Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

[ Episode 24: Untitled ]

And so it ends… the long trek of wonders and humor will forever be remembered in our souls. What better way to end this than with a bunkasai episode? I typically love any episodes based on the schools’ cultural festivals. We have something similar to that in my high school, but it pales in comparison to this. ‘Nuff said. For this occasion, I decided to extend this entry a bit more than normal.

So the Outou Festival is coming up, and Patty gets an idea to start off the opening ceremony: a cheerleading routine. Of course, she can’t do it alone and needs a lot of members to participate. That’s where all the other nine girls come in. She gets Yutaka, Minami, and Hiyori into it first. Konata seemed reluctant on doing it when Yutaka told her about it but a little call from Patty convinced her. More like she was being bribed. Patty offered her a ticket to see… AYA IN THE FLESH (lol) and in a… wait for it…. a handshake session. It totally made Konata spaz! So after she went in she talked the Hiiragi twins and they eventually join the girls as this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and it’s nice to leave something behind for your last years. Yutaka felt up for it too so that was even more of a reason to help out. For extra measure (in volume), Miyuki is convinced to be in as well.

Once they do assemble all the girls though, they get a little behind schedule. Kagami pesters Patty about what she’s doing about it, to which Patty responds “I don’t understand difficult Japanese!” and that makes Kagami angry, yelling at Patty about how she’s been understanding them the whole time while poking at her madly. Perhaps one of the best and funny moments I’ve seen. She certainly put some distance between them and the girls when she lectured. It’s just so amusing see Kagami so worked up over the routine thing when she was the one who refused to do it in the first place.

During the actual festival, Konata’s class is doing fortune-telling. Miyuki chooses to have tarot cards while Konata takes on the Yuki Witch attire. Of course, with the exact lines she says as Yuki, it’s more like predicting the future than telling fortunes. Tsukasa on the other hand, doesn’t know what to do. The fortune-telling through shapes is a new concept to me, and it already looked terrible from the way Tsukasa was doing it. Kagami’s class go for the generic haunted house, while Yutaka’s class does a Zuka café, with Yutaka in a cute white dress, and Minami in… men’s clothing, a really nice suit. The one thing about cultural festivals though is that it’s so interesting how their parents’ bunkasai had some different things, yet there are still ones that they keep even now. Hmm, I notice that they actually have a lot more colored background characters for this last episode. Nice job, KyoAni.

The Miyakawa sisters make another appearance, wanting to enter the school, but only students are allowed to enter until tomorrow. From what the older sister (Hinata) says, she heard Akira was going to be there too. Hmm, what’s their connection with her? Speaking of Akira though, she finally gets her real, physical appearance on the show!! Hurray for Akira-sama. Sakuraba-sensei introduces her to Shiraishi, who is in charge of the bunkasai activities. They cordially introduce themselves to each other but once sensei leaves though, tension rises. Seems they’re both not happy about what happened last time and start yelling at each other. It’s so great to not only see Shiraishi’s eyes wide open, but to see that he’s no longer afraid to talk back to Akira. After Akira does a low budget Lucky Channel segment, she sings on stage Misoji Misaki though it was only for a mic test, as Shiraishi cuts her off the second she starts. Hilarity ensues.

Patty wants to do something on Hare Hare Yukai’s level, so the next best thing she has is the Motteke dance. Heh, go figure. As they work on the choreography, Hiyori shows off the cheerleading outfit they’ll all be wearing, apparently designed by Hiyori’s brother. Everyone should know that familiar design, right? The girls prep one last time and starts the routine fully. I couldn’t really believe it. A full Motteke dance!! With even more choreography than what the OP has, this was clearly the highlight of the finale. They incorporated the scenes where the girls are in different locales doing a certain move into the dance itself too. They perform it flawlessly (and end up rather out of breath in the end). That’s a wrap!

To celebrate their success of working hard, Kuroi-sensei treats them all to drinks. We see the third-years watching other students working hard on their projects as they are feeling quite moved about this being their last festival. I love the tune “Zutto Bunkasai no Junbi wo Shitetai” playing in the BGM here, an arranged version of “Motteke! Sailor Fuku” that was ironically enough, first played long ago, but no so extensively as in this episode. It makes the scene even more touching, seeing as how the anime is close to concluding here.

The day of the opening ceremony begins and the girls are nervous. Their uneasiness is, however, broken up as while Shiraishi is making an announcement his phone suddenly rings and gets everyone, including the girls, laughing hysterically, completely taking away their hesitation, and now ready to perform on the stage a the curtain rises…

FINAL THOUGHTS

Shiraishi kicked off the ending with one more song for the fans. A song about love and how it keeps coming back like a boomerang. It’s a rather fitting song and sets the mood right. After the next Sunday this episode aired, I felt something was missing inside me. But now it’s over, and it’s time I put my thoughts into this as best as I can.

What can I say. This was truly the best show all season long for the year of 2007. It kept me on my seat not because it was edgy and was action-packed, but because it was very fun, it was moving, it made me laugh to bits. It was an adventure, desho desho? For nearly half a year, I’ve been enjoying such a wonderful ride and I never wanted to get off it once. The characters are so unique and compelling, you can’t help but relate to each and every one of them, and love them for that. I love every single character (demo demo, it’s Kagami that I love the most~). The show had a lot of great moments. Whether it was questioning about the most trivial things, making obscure references to anime/manga or even parodying them, Lucky☆Star had it all and more.

