. The 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. 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. The anime also features small cameos of voice actors besides Shiraishi that also have worked with Kyoto Animation which include Yuko Goto, Minori Chihara, Tomokazu Sugita, Daisuke Ono, and Aya Hirano, all of whom voice themselves.

Kadokawa Pictures USA and Bandai Entertainment announced that they have 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 English DVD volume was released by Bandai Entertainment on May 6, 2008, with the second on July 1, and the third on September 2. The fourth was released on November 18, 2008, the fifth was released on January 6, 2009 and the sixth will be released on March 16, 2009.

Light novels

There have been three light novels based on the series published by Kadokawa Shoten under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko label. The novels are written by Tōka Takei and feature illustrations by Lucky Star original author Kagami Yoshimizu.

• Lucky Star Murder Case らき☆すた らき☆すた殺人事件 Published on September 1, 2007
• Lucky Star: Lucky Star Online らき☆すた らき☆すたオンライン Published on March 1, 2008
• Lucky Star Super Dōwa Taisen らき☆すた スーパー童話大戦 Published on October 1, 2008.