Lucky☆Star: Original na Visual to Animation

The “Lucky Star” OVA is made up of several short stories or chapters. A coherent plot or over spanning arc is hence not present, but this is not uncommon for “Lucky Star” and the different short stories ensure the OVA will have something enjoyable for everyone. From a slice of life story, to a full blown comedy or parody story to a heart warming tale, the OVA touches upon all of the types that were featured in the series.

Being all about Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki, it's a bit of a shame the other characters were featured less. Yutaka, Minami, Patricia and Tamura only ... appear in the first story, Misao, Ayano and Nanako sensei appear briefly in the other tales. But this is normal given the time restraints.

Typical for “Lucky Star” are the many references and parodies on current or older anime, as well as otaku and game culture. Some hilarious examples are Patricia's ぜつぼうした(zetsubou shita), Nanako sensei's rare item Pizza shield, Kagami's cosplay as Vocaloid's Hatsune Miku,...

The first story was centred around Minami's dog Jerry and how he encounters everyone throughout his day. A nice slice of life tale to start the OVA with it also held some great laughs.
It was followed by a story showing Konata and Nanako-sensei playing an mmorpg together with Kagami and Tsukasa, told in game which lent itself to some 3D CG visuals and funny mmorpg humour.
A dream sequence story brought us Konata dressed in “The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi” Yuki's sorceress outfit taking Kagami who was transformed into Volcaloid's Hatsune Miku's outfit -complete with leek- out on an evening filled with magic.
Next was a volleyball match with the Hiiragi sisters on opposing teams which turned out to be a more heart warming story, one couldn't help but root for Tsukasa.
Then followed a school camp tale told by Miyuki to her mother about how she and her friends erred from the correct path while heading to their camp and ended up wandering around the forest until late at night.
The closing scenes were a more psychedelic dreamlike scene which did not appeal to me that much alas as I understood little of the humour in it.

The ending credits feature a live action clip of Akira Kogami's seiyuu Ai Nonaka and Minoru Shiraishi, which I found enjoyable a lot funnier than the live action closing scenes featured in the series. It was uncanny how at times Ai Nonaka's performance and facial expressions were so spot on, one would almost think the Akira persona is based on her. Minoru Shiraishi as always is a hoot, that guy is so silly!


Like all of Kyoto Animation's productions, the animation was good, but not especially better than the series itself as the typical and somewhat more simple visual style of “Lucky Star” does not lend itself to the same visual feats as other series Kyoto Animation has animated are treated to. The subdued color palette and character appearances reinforce this impression.
However they did use the OVA to experiment more with different animation types and scene effects for “Lucky Star”, as is apparent in the psychedelic dream scene or the mmorpg in game scenes.

The soundtrack was good and featured tunes from the television series, however the series' opening track “Motteke! Sailor fuku” was omitted entirely.


The “Lucky Star” OVA was terrific, full of laughs and a must for “Lucky Star” fans, it has the exact same atmosphere as the series so it doesn't feel particularly special but you will feel as if watching the next episode, which is fine with me as the “Lucky Star” series was awesome.

For an OVA that is suppose to be for Lucky Star... it wasn't very good.

The ova consists of a couple of mini-episodes that were suppose to be for the amusement of fans. Where was that amusement, might I ask.

The first story that began had more to do with the dog than with the characters themselves. Basically, it was more of the dog sleeping, with a few glimpses and actions from the characters. Not the best to start out with. Shortly after, we have an RPG game.. and though it is nice to see some 3-D type action.. it was rather annoying that all they ... did was talk, and repeat in battle sequences. 'sighs' Really I was starting to loose my interest.

Finally, we get something entertaining in the 3rd mini-episode. The Cinderella type story, with Konata as the fairy god mother, or should I say god witch. Here is where I can see why some fans would want to watch the OVA for. It was very amusing to see Konata up to her silly but cool and layed back type antics. The wrestling (though I am not a fan) was rather interesting, especially seeing as it took the form of the ball in the story. The ending was also hilarious too. Then we have the Vollyball game.. not as good as the Cinderella type story, but almost... Sisters against each other, along with two other friends (yes.. Konata included). I must say it was fun to watch them go at one another in attempt to be each other, and with an interesting outcome.. 'chuckles' So amusing.

Then there was some strange man trying to sell Konata's RPG character some items... and then it skipped to the camping story. And when my enjoyment rouse... it fell. The group is lost within the woods, thanks to Konata, and trying to find their way to the camp grounds. All they really did was walk around and talk.. which was pretty boring half the time. I think the only enjoyment I got was watching Konata proclaim they were going to die... Finally we have the sensei's house which was very short and... very confusing. I think that is the only word I have for that.. that it was very confusing, and yet ridiculous to the point it forced a laugh out of you.

And then the ending.. well.. the ending I just ended up hitting my skip button.. that was just.. They were... Okay there are no words to phrase how utterly stupid then ending was. 'chuckles'

My rating for the story a five.

The animation in Lucky Star, like always it was very good, but it is different this time comparing it with the RPG 3-D effects. Something about seeing the characters in 3-D sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to see them come to life in 3-D instead of remaining in 2-D, but I just.. I don't know. I think it had something to do with the gaming effects... Something about them could of used a bit more something. So the art work is seven.

The sound.. I didn't like the ending song.. Nope.. did not. I did love the voices, seeing as they nailed the characters personality dead on. But it was brought down a peg by the gaming effects... Seriously, something is missing...

Okay, boredom sort of brings your view of the characters down a couple of notches so do not be mad at me. The characters were good.. they brought a nice ingrediants to the min-shows, even if the show was boring...'twitch' They were kept well in character in my opinion. I don't have much to say other than that.. and Konata was most certainly amusing in her witch costume.

My enjoyment is a four. Simple as that.. I didn't really find my enjoyment rising in this. It fell a great deal with the first two mini-shows, but rouse by the 3rd and 4rth shows, but dropped again shortly after. Really, it wasn't very good as I had hoped. 'sighs' It did give me a good laugh now and again, so it deserves a four for descent. In other words it wasn't all bad.

Overall, I think it was a pretty fair OVA, considering that it gave us fans something more from the series, and showed what they would look like in a more 3-D type nature. It also provided a nice sense of humor, and show a good deal of care for ones pet.. Yeah, it may have been boring, but it wasn't all that bad. I think a six is a fair overall rating for it.

Unfortunately, This extended OVA didn't really bring about anything new, the whole production felt a bit chaotic, i feel.

Obviously, as a fan of the original series, i was looking forward to seeing our beloved characters in a feature length title. To an extent, this OVA delivered as well... The art, sound, and character interactions were on par with the main show. Particularly at the start, i was able to enjoy once again the comedic, casual, SoL genius that i a while back.

My favorite part has got to be the game visualizations, it really was an awesome idea to factor these in. The overall ... inclusion of gaming culture really blended in well with the characters, and in my mind exposed a common, yet often untold plight in real life about gamers.

So for the most part, i did enjoy the show, mostly this was limited to the immediate term though. As, unfortunately, there was no prominent main story here, and this is where the review starts to go downhill... Upon watching this, i couldn't shake the feeling that it all seemed quite chaotically put together, it seemed to be more of a montage of episode ideas that for some reason were never included, than a feature length production. On top of this, it was also quite disappointing that there were no additions, or alternate insights into the world of Lucky Star. Thus meaning that already, I've forgotten a lot of what happens.

Ultimately, i wouldn't recommend this as a film, because it lacks plot, and isn't particularly memorable. If however you go in, in preparation just to experience more of Lucky Star's charm, i'm sure you'll enjoy being reunited with the characters.