Sure, it may have started out small and not as thrilling, but the episodes got better each time and enjoying it is the most important thing. I rather it did build up than being incredibly awesome in the beginning and then failing hard near the middle. Having rewatched the series again, my love in it rekindled itself. All the greatest moments viewed again was truly a sight to behold. I want to take some time into sharing the best of the best of the best of Lucky☆Star.

Top 10 Lucky☆Star moments:
Episode 10 – Anizawa’s first appearance, Densetsu no Shoujo A Shift!
Episode 06 – The Initial D scene
Episode 11 – Static feedback
Episode 21 – Visiting Kyoto
Episode 15 – Girls @ Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou
Episode 24 – Motteke! dance
Episode 16 – Hare Hare Yukai
Episode 12 – Comike
Episode 05 – The electric fan
Episode 20 – Haruhi product placement

Best of Konata:
Episode 06 – Timotei
Episode 15 – Da Capo montage
Episode 07 – Marimite love
Episode 13 – Konata’s “Uguu~”

Best of Kagami:
Episode 13 – Konata’s Valentine fantasy
Episode 16 – Kagami’s stare (ji~)
Episode 21 – Kagami’s letter and woe
Episode 15 – Kagami in a different class again
Episode 02 – Keroro Gunsou claw machine
Episode 22 – Pan koujou!
Episode 12 – Kagami reads FMP yaoi
Episode 19 – Kagami the maid-tress

Best of Tsukasa:
Episode 10 – Tsukasa and the cell phone Part 2
Episode 07 – Tsukasa and the cell phone
Episode 06 – Tsukasa and the seashells
Episode 05 – Balsamic vinegar (barusamico su~!)
Episode 21 – Tsukasa in deer trouble
Episode 20 – “Nanjakoryaa?!”
Episode 20 – ‘Flat’ fireworks
Episode 19 – “Chin chin”

Best of Miyuki:
Episode 09 – Eyedrops
Episode 20 – Miyuki and the dentist
Episode 10 – Miyuki lost in her surroundings

Best of Yutaka:
Episode 22 – Mojipittan
Episode 14 – Walking to where Soujirou is in the bathroom with the door open

Best of Minami:
Episode 23 – Yukari witnessing the brilliance of Minami’s mind
Episode 18 – Sparta dodgeball

Best of Hiyori:
Episode 19 – The hand is an artist’s life
Episode 21 – Good ideas lost
Episode 19 – Wild yuri fantasy
Episode 19 – GS4 drawings

Best of Patty:
Episode 24 – can’t understand those difficult Nippon words!
Episode 16 – Classified information!

Best of Misao:
Episode 18 – 3-second rule
Episode 23 – No faults on losing in games

Best of Ayano:
Episode 23 – Ayano can be scary

Best of Yui:
Episode 06 – Yui and her Initial D-like driving
Episode 14 – The cousin with many disoriented habits

Best of Nanako:
Episode 15 – Finds Konata online at 2 AM
Episode 19 – Hangover
Episode 15 – April fools

Best of the Izumis:
Episode 22 – Kanata and the memories
Episode 15 – Soujirou’s Kamen Rider getup
Episode 17 – Setup for Konata’s birthday, 24 parody

Best of the Hiiragis:
Episode 17 – Sister drama, Kagami and Matsuri
Episode 14 – Watching Quiz $ Millionaire
Episode 15 – Watch more quiz shows
Episode 16 – Shabu shabu dinner
Episode 08 – Recorder session
Episode 10 – Konata’s sleepover, the hairstyle swap

Best of the Takaras:
Episode 16 – Yukari’s personality
Episode 20 – Yukari forgets to count herself in
Episode 14 – Conversation with a telemarketer

Best of Lucky Channel:
Episode 21 – Shiraishi rage
Episode 23 – Gotouza-sama
Episode 17 – Special guest appearance Anizawa
Episode 16 – Akira’s concert

But, wait, I haven’t even talked about my favorite music! Kousaki Satoru has composed quite a great deal of music and it’s just wonderful to listen to again and again.

Top 10 tracks of Lucky☆Star
01. Funfunfun dayo, Lucky☆Star
02. Gravity
03. Ranranran dayo, Lucky☆Star
04. Karoyaka dayo, Lucky☆Star
05. Kagami no Hatsukoi
06. Kanata no Theme
07. Konata no Theme India Version
08. Skip Skip dayo, Lucky☆Star
09. Hiiragi 4 Shimai
10. Jikai Yokoku dayo, Lucky☆Star

I typically notice that I love the tracks labeled with “Lucky☆Star” on it. To me, I think those define the series rather well. Overall, is has the feeling of a calm, nice atmosphere and fitting for a series about everyday life. I also really love the piano and other string instruments so it’s really great hearing such arrangements and compositions. Well, I guess that’s all the time I can put into this. Maybe I should put out more but it’s already long enough. So what do you guys think of the series? Any favorite moments of your own, maybe one I didn’t mention? You can comment on favorite tracks if you’d like to.

Of course, this certainly does not mean the end of the series altogether. Games, music, and other merchandise are still coming out, and the manga isn’t over yet either! I’m hoping there will be a second season someday as the finale ended on such an open note. For now though, the Lucky☆Star OVA review is just around the corner, guys! Look forward to it!