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 has started broadcasting beginning April 29, 2013 and it focuses on the Miyakawa sisters.

Lucky Star Episodes

1. The Girl who Dashes Off
2. Efforts and Results
3. Various People
4. A Question of Motivation
5. The Famous Shooter
6. Fixtures of Summer
7. Image
8. Energetic Despite Not Being Myself
9. That Feeling
10. Desires
11. Various Ways to Spend Christmas Eve
12. Let's Go to the Festival
13. Delicious Day
14. Under One Roof
15. I Can't Suddenly Change
16. Ring
17. Base of the Sun
18. To Each Her Own
19. There is Substance in 2-D
20. Ways to Spend Summer
21. Pandora's Box
22. The Yonder Here
23. Delicate Line
24. To Be Decided

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. 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.