Lucky Star is fun to rewatch

So I ought to be blogging other things and making better use of my time, but I have two episodes of Vietnamese-subbed Lucky Star on this computer. And while I was waiting for a separate download to finish, I watched eps 1 and 2 to pass the time. In English of course; the Vietnamese subs are for my parents … whenever I finally get to force them to watch them.

Either way, I found myself blazing through the two eps, barely realizing that one has ended and 18 minutes have passed (not counting Lucky Channel this time). And, really, Lucky Star is just that much fun.  And there are cute little details you don’t remember that pop up in the rewatches.

I recall news of the director switch around ep5 or so.  Kyoto Animation said that the old director didn’t take the series down the path that the studio wanted, and some of us really wondered why, since it didn’t seem like too much of a difference with the new eps.  Plus the first 4 eps were entertaining already; what was the switch about?

But I think I know now (perhaps a lot later than others).  Watching 1 and 2 seemed odd to me, compared to the final impression the series gave me when I finished it last semester.  And I think it’s because the old director kept the show entirely faithful to the 4koma.  The flow followed the 4koma, as the very first Lucky Star strip was about Konata running fast, yet refusing to join the track team because she’d miss her prime time anime.  And the first episode opened as such.  Following that, the eternal commentary about choco coronets.

And following the manga should totally be fine, but I guess KyoAni had a vision for something greater, something more dynamic.  Because this series is all about otaku pandering, it had to take as much advantage of the situation as possible and really grab at its audience.  And that’s what the new director did.  Future episodes used the 4koma as a guideline, following it to the letter in most parts but perhaps taking a few extra liberties as well, piecing things together for dramatic effect or adding in totally random stuff for fanservice’s sake.  Maybe that’s where a lot of the Haruhi references come from, et cetera.

But it’s not that the first director was terrible; I think he did a great job.  But let’s say that his direction no longer fit the theory of the business for Kyoto Animation’s Lucky Star.  And like smart managers, they changed things.  And it ended up being a great idea.

The rest of the series really caught on (that Initial D parody plus “Gravity” would win anybody over), and I could argue that ep5 is better than ep1 to show someone brand new to the series.  …Well, ep5 had a long bath scene, and you don’t want to give off the impression that it’s a fanservice series.  So maybe ep6.  But the action just flows better in these episodes, whereas ep1 honestly has a boring-at-first-glance talk about food for a third of the episode.  I wanted to drop the series back in April, still high from the end of Kanon and confused at the simplistic animation that is Lucky Star.  But I stayed with it; ep2 was much cuter; my love for Kagamin had only just begun; I became hooked.

It was boldly funny.  And so true.

Anyway, my KonataxKagami senses tingle already while rewatching the first two eps.  Kagami is tsuntsun when Konata suddenly is in her room when she’s in bed recovering from a cold.  Then she switches to deredere after realizing that her dear friend is probably worried and came to visit to make sure she was all right.  All is destroyed when Konata just asks to copy homework, but the moment was still there.  Plus, Miyuki, the saint that she is, analyzes Konata’s actions as caring after all, merely trying to lift Kagami’s spirits with her energetic attitude.  Nice.

Plus, Konata said she got to see a cute sleeping face.  <3

Kagami really just follows Konata around everywhere, staring blankly as she plays her games or complains about whatever.  She’ll add in her tsukkomi-ish line but otherwise will just enjoy the company.  She comes from her own classroom to have lunch with her (oh and Tsukasa, too, I guess) after all.

…How could these two not end up together?  XD

~Crisu

Plus you can’t argue with DKellis’s first impressions of episode 1.

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